Celebrity Agent’s DARK SECRET: Addiction, Recovery & the Comeback | Darren Prince | Ep. 87

Opening and Darren's Background 0:00

July 2nd, 2008 truly became the best day of my life because I thought it was the ending and it actually turned out to be the beginning. How did you even get there where you became addicted to something? For me it's opiates. I started out as 14 and I dabbled with all sorts of other drugs but once I became an agent at 24 I understood morality clauses so I had to very careful about doing anything with any illegal drugs. Darren Prince, CEO of Prince Marketing Group, 25 years driving sports and entertainment marketing.

$500 million in deals and a roster of global icons. Get ready for insights from a true industry powerhouse. The general public saw my life and thought I had it all. Millions of dollars coming in with the business, biggest stars in the world, but it was miserable. I just got to the point where I didn't want to wake up anymore in So Darren, it's not only you got through that chapter of your life of the addiction, like you're into the biohacking. I think it probably 10 or 11 protocols every single day that I don't implement.

Got to throw in the hydrogen voider. The red light therapy, I've got that too next to my bed. It sounds like it lived in my life. Yeah. There's actually healthy stuff out there that people may think they're eating every day and have no idea why they are continuously getting rashes or something that the body is rejecting. What's the advice you can give to the ones that are saying, well, I'll change tomorrow? Welcome to another episode of a Healthy Point of View podcast. I'm your host, Sam Tahara.

And as usual, we're bringing people from all over the world to talk about health, wellness, beauty, and mindset. Today, were bringing our guest here who is an expert, an agent in the word of entertainment and working with athletes. He's an Agent who's, this guy has probably seen it all when it comes to the entertainment world. But part of it, There's something that we deal with on a daily basis, people that especially, they get involved in that world of entertainment, which is addiction. He dealt with it himself, and he was able to overcome it.

And now he's a huge addiction advocate, helping people overcome those addictions. Today we're gonna talk about that, because that's somethin' that has to be addressed, that something we wanna be able give people the guidance so they can overcome and live their best life. Today we have Darren Prince. What's up, brother? Thanks for having me. Yeah, man. Pleasure to have you here. So, Darren, it's just, you know, for the viewers and listeners, who is Darren Price? Who is Daren Prince? I guess I'll give you like the 32nd version.

I grew up in New Jersey, live in California now.

Addiction, Overdose, and Turning Point 2:50

Been an agent for 31 years. Magic Johnson was my first client. Still with him to this day. Hulk Hogan, Charlie Sheen, Carmen Electra, David Goggins, Ric Flair. A lot of iconic figures, but that's more the work side. The personal side that means everything is, just two weeks ago I celebrated 17 years sober. Best-selling author of my memoir, Aiming High, that was published in 2018. I have my own 501c3 charity, the Aming High Foundation, that 100% of the proceeds scholarships people in need of treatment.

And it's the first and most important thing in my life, recovery and helping people out there that are struggling. I love that man. I loved that. And that's a powerful thing. You know, 12 years working as a firefighter paramedic, you know I was exposed to a lot of people that had addiction issues to different opiates and other type of addictions as well. Sometimes people can't overcome it and it ends up in going in the wrong direction. And it can lead to death, right? It can be lead. To families being destroyed, you know, people losing their careers, things that we've worked so hard to accomplish.

So, there's a personal spot in my heart when it comes to helping people overcome addiction. The first step I wanna talk about is how did you even get there where you became addicted to something? Yeah, for me it was opiates. I started, I was 14, and I dabbled with all sorts of other drugs, but once I became an agent at 24, um, understood morality clauses, so I had to be very careful about doing anything with any illegal drugs. So, having Magic and all the clients, had Chevy Chase, Early on this Dennis from there were so many that doctors just saw the external sense I remember even bringing them signs smoking Joe Frazier boxing gloves and Muhammad Ali boxing loves his gifts and like I can't have a problem Yeah, whatever he needs give him whatever you needs You know, so it was kind of like I just manipulated the system.

And I'm careful when I speak. I do a lot of speaking all over the country, especially when it's high school kids, because it worked. It did actually work the first five or six years as an agent. But at one point, what was once living to use turned out to using to live. So whatever the superpowers that the opiates the oxycontin the percocets the Vicodins were giving me completely turned on me a couple overdoses after that. And I had a moment of clarity a god shot. My late uncle and his girlfriend Andre who actually lived in Miami were visiting my mom in New Jersey and I was at that jumping life off point, man.

