Deborah, with her thirty years of being an entrepreneur and creating over seven companies, knows exactly what it means to accept the mission. When you make that decision, when you accept the mission to become a solopreneur, to take yourself and your talents to market, then you embrace a life of not only unlimited possibilities, but also the unknown. It's an elixir of fear and bravery that only someone who's
taken the leap really understands. On our show, deb digs deep with her guests to highlight what you the listener wants to know, the stories, the whys, and the hows to navigate the journey to success. Get ready to hear from some of the most incredible mission takers from Generation Z to boomers. So sit up, perk up, and get ready to be blown away. Now here is your host, Deborah Drummond.
Hello, and welcome back to another incredible episode. As you know, I always tell you you're something I'm.
Telling y'all from somehow, and today let me see you are the most entertained. You are the most entertained podcast audience today.
I'm very excited to bring Darren Darnbara to the show today, and I think he might have a few words to say about media, maybe a little bit about entertainment.
But we're gonna have a great time together.
And if you have landed on Mission Accepted today because you thought that sounded like a great title, by the way, you're gonna find out how Darren decided.
To take on the mission and why he stays on the mission.
That's where the good stories come from, is when someone decides I'm going to do something and they think the big bravery comes in making that decision, and then the journey gets fun and it also gets funky and most of the time my listeners, thank you so much. You share and post and comment and you really tell me what you need and I love how.
You are sharing.
And as you know, we are also going global and doing some really cool live shows and you'll see all that. But anyways, that being said, thank you for being here today, Darren, and welcome to Mission Accepted podcast.
Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be with you here.
Absolutely absolutely so.
Darren, why don't you tell us a little bit about what you do and share with us a little bit about how you decided to do it.
I was looking at your things this morning, and I.
Didn't quite catch the story or maybe your story, of how you ended up doing what you're doing.
Well, that's interesting because sometimes I don't even know what I do, and I find it hard to explain. But there's because traditionally we would explain what we do as
being out our job or our career. Mind shifted in a few different directions, but also kept consistent in the main things that I do, which is from a young age, I've always been an actor, and from a young age, I've always been very interested in business and entrepreneurship, and I've managed to somehow do them both concurrently at the
same time throughout my life. And now, you know, being twenty five years older than that that teenage boy, I see that I have consistently done that and it's not really flipped and flopped, but I've managed to keep both of those tracks running. And I used to struggle with that part of it, feeling like shouldn't I focus on one thing or the other. And actually I'm now very comfortable knowing that I like both, I'm good at both.
That's fine.
Well, I think that you know, when people used to we we've had that conversation and people like, you know, if you just do one thing, and it's like, you know, for a lot of creatives, and I know I am one.
There's a lot of creatives that come on the show.
Let's face it, whatever industry you're on, that you're or in, that you are creating, whether it's accounting or whether it's on the screen like you've done.
I always tell people I'm a creative. I'm a creative.
I happen to create businesses or I happen to create my company, or I happen to create.
But it's the creative mind.
I mean, someone called me an lentrepreneur and I'm like, okay, I'll take it if you that's great. There's a title for people do more than one thing at one time.
But I think that if you have.
A mission and your mission, you can have one mission and do it many different ways.
But I too.
Struggled a little bit with hey, maybe if you just focused on one thing, And I'm like, but I'm a creative and my brain doesn't work that way, and my.
Job is to be satisfied in my soul.
So I don't want to do just one thing and feel a yearning over here and I talked about it actually on a summit earlier this morning. They were talking to me about business, and I said, you know, a lot of people used to do a full time job and a part time job, and a lot of times their part time job was more fun, and they wanted their part time job to be their full time job. And now we have this world of entrepreneurship where side gigs are turning into their full time gigs.
And why can't you have pleasure from two things?
Well, and the interesting thing about what you just said, there is no one really does one thing. Even if you have one career and one salary and one job, you still have your off time, You still have your you still have your your weekends and your vacations and things like that, your family.
No one does one thing all the time.
And I think if you're entrepreneurially minded, you you have a lack of that desire to have one job, and you usually do enjoy what you do, so actually your leisure time becomes your work time, and they all intermingle. But it's it's really sort of a bit disingenuous to set for anyone to say they do one thing. We all go to the gym or hang out or watch TV or sleep or you know, all these different different
areas of your life. And I think an entrepreneur just masters those different areas and compartmentalizes them or not depending on how good they are, and does all those things concurrently in the same way most people do different areas of their life concurrently.
