Journey to the Sunnyside

Welcome back to Journey to the Sunnyside. If you've been following along, you'll know that we're deep in this incredible journey of Darren Prince. In part one, we heard about his rise in the world of celebrity agents, representing legends like Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Hulk Hogan in the late Muhammad Ali, as well as working with icons like Smokin' Joe Frazier Chevy chase, and David Goggins. We also touched on some of his personal battles he faced along the way.

Now in part two, we're diving in deeper covering how Darren overcame addiction, turned his life around, and found a sense of purpose that goes far beyond fame. Let's pick up where we left off with Darren prince.

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Creators and Guests

Host
Mike Hardenbrook
#1 best-selling author of "No Willpower Required," neuroscience enthusiast, and habit change expert.

What is Journey to the Sunnyside?

Journey to the Sunnyside" is a top 2% podcast, reaching over 400,000 listeners every week. It’s your guide to exploring mindful living with alcohol—whether you're cutting back, moderating, or thinking about quitting.

While Sunnyside helps you reduce your drinking, this podcast goes further, diving into topics like mindful drinking, sober curiosity, moderation, and full sobriety. Through real stories, expert insights, and science-backed strategies, we help you find what actually works for your journey.

Hosted by Mike Hardenbrook, a #1 best-selling author and neuroscience enthusiast, the show is dedicated to helping people transform their relationship with alcohol—without shame, judgment, or rigid rules.

This podcast is brought to you by Sunnyside, the leading platform for mindful drinking. Want to take the next step in your journey? Head over to sunnyside.co for a free 15-day trial.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in our episodes do not necessarily represent those of Sunnyside. We’re committed to sharing diverse perspectives on health and wellness. If you’re concerned about your drinking, please consult a medical professional. Sunnyside, this podcast, and its guests are not necessarily medical providers and the content is not medical advice. We do not endorse drinking in any amount.

Speaker 1:

Hey, and welcome back to Journey to the Sunnyside. I'm Mike Hardinbrook. And if you've been following along, you'll know that we are deep in this incredible journey of Darren Prince. In part one, we heard about his rise in the world of celebrity agents, representing legends like Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Hulk Hogan, and the late Muhammad Ali, as well as working with icons like Smokin' Joe Frazier, Chevy Chase, and David Goggins. We also touched on some of his personal battles he faced along the way.

Speaker 1:

Now, in part two, we're diving in deeper, covering how Darren overcame addiction, turned his life around, and found a sense of purpose that goes far beyond fame. So let's pick up where we left off with Darren Prince.

Speaker 2:

And it is a really good story, and I wanna actually hear it and go back. So you you went through, you know, this early success, and you had a lot of people signing on to work with you, as you said, you were kind of building up your ego and also using subsidence to kind of push away the part of you that you didn't want to handle or deal with or mask. So was it ongoing? Were you starting to question what I'm doing isn't good and I'm going to eventually need to change? Or was there just a turning point where it was like, you went from moving along, Darren, this is what I do.

Speaker 2:

And then it just flipped on the other side.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. Mean, the worst was the overdose I had in Vegas. I was out there celebrating a television show deal with one of our clients. It was NBA All Star Week. I think February of twenty seventeen, I had a herbal kiss of bronchitis And the doctor did a house call to the hotel room, called in a prescription for Tussionex cough syrup, which is a heavy, opiate based cough syrup, gave me prescription for Percocets for the pain in my throat and from coughing and some antibiotic.

Speaker 3:

On the way back, excuse me, to the hotel room, I was married at the time, I called my then wife and I said to me a favor, why don't you make three vodka red bone cranberries? I'm definitely going out tonight. And and I came back, finished one or two to vodka red bone cranberries, drank half the corpse cough syrup. At that point, I was snorting myopia because I realized as a good junkie, if you figure out a way to get it right to your brain versus in your stomach first, you get high much quicker and much longer. And, within five minutes I was on the ground.

Speaker 3:

I had no idea what happened. Foaming at the mouth, hot flashes, cold flashes. My wife freaked out called paramedics. All I'm doing is looking up the sky. God, I'll never do this again.

Speaker 3:

Don't take me. I'll never do this again. And paramedics came, oxygen mask on my face, needle on my arm. They basically, you know, saved me and I never made it out that night, but I woke up at three in the morning to look at myself in the mirror of bags under my eyes, pupils dilated. I had a little bit of a talk.