It was like I just living in this double life. All my boys and the general public saw my life and thought I had it all, you know, millions of dollars coming in with the business, the biggest stars in the world. But it was this doubled life, it's miserable. I got to the point where I don't want to wake up anymore in morning. And so my uncle Stu and his girlfriend was doing my mom on July 1st. They paid me a surprise visit to my condo in West Orange, New Jersey. I never met this woman before, bro.

And it was like tractor beams. Like I was so drawn to her and I'm fully vulnerable. She asked me if everything was okay and i told her the truth. She's like, do I realize I'm an addict? And I said, yeah. And she goes, you're powerless. I say, and she says, Do you realize? She looked at all the photos on the wall of me and Ali and Fraser and Magic and Pam and Hulk. You know, I'll say this doesn't mean anything because you don't need anything to yourself. Wow. That broke my soul. Then I started to cry.

She said I can help you. 24 hours later I was in my apartment in New York City with my then wife. I called up my uncle and Andrea. They were back in Miami and I said, I can't do this. I'm detoxing. Uh, i'm going to call the doctor to get what I really want to. And they, they're on the other line. This is the damn disease talking. You got to surrender already, become accountable, get to a 12 step meeting and get the help you need. Slammed the phone up bro ran into the bathroom locked the door Then wife thought I was you know gonna kill myself because she was a part of a couple of the overdoses and she's banging on the Door and I'm going through the medicine bottles, but I wasn't looking for opiates I Was looking one of them are narcotic anxiety pills that Andre said I can take during the detox period and out came two Vicodins which was so crazy because I I specifically remember on July 1st in that evening of 2008, we spent hours cleaning out all the medicine captain.

So I wouldn't be tempted having any opiates in the house. And here there are two opiate, but whatever it is, man, it's one of those moments in life. I fell to my knees, I screamed up to God, take the money, Take the business, the notoriety. If you give me a single day of freedom, um, i'll take others out of hell. It was a white light moment I've never had before and have had it since. It was like the shoulder caught fire. I heard a voice say, I've got you when you're ready. Flushed the pills. Went into the living room, went onto the computer, found a 12 step meeting in the church in upper 80s.

This was way before Uber and this beautiful summer night sitting in a cab on the way to this church and the upper eighties for this meeting.

Recovery, 12-Step Support, and Giving Back 8:40

And I'm looking up at the sky and I said, wow. What the hell just happened for the first time in my life? I wanted to stay sober. More than I want to get high. And I walked into this church basement and 150, 200 addicts and alcoholics were all once of a hopeless state of mind. The leader said, has anybody knew anyone coming back or anyone sick and suffering? And the sand went right up. I often said I believe it was God that raised my hand because That takes a lot of willpower to even raise your hand at my ego is crushed.

I literally came in at the jumping off point and I knew this was like a matter of life and death and to say I'm Darren, I've got an unbelievable life outside these rooms and And about a dozen spiritual brothers and sisters came over and they told me so many things, but the one that really moved me was that they were gonna love me before I ever knew how to love myself. And that just made me feel a part of something. For the first time in my life, it wasn't even my clients, my close friends, by family, this group of spiritual brothers and sisters that knew how to get through life one day at a time, uh, without, you know, relapse or picking up became closer to them.

My family was closer than I was to my family. It's hard to even say that they, they were, it was like, They just understood everything about my thought process. And I became immersed into it. And then after a year, my sponsor, Steve is like my spiritual brother, he's got 38 years now, calls me up on my one year birthday and says, it feels pretty good, right? I said, yeah, because all right, look, you've been a taker. The past year I've been coming to meetings and taking, taking taking. But you got to start doing is giving back and because you've got a platform with the people you know around the world that you don't need to disclose the exact name of the fellowship.

You could say a 12 step recovery fellowship has changed your life and you just say, but you're so brave. I got a feeling you were gonna help a lot of people around the world and I did it and that's when everything changed. Yeah. And I realized that, wow, this is unbelievable. There's a lotta people out there that need help. Darren, you know, I'm listening to your story and, and... I wasn't realizing until you got to the end of about you being a taker and ya gotta be a giver. When you started saying that At that point in time, you have the platform.

You got all the top people around you. We're at the top of the mountain. But at same time, it seems like you've lost yourself. Yeah, I lost myself. I had no sense of fulfillment. The money and the success and then notoriety didn't mean anything anymore because you're just looking to wake up in peace and to just find that happiness again. And what I thought was real happiness, which was the external success and all that validation was in it. You know, until I started doing the work, you know putting a year together, two years, three years together giving back, starting my own.