Yeah, no, well said, Well said, Well, you know, great observation.
I know that. Let's talk a little bit more.
So. You talked about being an actor or from a teenager. I mean, let's talk about that because you said, I know that you act. Obviously I was watching you this morning. It was amazing. And also, you have this company that's kind of been the same vein and you say that you've been entrepreneurial, you know, pretty consistently in both Has it always been the same or have you been Did you have something entrepreneurial that wasn't necessarily in your industry?
Maybe tell us a little backstory.
Yeah, I did have various entrepreneurial pursuits that I would say they've always been industry adjacent looking back, and at the time some of them didn't feel But when I look at the whole picture where I'm from, the I'm from a small town in North London. Having a career as an actor, which is what I was interested in when I was you know, school, early teens. I realized it's something I was good at in the same way that many people do, just through doing it at school
or on their weekend extracurricular kind of things. But it never felt like a viable career. It's, you know, I'm a product of that negative talk that you get around things that you want to do that no one ever makes it, or it's tough, all those things, and so in my head I always needed a backup plan, or not even a backup plan, just another thing to do at the same time, and studying was one of them.
And I got my you know, my qualifications, and then went to college and all these things, but all at the same time, I was always acting, and I started doing local amateur dramatics like many people do. The shift happened when I was actually asked to be in oh.
I was given the opportunity to be a background artist and a commercial that my head teacher at school knew the producer of, and he knew that me and my friend were like the actor kids at school were always in all the school shows, and he gave us the afternoon off to go because he thought it'd be a great experience. And that really sort of changed my perspective because it was a professional set. We were just you know, showing up to be in the background. I was think
I was like fourteen fifteen. But the lead guy in it, who was also the same age as me, he had his own TV show. He was a legitimate TV star that we watched as kids. It was the sort of show you would watch when you get home from school. So he was a teenage hero. And we found out from talking to him and so that he lived in our area, and so we started hanging out with him as a friend, just playing on our bios things like that,
and through him, I learned about agents. I learned about acting classes in the evening because he was even though he's our age, he had an agent. He was on TV and he took us to his class one evening that was run by his agent. And that changed my perspective because I was in a room of several people that I'd seen on television and I got up and acted with them, and I was like, Wow, this is something you can do as a career, not that I didn't know that, it just wasn't.
In my immediate realm.
And then through that I got representation with a different agent that run an acting class. I had two editions booked. My second one, which was a Dr Pepper commercial, got paid a lot of money for it at the age of sixteen, and that really not like a crazy amount of money, but way more than what your regular part time job was paying. I was on a professional set in a professional studio around other actors, a professional and I was like, Wow, actually this could be a career.
And then my perspective shifted into it being a viable career, but still a tough one where I know I'm not going to make a consistent income all those things. And for a perspective, yes, I booked the second audition professional audition I did. It was another forty before I booked the next job, So that was beginner's luck in a way, and that sort of set the path for me thinking I need another career to go alongside of it.
And what I remember deciding.
At an early age is it had to be something flexible, because I knew I wanted to make myself available for this career and I very quickly saw people lose opportunities because they couldn't get the day off work or because they were you know, had these other obligations. So I decided I needed entrepreneurship because it's the only thing that I can call the shot song. And that's where when I started to look for things that were at bareminghim
contract work. It's not like I've never had a regular job, but it would always be on a contract basis where I would decide each day if I was saying yes or no to that job. Or it'll be things that were commission based, so I could decide how hard I worked at it or not, and I would reap the rewards based upon my effort. And then that sort of
led into various entrepreneurial endeavors. And when we get back to that thing of have they always been entertainment related kind of one of the first sort of quote unquote businesses I ran was a nightclub promotion company where we would promote nightclub nights, you know, getting people to come to your event. Classic, but I was doing the sort of celebrity clubs, the ones that you couldn't get into but you could if you knew the right person, and
they were structured as a business. You know, we had targets to hear and clients and all those things. But it's caused entertainment adjacent because what those nightclubs really wanted from me was my actor friends, my model friends to come to their club. And then I also ran from doing a lot of brand ambassador work, which is kind of the promotional staff, the modeling that you do exhibitions,
pretty people handing out free things. I did a lot of that work in between the acting work which many many actors do, many models do that because it's flexible. And that was my first successful company really that I built around that industry, which was getting actors that were not working work in another industry that was adjacent to
what they were doing and used their skills. And so I built a company called Stuck for Staff, which was a software as a service platform SaaS business as they're now called, which we didn't know that was called it then because there weren't many subscription businesses out there. This
is back in the early two thousands. I did this and it was you know, it's a recruitment platform which matched people in a marketplace that they now call it off staff that work in that industry, and we end up having the largest database of those staff in the country for sure, but probably the world.
