Right About Now with Ryan Alford - Darren Prince - Author of Aiming High

Episode Date: July 12, 2022

Welcome back to another episode of The Radcast hosted by Ryan Alford! This week's guest is Darren Prince! Darren is a sports and celebrity agent and a global advocate for addiction and recovery. In this episode, Darren opens up about his own struggles with addiction and his personal road to recovery.To learn more about Darren Prince you can check out his website officialdarrenprince.com, princemarketinggroup.com, and follow him on instagram, twitter, and facebook.If you enjoyed this episode of The Radcast, let us know by visiting our website www.theradcast.com. Check out www.theradicalformula.com. Like, Share and Subscribe to our YouTube channel, or leave us a review on Apple Podcast. Be sure to keep up with all that’s radical from @ryanalford @radical_results @the.rad.cast. If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more, join Ryan’s newsletter https://ryanalford.com/newsletter/ to get Ferrari level advice daily for FREE.  Learn how to build a 7 figure business from your personal brand by signing up for a FREE introduction to personal branding https://ryanalford.com/personalbranding.  Learn more by visiting our website at www.ryanisright.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel  www.youtube.com/@RightAboutNowwithRyanAlford. 

That day I made over a thousand dollars that afternoon selling cards and I thought I found my calling. Basically the first five were Magic, Larry, Pamela Anderson, Smoke and Joe Frazier, Chevy and maybe Rodman at that time. This side was a burning, firing sensation. I heard a voice tell me in this year I've got you and you're ready and I stood up and it wasn't me. The first time, right in the toilet. And I stood up and it wasn't me the first time, right in the toilet. You're listening to the Radcast. If it's radical, we cover it.

Here's your host, Ryan Alford. Hey guys, what's up? Welcome to the latest edition of the Radcast. I'm Ryan Alford, your host. We're talking stars today. We're talking truth. We're talking discovery. We're talking to Darren Prince. What's up, Darren? Thanks for having me, and I appreciate it. All good. Hey, man. Fascinating story. I'm looking forward to getting into it as we talk pre-episode,

all these layers in marketing, what you do with the stars. But then the discovery, and marketing, what you do with the stars. But then the discovery, the darker side maybe, but how you found light as the best-selling author of Aiming High. So excited to talk about that. And, of course, the CEO of Prince Marketing Group. So I know it's going to be a great discovery, a great talk. So I really appreciate your time.

Same here. Cool, man. Well, Darren, you know, for those that maybe are discovering you as we get along, I want to get to your story and all that. But the day job is agent to the stars. Do you call yourself that? Like I've talked to some of these guys. You sound like you're pretty grounded. How do you classify the day job?

They knew me over the past 14 years. I'm just privileged to work with some of the most iconic athletes and celebrities of all time. The broke in me has a reminder every day on my life from what the media used to refer to me as when I was real out there and full of myself. Super Agent was the title. And I actually have a tattoo, which I write about in my book, which was pretty dumb back in the day in 1995, I think, around when I started the agency with Magic Johnson as my first client.

And I needed it. I believed all the hype. because I needed it. I believed all the hype. And my dad, may he rest in peace, with Father's Day coming up, reminded me one day that they don't call you a super agent because you're anybody's super. Because Magic Johnson is super.

Remember that. Hey, it's called borrowed interest. That's what I tell Goliaths all the time. We need to borrow some interest because you aren't very interesting. Yeah. He doesn't very interesting. Yeah. He does what your dad might have been trying

to say. Obviously, look, you've been successful. It didn't just happen. You got to take some claim. Any of us are super or not or should have tattoos. I have tattoos but I've never been, I don't know, egotistical or ballsy enough to call myself any monikers.

I don't know. Maybe we'll all regret them one day. I don't care. It's just hard to me. Darren, for everybody listening, you've got a fascinating story. And obviously, we're going to plug the book. People can learn all about you. But I'm going to let you tell whatever that semi-condensed, it didn't have to be condensed, we got time, but let's talk about a little bit of that professional journey. So I started a baseball card business when I was 14 years old, when my friends thought it was kind of corny and not cool anymore in the the mid-1980s around 1983-84 i had four different

jobs squeezing orange juice at a supermarket and uh delivering newspapers working at a pizzeria in a stockway at a sneaker store and i just took all that extra money i was fascinated with baseball cards and uh buy shoe boxes from friends 20 bucks 30, whatever it was. My friends that did collect were into the stars of that era, Don Mattingly, Roger Clements, Kirby Pocket, Daryl Strawberry. And I just had a fascination for the older ones that weren't as cool looking, but I knew in my mind from getting a price guide back then, there was only one called CCP, Current Card Price Guide,

