Darren Prince
Appearances
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
Highly functioning until I wasn't and then it just became this crazy facade and this double life and you know I just know there's so many people out there that we know of and don't know of that are suffering from mental health and substance abuse and It's just so beautiful that you guys have this platform now around the world.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
At agent underscore DP, princemarketinggroup.com. Thanks to your incredible team. We have an amazing website. So make sure you check out Rudy's team for that. And I'm still on Facebook, the old school Facebook. I'm on LinkedIn. I have a TikTok page, but I don't even know how to work it. But for the most part, you can Google Darren Prince and quite a bit of stuff comes up.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
And thankfully, it's quite a bit of good stuff because I've been on the right path in my life for a long time.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
so let's dive in um do you mind just uh kind of giving everyone a a teaser of what in the episode they'll kind of hear and your backstory into all this yeah so it's more or less uh being a fly on the wall to my life journey of working with some of the most elite icons in the world while i was more or less struggling uh deep in hell and addiction i found my
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
my purpose man on this journey yeah and i found my mission yeah on this journey and uh who would have thought working with all those icons would have given me a platform to meet people like you, get in business with people like you and get on a show like this.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
Yeah, I mean, highly functioning until I wasn't. And then it just became this crazy facade and this double life. And, you know, I just know there's so many people out there that we know of and don't know of that are suffering from mental health and substance abuse. And it's just so beautiful that you guys have this platform now around the world, you know.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
Darren Prince is a best-selling author, public speaker, and entrepreneur. He is the president and CEO of Prince Marketing Group, a sports and entertainment marketing agency that specializes in marketing and celebrity bookings.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
I know there's a stigma in certain countries still, and I think it's work hard, play hard, and don't complain.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
Blue collar mindset. And if you're really crushing it, it's that white collar mindset. Oh, no, no, no. I got it going on. I don't have any problems. And the reality is we all do. Everybody struggles with something. You know what I'm saying? You could be struggling on the bottom of life and you could be on top of the mountaintop.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
And the reality is unless you're working on here and in here and in here, you're not going to get the quality of life that you deserve, that genuine happiness to create that legacy that we're all trying to leave.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
Johnson, Smokin' Joe Frazier, Pamela Anderson, and our prime, you know, Dennis Rodman, prime years with the Chicago Bulls. And, you know, everybody said, man, this guy's got it all. Everybody I grew up with, look at this life. You know, the woman wanted to be a part of it.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
guys wanted to be a part of it everybody wanted to be rubbing elbows with me but you know i was hiding a deep dark secret and was it a pure you know you'd go home that day and that whole like week a month it would just be ongoing i wouldn't say it was 24 7 it was all throughout the day though like i would i would need my opiates to get my morning started and then somewhat in the afternoon always before an event but you know i'd be sitting here with you and i you know i tell these stories all the time it's just
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
My legacy's got nothing to do with my business career, man. I want to go up there, and people are remembering Darren Prince as the guy that went deep into health and came out on the other side. and sprinkled hope and recovery across the world for people suffering with mental health and substance abuse issues. That's legacy.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
Praise it to me, man, because 16 and a half years ago, I would have been in the bathroom first, snorting some Oxycontin, some Percocets, getting ready to sit down with you for this interview. I don't need to be that guy anymore. I put God first in my life. And I work on those traumas every day because we all still have them. And I try to just go deep into meditation.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
And I think service to others is everything. I think when you put that hand out and you be kind to even be a stranger, I think things just manifest.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
vibrate better in our life because the world is just so focused on success and money and that's good and great. Don't get me wrong, but it really doesn't give you that full genuine happiness, peace in your heart, peace in your soul.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
there is sense of entitlement um you're treated differently at such a young age you're given everything at such a young age um you know even your own family at some point you know has to depend on you financially so now you're like the top dog yeah yeah at such a young age and who's gonna dare try to question your behavior when you're almost like the lifeline to them having the life that they have and you're not given a handbook
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
nobody ever gives me like that ain't give me and my teens my mom and my dad and be like hey you're gonna start a multi-million dollar baseball card company and sell it for a million dollars at 19 and then become one of the most respected agents in the world of sports and entertainment and uh yeah go go figure it out yeah yeah yeah you can't figure it out there was just the way I was treated.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
And I believed it. I needed all that because I had that hole in my soul at such a young age. So I wanted to be the man. And as you know, look, I'm sure I went through it at young age. You had a remarkable career when you were young too, and it feels good. But you have to separate the two to understand, is it giving you that dopamine hit of feeling good? Or is it a validation that, okay,
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
I earn this, but I'm not going to patronize anybody differently because of the way I'm being treated. You give and pay it forward the same way those opportunities come up to you. That's a whole person. That's a person that's secure, that knows who they are, that can look themselves in the mirror and know that walking outside or going to a big event.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
And I mean, I see you when you're at events right now, people flocking all over for photos, selfies in airports, all that. But You're a humble guy. You're at a place in your life where you know you earned it. You work eight days a week, 24-7, and you want to pay it forward to people. And at a young age, it's such a beautiful thing to see because you don't see it that much anymore. Sure.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
I'm probably one of the greatest relationship builders the world's ever seen. And I don't take credit for that. That's my late father, Martin Prince. And my mother recently passed a couple months ago. And they instilled that in me from a very young age when I started working with athletes and celebrities. They were so big on wanting to meet everybody.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
Not in a fan way, not, oh, they just wanted me to be different. My dad didn't always want me focusing on the money. Find that about their family, find out their hobbies, their dislikes, things that get them to take their favorite food. So when Magic's in town or Robin or Hulk Hogan, make sure their favorite food, even if it's not near the hotel, order it, have it brought to the room.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
It's little things. Allowed me to develop deeper personal relationships to the partner now no matter who it is. It could be flare It could be Charlie Sheen Carmen Electra and Theron Columbia the Coleman this morning She's filming on a movie like everything, but every one of them is, you know, how's life? How's this? How's that?
