Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: You were listening to the wealth without Bay street podcast, a canadian guide to building dependable wealth. Join your host Richard Canhield and Jason Lowe as they unlock the secrets to creating financial peace of mind in an uncertain world. Discover the strategies and mindsets to a financial future that you can bank on.
Get our simple seven step guide to becoming your own banker. It's easy. Head over to Sevensteps CA and learn exactly the learning process required for you to implement this amazing strategy into your financial life. That's Sevensteps ca.
How do you go from Treehouse living to global success story and a catalyst for change in the world? Prepare to be inspired. Today I'm joined by a friend of mine, an amazing individual, Sir Darren Jacklin. He's a renowned corporate trainer of philanthropists. He has trained executives at 157 Fortune 500 companies in the last 25 years. Unbelievable. As a speaker, he has impacted more than a million people globally in 48 countries. He's rang the bells at the Nasdaq and the Chicago Board Options Exchange. He's the first independent board member of EXP World holdings. Now, you may not know, but they have an international success story as a company with over 86,000 real estate agents all over the globe. Unbelievable. Most importantly, right now, Darren is committed to raising over $100 million through his international foundation and hes fostering global change and community development. Now, Darren thinks big. Were going to talk a lot about thinking big today. He was knighted in 2022 and he released his book until I become patience, perseverance and payoff. Were going to talk about all three of those. I think today on our conversation hes all about goals, having over 7000 goals that hes written down on his crazy adventures. He's climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and he's got another big climb on an incredible mountain coming up. We're going to discuss that as well. I'm excited to be with you, Darren. I've been looking forward to this for a long time. Welcome to wealth without Bay street.
[00:02:04] Speaker B: Hey, Richard. I'm grateful to be here and be in service, to make a difference. Absolutely.
[00:02:08] Speaker A: Now, you've done some really incredible things. I want to give our listeners a bit of an idea as to how I first became aware of you. And I first met Darren in 2008 in Edmonton. And, and it was through some mutual connections and I went to the first event I ever attended of Darren's and it was billed as the idea party. And so everyone can picture, if you're not watching on YouTube, the air quotes. I love the air quotes a lot. And it was a phenomenal event, and I always think fondly about that, Darren, because something really cool happened for me at that event, is that, number one, I resonated really well with your message. But what was really amazing about this event, and I don't know, there was maybe 50 or 60 or so people in attendance, but there was people with individual and real problems, and not really, maybe they were big or small, they were of different size, but we actually were able to, in the space of the room, through the exchanging of ideas and resources and knowledge and potential and connections, solve problems that people had right there in the room by leveraging the power of the human mind, the ideas that we have, and the vast resources at our individual disposal. But now being placed in this communal environment to solve for one another the act of giving, of the act of service, by just using what we already have and what we already know. It was a really incredible experience for me, and I think about it fondly, and I'm always aware of that potential that we have with, with multiple people and with communities, and by thinking big and asking big questions. How on earth did you come up with the idea to have the idea party?
[00:03:44] Speaker B: Great question. So, I remember growing up as a kid in swift Current, Saskatchewan, Canada, and for people who don't know me, my backstory, I failed grade one of public school, was misdiagnosed with a learning disability and a reading disability. It was determined by the school system to actually put me into special education. So from grade one to grade twelve in public school, I was in special education my whole entire time. So at age seven, I created my first business called Rent a kid. I would go out and cut grass, shovel snow, delivered newspapers by knocking on the doors. And what I discovered at a young age, by knocking on thousands and thousands of doors over a period of time, was, as human beings, all we are is a network of conversations. Where? A network of conversations. If we look at social media today, the different platforms, it's just a network of conversations. If we go up into the International Space Station, look down on planet Earth, and we see all these human beings on all seven continents, we see all these people in all these countries, what are we? We're a network of conversations. So one of the things to understand is opportunities live inside of conversations. So I always share with people when I guess, speaking at conferences, at conventions, they say, listen, the reason why you're not growing and scaling your sales career and your business or your startup company is that you're not having a lot of conversations or you're not having the right conversations in the right rooms with the right people who are the decision makers, the centers of influence, the people that make things happen and get things done. And so the key thing is, I realize that all we are is a network of conversations. And whatever I lack in skill, I can make it up in numbers through a network of conversations. Now, one of the drawbacks to social media is it becomes transactional versus relational. The key thing is a lot of people hide behind the computer keyboard and they're messaging people and direct messaging people on different social media platforms, and they're pitching and selling versus