way before Beckett, for anybody that's listening and knows of Beckett. And it was a newspaper that I would come once a week. I knew the older ones had value. So I would trade the newer ones that I'd get out of the pack, these old stinky ones that they got from their fathers, their uncles, and their grandfathers. Not realizing I was amassing

a massive collection, and it was my teacher who I'm still close with to this day, Elliot Lobey, challenged our intro to business class to go home and create a business overnight. Now, I actually had one. I just didn't execute. So when I came back home that day after school, I went downstairs to speak to my dad and said,

hey, dad, I need insurance. I'm starting a business. I have my baseball cards. And my mom and dad would always see the shoe boxes lined up meticulously with stickers and labels on each box. But I don't think they had any idea of the value. Remember, they grew up in an era where they threw them out. You know, you put them between your bicycle spokes to make them clean away so the condition wasn't destroyed.

And he's like, what do you need? I said about eight or nine. And he goes, all right. He goes, look, God forbid there's ever a flood or something, I'll get you $1,000 for the homeowners. And I look, I said, Dad, eight or nine and he goes all right because look god forbid there's ever a flood or something i'll get you a thousand dollars for the homeowners and i look i said that eight or nine thousand not eight or nine hundred so my dad was an entrepreneur my mentor my closest friend took such a special interest in me which meant a lot because you know i mean correlate how i became a drug addict it was because i felt less than i never felt secure i never felt good enough i didn't feel smart enough i was in special ed classrooms and labeled as learning disabled and verbally bullied and teased because of it and so it meant so much to me that he wanted to sit down

understand how i had so much value and what was my plan to sell them and i had a big newspaper at this big and i said look there's a baseball card show in two weeks I want to get a table it's twenty dollars and I get to buy sell and trade all day I think I'll do really well and I spent every day after school uh it was the Gary V mentality before Gary uh existed but he's my boy too we always talk about the craziness of the baseball card boom but he's done it's amazing and um so I executed and uh that day i made over a thousand dollars that afternoon selling cards and i you know i thought i found my calling but the interesting was as i'm buzzing as i'm flying as i felt at home i felt i was an extrovert i knew so

much about the business i knew so much about cards i felt like i was the young gun in the industry the young buck that everybody was looking at for advice and what are the cards to buy to put away to invest in. By the time I got home that night with a pocket full of cash and bought new cards and added stuff to my inventory, I had this feeling of emptiness that would really never go away. I had this feeling that even though I just had that moment, I'm still sitting at home at night alone in my bed.

Now I go to school tomorrow feeling like a complete total loser that is never going to go anywhere in life because he's an idiot and can't learn what everybody else learns. That's powerful. That's tough growing up feeling that way. Like in your highest moment, you felt in a way you got to enjoy it for 10 minutes, right? I mean, it's like, I remember the baseball cards though. I mean, I had, see, I got in, unfortunately.

You're younger than me. What are you? You got in in the 90s? Well, it was, I'm 44. So, but it was, but that don't,, so big generational gap on the card. But those Donruss Topps years where they made too many of them. That's what happened. Yeah.

They got greedy. 89 to 88 to, I don't know. 89 over deck held somewhat of its value with Griffey. Griffey Jr. 89 to score a football, did okay. That kind of held its value. My one saving grace i got into basketball cards i had the fleer just about to say did you get i had the fleer basketball

cards from 86 onward you know that was like the first thing i inherited or bought even though i was you know i was like 10 i love it so i still have some of those and then freaking all the uh then they made too many of the the i forget the name of it it wasn't score i don't know score was it score basketball cards yeah made too many of those i think uh after a certain round it brings back some of the best memories though and about two years ago my boy jason coons was one of the biggest in the industry odio sports got me back into it and now i got this fun little side card hustle mathilda who's one of my biggest in the industry odio sports got me back into it and now i got this fun little side card hustle mathilda who's one of my agents here you know the girls go crazy when i get stuff

in and packages come one after the other and i'll look and i'll tell them stories you know what this was worth but i could have bought this for 25 years ago or what i sold this exact card for like 10 of what i had to pay for it now, but I'm loving it because the market back and it's healthier than ever, especially non-baseball, which I don't think I bought many baseball cards. It's all basketball and football at this point. Yep.