Speaker 3:

It was a little bit of a counter body, but not enough. Said, you sick bastard who does this? You have so much going on. And with that, I chopped up some more painkillers and I finished the rest of the cloth syrup because in my mind, it was the vodka rubble and cranberry that caused the overdose as a mix into those remedies. That's the definition of insanity, doing the same thing and over and over again, expecting different results.

Speaker 3:

And I wound up calling a addiction psychiatrist the next week when I got back to New Jersey. But I liked things that I was taking a mood stabilizer, anxiety medications, snorning Ambien at night, still drinking. He put me on Celebrity, which was an opiate blocker. Wasn't the biggest drinker, but still a couple of days a week when I could to mix with Ambien or the anxiety meds. And it took me probably, I'd say about a year and a half after I started with that addiction psychiatrist and that last overdose happened in Vegas.

Speaker 3:

I was at the jumping off point. I was in a place of desperation. Even my office knew it. Only a handful of people in my life knew how bad things were getting. But again, when you're as successful as I am and was from an external space, there's only so much people can do.

Speaker 3:

And my uncle and his then girlfriend, written to my mom, they just paid a surprise visit from Miami to New Jersey. And it was like a god shot. I never met her before a man. She asked me what was wrong. And I told her everything.

Speaker 3:

And she's like, I can help you. And she pulls out a five year sober coin out of her pocket and sitting near her uncles in recovery. And I just celebrated five years and fast forward twenty four hours later, had that God moment where I didn't think I can do it. And that night, right after that happened, that white light moment, I wound up in a 12 step meeting in a church basement in the operators in New York City with about 150 to two hundred addicts and alcoholics, who were at once in the hopeless state of mind. I had the courage to put my hands up.

Speaker 3:

And I believe God helped me raise my hand and tell these people what was really going on in my life. Slowly but surely, I learned to put the pieces of the puzzle back together. I did the work. I became accountable. These people loved me before I ever knew how to love myself.

Speaker 3:

I listened a lot more than I spoke. I learned about the five A's attitude adjustment, accountability, acceptance, and action, which those five A's go for everybody in life. You don't need to be struggling with drugs and alcohol. The 12 steps, the same thing. You remove alcohol from the first step.

Speaker 3:

All 12 steps are for everybody to live a better quality, healing, peaceful life because we all have traumas. We all have character defects. We all like you set up other addiction patterns. And to be able to, you know, one day at a time, get to a year, my my sponsor told me, you wanna keep this gift, man. You better start giving away to other people.

Speaker 3:

And that's when I realized this is my purpose. This is my legacy. What I do in my career, that that's my career, who I am when I wake up, when I go to bed at night and throughout the day to be able to help people. And now fast forward to 2018 when I wrote my book, Aiming High, gave me a massive platform around the world when it became a bestseller in four countries. That is the single most important thing to me that I literally now have my own Aiming High Foundation.

Speaker 3:

We scholarship people to five zero one(three). We raise private funds all the time. We're able to take people out of hell. Like I told God I was going to be able to do is the greatest blessing of this entire journey and of my life, because I don't care when I'm gone. If people remember me for Prince Mark and group, again, that's BS.

Speaker 3:

It's I want to be known as the guy that went deep into hell and reached back there to take others out, sprinkle hope and recovery and peace around the world for people that need to recover.

Speaker 2:

Yes. You touched my heart like directly because so my story is completely different, but I absolutely felt more fulfillment in helping people through things by giving forward than I ever did with, with the tech background and the executive background and work building companies and making businesses more money. It doesn't matter to me. Helping people, it's just the ultimate human experience. So I mean, everything that you said there, first of all, thank you for doing that for anyone that you are able to reach.

Speaker 2:

Thank you for sharing that because I think it's such an important insight. And you just had a big anniversary. Was it fifteen years?

Speaker 3:

Fifteen. Sweet sixteen, I call

Speaker 2:

Sixteen. Alright. What, you know, what I wanna know is that looking back, I think you're gonna need to figure some things out to be able to sustain something like that. What was it that you figured out about yourself that you needed to know to be able to get to where you are now?