educating and informing. And we're in the people business. We're in the relationship building business, where people get to know you like you and trust you, where you build that relationship equity over a period of time. One of the things that I do is I take people hiking from all different backgrounds, all different age groups. So we've taken the idea parties, which we did back in the early two thousands, which did very well, produce phenomenal results in people's lives. Now, I take people where we take a hike and build the school. So we bring people out and you get a chance to spend a few hours on a hiking trail taking care of your mental health, your mental well being. Also work on your flexibility, your core strength, your range of motion, your balance, situational awareness, plus breathing in all the fresh air and nature, increasing your eyesight and you're hearing because of being out there in nation, there's so much scientific research on that. Then also people get a chance to see who you are. Because just like first responders or military, when you sweat a little bit or have a little bit of adversities or challenges, you bond together. So I can go play golf or pick a ball or tennis with you, which is great. But if I take you out hiking, the first thing in your mind is if we're going to go out in the wilderness, oh my gosh, these are wild animals out there. So you have to trust me. So if you want to fast track. So people who are really successful people do two things. Number one is they protect their time. Number two is they qualify their time. So how can I, if I first meet you and you're a stranger to me or somebody introduces you to me, how can I build rapport? Very quickly, I take you out hiking because you have to trust me to go out in the wilderness on a hiking trail that you maybe don't have any experience with. So as soon as I take you out there, the chemicals in your physical body change in terms of building rapport with me. And if we go up and down a couple mountains together over a couple hours and we do something that's a really easy hike, we get a chance to bond, which then creates authenticity and vulnerability. So millions and millions of dollars of deals people in my hiking groups do every year because people get to know them, like them, and trust them. So it's all about your environment, but your environment is also stronger than your willpower. So what I do is I'm very practical. I'm a kid who barely passed public high school. So I look at ways on how I can compress time, but also fast track things in terms of specific, immeasurable, actual results. So when I share with people, I have over 7000 goals. People like, oh my gosh, like, listen, there's not enough time or energy in a day to achieve 7000 goals. And I said, here's the difference.
Most of my goals and dreams do not require my actions.
So when people write down written goals or dreams, or they have vision boards on their walls, consider that most of your goals and dreams do not require your actions. And I talk about this, and until I become my book, what it requires is building teams and teamwork. So I don't run daily operations. I have a group of companies, I have an international foundation. We've committed $100 million in the next decade towards global philanthropy. We're on track right now building 100 schools around the world through Link foundation, through getting people to come out, take a hike, build a school. People say, well, how do you accomplish all that? Through teams of people. That's the key thing. And so through hiking, I bring people up with different personality styles, history and experience, and I bring them together and see if they bond together, see if there's a connection or chemistry together. And from that, but I understand to my team to see if they're the right match, be part of our team for what we're doing going forward. So if you're raising money, people watching, you're like, man, I'm trying to raise money from my startup company, take a bunch of investors and go on a hike with a bunch of bills. Oh, I'm not a hiker. Well, go for a walk, do some physical exercise to move your body. Because the greatest thing is our health. You can go out and make lots of money, but you don't have your health. It's not a good deal, right? So the key thing is your health. And when you're with people, you're doing a physical activity, you bond together much further than sitting in a coffee shop or a restaurant. I get invited frequently to go out for breakfast lunches and dinners, meet with people in coffee shops and airport lounges and that. And I decline most requests. But I'll say, if you want to come with me, go on a hiking trail with me. That way I get my physical exercise in. I can take care of my mental health, so I'm being efficient with my time. But I'm also checking lots of boxes in terms of flexibility, range of motion, core strength, balance, all this stuff that I'm getting in a 90 minutes hike with you versus sitting in a coffee shop or a restaurant.
[00:09:28] Speaker A: Well, and you also get some quantifying aspect because not everyone's going to be able to commit the time to the hike or be ready to, you know, whether it's, whether it's fear or whatever the restriction is that, you know, is getting in the way of that. If they really want to have that conversation and get to know you, you've made it very clear this is the way to get it done. And I think that makes a lot, a lot of sense.
[00:09:46] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:47] Speaker A: You know, it's, it's kind of like a pay to play model, except you're paying with your, with your feet and your energy on the hiking trail.
[00:09:53] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:09:53] Speaker A: Absolutely. And the drive to get there, to the hike. And so all that, all that matters. And those, those are like subtle and little barriers that for the people that overcome them, obviously they immediately stand out to you as, hey, this person is actually willing to put in the time, put in the effort.
