#367 Sir Darren Jacklin - Integrity, Due Diligence and Why Behavior Never Lies

Sir Darren Jacklin
[Speaker 2] (0:02 - 1:38)
Welcome to the speaking podcast. You can find all our episodes on speakingpodcast.com. Today's guest has spent more than 25 years on stage.

He's traveled four continents and trained over a million people in front of, in more than 50 countries with fortune 500 companies among his audience. He has also been a member of Toastmasters for 11 years. So he knows the speaking craft from the stage to, and from the boardroom basically, away from the microphone.

He's a general partner at Smashing Numbers where he acquires accounting and bookkeeping firms across North America. He sits on boards and advisory boards and he is the author of the book Until I Become. He also co-founded the LY2NK Foundation, which supports a new school in Kapala, I hope I pronounced that right, Uganda.

He appeared in the 2015 film The Treasure Map and he's based in Greater Vancouver. And I think it's the first time I have to say, please welcome Sir Darren Jekyll. Hey Ryan, I'm grateful to be here and be of service.

Yeah, no, no, I'm looking forward to, because I had the honor of having a conversation with you previously. So I'm looking forward to this. I mean, you're doing a lot of things, but I suppose we'll start off with the Sir, because it's kind of, you know, people would be familiar with someone.

So how did you get the Sir for what you've done?

[Speaker 1] (1:39 - 8:17)
Oh, great question. So first of all, people are taking notes, write down this, never assume you aren't being observed. Never assume you aren't being observed.

We're always being watched and observed, whether we're online on the internet or we're offline, out in community, out in conversations with different people. And so over the last several years, I have traveled the world extensively to multiple countries and cities and continents and different rooms, charity events, fundraise events, seminars, workshops, trade shows, conferences, you name it. And I'm always being watched and always being observed by different men and women.

And I've had a chance to be watched, observed by a lot of people. And there are some people who are part of what we call the Royal Order who have been knighted as a Sir, a Lady or Dame around the world in different Royal Orders. And so I've built relationships with some of these men and women personally and professionally.

And I was nominated back in 2022 to the Royal Order of Cappadocia in the country of Spain. And so through a lengthy due diligence process and vetting process, myself amongst 400 plus people that were nominated at the time, went through a selection process globally. And of that 400 plus people based on a checklist of due diligence, there was eight different categories.

I was chosen under philanthropy and entrepreneurship. So you'd mentioned in the introduction about LY2NK, which is we build schools. And I co-founded a nonprofit international foundation where we build schools around the world for the next generation to help alleviate poverty, provide access to clean drinking water, food security, educational, enriching children's lives and communities lives around the world.

And we built a few schools already. And then my backstory, the come up story and the success story of entrepreneurship. It's been a roller coaster ride of peaks and valleys, setbacks, challenges, obstacles.

And I've had some home runs as well, but I've learned a lot of practical life experiences with my backstory and the come up story. And through that entrepreneurial journey of that roller coaster ride, I've learned a lot of valuable lessons that I've mentored and influenced other people on paid advisory boards, paid boards of directors, international book, it's in over a hundred countries now until I become. And then guest speaking, and I spent 25 years as a corporate trainer.

So all this combined made for a good candidate to be nominated and then eventually be knighted as Sir Darren Jacklin. So I'm kind of giving you a high level overview. I could spend four hours giving you the whole backstory on this, but we won't, but to save time, but just to compress time, high level key talking points is that I was selected through the world order of Cappadocia from Spain.

There was 24 people that were selected, 15 men and nine women. I was one of two Canadian citizens to get knighted at the time. And so, yeah, so it was quite an honor.

At first I was in like, yeah, right. There's much more people that are much more qualified than me. I'm not good enough was the thing, the mind chatter inside my head.

I'm not good enough. I'm not smart enough. Even I'm not deserving or worthy enough came up in terms of internal self-talk that, from my experience, we all have it.

It never goes away. It's just how we manage the internal self-talk. And so, yeah.

And so I got knighted, it's been a few years now. And so what does it do for me? I always, people always ask, so what's in it for you?

Like, what's, what's given the bottom line here? What it does, it gives me access to different rooms at different seats at different tables around the world with different people into different conversations. And so I leverage my knighthood for philanthropy to do good in the world.

I also leverage it to be a spokesperson for mental health awareness globally. I leverage it in regards to helping to build schools through link foundation. I leverage it to get on different stages and to speak and to train and develop the next generation of men and women to have a positive influence my practical life experiences of overcoming a lot of adversities and challenges and setbacks and failures, but also a lot of practical life lessons that you're not going to learn in college university.

I'm a street smart kid. You know, I learned from being on the streets, being in the trenches, learning things and making a lot of mistakes, screwing up. And from there, I built a lot of success in my life because I've got practical knowledge, not textbook, not academia, but being in the trenches and going through the, you know, the tough days, the challenging days, the days you want to quit, been through all that stuff.

It's been a roller coaster ride of peaks and valleys. And so I'm here today. And so I'm here to serve, you know, and make a difference in people's lives in a very practical, honest, integral way, which is very important because I'll just take you back when I I'm 54 years of age today, but back when I was before 38 years of age, I wouldn't say I was a person of integrity.

I would say I would exaggerate things. I would embellish things. I would lie about things as a human being.

And I was coming from fear. I was coming from lack and scarcity. I was coming from childhood trauma.

And so when I hired a integrity coach many years ago, I hired this woman, paid her a lot of money that I didn't have at the time, but I made payments and she confronted and disrupted my life and showed me all my blind spots over a few month period of time in this integrity audit. And that was a disruption in my life that was so scary. It's like being punched in the face physically, like in a boxing ring.

And that taught me a lot about my character as a human being is who I am. And to really be mindful of that, my words create my world because my work, my talk used to be cheap, even though I did a lot of stuff, travel the world as a corporate trainer. Yeah.

But my talk was cheap. My words had no power. And now today in my fifties, my words have a lot of power.

When I walk into a room, they carry a lot of weight and a lot of power and they make big decisions at a very high level in advisory boards and boards of directors. And so there was a big transformation of my character from the inside out, because success is not something you go out in the world to pursue. Success is something rather that you attract into your life by the person you become.

And I wasn't happy with the man in the mirror years ago of who I was becoming. I felt like a fraud. I felt like a fake.

I felt like I was somebody who couldn't make direct eye contact with myself years ago. Now I'm very proud to stand in front of that mirror as an honorable man, as an integral man, as an inspired human being. And so I feel like I can do a lot of good in the world now because I'm working on myself constantly on the inside out.

And that's tough. It's not easy. It's challenging.

It's confronting. But it's the hard work, just like going to the gym and working on the physical body, which I do all the time consistently. It's doing the inner mental gymnastics work of looking at our childhood trauma, looking at our blind spots, dealing with the uncomfortable situations with our immediate friends and family and loved ones.

And doing that personal professional development journey is where I am today. And so that's why I'm grateful I've been knighted, because it's been a long road of many years to get here to where I am today. And I feel I'm just getting started at age 54.

[Speaker 2] (8:18 - 8:29)
Excellent. So kind of two questions based on what you've just said. One is, what's the actual process?

Because I mean, we see telly or whatever, somebody goes down on their knee and they get the sword. Yeah. Yeah.

Is that the way it was done?

[Speaker 1] (8:30 - 11:34)
Yeah. So that's the ceremony. The official knighting ceremony is where you have the sword.

