Diagnosed at 40.
Ryan Perez is a cognitive architect and innovation strategist in Calgary. He founded Bow Tie Kreative in 2013 after twenty years in software. Autistic, ADHD and dyslexic — none of which he knew until 41. He had been building workarounds since he was about four, which he now describes as four decades of unlabelled field research.
- Keynote Speaker
- Author
- Neurodivergent Advocate
- Podcast Host
- Rapper-Poet
- Single Father
- Creative Strategist
Every date here has a document behind it.
Not a memoir. Every entry below was pulled out of the Second Brain and checked against a primary source — a T4 slip, an Alberta trade-name registration, an invoice number, a dated journal page, a signed lease. Where the paper disagreed with the story, the paper won.
“I was the rose that grew out of concrete. I had to struggle to grow. I have scratches and I have scars. And I am still alive.”Written at 17 · school essay, graded 90% · found in the 2020 archive dig
Before there was a business
Act one · 2000 — 2008A teenager already on payroll, already writing goals down, and one intervention that changed the direction of everything after it.
- 200015 April
Starts a written "Thought Diet"
The first dated goal-setting practice anywhere in the archive. The habit never stops — it eventually becomes the Second Brain.
Journal page · 15 Apr 2000 - 2000Full year
Already on four payrolls
T4 slips from Paraco Pizza, Metro Ford, Cineplex Odeon and West-Can Direct Marketing, where he had been canvassing door-to-door since August 1997. He is sixteen.
T4 slips · 2000–2001 - 200020 November
A close friend dies at 17
Ryan keeps the funeral program and the memorial tree card, and still has both twenty years later.
Funeral program - 2001
The intervention
At 17, facing charges and — in the words of a later Canadian Press profile — "near a life of crime." Lynette "Bani" Joseph and sensei Gary Martin step in, and route him into Black history, martial arts, music and business. This is the hinge of the entire timeline.
Canadian Press · 1 Sept 2011 - 2001
Co-founds his first company, in a classroom
Completes the Junior Achievement program and co-founds the JA company Heavenly Divine. His advisor writes him a reference letter for it the following spring.
Advisor letter · 15 Apr 2002 - 200113 October
First step into community organizing
Invited to help start an organization for Black youth in Calgary. "She told me to call her in November and talk more on the organization."
Journal · 13 Oct 2001 - 200222 February
Promotes his first all-ages show. Nobody comes.
Written the same night: "I am having an All Ages today. But no one showed up."
Journal · 22 Feb 2002 - 200217 March
First martial arts tournament
"I am very nervous — it is my first time fighting." The same year he joins a band, picks up an instrument, starts Shotokan Karate and goes back to school.
Journal · 16 Mar 2002 - 2003February
Co-founds a record label
Cetchfire Entertainment, with Justin Pilon — "starving musicians with a vision to start a turn-key record label." He produces his first album the same year.
Cetchfire business plan - 2003September
Elected to a board at 19
Joins the African Caribbean United Foundation of Alberta representing youth, and becomes Chairman of the Youth Division.
Board record · résumé - 2003
Appointed to Team Canada
WOMAA appointment to Team Canada for the World Martial Games V in Athens, Greece. Qualifier ID 1-21/42.
Letter of appointment - 200418 September
Produces a 480-capacity show
"Last Call 2004," hosted by Sway Magazine, with part of every ticket going to a youth program. Full line-up, budgeted per act.
Event plan · 31 Aug 2004 - 2004— 2006
Runs the youth zone at the Calgary International Reggae Festival
Youth board member and event organizer, two years running.
Résumé · own account - 200527 — 30 Sept
Four days coaching Matthew Perry
Rap consultant on The Ron Clark Story. Four billed days on set, invoiced line by line.
Freelance invoice · 30 Sept 2005 - 200528 September
Nominated for the Western Legacy Award
The inaugural Calgary Stampede Western Legacy Award, Youth category — "for your inspiring commitment to making your community a better and more productive place for its young people."
Calgary Exhibition & Stampede - 2006March
Starts speaking in schools
Begins the rap mentorship program at Bob Edwards Junior High — a program he inherits from Gary Martin and then runs annually. The mentee becomes the mentor.
Résumé · Canadian Press - 2007August
First salaried design job
Accounts Manager and Graphic Designer at Rayacom Print and Design — the professional bridge to everything that follows.
Pay stubs · 2007–2008 - 200821 November
Registers his first domain
bnelsononline.com. The B. Nelson identity gets a website, and the internet becomes the room.
Domain registration · 21 Nov 2008
The founding, for real
Act two · 2009 — 2015A son, a national wire story, and then the month the invoicing starts. The books say the business begins in 2013, and the books are right.
- 20097 April
Signs with SOCAN
Formally registered as a composer and author. Member 6577154.
