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Connect with Darren
https://www.linkedin.com/in/darren-d-roo-sprinkle-322a0937/

Connect with Russ
https://russjohns.com/
https://thepiratesyndicate.com/
https://nextstepnext.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nextstepnext/

Audio digitally transcribed by Descript

Introduction: [00:00:00] Welcome to the #PirateBroadcast™, where we interview #interestingpeople doing #interestingthings. Where you can expand your connections, your community, #kindnessiscool and #smilesarefree. Let’s get this party started.

Russ Johns: [00:00:10] Darren. D-roo, right?

Darren Sprinkle: [00:00:12] That's it. That's it. Good morning.

Russ Johns: [00:00:15] Good morning. How are you, my friend? It's so funny that we connected so quickly and apparently you saw some video of me on a show somewhere on  ether webs and you dropped a note in LinkedIn and here we are.

Darren Sprinkle: [00:00:29] Absolutely, that's how it works. With you talking and I got to get a little bit deeper, a little more piece of you that you wouldn't get otherwise. So that's what really caught my attention,

Russ Johns: [00:00:43] That's fantastic. I love it. It's really amazing because when I looked at your profile, okay, you're in Bellevue. I used to live in Bellevue. You're a musician, I'm a musician,  you grew up in construction in the whole arena of contracting and everything that goes along with that. I started out pushing brooms on job sites. When I was younger, my dad had dragged me out from cartoons and say, hey, we're going to go to work. And we used to go lay out buildings and clean job sites and whatever happened. It was really time with dad. And so it was a great experience and a lot of similarities and the hat that you're wearing is actually from Squibb where I used to work or where I used to live. So a lot of common threads. What are you doing nowadays? Tell us what you're doing right now and what you're excited about on St. Patty's days.

Darren Sprinkle: [00:01:34] Oh yeah. Happy St. Patrick's day. I have to call  my little brother is very Irish. I'm not but I'll need to call him today.  He's our little leprechaun. So man, what have I been doing? I think 2020 was devastatingly powerful year for me. I healed from some major issues with my brain and got my vision back in my left eye. And that really opened up some avenues to a new life and believing that, oh man, I don't have to do a lot of things that I thought I had to do. And so I pivoted, I got out of construction, actually. I was laid off initially. And then that company, I was never really meant to come back. And then COVID hit and things weren't great. We were going to jump in to do these birdhouses out of some reclaimed lumber. I've got a whole wood shop and then I hurt my arm. And so what I've been learning is how to pivot, but a little slower. I'm very good at absorbing the blow and moving on for people. So I've always led organizations and teams and that sort of thing. That although I was in the Marines for such a short time, it really helped me with the mindset of that mind over matter. But the problem is I took that too far. And then I just wouldn't stop doing. Even when I wasn't physically doing, I was constantly doing, how do I get out of this? How do I change this?  I'm learning to slow down and in doing that. It's gotten me back into music, which is funny how you're saying, you're just getting back into music because I had stopped playing for years. And this new project I'm doing has been helping other people unlock their creativity and make a business out of it. That's the easy, that's the simple issue, what are people doing? They're not swallowing fear and they're not able to get past the action or the one, two, three to move forward. I'm very good at that. So I push or pull people out of the nest and help them put a plan together with, if you want to be a musician, what do we do about that? I've tried to do things differently. And then, what I do with people is just, Hey, start videoing that. And the journey is how powerful... the sooner you start in the journey, the more powerful it is for your community that you will build. I'm building a community. And I don't really know what I'm doing with that community other than giving back right now of things I've learned. I really plan on dropping some LinkedIn stuff like, hey guys, just network. It's really easy. This is what I do. That's why I have a big network when I want to. And when I don't, it doesn't do anything. And teach people some basic there's a lot of people out there that I feel are really stuck and, I'd probably just get into doing some of that. My main focus is with our client, James  and we started a company for him called Washing Real Estate. He loves detailing cars. Loves it. He had a detailed shop when he was 20. He's got a car lift in his garage, just, I know I don't even wash my car, so I'm totally different, but he details his cars at night when he's stressed or like I pick up a guitar, I pick up my beat pads or something like that to get decompressed. And I said, man, if you just started filming that and talking about investments and real estate, people would love it. And that's what we're doing for him. And it's already working. We barely scratched the surface.