I got, uh, I've ran into it by John Stockton rookie card. Like I was like going flipping through a box and and it was in one of those glass cases. I still have a handful. I don't have thousands of thousands, but I probably still have several hundred that are probably worth something. I'm telling you, you've got a lot of listeners right now

that are very intrigued and probably have us talking about sports cards. I know. I'll get over it. It's my show. What happened from there, man, was i eventually got out of the card business at 19 i dropped out of college i did really well i had a 0.86 gpa it was an academic probation but i was making probably four or five hundred thousand a year selling cards at that point i sold my company and uh started a memorabilia company because i was very intrigued by having

the ability to have relationships with athletes and celebrities, sit in a hotel room with them, have a guy like Muhammad Ali, who's the most recognized human on earth, sign a bunch of boxing gloves and trunks and photos, and the coolness of it was much sexier and, you know, wasn't like a little bit too nerdy like the card thing. And I did that for about four years. And that's how I developed all the relationships. I started working with Magic Johnson, Chevy Chase, Smoke and Joe Frazier, May He Rest in Peace, Evil Pennyball, another one. You know, Dennis Rodman, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair. And by developing that relationship, which relationship building is so key nowadays, I was able to eventually, I got out of that business and started Prince Martin Group in 1994.

And Magic had enough faith and trust and belief in me that it became my first client that's cool I mean you know that there it is like you just name dropped like some of the most iconic stars like the last and it's not even I figured I'm a humble guy I remember doing uh when I was doing the zone when the book came out with the big boxing network my boy and AK he just like shook his head because you just realize the names that

it's my life man I'm not dropping them just to drop them you know it's less unfortunate to be around some of the most cultural iconic stars of our time but more importantly great great people great human beings that understand to be around some of the most cultural iconic stars of our time but more importantly great great people great human beings that understand life is about giving back and 99 of our calls at

this point 29 years later with magic is about life and my journey of recovery and how's my family and the love he used to have for my dad when he was alive and my dad had for him i mean you know when my wedding party my first marriage um you know magic dennis rodman smoking joe fraser all flowing all in the wedding party you know they become family you know it goes so much beyond business because their circle to trust a limited amount of people is so small in that world and uh that means everything. My 50th birthday, you know, Magic, you know, was there with his whole family, EJ, Elisa, the daughter, his wife, his executive staff, Dennis came in. You know, stuff like that means the world to me.

It's so much more than just money, just to see that love and that trust and that bond that we're able to develop. And at the end of the day, I mean, I think you nailed it. Like, we're all human. You know, like these guys get put on pedestals and they should be. able to develop and at the end of the day i mean i think you nailed it like we're all human you know like these guys get put on pedestals and they should be i mean they've got natural skills and talent that have you know blessed them and you know that are so rare like back to baseball

cards talent is rare baseball cards are rare because of the demand and the demand for sports and to watch it but the rarity of the elite athletes is what creates them. But you scratch underneath it all, and we're all human beings. They're all human beings. Exactly. So to develop those relationships. And trust me, they have tough days. I mean, all of them, just like anybody else.

And Carmen Electra and I, a couple times a month, we'll have an hour, two-hour call about life. We laugh our butt off. I have that with almost every one of them. Every Thanksgiving, I say it all the time in interviews. My first two text messages I get before I can even get to them are typically Hulk and Ric Flair.

You get a woo and a are you taking your vitamins? I get a what's up, brother. What's up, brother? I get the woo and then Are you taking your vitamins? What's up brother What's up brother I get a little bit of both The two goats of WWE world I know

I want to come back to some maybe Some favorite moments And we'll work our way Into the recovery period And you know, maybe even a little before. I know we could spend the whole probably episode on that, and I do want to focus on it.

But talk about at the core, you name all these stars for people listening, you know, influencer marketing has become this stuff. I mean, we're talking about the original, like, influencer marketing, right? You know, Sports sponsorship marketing. Talk about what you do or have been doing and continue to do for these stars so our listeners kind of understand that dynamic, that side. It could be a handful of deals. Over the past probably six weeks, two weeks goes with Magic on two keynotes.

One was for Kyle Serra, a $12 billion company based out of Tokyo. We spoke to 5,000 people. The week before that was with my boy Marcus from Recession Proof. Big conference in Vegas, probably 5,000 people. Ric Flair signed an NFT deal about a couple months back. He just filmed a commercial for Kevin Harrington as a client to Shark Tank, judged for a group that he's consulting for, New Image,

which is a product called Mount Everest and an ED supplement for men. Carmen Electra is shooting a female company this Friday, which is called Screamer Gel. And we did a campaign for DoorDash. Steve Simon in my office, who's my VP, we go back 42 years. He literally set up that first baseball game with me. He did a DoorDash campaign for Walt Frazier, the NBA legend.

He did a gold campaign for Mike Huckabee, the uh you know uh candidate uh from years back and uh chevy chase he uh just signed uh we have an endorsement deal that's rolling out with canes uh raising canes chicken uh so we're kind of all over the board with these very unique opportunities that either come our way or that we go out and find yeah that's a fascinating part for me is like these guys are huge names everyone you named and chevy chase we we get to talk about a that either come our way or that we go out and find. Yeah, that's the fascinating part for me is like these guys are huge names, everyone you named, and Chevy Chase, we could talk about a whole episode.