SOCAN agreement · 7 Apr 2009 - 2009
His son is born
A Canadian Press reporter finds him two years later with "a job, a home, a fiancée and a two-year-old son."
Canadian Press · 1 Sept 2011 - 20111 September
First national press
A Canadian Press wire feature, carried by Global News, profiles Ryan and Gary Martin at his northeast Calgary home. He performs "I Move Along" for the reporter, and says of his sensei: "I hear his voice in my head saying I told you so."
Canadian Press / Global News - 201212 April
Accepted into the YouTube Partner Program
The vlogging turns into revenue. He announces it on the channel two days later.
YouTube · 12 Apr 2012 - 201313 June
The first invoice that gets paid
Invoice 0002, settled by Charles McCullough — the first payment ever received into his own business account. Invoice 0001 had been cancelled ten days earlier.
Invoice 0002 · paid 13 Jun 2013 - 2013July
Bow Tie Kreative begins
He leaves Print Calgary, walks past a non-compete, and goes independent. "That began my journey as a full-time entrepreneur." The email address, the payment account and invoice 0005 all appear within one week of each other. There is no earlier year in the business records — whatever came before, this is where it actually starts.
Own account · email record - 20136 August
Helps name the Obsidian Awards
Sits on the committee that renames the African Awards Ceremony to the Black Gold Awards — the body that becomes the Obsidian Awards. He works the production side of it for three years.
Committee record · 6 Aug 2013 - 2013October
Jully Black, and the client who funded the leap
Eighteen tour deliverables land for Jully Black Entertainment in a single week. In the same month Paolini's Sausage & Meats comes on — the client Ryan credits with his first serious cheque.
Project records · Oct 2013 - 201417 November
First employee
Oaitse Hellard starts as office manager, and within the week the company is recruiting practicum students.
Hiring record · 17 Nov 2014 - 20155 March
"It's on iTunes baby!!!"
Releases the single "Oh My" as B. Nelson through TuneCore — his first digital release, posted the same day.
TuneCore · 2 Mar 2015 - 2015Apr — Aug
Delivers Jully Black's website
Four months, working directly with her and her team. The task sits on the daily to-do list every weekday through August.
Project records · 2015 - 2015Full year
The first strong year
Roughly five times the volume of the year before, and the strongest year of the business's first decade.
Business records · 2015
Every project on this page started as something that went wrong first.
The build, then the break
Act three · 2016 — 2023Eight years that start with a giveaway program and a podcast, and end with an eviction notice and a keynote delivered by a man with nowhere to sleep.
- 201611 August
Launches the One Luv Project
For every website sold, a free website donated to a person with a disability. Announced by press release: "a disability empowerment program named the One Luv Project."
Press release · 11 Aug 2016 - 201615 September
Hustle Zone goes live
Domains registered mid-September; guest bookings start flowing through in November. A live-streamed interview show, built because no one was having the conversation he wanted to have.
Domain registration · 15 Sept 2016 - 201617 September
The Empowered In My Skin years begin
First design work for Nkechi Nwafor-Robinson and Jully Black, at The Savoy in Markham. The relationship runs, on and off, for five years.
Design proofs · Sept 2016 - 201717 November
Hustle Zone is accepted into Apple Podcasts
The show leaves the livestream and becomes a catalogue.
Directory approval · 17 Nov 2017 - 2018— 2019
The first collapse
The work dries up across two years, and does not come back on its own. By November 2019 he is applying for salaried jobs.
Business records · 2017–2019 - 202016 — 18 April
Photographs his entire paper life in three days
Peak lockdown. 803 documents — journals, invoices, T4 slips, funeral programs, business plans — shot page by page. Most of this timeline comes out of those three days.
Archive record · Apr 2020 - 2021Full year
The work comes back
The busiest year of the whole stretch — more client jobs booked than in any year since 2015.
Business records · 2021 - 202225 — 29 Oct
Digital Stem Cell becomes a brand
Three domains and professional email stood up inside five days. The problem-solving method finally gets a name.
Domain records · Oct 2022 - 202330 May
The Digital Stem Cell podcast goes live
Verified 10 May, published 30 May.
Publishing record · 30 May 2023 - 202314 September
Applies to the Speakers Bureau of Canada
The formal pivot from web agency to paid stage. Onboarding runs through the autumn.
Application · 14 Sept 2023 - 20231 — 2 October
One day late on rent
"I was planning on paying the next day. And then all of a sudden, I got an eviction notice on my door. I had 72 hours to leave the premises due to a court order." The cause, in his own words: unsubmitted invoices, and a crash. "When you have autism, you have ADHD — you crash."
Own account, on camera - 20237 November
Goes public, unhoused, on camera
"I'm officially homeless. I have a web development company, but I hate it. I'm going into content creation, being a public speaker. I want to live the rest of my life devoting myself to advocacy. I am going to document it all for you. This is blog one." Everything after this is downstream of that sentence.
