WS507: Cultivating an Abundant Mindset to Create an Abundant Life with Darren Jacklin

We all face adversity in our life, but rather than being held back by it, what if we turned these obstacles into our greatest strengths? When we look at difficulties through the lens of opportunity rather than constraints, a whole new world opens up to us. Darren Jacklin, our guest today, has lived a life with many bumps in the road, where he could have given up at any moment.

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Instead, he used his street smarts and turned it into his superpower of helping people find the right deal and growing their portfolios exponentially. In this episode, Darren shares some of his incredible life story with us and how, through these difficulties, he has not only been able to build great personal wealth but also pursue awe-inspiring philanthropy. We learn about the multiple ways that Darren gives to others. Through fostering an abundant mindset and surrounding himself with others who think the same, he has reached levels he could not have dreamed of. He also shares some of his due diligence advice, what to look for, and why you should not only chase shiny objects. It can be easy to feel pressure to pursue every deal, but Darren advises us to be patient to ensure we do not land in hot water. He also sheds light on why we should be go-givers rather than go-getters, the importance of relationships and not transactions, and unique tips on getting in front of investors. Darren is a special, charismatic entrepreneur with some of the most infectious energy we have ever encountered. Be sure to tune in today!

Key Points From This Episode:

  • From homeless to multi-millionaire: Learn more about Darren’s incredible background story.
  • Find out more about Darren’s downside protection strategy and what it entails.
  • Darren’s top tips on how to overcome blind spots when it comes to finding new deals.
  • Why it is important to educate people rather than to pitch a deal to them.
  • Learn more about the importance of a thorough and patient due diligence process.
  • Relationship equity: What it means and why it’s important in life and business.
  • Understand the difference between and importance of calm, cautious, and nervous money.
  • Darren’s advice on how to get in front of those high-net-worth individuals.
  • Why transparency is the most important but also the most difficult part of syndication for Darren.
  • A look at Darren’s 95-5 principle in standing out to investors.
  • Preparation for the downturn, a recent business improvement, and how Darren gives back.

[bctt tweet=”Start watching people’s feet and not their lips. Talk is cheap. — @MegaManifestor” username=”whitney_sewell”]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Darren Jacklin

Darren Jacklin on Twitter

Darren Jacklin on LinkedIn

Kickstarter

LY2NK

About Darren Jacklin

For over 23 years, Darren Jacklin has traveled four continents and personally trained over one million people in over 48 countries. He has mentored entrepreneurs and business owners on specific and measurable strategies. These strategies have then been implemented into businesses to increase income, transform obstacles into cash flow, and turn passion into profits. Darren has an uncanny ability to increase wealth and success by uncovering hidden assets, overlooked opportunities and undervalued possibilities. His talent has captured the attention of Tiger 21, The Wall Street Journal, Yahoo Finance, NBC TV, CBS TV, Global TV, international radio stations, magazines and newspapers, movie producers, best-selling authors, CEOs, and business experts worldwide. Darren is also featured as an international celebrity in the 2015 movie, The Treasure Map. Currently, Darren sits on paid international boards of directors and advisory boards of public and private companies, and with this experience has successfully advised a small private American residential real estate company to grow to an internationally recognized publicly-traded company on the NASDAQ. He has also personally trained over 157 Fortune 500 companies such as Microsoft, AT&T, Black & Decker, Barclays Bank, as well as high school, college and university students, and professional athletes. His experience has connected him with people in more than 130 countries.

Full Transcript

[INTRODUCTION]

[00:00:00] ANNOUNCER: Welcome to The Real Estate Syndication Show. Whether you are a seasoned investor or building a new real estate business, this is the show for you. Whitney Sewell talks to top experts in the business. Our goal is to help you master real estate syndication.

And now your host, Whitney Sewell.

[INTERVIEW]

[0:00:24.1] WS: This is your daily Real Estate Syndication show. I’m your host Whitney Sewell. Today, our guest is Darren Jacklin. Thanks for being on the show, Darren.

[0:00:32.9] DJ: I’m grateful to be here, Whitney.

[0:00:34.5] WS: Yes, I’m grateful to have you on the show too. I really enjoy getting to know you just a few times, we’ve got to talk, Darren and I’m honored to have you on the show. I know you are going to bring tons of value to our listeners and myself today. Grateful for that.