And I have the sword here in one of my homes. And the official knighting ceremony, it's a due diligence process. There's a social media audit.

They want to see who you are online. Five-year social media audit. It may have changed now, but it was a five-year social media audit.

So they go back through five years and look at a pattern of life. Because if you do an audit on somebody's life on their social media footprint, their digital footprint over a five-year period, over 60 months, you can see a digital footprint of a pattern of life. Interviewing friends and family, people that I've worked with personally and professionally, people I've done business with, because they want to get a character reference of how is this person behind the scenes?

Because there's some risks. They want to make sure that they're going to mitigate any type of risks. If they're going to knight you, that you don't want to be in the news media a few years later that you're some kind of criminal or some kind of person that's unethical.

They want to make sure they do their homework, they do it right, and they do it to the highest standards of accountability, responsibility, and integrity. There's a lot of back and forth. You have to submit your passport, your driver's license.

They do police and criminal background checks for you internationally, reference checks. They want to make sure you have good credit. You don't owe a lot of money and you're in legal action and legal disputes with people, all that stuff.

They want to make sure that you don't have any skeletons in your closet that can move forward with any potential risk management going forward. You've got to be a clean person. I'm very honored for that, because it gives me a comfort in terms of background checks when people are in discovery process or do deals with me on a merger or an acquisition or interviewing me for us to serve on a paid board of directors or a paid advisory board seat around the world with different companies which I serve on.

We want to make sure that if I'm going to have a seat at the table or be involved in some company or organization, that you've got a credible person that's been vetted. I like that when people start doing their due diligence on me, they're like, oh man, this guy really checks out really well. He checks all the boxes of the discovery and the due diligence process.

Is it easy to get to? No, it's not. A very small percentage of the world population will ever, ever get knighted.

I don't even know the numbers, but it's very small statistically that people will get knighted. I'm grateful. It's been a heck of a ride and it's been very inspiring.

It's been quite a thing with my friends and my family, but I'm the same guy. I'm the same humble human being that I've always been. I tell people I just put on a costume.

I'm wearing a costume. I have a Royal Order professional outfit that I wear when I'm out in public or I have the Royal Order pin, but it's just a costume I wear. I'm the same human being.

I treat people the same way whether I'm with a billionaire, whether I'm in a boardroom, whether I'm buying a company or I'm dealing with somebody who's through Link Foundation that we're building a school in one of the most impoverished countries in the world. I don't change. I treat everybody equal and that's a big thing for me.

I think that's one of the reasons also why I was knighted because of that characteristic of how I was raised with my values and my beliefs of treating everybody fairly and equally.

[Speaker 2] (11:34 - 11:57)
Excellent. You mentioned the integrity coach. I'm wondering, is that something that you'd recommend?

I've seen over the years a lot of people and you can see when there's issues. You can see when the ego is getting in the way. I'm assuming it takes you back and gives you a little slap into the face to go, maybe you can do better than this.

[Speaker 1] (11:58 - 18:32)
The payoff for me was I didn't have to confront myself. That was the payoff. That was it for me.

The payoff was that when I first met this integrity coach in a seminar many years ago, she was sitting beside me and we were doing a role playing back and forth. Then on a break, we decided to go for lunch together for a 90-minute lunch during the break and we're kind of working assignment as part of the summer that we were in together. Then it came up, what's our professional background?

She told me that she worked for a three-letter agency in the United States, which is a federal agency, law enforcement agency, and that she was doing all the screening and all the profiling for interviewing for this three-letter agency in the United States of America. I thought, wow, she has a high-level security clearance. Then she told me that she has a side business where she does integrity audits on people.

Of course, I became really curious, but what is that? She walked me through the process of what an integrity audit is. Then I'm like, oh, that's interesting.

She goes, yeah. Then I learned through the process that the payoff was I never had to confront or deal with myself. That's why as a human being, I would walk around the world and I would exaggerate things years ago and I'd embellish things and sometimes expand on stories and stuff, but not realizing the impact of my words, showing up casually without having a structure in my life to show up on time.

I'd show up a few minutes late for something. It's no big deal, but what's the impact on the other person? I'm unreliable.

How do I treat other human beings? Now I'm very intentional with keeping my word. Now every day, I live by my calendar.

If it's not structured in my calendar, there's no evidence that exists in my life, but also too is on my phone, my mobile phone. I have alarms for everything I do throughout the day, all my accountabilities, all my responses. I have audible or vibrational alarms that go off.

I'm always on time. In fact, early to me is on time and on time is late. Most people don't have the standards in their life to be intentional.

I live here in Vancouver, Canada is my primary home. I have a large hiking group. I'm a very active hiker.

I hike all over the world, multiple countries, some of the biggest mountains in the world like Kilimanjaro, Mount Everest Base Camp, Mount Kailash. All over the world, I do some of these big hikes, but when I bring people out hiking, I do it as part of my discovery process and due diligence because behavior never lies, right? Behavior never lies.

When I bring people out hiking, whether it's early mornings, afternoons, evenings, or nighttime hikes, I get a chance to watch and observe people in action, right? Controlled discomfort, situational awareness. Do they come prepared?

Do they have a trip planned? Do they tell their friends or family or loved ones through text message or phone call or email or a verbal conversation that they're going to go on a hiking trail? How do they adapt to nature, the wilderness when you're farting or burping or sweating together, when you're climbing up a mountain or you have a wildlife encounter?

People can fake it in the boardroom and they can be on Zoom video and they can be virtually with you, but when you take people into the backcountry, into the wilderness, you see how they really are with human behavior because I don't care about how people handle really great situations. When people are raising capital because I'm involved with different boards where people are raising capital sometimes and people are always great, but when your back's against the wall and things get challenging, you can't make payroll coming up this Thursday with your employees or you can't pay a contractor or a vendor or supplier because you don't have the money in the bank account. How are you going to handle that situation?

Are you going to lay blame or are you going to attack? Are you going to criticize? Are you going to play the role of the victim or poor me or are you going to pick up the phone and be intentional and work the situation out in a calm manner?

See, this is the thing is behavior never lies and so I want to see by taking people on hiking trails, putting people in challenging, uncomfortable environments and situations with rocks and roots and terrain and weather and climbing and elevating and different environments to see how do they adapt. I'll give you a practical example. Not too long ago, I was on an expedition.

We were over in the country of Tibet and Nepal and we're on a hiking expedition and there was 19 of us in the group. Well, 15 of the 19 men and women had explosive diarrhea. Explosive diarrhea.

I know it's disgusting to say it but it's the truth. Well, when people have it for two to three days on a high altitude hiking expedition, you get to learn human behavior at a very deep level. I called it a team building exercise because you can't fake it but you learn about how people respond or react to situations like that.

I've met thousands of people hiking around the world over the last several years and there's people that I've went on hiking trips with to look at, you know, sitting on their advisory board or board of directors or helping them raise capital or even myself writing a check to their business and by the time I've done the hiking trip, I'm a no to getting involved in their company in any way shape or form because they've got big goals and big dreams.

They're visionary but they're not going to be able to execute and make things happen because when things get tough, they start complaining. They start whining. They start griping and they're not going to build a multi-million or a billion dollar company.

I've had a chance to have a front row seat as the first independent board of directors member of a company called EXP Realty, EXP World Holdings, where I helped as a team member take the company from a startup as a residential real estate company over a 10-year period to a multi-billion dollar company that became publicly traded on NASDAQ with over 80,000 people in over 20 countries on five continents around the world. So, I've been on a fast roller coaster ride of helping as an independent board of directors member build a company.