That's my favorite actor of all time, favorite comedies of all time, Fletch, Fletch Lives, Vacation, European Vacation. Best ever. Best ever. Thank you very little. I mean, I can go back and forth, but in Chevy's family, I mean, he's got three daughters

and texted me a couple of weeks ago. text him just to have a happy Memorial Day, and he goes, you are my son, he goes, I always remember that, I mean, him and his wife, his kids are, yeah, he's a special one, and just incredible impact on pop culture, how many people gravitate now towards christmas vacation and i think i i think you have to be a man to really understand caddy shack and fletch yeah i think they crossed the line back in that era chubby and i always talk about there's things that you definitely couldn't get away with now yeah oh yeah fletch is his greatest body of work he ad-libbed and improv the entire film. It is incredible. And, you know, well, you can have your towel while I just hit a water buffalo. It's like

the most random things of all time. Charge it to the underhills. I'll take a bloody marriage date. To this day, I'm at the country club. It's all ball bearing. It's just non nonstop. I mean,

and then vacation films I've been blessed to not only just know and work with him and his family, but Beverly D'Angelo, I'm going to see her in a couple of weeks. And I've met all the kids that played Rusty and Audrey and, you know, that that's nice too. But I mean,

that's the other thing. Like I get like Hulk and his kids, Brooke and nick are very near and dear to me like you know we get to you know it's it's very special you know i can't say enough about it you know what um who's your longest running client is it magic magic yeah magic larry burke started right after him we actually have an autograph signing book for him next monday um and it's basically the first five were Magic, Larry, Pamela Anderson, Smoke and Joe Frazier,

Chevy and maybe Rodman at that time. It's like six, like right in his heyday playing for the Bulls in 95, 96, the 72 and 10 season. Yeah. What do you think? So biggest misconception to being, you know, you don't call yourself anymore, but the super agent to the stars. Like, what's the biggest misconception?

Let me tell you, we have to work our butt off and we have highs and lows and drama and fires to put out. Like, you can't imagine. It takes a very special breed to work in this industry. It takes a very special breed to um you know understand that a lot of times you're going to throw a lot of things up against the wall it's not going to stick you're going to get a lot of contracts or some extraordinarily wealthy celebrities that for whatever reason in the final hour it could be weeks and weeks of revisions tens and thousands of legal fees and somebody on that celebrity side doesn't like something and it's a give and take and I'm just like that a multi-million dollar project is health and it's happening time and again and you just have to have very very thick

skin understand until that dotted line is sign and that first wire comes in or that check you don't have anything done you know my dad's walking that in a very young age it makes it a little bit more bit more fathomable to understand. It doesn't make it better when it happens. It still stings. But when you've got a guy like Hulk Hogan, who's one of the most recognized humans on Earth, that's been very business savvy and smart with his investments, it takes a lot. When they're 68 now, 67, physically, just to get out and do things.

Mostly what we're looking for now with him are partnerships where it could be his name, his likeness, equity stakes, those type of things, because the appearances, he'll do one or two a year, and it's absolute mayhem. I mean, I've never, probably outside of maybe Ollie and Smoke and Joe is up there, there's nothing like being out with Home Holden. It is notoriety and fame.

It's the alpha of the alpha of the alphas. And I've seen Tom Cruise come running over to Matt Mastro's almost in tears and spiel. I mean, the biggest star in the world become mortal. They become human when they see a guy like Hulk Hogan. Yeah, I think back to the WrestleManias. I mean, half a million people. I don't know how many it was

it seemed like when I was a kid you know like just super stardom of super stardom but something about that wrestling stuff that's that transcends everything right everything everything um let's talk about where did it go south Where did it go south? It went south, as the book says, at my highest moment. I mean, the business was booming, but I was living this crazy double life. I was probably taking and snorting and eating a dozen painkillers a day, Oxycontin, Percocets, and Vicodins. And when I leveraged the fact I was developing sciatica

and the doctors you know believed it was that bad that i could take pain meds on a regular basis for the first five or six years man it worked you know i tell people often all the time and i'm very careful when i speak to high school groups because they're my favorite group to speak to that i was a rock star the first five or six years i mean just fearless unstoppable and building the agency and getting all the clients that couldn't, getting all the brands attached to them. But at one point, it was once living to use turned out to using to live.

And I don't know the day that I woke up and took my morning pills or snorted them, however I would get them in my system, but they didn't work. And it actually started becoming like a kryptonite. And I can never get back that feeling to the point I had to take more and more and more. And after an overdose in Las Vegas, you know, I went on a detox drug called Suboxone for a year.

