The Renaissance Files Podcast

Send us Fan Mail ​ ⁨@PatrickCWalters⁩   breaks down the leap from being featured on other people's shows to throwing his own — and it's not for the faint of heart. When you put on your own event, you have a lot invested on the line; like any entrepreneurial project, the show is an investment in your career, and the return can vary based on many factors. He points to running his own show,...

Send us Fan Mail Patrick Walters breaks down exactly how he launched his career as an arts educator — and it didn't start with a paycheck. He and his friend Josh took on a stack of pro bono work, going wherever they could to hone their skills, build up their CVs, and grind out workshops while getting into communities. That groundwork compounded: he went on to work with the Toronto Public Libr...

Send us Fan Mail Being kind doesn't make you weak — and allowing people to take advantage of you doesn't make you a good person. This RFP Gem of the Day is permission to hold your boundaries: being a doormat is not a requirement for being a good person, and disappointing yourself just to appease everyone else could never be a sensible course of action. You are the most important componen...

Send us Fan Mail Patrick Walters credits a big part of his path to the people he watched do the work first. Coming out of university in 2014–15, deep in poetry slams, open mics, and shows, he saw Dwayne Morgan — a trailblazer in Toronto's poetry community — doing arts education at a high level: workshops, speaking engagements, getting into communities, and giving young and old the tools to ex...

Send us Fan Mail A lack of intention will cause you to get caught in an activity trap — working hard, climbing the ladder, only to realize it was leaning against the wrong wall. This RFP Gem of the Day is about aiming before you fire. Positive actions are good, and working hard is essential, but when you add intentionality to the formula, that's how you create exponential returns. Running ful...

Send us Fan Mail Holding on to things that still hurt you is like putting a fork in an electric socket and expecting not to get shocked. This RFP Gem of the Day is about the cost of carrying resentment. It quickly turns to bitterness, and the irony is that the only life it's ruining is yours — because the person who did you the injustice is walking around with a clear mind, while they're...

Send us Fan Mail If you don't change it, then you're choosing it. This RFP Gem of the Day is a challenge to wake up off autopilot: sometimes we settle for what we're handed because we don't even know we can ask for more, and sometimes we run our lives on autopilot for so long that we start to believe we no longer have a choice. But if you don't live your life by design, yo...

Send us Fan Mail The year before leaving university, Patrick Walters represented Toronto at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word and placed second in the country — a moment that showed him the talent and the potential were real. But recognition doesn't pay the bills. He still had money to make and couldn't survive on a meager living from shows alone. So he looked for a way to turn his pa...

Send us Fan Mail The less you talk to people who don't care about your ideas, the more likely you are to succeed — because sometimes the negative energy you get from them is the very thing preventing you from taking the actions to make your dreams a reality. This RFP Gem of the Day is about protecting your vision. When people don't believe in themselves, they see you as a threat, because...

Send us Fan Mail Trying to do everything at the same time is the best way to get nothing done. This RFP Gem of the Day is about working with focus instead of frenzy: prioritize your most important tasks and knock them off one by one. That's how you make real progress, and how you make sure you're spending your most productive time on the work that produces the highest return for your eff...

Send us Fan Mail Patrick Walters shares what he calls a hot take: experience is the only real teacher. You can learn something from a book, you can learn something from another person — but until you experience it for yourself, you'll never fully understand it. Anyone can talk a big game, but you don't really know what something is until you're out there in the trenches living it. T...

Send us Fan Mail Adaptability is a necessary life skill, because change is inevitable. Nothing stays the same forever — so when you hit a tough time, remember: this too shall pass. This RFP Gem of the Day cuts both ways, though: when things are good, also remember that this too is just for a season. You hope for the best, but you always stay ready for the worst, because life is unpredictable — and...

Send us Fan Mail When you're asking Tom, Dick, and Harry for their opinion on your life and what you should do, remember one thing: you're the one who has to live with the consequences. This RFP Gem of the Day is about owning your choices — using the excuse that someone else told you to do it doesn't change the impact that decision will have on your life. Focus on collecting informa...

Send us Fan Mail Patrick Walters opens up about building mental fortitude — something he says is essential to living in North America, especially as someone from the Caribbean. He describes learning to withstand the inconveniences, the microaggressions, and being misunderstood by people who don't get a different way of living, or who speak the same language but say it differently. The key ins...

Send us Fan Mail Worry less about doing it well and focus on just doing it. This RFP Gem of the Day is about getting out of your own way: mastery begins with action, because it's impossible to improve on something you don't practice. You get better by showing up every day and doing the work — and that means being willing to be bad long enough until you get good. Instead of perfectionism,...

Send us Fan Mail We aren't wired to be happy — we're wired to be comfortable. This RFP Gem of the Day explains why we resist the very changes that would help us: anything outside your comfort zone reads as a threat, even when it's for the betterment of your life. Sometimes you've been in a bad situation so long that you get used to it, so even when opportunities for change appe...

Send us Fan Mail Outward elevation comes from internal transformation — and you are always the starting point. This RFP Gem of the Day cuts to the mechanics of change: without fixing the inputs, it's impossible to change the output, and if the formula doesn't change, the results stay exactly the same. Mastering yourself is one of the fundamental steps to creating the life you desire. If...

Send us Fan Mail Patrick Walters gives his definition of self-awareness: understanding your place in the world, the responsibility you carry toward every other person, and an honest read on your own skills and weaknesses. He points out that most people walk around without ever thinking about what they're good or bad at — which is why they keep repeating the same mistakes, never noticing the r...

Send us Fan Mail Life is like school: if you pay attention, you can learn a lot. This RFP Gem of the Day is about why you keep landing in the same situations — sometimes you keep repeating a cycle because you keep failing to learn the lesson, and until you learn it, you won't be able to move your life forward. Self-awareness is one of the most important tools for self-improvement; if you neve...

Send us Fan Mail Patrick Walters explains why self-awareness is the single most important tool to develop first. There are many ways to build it, but it's the starting point for everything that comes after — because once you can see yourself clearly, you can use that awareness to strengthen every other area of your life. Get this one right, and the rest gets easier. It's the foundation t...

Send us Fan Mail You should expect more from yourself than you do from other people — and never ask anyone to do for you what you aren't willing to do for yourself. This RFP Gem of the Day is about owning your standard: the bar you set for yourself should exceed the expectations of any outside party, and you should never let someone else set the ceiling on your potential, because that ceiling...

Send us Fan Mail In the fire is where you mold a better version of yourself — which makes challenges an instrumental part of your development, not an obstacle to it. This RFP Gem of the Day reframes resistance: there's no advance without it, so you'll have a much smoother journey to the top by embracing your challenges instead of shying away, since they're unavoidable anyway. Every...

Send us Fan Mail Patrick Walters shares the theme that runs through all of his music and poetry: never giving up, never taking no for an answer, and never taking a fall without getting back up. As he puts it, you can't do a fall down without a get up. He reflects on how the safe spaces to make mistakes early on let him improve and get better over time — to the point where he's now master...

Send us Fan Mail Sometimes you're comparing yourself to people who aren't even in the same race as you — they don't have the aspirations to reach the heights you're chasing. This RFP Gem of the Day reframes the grind: a rocket burns an enormous amount of energy just to break the earth's gravitational pull, but once it's out, it's much smoother sailing. There&apos...

Send us Fan Mail our self-limiting beliefs are the invisible ball and chain keeping you from the heights you're meant to reach — because if you convince yourself you can't do something, you'll never be able to accomplish it. This RFP Gem of the Day challenges a quiet trap: you believing something doesn't make it true, yet too often we never question what we believe because we t...