But in case you haven’t heard of Darren before, a little about him. He is a world-class speaker, corporate trainer and philanthroinvestor. For over 23 years, he has traveled to four continents and personally trained over one million people in over 48 countries. His talent has captured the attention of Tiger 21, The Wall Street Journal, Yahoo Finance, NBC TV, CBS TV, Global TV, international radio stations, magazines and newspapers, movie producers, bestselling authors, CEO’s and business experts worldwide.

Darren, grateful to have you again on the show. Tell the listeners a little more about who you are, maybe where you’re located and let’s jump in to your super power.

[0:01:28.0] DJ: Sure, I’m based here in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Live here, got a beautiful place here. [Inaudible 0:01:35] and myself, we traveled globally across the planet. You know, a couple of hundred thousand miles a year, we launched in 2019, our own private family foundation for global philanthropy. We’ve got a brand-new school we’re developing over in Uganda east Africa. We make a trek over there a couple of times a year, we’ve got a global team working with us with their foundation. That’s virtual. If we’re not out there serving, you know, doing philanthropy work, we’re doing humanitarian work.

I also serve on a couple of different paid boards of directors and advisory boards of public and private companies. One of them is actually a company we helped take from startup to NASDAQ as a publically traded company and we have over 25,000 people in that company.

[0:02:12.3] WS: Wow! I love the title that you give yourself too, ‘the PhilanthroInvestor.’ You know, I love your all’s mindset, you know, the way that you all want to give and are so passionately giving and helping people in another country in a big way. You know, in a very big way and very focused on that.

You know, you are really good at multiplying money and expanding portfolios, it’s like your superpower. But I’d love for you to just give a brief, just background a little bit from where you came from to where you’re at now.

[0:02:41.8] DJ: Sure. I grew up in small city in Canada here, in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, Canada. Less than 20,000 people in population and I was labeled with a learning disability and a reading disability at a very young age. And from grade one to grade 12 of public education, so, I was in special education classes. I didn’t go to regular public school from grade one to grade 12, my whole entire school life was special education classes.

So, I was a D-student in school. And so, a lot of peaks and valleys throughout my childhood, you know, lack of self-confidence, self-esteem, direction and focus. And so, at the age of seven, I created my personal company called ‘Rent-a Kid.’ I would go out and cut grass, shovel sidewalks, deliver newspapers. By the time, I was nine years of age, I hired my best friends in the neighborhood. The parents loved it because we’re out making money, not cause a trouble, being service to the community.

You know, as a kid, I was always able to go out in the first world and make money. Then I learned how to protect it and keep it and insulate it and then the third step though was never taught in school was how to multiply money. You know, I had a situation in my early 20s where I was flat broke, financially. Living on the streets, collection on welfare and checking homeless, eating my next meal out of a garbage dumpster. I learned when I was dumpster diving for my next meal, how to take a couple of dollars I would get from recycling bottles and cans and learn how to take that money and how to protect it but also how to multiply it. I became very street smart.

And today I have multi-million dollar investment portfolio and I help a lot of people and a lot of people come to me all the time because I’m the guy that can take the money because I know what it’s like to have pain and pleasure and I’ve had a lot of pain in my life by no having lack and scarcity mindset mentality, grow up in a low-income family. I know what it’s like to stretch that financial dollar because I don’t know where the next dollar is going to come from and now I know what it’s like to have passive income and an abundance and prosperity and wealth and keep growing that. I’m very good at that.

And so, I’m grateful to see opportunities from a street-smart level and you know, always look at the downside protection of risk mitigation and also see how you can see off market deals.

I’m an opportunist. And I can see when people are in crisis, I can see opportunity how to monetize that and make a difference from a financial return investment but also, how do we make a great profit? But also, how do we pay it forward and pass it on and do some humanitarian philanthropy do some good with it as a planetary assignment?

[0:05:04.3] WS: Awesome, I appreciate you sharing that, I just wanted the listeners to hear – I mean, most likely, majority of the listener’s situation’s not as bad as dumpster diving, you know? It’s still possible, right? To have success and to come through and to make it. I just appreciate you being willing to be so transparent and help others through your story and definitely not an easy road to get to where you’re at.

You know, let’s dive into that a little bit, you know, I love how you talk about this, the downside of protection strategy, you know? You’re looking at deals, one of your superpowers is growing portfolios and obviously you know, you wanted to be careful about growing, how you grow but you know. Let’s dive in a little bit to that downside protection strategy that you talk about?