Speaker 3:

One of my dear friends, Nikki C texted me last night, he's in Miami, he's Sylvester Stallone's business partner. And he goes, I've never seen somebody with the ability to come back and bounce back than you, my brother. And just don't tell me now because I'm gonna find a yes. And I think a lot of that is a mix of the business household that started at such a young age. I will figure out a way somehow, some way because character adversity reveals a human being's character.

Speaker 3:

And I've learned that I don't know, learn anything when life is good, you know, and it's been pretty smooth the past couple of weeks here in the office and personal stuff. But I'll tell you, I've learned to embrace being in the barrel. A lot of people don't understand that when I'm in those barrel moments, when things are going sideways on some business, when I'm having some person issues, when I'm not feeling my physical, emotional, spiritual best, I love that I now have to get re centered because my old weight isn't working. So it's another reinvention period and going back to the grind and my wellness routine. Cause I do so much more than outside of recovery from, I've got the red light therapy, hydrogen water, Gary Brecken's a dear friend.

Speaker 3:

I'm on his 10X program. I do ice bath. I'm in the gym, sixteens a week, cardio. You know, a lot of, I've, I've got my boy Lingerie, who's a vibrational spiritual coach that works on traumas and blockages. We do meditation once or twice a week.

Speaker 3:

I know what I need to do if I let myself go a little bit out in left field to wrangle myself back in. That is a fricking superpower. Cause I know most people in my life have no freaking clue. No clue what to do to wrangle themselves back in. I know exactly what to do.

Speaker 3:

And I'm human. So it could happen. I can have a moment where, all right, I've been a little bit off for a bit. No, no, no. As David Goggins would say, no, no motherfucker.

Speaker 3:

You know exactly what you gotta fricking do to get back to the fricking grind. And I do that and I do it continuously. It's an always a reinvention where I know when I'm living the real true, transparent integrity based Darren Prince living up a life of service and maintaining that spiritual connection as much as I can, everything else to my life starts falling into place, but I got to put the work in, you know? Yeah. I still have little vices here and there, but everybody does.

Speaker 3:

And I'm trying to be vigilant and, aware of more self aware of those who are, you know, the cheat meal days where, you know, there's plenty of times where it's not a cheat meal. It could be a whole cheat day. Why do I do it to myself? What am I getting out of it? It's a pattern for my childhood that gives me a release.

Speaker 3:

No, no, no. I used to be okay just having a pizza. It doesn't need to be, you know, candy and sugar and cakes and everything throughout the day that the health industry shows you causes depression, anxiety, stomach issues, from putting all that crap into your body. So why do you do it? You know, I'm gonna pay the price.

Speaker 2:

Yep. In that laundry list of, of mindful practices and health, is I'm just asking from a personal perspective is breath work in that one?

Speaker 3:

Doctor. Big time breath work. Big time. Yeah, yeah. Lingerie, my boy.

Speaker 3:

And I do that there are some days, ironically, if I'm really bent, where the breath work doesn't react to my body well, he always says it depends on the person. Can't go too deep. So what we'll do is sometimes, I've got different apps. I've got the NuCom app. We're very close to Jim Pool through another company that I just started with my partners, the Legacy Fund, which is a private equity group for athletes, entertainers with the huge initiative on educating the youth and families about financial literacy.

Speaker 3:

So we're so dialed into different wellness platforms as well. But yeah, there are days that we laugh about it where for me to go too deep on the breath work on those dates that are a little bit off doesn't actually work for me. So it works for me as more moving around first, getting the body moving, the hands, the feet, you know, rubbing my stomach, the hips, and then he'll take me into a slower, not as deep regimen with the breath work, but when I'm good, which is probably twenty seven or twenty eight days out of the month. Yeah. As often as possible, if not daily and prayer.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. You know, prayer is super important to me. I pray every night, giving it over to my higher power for this life that he gave me. And the fact that, like I said, I'm Jay Shetty or Jay said it to me, you know, I've become an ambassador to God and, you know, to have the beautiful relationship with my clients that I hate even using that word right now because they're family and, you know, Hulk Hogan and I spoke two weeks ago before the hurricane hit them in Clearwater Beach, which is in the Tampa area and twenty nine to thirty minutes was life. And he's like, I love talking to him, man.