But at that point, I'm still taking anxiety meds. I'm taking Ambien at night, probably drinking a couple of days a week, taking a mood stabilizer, antidepressants. I was just a shell of myself when the gig was up. And on July 1st, 2008, is really when the first God moment happened in my life because I was sick and tired. I was in desperation. I had given up all the money in the business. And my uncle, may he rest in peace, he passed last September. My uncle, Stu, who I was very near and dear with, uh girlfriend at the time Andrea I never met her before and she walked into my condo with him paid a surprise visit they were visiting my mom from Miami I didn't even know

they were in town and just said are you okay and for some reason I felt this connection this human connection I really never felt with anybody before and I told her everything I spelled my guts and having no idea who she was what her history was anything about her life and she could see around you're an addict that your life's so manageable i said yeah she could be around you're powerless i said 100 she goes again asking most important things she points to all the pictures on the wall some of the biggest stars uh some of the biggest events and whatever and she goes do you realize that the disease of addiction does not discriminate it doesn't matter if you're from Yale or jail or park, Avenue or park bench,

because this stuff doesn't mean anything because you don't mean anything to yourself. Are you willing to do the work? Cause I can help you. And that broke my soul. And I started to cry and I said, I'm desperate. And she put me on a 36 hour detox plan at 36 hours,

7 PM on a Sunday night, July 2nd, I was living in New York City at the Caroline building. I came back from the gym. I'm trying to work out three times a day, anything I can to get rid of the physical cravings, the horrific detox pains. And I called her, my uncle, and I said, I can't freaking do it. I'm calling the doctor. I got to get what I really need to get. I'm losing my freaking mind. And my uncle then just stepped it up and grabbed the phone he goes i'm sick of your bull crap i'm in recovery andrea's in recovery we can help you it's time you check your ego get rid of it kick the crap out of this damn disease that's been in your life since you

were 14 and get the life you deserved and i hung up the phone i said i can't freaking do this and i thought i was going to another bottom but I ran into the bath my locked the door my then wife Simone is banging on the door baby don't do it don't do it and I'm going for all the medicine cabinets to find two non-narcotic anxiety pills which she was allowing me to take during the detox phase in hindsight I probably should have gone to a real rehab and um I found two vicodins came out which are one of the three opiates that's the tiktok so happy it was like such this relief oh my god that i thought was a god moment until i fell on my knees for the first time in my life with the two vikings sitting on my left hand

and i called and i screamed and i begged for his help the first and only time in my life i said take the money take the other, take the other ride, take the business. I'm sick and tired. I'm desperate. I said, I'll do anything. If you can give me a single day of freedom, I will spend one day at a time. If you take me out of hell, take others out with me.

And I had a white light moment. I'm sure you've had people tell you about it. I had a lightning bolt go through my body. This side was a burning firing sensation i heard a voice tell me in this year i've got you and you're ready and i stood up and it wasn't me and this left hand for the first time right in the toilet that flushed the bills and i walked outside into the living room sweating shaking crying and i went into a computer I walked outside into the living room, sweating, shaking, crying.

And I went into a computer and I found a 12 step meeting in the upper 80s in a church that night. And I ran downstairs in a gorgeous summer night of July 2nd, 2008. There was no Uber. I flagged the cab. I rolled the window down. I'm looking up at the sky and I said, oh, my God, for the first time in my life, I wanted to stay sober. I wanted to get high. What the heck just happened? first time in my life i wanted to stay sober my i wanted to get high what the heck just happened and um walked into this church basement 150 200 addicts and alcoholics who all once hoped was state of mind and the leader said is there anybody knew anybody coming back anybody that needs help i believe it was god that raised my hand because how does this so-called big time super angel walk into a room and admit to something

like this the humiliation the embarrassment the disgust the way he's lived this double life but it's in that moment when i put my hand up i said i'm an addict i'm sick and suffering i have the most amazing life outside these rooms and i don't want to live anymore i said i need your guys help and that accountability what about a dozen spiritual brothers and sisters over to me right at that moment in the meeting? And they hugged me and they told me things like stick with the winners. It's easier to stay in recovery than it is to come back. If you want what we have, keep your mouth shut and do what we do. And most importantly, they told me something that just to this day, I'll never forget it. As they were hugging me and giving me support, they said, we've been where you've been.