So, I know from a firsthand account what that's like to be around a founder with audacious goals and dreams but be able to execute it with a team, with precision and execution at a high rate to build something as a global brand, a global company. And so, I love watching human behavior and seeing how people perform under pressure and control. I call that controlled discomfort, right?

Because how do people show up? Even like, you know, years ago, I was fat and overweight, addicted to processed foods, and addicted to junk food. And I had a confronting conversation with somebody one time where they said I was overweight, out of shape, and out of breath.

And if I wanted to play at a higher level, I had to go start going to the gym. Well, I never had a gym membership until I was 48 years of age. And so, now I'm in the best shape of my life at 13% body fat.

I follow a meal plan. I follow a sleep recovery plan. I follow a workout plan.

I work out by myself. I work out with a trainer. Well, seven years ago, I never had any of that in my life.

That wasn't important to me in my life. That was something that my belief system was like, I'm not that guy. I don't genetically have that way.

I'm not athletic. I never played sports. I was grown up as a kid.

So, that's just not me. So, this is all the stuff we learn as we grow and mature in life. And now, you know, I don't miss going to the gym.

I love it. I just can't wait to get to the gym workout. I just can't wait to get to the hiking trails.

But the old Darren, that was not me.

[Speaker 2] (18:34 - 19:12)
Excellent. I remember, like, if I was a playing golf in Ireland, there's not much courses here in Poland, but I would see the type of person based on golf, because they can be cheating. I'll never call them out on it, but I know they're cheating.

It's telling me a lot. Or also how they're reacting to a shot. You know, I've seen people bend their clubs across a tree.

I've seen a fella throw his clubs into a lake when I was playing. And there's others, they just laugh and just get on with it. And you can say, yeah, do you want to do business with that person or not?

Because, yeah, it's not always going to be sunny. There's going to be days that the snow comes.

[Speaker 1] (19:12 - 23:57)
Yeah. You know, Roy, I'll give everybody watching or listening a practical exercise they can do with people as an integrity test. So, I call it micro commitments.

And so, I'm guilty in my past, in my 20s, in my 30s, early 40s, where I would meet somebody at a trade show, a conference, a seminar, a workshop. I get so excited getting laid in. I'm like, let's do a joint venture together.

Let's be, you know, let's do a joint venture. Let's get involved in business together. And then all of a sudden, I would be frustrated and disappointed because they weren't following through and executing on the things that they said they're going to do.

Lots of ideas, lots of great intentions, but the follow through to execution and doing complete work was very minimal. So, what I do now is I do a thing called micro commitments. So, if I'm on a hike with somebody for a couple hours, I'll say, hey, do you like to read a book?

Do you like to watch podcasts or watch YouTube videos? I'm like, yeah, great. Can I text message you a podcast I want you to watch?

They're like, sure. Great. When could you watch it by?

So, what I'm listening for is a micro commitment. I could watch it by this Friday. Great.

By what time? So, they say 4 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time. Okay, great.

Would you mind sending me a text, Roy, after you've watched it and share with me three points that you learned about the podcast? Okay, great. By when can you text me?

And so, a high performance person, what they'll do is that when you are in a conversation with him or her, what they'll do is a lot of times they'll pull up their phone and they'll structure it in their calendar. They'll create what we call an existence system. It's a system, an existence.

They bring it into existence as an accountability and a responsibility. So, it's structured, right? So, there's a physical structure.

It's not left in their brain to remember, oh, gosh, I forgot about that. No, there's an existence system. So, they structure it.

Okay, I've got a by when. That's specific, that's measurable, that's actionable, that's achievable. Okay, great.

So, they put it into their calendar. Okay, I've got an accountability by Friday, 4 p.m. to send a text message back to Darren with three things I learned from watching this podcast. Then they send an audible alarm in their phone so that there's an alarm that goes off as well with the calendar.

Okay, so, you watch and observe human behavior. Whereas other people say, oh, yeah, I'll send you a text by Friday at 4 p.m. and it never happens. It's a micro commitment.

So, you give people three or four or five micro commitments. If they don't follow through on the micro commitments, never get papered up on a legal agreement by investing in their business, even getting in a relationship with them, get involved in the business, referrals, recommendations, endorsements, things like that as well. I'm very mindful of what I give my work to now, even recommendations, endorsements, book endorsements, things like that.

Even on different advisory boards, boards of directors, I say no to a lot of paid advisory board and board of directors opportunities. Why? Because the men and women have great ideas.

They're out there excited about raising financial capital, but they're not going to be able to execute and pull off their business. They're just going to burn through all the cash. Then they go raise more money and burn through all the cash, and then the business will go bust, and then they'll go on to something else.

Meanwhile, all these investors, all these shareholders are high and dry with their financial investment, their hard-earned dollars. I don't want to associate with around like that. I want to be around people that they're going to be raising capital.

You'll be growing and scaling a business that they're intentional with an execution plan to make things happen, get things done at the highest levels of accountability, responsibility, discipline, commitment, and integrity. So important. If I'm going to have a seat at the table, these men and women must have that, or I'm not going to be involved in the business.

Now, years ago, I'm like, oh my gosh, I can get paid to be on advisory board or board of directors. I'm excited. Now, I slow things down, go through the discovery process, go through the due diligence process, and do practical experiential things with these people as part of the due diligence process, but also give micro-commitments to them.

So as just as much as they're interviewing me, I'm also interviewing them as well as part of the discovery and due diligence process. I think it comes from years of experience and also making mistakes and frustration and screw-ups, but now I'm more selective and more mindful of what I say yes to and what I give my word to because when I give my word to something now, it's like taking my finger and then if I don't follow through, so if I make a commitment, for example, my commitment to being on this podcast with you, as soon as we agreed to it, I structured my calendar and I set an alarm. I was here early and that was important because if I don't show up, it's like cutting my finger off, putting some skin, little skin, people say, oh yeah, I've got some skin in the game. Really?

Okay, so if you don't follow through on your commitment, then you're going to give me the keys to your automobile. You're going to give me the keys to your home if you're a homeowner. Well, what do you mean?

Yeah, collateralize it. Yeah, so if you don't follow through on what you say you're going to do, then I take possession as the registered owner of your automobile. Oh, I don't think so.

So why would we even have this conversation if you're not committed to your commitments? So you really pressure test people just to really see if their words have power and weight or they're just talking. Watch people's feet, not their lips.

So important because I used to listen to what everybody says before, now I watch their feet, not the lips to see if they can actually execute with action.

[Speaker 2] (23:59 - 24:19)
So I'm curious because based on the integrity that you've changed and for the better, if you're looking into a company and maybe being asked as a board and you start looking at their past history, can you determine whether they've made a transition in their life and become a better person?

[Speaker 1] (24:20 - 28:59)
So you watch, so culture wise, you look at the employees that they've got employees on payroll, right? If they're virtual or in person, how long, what's the retention rate of how long the employees have been with somebody for? So I was just, I'll give an example.

I was just with, not the brand, I was just with a multi-billionaire recently for breakfast. And this guy was telling me that a lot of his longstanding staff had been with him for over 40 years. His assistant, his executive assistant has been with him for over 40 years.

And then I met one of his key people in terms of M&A, mergers and acquisitions, 45 years. So longstanding history. So you're looking at people, is there a high turnover rate?