Oh my goodness.
Well, and we might as well lead right into what you're doing now, yeah, because it sounds similar, but not, why don't we share with the audience what it is that you're doing now?
Yeah? So right now.
I started a company called wheel Audition, and it's been running for about nine years now. What Wheel Audition is is a platform, a marketplace, a SaaS business, a subscription as a service business see the theme here, that helps actors find scene partners to do their auditions.
It's very very niche.
My last business is also very niche, but this one operates on a similar model. Really, it's a similar structure. And one of the reasons I like these types of business is they're technically infinitely scalable depending on how many customers you can reach. And so when we had the idea for the problem, which was how to actors find someone to read their lines with, it made sense to me to apply that old business model that I built, which,
by the way, we rebuilt from scratch. It's not a technology you could really apply, but the concepts I applied over I deal with different people and that kind of thing. But the concept we applied over which is an international marketplace of people wanting to help each other out on demand. So what we audition is is basically like an Uber for actors, but through video chat. So when you need an actor, you log on and you pick someone that's available right now to come on a video chat like
we're doing now to help you read your scripts. And what you're getting is a professional, qualified, reviewed actor that understands the business that can help you out. And if you're not in the acting world, if you're not in entertainment, you might say, well, why is that necessary. Well, there's
been a few shifts in recent years. Acting has largely gone from an in person audition process where you go to an appointment in an office like you've seen Joey from Friends do, and wait in line and go for your appointment and read with the person in the office.
Has largely gone into a system where you tape yourself on your iPhone or your camera and you send it in, which means you no longer have the other person who would be the casting director or the casting's assistant, and that created a burden on the actor to not only have to set up their lights and their camera and everything, but also have somebody there to read with them. Do the other line, what most people end up doing was asking their roommate, asking their girlfriend, asking their mum. And
that's not the best person for the job. It's it works, but it's not the best person. And so I was looking at well, I was having that issue, and I lived in Hollywood. I lived in an apartment building of about thirty to forty apartments where probably half of them were actors. I know loads of people in Hollywood, and I still found it tough to find someone to do that with me at the time I needed, you know,
a convenient time for me. And so I was like, if I'm having this problem where I live in the most actor centric place in the world, in the middle of a city that every second person is an actor, what is someone in Nebraska feeling, What is somebody in Indonesia or in a smaller island feeling.
Who do they ask?
And so that's how the system was born, is let's connect actors around the world to help each other out through this marketplace.
I love that story for many reasons. One is we hear over and over again. You know, find a solution to a problem that exists, and many people miss opportunities unless it's really a part of their inner world. And then the concern is, yeah, it's my problem, it's my industry's problem. Is it big enough? Is it scalable? And how do you scale? So, I mean that's a whole other conversation.
Which, well I can answer those questions really quickly. We often get asked, well, sorry, I hear the statement, I can't believe no one thought of this before, right, And there's it's interesting when someone says that to me because first the usually I say, you know, we've been doing it for nine years.
They're like, wow, no I didn't.
So firstly they they think it's newer than it is. Secondly, why did no one think of it before? Because you imagine the skill set it needs to build an e commerce platform like this, and the desire and the drive, but to also know the problem exists at an intricate level and understand the market you're talking to. Not many people fit that mold that can do both of those things, and here's there are that want to So there would be many people thinking, oh, I wish there was something
like this and wouldn't do it. There'd be many people with a skill set, they wouldn't even know the problem existed.
Yeah, and then.