We are going to love you. If we ever learn how to love yourself, we got you. And I took the five A's that those people taught me, attitude adjustment, accountability, action, and acceptance. And I rolled them up in a ball and I put them into my heart into my soul I went from one day to a week a week to a month and I got to a year and slowly but surely working on the steps and going back into those moments in time in my life this guy became whole and my sponsor taught me the most important thing after a year because you want to keep this it's amazing life I said of course he, you want to keep this? It's amazing life. I said, of course. He goes, you want this gift every day?

I said, yeah. He goes, well, then you better start learning how to keep this freaking damn thing alive because that's how you keep it. And that's when my journey started. Man, that's powerful there. I mean, unbelievable. We'll talk with Darren Prince, prince author bestseller of aiming high darren i mean i i can't help but come back to like this moment i mentioned like the humanity of

you know we talked about the stars but then you in that group of people like you know having to you know become humble and like do what you had to do but feeling i don't know that transcendent moment of wanting and knowing how to get to the other side of it i mean it's like you have to want it for yourself i mean don't you i mean like obviously you felt anybody listening you gotta want it for yourself no matter what we do we're gonna help point them in the right direction but i truly had the gift of desperation on july 2nd 2008 i was sick and tired of being sick and tired and i slowly regained that power of choice back in my life putting this first to this day it comes for everything because anything i put for recovery i'll lose and then once that happened hope and recovery slowly began do you still talk to the people uh from from that from that time period of course

man i mean i got my boy john who uh you know is probably in his upper 70s now my sponsor steve is my closest friend in the world i hope i hate calling him sponsor because we're spiritual brothers uh some of the biggest advocates in the game are my family. Chris Herron, the Xbox from Celtics, Brandon Novak from Jackass, Tim Ryan and Jennifer Jimenez, Ryan Hampton, my publisher, my book, Anna David's got, I think, 20 years. And my writer, I found out, had like Kristen, I think she has a dozen years. And, you know, it's a beautiful thing to be that, you know, all be on that same mission to go out and push this message of hope and recovery from mental health, substance abuse. And no matter what you're suffering with, anxiety, depression, bipolar, you know, it's all about recovery.

It's all about just tapping into that deepest part of your soul that has a hole in it. It's slowly becoming whole by doing the work. You know what I bet, and I have a lot of people telling me this, it's one thing that you've got to get yourself right, but then you're worried. Okay, I've got to tell this story. Once you get there, how many people, though, have either gone, once you start telling that story, i hear a lot of people say this i want to hear your side of it how much they can't believe you know they're worried about

telling that story what that would mean and then how many people are number one supportive and number two have gone through similar things did you did you did you go through that same type of type of thing or did you feel yeah no first, no. First, I mean, when I wrote Aiming High, the first time I broke my hand and anybody on Facebook, my mom was embarrassed. You know, I was so highly respected in my profession, not only, you know, just around town, across the globe. I mean, she would always need to press in media and, you know, with my clients on red carpets.

And, you know, it's embarrassing to a mother. And I told her I didn't care. I go, the embarrassment is not getting sober. carpets and you know it's embarrassing to a mother and i told her i didn't care i go the embarrassment is not getting sober the embarrassment is having to hide that your child is suffering and when i wrote aiming high my dad already passed about uh about a year and a half prior and he always wanted me to write a book and um she was excited but she but she was also nervous that I was putting it out on the world stage. And it took all of about three hours. My first interview was on Chris Cuomo.

And the next morning was Good Day, New York. And she gets a call on that next morning. I picked the anniversary from October 1st, 2018, because that was the anniversary of Thriller Manila. I don't know if you have a copy of my book. We can send it to you. The opening is my historic encounter of getting those two regal kings in the same room.

And they were both passed at that point. And I was with them both for 16 years. Ollie, thanks to my dear friend Harlan Werner, who allowed me in the Ollie camp and inner circle. So literally that next morning, my mom gets a call from an old friend

from high school that follows her, follows me on Facebook and said, I just saw your son's interview. I cannot even tell you that I'm in tears as a mom. I'm cheering for him. The story is amazing. But he take the time to speak to my son, who's in his mid-30s that is struggling so bad with

drug addiction and alcoholism. That's powerful. Dropped everything. And, you know, he got clean. Many others have gone clean and stayed clean and for a mother it was always the success of the agent life that made her so proud i'm pretty sure if she's right here next to me tell you the same thing it's not even close in that you know like and when you look back like you know everyone the first part of the story we're talking magic we're talking hulk hogan we're talking the superstars but now you know what you'll be proudest of in your life is how many people have you

impacted and maybe get on the other side of it right i mean isn't that the real power that's it it's not what you get in life it's what you give and i think i said it on jay shetty's with your friend or omar's podcast um i think i would have one of them but i could what do i want in my tombstone one day when the time comes you know i want somebody that went deep into the hell of drug addiction and came out on the other side and sprinkled hope and recovery around the world to help the next sick and suffering person that's it I bet right there I'm I'm good I do what I was supposed to do being of service well I mean you're doing what you're supposed to do and maybe that was god's way of why he kept you

standing up you know what i mean because a lot of people don't end up that way they end up six feet under you know yeah so when you come out there you got three choices man you get locked up covered up or cleaned up that's what i tell every group that i speak to i like that i don't like it, but I like it because it's powerful thinking about, okay, it's the truth, though. You know, but it's not just stopping the drink and the drugs and the substances.