501c3, charity, writing the book, everything I do on my personal development and all the biohacking, and everything else that I'd do because just like my guy, David Goggins, I wanted it to be uncommon amongst the uncommon in recovery. Because a lot of times they talk about the 12 steps and the 10th step is about continuing to take your personal inventory and when you're wrong, promptly admit it. That's a step for everybody in life. You don't need to be an addict or an alcoholic. But why do you want to keep taking our personal mentor when we're wrong, promptly admitted?

Why don' we get to the root cause of that character defect and get rid of it? So for meditation, breath work, NLP, frequency work. Everything else that I do to go deep into my subconscious on a daily basis. Yeah, I want. To get. The root causes of everything is I wanna be a higher version of myself the next day. That's amazing. A lot of people are always consistently moving around in that train of success, where you can lose yourself very quickly. And what is one thing that you can really share with the audience?

Because when you're in that train of success, right? And things are just happening and you going up climbing that mountain and your getting exposed to a lot of the different vices. You're going to parties, you doing this and it's like happy time, but at the same time you get stuck into this thing where it almost like you start thinking about it and you know that you're doing something wrong, but then you just say, I'll just change tomorrow. I will just changed tomorrow and it's always tomorrow, tomorrow tomorrow what's the advice you can give to some of the listeners about the ones that are saying, well I change it tomorrow?

Yeah, it really just working on sense of self because nobody's given a handbook at a young age on how to be successful. But at the same time we're not educated enough with the temptations that are out there. And a lot of times most of us aren't developed enough at a young age to even know half of who we are and who want to be. So when you're around the temptation environment, Very easy. I mean, why do you think we see so many musicians, actors, actresses, athletes mess up at a young age? But I think it's the most important thing to me.

Not that my friends were bad people, but I really think its about your surroundings, your environment. It's your friends that you choose to hang around. And we say people places and things. The people you hang out with, the places you go and the things that do. I think most people are logical enough nowadays to understand if they're around a good quality group and if you're not, you have to start changing a group around it a little bit. To be around like-minded people that understand that they want to be on that path of growth, personal development, change, being the best version of themselves physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

And if it's anything but that, You just got it. Doesn't mean they're bad people. But like my friend Joel Olsteen says, you got to learn to love certain people from a distance. Yeah, I agree with that. You know, because they will take you down their road a lot quicker than you'll take them to your way of life. You need people that are on the top of the ladder that lift you up, right? And at the same time you want to have that arm extended to lift up others as well, too. Do you feel that now, through everything that you've been through, that could go into some of these environments that were in previous to and be the light inside of that environment?

Yeah, a hundred percent. It happens all the time, especially with what I do for my career. You know, there's so many individuals that I speak to in and whether it's 12 step meetings, whether its phone calls, zooms, seeing people in public, um, There's times where, you know I could just be out at a restaurant, even that's something to support me. So many experiences is the local of the fellowship that I'm in and I've had so many people stop me man and becomes a conversation at a restaurant where that actual person or somebody else is struggling to get them the help that they need and point them in the right direction and not even scholarship people

Mindset, Environment, and Being a Positive Influence 16:20

through my foundation. It's just unbelievable because you know, I think Now my authenticity has become and vulnerability has actually become a superpower because it's so rare. You know, I think if I didn't do what I did for a living and I'm just just regular every day guy talking about this, the level of respect and appreciation. But it's kind of hard when people see what I do for a living and who I work for and whom some of my close friends in the world are some amazing men and women. That's not the most important thing to me.

And they'll tell you the same thing. you know, 90% of my calls with Magic Johnson or Hulk Hogan have nothing to do with business. It's about life. Charlie Sheen, Goggins, the same thing. We're just all in this amazing place of just being happy, healthy, wanting to serve others. They want to see their families do good. And they're so happy for me finding my purpose. That's amazing. You know what I'm saying? I truly found my Right, right, and you could change so many lives with that, you know, just even coming on platforms like this and just sharing it with the world.

You know the reason why I asked you the question earlier is that I'm a believer and I live my life through Christ and i have a lot of friends that are also believers but they won't step into an area where there is temptation or where people are doing drugs. I'm a little bit opposite. You know, I feel like God has given me a very strong heart, a strong mind where I can go into these environments and I am not going to be tempted to do any of those devices. Ill actually be the light to try to help people to move away from it.

And it seems like you've been able to get yourself there to be that light. Now, if there's someone that's listening who says, man, I wanna be light, what are the steps you recommend that that person take? I mean, really, If you're struggling, it's about, number one, having accountability. Stop pointing the fingers. We all got trauma in the past. Good, bad trauma. It all exists. Blaming mom, dad, whatever. All our parents did the best they could with what they had. You know, so it's looking at you in the mirror and basically admitting that you're the one that's messed up and now taking an action to get the help that You need.