[0:05:44.5] DJ: Sure. I’m guilty in my 20s and 30s of chasing shiny objects and the deal of the week, you know, people approaching from all different kinds of deals and going to networking events and trade shows and conferences and workshops and seminars. When you get a chance to be in a public, we’re always meeting different people.

Everybody’s got the deal of the week, the flavor of the week and they got all these opportunities. And I’m guilty in my 20s and 30s, I’m 47 years of age now. I feel like I’m 16 with the energy and vitality that I have, but I’m guilty of chasing shiny objects in my past. Not going through the discovery process, the due diligence process, taking my hard-earned dollars, putting it in there and then going sideways. You know what I mean?

I’ve learned from losing hundreds of thousands of dollars over the last few decades of my life and going to that pain and challenges of how to look at downside protection today. So, I’m looking at due diligence and discovery, building your inner circle, protecting your inner circle of people.

But also, the strength of teams working on very smart teams of people whether we’re using it through Zoom video conferencing, we have a virtual team or people right here in Vancouver, Canada. I’m able to pick up the telephone or get on to a Zoom video conferencing call and vet and punch holes and opportunities very quickly for downside protection.

I’m a great asset to be on a team with people, where we’re going through the due diligence process because I’ll ask the hard questions, I’m going to see things from 30,000 feet and from my street smarts that I have, I’ve seen things because I know what it’s like to lose money. I know what it’s like to have those sleepless nights and being a couple of months behind on the rent payments and utility bills are coming in and I can’t pay the utility bills and you know, I’m about to get evicted around my electricity shut off.

So, I’ve had those adversities and challenges in my life from experiences so I have the history and experience. Now, when we look at opportunities that we’re investing or co-investing myself personally with Tatiana and myself. We checked in on myself or we co-invest with other people or work with different family offices or high net worth, ultra-high net worth investors.

I’m able to see things that maybe most people won’t see as a blind spot because of my experience and my history.

[0:07:43.3] WS: How could you help us as far as, you know, we haven’t had that experience but to really be able to see some of those blind spots? You know, instead of just chasing a shiny object like you talked about. Because I think, we’re all guilty of that at some point or in our life or investing career, right? We’ve made those mistakes but can you help us to help see through those blind spots a little bit?

[0:08:01.6] DJ: The key thing is, start watching people’s feet and not their lips. Talk is cheap. Lots of people talk on social media, on the Internet, you see them on the trade show and investment seminar, workshops, you see lots of people talking. But watch the feet. Behavior never lies and if people are taking notes, write that down. Behavior never lies.

One of the qualifying questions that I asked that was taught to me by billionaire friend of mine. Is he said to me, “Darren, whenever you see somebody, this is how you get a status update from them.” I would say, “Hey Whitney, I haven’t seen you for a long time. What have you been up to since the last time I saw you?” What I’m listening for is for you to give me a status update of have you made measurable progress?

This startup company you were raising capital for, this Kickstarter program that you are involved with, this real estate investment opportunity you’re involved with, where have you made measurable progress in the last three months or six months or years since the last time I saw you or talked to you on the phone or how to chat with you online?

What I’m listening for is consistency is actually, are you moving the needle? Are you making measurable progress, are you moving forward into action? Because sometimes, people get stuck in analysis paralysis where they analyze things to the nth degree. Or they have fears, they have doubts, they have worries where people talking good game but are they selling the sizzle or is there actually steak?

Now the other thing is two: What I’ve learned from, in regards to doing a lot of investing is a lot of people out there are pitching and selling. But when you’re dealing with high-net worth investors like myself or ultra-high net worth or ultra-wealthy families, the key thing is they don’t want to be pitched in sold, they want to be educated, step number one. They want to be educated and step number two is they want to be informed.

When I sit down with somebody or I meet someone in an airplane or met an investment conference like for example, I was just two days goes on an investment conference for real estate here in Vancouver, Canada. Guy sat beside me, automatically start pitching me. Now, I’m automatically repelled. I’m not attracted to him. I just can’t wait to get away from him because you just got commission breath off the guy, the guy just trying to pitch another deal.

Meanwhile, the people in the room that got money out of 600 plus people in the room, the people who have got net worth and got money and got cash flow coming in, they’re quiet. They’re on the sidelines watching and observing people chasing the shiny objects in the middle.

The key thing is, always educate inform. Get around people who are worth a lot more financially than you, who are doing better than business than you, who have a larger real estate investment portfolio, who have more passive income than you, who are playing life at a bigger game than you.