Speaker 3:

I needed this. You're so dialed. And he's very dialed in too, but he's like, you know, I told you many years ago that you asked God for the blessing. And eventually he said, you've come to me correct, son. Now it's time for you to become a blessing to other people.

Speaker 2:

Oh, that's so cool. Well, the reason I asked you on the breath work is because this morning I had a little bit of a crazy day, didn't sleep much, and I do breath work all the time. Right before we met, I did two quick, three quick rounds of breath work. And you know, that'll just snap you right back, bring you back to where you want to be.

Speaker 3:

I tell people all the time, five minutes of nasal breathing is another one. If you breathe through us through your nose for five minutes, even three minutes during a stressful time, watch what happens to your brain.

Speaker 2:

I'm going to have to give that a try.

Speaker 3:

Because thing in the world, close your mouth, breathe through your nose and watch what happens. It's actually a fork to the point where it reprograms and shifts something in the brain where you'll you will get right side extremely quickly.

Speaker 2:

Well, I like that you mentioned David Goggins, because I think it's really relatable to you as we're talking here, because you have this story that it's, to some people, it's definitely extreme. I would say even to most people, it's extreme, both in your accomplishments and kind of your highs and your lows. And it's just like David Goggins. Nobody's gonna go out there and run like David Goggins, but they could certainly learn from his his, you know, pushing the limits, whether that's good or not. And so that just sort of a reminder of this conversation.

Speaker 3:

No. And look, that's what works for him. You know, I've been with him for two and a half years, and we just have the utmost respect for one another. And it's a privilege just to be around him and once in a generational mindset. He understands he doesn't expect everybody to be like him.

Speaker 3:

The reality is he loves what I do. I mean, it's like Jennifer. I mean, have such a deep love and respect for one another because they see how hard I work to make a difference in the world and to impact people. Put my story out there to the masses the same way he did. He's just went more viral times a million than mine did.

Speaker 3:

And he's helping to change and save so many lives globally. I mean, it's a global phenomenon, you know, he's a political phenomenon. It's an absolute privilege just when him and I get our alone time in the green room before he takes the stage and, you know, just to have that with one another that we get each other and we understand that, you know, we're all, we're both here being of service, but Matt, Matt fits the same way. I mean, I have so many of my clients too, sort of, you know, and there's nobody I'm closer with than him. We go back thirty years, you know, sat my wedding with his wife.

Speaker 3:

He sat my fiftieth birthday party four years ago with his entire family here in LA. And, you know, I've been to vacations with them. I've been to, you know, Europe and, you know, I had a situation about a month ago. Was back home in New Jersey visiting my mom and out of four different Ubers to choose from. One, I picked the one that I picked.

Speaker 3:

The guy just started telling me his whole life story and talks about that him and his dad have a LuttHafe relationship because they used to do a lot of cocaine and drinking together. And that was a god shot. I had to tell him who I was. And the minute I told him who I was and what I do, not no business. This was all about my journey and my platform and my aiming high foundation that scholarship people put to the car and park, pulls over the side of the road, turns around tears rolling down his face.

Speaker 3:

He just left a treatment outpatient program that morning and Medicaid only covered seventy two hours. And I said to him, if you believe in miracles, I've seen this before. God chose me to be yours tonight. I can scholarship you and cover every dollar to get you though after you deserve. Every morning for the past twenty five mornings, including today, I get a message from them.

Speaker 3:

I love you so much, brother. You saved my life on behalf of my kids, my mother, my father, my wife. I scholarship them. He went a few days later. And when I told Goggins that and Hulk, and when I saw magic last a few weeks ago, it's just the business part doesn't matter.

Speaker 3:

Like, yeah, people like making money doing deals, but to get that with them is just such an incredible deeper, intimate connection because it's so real and they all know people that have struggled. Nobody's off limits to it. It's like you said in the beginning. If you're not struggling, believe me, you know, plenty of people that are.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, 100%. And, you know, I love that story. Because in my online stalking, you know, we have a friend, a mutual friend and Fleishman who recommended you. So I went and looked at your profile. And I read that story that you had posted about that.

Speaker 2:

And I was like, Yes, I want to meet and interview this guy because the heart is there, the intention is there. And so I just think it's such an amazing thing. And, and the end result or the end of that story is so cool that you get that feedback that it made a real difference.