So if I go to, let's say you have a dinner party at your house in a practical way, and I go to your dinner party and I'm walking around meeting people, I'm like, oh, how long have you known Roy for? Oh, I just met him two weeks ago at a trade show. I just met him on the street.

Oh, somebody just introduced me to him. Okay. There's nobody, there's 33 people in this room and not one person has known Roy over two years.

But Roy's like, we're all great friends. We've done a lot of things together. Really?

In two years, you've done a lot of great things together? Nobody out of 33 people, you know each other? Whereas you come and meet with me, like how long have you known Darren for?

24 years. You know, like when I was, when I was seven years old, I created my first business called Rent-A-Kid, right? In Swift Current, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Aged nine, I hired my two best friends. I'm 54 today, right? When I was nine years old, those two friends are still great friends to this day, 45 plus years later.

I still talk to them. I just talked to both of them here in the last two weeks. So we still keep in frequent communication throughout the calendar year.

So what you're looking for is you're looking at is, is this person transactional or is this person relational? Because a lot of people, when you start to get to do a deeper dive, you'll find that some people are just transient. Like I meet people sometime and they're like, Darren, we want you to be part of our board of directors.

No, you just want me, you just want to leverage my network and get people to write checks for your business opportunity. Let's just be straight with people. You don't really care about me.

You're just trying to leverage my Rolodex to get access to capital for your business. You and I are just in a transactional relationship. There's no relation.

I'm never going to go on a trip with you or meet your kids or go meet your spouse or partner, go on a vacation with you or go on a hike with you. You're just strictly trying to leverage my Rolodex to collect money. See that's transactional versus relational.

So you watch people's actions of what they're doing and that will tell you a lot about them. How do they treat their spouse or partner significant other? How do they treat people that are closest to them in their life?

Because if that's how they treat them, then how are they going to treat you if you're outside that inner circle or a little bit more distance from them? So I watch and observe this all the time, but also the people around them, you know, oh, you've had other investors. Great.

Like I had recently a situation where I had a guy's like, yeah, yeah, I got this business and stuff like this. And you know, I'm like, well, how many investors have you had in, throughout your life? He's always had many.

Oh yeah. So is this your first or second or third or fourth venture? He goes, no, it was like our fifth venture.

Oh yeah. Have you had some successful exits before? Yeah.

Okay, great. How many other investors from your other exits of your business ventures are actually with you in this deal? Because if you help them make money, you pay them back on time and maintain your integrity, these people would want to come with you on the next venture and also probably bring some of their investor friends as well.

And he says, well, I don't have anybody. Interesting. Little red flag there.

Because if you're successful, people will follow you. Like myself, you know, I have people who follow me because, you know, we over-communicate, right? We under, you know, we under-promise, over-deliver.

It's very important what we do if we're raising capital for a business venture. So I'm very mindful of that. So I have people all the time trying to write checks and trying to involve me in the business stuff because they know that I'm going to maintain that integrity of accountability and responsibility and doing things right, but also make sure I protect their money in terms of asset protection, risk mitigation to the best of my control that I can.

Right. In fact, I'm the type of guy that will worry at night if things are not well in the company because I don't want to ruin the reputational risk. And that's so important.

A lot of people are not mindful as you age and mature your reputational risk because I don't care what other people think about me. But if you're in the business world, you should be concerned about reputational risk. It's very important that you walk into a room and people are attracted to you, not repelled away from you.

And I had a great example last year with a gentleman that I was looking to get involved with. And we went out to an event one time and I noticed behavior-wise that people were distancing themselves from him. And so I went to a bunch of women.

I'm like, I said, so what is it about this guy that makes you feel like you don't want to be around me? And you know what the women said to me? He's a creep.

And we feel unsafe. And I had multiple women saying to me, I feel unsafe with this guy. My intuition, listen to women's intuition.

I feel unsafe. I'm like, okay, if women's intuition is saying unsafe, disassociate with this guy, right? Women's intuition is so powerful.

[Speaker 2] (29:00 - 30:01)
Absolutely. One of the things that I used if I was going into companies, I'd see the, you know, the secretary receptionist, how they were feeling. And then just look at the people in there because, you know, they can claim that everything is hunky dory, but you can see depression on people's faces, but what's going on.

And it's kind of, yeah, it tells you a lot. Yeah. Behavior never lies.

No, absolutely. So like you've done an awful lot. You've been very successful and you're doing incredible things at the moment, but those stuff, because I think we all get curve balls in life.

Sure. Absolutely. Tell us some of the don'ts and then how you mentally overcame them.

Because sometimes people, they just think it's me. It's like, poor me, you know, I'm the only one. But when you actually have conversations with entrepreneurs, serial entrepreneurs, everybody's been bait with a baseball bat at some stage.

And it's just, nope. All right. Brush myself off.

I'm keep moving forward.

[Speaker 1] (30:02 - 35:40)
Yeah. So just full transparency. I've been so financially broke that I had in North America here, an R9 credit rating.

Now, most people have never heard of an R9 credit rating as a credit score. R9, they can Google it or research online. An R9 is the worst possible credit score you can get in North America.

Like it's high risk. And, you know, try and get a credit card, try and get a line of credit, try and open up a bank account, you know, try to get access to some funds. You know, so I've had an R9 credit.

I've been homeless. I've lived on the streets for a few months. I've been on welfare, government assistance, welfare.

I've had my automobile, my car repossessed. I've been audited three different times by the government. You know, I've so I've had that.

I've had situations where I couldn't make payroll with employees, have an emergency meetings, you know, calling at two, three o'clock in the morning, trying to find funding from people. I've been so broke in my past, in my 30s, where I couldn't even afford to go bankrupt because I couldn't pay the bankruptcy fees of $1,500 Canadian dollars to file bankruptcy. So I've been there.

I've been where my credit cards have been maxed out. And what I've learned is that when you are stressed out financially, you do not have a money problem. I did not have a money problem.

Okay. What I had was a thinking problem. You see, if you have a lot of money and then you have to figure out how to allocate the money and have to hire a financial planner or CPA or lawyer to help you structure things, that's a money problem.

But if you have no money, you're not managing any money, that's not a money problem. That's a thinking problem. So we don't have money problems in life.

We have thinking problems in life. Okay. So a lot of people get it wrong.

They're like, well, I got financial problems. No, you don't have any money. That's not a money problem.

Right? So the biggest thing that I've learned is that whenever I've been stressed out about finances, I've been there a number of times throughout my life. In my past, my environment is so important.

So who I go to for collaboration or mentorship or support or help is so important. Because if you go to the average person who's an employee of a business or an organization, they can't help you. Most, you know, 78% of the North American population are living paycheck to paycheck.

So the majority of these men and women, their advice, they can't counsel you. They can't advise you because they don't have the practical experience. So the biggest thing is, is your environment is stronger than your willpower.

So if you are stressed and having challenges making payroll, getting yourself into financial debt. Now there's two types of debt. There's good debt and there's bad debt.

Good debt makes you money. Bad debt costs you money, right? It's either an asset or a liability.

And so the thing is, if you've got bad debt, the fastest way to pay off financial debt, because I've been there is to stop being selfish. And what I mean by that is not looking at myself of, oh, poor me. I'm stressed out.

I'm in a lot of bad debt. It's how can I go and serve other people and solve a problem? So if you've got a job or a career right now, and you've got a full-time job, then what could be a side hustle that you could do in your community, in your neighborhood, that you go out and serve people and solve problems and make a difference as a fair means of exchange of earning money.