Notice them as well because what happens is, sometimes we believe what people are saying from their lips and we don’t go through the discovery of due diligence process to realize and verify that. Verifiable evidence that really, they’re in a while bunch of bad debt. Or you know, they’re living this materialistic lifestyle is show to look flashy in the outside but meanwhile, they’re financially struggling on the inside. You know, they got the fake watch, they’re driving the car they can’t afford, trying to impress people.

Make sure that you watch and observe when you’re watching people. Don’t enter into a relationships or deals right away. Take some time, massaging, goes flow. That’s why I always share with people, when I’m on stage, a lot of times or panels being interviewed for investment. Take your time and go slow. People are like, “Oh, you got to get involved with this deal.”

Well, is it speculation? Is it a shiny object because guess what? Just like a bus, another one’s coming 10 minutes from now. There’s lots of deals out there. But the key thing is, there’s a lot of junk deals and then you got to watch the quality of deals that can return the return on investment to the investor. And they’re good deals because when you get around the right people, you magnetize opportunities.

I always say to people, “Listen, there’s no shortage of money in the world, right? There’s no shortage of money. Get around people already made the money and being the right room with them, in the room, in the deal,” and you’d be amazed at what that can do for you over a period of time.

[0:11:47.5] WS: Love it. I’m taking a bunch of notes.  I hope the listeners are as well. I think it’s great advice too, educating versus pitching. Could you maybe give an example of maybe like what that guy was saying, that’s pitching? I think most of us are understand when somebody’s pitching. But I still just want to like reveal or take away that blind spot for the listener and myself.

[0:12:05.4] DJ: The key thing is relationship equity, okay? I’ll use social media as an example. LinkedIn. I’m on LinkedIn. I get daily a half a dozen who had dozen private messages through LinkedIn daily of people pitching. Pitching all the time. There’s no relationship equity. It’s transactional versus relational.

And people that are high-net worth or ultra-high net worth are doing well financially and are successful, they rely on that relationship because that trust and rapport has been established and it’s credible.

What happens is people play this numbers game through social media for example. I’m using LinkedIn as an example where they just realize, “I can go and hustle and just hit 2,000 people this week, hire virtual assistant in the Philippines for minimum wage dollars and have that virtual assistant just go ahead and send into everybody’s inbox this template message that is just sent to everybody.”

Well, it’s transactional. You’re just going to get people hitting delete button that are educated because it’s transactional. That’s the key thing from pitching and selling.

Whereas when I go out and I meet people whether it’s in an airport lounge or I’m traveling, what I do is Whitney, my goal is to find out as much information about you, right? Your family, do you have children? What kind of hobbies do you have? Do you read books? Do you attend educational events? Do you watch different types of YouTube videos? I want to know as much as I can about you so I can understand, right?

You know, I always follow the medical industry, prescription before diagnosis is called malpractice in the medical industry. A lot of times, people go to real estate seminars and what happens is people are prescribing, “Oh my gosh, Whitney, you’d be so good in this deal, you should get involved.”

You don’t even know if I’m the right match. We haven’t been through a discovery process or a due diligence process yet. I haven’t talked to my spouse or my partner or had that pillow talk, right. What I do is I just listen and ask questions like one of the questions I’ll ask people that I’m around different investors, “Hey, are you allocating any funds right now? Are you liquid, are you looking at deployment of capital right now? How much money are you looking to move?” I have these more higher-level conversations.

You know, “What’s your risk tolerance level, what’s your sweet spot? What’s your strike zone? What are you looking at?” I just come from an inquiry mindset where I’m an inquiry, just find out more through the discovery process.

And most people don’t go through a discovery process. They go boom, try and close you right away and what happens is it doesn’t attract people, it repels people.

[0:14:29.8] WS: You have to be patient, don’t you?

[0:14:31.4] DJ: You do, build out relationship equity and relationship equity takes time. I deal with a lot of sort of wealthiest people on the planet. You know, they have a lot of gatekeepers and they have insulation of protection and people ask me, “How do you gotten access to some of the wealthiest families on the planet through their family offices?”

We’re talking to multi-billionaire level families and I said, “Through patience and through building relationship equity.” Because when I meet somebody and I build relationship equity by being a go giver, not a go getter and not expecting ending in return, just being a go giver and just building that relationship equity over a period of time, when I’m not attached to it, sometimes it will pay a dividend, right?