So when you can get on that solid ground, you cannot be a light to other people. Right. And, um, I mean, It's meditation for certain people, it's counseling, its 12 step recovery meetings, church, whatever faith, you know, um, whenever it is that allows you to take that bottom and make it a brand new beginning to then become that light. do it because time and life goes by so fast. And, you know, none of us want to be could have, would have should have. Because when you get there and the miracle truly happens, it's the greatest thing in the world.

Then you understand what real wealth is. I've done very well for myself in my career, so have you. But you also talk about putting the Lord and God first. We understand what real wealth is. Like if I lost all the stuff tomorrow and the success, it's not gonna change me. Because I found me on this journey. I've found who I really am and what makes me happy. And I know I can find something else, rebuild, whatever. It was never about that. But it was about, like I said, finding self-love. Developing that real self esteem and self-esteem comes from doing a steamable acts to serve others.

I love that. There is a big difference between outer wealth versus inner wealth. We're always looking for that external validation of who we are. But the internal validation is what people have to work on. That's our legacy. The external stuff, great, so we pass things along, but no, that doesn't change lives. Their lives get changed and we get remembered for what we do for people that are struggling and that need a break and need helping hand or whatever it might be. So it's not only you got through that chapter of your life of the addiction, but you've taken it to a whole nother level.

Like you're into the biohack, you know, and that's something that You have to have that desire for that. So let's talk a little bit about your daily habits of what you do for a living. Yeah, my morning started with my meditation. I got my Boilondre. It's a different 10, 12-minute tune-ups for me to start the day in little apps that he sends me. And then I went into my frequency watch. You guys don't have frequency out here. You know, I've checked up in China. It's it's next level stuff. So the frequency set.

You're talking about language. I'm big into bio quantum. Yeah. Right. Yes. And I actually have a frequency watch that works on detoxing the liver, the kidney, inflammation in the body. Yeah, it's next level. Yeah. Gary Brackett. Last time I saw him and he went wild. I mean, I've taken Goggins to this place. It's called Sports IQ. If you guys want to look it up on Westlake Village, California, in the four seasons.

Biohacking, Daily Wellness, and Recovery Habits 22:00

My boy Brian runs it. He owns it next-level stuff and they could treat you remotely too. Wow. Unbelievable. So I did that. What do they do? They get like a hair follicle from you and then treat you. No, it's it. It's like bio resins. I mean, I can send you guys the link on it after. But if you look up sports, like, you know, hey, mind blowing, they can literally treat 30,000 feet in the air. If you have an upset stomach, if have a migraine, there's something not right. They can. Literally diagnose you through the computers, just from having a stock photo of you looking through your eyes.

on the yeah we got to talk about this after there might be a business venture to start expanding some of your locations because it's legit i've always said that's the future of medicine i will connect with my boy brian too because its next level stuff so i have the frequency watch um i did my grounding patches okay all right so I have to the little if i don't bring my mat i bring the patches i got a nice workout in And, you know, that was the basic. Then I did a cold shower because I can't obviously the ice bath can come with me.

And there's other things I do like tune up wise throughout the year. My boy John is an LP practitioner, a neuro-linguistic programmer. So he could take you deep into your subconscious and pull out some of you know, the patterns thought process that could actually cause physical dis-ease within the body, mentally, physically. And so him and I've been working together probably on and off. He's a personal trainer of mine for years, a nutritionist, and he started studying this 20 years ago. It's what Tony Robbins does.

It's incredible. So, you know, we check in maybe once or twice a year, but I do love the 12 steps. The spiritual meetings mean so much to me, I still do them five, six days a week. Any plant-based medicine? No, you know, people have told me a lot about obviously the ayahuasca and my boy Landry, he does the microdosing and he's told about it. And I have been told from the opiates, from so many years of opiotes that there is a little bit of damage in the rear low part of my brain. He's mentioned to me that the, not the Ayahuaska, but the microducing, But it's just never really never been me.

Like, look, I realize I'm still a work in progress. I come as as a higher self as I've ever been. If I say like this, someone exactly who I want to be, still not yet where I wanna be. But thank you, God, not the person I used to. Certain things like I'm like, I don't know, you know I know people in recovery that talk about the ayahuasca and the microdosing but I just Really? I really don' think it's needed. I think where I am at is 17 years now I' m in a really good place. And you feel good, right?