If you take the few that have both those skill sets, the desire and the drive and the hard work it takes to launch, that takes most people out. So you're niching on your niche. And then the other part of like, you know, find a solution to a problem. I do agree that's one of the best ways of business. But all of the businesses I've run, especially this one and the last one, I was fixing problem that people didn't
even know they had. And that is part of the struggle of a new business and also the challenge and the exciting thing. And so you'll hear a lot of business advice out there that will say to you, you know, make sure you go out of market, test your product before you build anything before ask people do they want it. If I'd have asked people if they wanted this, they would have probably said no because to them, their dad or their boyfriend is good enough. They don't know they
need a different solution. And then there's a bunch of people beyond that that they their problem wasn't Who do I get to read their problem was I need more auditions. So they're coming from a place of scarcity anyway, So someone saying hey, if this existed, would you use this? They come from a place where I don't even have enough auditions to think about that. But I want that person to be part of my business four years later when they are in a place where they need that.
And so really with this business, we had to just be confident build it. It's one of those build it and they will come. And I always loved that quote. I don't know if this is a true quote or it's one of those internet memes that goes around, but I like it regardless. Apparently Henry Forward said if I'd have asked the people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.
Right.
Yeah, they didn't know they needed a car.
And I think that's with a lot of businesses. You don't know you need it, You don't know you need it, You don't know you need it.
Till it's there.
And you could probably walk around your kitchen alone the things that you produce or find things that you use, and we don't think when I'm using this kitchen tool, I'm stealing do you know what I mean, Like the first person to think of a potato piller, like Wells with the knife.
That's with the knife, right, Why do you need a specific thing?
Yes, but until someone nailed it down and then you know, my goodness, like the story of the woman who made white out right, just a teacher looking to create something to cover mistakes. And you know, Scots knows. I'm sure her bank account is of plenty. I would just say, it's it's not knowing.
I met the person whose grandfather created cat size.
You know, there's little things in the in.
The road that light up the reflective stock business. And it's like you wouldn't wake up one day and think, oh my gosh, I wish there was some reflective studs in the road so I could see where I was going. No one asked for that, you know, nod everywhere in the world.
Yeah yeah, And it's.
Taking that idea, and for some of us that are creative, it's deciding which idea.
You know what I mean.
Like this project that we're in right now, I go, look at it was divine. It was No one sits around a table and goes, you know.
Let's do this.
It was it was something that we you know, I heard, I died, it came to me and then it unfolded on its own. Yeah, let's talk a little bit about your So let's talk a little bit about your acting life. Yeah, because I think people find that they're drawn to the entertainment industry.
They want to know about the industry.
But then when you get to hear someone who's actually in it, thank you for sharing that you had that audition and then you didn't have another one, you know, for forty it didn't hit and all the miss or maybe half truth or maybe they are true about your industry. How long have you been would you say you've been professionally acting since you're doctor Pepper?
Yeah. Yeah, I've been professionally acting sin since sixteen.
And my qualification of professional acting every single year i've earned money from acting, Yeah since then. That's my personal definition of professional is that you get paid for it. I know there's various definitions. Some people think of professional attitude is enough. That's not my definition. My definition is someone hiring me to be an actor. Has there been slower years and busy years, yes, but consistently every single
tax returners that acting and come on it. So I consider my self a full time, minded professional actor.
Well, I was watching you this morning and it was amazing. I mean, I'm a sucker for an Irish accent anytime.
I probably watched.
This interview in Irish. Then yeah, there you go.
There you go.
Share with us maybe something about your acting that was a magical moment for you. I whether it's a magical moment or something that was a bit of a surprise, you know. I think that there's these promises if you work hard, you'll make it through, or if you keep going, you'll make it through, and then there's then there's moments that even surprise ourselves.
I've had moments in my business.
Where I was like, oh, I didn't see that one coming, but that was amazing and it didn't have to be grand, and it didn't have to be, you know, the highlight of.
My whole, you know, ten twenty thirty year career.
But it was a moment that I was like, I mean I remember in one of my companies it was really about it was fine to be on stage, and I've been on stage, but there was someone in my team that really wanted to walk across the stage and I remember just the smile inside when she finally got news that her name was going to be called and it just was a magical moment for me, or meeting someone that I never ever ever, you know, I grew up listening to a band called Headpens and I'm a
big Janis Joplin fan, and she was Jarby Mills was the.
Janis Joplin of Canada.
And just having her in my living room and having that conversation, and then last week and just you know, going up and giving her a book and having a ten to fifteen minute conversation on a porch as she was heading back to the studio. Like those magical moments that you can't see. Is there anything that for you? Is Like I didn't see that one coming, but yeah.