But the key thing is build that relationship equity, build that trust, that rapport, that integrity gets established over a period of time because people watching your feet, not your lips, right?

The key thing is, when you’re dealing with higher level people – One of the projects I’m involved right now is an equity partners is a five-billion-dollar project, right? In the ultra-luxury private island space. You know, it’s a 10-year project from start to finish, we’re in year three right now. That’s patient money.

Here’s something, if your listeners, they’re taking notes. Something you can write down, use a good take away: Whenever you go to invest in something, okay. No matter what size of it is, no matter what financial sizes, always remember this. There’s three steps to this. Step number one is, what we call calm money. Calm money. Step number two is cautious money. Step number three is nervous money. So, it’s calm, cautious, and nervous money.

Whenever I go to look at an opportunity, I always ask myself, “Am I calm? Am I cautious, or am I nervous?” If I’m calm, it’s like a green traffic light. If I’m cautious, like a yellow or amber traffic light, and if I’m nervous, it’s like a red traffic light. Whenever I’m calm, I proceed, right? If I’m cautious, do a deeper dive and due diligence. Ask an accountant, a lawyer, call up somebody, ask for references, referrals, background checks, okay? If I’m cautious. If I’m nervous, walk away from the deal, always trust your gut over my experience.

I have a lot of women that work with me on my teams. Women’s intuition, I am guilty in the past, it’s cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars of not listening to women’s intuitions. Today, if I’m in a business negotiation or an investment meeting, whether it’s virtual or it’s in person, I always have women who have strong female intuition in the room. Because they have got my back and they can smell things, they can see things that I may have a blind spot to. But I tell you, they can detect it.

Tatiana, my partner in life, I’m blessed to have her in my life, she has a BS detector, she was a high school teacher for 35 years, multi-degree, bilingual and imagine being a high school educator for 35 years, dealing with kids with hormones, all the stories that kids would lie to you with. I bring her into all my meetings and she’s mostly one of my gatekeepers because I tell you, she can detect things right away.

Always remember, calm, cautious or nervous money. It will save you your generational wealth. It will save so much stress and frustration when you can just start to develop that muscle. Am I calm? Am I cautious, m I nervous? Even when I’m in events, or dinner parties or charity events. To tell each other, we go, should go two. She’ll go three, she’ll go one.

I know who to avoid or who to stay away from because Tatiana is getting a read off that person or I’m getting a read off that person, their vibration of energy because behavior never lies that they’re nervous. You know, your background. I think you were in law enforcement, correct?

[0:17:56.2] WS: Yes.

[0:17:57.0] DJ: if you look at calm, cautious, nervous, you probably, you know, be on the street all the time as a patrol officer, you probably use that when you’re patrolling on vehicles. You pull somebody over on a roadside check and you get out of the vehicle with your weapons. Am I calm, cautious or nervous at this road stop?

[0:18:09.8] WS: You better listen too. You know how you feel, you know? Such good advice there and I have learned the hard way numerous times. And I have learned that with my wife, she’s not in real estate, real estate is not a passion of hers however, I can just be talking about something and she just has that sense about it and I’m like, “Okay, I need to listen to this. What was that?” you know?

So, it’s such good advice and I love the calm cautious nervous thought process. You know I just love that and if you’re nervous just don’t even investigate anymore right? Let’s just walk away.

So, before we run out of time, I love for you to elaborate a little bit on how can we get in front of or connect with those high net worth individuals like you have? I mean okay, so you’ve helped us change our mindset. Now we are thinking patient, we are going to establish the relationship, try to educate instead of pitching.

However, getting in front of or next to those people is not always the easiest thing, especially you have lived this, I mean coming from looking at a dumpster, well those people are not looking to you for advice but now they are, you know? So just give us a couple of tips to help us to get there?

[0:19:14.6] DJ: So, a lot of the influential people will support charities or non-profits or charitable groups or religious groups or foundational groups. So, the first thing that we can do, it depends on your situation is find out if they are supporting a charity or a cause that’s greater than themselves outside of their family.

And so, if they support a church group or charity group or non-profit group, find out if there is a silent auction that is going to be happening that year or the next couple of months. And if you have a business and you have access to some parts of their services, donate something for an auction or a silent auction. Because what it does is it gives you attention. It gives you into proximity because proximity is power.

Another thing is, is making a financial contribution. It doesn’t matter what size it is or make a financial contribution to somebody’s charity or foundation because then what happens is when you are building that relationship equity by being a go giver not a go getter, okay?