Yeah, what's that? And I feel 55. Like I said, you know, I've got the 10 X supplement protocol. I mean, there's so much stuff that I do. My my my I'm not even kidding, but I think it's probably 10 or 11 protocols every single day that are implemented. You got to throw in the hydrogen water and the red light therapy. And I got that to next to my bed. There's a lot of stuff. So it sounds like you live, live in my life. Yeah. At 55, it is not many 55 year olds that do it. And I know it works, but we gotta get you on the frequency.

Yeah, I want that. It's a game changer. Listen, it's your story. You went from literally one end of the spectrum to a whole other end. Like, you're living the healthy life. So, Darren, right now there's big movement that's happening. With the new administration called the Maha movement make America healthy again. Yeah You know, you're really into biohacking and everything else. What do you think about this movement under RFK jr? I mean, it's needed I actually spent time at the RF K in September.

He's a big recovery advocate, too Tucker Carlson's a good friend and client, and I got to go to one of his events in Anaheim, I thanked RFK Jr. for what he's done. I mean, it's needed, man. There's so much that parents don't realize that the kids are eating at a young age. And what I've also realized, too, from so much of the biohacking and, you know, like 10 X, for example, their blood work is very different than traditional doctor. My boy Brian at the frequency place can read things that most blood results can't see.

Like you can legitimately be eating tomatoes and it could be causing inflammation in the body. It's actually healthy stuff out there that people might think they're eating every day and have no idea why they are continuously getting rashes or something that the body is rejecting. So I just think overall, we're like, seems like we are like this obese nation that's constantly just eating like the worst crap. It's all about, you know, that the shakers and the carbs and it's just not enough emphasis put on it.

And the reality is, I think for the youth, it is so important, man, because if they're not putting the right stuff in their body, five, six, seven, eight, 10 years old, guess what happens by their late teens, their early 20s? Mental health becomes an issue. Hormone issues, all kinds of stuff, you know? And you're getting into those developmental stages, getting addicted to putting in the wrong things into your body.

Health, Youth, and Closing Advice 27:40

They said there was a statistic out there that said that if there were to be a draft that people that fit the age of a Draft men About 70% of them are out of shape to being the military Terrible. That's insane I mean, in my opinion, that makes our country weak, right? You go to other countries, some of these men are men. They're built like men, so health and wellness definitely needs to be kept in priority. And even the stuff I mentioned, like when people don't realize I was on Bradley's podcast, we're talking about it.

And I talk about the wellness stuff. I do all the time. It's not that much. Like, I know people are struggling out there, but you know, a grounding mat, you get a decent one for a hundred bucks, hydrogen mortar, about 150 bucks. Right. You got two great pieces right there. Red light therapy, another 150. But you're under $500 for three major items that help you with inflammation, brain health, and various other things. You can do it every day. It doesn't have a consumable cost. You just fill it up with water.

And if you don't know the extra hundred bucks for the grounding mat or the 150, whatever it is, take your shoes off and walk barefoot on the grass for 15, 20 minutes a day and tell me how you feel after doing that for two weeks. Go get some natural sunlight, first thing in the morning, right? Same thing. You feel it, it recharges you. And these are some of the simple little hacks. One of my goals, maybe a Dominican growing up in an inner city, and my two partners, they're African American, is getting this out to the minority community, this information that you and I are talking about right now.

And you know, obviously money is an issue in certain areas. But at the end of the day, there's a lot of these things that you can do that are not expensive and a of it is free. You know. So I love that band. Yeah, you're doing some powerful stuff there. And as we wrap up here and if there are any listeners or viewers that really resonate with today's message, especially the message of what you live through through addiction and you could leave them off with one thing. What is that? I mean, if you're struggling just to ask for help, stop living in shame.

Stop living the double life. You know, you can DM me on Instagram or Facebook. My Instagram is at agent underscore DP. It's the biggest blessing of my life, but I thought was the worst day on July 2nd, 2008. Truly became the best day of life because I though it was ending and it actually turned out to be the beginning. Brother, I appreciate you bringing this positive message to all of the viewers and listeners. You're changing lives, man. Cool, thank you for having me, my brother. I appreciated it.

Guys, you heard it from Darren. That day that he mentioned was the start to a new portion of his life to help others. We don't just have a duty to take care of ourselves, we also have duty take of others, so even if you're not the one who's dealing with addiction, We all, deep down inside, know that we know someone who is. It's our duty help that person out. And if you don't know the steps on how to help them, Darren just said it. He's here to make sure we can get these people led into the right direction.

Reach out. All of his information is down below. Make sure you share this with your friends, your family.