[00:10:09] Speaker B: And I love that, too. What we're doing this I learned from a good friend of mine who's a multi billionaire. Years ago he said, darren, give people micro commitments.
And so I remember being in my twenties and thirties and making some big mistakes where I'd meet somebody at a trade show or a conference or seminar workshop, or some networking event. I get really, really excited and lady think, oh, my gosh, this person's going to help me hit a big home running business. And then boom, I'd crash. Because what happened was I realized that I didn't do micro commitments. So call it testing, call micro commitments. So what I do is I'm looking because behavior never lies, right? And so in life, time will either promote you or time will expose you. It's just a matter of time. When you get promoted, you get exposed. So what I'm doing is I'm watching people's feet, not their lips.
We hear in life that in business, people say, talk is cheap. I think we go a step further. Most people cheapen their talk because their words have no power, right? Because they don't realize the importance of their word is their integrity. And without integrity, nothing works, right? Nothing will work. And so what I do is with micro commitments is I give people micro commitments. Hey, do you like to go hiking? Yeah. Okay, great. Let's go on this hike. Let's get it scheduled in the calendar because if it's not in our calendars, there's no evidence that exists in our lives. Then I'll send a calendar invitation as a reminder. And then if you don't show up on time, I see. If you bring bottled water, do you have the proper footwear like hiking shoes or hiking boots? Are you prepared for that hour, hour and a half hike? So I'm looking for all these little small things as micro commitments to see how prepared you are, how we're on the trail? We talking about news, weather, sports and traffic? Or are we talking about things that are depth, meaningful relationships, things that where you want to go, what you want to do, what you're solving for, what you're working through in your life? So there's a lot of things that I can look at with micro commitments. And then also people say, hey, Richard, if you like reading books, you're like, yeah, okay, great. I want to recommend you this book. When could you get this book by? So I'm looking for a by when. So it's specific, measurable and actionable and I'll have it by, you know, Friday. Okay, great. By what time? I say by 05:00 Pacific standard time zone. Okay, great. How are you going to order it online or a bookstore? Public library? I'll get it online. Okay, great. Can you text me a picture of it once you get it? Like, oh, yeah, I can text you a picture. So I'm looking for micro commitments for you to keep your word. And if you break your word or your promise, are you going to restore your integrity by being proactive? Because if you can't commit to doing the small little micro commitments consistently over a period of time, there's no way I'm going to involve you into some of my projects, my big deals that I'm working on, because you're not going to follow through and be consistent. So time will promote, your time will expose you. I'm going to have you be exposed in the first couple hours and I meet you the first few days, a few weeks I meet you versus bring you into my team and then 90 days or six months later having to go through an uncomfortable situation of releasing you or getting rid of you and going through a lot of time, effort and energy. So we'll do micro commitments up front to mitigate the risk in terms of risk management.
And I use it all the time. My team uses it all the time. And it's amazing what we've noticed with people, because people talk a good game, but let's see if they fall through and actually show up consistently.
[00:13:13] Speaker A: Become your own banker and take back control over your financial life. Hey, is this even possible? You may be asking, can I even do this? Well, you better believe it. In fact, it's easy to get going. So easy that we've put together a free report. Seven simple steps to becoming your own banker. Download it right now. Go to seven steps ca. That's seven steps ca. Now let's get back to the episode one. And it's, you know, very telling to, to go through, like I say, a micro commitment versus, you know, if you go down the path and there's a large commitment on the line, that's not the time that you want to see that doesn't go through. So by testing those waters, you know, you're giving yourself an insight into a possible future. Maybe not the future, but certainly a possible one. And you can, you know, put a degree of probability on that, on a high, medium and low scale to make a really good decision making process, not only just for your business, but also around where do you want to continually invest your time and your energy and your efforts and you've quantified. These are the people, the types of people, the things that they do that I want to surround myself with on an ongoing basis as we continue to grow, because as you identify, in order to accomplish the big and the large goals and aspirations that you have, of which there are many, you need to have people on the bus. You need to have a lot of them. You got to expand that teamwork in order to impact more and more people. And teamwork is really interesting. You talk about that, obviously, you've done a lot of corporate training with teams, and you're raising, like you say, a ton of money right now. You're building schools. Hikingfundraiser.com is the website for anyone wants to learn more about going on a hike with Darren and raising some capital to build some amazing schools. And by the way, how many schools are you intending to build just through this, this current platform that you're working on? Because there's many other things that your foundation wants to do.