So always find a way, the word tips, when you go to a restaurant people say you know you should always give the server a tip or tips. Most of them don’t realize that the acronym for tips stands for “to ensure proper service” that is where the word tips comes from, to ensure proper service. So, if you look at to ensure proper service when should you tip? Upfront. So, in finer dining restaurants the people that are coming in tip the server upfront so they can manage the expectations of having incredible outstanding service.

So, the same thing when you’re around people of influence, you know go to the country club, go to the dinner parties, go to the fundraising event, get around people – So, there is two types of people. There is people who got money problems, they have a lot of money – Like so my friends if you can do one of my dinner parties you would hear conversations of people making so much money, they don’t know what to do with it because they have multiple revenue streams coming in. They are going through liquidity event. You know they got multimillion or tens of millions or hundreds of millions of dollars, they’re in the billions of dollars of real estate and that is in portfolios. So, they got that.

And then there’s people who have a lack of money that never had any money, right? Are paycheck to paycheck, are in lack and scarcity mindset. So, the key thing is taking inventory, write in a journal or a piece of paper who you’re spending time with?

And then think to yourself, “Man, I got you in the next 90 days get in front of people who got financial problems, they got so much cash coming in they are looking to deploy into income producing assets that I can make introductions for to help people with.”

You don’t have to have money. You just have to know people who have got money looking for deployment and then find a way to structure things that are fair across the board in integrity win-win and get a piece of that.

And that comes from education and working on yourself.  And you know there is lots of videos on YouTube and books you can read and courses you can take and people you can get around to educate and inform you on that. But the key thing is proximity is power. So, what I do with a lot of influential people around the world, I am always that go-giver first to build that relationship equity and I make it relational versus transactional.

[0:22:01.1] WS: Love it! Wow. I wish you and I could just talk about this for a couple more hours but unfortunately, we are getting low on time, Darren but it’s amazing value that you are providing and I am so grateful.

But just a few questions though before we do run out of time. You know you are so experienced in investing now too, what’s been the hardest part though of this syndication process or business for you?

[0:22:19.5] DJ: I think the hardest part is people full transparency. What I resonate with is authenticity and vulnerability. Like just full transparency, put all of your cards in the table. And so, when we are going through the discovery process of due diligence partners because I get approached all the time, people want to give me money and partner and co-investing in things and I am open to having conversations with people, but what I respect and admire the most myself, Tatiana, my team and I is just full transparency.

Just put all of your cards on the table, be authentic and vulnerable because if you’ve got skeletons in your closet, we got a very strong due diligence team that will find them. We will find out where the people are buried.

So, if you have made mistakes in the past, you have been involved in litigation, tax problems, divorce, child custody problems, maybe you don’t have the greatest credit rating or credit score, just put all your cards on the table and be full transparency with us. Just be right up front. We call it the integrity test.

And sometimes when we are in discovery, Tatiana and I or some of the people in our team, we’ll ask you specific questions as part of the discovery process because we are testing your integrity. Because we believe that without integrity nothing works. There is no workability without integrity. And that is foundational, it is a core principle of ours.

And so, for us, if we can establish off the bat that we’re calm with meeting you and that you don’t have integrity and that you’ll sell out on your integrity, we don’t want to be involved with you. Because we have a philosophy with what we do that we love to work with people all over the planet. That we have a mindset that we invite everybody to co-invest and be a part of what we’re doing and some of the projects because really what drives me is philanthropy and humanitarian projects.

But the thing is we’re always looking for that one – If we invite everybody to a pool party as an example – We got a couple hundred people, we are in a hotel, we’re having a big investor pool party, one person pees in that swimming pool it ruins the experience for everybody who is invited to that pool party.

So, we are always mindful who’s going to be that one person that is going to pee in the swimming pool and ruin the experience for everybody else that is there for the day? And so, that’s what we do in terms of vetting people. It is making sure that nobody pees in our pool because otherwise we ruin a great experience for everyone.

[0:24:17.8] WS: Wow. How are you prepared for this potential downturn that everybody is talking about?

[0:24:22.3] DJ: Strong balance sheet and liquid cash.

[0:24:25.8] WS: What about a way that you have recently improved your business that we could apply to ours?

[0:24:28.8] DJ: You know what? Have strong accounting.

