Welcome to the Love Sex and Leadership podcast where you can discover simple tonic teachings to embody your true power, awaken your soul's wisdom and live an inspired life as a natural intuitive and heart centered leader. Well, hello everyone. My name is Aaron Kleinman. Welcome to another episode of Love Sex and Leadership. And I'm very grateful to have a friend. Uh a man who's also given me some great business advice through the years. We met a long time ago when I used to live in L A at a business mastermind event that we were both attending. We both climbed Kilimanjaro together this last summer, which was an incredible journey and uh very excited to have Sir Darren Jacklin here. Thank you for joining us on this podcast. Grateful to be here and thank you so much. Absolutely. And I love your suggestion for the title of this with Authenticity and Vulnerability and my experience of you as a man. You know, I was reading through your bio, I know a lot about your background, but my experience of you as a man, both professionally as well as personally is that you really lead and live with your, your heart on your shoulder from a place of wanting to be in loving service to the people around you. And I think that goes very far, like everyone I see who you meet, who you interact with. They really feel the, the nature of how you want to show up and be in service to another. And I, I just really appreciate that and you, so thank you for showing up the way you do on this planet. I appreciate it very much. Absolutely. Yeah. And I'm someone who's quite analytical as well and has lived in my head a lot trying to analyze and figure things out as well. And uh very, very good at master, you know, mastering compartmentalization, I think throughout my life, it served me and uh you know, benefits and drawbacks to that as well. I think that uh you know, we're at the time in this, this planet right now in regards to authenticity and vulnerability that people really wanna be, you know, deal with things that really matter to them most in their lives, both personally and professionally. And I think also too is that people, you know, if we were out there in the general public on an airplane or in a shopping mall or walking down the street in a major city, somewhere in the world, we hear four primary t you know, conversations, we talk to people, you were talking about the news, the local or national or global news. We talk about the weather, sports and traffic or some political thing that's going on right now in 2024. And I think it's important to get into deeper authentic and vulnerable conversations because for like myself, every year I come up with one word. And so my word for 2024 is a liveness and so everything, everybody I'm interacting with it, whether it's virtually or in person. I'm thinking, how can I bring a liveness to this conversation that can enrich both people's lives, right? And have more joy and self expression and playfulness. I'm 52 years of age now. So I'm thinking, how can I have more playful life in my fifties now? Be more playful and more joyful and more fulfilled and more alive and more grateful with gratitude and counting my blessings. I think it's important. Yeah, I love that and, and my, again, my experience of you is a very alive dynamic individual. And I'd love to hear like, what kind of aliveness are you bringing into your world this year? Uh What, what are some of the things that you're stepping into to bring that aliveness into your life? I think I had when you and I did Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, East Africa. So when, when I, when I, when you called me and made that call to me in 2022 and said, hey, I want you to be part of the team for my 40th birthday. I thought, why would you pick me? I'm not an athlete. Like, like, that's freaking crazy. Like, like that is so out of that, that's an impossible goal. And I, and, and, and it was like, you know, I, I've had vision boards over the years and I've got over 7000 written goals for my life, perversity because I wanna have a fulfilled life. And, but when I got to Tanzania in July of 2023 and I arrived there and I went and looked at Mount Kilman J I thought, oh my gosh, it's much bigger than those videos on the internet and those pictures on Google images. And I, I was excited but also really scared because I thought, how am I gonna get up there in five days to the top of Mount Kman Gerald at 19,040 ft. So I think what really shifted for me in terms of aliveness was when I came down off that mountain and then the integration period of time from that and just taking it into my life, it transformed my life, you know, doing something like that, that I just never in my lifetime ever thought I'd ever achieve even even step foot on doing something like that. That was just way out of my realm of thinking of possibility because I was not that guy, you know, I never identified myself. And it's interesting now because of the last, you know, year since we've done Mount Kill and Gerald, I have people come up to me now and say, you know, you're an athlete and I never personally identified myself as an athlete, identified myself as this clumsy kid growing up who was not good at sports. You know, I'm very visual auditory then K A study. But I'm the guy that you don't take to a dance class because I'll embarrass you. You know, because I'll be out of sync. I'm the guy in the yoga class and the hot yoga class that's watching, you know, everybody thinks, oh, you're watching the pretty girls. I'm watching to follow some of the guide and lead me because I'm, I'm flipping around on my yoga mat here, not in sync with the rest of the group. I, I'm that guy. And so it was really