That's you know, for the acting industry, I'm finding it hard to find one of those because I feel like my career has been pretty consistent and pretty underwhelming in that sense. You hear a lot of people about that
one job that change their life. Like I know, like a friend of mine, he was a pretty consistent actor, but the job that changed his life was The Walking Dead and he became a top character on that and I remember him literally his Instagram post was my last day before my my life is going to change and I didn't even know. He wasn't allowed to talk about it, but that was his post, and then the next day he got announced as this new character.
I haven't had one those moments.
It's been pretty consistent normal. All I can share is it's a journey. It's a long journey. I've stayed in it. I've stayed consistent. Nothing's really sort of stood out as this magical moment. Even when I moved to America. It wasn't like an America called for me in Hollywood, bought me here. I went through a process of getting a visa, two year process of setting that up and then moving over and re establishing myself here and having to like do the grant work again. So there's no little, popped
off magical moment. On the other side of the entrepreneurial side, I've had some, you know, and listen, I've met I've met different celebrities, and I've had worked with some heroes of mine and stuff like that. But nothing's been like that, Oh wow. On the entrepreneur side, I've definitely had some of those moments, you know, And this is a lovely example of when you come from a place of giving true value, and when you come from a place of
genuine interest, then some interesting things happen. My hero growing up was not footballer. I wasn't into football. Kind of was obsessed with Mariah Carey, but we'll leave that one for another time, but not even in the way that people are obsessed.
With No No, No.
No TV stars or pop stars. Who I was kind of mildly obsessed with with Richard Branson. I loved his story, I read his books. I always thought, you know, this guy's a hero. I want to and I think one of the things that appealed to me about him was he does lots of things.
No one put him in a box.
And I would get that criticism from you, well, well, you want to be an actor, you want to be a graphic because at one point I want to be a graphic designs like I can do both.
I mean graphic design, it's acting. What's wrong with you?
And people are like, oh, yeah, you've got to focus on this so you'll never make it.
And I've thought this.
Guy does he does planes, he does trains, he does mobile phones, he does records, and no one's telling him what to do.
But of course he's already there.
In my little teenage brain, I guess like, if you hadn't asked me back then, I don't know if i'd have said this, but I probably secretly thought I'm.
Going to meet him one day. One day I'll meet him.
This is how I met him in Hollywood, opposite the where the Chinese Theater where the oscars or the Codec Theater where the Oscars are held, the famous Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. I got a tap on my shoulder and he said, are you Darren, And I turned around and said, yes, Richard Branson.
He's like, this is the best party of it ever been. To thank you. That was a magical moment.
That is a magical moment.
And because I thought at some point I'll meet him, but that I would never expected it to.
Be in that way.
And a little later on that evening, his driver told me that he'd said the same thing to him, so I knew its genuine and the context of that. I want to tell you the story of how that came to be, because that's the interesting part. I moved to la as I explained that you know, done all the research and all the plans and got gone through the very legal immigration process, which is tough, even from someone from England. You have to go for a bunch of hoops to get here and be able to work here.
And I was only allowed to work as an actor. That was what my condition was. So I came here, and you know, you have to kind of start your career again a little bit. You've got to get known. I had an agent and stuff, but you know, you've got to get the auditions. And remember I told you I was running events at nightclubs. I was obviously not going to do that here because that's a different job. But I thought, well, I want to keep those skills up, so I really would like to do it in some way.
So I volunteered for charities to give them my knowledge. That was going to be my plan to volunteer. And then I was going to an event in Beverly Hills and I was meeting my friend there and she told me roughly where it was, but hadn't told me exactly the address. And so I come into this little street of a few little shops and I see what looked like an event going on in in a jewelry store
and I'm thinking that that's my sphere. And there's a man on the door in a suit and a clipboard and I walked up and he said, you hear the event. I was like yeah, and he's like, come on in, Okay, come on in. So my friends text me where are you? And I'm like, I'm inside the advantage that I don't see you, and I'm stood there. By this point, I've been and the free glass champagne and I'm thinking this is awesome. I've been in LA for like three weeks and I'm like, I'm at a party in Beverly Hills.
I have a free glass champagne. Life's already good.
