ABOUT ME.

I’ve noticed the people who seem to appreciate my expression and my message most tend to feel similarly; that is, they don’t really feel like they fit in either, even though they may look like they do – they have multiple passions, they care deeply about people and the planet, they feel a little “lost”, and they’re really more about creating their life and identity on their own terms than following the herd.

These people get me, but I’m a bit of an enigma to those who follow the path most traveled, and it’s not always easy. In fact, one would argue it’s controversial; especially in a time where you’re on one side or the other. My whole life people have tried to tell me how I “should” think and how I “should” do things, yet I remain very Reno.

I attend church once in a while and I believe in God and Jesus, but I’m not religious. I identify as spiritual and if I had a religion I’d call it “Love” or “Oneness”. I really dig pop-culture, lifestyle, and entertainment AND I can spend hours talking and learning about spirituality, mysticism, and well-being. My listening habits range from podcasts and YouTube videos on entrepreneurship and personal development, to Nicki Minaj and Drake, to tribal and binaural beats, to meditation music and nature sounds. I’ll watch both “Scandal” and “Super Soul Sunday” in one sitting. I embrace both “masculine” and “feminine” energy and expression at any given time (including in the boardroom and the bedroom). I’m known to take the high road in a disagreement AND you may catch me passionately calling someone out from time to time. I love me some greens and green juice, and I’ve been known to finish a large bowl of buttery popcorn and a couple glasses of red wine. Life’s about balance right. I’ve never really felt like I specifically belonged to any group, and always floated between many different social circles.

Life didn’t always feel this fabulous – and some days it still doesn’t.

I have vague yet visceral recollection of the many times I felt misunderstood and misrepresented, and the many times I was reminded that it wasn’t okay to be me – being reprimanded for crying, being sent into the hallway for being an inconvenience and unapologetically expressing myself, receiving spankings and verbal lashings for behaviour adults didn’t agree with, being called “faggot” and “nigger” for my effeminate and expressive demeanour and the colour of my skin, and running home in shame after being caught “experimenting” with a male friend. If reading this makes your uncomfortable, you can imagine how it felt being on the receiving end of it… Heavy. Shameful.

I’m okay now, but at the time I carried my shame on my back like a sack of bricks; each one they hurled at me, I picked up and dropped into the sack. You can imagine what carrying that weight will do to a person after several years.

Nobody told me I didn’t have to pick them up. Nobody told me I didn’t have to put them in my bag. Nobody told me that I could remove the bricks, or just put the bag down.

I’m telling you that you can.

At 19 years of age, I finally decided to begin removing the bricks. I started by bravely daring to announce to the world that I was gay. 4 years later I removed several more bricks by admitting I was a total mess and that I had no idea where I was going or what the f*ck I was doing with my life. I continued removing them as the years went on – each lie of inadequacy becoming a truth of potential and possibility. Which is just a cool way of saying I realized I’m so much more than the bullsh*t stories I believed.

I became hungry for truth and love and freedom. I wanted to feel good. So, I changed habits, changed environments, changed relationships, changed career paths, and changed my life.

It was painful at first. Scary even. And then… I felt lighter. I looked brighter. I felt totally secure in my skin. What I needed just showed up as I needed it. Synchronicity became my new reality. My focus and energy began to flow into things I was passionate about, which became gifts I could share and give, which rewarded me a sense of meaning and significance. I became a man of passion and purpose… and prosperity followed.