It could be a side hustle. And whatever it is, it could be cleaning swimming pools, walking dogs, driving for Uber or Lyft, doing a delivery service, but finding some way that you can monetize a service or solving a problem and make money on the side and then put that money towards your financial debt. But another big thing is maintaining your communication.

This is where I screwed up and made mistakes in the past, is that I got stressed out. I got scared, image and ego, wanting to look good, not wanting to look bad and feeling embarrassed, feeling shame and guilt. So what I would do is I would retreat, withdraw and avoid and try to avoid the situation.

And what it did is it just escalated and built. Now, if I was to owe money, what I would do is I would be upfront and communicate with people the terms and conditions. Listen, I can pay you, Roy, by this date and by this time, and this is the method of how I'm going to pay you.

So it's very clear, concise communication. And then I would let you know, hey, Roy, today I'm going to be, I send you a text message. Hey, Roy, by 4 p.m. today, you're going to be getting an interact email money transfer, a wire transfer from me, or FedEx with a check in the mail, certified check in the mail. So I'm very clear and intentional with communication. And that's where a lot of people make the mistake that when they owe the government money or they owe somebody money, they withdraw and avoid. Whereas you want to be proactive in communication and go and say, look, right now I don't have the money.

I don't have the funds. I don't even know what my next step is going to be. Really, I don't know, but give me 48 or 72 hours and I'm going to figure out and come back to you with a plan.

Or can you help me work out a plan here? I need the next five moves or next five steps of what I'm going to do. And sometimes, you know, creditors will work with you in regards to developing a specific actionable plan, right?

They'll work with you, but just be straight in terms of communication and be authentic and let people know, hey, this is where I'm at. I'm doing the best I can. I don't know what my options are right now.

I don't know what's going to happen with my place of work. I just got laid off or I just went through a divorce or a breakup or a separation, whatever it is. But don't get into a story of what it is.

You want to look at how you can recover and how you can move forward. And that's the main thing, because you want to be credit worthy down the road. But in my twenties and thirties, when I was in financial challenges at times, I made the mistake of retreating, withdrawing, avoiding.

Now, be proactive and be communicative of what's going on and how you're going to make this right and how you're going to move forward and make it paid off. You know, that's a key thing. And so don't avoid it.

You know, even if it's uncomfortable, it's embarrassing. Yeah, I get that. But just deal with it and you'll feel so much better by just confronting it and deal with it.

Restore your integrity. You're only as powerful as your word.

[Speaker 2] (35:40 - 36:42)
Your words create your world. Thankfully, that was something that, because I got wiped out with the property and I kind of stayed in correspondence and even I had security and a cleaner and they just emptied my account. And I said, don't worry, I'll pay your wages.

And I stayed in contact with them and I managed it. And even like 10 years later, one of them is ringing me every Christmas, every Easter, sending me wishes, you know, because I just didn't, you know, I just didn't ignore them. And yeah, I mean, it's happened to me, people owe me money and they just ghost you.

And, you know, there's not much, but there's times where people would say, Hey, this is the situation. And once they say that, you don't have to be ringing them all the time. And the thing is the mindset of somebody as well, like they might think they're avoiding it, but then they go into dread.

So how can you stay in a positive mindset and be productive earning money when you're in dread of somebody forming you or bumping into them when you're with a potential client, because you know, they're going to go for you because if they see you and you're avoiding them.

[Speaker 1] (36:42 - 39:34)
And so there's that element to it as well. For sure. You know, in a practical way that I always share with people too, when we're looking at investing in something or get involved in something, there's a three-step process that I always use related to money or due diligence.

Step number one is, are you, is your nervous system or intuition? Is it calm? So is it calm?

Step number two, is it cautious, right? So if you look at a traffic light, calm is green light, cautious is Amber or yellow light. So calm, cautious.

And then step number three is nervous, red light. So are you calm? Is your nervous system or intuition or gut?

Is it calm, cautious or nervous? So I always say to people, if you were to invest in that person right now, right? If I was to invest in you, Roy, would I be calm?

Would I be cautious or would I be nervous? What's your gut or intuition or nervous system saying? And I play this game with our team as well.

And we're buying companies or doing acquisitions, or if I'm involved in a board of directors or advisory board or speaking engagement, am I calm, cautious or nervous with this situation? And the key thing is you always, if you're investing money or you're involved in money situations, you always want the money to be calm. So when I'm dealing with investors, I always want investors money to be calm.

I don't want their money to be cautious. I don't want their money to be nervous. If they're nervous.

So, so a good indicator is how do you know is that if you're raising capital and you get people who are constantly emailing you and calling you and texting you like, oh my gosh, how is this investment doing? How's the company doing? They are cautious or they're nervous.

If somebody's calm, you very seldom ever hear from them, right? They're calm. But if they're cautious or nervous with investing with you and wondering how you're doing, then they're cautious.

Same thing with immediate friends or family members. If you're taking on a new venture and they're like, oh my gosh, they're driving me nuts. They're always calling me and texting me and wondering what I'm doing because they're feeling cautious or nervous with you.

So that's where you got to take a look. It's a blind spot for you. So uncover the blind spot.

Like, oh, interesting. Here's a good awareness. These people are always constantly contacting me.

Wonder how I'm doing. They're feeling cautious and nervous about me. Yeah.

They care about me, but they're cautious or nervous. So be mindful of that. It's very important.

And we do that game too. When we're, when we're investing in something, sometimes our team is virtual. So we'll be like on WhatsApp, WhatsApp channel.

And I'll just say, okay, team one, two or three, calm, cautious, or nervous. And they'll come back one and I'll have a poll on WhatsApp and they'll go calm, cautious, or nervous. And people will go, they'll be calm, cautious.

Okay. If they're most, most of them are cautious or nervous. If they're, if they're calm, we proceed forward.

If they're cautious, we do a deeper dive of due diligence, ask a lot more questions, do a lot more research. If they're nervous, we walk away from things. We don't get involved.

Okay. I was in a situation recently where I was in an event and I asked a couple of people, I said, I just met this person over there. What do you think of this person?

And the ladies go, stay away from him. He's dangerous. Stay away from him.

So I said, are you calm, cautious, or nervous? And the women are like, oh my gosh, we're all nervous. A hundred percent.

Thank you very much. Appreciate the feedback.

[Speaker 2] (39:37 - 40:29)
The thing is when you have, because I put kind of syndicates together, you have somebody like that. They spend so much of your time looking for every single details and, and they'll come along. If you're having a board meeting, they're the ones that throw a curve ball.

That's right. Like I was doing a development to 30 apartments. And during a meeting, he actually tried to take over.

He had a price. And we're in a big city. He had a price in a tiny little town of kind of per meter, just not on this.

And, but I knew it, I kind of knew it in my gut. And it was like, never do that again. Take somebody that you know.

It's like, and it's not that the person couldn't, like, he was a multimillionaire, but it was a guy that would drive a car for 20 years kind of thing and wait until the wheels fall off before he changes. And you learn a lot from kind of them lessons in life.

[Speaker 1] (40:30 - 45:30)
Oh yeah. Well, you learn a lot too is how people have flash, but they don't have any cash. And you see people with the watches and like I always say, Bill, you can't fake a good, healthy body, but you can fake a watch.

You can fake a jet. You can fake a house. You can fake a car.