[00:15:03] Speaker B: Yeah, so we've already built our first pilot school for Liberia, West Africa. So we got that built a few years ago. We had over 300 plus kids from preschool to grade six already come through. And, and so a total of 100 schools in total. We have private donors, we have corporate sponsors. The cool thing about it is when you talk about the idea part earlier, I'm at a stage in my life. I've made a lot of money. I've achieved a lot of financial success in my life. I'm about legacy building now, so I want to pay it forward and pass it on. And environment is stronger than willpower. So I'm all about putting people together, the right people in the right room or on a hiking trail to have a network of conversations and to collaborate. And through those collaborations, opportunities get created. Great joy and enrichment, fulfillment of that. And that's the juice for me. Right. So a total of 100 schools. But the cool thing is that, you see, if you and I meet up for a couple hours, that's great. But what if we get a chance to put our fingerprints on building a school for the next generation somewhere in the world? So when we do the event coming up on Saturday, June 29, in Vancouver, Canada, at Mount Seymour, the financial dollars from the hiking registration, we'll have 350 people there from all over North America, with people over from Texas, New York state, all over Canada have already, Richard. And we're having some people right now going through the visa application and passport process to actually come in offshore, off continent. And so it's an incredible, I'll give you an example. I belong to a private mastermind group that cost me $50,000 a year plus travel expenses. So I pay $100,000 a year to be part of this group. And some of the members from that group are coming. So I say to some people, I said, you're going to pay dollar 250, whether it's canadian or us dollars, to come in for take hike, build the school. But look at the access. So you can pay dollar 250 and get a tax receipt from Linc foundation, or I can receive you a group if you qualify and you have a financial net worth, not that you'll pay $100,000 you'll be part of, okay, because of all your travel. And plus it's 20. You know, I spend 40 days a year with these, these people in this group. It's not cheap to be, it's a pay to play. But I'm paying for access. Just like a private country club. Right?
[00:17:03] Speaker A: So people get paying for who's not in the room.
[00:17:06] Speaker B: Exactly. Well, and I don't think opportunity costs. Like, when I recommend a book to somebody or an audio or podcast, I don't have time. Okay? Opportunity costs. What's it cost you to not listen to that podcast? What's it cost you to not read that book? See, people look at how much it costs to get in the room. I say what it costs if you don't show up, there's opportunity costs. Because the thing is that what I'm doing, I'm all about compressing time. Time is our greatest asset. How can I meet people in one day? This time it's Vancouver, Canada. How can I meet people? Fly in, drive in? When I went to a Tony Robbins seminar many years ago, back in the 1990s, I was flat broke financially. I didn't have the money. Richard sold my furniture in my one bedroom apartment to actually go to unleash the power within. And then I came back. For the next couple of months, I used plywood and milk crates as my furniture. That's what I did. That was the skin. In the end, that's what I was paid. So most people, they don't realize that 80% of success has shown up. It's not what you know, it's who you know. It's who they know that knows you. Proximity is power. Proximity is power.
Right. So the key thing is, is that, you see, we don't have money problems in life. We don't have money problems in life. We have thinking problems in life. There's no lack of money. There's two types of people. There's people who don't have enough money, which I used to be one of them. In fact, we hear the saying that people have paycheck to paycheck. 78% of the north american population of paycheck to paycheck. I used to be panicked. To panic. So I used to be flat broke financially. I was once homeless, lived on the streets, lived on welfare. I've eaten my next meal out of a garbage dumpster. I slept in the back of my vehicle. For a period of time, I've been homeless, living on a treehouse, living in a treehouse. I've lived in an apple orchard. Okay. I've also had an nine credit rating. And so most people in North America don't know what an r nine credit rating is. They can look it up online and research it. But if you look through equifax or TransUnion credit, an nine reals credit rating is the worst possible metric score you can get for a credit score in North America. I've had an r nine credit score. I went from an r nine to a multimillionaire. Now, that just should blow people's minds away. How? I was that far upside down financially, and I turned it around over a period of time and became a multimillionaire. So the thing is, is that now I'm dedicating $100 million to global philanthropy over the next decade. Okay, big thinking. But there's processes or structures. There's systems and strategies in place and teams in place to make that all happen. So I always share that people get around different people who are moving their feet and making things happen. And you watch because my life helped. My is different than most people is. I have daily responsibilities, which is daily actions, which are daily habits, daily routines. I live by my counter, okay? Because if it's not structured, my calendar doesn't exist in my life. And then what I