Speaker 3:

I mean, that's like I said, I could lose, know, the business part of my life. It's great. I love it because I could take care of people, which means more than anything to me. If we have a good week, good month, it allows me to really set up different protocols to as a business owner to have a bigger vision for everybody else to scale the business even more so help them more so. But it's not truly what defines me, you know, makes me happy because I could lose the agency tomorrow.

Speaker 3:

And to know that I'm very few people that you can interview, that's what they found the real them. And it's got nothing to do from the eco It comes from the God serving place. And I'd be totally qualified to move to a teen little studio and have a TV and my dog, Rodney with me. And so as my phone wreck that I had when I needed to eat, it'd be devastating. I won't be able to take care of people, but I will figure life out.

Speaker 3:

I will say, God, what a run we had for the past forty years. What's next? And just to know that I'm good because I found self love within this insecurity is gone, ego gone. It's just the greatest thing in the world. When I walk into a room, I don't need people kissing my ass.

Speaker 3:

I don't need, to act in a certain way to know that I belong. I know when I walk into a room, I am the room when I walk into that room because of what I do on a personal level. It separates me from every other individual famous corporate bigwig. And there's a love interest back on a light of God given light that's around me because of the surface work and what I do where people want it gravitate, and I'm very approachable. Because like I said, that ego's gone.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. The word that comes to mind is authentic. Yep. You're truly authentic to yourself, and you know what matters. And if some of those things that you've identified later go away, although you would miss them, it doesn't define you.

Speaker 2:

I mean, that's just an incredible insight. And, you know, I think that leads me to get some advice from you. Obviously, you made huge changes in your life, and you adapted to that and made it your new life, your new new. And so and you also said that even if big changes came, you'd be alright with that, too. So what advice would you give to somebody that's ready to make a big change or is in the midst of making a big change, whether that's anything in their life not related to substances, related to alcohol, could be anything.

Speaker 2:

What advice or what outlook do you give to somebody that's getting ready for that or in the midst of it?

Speaker 3:

Well, think growth only comes when you get uncomfortable. And change only comes when you get uncomfortable. Goggins that I spoke about the last time we together, he said without friction, there is no growth. And you need that. And of course, it's easy to be in the simple routine and whatnot.

Speaker 3:

But time goes quick in today's world. Before you know, a couple years goes by, it's years, three, four, five years, whether it's your health, finance, relationship, love, like, take that shot, stop holding back on whatever it might be that because you had a bad experience with somebody or a bad boss or a bad relationship or some health challenges. Like it's up to you and nobody's going to make their decisions for you. And nothing changes if nothing changes. People have to remember that.

Speaker 2:

So you ended up writing a book aiming high. What was that like? And how's the response been?

Speaker 3:

It was incredible. I mean, was very therapeutic. My publisher, Anna David and writer, Kristen McGinnis, you know, co co writer, we we kinda knew it in the beginning. They thought that vision bigger than me, that this was gonna be my legacy and how I didn't, you know, I turned down for many years, even when my dad was alive, writing a book about my life because most publishers really didn't want to incorporate the mental health and the substance abuse component. But Anna saw the vision and said, No.

Speaker 3:

Now I get it. Your story is so passionate when you speak, you're so passionate. I've seen you in interviews. If people could be a fly the wall journey, what it's like to be around the most iconic stars of all time and experiences, but the main focus is you going deep into hell and coming out of this side. This will be the biggest blessing of your entire life.

Speaker 3:

And that's when it clicked. That's it. And then, I mean, the people I've met around the world, the DMS that happen, you know, every day from Facebook to Instagram to the website, you know, the people in the industry that gotten to me to it because of it. I mean, I honestly believe it's what connected me and Goggins, to be honest with you. I mean, when I first worked with them for the first time, two and a half years ago, I bought him in I bought him a book and he already did his research.

Speaker 3:

It's like, I know who you are motherfucker. He goes, you work with some incredible people, man. I got it's like, I'm mad respect for them. He goes, but I choose that I work with you. You know why?

Speaker 3:

Because you go to fucking war with yourself every goddamn day to make the world a better place than help people, and that's what I'm about.

Speaker 2:

Oh, man. That's so good.

Speaker 3:

You know?