And I, you know, I remember one time, number of years ago, went to an investment event and these guys were raising capital and they raised a bunch of capital from some doctors and lawyers and people in the room. And we went back a couple of weeks later and they're doing another investment opportunity. And you know, they had this spread of food and beverage and wine and open bar, all that kind of stuff.

I'm thinking, these guys got no money. And yet they got a bartender here at this place. They've got food and beverage, like who's writing the checks here.

And then the guy comes, he's like, yeah, I just bought this new truck, a hundred thousand dollars for this truck. And then the guy bought a sports car. I'm thinking, wait a second, you know, a couple of months ago, these guys were financially broke when I met them.

They had no money. I didn't know how they're going to pay their rent at the end of the month. They're in a startup mode.

These guys are struggling financially. Now the guy's got a new car. Now the guy's got a new truck.

And now they got a bartender at this event. Now they got all this food and beverage who's paying for this. And then when I realized that all these people were writing checks for this investment opportunity that did never come to fruition, it went bust.

But you know, these people lost a lot of money. In fact, I lost a bit of money as well because I did invest early stage. And then I started to realize, oh my gosh, I shouldn't have read the check so soon.

I should have taken my time to go through the discovery process, then due diligence. So now I pump the brakes. I don't, you know, when people are getting really excited about like Bitcoin, cryptocurrency, I don't get involved personally.

To me, it's speculation. It's gambling. But I got people around me who've lost a lot of money and are all hyped up about it.

I don't personally do it. It's not my asset class I invest in. I don't understand it.

And it just, my nervous system and my calm, cautious, nervous, I get nervous. So I trust my nervous system on that. It's not for me, right?

So I just stay in the lanes that I know that I can do very well in. And I stay there, but I don't venture off getting into all these other things that are shiny objects and get involved. And I see so many people that they get a little bit of money or they inherit money or they make money or earn money.

And then all of a sudden they're like chasing the next deal, next thing versus taking their time to understand that asset class. People always ask me, go Darren, is real estate a good investment opportunity? And I always say, I don't know.

Are you a good real estate investor? And they go, what do you mean? I said, how much do you know about single family real estate?

How much do you know about multifamily? What podcast you listen to? What books have you read?

What course have you been on? Who's mentoring you? How many hours have you invested into understanding multifamily real estate?

Do you belong to any associations or any newsletters? They're like, what are you talking about, Darren? I just want to invest.

I'm like, yeah, but how much time have you spent studying this multifamily? What's the risks associated to it? What's the upside?

What's the downside? Like Darren, you're making, you're asking me too many questions. I just want to invest.

Okay. Do your homework. Do your due diligence.

Take your time to learn as much as you can about that. Spend the hours of training development to learn that before you write the check and invest. So you understand that asset class pretty much.

That's what I do is I study things a lot before I'll get involved with stuff. Right. Somebody asked me, Hey, I want you to get involved with this.

Like when I sit on a board or advisory board, okay. Teach me everything I need to know about this industry. Okay.

You know, who are the best players in this industry? Who's the competitors? What is it?

You know, what, what are you uncomfortable to share with me about this industry? What, you know, what, what's the dark side? What's the downside of this industry?

I want to know the good, the bad, the ugly. I want to know everything. Put all the cards on the table.

And I want to know everything about this industry. Very important. You know, and I, and I do that sometimes when I'm out hiking with founders and we're going through discovery about, you know, being on their board or advisory board, like, okay, what's something that you are maybe uncomfortable to tell me of something that you're not proud of from your past.

Right. You know, if I was to do some research on you and I was to go back 10, 20, 30 years, is there anything I'd find on the internet or through family, friends, loved ones, past relationships, past partners, girlfriends, boyfriends, that, that you may not be proud of. Right.

Person may have went bankrupt. They may have been in trouble with the law or had an impaired driving charge, or they picked up for shoplifting or something like that. Right.

Or been at the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people. So I want to know how honest is this person with me and how transparent can this person be? So that when we're dealing with uncomfortable situations, we're dealing with challenging situations in business, that this person is not going to hide information from me.

They're going to be transparent with me. Like, Hey, Darren, you know, I I've been in situations before in the past where I've had relationships with people and they're like, I'm thinking the business is going really okay because I wasn't involved in day to day operations. So I wasn't part of the checks and balances, which I'm more pay attention to now.

But then all of a sudden I get this emergency phone call that, Oh my gosh, we can't make payroll in a couple of days. Wait a second. Two weeks ago, you're telling me we're rocking and rolling.

There's lots of cash in the bank account and we're firing all cylinders right now. The company's doing really, really well. We're going through a little growth this quarter.

And now you're telling me we can't make payroll. Where's the money gone? What's going on here?

Then I'm blindsided. I'm thinking, wait a second here. What you told me two weeks ago and what's happening today is a completely different story.

Right. So now I'm very mindful of checks and balances and being aware of what's going on all the time. Yeah.

Very important.

[Speaker 2] (45:30 - 47:05)
No, I mean, I've, I've kind of learned that lesson as well, like on a load of real estate, you know, managing a couple of hundred properties and, you know, I sold a business that we were managing and somebody was actually taking, saying that we had paid all the administration when there wasn't. So they were cooking the books to make it look like we were a lot better. And it ended up, it cost me money instead of making me a fortune because, so I watched everything after that.

And another one, I get a commercial property and I was managing it. I like halved the expenses, doubled the income and got it really sweet. And then went on doing another few businesses.

And that's somebody just looking after. And they lost our biggest tenant without telling me your mind said, look, we're good because it was kind of during the crash happened, but it took a few years to get across. But what happened is the banks had taken stuff off people.

So they were doing class a way cheaper, but I would have negotiated and done something. And your mind said nothing. And when I went, when I found out your mind said, sorry, it's too late.

We've signed the contract. And it's like, I took my off the ball. And I've realized there's times you think, okay, this is working.

I just give it to somebody and just let them off. Like, no, you have to, you have to keep, keep your eye on the ball and make sure that you're holding them accountable because don't just take people's word for it. Because it's kind of going back to the integrity thing as well.

Like people are trying to make everything sound great, you know, and then life is good and everybody's getting bonuses and everything is, and in reality slaps you in the face. And it's like, Ooh, it's not exactly as it is. So, you know, I think there are kind of wounds that we get that we learn from and we kind of moving forward.

Okay.

[Speaker 1] (47:05 - 50:34)
That's not going to happen again. Yeah. Well, you know, I'll show an example, practical example.

I was involved in an investment opportunity years ago where we were in investors were in a room and we had different people come in and pitch kind of like a shark tanker, like a dragon's den. And this guy came in and he was wearing green scrubs. Like you'd see in a hospital, like a doctor.

And he said he was a doctor and he's up there. And for some reason, my street smart, my gut says something doesn't just seem right. You know, my intuition, my guts, like my radar's on right.

You know, calm, caution nurse, I'm caution nurses guy. And everybody's just involved. This guy, he's a doctor and this guy's very charismatic.

And he's doing this. He's showing this thing of how we can develop this thing with this child. I think it was around choking of a child's choking.

So anyways, we're, we're, we're, we're meeting with this guy and he's pitching, he's raising capital, a few million dollars. And then we have an opportunity to go down and to meet him in a hospital in another city. So I didn't go on the due diligence trip, but some of the people went on the trip.

And so they went to the hospital and cause he wanted to meet him at the hospital. So they go meet him at the hospital in the cafeteria, the hospital. Well, what we found out later on from a security guard at work to the hospital was this guy had actually went to his vehicle.