There's such a spiritual component to this. You know, about me on Light on My Wall, custom on say what I mean, mean what I say, and don't say it mean. I say that all the time. It's about just having that better balance of life, of surroundings of people, and those toxic ones, on learning to keep your distance or removing them,

because their energy will just bring you down. It's about the next time you're about to get into a disagreement. Remember, I told you this, where it's in a text, or strain of pen and tongue, an email, or text. Just don't engage. It, just don't engage. It's just not worth it. Because in five or ten minutes, if you distract yourself with enough other things, you're not going to remember why you were just about to go off on somebody.

It's better to be all right than right. Those are all the tools that I have in my toolbox now to be the best version. I mean, I'm not always perfect. I'm probably 90% of the way there. Still a work in progress. I'll have a moment here and there. I'm a human. But that's what also makes me so obsessed with this mission.

I mean, you're not going to be able to say that a hearing implant, cochlear implant, put him up in defamite left ear for 27 years and with the older ear, told her a couple weeks ago because you know they had to put me on fentanyl in the er in the surgery room uh which i've never taken hated it uh but my girlfriend had to pick me up at the hospital and just did not like the way that i lost she's never seen me like that um and you know i can't take hardcore opiate so i've learned this difference between drug use and drug abuse and it's been very humbling that uh you know i'm able to take i was able to take like thc gummies or thc a very very small dose tylenol with codines very in touch with my network my spiritual brothers my spiritual sister my big grand sponsor steve we met up about a month ago when i was in new jersey and because

this is why and i tell people foundation, that connection is everything. Cause I don't care how much time you have. It's truly one day at a time. And you double down knowing the surgery was going to happen because, you know, once that beast is open, I'm like, you don't even need to tell me that that first day when I was lying in bed

and excruciating pain, and this was losing behind my ear, um, tell people when they say, do you think I'll be sober forever? Let me tell you something. That beast was alive and well. And when he comes out,

all hell's coming with him and nothing comes first. Outside of that, get what I need. But it's a beautiful thing that my foundation in recovery, I had hernia surgery at two years sober. Same thing. Got through within 24 hours,

went on Tyllenol and advil and the old mate that never happens the old mate is this is a free pass man yeah you can actually get sober get into recovery go through surgeries go through challenges go through obstacles never feeling so comfortable during comfortable during an uncomfortable time i had it with my dad i lost my dad in 32 days, perfect health, 82 years old. Had an AR aneurysm. But the blessing was because my perspective and perception changed and everything.

He had a sober son for eight and a half years. Hey there, got to see the best side of you, right? Yeah. That's great. And how's business changed? I mean, obviously you're balancing the day job of still representing. Yeah, I do the best job I can balancing. And I mean, I think, believe it or not, probably business was in a way stronger back in the day.

But not to mention also, we've lost a few clients that have passed away. But I'm okay. I don't need to be that guy anymore that has this crazy empire and private jets and mansions everywhere. That's what I thought I wanted. I'm good at having just what I need and being able to take care of my staff, my mom, my sister, my girl, anything I need to do. And I live in a beautiful place in Brentwood. And, you know, again, my perspective and perception changed that I just want to keep building the brand, maybe getting some more corporate clients that we love working with because getting the corporate clients allow us to establish new relationships with new celebrities

after they work with a bunch of ours. And that's the growth of the business. Yeah. What's your feeling today on, I mean, it's in line with what you do what you know i talked about it earlier but bringing it full circle influencer marketing and personal branding and all that i mean you know in a way it's what you do for a living i mean you know that a lot of these people have built their personal brand and then you're helping them monetize we're big on it i mean some of our celebrities have decent followings.