fascinating to see not only the release in 50 pounds of weight for training, development for monger, but my mental health, but also the joy, the freedom, but also to the ripple of impact Aaron that I've had an impact on many people's lives from all over the world through social media by doing Mount Kilman Gerald because when I started to declare it publicly that I was gonna climb Mount Kilman Gerald, I had people that were doing interventions with me like going for walks and he was like, Darren, like, are you crazy? Like, like are you going through a midlife crisis? Like is everything ok? In your life. Do you have a mental health breakdown? Like I had some really interesting conversations with people in my family. Like I had people getting together because they, they, it was just so out of that realm of who I was as a human being that I was just not that guy. And so I think coming back and the integration from Mount Kilman Jo the last year, you know, I've, I've experienced now and now I want more people to have that experience. And so like now I hike almost every day of my life. Uh I bring people all the time. I'm always collecting people from all walks of life, all backgrounds, all different age groups. I've got a, you know, in Vancouver Canada, my primary residence, I've got a group of over 200 active people on my whatsapp private hiking group channel. Um I now, you know, take a hike, build the school. So I've now got hiking fundraiser.com as a website and we're actually bringing people from all over the world now. And I'm accountable and responsible for building 100 schools around the world over the next 10 years towards global philanthropy by getting people from mental health. So this all I want to thank you because you're the one that, you know, planted the seed and shot up the, you know, grew the fire because I had no desire ever do it. This is not part of my life plan or path in my life. So I'd say you, you know, you disrupted my life in a positive way. But now it allows me to enrich other people's lives in regards to mental health awareness. Because we all know people in our lives that are impacted personally, especially by mental health in all different areas. And so I think that I get great joy and fulfillment. Now I have seen because I look at, I look at one. So I'll give you an example. When I started hiking just five years ago, I was doing a hike in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. And this hike would be a beginner hike. The kids would call it a bunny hill, right? And, and, and kids in elementary school, you get up this hike in about 45 minutes to really slow top an hour. My first time I did this five years ago, two hours and 48 minutes to the top. I got to the top. Completely exhausted out of shape, out of breath, out of gas, completely exhausted. The two people I was with were licensed real estate agents in Vancouver. Well, they had open houses to go to the commission sales people. So they had to get down the mountain, go shower and change and go to their open house on the Saturday. So I got stuck at the top of this hill. I wouldn't even call it a mountain a hill. And I'm up there. And I think to myself. Do I actually call 911? Should I call the fire department? Call search and rescue? How embarrassing that these kids and these families are coming up and down and I'm out, up here completely exhausted. And so I, I rested for a bit. I did some breathing exercises, did some internal affirmations and self talk back down the mountain. It was just under six hours round trip and that was a defining moment. Aaron where I said, I don't want to live my life this way anymore. I'm getting close to 50 years of age and I, and I've treated my body like a rental car like a wood shed completely out of integrity with my health, fitness and nutrition. And that was a turning point in my life. And now I wanna empower and enrich other people's lives to get them out into nature. Even. It's for a walk, it's for a hike even it's take, I, I had a gentleman with me the other day who was extremely stressed, going through some relationship problems, some financial situations, going through a business breakup with his business partner. Really under a lot of pressure, a lot of stress. Ok. A lot of things are not working right now in his life. I asked myself why I want you to take off your shoes. And he's like what I said, we're gonna go, we're gonna go barefoot on this. He says, what do you, what do you think we're, I was actually nuts. Right. Walking barefoot. I had him take off his shoes and then his socks and, and he's, and he's, and he's looking at me, he says, you do not take a picture of me right now. This is not going on social media. This is embarrassing there. And 15 minutes later the guy was grounded and he was just, and he's like, he was, you just see the stress melting off his physical beam. It was incredible, but he thought it was absolutely crazy. But, but I've started to do that now where I take my socks and shoes off. I walk barefoot on grass. You know, I'm drinking, you know, every day now, water with lemon in it. I squeeze lemons every day for alkaline my body. I'm doing cold plunges. I'm going out in the mountains now. So I never in my life and I'm finding um you know, waterfalls and going under whether they're cold waterfalls or warm waterfalls, but glacier fed or mountain fed streams and creeks of water coming down with all the minerals in the water. I tell you, my life is transformed. My mental health is totally changed from doing this and it doesn't cost people money to do this. Like you're not going to some commercial spa somewhere, you know, you, you're out in nature, just absorbing and just appreciating