He'd went to a costume store. He was not a legal doctor. He'd for, he'd forged all the doctor degrees.

Okay. It was all fake. Right.

And he went to a costume store and he actually rented a doctor's outfit that you would see on a movie set. Okay. Or, or a Halloween costume party.

And he went into the public restroom washroom of the hospital and he changed inside of there and came out with the scrubs on acting as if he worked in the hospital. And then he walked into the cafeteria with an ID badge that was fake in his green scrubs, meet people at the hospital pretending cause he was raising money that this is the hospital he worked at. And if people would walk by and say, hello, good morning.

And of course it looks like a doctor's people, you know, there's, there's a few thousand staff that work in the hospital. So now everybody knows everybody all the time, right? Full time, full time.

So you get to know people, but sometimes they don't know people. So we were just polite and friendly. And the security guard tipped off a bunch of people in the group saying that this guy went in and changed his clothes and he's not, he doesn't think he's a real doctor.

And this guy was earning minimum wage or just about minimum wage. Well, one of the guys in our investment group, he's like, you know, pay attention to this guy, this security guards onto something. So they did a bunch of research thought this guy was completely fraudulent and he'd raised money on different schemes before pretending he was somebody he was not and fraudulently doing stuff.

So, you know, it's, it's interesting. I've been involved in meetings where I'm like, okay, how do you know this person's a doctor or how do you know this person's an engineer? How do you know this person's a CPA?

I'm like, Darren, he's a CPA. Like, did you check with the CPA board? If he's a licensed CPA, has he ever been under review?

Is there ever been any, you know, challenges with this person? You know, we let's, let's confirm that as part of our due diligence and people like, man, you're really thorough. I'm like, listen, I, you know, we've made some mistakes and we've been down this road before where, you know, so always trust, but also verify, you know, we hear that trust, but verify, but it's so important.

So if, and, and, you know, and, and even now with, with situations, I have women always around me and I always ask the ladies, what's your intuition say about this person? What's your intuition say about this opportunity? And I listen and the women are like, doesn't feel right.

Doesn't sound right. You know, don't like the way the guy treats his wife. I don't like the way this person treats other people.

Okay. Thank you so much for this feedback. I'm going to pay attention to that.

It's very important. Same thing with animals, having a dog around you. Okay.

Dogs can sense things about human behavior with people. How does the dog interact with this person? Right.

Very important.

[Speaker 2] (50:36 - 51:33)
It's my mother's brilliant for that. I mean, I'm a mummy's boy. I bring my, I'm the same age as yourself, but I bring my mama every day, but she's always said, even people like there was times I got into a business with some, I knew him for about five years and she was like, no, every time she is spot on.

And I'm like, I know this person is great. Every time. And there was somebody that I was doing business with.

We never signed a contract. We'd done 15 years of business together, never had a father. And when she met him, yeah, you can trust that guy.

Yeah, no, absolutely. Absolutely. Never got it wrong.

I know. And it's like, so it's like, you know, it's like same in a relationship. You know, people will always come up to afterwards and they'll say, I knew she wasn't for you.

And I always say, why don't you tell me, you know, I know I'm head over heels in love, but come and tell me, because that's the time that I need to kind of, and then your radars will kind of go up because, you know, but they tend to not tell you, yeah, I agree with you.

[Speaker 1] (51:33 - 54:14)
And another thing about money in business is money comes in all different shades of green. Always remember that money comes in all different shades of green. So there's been opportunities that I could have gotten involved in the past where I could have made millions of dollars in an unethical, unintegral way.

I couldn't, it would have been taken advantage of people. It would have exaggerated things, embellished things. It would have been unethical in business and I could have got away with it.

But here's the thing to always remember about principles in life, time will either promote you or time will expose you. It's just a matter of time. And in my life, I want to get promoted, not be exposed.

Right. And you see people in the media that they do things, they have skeletons in their closet and then 10, 20, 30 years later it implodes. And now they're getting exposed.

I've met people who've been unethical in their lives and I've seen them go for years. Then all of a sudden class action, lawsuits, litigation, divorce, government investigations, law enforcement investigations, all this kind of stuff. And everything they spent years building without a strong foundation of integrity now collapses.

What a legacy to live by. It all crashes down. You spend all this time, effort, energy, years of building something in an unethical way.

And you can't even confront yourself like yourself in the mirror. Right. So if you do things right with honesty and integrity, it can go a lot further.

But yeah, I'd be a lot financially wealthier if I would've done ethical things, but that's not who I am because I want to get promoted, not get exposed. I want a reputation where I walk into a room, people are drawn to me. They want to shake my hand.

I'm an inspiration to them. I have a lot of people today that want me to meet their children or their grandchildren. And I have sometimes the children or grandchildren reach out to me.

I have a lot of the children read my book until I become, that shows to me a sense of character that I'm doing something right as accountable, as responsible, as an integral person, that when people want me to meet their children, Hey, Darren, can you spend some time mentoring my son? Can my son, can you sign the book for my son or my grandchildren? You know, or they were given books in their stockings for Christmas time or for their birthday, or the kids are, you know, parents are mentoring the kids and they have books they have to read every year for their allowance or they have to earn, you know, through training, development, the family.

And I'm great that I'm part of that family's library in their home. That shows sort of about who I am as a human being. So why I'm sharing this is that these are indicators to look at in your life that when these things are happening for you, you want them to have, like, you say, yeah, you know, I just wrote a book and, you know, I'd love to have my book where people in my network, their kids are reading the book or their grandkids or their employees.

So that shows something about your character of who you are. Pay attention. That's very important.

[Speaker 2] (54:15 - 56:33)
Absolutely. Like I remember I was working in construction in Ireland and I was running multi-million pound jobs. And it was all people trying to subcontractors going, Hey, put in a different price and I'll give you a kickback.

I was never, I know most of them were doing that. I was like, I'm not for sale because it's just like ethics, you know, yourself, it's wrong. I'm not going to do it.

It's just, I'm not for sale. And you know, you mentioned the crypto cause I've got the crypto podcast and 110, 120 episodes. I don't trust it either.

And I mean, there's loads of people have got caught, but even with Binance, because I've talked to people, I said, I looked through the books on that. I said, it was signed by the company, not an individual. It's like, it's like, that's not legally binding the way that it was done.

And just, just a couple of days ago, I don't know, did you see that? 6.3 billion, by the way. And they're going, Oh, it's not Korea.

And they're saying, Oh, this is protected and it's safe. And then all of a sudden people, but it's for me, it's, it's not that I haven't, you know, transferred crypto and use it to get paid because you can use it and it's instant and it's a lot better regarding fees and stuff like that. But it's, it's, it's, it's gambling.

Most of the people they're speculating and they're going, Oh, I'm buying a hundred of these and I just need one to go to the moon. And then, and it's like, and there's all rug pulls and everything, everything around it is toxic. It's all either people scamming people or it's orchestrated to make it look like this is great.

And then we make loads of money and then you're left holding the crying baby. So it's like, they're making it look like this is the best thing since sliced bread. I mean, I've done a lot of research and I don't trust it at all because the one thing that I see is everybody is there, there is a percentage that is making a lot of money and they think that it's untraceable.

It's a hundred percent traceable. And they, and I believe that eventually this is coming on and go, all right, we've watched your wallets. You didn't pay any capital gains.

