The Renaissance Files Podcast

Send us Fan Mail You never know when it's time — so Patrick Walters refuses to waste his by getting caught up in the day-to-day drudgery. He tries his best to stay very "30,000 feet," keeping a calm, steady homeostasis in his general demeanor and not letting much get to him. Two reasons he can do that: first, he operates from a place of thankfulness; and second, he realizes life is...

Send us Fan Mail Be careful judging your life while you’re still in the middle of the story. Something can feel devastating in the moment and make complete sense years later. An opportunity doesn’t work out. A plan falls apart. A door closes. And because you can’t see what comes next, you assume something has gone wrong. Time has a way of giving you perspective that the moment can’t. Sometimes wha...

Send us Fan Mail I had no idea what The Renaissance Files would become when I started it. It began as a leap of faith. Today, it’s a growing body of work and intellectual property that exists because I was willing to take an idea and actually do something with it. That’s one of the biggest lessons this journey has taught me: You can’t accurately predict the potential of something you’ve never give...

Send us Fan Mail My high school accounting teacher called me stupid in front of the entire class. Years later, I went on to study accounting, business management and finance. There’s a lesson in that I’ve never forgotten: People can’t see your potential. They can only judge the evidence you’ve given them so far. Someone can meet you during an unfinished chapter and assume they’re looking at the en...

Send us Fan Mail Other people’s doubt doesn’t determine your future. Your decision to believe it can. People can underestimate you. Question your ability. Judge you based on your past. Tell you what they think you can and can’t become. None of that automatically becomes your reality. The danger begins when their opinion becomes your belief—and you start making decisions based on a limitation that...

Send us Fan Mail Patrick Walters shares where his money — and his mindset — goes these days: experiential things over material things, because making memories has become one of his favorite pastimes. He points to a quote that stuck with him, something to the effect of: if you really understood that we're essentially just here to collect memories, you'd swing for the fences. He loves it b...

Send us Fan Mail Not every belief in your head started with you. The people you surround yourself with can influence what you believe is possible, what you expect from yourself and even the limitations you accept. Hear “you can’t” enough times and eventually you may stop asking whether it’s actually true. That’s why protecting your environment matters just as much as protecting your internal dialo...

Send us Fan Mail The conversations nobody hears may be some of the most important ones you have. The way you speak to yourself in private influences the confidence, energy and expectations you carry into the world. Tell yourself you can’t before you even begin, and you’ve already changed the way you’ll approach the challenge. Tell yourself you’re capable, prepare accordingly and give yourself perm...

Send us Fan Mail Your mind is always listening to the way you speak about yourself. Tell yourself something often enough and eventually you can start treating it like truth—even when you never had evidence to support it. “I can’t do this.” “I’m not capable.” “This is too difficult for me.” Repeat those thoughts long enough and you may approach challenges already expecting to lose. That’s mental pr...

Send us Fan Mail Patrick Walters shares how he first got into cricket: his dad is a huge fan and enrolled him at a cricket centre at just eight years old — coached by Keith Arthurton, a former West Indies player. He fell in love with it, and was always an athletic kid. He doesn't play cricket much in Toronto anymore (he did when he first arrived, but the setup wasn't ideal), and these da...

Send us Fan Mail Starting something is easy when motivation is high. The real test comes when progress slows, the work becomes difficult and something new starts looking more exciting. But constantly abandoning one pursuit for another destroys the momentum you’ve already created. It’s like building the foundation of a house, moving to another plot of land when construction becomes difficult, and s...

Send us Fan Mail How many opportunities have you talked yourself out of before anyone else could tell you no? “I’m not smart enough.” “I’m not educated enough.” “I’m not good enough.” Those aren’t harmless thoughts. Believe them long enough and they can become reasons to self-sabotage, stay comfortable and never discover what you’re actually capable of. Growth requires stepping beyond the version...