the beauty of nature. And so I'm bringing people and I'm collecting people on my journey. With me to come out and do this. And it's changing their relationships at home with their families, with their spouse or partners or significant others with their Children, their coworkers and colleagues at work. Um The way they interact with human beings at the grocery store or the shopping mall. So it's, it's just from my participation in doing this is now creating a ripple of impact on people's lives, which I'm so grateful for. Amazing. Well, I'm uh I, I love listening to your storytelling and I love that. I, I made the invitation. I remember when you came into my awareness, he was in a meditation and I was like Darren, I, I want to reach out to Darren. I feel like he's meant to be on this journey. And I, I love how much it impacted you and set you up and, and also just, you know, the, the philanthropic part of you that's really giving back. And, you know, I'm, I'm actually just right in the process of acquiring and borrowing this, this beautiful piece of land in Portugal. And one of the visions I have there is, it's uh you know, be doing permaculture is bringing CEO s and individuals and getting their feet in the earth and getting them connected to the ground and actually help in building and creating and you know, this beautiful natural spring river that's growing right through the property. And so hearing you is just actually reminding me of how many people are so disconnected from that authenticity to nature, that deep connection to where we come from and who we are. And you know, and I can see it even in your, your spirit and your, your wellness, even from last time I saw you look so much more vibrant and alive and it's really, it's beautiful to witness and feel so much aliveness that's pouring through you, brother. I'm starting to look younger, like I'm 52 now and people around me are saying, damn, you're looking younger and I think it's being out in nature and all the oxygen and all the things that I'm doing. And it's really interesting like as you should and I appreciate what you're gonna be doing in Portugal. It's fantastic. It's so fantastic. You know, one of the things I learned about all about authenticity and vulnerability is, you know, I'm a very successful entrepreneur involved in lots of real estate deals and own a lot of real estate and, and I, I own bookkeeping, accounting firms and a whole portfolio of companies. And one of the things I found now in terms of interviewing whether they're employees or joint venture or business partners or investment partners is I bring people out to come hiking with me because what I realized when you take somebody hiking, they can't lie to you. They often just need vulnerability comes out. You know, if, if, if somebody does not have good flexibility or good balance or range of motion or core strength. It shows in how they hike if somebody doesn't drink a lot of water and they dehydrated. It shows in their hiking. Um When I learn about mental toughness, right? With people doing a lot of negative self talk or they've had a lot of childhood trauma, for example, or, or life experiences. I bring people now, nighttime hiking into the wilderness. And it's really interesting from building a rapport with people because the first thing that people think about their minds and they may not say it out loud, you know, because they, they, they don't know how it's gonna land, but they're like, oh my gosh, are we gonna get eaten or attacked by a wild animal? And so people, I have to trust you because you're taking out into the wilderness in this unknown charted territory. And I find that if you take somebody to a coffee shop or a restaurant, you have a breakfast, lunch or dinner with them, you get to know people. But again, it's, it's more surface. It's not deep, authentic, vulnerable, raw enriching conversations. But I find we're out on a hiking trail and I'm taking you out early in the morning for a sunrise hike or a sunset hike or a full moon hike. People, people, their authentic true self shows up their vulnerability side shows up. I've had conversations with men. Top CEO S billionaires, celebrities, royalty, people from all over the world that would never tell me stuff. But after 2.5, 3 hour hike, going to the top of a mountain, people start to open up the layers of the onion, start getting peeled away. And that vulnerability in that five year old or seven year old boy or girl shows up in people. So I, I encourage you that if people are in business, you're raising capital for a business or a start up company or an invention. Take your investors out hiking. If you're looking to date somebody and you're on these dating apps and these websites to date, right? If you want to get to know somebody at a deeper level, so you don't waste your time. So it's more of an interview versus a date to qualify and protect your time, then take somebody out hiking. I have a lot of single women in, in some of my hiking groups that I have. And uh they, they've got off the apps and off the dating sites, the paid ones are the free ones and they come out now and they interview the guys. Well, they're out in nature and they trust their female intuition and they're like, oh my gosh, because behavior never lies, behavior never lies. And so you see people's real behavior and how they show up. Are they prepared? Do they bring water? They bring snacks, do they interact? Are they really quiet? And then I've also seen people the aliveness of people who are completely shut down, deal with things going on in their lives that they don't want to talk about. But they want their nature for a period of time. It's like they start to open up