Speaker 2:

Funny stories that I went to I used to be involved with a coaching company. So he was back there in the green room when I was and I do not get starstruck, but he walked in, it looked like he was walking on air. Just like this different era about that guy. Yeah, very different.

Speaker 3:

Yep. There there truly is like an or about it hit me so dialed in the intensity. And yeah, dad, he's the only one that I've seen get Dan Fleishman in a greener. And I took a video of them in Salt Lake Last September. It was about a year ago, and it is great just having him tell Dan how it's gonna go on stage when he gets out there and then go, okay.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. No problem. I got You know? Yeah. You let Goggins be Goggins.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Right? So I'm curious to know, you know, it's been a when did when was the book released? Because my question is, is there anything since releasing it that you that you maybe changed your mind on or that you would like to add on to?

Speaker 3:

Oh, it was released October one of twenty eighteen. The anniversary just hit I released it on the anniversary of Ali Fraser, the Rated Thriller Manila, because the intro of aiming high is all about the experience of getting those two kings to make peace and break bread for the first time in twenty seven or close to thirty years and me not exactly being in the right mindset for it. There's nothing I wish I would have done differently. I've had had different publishers come to me to write Amy Hire. And I think next year, if I wrap my head around it, you know, it's a lot of promotion.

Speaker 3:

It's a lot of stuff I gotta do. I think it's probably getting there to where it's time. Within probably the next six to twelve months that aiming higher comes out, there's been so much that has happened. I mean, Jerry West wasn't even part of that book. I met him right after it came out and the love and the respect of what him and I had with each other for six years until he passed on June 12 was just one of the most beautiful experiences in my life.

Speaker 3:

He filled that hole in my soul of losing my dad, my uncle and smoking Joe Frazier. And very rare to find some point that A man of stature that was as humble as he was that was very open about his mental health struggles and depression and not feeling worthy. And last week came the first athlete ever. We'll never see it again, inducted into the hall of fame as a third time member. Will never happen again in a lifetime in any hall of fame.

Speaker 3:

Executive dream teamer from the nineteen sixty team and as a player. And we would just have such deep talks about life. And yeah, he was a very, very, very special man to me. I was texting with his wife last night too. You know, so there was that, I said, there was just so much that's happened since then, not just on the business front, but stories that I can share about people that will allow me to share it.

Speaker 3:

Because I would never do it without asking them because they're now on this path of healing from whatever their journey might have been drugs, alcohol, depression, anxiety, bipolar. And I had a little part to do with that because of my connection to God. And I'd want to be able to write about that. You know, I booked Tom Brady for Grand Cardone last year, first 10x conference at an amazing day with him. So now we have the ability to be working with him anytime a good opportunity comes up.

Speaker 3:

I mean, I told him my story too. I just love being open and transparent about it because I think it's everything. I think it makes people connect with you on a different level. So for anybody that feels there could be shame attached to it or embarrassment or they're judged, that's the stigma that keeps people out there. And unfortunately, they're buried six feet under when they think that too long.

Speaker 3:

You're never going to find somebody that tells you you're a piece of garbage because you got your life in order. You're never going to find somebody that says you're, you're a piece of crap because you got sober. Got to understand that. Yeah. Well,

Speaker 2:

I think it takes getting out of that to realize also that there's no such thing as normal. If in fact, finding yourself in those predicaments is just as normal as any other thing, it just has more higher consequences. And then when you realize that you're like, holy shit, you know, so and so also so and so also I never knew and then all of a sudden you realize I'm not alone. Exactly. Did you think that that was that opened the door to more people to come to you?

Speaker 2:

Mean, you probably will.

Speaker 3:

Oh, yeah, I mean, I can't wait, man. When I walk into corporate business, you're an ad agency, and it's a multibillion dollar brand. I'm just waiting for my opening because I get the whole frickin room of executives that their jaws just hit the floor and just have a whole new found respect for me and to talk to him when I'm done and exchange numbers and emails and say, Hey, I've had it where somebody in those rooms are struggling themselves. And I was like, Hey, I'd love to talk to you. You know, you really, you know, just enlightened me.

Speaker 3:

You know, you said something that I want to tell on myself and I've haven't really told many people this. I was like, that's why I do what I do. I wanna be as authentic as possible. You know, I said it on my boy, Omar Pat, from the passionate for his podcast. I don't give a crap about anything in the agent life when I'm gone.