And also, too is – I’ll give you a great example, when people do up business contracts they go to a business attorney or a business lawyer and they use templates but always today in the world we live in today have a trial lawyer, look to see if he or she could blow up your business contract.

Because if there is ever a litigation, I am grateful I have never been in a litigation because we built strong relationships. But if there is ever a chance for litigation the business lawyer who wrote up your business contracts him or her is never going to go into a courtroom to defend you. It is going to be a trial lawyer.

So, all you do is hire a business lawyer but get another set of eyeballs with a trial lawyer to blow up that business contract, to punch holes in it to mitigate the exposure to risk and liabilities.

[0:25:14.1] WS: Over 500 shows I have never heard anybody say that before, it’s incredible. It is such a good advice. So, Darren what about a way that you’ve seen people stand out in your mind as far as relationship with investors between operators and investors?

[0:25:28.4] DJ: Good point. So, we call it the 95-5 principle. So, 95% of the things that you do every day you’re doing it right in your business. But it is a 5% that’s the blind spot – But I’ll just use a quick example because it is visual.

You go to a hotel okay? You pull up to a well-branded name hotel and you pull up and there’s cigarette butts in the parking lot. There is gravel in the parking lot, there is Slurpee cups, there is fingerprints on the windows, there is a couple of burned out light bulbs. That is the 5%.

So, what Tatiana and I always focus on in anything that we do, we are doing 95% right but what is the 5%? The attention in the little details. It is like when you go to the luxury resort, it is how the bath towels feel, the toilet paper, the smells of the shampoos and the conditioners, the lighting, the ambience, the HVAC systems pumps in perfume, right? All of these little things make such a big difference.

And so, when you’re dealing with more successful, more influential or affluent people at the higher levels the attention to the small little details. It is so important. It is the 95-5 principle, pay attention to the 5% and so what I do is I always have people come out whenever we are doing something whether it is brochures, it the website, you are doing a presentation, you’re at a dinner party, I have people I purposely plant and bring out that are friends of mine that are skeptical by nature. They’re perfectionists. They have the highest standard of class and quality because I want them to always be punching holes in it and giving us positive constructive feedback so we can always be leveling up and scaling up to another level, right?

So, I always ask in our debrief with our teams that call went great, that meeting went great, this new joint venture partnership, these new opportunities we’re involved with but what can we do better? What is the five percent? What is our blind spot? What are we missing? How can we level up and skill up?

And if you focus on the 5% that’s a competitive advantage, you watch how people and opportunities will start to come to you because remember this: never assume that you aren’t being observed. Never assume you aren’t being observed, we’re always being watched and we’re always being observed.

And so, when you focus on that 5% you will be watched and observed from a whole different level than people that will come into your life because they’ll see that this person is best in class, the best practices. They operate from honesty and integrity, authenticity, vulnerability, full transparency and they have an incredible culture that they want to be a part of because they know that if they come there, if they are investing with you, their money is protected and it’s safe and they grow a long-term relationship that is relational versus transactional with you and that’s the 5% that makes all the difference.

[0:28:04.1] WS: Wow, I am going to go back and listen to the show numerous times Darren just so you know. This is incredible. So, what is the one thing that’s contributed to your success?

[0:28:12.0] DJ: Constant never-ending improvement, personal growth and development, turning my vehicle into a mobile classroom. When I am on an airplane I listen to educational audios, reading a minimum of 10 pages a day. Always be learning, observing, be best in class, right? Spend thousands of hours learning what you’re good. That sweet spot that strikes sort of what you’re best and learn how to master that.

So, I would say constant, never-ending improvement. To always be growing and developing and making myself better and better and better. So, I get a better version of myself.

[0:28:41.6] WS: And Darren, I always ask every guest at the end how do they like to give back and I love to hear more about your family foundation or anything you like to share about. I know it is such a big part of who you all are.

[0:28:51.2] DJ: You know what’s interesting is we talk a lot about give back, I believe in just give, right? People always believe that you have to be the certain standard or certain level of life to give back, what if we just start giving, right?

Whether it’s a smile at the grocery store or letting somebody who needs to rush in, in traffic just give. Tatiana and I are blessed in our life now to have our own private family foundation called LY2NK Foundation. and if you go to darrenjacklin.com you’ll see a link on the website for that.

But we are building, our goal is to give a $100 million over the next 20 years. So, through our family foundation, global philanthropy projects. We live to give because we believe the secret to living is giving.

