Thanks for asking!

I had a really hard childhood, as many do.  My journey starts by the abandonment by my biological Father.  At the age of 5 years, my Mother met a military man and decided to marry him, he came with his own pain, it became evident that he would teach me fear and anger.  My Mom, having the heart of an educator, spent countless hours with me teaching me to read, recognize numbers and colours.  Her heart was broken, and the time and effort erased, as my tonsils kept flaring up and at 5 years old, went in for a routine tonsillectomy.  The anesthetic created complications, my lungs collapsed and I flat lined, by the time they resuscitated me, I had lost most of my formative years.  It took some time, believe it or not, for the School system to recognize and diagnosis me with a learning difference (I don’t believe it to be a disability, as it comes with strengths as well).  My learning style didn’t prevent me from working hard in school in my last few years, and as my Step-Father had become disabled needing hip surgery, I started working at a fast food restaurant, as we experienced high levels of financial struggle.  When I tell my Mom we were poor, she said we were working class…but all I remember is that she kept food on the table…but the table was broken, the toilet needed to be flushed by emptying water from a bucket, you could hear animals in our attic, and the house had cracks in the walls you could see out.  High School was a struggle to fit in, as it is for many, but my reason was that I stood out for being highly social and outgoing, also incredibly insecure and fearful.  One night, I was walking home from a late night shift, and three boys, that decided the didn’t like my personality, jumped out of a van and attacked me.  I needed two nose surgeries and physiotherapy on my back from the damage they inflicted.

When I was done High School, almost by default of “what do I do now”, I enrolled in College, I got a taste of academic success scoring a 3.8 GPA in my first year of school.  I stumbled upon sleight of hand magic…and whenever I wasn’t doing school work, I was practicing.  Eventually, I built a business “Morgan the Magician” and decided to go use this to go to University, where I completed my degree in Psychology, at Trent University.

After schooling, working as a Professional Magician didn’t offer much of a resume for a typical career path.  While getting a resume done at an Employment Centre, I was offered an opportunity to apply for a contract job.   I was offered the job, and worked nearly 3 years helping people with their career path.  It turned out, I was very talented at helping people find work and prepare for the interview.  Even though they tried to create a position unique to me, when Government funding was cut, I left Employment Ontario for something that allowed me to do well by doing good.

I ended up finding a business building opportunity for an insurance company, I won awards, and was asked to sell my business become Business Development and help others on the path to success.  It was about this time in my life that I stumbled upon a life changing charitable moment.  I was put in a position to ask an empowering question to someone that was relying on a food pantry to support her family.  I said, “When I was a young man, my Mom relied on places like this to help us, and I am in a different spot now, if I can donate anything here to make your life better, what would it be?”  – the young lady instantly asked, “toilet paper”.  I was shocked to find out that those that rely on food banks and pantries only got one roll of toilet paper because nobody donates it.  It took much leg work, shaking hands, and convincing, but our toilet paper drive, known as TP the Town, broke North American records for single day donations.  After the outcome of this philanthropic cause, that turned into a movement, my Mother called to congratulate me and in the process, saying, “You have always been a “Black Sheep”, I challenged that label, “Mom, that is the outcast” – where she kindly responded, “No Morgan, Black Sheep have very rare wool, because of that they never get killed for their meat, they live long and luxurious lives. Your mind is your wool”. I realized that the outdated concept of Black Sheep weren’t outcasts, but that this modern take on Black Sheep defined those that wouldn’t settle for average.

However, throughout my life, being the Black Sheep didn’t always feel special, as a matter of fact, at times success felt like a failure and the barriers I faced caused deep mental anguish to the point of having suicidal thoughts and actions.  I was often misunderstood in work or with friends – and not having the proper guidance on how to manage those things led to destructive behaviour.   I started to do a deep dive into solving me…and thankfully, I came to understand that I wasn’t alone.

Many people started sharing their stories with me of their own struggles in “surviving” greatness. The haters, the self-hate, the instability of a road less traveled. I realized that there were other Black Sheep out there that needed help, and I started to create a framework.  It didn’t make sense that I was struggling emotionally when I was living a life that great minds say leads to great? Emotional Intelligence isn’t trained in school; we hardly know how to talk about it, it is no wonder anxiety, depression and suicide is on a severe rise.

I applied my background in Psychology, my life lessons, and continued research to get a better understanding of the problem and the solutions. I started to see that the foundation was choosing to be happy, but more importantly what it took to stay that way.  I took parts of various solutions, processed them and made tools to help people – that are the SAME, yet DIFFERENT – be their own hero.