Hello, this is David Delmar, your host of SuperPower Creatives, and you’re listening to our episode, Conscious Evolution of True Self. I believe everyone is a creator, and it’s this inherent birth right that’s the source of our superpowers. Stepping into this personal authority is scary, though. This show celebrates creatives that stay true to who they really are, making a living using their creative superpowers. The stories they share will excite and inspire listeners to do the same, making positive change in the world.
It’s my extreme pleasure to introduce our guest for today’s show. He’s someone who just amazes me and I am very excited to have a conversation with. Rene Rafael is equal parts inspirational speaker and multi-media performance artist. His keynote performances combine these personas to ignite hope, purpose, and possibility in an ignorable, introspective style. In his quest, he’s inspiring the more humble types to become bold in making decisions, especially when fear is trying to stay in the way, so they can become compassionate communicators who empower themselves and everyone in their path.
Rene’s deeply personal and vulnerable sharing of his mental health battles, relieved through his multi-media performative stories, uniquely engage his audiences through emotive honesty and real life experiences. His message captivates eyes, ears, and hearts because it is so raw, borderline confrontational, and yet approachable, because of its vulnerability, volume, and depths to which Rene marries his message with his art. He interweaves narrative with original music videos to embody the experience, yet deeply connect it to his audience, and create a conversation that leaves a lasting impact beyond just the mental.
Rene, hello, welcome. So glad to have you here.
Wow, oh my God dude, this is so awesome to be here with you, buddy, and I loved the way you whispered some of the key words there. It just sounded very cinematic. Thank you.
You’re welcome, man. You’re very welcome, of course. Well, Renee, thank you so much for being here, and more so, for everything you’re doing as a mental health advocate, and as an innovator who uses his creativity to convey a message of hope, triumph, and inspiring others to start standing up to fear.
Oh yeah, big time.
Yeah, absolutely. Well, today we’re talking about our show, Conscious Evolution of True Self, and in particular, how Rene evolves out loud with his riveting performances as his own true self. Rene, as we always like to start our shows with probably the obvious, but here it is, first question. What is your creative superpower?
My eye creates the spark it wants to see.
I tried not to cheat because you sent me the questions, and I thought about how maybe I’ll look them over, maybe I won’t, but I looked them over, and I tried to just not think about it too, too much-so I should keep it real. But I’ll tell you, the other … I don’t know, if it was a couple weeks now. I wrote something down that is just a couple of lyrics. Might have been four sentences. I just thought that might be the easiest way to answer that. It was unrelated to this interview, but it just kind of reminded me, it might be a good thing.
I say, “I’m not a connoisseur of what’s there. I’m a creator of what’s not. My eye creates the spark it wants to see.“
And yeah, my superpower is, I’m an idiot when I come up with these visuals, man. Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve had these really strange combinations of musical imagery, and just explosive, generative power that I want to see outside my head. When I get to deciding on something that I really want to see like that, I’ll spend years making that happen, finding out all the different things that I’m not interested in trying to tackle, and they’re not interesting in and of themselves, but if they’re going to help me make that visual possible outside of my head, I will force myself to learn all the things I don’t care about. So, tenacity is my superpower, man.
Tenacity. I love that. I mean, I think for the true artist … It doesn’t have to be the old narrative of a struggling artist, but the narrative of sacrificing whatever it takes for your art, and having the patience of the long game, because your art is you. That’s your true self. And I love what you’re sharing, because your story and what you just shared in those little bits of revealing that side of yourself is just that, the real life part of what you do for your creativity. I just think that’s so powerful, Rene.
Yeah, man. It’s fun. It’s fun when you can do it, and when it’s appreciated too, when you’ve got encouragement and you’re around people that will keep you going. Because it’s obviously not easy to do these things on our own, especially when you’re surrounded with the opposite, often, in the workplace and in the family, sometimes, and even a lot of your friends, who may not see what you see. It’s good to be around those who do.
I mean, there’s nothing like having a support system of people that may not understand what your experience is as a creative artist, but at the same time, they support and honor what that is. I’m thinking of our family and whatnot, but also to have those close friends who actually are artists to be able to give that support, it’s a big deal, and it matters a whole lot. I hear you saying for you, that’s been pretty important throughout the years, as you continue to get your art out of your head, and however it long it’s taken to get that out into the world.
