About the Author
There are paths and roads, bumpy and smooth, some with potholes. people on the sides cheering you on, or hoping you fail, or tring to get you off the path. you choose which.
Welcome to Arctic Blond Living.
We all took paths and roads to get here to today.
Mine began as a path from homelessness to comedian, and became a road from entrepreneur, to philanthropist, to now being an old fuc, er, I mean old folk.
Just like your paths and roads, it took a lifetime to get us to right here, right now. Right?
My traverse on my path took overcoming a childhood of emotional, physical and sexual abuse, homelessness, addictions, alcoholism, getting me too'd and cancelled, suicidal ideations, a host of self-destructive behaviors, and fighting lifelong mental illness to get to right here, right now.
It took getting sober in 1990 to begin the hard work of healing my damaged soul. A slowly clearing head allowed me to finally connect with myself and learn how I, or anyone(!), can turn our most painful challenges, into our strongest assets.
Once connected, I started on a road to recovery. I began to actually finish things I started. I began using the right tool for the job. I began seeing mild successes. First as an award winning producer, and then building a succesful international executive search practice.
With the ever increasing clarity came ever increasing levels of emotional and financial security. This foundation allowed me to give back what I was given.
I came to believe that God puts us through the shit we go through, in order to be there for the people going through the shit we went through.
Feeling called and blessed, I was able to fund and create programs to help those still on the streets. To help those who are where I was.
By sharing my story and lessons with them, and then with groups of three to 3,000, I was able to rally thousands of others who simply cared as much as me. All of us together, along with John Mellencamp starting in 2008, we built several local, then regional programs leading people to domestic autonomy.
Veterans Matter was created in 2012 to house 35 local veterans experiencing homelessness. When Dusty Hill of ZZ Top asked me to expand it to "help my guys in Houston," I created an online system that allowed me to help veterans in any funded area. After Mr. Mellenamp and Mitch Albom helped with funds to house the veterans in their home states, several other celebrities, corporations and organizations joined us.
Together, we built it into a national program that has now helped over 10,000 veterans get off the streets into their own homes for the brave, all across this land of the free. If you google "Ken Leslie and John Mellencamp" you can get an idea of the scope and scale of the programs. Cancelled in 2021, I moved to working behind the scenes. Veterans Matter has now been successfully merged and will live on forever in the Tunnels to Towers Homeless Veterans program.
Then, after starting a couple more brands with limited financial success, but a shitload of fun, I officially retired in January, 2024.
Being newly retired, I confronted the shock of the huge void retirement creates. The result of that confrontation identified several things that bring me joy.
As a result, I created this platform to use my remaining "Arctic Blond Years" to create laughter, bring people together, figure out how we all can do more good, and squeeze every last freaking ounce of joy from this lifetime.
This includes using my motivational tactic of "855 days left to live" to share how I used this process of discovery, and motivation, so we all can leave on our "expiration dates," with no regrets.
Why? Because it's just one of the things that brings me joy.
Welcome to Arctic Blond Living, Empowered!