Russ Johns: [00:04:50] I want to go back. I want to go back and you said something that I want to make sure that we don't dismiss or diminish. And that was that your vision came back. So what was the cause of you to lose vision in the first place?

Darren Sprinkle: [00:05:08] I had an accident first in 2005 where I fell head first ruptured and tore a few disks from my neck down. And when I fell, I hit my eye on the oven handle. It was in my shop. And so at that point, this I was severed and I had a patch over this for a few months. And that came back in 2005, fast forward to2015, I was diagnosed with, or 2013, I had a seizure. I overdosed on some meds and wasn't sleeping and had a seizure accidentally and wasn't breathing. And when I was walking into a men's group and did a half a backflip and then was just non-responsive. And then and so from there I had major amnesia. And that sort of started the brain trouble, from back in the day, I'm a scrapper, I'm a skateboarder. So I've been here. I've probably had we counted. I think there's 23 concussions or something total, and so it's too many for one.

Russ Johns: [00:06:12] But the point I want to make and D-roo is more about the fact that you got back up. You may have heard, may put in the energy to do something about it. It didn't sit in your bed and you didn't sit at home and go, whoa is me. I'm a victim. Poor me. There's somebody going to take care of me. You got up, you did something about it. You're continuing to do something about it. And you're finding goals and exciting things that kind of gets you to feel alive again, like playing music or DJing, or doing some woodworking or filming or whatever it happens to be. The creative process can really ignite things in our mind. It's amazing what capacity we have to actually get back into doing something creative and where it can take us. So I want to make sure that we don't miss out on that point because it's so important for me to share that with the community here and know that we all have the capacity to recover from the challenges that we face in life and continue to build on that experience, I call it experience. So it's like every experience may not be comfortable, however will teach us something in the end.

Darren Sprinkle: [00:07:36] Absolutely.

Russ Johns: [00:07:37] So thanks for sharing that. And I appreciate the fact and hopefully it wasn't too deep for you.

Darren Sprinkle: [00:07:42] I want to circle back because to be fair with those that might not know my whole story. I actually did spend probably two years locked in my bedroom feeling sorry for myself in suffering, not knowing what to do, but in that is where I figured out what I'm doing right now. I didn't realize I was doing it then, but I knew I was trapped. And what I started listening to was I know a lot of people have highs and lows with Gary Vee, but what I'm a systems person. I'm a strategist. So I was reading between all of his books and going, what is he doing here? What, why is he different? And then I came up with my different, but what I needed was joy. I was missing joy. All along. I was just working and then crashing. And so joy was the biggest thing that got me moving again. My wife got me going, got me out of the house again, all of that. So that is what got the fire going, was a little joy, little more, one more and more.

Russ Johns: [00:08:43] Yeah. You can see a little bit of sunshine, a little bit of, few more smiles here and there, right?

Darren Sprinkle: [00:08:48] Absolutely.

Russ Johns: [00:08:49] Yeah. I want to give a shout out to some of the folks in the room here. Silverfox Talks.

Darren Sprinkle: [00:08:54] Hey DJ!

Russ Johns: [00:08:55] What's going on, DJ? My brother, she says.

Darren Sprinkle: [00:08:59] She's awesome.

Russ Johns: [00:09:00] Been missing you both. Thank you so much. My people so much St. Patty's Day luck. Love y'all. Thank you so much, Howard Kaufman here in Phoenix.  Happy St. Patty's day, spring is in the air. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Ken, thank you so much for being here. He's a pirate. Love it. Love it. And DJ says, shout out to all the military vets. Thank you so much, Darren. I have taken a lot of your advice. Do we need to send someone out for you? How can I help you out of this? James says rock on guys. Thank you so much. Cathi Spooner is in the room. Thank you so much. Cathi. Good morning, James. And Jeffrey Berger. Good morning Jeff. #PirateBroadcast™ Happy Patty's Day to everyone. Love it. Appreciate that. And a Facebook user, it comes up as Facebook user because you have to allow StreamYard access to your Facebook account. So love this. Sometimes our best learning comes from our worst experiences. Hey Russ, I'm not catching you often enough, but love your work pirate. And then Mike Baker says, Happy St. Patty's day. I want to talk about this transition in  mindset and as someone who has suffered from depression and known what that feels like, and being despondent to the point where you're not really sure what you need to do, it's interesting how you played out your story and you went from staying in bed and sometimes we actually need to have some downtime. And I think, especially in nowadays where social media is so noisy, so many things going on, there's so many distractions that we can actually participate in all of these things. Someone from, squirrel is really prevalent in my life and so the distractions are there and we actually need to decompress and disconnect once in awhile in order to really allow our minds the time to think through and how we feel about life. And so what are you doing now that is molding what you're going to be doing in the future? What are your thoughts about that?