do is every night at 07:30 p.m. pacific time, I have a calendar review. So I look at the next day, and I set alarms in my iPhone. I set alarms. So everything is accountable and responsible. So I'm always on time. In fact, early is on time, and on time is late for me. So I'm always on time, because that's what I gave my word to. That's my promise, and that's my integrity. So I become consistent that people know that I'm accountable, I'm responsible, I'm reliable. I'm disciplined. I'm focused. And that's a lot of times, I get approached all the time. People want to raise money, and it's so fascinating watching people, how they don't follow through. They're not consistent. They're not their word. And then they wonder why they can't raise any money and why they struggle with their business, because money comes in all different shades of green. But you see, the thing is, when people are raising money, there's three kinds of money. There's calm money, cautious money, and nervous money. And I always show this when I'm hyping with people. I said, listen, right now, your money is cautious. Right now, your money is nervous money. People like. What do you mean? I said, well, calm money is like a green traffic light. Green. Cautious money is like a yellow or amber traffic light, and nervous money is red run the other way. So when people start pitching and selling what they don't, I'll give you a quick example. I remember years ago, I was in my thirties, I was flat broke, financially struggling up and down, panic to panic, and I'm raising money. I bored. Somebody from a friend of mine to fly into a city to go meet with an accredited investor, high net worth investor. I'm staying at the Holiday Inn hotel because it's free continental breakfast that morning. And I realized that morning I wake up, oh my gosh, I don't have enough money even for public transit. I can't even take the bus to this high net worth guys office. I dont have any money for a taxicab or an Uber. Its too far to walk, itll take too long. And im thinking, oh my gosh, what am I going to do? So what I do, I lie. I lie to this investor. I call him up from the hotel. I said, listen, some unexpected things have come up. I cant make it from the hotel to your office. Can you come to me and im going to buy you breakfast? Complete lie. Hes like, well, you know, I thought youre going to come here and its okay, fine, ill come. Ill give you 45 minutes of my time. So he drives to the Holiday Inn Hotel. He comes in, I take him in with his registered hotel guests only. There's signs all over the wall, registered hotel guests only. I bring him in, I told him I lied to him I was going to buy him breakfast. He walks in and I realize, oh my gosh, the clock's ticking. I got to raise $50,000 for this startup company. So I start pitching and selling this guy. Within 90 seconds, this guy looks at me, Darren, shut up. He goes, just shut up or I'm going to walk up the door right now. You'll never see me again. Let's confront the lies. I'm like, I'm scared, right, but really calm and imposing. He goes, number one is, he goes, number one is there's no free continental breakfast here. I'm not a registered hotel guest, so let's deal with that other integrity. Next thing is you're financially broke and that's why you couldn't come meet with me because you got no money in your pocket, true or false. I'm like, yeah, he was just be straight with me. He goes, I see a lot of my younger self and you, he goes, you know the reason why you're struggling right now to raise money? Because you have no integrity. You exaggerate things, you embellish things, you lie about things. And he goes, I'm just going to confront you right now with truth. He goes, first of all, I'm not going to write you a check for $50,000 today, but I'm going to give you $50,000 in consulting advice to mentor you right now. So hopefully you walk out of here and you see things a little bit differently. And that was a major turning point in my life. Richard. When I realized stop lying to myself. How much I lied to myself as a human being. And I started to believe the lies. I lied about my weight. I lied about my finances, lied about my relationships, lied about what I was doing. I exaggerate things. I embellish things. And when I confronted myself it was a major turning point in my life. And then making it right and getting into communication with people and apologizing. Acknowledging and taking accountability responsibly for my actions and the impact and the ripple effect my actions had on other people's lives. The interesting thing is when I went through this real uncomfortable period of my life with different mentors and coaches and a mastermind group that helped me go through this because it was uncomfortable and I was scared to death doing it. You know what was interesting, Richard? How many people came to me one on one in private? Said, Darren. We knew all along you were exaggerating. We knew all along you were embellishing things. We knew all along you were lying. We were just waiting for you to get exposed and your ship was going to sink. And that was a major turning point in my life. I was lying to myself. I was an embellishing. And that was a turnpike when my financial net worth changed. Because people didn't trust me. They didn't. When I was going on raising money it was nervous and cautious. Money was never calm money. Now when I raise capital for some of our ventures, we're buying bookkeeping accounting firms. Right now we're doing a roll up. Building a company to a $50 million company will exit in revenue. We raise money really easy. Why? Because it's calm money.