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
You know every call ends with I love you, you know when you see them it's hugs. It's gratitude And you know that tip around for 30 years. It's very rare. Yeah in my position
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
yeah and it's something that i love and i cherish i love just having that personal side versus being that agent that entrepreneur just about the money the money of the money now if anybody's watching this and they're in sales uh consumer goods whatever it might be
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
focus on the friendship and the relationship first i think that's good that's what keeps that evolving yeah it's not six months a year it's years and years and years where you're coming to family functions you're coming to each other's birthday parties that's what gets you the business and i think it's because your mindset's in the right integral place
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
when you live that way instead of being that kind of double personality where you're always about that money, but then with a certain tight group, you can be about friendship. I think you got to be that way in business all the time, no matter who it is. And then as far as the recovery part, I mean, that to me is what legacy makers mean.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
Because I don't care and feel extremely uncomfortable to this day when I'm introduced on some of the biggest podcasts or interviews. And that word super agent comes up and makes me cringe. I used to thrive on that word. So much so when I wrote about it in my book Aiming High that I have a tattoo right here.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
That's how broken and secure, that was how big the hole was in my soul when I was 24 years old and signed Magic Johnson as my first client. I have a super agent tattoo on my leg. Thank God it's there and it's not here because I would have done anything to get it removed. And my father humbled me back then.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
because when I first signed them, the New York Post paid checks, which was TMZ for TMZ, did a little write-up blurb on it. I didn't do a single marketing deal in my life, and it said, Super Agent Darren Prince signs Magic Johnson as his first client to Prince Marketing Group. I grabbed 100 copies. I drove home. I gave it to my friends. My dad comes home and sees it.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
He goes, you need to come over. I come by. He sits me down in his office. He goes, come here. He goes, sit down. It's all serious. He goes, sit. Let me tell you something. They're not calling you super because you're anybody special. Magic Johnson's the special one. Remember that. And I was like, oh, okay. I didn't understand it then. But I understand it now.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
You know, my legacy, truly, when I'm gone, and I've said this on big stages, I've said it on interviews, I've said it on Jay Shetty, I've said it on, you know, big TV appearances. My legacy's got nothing to do with my business career. And I want to... go up there 35, 40 years from now, hopefully, because I'll be 55 in a couple months and I feel better than ever.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
And people are remembering Darren Prince as the guy that went deep into health and came out on the other side and sprinkled hope and recovery across the world for people suffering with mental health and substance abuse issues. That's legacy.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
I think legacy is the impact and the imprint you leave behind. Because at the end of the day, nothing I've done at Prince of Mark and Group is ever going to leave a legacy. Sure, there's big brands and corporations that have had experiences, spending time with Hulk, Larry Bird, Magic, you know, so many of the icons over the years, but that's still not a legacy. Those are moments.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
Those are thrilling memories and moments for individuals where when those people pass on, there might be photos with Ali or whoever or Smoke and Joe But to me, legacy is almost, I have the God-given gift because I put God first in my life to break generational curses. I like it.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
And people's thought process, their DNA, their brain patterns, and their heart and soul to not repeat the patterns of depression, of, God forbid, suicide, drug addiction, alcoholism. And that is something I hold so near and dear to me in my heart. And I think because of it, I get so many of these GMCs, I call them God managed coincidences.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
These God shots that happened to me at such like crazy times in my life. I mean, you know, you, you're super close with Newton. I mean, that was a perfect story where I, I, we don't need new clients, but this was the girl I was blowing with their talent as an American Idol finalist. And, I heard her speak, and there was an energy.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
There was a God-given energy at such a young age that was just like, you know, it's just something special about her as a person. The talent was obvious. And, you know, I just love that, to just have that type of connection with her and different people because you've got to put God first in your life, man. I tell people, if you don't believe in God, believe in a higher power.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
Believe in something that has kept you here during dark times or that near... fatal car accident that could have happened um you know there has to be something that we all believe in and i'm buzzing sometimes in life because i've never been in such a good great place but it's also because i do the work really sure i do a lot of work and i'm on the road
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
And my morning started with a workout, started with my hydrogen water. I'm on the 10X program. Gary Brekus set me up. I've got grounding patches. I did that for an hour this morning on my feet and this. I took a cold shower for 15 minutes. And these are things I do every day. I have the ice bath back at my place in LA, and it's virtual 12-step meetings. It's being of service to others.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
It's checking in on my Aiming High Foundation. You know, we scholarship people all over the world. It's my own 501c3 that I need mental health and substance abuse treatment. All that put together, it's a routine of about nine or 10 things, you know, lingerie with my meditations and, you know, recce and all these deep sort of meditations that I can get myself into with breath work.
The Living Your Legacy Podcast
How Darren Prince Turned Addiction into a Mission to Help Millions
Every day, it's nine or 10 things. I don't miss it. I can't miss it. Because if I do eight out of 10, I'm off. And I feel like I'm not serving the great God that's got me here. And I'm not serving people around me the way that I'm meant to.