Yeah. Yeah, and in just the last couple years, even more so. I’ve been surrounding myself more and more with people who are like that. That was part of the fear, was just not valuing enough what I had valued as a little kid, not … spending all these years as an adult not valuing that, and being afraid to look for those who did value it. Because the pool of people who did seemed a lot smaller, until a few years back when I joined a mastermind that you did as well, with Tiamo De Vettori, and it’s been a crazy whirlwind since then, man, since … When was it? Was it February 2017, or March?
Yeah, yup. That sounds pretty right on to me, brother.
Yeah, it’s been intense. There’s been a lot of growth, a lot of sacrifice, a lot of tears, but a lot of realizing the tears were worthwhile, in that others were doing similarly. So, as crazy as you may think of yourself, you’re in good company when you surround yourself with that.
I mean, it makes all the difference. I know personally speaking, it has for me, and certainly you have been somebody who’s been, also, for me, somebody that’s inspirational, and helped to empower me, and so I will always be grateful for that, Rene, because you’re the real McCoy. I value people who are like that, and especially when they’re artists, because I do recognize what sacrifice it takes for your art.
But, well, let me ask you this, Rene. I mean, there’s so many things. You’ve mentioned a bit, as far as these visuals you’d had as a kid, and there’s this sort of explosive power to see your visions outside of your head, whatever, or however long it takes to do that. Why do you do what you do with your superpower of perseverance?
Man, it just feels so good.
It does.
I mean, bottom line is it just feels so good, but I’ll try to … Let me describe, I guess, when I’m doing … when I’m not really doing that. What I mean by that is, I’m lying in bed. It’s time to go to sleep, and I can’t. I’ve got work the next day, or I’ve got whatever happening the next day, but I’ve got a mind that won’t shut down. I’m lying in bed, just imagining what it is that I’m eventually going to be doing, whether that’s a music video, whether that’s on stage, whether that’s just writing a new song, or combining all of that stuff.
I imagine, for many, many months, sometimes years, not necessarily saying that I don’t put action into that, but I will constantly be re-imagining all these things that then fit together, and finding all the different ways in which it might break. Because my performances tend to include a lot of technology.
They do. It’s amazing. They’re just so cool. It’s really so cool. You got to see it, folks. I mean, it’s awesome, what he does. It’s really something. Brilliant. Yeah.
The kind of technology that allows me to elevate my art.
Yeah, man, I appreciate the kudos, but it’s like I’m trying to get out of technology at the same time, because I’ve been a technologist for so long, and I’ve just been behind a computer, solving the same problem over and over again, writing the same software but in a different language. Because the industry is so fragmented and so saturated with just commoditized stuff, and just reselling the same widgets and whatever.
So, it’s ironic that I’m trying to do a lot of stuff with technology, but just the kind of technology that allows me to elevate my art. Round about answer to your question, I spent a lot of time in the think tank before it actually ever materializes. And when I finally do materialize that onstage, all those pins and needles that I felt on my back as I was lying, goose pimples, lying in bed, imagining this stuff for years, all of a sudden gets magnified tenfold.
I’m on stage. I’m like, “Oh, my God. All this stuff is happening,” either as I saw it, or oops, no, there’s a million things that went wrong. But now, all of a sudden, there’s these really cool opportunities that I can just really quickly adapt to, and create moments that I was never even expecting, and, “Oh, my God, I caught this stuff on camera too.” I’ve got all these … three or four angles in the crowd. I can’t wait till I get home, and I’ll put all these things together, and get a multi-camera angle version of this. I want to see what this looks like from the audience’s perspective. Like I get-
Yeah, I-
Oh, my God, it’s just such a different world when you’re seeing it not from your own point of view, you know?
Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, that is awesome stuff. Well, we need to take a quick break. I really want to expand on some of that, what you were just sharing, and help people to discover how they can start to apply the perseverance that you describe into their own lives, and to maybe bring their creativity that they left a long time ago in their life. We’ll let that come back into the forefront for them.
But before we do jump into the break, let’s tell people where they can find out more about you, Rene.
Oh, thank you, David. Yeah, it’s renerafael.com.
Awesome, awesome. Well, check that out, folks. Fantastic. All right. We’ve been talking to Rene Rafael, and we have been discussing how he is evolving his consciousness into his true self, and he is sharing some pretty riveting stuff about that.
We’re going to take a quick break. When we come back, we’re going to sort of walk through how Rene creates his art, but also, how he balances life at work and life as a creative, and how that balancing act really works for him, and how maybe it’s a challenge for him. So, stay with us, and we’ll be right back.
To listen to the entire show click on the player above or go to the SuperPower Up! podcast on iTunes.
Music Credit: Words and Music written and performed by David Delmar. Engineered and produced by John Keenan.
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