Tatiana and I are not motivated by money. We are motivated by freedom and making a contribution in the planet and helping out less fortunate people through education. So right now, we are very focused on building schools in third world countries for a couple of reasons. One is education and to minimize the impact of child sex trafficking.

Because it is rampant around the planet right now as child sex trafficking and it is not just the child sex trafficking today, it is now they call organ harvesting. There are people around the world who are corrupt, who take these small little innocent little girls and little boys and they look at them as commodities, as monetization of their little bodies and wants to use and abuse to child sex trafficking between the ages of six and 11, 12 years of age. They are still abused and mistreated these young little girls and boys and then take their vital organs and harvest them on the black market or on the dark web of the internet for profit.

So, our foundation, the people we’re around are committed to disrupting that through education and through other things that we’re doing to make a difference in the world. If anybody wants to be a part of that and learn more, just reach out to me through darrenjacklin.com and we can arrange a discovery call or have you meet myself or some of our team members to have a conversation.

And if you ever want to come to Africa, we are doing some stuff in Uganda, east Africa and you want to go on an African Safari or gorilla trekking or have an experience to get around some great people you can network with and collaborate and brainstorm and mastermind with. And it’s your planetary assignment to give or give back to the planet that we are taking all of these natural resources and consuming, then reach out to us because we go a few times a year over to Uganda, east Africa and we have so much fun.

We dream build together, we mindshare together through a collective intelligence with likeminded people. And we create mark the moment experiences that are so much fun but also, we make a difference in people’s lives that can never ever repay us and it is priceless what we do. It’s incredible, the experience and the feelings you get when you can bring in clean drinking water, provide education. And do things for people that you know are just living life but it is such a grateful experience.

And you get a chance to get around likeminded people to share those experiences with that come back and you become a changed human being when you go through those experiences.

And I encourage everybody to consider as part of their planetary assignment, what’s a humanitarian philanthropy that you would like to dedicate your life to? Because when you dedicate your life to a cause greater than yourself, you get out of the way of yourself, you become unstoppable, your energy becomes contagious and magnetic and people just want to be around you because you are making a positive contribution on the planet.

[0:31:52.1] WS: Wow! Well, Darren your energy is definitely contagious and magnetic. I mean it just is incredible the energy I feel just from talking to you and hearing your passion behind this.

I appreciate you just sharing that too. I just think in North America we are so blinded that it wouldn’t even realize most of us that those things actually are happening out there. And just so grateful for the way you give back and is there any other way that people can look you up or find out more about the LY2NK Project or ways to find out about your connect?

[0:32:19.6] DJ: Yeah, you bet. Google me or just go to darrenjacklin.com and all the detailed information is on there. There is a contact page you can reach out to us. Tatiana and I travel frequently. We are on the road all over the planet all the time.

So, reach out to our website. There is lots of great information on there and if you’ve got cash right now, you’re looking to invest in things, we can have a conversation about co-investing or share some things that we are doing.

We are all about risk mitigation and protecting downside. Tatiana and I like income producing assets. So, everything we are involved in is income producing assets on a monthly or quarterly basis. It is safe, it’s protected in what we invest in. We vet it very thoroughly with our team and then we also are around people who have a prosperity abundance mindset. And then our relational versus transactional and believe in abundance and prosperity and not in greed.

But want to make a difference by them doing well and their families doing well. But also making a difference on the planet however they choose to. And so yeah, the people sit on cash looking for investment opportunities, people want to co-invest, they want to get involved in our LY2NK Foundation with our philanthropy projects, feel free to reach out. We love to have a conversation with you and make a difference.

[0:33:22.4] WS: Awesome Darren, that’s a wrap. Thank you so much.

[END OF INTERVIEW]

[0:33:25.1] WS: Don’t go yet, thank you for listening to today’s episode. I would love it if you would go to iTunes right now and leave a rating and written review. I want to hear your feedback. It makes a big difference in getting the podcast out there. You can also go to the Real Estate Syndication Show on Facebook so you can connect with me and we can also receive feedback and your questions there that you want me to answer on the show.

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[0:34:05.4] ANNOUNCER: Thank you for listening to The Real Estate Syndication Show, brought to you by Life Bridge Capital. Life Bridge Capital works with investors nationwide to invest in real estate while also donating 50% of its profits to assist parents who are committing to adoption. Life Bridge Capital, making a difference one investor and one child at a time. Connect online at www.LifeBridgeCapital.com for free material and videos to further your success.

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