Speaker 3:

You know, it it it's my legacy is gonna be a man that went deep into hell and came out the other side and helped to spring hope and recovery across the world for people that need it. I mean, that's what my life's about. It's the greatest freaking world, man. When you can just see those lights come on in somebody's eyes because of some God given words that came out of my mouth that day.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely beautiful. I mean, I can identify. I changed from caring about being known as being successful. And I'd rather be known as being kind.

Speaker 3:

Yep. Kind of being of service. Yeah. If you put being kind and being of service to others, the two key elements in life. And I'm surrounded by that every day.

Speaker 3:

You know, my girls that work here with me, Carlin, Matilda, the same thing, you know, very rarely are we in a outburst or our minds that it's about just being helpful to other people and being as kind as you could often be. And I need that. I need to surround myself with people that are on that same frequency and that same energy, because then you just bring each other up and everything else just manifests that much better together versus one bad apple that doesn't understand that way of

Speaker 2:

life. Definitely. Well, speaking of lifting things up before we go, I'd love for you to share like what what's next? What has you like excited? I know that you're involved with a lot of projects.

Speaker 2:

So I'm gonna give you the mic a little bit to be able to talk about that.

Speaker 3:

I think I just mentioned, you know, I saw I saw a void in the marketplace of athletes and entertainers, athletes that die twice once when they have to retire, they're completely lost and a lot tend to go broke and just go off the deep end. I was ecstatic when I bought this to my dear friend, James Amel Amarosa. We go back thirty years and Dominique Wilkins and Kevin Harrington, the shark tank judge, and we started our own private equity group. We just partner up with Cypress out of San Diego. And it's not not just about the making money, it's protecting money, it's educating, it's making sure there's generational wealth for these men and women that tend to get taken advantage of.

Speaker 3:

So it's got a whole another big service component to it, as well as Dominic Wilkins. We're starting the financial literacy center so we can educate the youth on finances and their parents, because I feel there's going to be a big hole in the NIL world. All these millions and millions of NIL money's coming in and they're probably not paying the proper tax. They think it's going to be forever. They think they're going pro.

Speaker 3:

You know, most of them might not ever go pro and that's the most amount of money they're ever going to see for the next forty years. And they burn through it. And I just love the fact that we're all seeing this vision that we can really truly help, you know, young athletes, young people, families to be educated on financial literacy, because I think unfortunately, when it's a die to our finances, it all comes to so many people before health. I think they get it twisted. They get confused and it should always be about your personal health and your wellness.

Speaker 3:

Then if, you know, I I say happiness, but other people would go right to wealth, but I think it's all tied in. I think you understand the component of investing, protecting what you have, ridding those character defects to not be throwing money around like a lunatic like I was at a young age. I think this works a lot better in time. I think you're actually healing when you're showing some discipline in an area like that in your life and your understanding that there's a long term picture here versus a quick fit. And so that makes me happy.

Speaker 3:

Then everything that we're doing with the Aiming Eye Foundation, just raising money, we're probably gonna have a big event planned again early part of next year. Prince Marketing Group more or less takes care of itself. You know, we're always busy. Thank God. And just how much further I can push myself to keep going higher and higher on this journey to to touch as many people as I can.

Speaker 2:

I love that. That's a great way to end. And I wanna thank you so much for taking the time today, sharing your wisdom, sharing a little bit of the names that brought me back to the eighties and nineties of my childhood also. And and the work that is so meaningful, and you can tell that it's, come straight from your hearts. Thanks so much, Darren.

Speaker 1:

And that's a wrap for part two of our conversation with Darren Prince. Big thanks to Darren for sharing his journey from success to rock bottom and ultimately to a life of purpose and balance that's just truly inspiring. If you're ready to start making changes in your own life, whether it's with your relationship with alcohol or finding more balance, head on over to sunnyside.co to take our three minute quiz. You'll get personalized insights and support to help you along your own journey. And go ahead and grab a copy of Darren's book, Aiming High, if you're looking for more inspiration.

Speaker 1:

Don't forget to follow us on Instagram at JoinSunnyside for more daily motivation and updates. And thanks for being here. And remember, small steps lead to big change. And I'll catch you next time.