and they realize, ok, my life is difficult compared to what it's not really that difficult. I'll get through this and I'll get on with this. So I just find that, uh, you know, we're at a time right now where people are under a lot of pressure, a lot of stress with a lot of negativity in the media, social media, you know, all that stuff and people need to get back to basics of nature and ground themselves and being out there where they can be around like minded people and just have those authentic and vulnerable sharing conversations, they don't feel judged because, you know, as human beings, we want to look good and we don't want to look bad and we play this dance in our head all the time of looking good, looking bad all the time. I think if we just be it, it makes such a difference. Yeah. And I feel like nature provides such a, a place to do that. I know for myself, like, and, and I love, I can feel like the um like hike, hiking, hiking.com, hiking, hiking, fundraiser.com, Darren J you know, hiking the new way and it's beautiful. And, you know, for me, some of my deepest insights I've had along the way in this journey have been when I've been with nature, completely surrounded with, with, with nothing but the birds and the mountains. And just this deep connection to the deeper mystery of life, the deeper connection to a purpose beyond my mind, trying to validate itself or my ego, trying to validate itself and actually finding the deeper core of it all. And I guess a question inside of that because I know you're working with a lot of CEO S and, and corporate people when this conversation of vulnerability comes in, you know, because I talked about conscious vulnerability and the importance of vulnerability as being a strong, conscious, powerful man. I speak about it in my book. But I feel like in a company CEO place, there's still a little bit of that mindset of like can't be too vulnerable because there's some weakness there. So I'd love to just hear like how your perspective on this and where more conscious leadership can go around this conversation of, of vulnerability and really the revealing of oneself. Uh Oh, great question, great question. So III I had a very famous person. I won't mention his name with me recently hiking, knowing all over the world, people know his name. And this is a guy that very high exposure, high visibility, very successful, achieve a lot of things, plays a lot of people, but he can't go to his board of directors or his advisory board or executives in his companies and share what's really going on at home with his wife or he's dealing with loneliness is a big thing for him. For example, he feels very alone. He's like, who do I trust? You know, everybody's always wanting something from me or getting involved with something? He says, you know, I just, sometimes I'm scared to respond to my messages on my phone. But when I brought him out, you know, I, I didn't want anything from him. I just want to have a great time coming up for a hike with me being out in nature and he just opened up and authentically share with me and he shared with me things that he doesn't even talk to his wife or his own people in his own house about that he's dealing with in terms of his own mental health. And so I think the thing is a lot of times we go play pickleball or go golfing or play tennis or racquetball, a lot of people or they do some kind of for former sports, but there's not a, when you go golfing, you don't really connect deeply with people. When you're playing racquetball or picket ball, you don't really connect deeply with people. And I think the thing is when you bring somebody out hiking, being out in nature, being in the forest, being with the trees, it brings off the mask that a lot of these people wear. And I've seen with so many people from all walks of life, all age groups. I, I do, I have a lot of very successful entrepreneurs that come up with me. A lot of millionaires, multimillionaires deca millionairess, hes all these people who have achieved a lot of financial success and wealth. And the thing is the mask comes off when they come out hiking with me because there's nowhere to hide, right? Because I see them, I see their authentic vulnerable, true self. And I think the thing is in terms of mental health, in terms of building culture, building teams of people, creating the, you know, the energy that you know, I always share with people that like in business today. It's so important to take your employees. That's why we deal with hiking fundraiser, why we bring people to do the hiking fundraising because you come out for your mental health for a few hours to support a great cause with Link foundation. But then we build a physical bricks and mortar school that helps alleviate Children from poverty around the world. We're gonna build 100 schools around the world by take a hike, build the school. So the thing is I want to involve people to come out for their mental health to be in a great community of like minded people and know that you can just be yourself, let your guard down, let your mask off and just be these people want nothing from you. They're not here trying to take something from you. They just, just be because so many people, I, I had three close good friends of mine, very successful, accomplished business entrepreneurs this year, commit suicide. And it really rocked me to my core, brought me to my, my knees the one day like crying because I'm like, why would one of my great friends do this? And this guy was a mental health coach, very successful, had a very successful mastermind. People paid a lot of money to be in this mastermind. But this guy was all alone. And yeah, he had this, he had, he had all