We're going to take everything off. It's like being ethical watches or catches up with you. And I think with the crypto, it's going to catch up with a lot of people.

[Speaker 1] (56:34 - 58:33)
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Well, people have this flashy lifestyle where they start buying expensive things and doing expensive stuff and showing off on social media.

I'll give an example. I know somebody, I won't mention the name, but somebody very high profile that's on social media and influencer. And this person was over the last several years was showboating on social media, living this extensive lifestyle, private jets, private islands, luxury watches, clothes, all that kind of stuff.

And a lot of this was rented stuff. It was used for product placement. So they would go to a private jet and they'd be on the ground at the FBO.

And what happens is they're filming. Well, people think they're up in the air flying in a jet. No, they haven't even left the ground.

And they would just change different clothes and have different scenes that they would do. Well, the government came in and audited them. And they're like, so you're showing that you're making these millions of dollars and living this lifestyle, prove to us all this stuff.

And he's like, well, no, like prove to us. And it costs him a lot of money. And now you see on social media, very minimal stuff going on.

Like they've really dialed it down. Why? Because time will either promote you or time will expose you.

It's just a matter of time. And they got exposed and now they're having to deal with that. And now a lot of credit card companies aren't dealing with them because they were processing a lot of stuff with the products they were selling.

And now a lot of chargebacks with the credit card companies, a lot of sponsorship deals have now been unwinded and litigation on stuff like this. All this stuff, because they exaggerate things, they embellish things, they employed things to sell this fantasy, sell this illusion to young men and women on social media. This is how you become successful.

It's all fake. And that's what sad part is I see with the younger generation, is they see all this TikTok and Instagram, all these things on different social media channels. And I think that's what success is.

But they don't see the time, effort, energy, and the stuff behind the scenes. Like you and I, we're at a stage in the age of our life that we've been through this for decades. We know what's real and what's not real, but the younger generation doesn't understand that.

[Speaker 2] (58:35 - 59:01)
It's not our first rodeo, right? Absolutely. Absolutely.

I have to get you back because I mean, you've got a wilted mouth. I'd love to. Because I mentioned at the start, like 11 years in Toastmasters.

And I think maybe just touch on because I mean, how you see, because you know, volunteer work and all the chart, because at the end of the day, whether you're raising, you're being on the board, you're using your speaking skills for all of that.

[Speaker 1] (59:03 - 1:02:00)
Yeah. You know, I always share with people when people are just getting started, right? Personal professional development, they're in a nice new career or a job or a new relationship, or they set up a new business.

They'll say, how can I get started with, you know, training development or personal professional development? I said, you know, for very inexpensive investment into yourself, join a Toastmasters international organization. They're a global organization.

There are many countries around the world on many different continents. They've been around for over 100 years. You know, people don't realize that Toastmasters has been around for over a hundred years.

You can do a in-person group in major cities and centers around the world. You just have to go to Toastmasters. I think it's Toastmasters international.org is their website. And, you know, you can go in person. I recommend in person because you build community and you get a chance to really connect deeper with human connection with people and community and like-mindedness. Or if you got a busy schedule, you got young family or children or pets, or you live in a rural area, then do the online version where you can come in once a week and then you can have a global membership.

But for a low entry fee of a financial investment, you're going to get some practical training development personally and professionally. Toastmasters international is a very structured organization. So people are detail-oriented.

You'll get a step-by-step manuals for your big picture. So it accommodates all the different personality and learning styles, no matter what your educational background. So you can be in a third world country.

And as long as you've got access to a good internet connection, or you got transportation to go to a major city, you can go to an in-person group or do something online. And I tell you, I spent 11 years in Toastmasters international. I got a lot of mileage off Toastmasters.

I wouldn't be where I am today without Toastmasters. And I, you know, if I was to give some constructive feedback, they don't charge enough to be in Toastmasters. It's a very minimal financial entry fee, but the financial return on investment is huge.

It's a big upside because they're a nonprofit organization, but they've served many people. And I say, if you got kids or grandkids, or you want to grow a business or do something, you want to work on yourself, Toastmasters is a great vehicle to get started with a very low entry fee, but you can spend years there growing and developing and training because they have, you know, they have different tracks that you can go on, different steps you can go to. And I've seen people, I know friends of mine have been around for 30, 35 years, almost 40 years.

In fact, I'm going to a celebration of life tomorrow with a gentleman who I met through Toastmasters many years ago, who built a $50 million company here in Vancouver with what he learned through Toastmasters. He built a big, huge publishing empire and he passed away recently. And so I'm going to see a lot of people from Toastmasters international tomorrow at his celebration of life.

And, you know, he left an incredible impression on community and legacy because of the training development that he got through Toastmasters international. I can tell when I see people on YouTube or speaking engagements on people on stages, I can tell if they've been trained by Toastmasters. I can see politicians, people in courtrooms, if they've been trained by using Toastmasters.

Because once you see a Toastmasters, once you see it, you can't unsee it. And you can tell the training development they've got, but I highly recommend it. It's a great organization.

Excellent.

[Speaker 2] (1:02:00 - 1:02:09)
Sir Daniel, Darren, thank you very much. Totally enjoyed it. You might let the listeners know where they can find you.

[Speaker 1] (1:02:09 - 1:03:51)
Yeah. So you can find me online at darrenjacklin.com. I'm on the various different social media sites under Darren Jacklin or Sir Darren Jacklin.

If you want to have a conversation in regards to being on advisory boards or boards of directors, reach out to me or me mentoring people. I do mentor people from time to time or check out until I become on Amazon or your favorite bookstore and get the book and start studying it. It's 94 pages, but it's a very practical book.

But my big thing is I love serving people. I love to make a difference in people's lives, but I'm a straight shooter. I make people uncomfortable sometimes because I tell people what they need to hear versus what they want to hear.

But that's why I feel it's just an authentic conversation with people, right? Is that I think we need to have authenticity. There's a lot of fakeness in our society around the world today.

I think that we have to have genuine conversations because it affects people's mental health, right? And I think it's important that the younger generation and men and women understand that what goes behind the scenes in business is not always glamorous. It's messy.

It's ugly at times. And it's a roller coaster ride. And so, you know, if you're struggling right now or you're challenged right now, or you're not winning right now, that's just normal.

And you're going to get tested and you're going to want to quit. There's times I want to quit and give up as well. And so if you're in that stage right now, where you want to quit, you want to give up, realize we've all been through that, where we want to quit and we want to give up.

When things get challenging, things get hard. So just keep persevering and get around the right people who will support you and champion you and have your back. And over time, you'll succeed, but you've got to put in the reps, just like the gym.

You've got to put in the reps in business. You've got to stay consistent for long periods of times with no guarantee. And yeah, you'd be amazed at what you'll discover and learn about yourself over time.

But it takes time, effort and energy. You've got to put in the hard work. You've got to put in the time and energy.

It's not going to happen overnight.

[Speaker 2] (1:03:52 - 1:04:32)
Excellent. Perfect. Thank you very much.

My pleasure. Grateful to serve. So that's all for the speaking podcast.

You'll find all our episodes on speakingpodcast.com. Find everything about me, scan the QR code or go to roycon.com. I'm in two private business groups and you'll find the links for them.

If you're looking for virtual assistance, go to va.world. I'm also doing PEMF and EMF and you'll find everything on my website. Make sure to give us a thumbs up, five star rating and share with your friends. And when you check out Darren's book, do the same.

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Until next week, take care.