Darren Sprinkle: [00:11:28] That decompression you're talking about? I never did before. I didn't understand the power of that. And so what I do, I do a quick journal and it's like a, get the nasty out 20 minutes of. However I say, just get the evil out. There's a lot of views of this or that. And then I burned it or I toss it and then I meditate. Like tonight last night I didn't sleep well. And so if I get up frustrated, I got to do that first and whatever I used to do was coffee, email, get some. And then maybe I'll take a nap if I can find a parking lot or something, but like what you're saying that rest, I miss that for years and I didn't know how critical it was for me to be able to perform or even just be okay being me. I needed the rest and what happened was my body was just giving up on me cause of my brain was just taking it too far. And so rest is so important and we don't account for it and put it in our schedule. I started putting naps in my calendar this last year, because like today, I'm up early, I'm going to do a bunch of stuff, but I want to do things later tonight. So rest is key.

Russ Johns: [00:12:37] That's one thing that I think that some of these online entrepreneurs promote that may not necessarily be good advice for everyone. And that's, you have to be in the grind. You have to hustle, you have to work the extra hours. You have to do all of this extra stuff and  I think to a certain point, you can't. You can't necessarily excel in life,  binge watching Netflix, however you have to go out and do something. It doesn't require you to actually lose sleep and live on, two or three hours of sleep at night.

Darren Sprinkle: [00:13:10] Absolutely.

Russ Johns: [00:13:11] You do need the time to rest and recover and actually allow your body and your mind to clear out and know that you can have that moment of serenity now is we have to really think about that. So it's important for us to do that.

Darren Sprinkle: [00:13:30] What do you do to decompress that?

Russ Johns: [00:13:32] I wake up every morning with #gratitude. I meditate. I go for a bike ride. I do this show. This is like a release to me. This is like performing as a musician, same kind of emotionally...

Darren Sprinkle: [00:13:45] Oh, really? It feels that same way?

Russ Johns: [00:13:47] Not like on live stages, cause you, the experience of the live experiences is slightly elevated. However, it's the same direction. It's the same information that I'm out helping somebody, if I can land on somebody that is listening or listening in the future that can maybe be inspired by knowing that hey, I fractured my skull more than once and then broken... every part of my body's been damaged at some point in time and it's I wake up and I feel that, and I know that I've lived. It's, I've had experience that I can tell stories about.

Darren Sprinkle: [00:14:22] Absolutely. Yeah. That's a good way to think about it. I like that.

Russ Johns: [00:14:25] Yeah. It's okay, I can think about all my aching bones, but at the same time, it's also oh, all the stories that I have to tell.

Darren Sprinkle: [00:14:37] I prefer tattoos, but you're right. The scars and the surgeries are it's important. Because there is always a story, if I look back there was big turning points, for you, you said you, you really fell out of construction. Is that what you said? You fell out of construction, three stories out of construction to get into advertising. Yeah, that's amazing.

Russ Johns: [00:14:58] Yeah. And because I grew up in construction, it was always a side job. It was always, I was playing music and I would work construction. And a lot of times, there are times that I would wake up, especially in the wintertime, I'd wake up and I wasn't sure if it was morning to go to work or morning to go play music. Because I would come home and take naps after construction, then get up and play music and then get home about, two, three in the morning and then get up and go to work construction again, early. And so I was on that schedule. I was on the grind and it was like, okay. And then I just started playing music full time. And this is a true story and I haven't shared this. My dad laid me off. He fired me. He goes, Russ, yeah, you're not really excelling at work and you're burning the candle at both ends. I'm going to do you a favor, just go play music and take some time off and focus on one thing at a time. And it was a great advice. And obviously it was having your dad fire you from constructionists it's dad, what do you mean?