Because the biggest thing is I've worked on myself in terms of personal professional development. So sometimes when things are not working for us in our lives, it's time to stop, slow down and take inventory and do an audit. How am I showing up in this meat suit? What's my character? How am I interacting with people? What's really going on here? Why am I repelling people versus attractive? Why aren't people returning my telephone calls or my direct messages or my text messages?
Take inventory of that. Start to notice. When I send text messages I get quick responses. Unless people are sleeping or they're in a meeting or they're with family or kids, I get responses back right away. But taking a look at people is that you're like, why are people returning my phone calls, my emails, my text messages, my direct messages? Take a look at nobody's a jerk until you show up. I was the jerk all the time. And then when I changed my life, things in my life started to change. Everything changed for me. And that was a different point. Because in life, success is not something we go out in the world to pursue. Im going to conquer success. Im going to hustle, im going to grind. Ive done all that. Success is not something we go out in the world to pursue. Success is something we attract into our lives by the person that we become. So, about being an attractive person, what do attractive people do? What's their integrity, their daily routines, their daily habits, their disciplines, their focuses, their accountabilities, their responsibilities? And then when things don't work out, how quick are they to make things right and apologize for their actions and be accountable and responsible for their actions and their integrity. So important. Give an example. I had a guy recently who met up with me. He's 15 minutes late, walks in and he's like, okay, let's get on. I said, hold on a second here. Lets deal with the out of integrity. Its like, what are you talking about? I said, well, number one is youre 15 minutes late. Why dont you be accountable, responsible for being late and clean that up? Hes like, I dont have time for that. I said, meetings over were done. Hes like, what do you mean? I said I dont want to be around a guy like you. Too much risk. Hes like, what do you mean? I said, I am not going to expose myself to risk being around someone like you who is not going to be in integrity and accountable, responsible for what you do. Youre 15 minutes late. You didnt communicate in advance by text or a phone call. You're going to be late. You show up here, you're disrespectful.
I just don't want you in my network. Sorry. Appreciate you, but there's lots of other people. Those aren't my standards, okay? Because that's not what I want to play in life. I have a lot of accountability and responsibility to high level and we're a.
[00:26:51] Speaker A: High performance team forward because of the experience that you had, you know, going back to that holiday inn so many years ago. It's an opportunity for you to take that lesson and pay it forward for another person. And, and quite possibly that might have been a turning point for that individual as well. And perhaps for our listeners, there may be some turning points that are occurring right now as they tune in.
Amazing. I love it. Darren, this is so fantastic. And, you know, you've got so many different interests in business right now. And of course the world is shifting and changing, especially around technology. Much like you've shifted and changed it in your own individual life, in your perceptions, your view and your thought process. Internally, it's all about how we think. We hit that like we beat that like a drum here on this show. Because our Nelson Nash, our mentor with becoming all banker, his fifth rule is rethink your thinking. You have to learn how to ruminate on things.
Both Jason and I are students of Dan Sullivan and the who not how principle on growing teams makes a lot of synergy and sense, and it's all about our thinking. What I'm curious is how is your thinking shifted and changed in the world of innovation and technology now you're involved in and looking at, uh, exploring things around the AI world?
[00:28:01] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:28:02] Speaker A: Big topic these days. I'm curious, how is that showing up for you? I'm sure it's through the power of your network that you're being exposed to some great opportunities in there. Maybe just share for our listeners your perspective on how AI is going to shape some aspects of our future and, and how you see that showing up, at least in your life today.
[00:28:20] Speaker B: Yeah. So in 2023, I was completely scared of artificial intelligence. Completely scared. I remember over the holidays, in Christmas time, in December 2023, I'm like, okay.
I always say to people, I said, bring it down to a grade five, grade six reading level for me to understand, simplify things in a very specific way versus a general way. And so over the holidays, when people are taking time off with their families, I played around with chat, GTP and AI, and I thought, okay, I'm just going to lock myself in a room for a few days, which I did, and just have a little bit of downtime. And I started to play with it.
It's changed our business life. In fact, over the last few months, I've saved a few hundred thousand dollars in legal expenses and legal fees with contracts and agreements. Now, I still have lawyers and accountants that I work with, but I just save time by having them look at stuff.