Send us Fan Mail Patrick Walters makes the case for giving yourself a lot of opportunities to succeed in life. At 12 years old, he never imagined he'd become a professional artist — his early plan was to pursue art while also working as a psychologist, assuming both could be a thing. But then he stopped. He didn't enjoy psychology in university and realized it wasn't actually what h...

Send us Fan Mail The most dangerous limiting beliefs don’t feel like beliefs — they feel like facts. A self-limiting belief is a deeply held assumption about yourself, other people or the world that restricts what you believe is possible. The problem begins when you stop recognizing it as an assumption. “I’m not smart enough.” “People like me don’t accomplish that.” “I’m just not good at this.” Re...

Send us Fan Mail Never place an artificial ceiling on your life or your potential. The dangerous thing about limiting beliefs is that you may never discover what you were actually capable of because you decided where your ceiling was before you ever reached it. You don’t know how far you can take your life, your career, your craft or your potential until you give yourself permission to find out. D...

Send us Fan Mail Patrick Walters shares a piece of advice from his father that stuck with him. As a kid, he wanted to skip school to watch cricket — and his father reminded him that the sport alone wasn't going to pay the bills; he needed his education too. Looking back, he says his father was right: he didn't want to take the steps in between, he just wanted the thing he loved. The less...

Send us Fan Mail One of the most expensive lies you can accept is that you’re incapable of doing better. Every time you believe it, you discount the progress you’ve already made and give someone else’s opinion authority over your future. Your past wins are evidence. Your growth is evidence. Don’t let one person’s limitation become your identity. Never believe you can’t do better. 🔔 Subscribe for...

Send us Fan Mail The mouth can say anything. 🗣️ But only your actions create results. Don’t spend all day talking about what you plan to do, performing for the people who can hear you — while you know you’re not putting in the required work. It doesn’t matter how passionate you are. How talented you are. How much support you have. If you don’t do the work required, you’ll get to the end of your li...

Send us Fan Mail It never happens when you want it to — it happens when it’s supposed to. You never know what will be the catalyst that changes everything, so you can’t afford to leave your ideas on the shelf. And you can’t appreciate a closed door until you see the prosperity it was redirecting you toward. Some of my greatest blessings came right after my most devastating losses. In the game of l...

Send us Fan Mail Patrick Walters and the conversation dig into learned helplessness — that state where you've been stuck in a rut so long you start to believe you can't change your situation and everything's out of your control. The antidote he points to is one that's massively underrated: small wins. Give yourself the opportunity to win a little so you can win big down the lin...

Send us Fan Mail Procrastination and wasted time have killed more dreams than failure ever could. Anytime you want to put it off until tomorrow, remember everyone in the cemetery who thought they had more time. The past is gone, the future’s uncertain — but right now, in this moment, you can take a step in a better direction. Tomorrow doesn’t belong to you. The clock is ticking. Follow for a daily...

Send us Fan Mail Sometimes people become so accustomed to unhealthy environments, limited expectations, bad habits, or simply accepting less that those things eventually start to feel normal. You might see their potential clearly. You might know they're capable of more. And because you care, you keep trying to push them toward something better. But there's a boundary that has to exist: n...

Send us Fan Mail Patrick Walters breaks down how he actually views setbacks: he never lets one pull him down for too long. If one road gets blocked, he finds another plan, another avenue — he's reaching his destination one way or another. That's the resilience in it. And he flips resilience into something empowering: you can't demonstrate resilience if you're never challenged —...

Send us Fan Mail Big dreams require big inputs. Sometimes “I can’t do it” really means “I haven’t been able to do it yet.” More time, effort, learning and repetition may be required. The important thing is making the decision for yourself. Don’t allow your current circumstances to determine the limits of the life you’re willing to pursue. Choose the life you want—and accept what it requires from y...

Send us Fan Mail Patrick Walters gets honest about a tougher setback. The bigger grants — provincial and federal, multi-year, worth tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars — generally require you to be a registered business or nonprofit. He was none of those, but he applied anyway, because he believed in his idea and knew he could deliver. He just didn't have the proof yet. When they decline...