Darren Sprinkle: [00:16:07] That's a good one in there though. He dropped the gem on you there.

Russ Johns: [00:16:11] Yeah. Yeah. And it was a great thing cause I mean,  but I became a ski bum, so it was okay. And all of these experiences that we have, we accumulate this thread of knowledge and that's what builds the fabric of life. And it's really, it's who we are, it's who we become and how we look at it and how we perceive it as a gift or a burden. And  I would much rather look at it as a gift.

Darren Sprinkle: [00:16:39] Yeah, it takes time to get that sorted in your brain sometimes, but realizing you get to choose that, that's pretty powerful. To choose. I used to get really pissed when people would make statements about choosing suffering. And you gotta be careful with who you say that too, because when people are in it that's a very hurtful thing for them because they're just stuck, looking back, man, I was perpetuating it every day. I was not thinking out of it, And  when I started thinking differently, I needed help though. I needed other people to help me do that. I wasn't just I'm smart and I'm going to get myself out of this. It was a process and I'm learning that, learning to give myself a congratulations and to take a thank you. Or like the two things I hate the worst. James watching this here, he and I bat that around because we both don't like it. The thing that makes my skin crawl is when someone says, thank you for your service. And because I was injured and then I want to say, I want to wash it out and go, oh, it was, I did a little time. And then I'll direct it, my wife was a better Marine than me or something like that. But, there's no reason to do that. I wanted to be a Marine and I accomplished that. And I did it, with a purpose and these people are thanking me for that because it meant something to them and so I need to just go thank you, and move on. And I'm terrible at just saying thank you. And I'm just but it's the little things having #gratitude.

Russ Johns: [00:18:06] Isn't it funny how we react and respond to other people's perception. It's like opening a door or smiling at somebody. You you don't always get the reaction that you expect and you can't necessarily put it on other people, you have to learn. Okay, what is it about that subject that is triggering for me? And you're right. You have to think through that process and when you're in it and when you're suffering and when you're, you don't know the way out. Sometimes we have to ask for help. And the help is very, you have to be very humble to ask for help. You have to be very willing to stop what you're doing and get to another place. And that's not always easy. And I think there's a certain process that everybody has to go through in order to what I call it the dip of life, we all have dips in our life and there's times where it's, okay. I'm on the struggle bus and I'm not sure what's my exit. Which exit am I going to take here? So we have to really sometimes ask for help. So what's been the biggest challenge for you asking for help or getting out of it or making the change?

Darren Sprinkle: [00:19:22] I just don't ask. My biggest challenge is myself always. I just don't ask. I have an injured arm and I have two grown boys. I They're my size or bigger and I can ask for help from at any moment. And I don't around here. And then I was in the garage and dropped a bird house on my eye the other day. It just fell. I was like, I should have just asked for help, but that is just the story of my life. I I don't think it's going to get done in the right time or the way. I'm a control freak and a perfectionist. So I'm shedding that and allow and allowing space for other people's creativity and time. And, the one thing I'm learning about that, like when you lead other people is everyone's energy is never my energy and that's the hardest thing. And so I always want things immediately. Let's get going. Let's take action. But sometimes people can't do that. And when I make them do that, they don't like me after a while. I'll get everyone over the ledge and then they're like, jeez enough, because I want it more than they do.

Russ Johns: [00:20:26] You want it for them more than they want it for them.

Darren Sprinkle: [00:20:29] Exactly. Yeah, exactly.

Russ Johns: [00:20:31] Yeah. That's an interesting perspective because I have learned over years I'm more of the dip. I don't know if the diplomat would be the right way as I want to make everything okay. I'm perfectly imperfect and I'm curious to see what people will do with circumstances and how they perform and provide feedback and where they go with it and what they do just out of curiosity. That's why this show is so important to me is that I want people to experience what it's like and what I can provide to them in the #PirateSyndicate™. I produce shows for other people. So I do this show too. Provide that experience for people. And if it's something that works for you and it's something that resonates with you, cause we all have a gift. We all have a message. We all have something that we can share with the world. And right now, in this point in history, we all have something that we can actually produce that will benefit someone else in line. Whether it's building birdhouses or polishing cars or construction or any process that we can imagine, somebody is wanting to learn about that and education and experience and learning about that is absolutely critical in my opinion.