And whilst I'm texting my friend trying to figure out where she is, this lady gets up on stage, an elderly lady, and she starts talking about something and everyone turns to look and she's I couldn't quite figure out what she's talking about. She starts talking about Morocco and these, you know, the Berber people, and she kept saying, and my son built this hotel there, and I said, you know, we've really got to sell the local products in the store.
And he's like, well, mommy, I don't have the space, and she's like, Richard, listen, you're going to do this. I'm going to make and she goes one thing is it doesn't matter if your son's a billionaire, doesn't matter if he's the biggest businessman in the world. He listens to his mother. And I was like, oh, my god, that's Richard Branson's mom. And I was like, ah, because I've read about her. I've read his description of her voice and manner everything, and I was like, that's interesting.
So now I'm in this private event. Branson's mum's on stage talking and I finally get the gist that she's galvanizing a charity event.
And this was like the announcement of the.
Charity event they're going to do in order to raise money for the local people in the area of where he built his latest hotel. And I was like that and it was kind of it was very captivating, empowering story. So after the she got down off the little stage, I walked straight over and said, Hey, that was amazing. How can I help? And she said, oh, you want to help, go and speak to that man over there, and that man was the sort of chair of the charity.
So I went over and spoke to this guy Tim and said, I'm new in town.
I love to help. How can I help?
So come to this meeting next week. And by the meeting next week, I joined the committee of this charity which was doing a massive gala four or five weeks later. There I was saying hello to Charlie Staran, to George you always have performer, And Richard Branson comes into the event on horseback. And I'd contributed a significant amount to that the planning of that event, and I bought in all my resources and all my advice. And that's why Richard came over. He found me and said thank you,
which which is, you know, testament to him. There was a big committee and he didn't need to pick me out that personally either. So and that to me is a great entrepreneur, you know. And it's funny because over the next couple of years I bumped into him at an airport in the in the line where you put your stuff through security. I had a private lunch with him. Through another entrepreneurs group, I insected with a guy like four or five times in.
The next two years.
It's been a very interesting I guess you can call it manifesting in some way. But yeah, that's the magical moment. And so I'm going to like wrap this little story up with the piece of advice. Sometimes people ask me, what's the best bit of advice anyone's ever given you, and it's it was the most simple but sort of profound. I was at this dinner of ten to twelve top entrepreneurs. I had put the logistics of the event together. The guy that's arranging it wasn't from La needed to find
a good venue. He wanted a private dining room with a back entrance sort of secret, and all these things. I said, I know a few plays, let me make some calls. We set up this lunch and I was sort of expecting Richard Branson not to be there. He told this guy told you, that's like, I don't think he's he's going to you know, it sounds a bit far fetched. And at twelve o'clock he walks in with
Sharon Stone and the ten other people. Was No Lee from Monster Cable that then went on to do Beats by dre It was Steve Celeine, the race car driver that does the Ford Selene. It's like people at the top of their game. Eric Roberts was there and we had this lunch and we all got to ask Richard Branson a question and he, you know, I remember Steve Selene talking about electric cars and and there was this long drawn out conversation that was fascinating, but it's very illustrious.
Got to me and my question was I get criticized for doing too many things. I'm an actor, I run a business. I find that criticism. You do a lot of things. When is the right time? And I was going through a point where I was thinking I might want to stop one of my businesses and I wasn't sure. And I said to him, when is the right time to put something down that you're working on? And he sat there and he took a pause, and the room was silent, and I'm thinking, you're going to say something.
Do you want me to follow up the question? And he really considered it, and then he gave me an answer that I thought I felt cheated on. And it wasn't until probably a couple of weeks later. I was like, no, that was profound.
His answer was, when it stops being fun, who's next? And I do that's all.
We've just heard this lustrious answer for the last guy, but his the length of time he considered it, I was like, those words are very thoughtful, and it's very on brand for him. And you know what, He's right, Why am I doing something if it's not fun? There's many ways to make money, there's many ways.
To advance your career.
What And I was like, Wow, that is profound, actually, and I take that statement with me in everything I do now.
I use it to influence decisions.
I tell it to other people because you know, not everything has to be fun one hundred percent all of the time.
Right, we know that.
But if you look at the whole big picture and you go, am I enjoying this? You know over a period the answer is no that versus yes. Of course there's fluctuation, but if the general answer is no, get on with something else, that's too short.
I love that. I love that. It.
It reminds me of a similar question to asked someone that I had great respect for in business, when I was trying to dance between two and I was on a trade of event in one company and there was an issue going on with the other and I was just at a brink.