They relate to the game. Magic probably has 12, 15 million. The Hulk's probably on the same collectively, but they're also in a different genre. They need it. They do it, but it's not really going to ultimately change their life. They're so universally beloved, and their iconic

status is so secure, but we love it i mean we do all sorts of influential campaigns all the time and uh you know it's just such a great effective innovative way where you don't have to get on the plane you could shoot something with your iphone hold up a product do a little video shadow with a swipe up i can't imagine i was representing pamela anderson in her heyday when we started working together in 1995, she'd be a billionaire. Multi-billionaire. I mean, I can't

even imagine if it existed. Rodman and I used to laugh about it all the time, how crazy as he was back then that if he had social media to see what his life was really like, he'd be a hundred times bigger than he is now. Because his life would have been

a tv show oh yeah yeah for sure it would have been uh full-time uh and then now he'd be the full-time you know tiktok star who knows what i mean like all that stuff but i do tell people you know like i mean not everybody's cut out for it but you know attention is influence and influence drives dollars right yeah i mean yeah and that and look at what the core of what you do and with the athletes like they've built a lot of your athletes and stars um no matter what it is you know they've built the audience from something else necessarily. We had a big campaign with Uber Eats for Magic during the pandemic with Twitter. It's just unbelievable.

He literally shipped products to his office, gets a professional photographer, snap a picture in front of some of the stuff and post it. It's just unbelievable. This was non-existent when I started in the business. None of this stuff did who uh i i like to keep this on the up and up and positive so you can answer this or not answer this you can plightfully decline it wasn't on my outline but uh who's who's the biggest pain can you name like who's who's the most difficult maybe maybe you don't even work with them you

just know i mean rodman's was a you, but, you know, we're still very close. You know, there's times that were difficult with him. He called me last week to just catch up. You know, I think outside of that, man, we've been really fortunate. I mean, Chevy had a reputation back in the 80s and 90s of being a little bit of an ass, which, you know, his wife and I all tease him about. I don't think he kind of realized it at the time, but he is just

the most incredible, funny person now. He's in his golden years and just enjoying life. I never saw it. There was always a different level of love and respect when we started hanging out in the mid-90s and working together, but I've heard it throughout the industry.

They were too difficult, man. I just don't think we can manage it. I don't think we can represent them. Because we represent each other. You've got to remember that. So if we're out there hustling and setting opportunities together, you've got to make us look just as good as we make you look. Because otherwise, I can't build our brands.

I can't look for future business. And I only got one shot. I'm Darren Prince. Nobody knows who I am. They all know who you are. So you make me look bad. I'm Darren Prince. Nobody knows who I am. They all know who you are. So you make me look bad. I'm screwed. That's so true.

Well, I didn't realize you represented Chevy, but I wasn't even going to ask for a favor. You messaged me offline, send me your address. I'll get you something signed by him. Could I get him on the podcast for 15 minutes or is that like no way? He hasn't done media in a while, but he does have this big campaign coming out

for Raising Cane. Maybe I can make it happen for you. That would be awesome. Do they have any Raising Canes in your area? Have you heard the name? I've heard the name. What's that? There's one in Clemson. Clemson, South Carolina. That's 25- 30 minutes up there.

It might be a bit of work. I'm not guaranteeing if you have my word, I will ask. I will talk to him and his wife. Because he could do it right from his computer. Yeah, exactly. Oh, man. That would be on the bucket list. I didn't know it was even possible.

My wife would freak out because she knows how much I love Chevy Chase. I'm going to give you a couple topics before we do a rad or fad. So rad or fad, Darren, the metaverse. Rad. All right. We think it's here to stay. It's here to stay. It's going to become more.

NFTs. Rad. The right ones. The right companies. All right. Boston Celtics or Dubs? I grew up a diehard 80s Celtics fan. Larry, Bert Perch from McHale and Larry is a client.

It's going seven. I'm going to say the Celtics. They're going to pull it off game seven in Golden State, just like Cleveland did. Ah, ding, ding, ding. By the time this releases, that will all have been worked out. We'll see if you're a prognosticator of the Celtics. I like the Celtics as well. I caught it in seven, so we'll see.

Darren, man, where can everybody follow along? I know they can find the book Aiming High man, where can everybody follow along? I know they can find the book aiming high, but where can everybody, you know, follow you? Instagram is at agent underscore DP. Darren Prince on Facebook. Should be Los Angeles. I think I'm the only one. Printmarketinggroup.com is the business website. My personal site for recovery is official. Darrenprince.com. And then I've got my foundation for anybody willing to make a contribution. 100% of the proceeds go to scholarship people.

It's called the aiminghighfoundation.org. I do a lot of work with band-aid treatment centers. They have 14 properties. So if anybody really is in need of help, feel free to message me on Instagram. If you can't afford a book and you're interested in reading it to get the help that you might need, message me again and we'll send out free copies. Darren, man, really appreciate the rawness,

the realness, and just coming on the show, man. Thanks, man. Hit me up with your personal information and we'll keep in touch. All right, brother. Hey, guys, you know where to find us. We're at theradcast.com. Search for Darren Prince. You'll find all the content from today see you next time on the radcast