Darren Sprinkle: [00:21:52] Totally.

Russ Johns: [00:21:53] It's interesting conversation.  So thanks for coming on, man.

Darren Sprinkle: [00:21:56] Thank you for having me. This has been so cool.

Russ Johns: [00:21:59] I want to be able to to... oh Debbie, it's you Debbie? Debbie's on from Florida here today and Ken quiet time is key. He's in the Island of Malta. So halfway around the world, we're connected and he has a great program over there doing some stuff, tattoos for life.  I don't have a tattoo. I don't have any piercings. It's just something that I often think about and I'm fascinated by.

Darren Sprinkle: [00:22:30] You should.

Russ Johns: [00:22:31] It just has not had, I've just not had the it's, I would think it has to be special. It has to be unique. It's something that draws my attention to it. 

Darren Sprinkle: [00:22:40] Thank you, Jeff. And you're welcome.

Russ Johns: [00:22:42] Lots of great nuggets. Thank you for your service. Being able to receive is vital, so as to be able to give. You can't give what you don't have. That's fact absolutely Cathi Spooner, great conversations. Thanks for the great start to my day. Proud mama to Marines Cathi. Yes. Thank you so much. Silverfox Talks. Yes. And LinkedIn. Good morning, Jess, LinkedIn user. Kenyatta Turners in the room. Good morning, Kenyatta. Thank you so much for being here. See what happens on the mystery show? The LinkedIn mystery show, the live mystery show. St. Patty's Day is here. We're talking with D-roo. Musician, strategist and dogs in business. What kind of dogs do you like?

Darren Sprinkle: [00:23:41] Dogs? I will pull the car over to pet a dog. I'm an obsessed dog person, especially with a mask on people. Think I'm going to take them out or carjack them. I just want to pet your dog. When my wife and I go on vacation, we go to the dog park and hang out with other people's dogs. It's I don't know. I love them.

Russ Johns: [00:24:04] Four legged friends, man, four legged friends. I love this. So tell us what your mission is for 2021. Any big events, any activities you want to share, any connections you want to make?

Darren Sprinkle: [00:24:17] I think the biggest thing is to go at a better pace. Add things to go, to have that quiet, to go forward constantly, but I'm at a better pace. And to to take as many people with me upward and onward in this, a lot of people need help. And like you said, I got a lot of info in my head and we'll see how fast we can get it on the internet for folks and take some people with me, play some music along the way. That's key for me.

Russ Johns: [00:24:41] That's awesome. That's awesome. We'll have to collaborate on some music. I know enough people here. It's like what? Why did my background go away? What is that? What's that all about?

Darren Sprinkle: [00:24:53] Now we're being dramatic. I dig ya..

Russ Johns: [00:24:56] Yeah. And it's really yeah, I'm really looking forward to diving in and getting efficient and effective at music. And I have a vision of being able to take a show and create the background music for it and just expand on that.

Darren Sprinkle: [00:25:11] Get the launchpad app, for your iPad.

Russ Johns: [00:25:13] I have that.

Darren Sprinkle: [00:25:14] Change the keys and change all that.  Yeah. I love that thing.

Russ Johns: [00:25:18] Very killer. Very killer. Thank you for dropping by and joining the pirate community. If anyone is out there and they don't know D-roo, go connect. Say I'm a pirate. Don't just send a blind request on LinkedIn. Type it out. Take the time to meet and greet and introduce yourself and say, hey, I saw you on the #PirateBroadcast™ and I wanted to connect and actually make those connections, start the conversations and do something amazing today because it's St Patty's Day. Come on, get real. And as you know, thank you, Darren. Appreciate you. And thanks for connecting. I'm sure we're going to have many more conversations like this. And I look forward all the #gratitude in the world. Stay safe, stay sane because #kindnessiscool, #smilesarefree and you #enjoytheday. Don't go away. Appreciate you.

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