He goes, love the one you're with I love the one you're with.
Love the one you're with. I was there in that business.
He's like, it'll you know, it'll be fine.
I love that story. I love that story.
Look, I know it's time to wrap up, and we could talk and we will talk and will we do lots of talking with There's a couple of things that I know that you got going on that I would.
Love to share with their audience.
Yeah. Please.
One is you've got you've got you've got something going up for an Emmy right now. Why don't you share what that is so we can double down and support what that looks like.
Absolutely.
I believe that the nominations come out tomorrow, actually on the seventeenth, that you like. So, I was in a project called Raser. It's a dystopian sci fi series available on Garla Film, which is a streaming platform. It was in the consideration for the Emmys. And so we'll find out tomorrow if we're nominated.
Wow, And if we are, then great.
Well, I'm a TV Academy member, I'm an Emmy member, so I go to the Emmys each year. It would be really lovely to be in a project that is nominated. So by the time this podcast comes out, we'll know if.
We are or we're not.
But either way, the viewers can watch that on Garla Film if you google Garla Film ga La and then you'll see that project. Razer Okay and I have a new film coming out on September twenty seventh in theatres nationwide called Abrupt Show and it's a puppet horror movie with Jordan Peel and Hannah Melee and James Masters. It's going to be a very unique, interesting horror. It's like nothing you've seen before. The trailers up, so if you google abruptio A b r U p t io you'll.
See the trailer.
It's wild, and I really mean like, it's like nothing you've ever seen. It's a very unique concept. It's a movie that's made with lifelike, life sized puppets. They look like people, they act like people, but their puppets.
Oh wow.
Yeah, just to see how that's done would be interesting to.
Watch, right exactly exactly because you know, you used to you know, puppets like Jim Henson and Crag of Rock and then you used to animation. But this is sort of a blender too. It's like the Uncanny Valley. They really they look like people enough, but just not quite And so that's really interesting project and that actually took, you know, quite a few years to finish and come out, so that's really exciting. And I have another project which
one of my favorite roles today. It's called River of Grass and it will be premiering at the Holly Shorts Festival. The fame as Chinese Theater full circle back to that venue, and that'll be premieering in the next few weeks there and we'll be doing the film festival circule with that.
So that's some exciting stuff.
And then through my company, we also just launched a podcast, We Audition Show, taking a leaf out of your books, So.
So tell us where where we can find that show.
The We Audition Show is on all the platforms that you find podcasts, Spotify, Apple podcasts, YouTube as well, and on we audition, dot com, slash show. And I would say if your listeners are interested in the journey of actors and creatives, it seems like they are, then that's a really good place for us. We really drill down into what makes those actors careers successful and the things you need to do in order to be a success in the entertainment business.
That's fantastic.
Well, look, I have one last question for you, and it take take take us off topic a lot of it when people ask me how I've been an entrepreneur for so long or how I've gotten through life, and I don't know how you've gotten through life. You know, what is your one thing that you like? It's my baseline. It makes everything okay. It's like the biggest band aid ice cream you know, in the world for me, and that's music.
I literally I just don't know what I mean.
There's just not a day in my life that I don't listen to a lot of music. If I remember late for a meeting there it's because I'm listening to a new band.
I'll just be completely right.
So my question to you is.
You've a radio station calls you someone you don't know and says, you know what you have one? Two backstage pass tickets to the concert of your choice, a concert you've never been to before. Who's the band that you would want to backstage passes to go see that you've never had an opportunity to see yet?
Oh, I mean, do I have a time machine? It would be the Beatles.
Beatles.
Yeah. Absolutely.
I did see Paul mcconne, which was great, but the Beatles, Beetles.
Good answer, good answer.
Well, look, thank you so much for sharing your stories today were amazing.
It's such a pleasure to meet you. I know that I will be seeing you in LA when we go down there to be getting out the book.
And Ocean doing his thing, and absolutely.
Let us know when the package arrives.
But until then, I hope you're well, and audience, as you're listening, if you want to be sitting where Darren is and you want to be telling us your stories and.
Your passion and your profit, non profit, whatever it is that you're doing, then we would love to support to you. You'd love to have your commission and captain, And until then, Darren, thank you and audience, you're amazing. While I'm being by right
Now, thank you so much for having