I use it as a tool for business to compress time, to scenario plan things. Best case scenario, likely case scenario. Worst case scenario, I'm looking at terms of discovery and due diligence on things. Like right now we're buying companies and buying more real estate and buying cash flow producing businesses, because I'm all about more freedom in my life. So I can do more philanthropy in my life, right? So I acquire income producing assets that produce monthly recurring revenue, lots of cash flow, and then from there, allows me to contribute and be more of service, because my success is someone else's miracle. My success is someone else's miracle. So I want to become more financially abundant and blessed in my life so I can be of service and contribution and create more of a ripple pack and more legacy on the world. So I'm always looking at artificial intelligence as a tool. Now. Everything has benefits and drawbacks. There's always benefits and drawbacks to everything. And so I love all the benefits, and I also see the drawbacks. And so I'm not blindsided to one side. I see both sides. But I also understand, too. I'm a kid that grew up in Saskatchewan, Canada, and I remember talking to the old timers when I was growing up about tractors, and they talked about when these news, the horse and buggy and the horse and plow and all the farm labor of all the men and women that would come on the farms and work. And then when the tractor came out, well, when the tractor came out, they were really concerned about it disrupting the human resources and, you know, horses and some of that. But it actually enhanced things. So I see it as a tool now where it scares me. And I have some friends of mine that are in law enforcement and military is cyber wars and what it can do in terms of disruption of human life, right. In regards to, you know, cybersecurity, cyber crimes, and then also with wars using AI and stuff, that scares me. But when it comes to advanced of medicine or technology or business or efficiency of time and how we can live our lives more productively, I'm all for that.
I'm very actively involved. I'm an investor in an artificial intelligence company called Vakodia. It's a publicly traded company on the Siebel Exchange of Chicago. I'm also an advisor, a paid advisor to that company. They're the first artificial intelligence company, two brilliant guys that created the company, a great team. They're based in Boca Raton, Florida, USA. And what they've done is they have actually disrupted and are massively disrupting right now. The.
When you call a toll free number or government agency or an airline, for example, and you're on hold for several minutes or over an hour, it's very frustrating for the person waiting on hold to talk to a live representative. So with this AI, yeah, it actually eliminates being on hold. So you have a choice to talk to a live human being. Or you can wait on hold and talk to a. So if you want to wait on hold, you can talk to a live human being, a call center person, or you can talk to AI. And it actually sounds like I could have AI call you right now and you think it's actual real human being talking to you to book your airline reservation. So people get scared about job losses. Nothing ever is. Everything just changes form. So the key thing is the mindset is that you are thinking of, okay, if I'm doing something, everything has a shelf life. Everything is an expiration date to it. It everything. Ive been around a lot and trained a lot of people and traveled this world a lot where people say this job, this crew will be here for years. Well listen, look at all the companies that have around for 1020, 30, 50 years that still go out of business because they dont change with the times.
Im grateful to be part of Exp realty. For first ten years I served as an independent board of directors of a company that disrupted the residential real estate industry by eliminating bricks and mortars. Because Glenn Sanford, our founder, who was a licensed real estate agent, he said, listen, why do we have to have bricks and mortar franchises? It's kind of like blockbuster video and Netflix. You're not going to walk down to the blockbuster video store anymore. You're going to assume everything on your mobile phone, your laptop or desktop computer. Nobody goes to the real estate office anymore to fill up the paperwork. It's all done through docusign or digitally today. And people shop online in their underwear, on their computer, looking at homes around their area. They're not going to drive. It's inefficient today. That model worked a decade ago, but not today's time. Right? So people need to look at that. Things are in constant change. And if you can get around the right people in the right rooms and get a seat at the table, the key thing is you can prosper in abundant ways by being there. And that's what I like to do in business. I'm always around.
So what I do is I'm 51 years of age. I get around people who are older than me for their history and experience and wisdom. I call it the gray haired people. I get around them. So I'm around those people for their history, experience and their wisdom and their knowledge of experience of life. They get around people who are in their teens and twenties and thirties for their creativity, their imagination and their energy. So I'm always around the balance of both people for wisdom history and experience for risk management and asset protection. And the younger people, for their energy, their creativity and their imagination, how they see the world. Because if I don't see the world, to the younger generation, it becomes a blind spot for me. So I always want to be the dumbest person in the room. And that's why I put on events all the time, because I'm there to actually compress time as a time machine, to fast tracking, to learn things. Because I can go on a hike where I bring people up for link foundation, we build schools in a couple hour hike. I can learn more than spending six months of research.
I can compress it in a few hours of time. And to speak to somebody who's an authority person who lives it, who knows it, who's an expert in that subject matter. So I just compress time so I can pay a little bit of money, put some skin in the game, go to something and just compress time. And then I can leverage that time to do more things that matter most to me in my life, which gives me that joy and enrichment, freedom and fulfillment in life. So the key thing is, look at time, of how you protect your time and how you qualify your time is so, so important, right? And that's what I do in my life, is I'm always, how can I compress time and do things to have more enjoyment in life? Because life goes by very, very quick.