Vlog · 7 Nov 2023 - 202313 December
Keynotes the Mental Health Summit with nowhere to sleep
The 6th Annual Mental Health Summit, Calgary. He talks about autism, dyslexia and dyscalculia, to a room that does not know he is homeless. An organizer writes afterwards: "Ryan was a phenomenal speaker."
Transcript · organizer records
Fourteen months between the eviction notice and the lease.
The rebuild
Act four · 2024 — 2026A diagnosis at 40, a signed lease, three books in ten days, and the first keynotes anyone paid for.
- 202419 November
Formally diagnosed autistic — at 40
Forty years without the word. Eleven days before his forty-first birthday, a Calgary clinic puts it in writing. Co-occurring ADHD-level executive-function impairment is documented alongside it.
Clinical record · 19 Nov 2024 - 202414 December
Signs a lease
A one-year residential tenancy in Calgary, term 14 Dec 2024 to 31 Dec 2025. Fourteen months of homelessness end on a signature. A moving company is booked the next day.
Lease agreement · 14 Dec 2024 - 202512 — 21 March
Three titles ship in ten days
Frozen by Light, I'm Autistic, Bich! and Social Media Uncensored clear review and go out to retailers worldwide — a novel, a memoir and a manual, published inside a single fortnight.
Distribution record · Mar 2025 - 20259 May
First royalties
Eight weeks after publication, the books start paying.
Royalty notice · 9 May 2025 - 202517 May
SoulsMatter goes live
A platform for people raising money to get out from under exactly the kind of year he had just had. First real campaign submissions arrive eight days later.
Site records · 17 May 2025 - 202516 June
ryanperez.ca publishes
Author, speaker and the three books, under his own name for the first time.
Site export · 16 Jun 2025 - 202526 June
First keynote contract signed
Saskatchewan Blue Cross, through the Speakers Bureau of Canada. Twenty-two months after he told a camera he was going to become a public speaker.
Signed agreement · 26 Jun 2025 - 202518 September
Delivers it, in Saskatoon
The Group Plan Administrator Appreciation and Wellness Event. His note to the bureau six days later: "Blue Cross event went great." The testimonial and the payment both follow.
Speaker package · payment record - 20264 March
Keynotes Empire Life
A second corporate booking, delivered virtually.
Signed agreement · Mar 2026 - 202623 June
Speaks at CAMH
Guest speaker to an all-staff session at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. Twenty years after he first stood in front of a room of kids at Bob Edwards Junior High.
Booking record · 23 Jun 2026 - 2026August
The Second Brain becomes the system of record
The written goal practice that started on 15 April 2000 is now a queryable knowledge graph — and the Digital Stem Cell Process is formalised as a research method with its own grid.
Method record · Aug 2026
Every entry above was retrieved from the Second Brain and matched to a primary source. Dates are given as the source gives them.
He talked to his son before he was born.
Before Malcolm arrived, Ryan and his mother talked about the connection they wanted with him — that he'd be free to express himself, whatever that looked like. Ryan played guitar and sang to him in the womb, so when Malcolm was born and heard "Hi, Malcolm," he stopped crying. That instinct traces back to Ryan's own childhood: nonverbal for years, he stored what he couldn't say into the songs playing around him — Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Fleetwood Mac — so he'd never lose the moment he was in. He raised Malcolm on the same principle: led by his own spirit, not conformity.
"You don't have to do anything for me to be proud of you. Just be yourself."Ryan Perez, to his son Malcolm, age 5
Before my son was born
Ryan on fatherhood, connection, and raising Malcolm to be exactly who he is.
446,628 nodes, because remembering things the normal way was never on the table.
An AI-powered knowledge system holding 446,628 mapped experiences and 17,336 connections. It exists because a gestalt brain needed its own operating system and there wasn't one to buy. It is also the clearest example of the thing he teaches: the workaround was the product.
Two books, a novel, and a manual.
He fights systems, not people.
He does stand-up.
Which is relevant, because a room that's laughing is a room that's still listening when the hard part arrives. Two books, one novel, three podcasts, and a bow tie that has been asked about more than any of the above.
Why my voice matters
Ryan on using his own story to reach people navigating trauma and neurodivergence.
His story is the credential.
Ryan's voice carries because of what he's lived and who he's learned from — elders, mentors, and the people he mentors in turn. He speaks for those navigating intergenerational trauma and neurodivergence, because he spent years building his own workarounds: for reading, for writing, for getting through a workday built for someone else's brain. Every barrier he found a way through became a tool he now hands to somebody else.
"Being able to use my voice helps me articulate my thoughts. Expressing myself is the most important thing to me — and so is saying things that can impact other people's lives."Ryan Perez
Put him in a room where something is breaking.
Keynotes, advisory, and audits. Calgary. Travels anywhere.