[00:35:03] Speaker A: Preston, the power of leverage, the leverage of a good hike, the leverage of some AI to help you. AI is your friend in the aspect of business and the power of networks and creating leverage through not what you know, but who you know, because who you know knows something that you don't, I guess, is a good summary point now, Darren, and we love having you on the program today. This was absolutely fantastic. I've been looking forward to it for quite some time, just reconnecting with you. But more importantly, sharing your journey and your story and your wisdom with our amazing listeners. Our question for you here, as we look to close the show is who would you say you most want to be a hero to?
[00:35:42] Speaker B: Good question. I would say someone out there who is finding their way. What I mean is that. So I was this kid that was lost. I had no direction. I had no focus. I had very insecure, low self worth, was, you know, had a lot of negative self talk. I'm not good enough. I'm not smart enough. I'm never going to amount to much. So somebody who is out there that has this burning desire to become somebody, but maybe it's their environment. Maybe it's the environment they're in, in their job or their career, their business. Maybe it's in the four walls of their family. Maybe it's in the neighbor they live in. But that person knows that they want to be a difference. They want to do something great for this world. Whether it's an invention, it's a product, it's a service, it's an idea, it's some information. It's that person I want to be a hero to that sees me as somebody like, where I am today and what I've accomplished. When people my backstory think, oh, my gosh, you've overcome all these adversities and failures and challenges and setbacks and all these things that people told you, never mind, look at where you are today.
Because I didn't quit perseverance. And that's why with the hiking, I think people hiking. I want people to struggle on the hike because I want you to realize that quitting is the easiest thing you can do. And in life, we're either coming from a problem, we're in a problem, or we're heading towards a problem. That's the condition of being a human being. We're coming from a problem, we're in a problem. We're heading towards a problem.
Some of the most successful people out there that we see on the Internet and out there today, they're dealing with lots of challenges and problems all the time.
You just don't always see it, but sometimes behind the scenes, it's organized chaos. I'm around a lot of these people. So the thing is, is that the person out there that has that burning desire to become somebody just doesn't know how. But I can notice into the hue. But the key thing is, is you've got to put in the time and energy. It's not going to come to you. You've got to put in the time and energy. You know, you got to work hard, you got to work smart, and you got to, you got to show up. And that's a big thing. And so somebody out there right now that's going through stuff. And if you're having financial challenges, I've been there. If you're having challenges where you don't know where your next move is going to be, I've done that. Like, I've, I've had some pretty big challenges in my life that I had to overcome financially and universities and all that kind of stuff. But I persevered to care where I am today in my life. And so giving is keep going, even when it's hard. So how many times you fall down, so many times you get back up and keep going forward. It's going to be scary. It's going to be lonely at times, but just keep going further. And every level demands a different level of view. The more successful you are sometimes, the more lonely you are because you've got people running all the day to day operations. You know, I spend time now while thinking time. I schedule time like counter. I actually go out for a couple hours in a week and I just think, and that's one of the greatest things that I learned from very influential people is to spend time thinking. So important to time block it. Get away from any electronics and distraction. Then just think about what you want to do with your life and where you're going and who you want to become.
[00:38:32] Speaker A: Amazing. I love it. And for all of our listeners, if you want to get a chance to go hiking with Darren, go to hikingfundraiser.com. dot, of course, that's hikingfundraiser.com and you may want to check out his unbelievable book until I become. You can go to until I become.com. order a copyright there. Darren, Sir Darren, amazing, fantastic. Thank you for sharing your amazing journey with us today and such golden nuggets and words of wisdom for our viewers on YouTube. Right there, you're going to see that just popped up. There's a recommended next video. We did that for a reason, because it's good. You need to watch it. So go ahead, click that and continue your journey of learning. There's no such thing as having arrived in knowledge. And like Darren said, you can always think upon your thinking because you never know what's the next best idea that's coming to you. Thanks so much everyone. Thanks for listening to the wealth without Bay street podcast where your wealth matters. Be sure to check out our social media channels. For more great content, hit subscribe on your favorite podcast player and be sure to rate the show. We definitely appreciate it. And don't forget to share this episode with someone you care about. Join us on the next episode where we continue to uncover the financial tools, strategies, and the mindsets that maximize your wealth.