those material success and all these things going on, but he didn't have anybody to talk to and he was alone. And I feel a lot of men today and women feel loneliness. And we saw during the COVID-19 during the, during the pandemic, during the lockdown, a lot of people became very disconnected and very self isolated. And so with a lot of these CEO S and executives and business and entrepreneurs, I bring a lot of about hiking and everywhere I go now, anywhere in the world. I've even been in Sarasota, Florida and went hiking. Yeah, there's no elevation, but I went around the pond and stuff like that just outside of Sarasota Florida. And so I feel now I'm bringing people all the time out with me and the conversation are changing with people now. Because they want to talk about things that matter most to them in their lives, things that they're dealing with, whether it's getting older, it's dealing with aging parents. It's dealing with their kids going off to college. University. It's dealing with kids that are staying home longer and living at home longer, not knowing which job or career direction or path they want to go in life. It's people that are relationships now that, oh my gosh, our kids are now leaving the empty nest. And I don't know this other spouse or part of that I have here in this home with me because we've been so busy raising a family and paying the bills. And so there's a lot of things going on and I just find that we bring people out into nature and, and, and this is all new for me in the last few years, but it's transformed my life and the way I connect and interact with people deeply around the world. And so a lot of the CEO S, it's important to bring out Steve Jobs from Apple. You know, one of the things he always did was went for a walk. Um, you know, Tim cook the CEO of Apple. Now, he, he loves being in the national parks across the United States. And when I'm on hiking all the time now I meet people that just, just recently I was on the top of a mountain. It was a 21 kilometer boat, 1617 mile hike, way up high elevation, you know, near the Canadian Rockies. And I'm up there by myself. It took me 4.5 hours to get on top of this mountain. And I met a man who is 88. His wife was 86 from New Zealand and I, I'm 52. This guy is 88 and she's 86 at the top of the mountain. And I, and I started to cry and I thought, wow, when I'm 88 years of age, I want to be like this man, the vitality of the energy, his flexibility, his range of motion, his core strength, his balance was just incredible this man and, and just the energy having that conversation with this guy, he was living life to the fullest, he was fully live and fully self expressed. So I look at the younger generation of guys in their twenties and thirties and forties on their come up. They're watching me and they're watching you. I look at the guys in their sixties, seventies, eighties and nineties, they're ahead of me. I'm watching them for longevity, vitality for energy because a lot of times in business, you know, people look at ro I return on investment. What's the ro I here's two other metrics that we share with people. What's the Roe, what's the return on energy, the return on energy and what's the rol? The rol? What's the return on life. So is it multiply an expense when you do, when you do your seminars and retreats, it gives you great joy and fulfillment. It gives you return on energy. It also gives you a return on life. Mhm. Mhm. Right. And that's why I look at is return on life and return on energy, doing things that give you that joy, that enrichment, that aliveness, that fulfillness. And if it doesn't give you that it starts to change your environment, start to change what you're doing during the working hours of your day. Absolutely. It's, if it doesn't give you that energy, then why bother, why bother if life is, is too short, not to be doing the things that we love. You know, one of the, the things that comes up for me is if I looked at the, the younger generation and I just turned 41 this last year and I see a younger generation that, you know, is very always on their smartphone, you know, and much more disconnected from nature. You know, there's a and even what happened with COVID, a lot of people that are not only disconnected from nature, but disconnected from humans and like almost a fear of, of connecting to humans. And I'm quite curious in the next, you know, 5 to 10 to 15 years, how that's going to be impacting, especially around this leadership piece. Like the, what I hear you saying is this leadership that includes nature what I'm gonna be doing in Portugal is including nature is inclusive of that. But the general majority of people, it's like, it's a I technology driven away from nature more into the screen, more into the, into the virtual world. And I'm curious your thoughts on all of this and how we as a society as a humanity can start to actually like revalue our capacity to have appreciation and connection to nature. And even more so at the younger generation that I feel like are quite lost in the screen. Like people, young kids that have grown up being potty trained on screens and their lives are on screens and everything is on the screen. Like I appreciate a screen but I appreciate nature a lot more than the screen. But I'm in an older generation. So like where do we lead as a as a humanity moving forward with conscious leadership around like utilizing the stream but not getting lost in it? Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Use as a tool but not all your life. Mental health plays a major part uh part in this. I, I invite a lot of people to bring their kids up, putting their families out into nature and some of these kids, they get into arguments and fights with their parents on the start of the hiking trail because they want to bring their cell phones with them. And I usually pick a hiking trail where the cell phone doesn't work and there's no, no cell phone connection. I do that. But on purpose, we have a trip plan for safety. But the thing is, is that taking time away, look at how many people today in, around the world live in apartment buildings or condos where there's so many stories up, but their feet are never on the ground and then they go to a commercial office building or a bricks and mortar office building, but they're never grounded. And so it's a big thing is going, people live in major cities where they're not near parks, right? So they can go get their feet on, on the grass in a park or at a golf course or at the school ground. It's so important. So I think is as we look at the research and the data that's coming over the next few years going forward, we're going to see a lot of mental health crisis. We're gonna see a lot of depression, a lot of people that are dealing with things because the thing is, is that all we as human beings, all we are is a network of conversations. If we look at social media, it's a network of conversations and opportunities live inside of conversations. You know, we're taught as Children. At least I was taught as a child. Don't talk to strangers. Well, everything we want, everything we need, everything we design in our lives. It's about having a conversation with strangers and interacting with them. And so they get to know us, like us and trust us and build that rapport with us and that say to us and then commerce or fair means of exchange of business can, can happen, right? So a lot of these a day, it's fascinating when they go in for a job interview, how they don't make direct eye contact. I understand sometimes cultures depends on where you live on the planet. Making eye contact is not right. But the thing is, is even having those interview skills, how communication skills, leadership skills, team building skills, so important, playing on a team, how to lean on a team. So when you bring people into nature, you see, you, you, I, I like taking people up where they got to struggle a little bit where they gotta sweat because when people have got to sweat and they gotta struggle a little bit, you get to see who they really are, right? Because there's no makeup, they're sweating, they're stinky, all that stuff. That's the choice. The ju the juice I say where you get to see reason for real because they're not wearing the three piece suit, they're not, they don't have all the jewelry on and all the makeup and a lot of stuff and all the bling on, you get to see them in the raw, authentic, vulnerable self. And I think it's so important that if you look at physical education in public schools today a lot of times it's decreased over the last year. They, they're not getting as much physical exercise and as young boys, they need to burn that energy. They need to run around. I was always taught as a kid. You got a lot of energy. Go run around, go, you know, go do things like this, get outside, go ride your bike, go run around. But we drive around the neighborhoods today. In most major cities, you don't see all the bikes on the front yard anymore. You don't see kids all together in groups. You see maybe in social groups on the internet, but not in private groups where they're interacting, playing hide and seek or tag, you know, especially in the first world here in North America. You don't see that. Now, if I take you to Africa, we're in a remote village in Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, East Africa, things a little bit different there, but they don't have the technology and the electricity that we have here in the first world. And I, and um it's important and it's, I think it's important for parents. I don't have any Children. I, since I don't have any kids, but it's important for people who have Children to take them to parks, take them to where there's rivers and lakes and streams, take them out into nature, take them out into the countryside. So important because it does so much for our mental health. And I think personally down the road from my observation, I've seen a lot of things that are going on. We're gonna have some challenges going forward with a lot of the younger generation are being around this technology and on these screens all the time and relying on technology to make decisions for them. Yeah. Yeah, it's, it's definitely a changing world moving forward. And, you know, I, I'm working a lot in the relationship framework and you see a lot of people who are often even like a little bit afraid of, of the, the depth of relationship that can exist and they're used to the internet connections and the online dating, which is beautiful. But it, it's almost in a way that is, is leading them continually back into this virtual world. And I love like the, the fact that I'm, you know, closing in on this place in Portugal. And I get to planning to bring some Children in the world and having a, you know, a community and a land and fruit trees and, and a place that I can really like, go down to the river and it's quiet and swim and, and bathe in the river and it's clean and fresh like that for me is something from a very young age is just nourished me so deeply. Um And I, that's what I try to do, especially in, in, you know, groups and retreats and, you know, the men's journeys and the ton of things always being in beau beautiful locations that help people essentially not even teaching them that much but helping them. Remember the wisdom that nature provides nature is such an infinite wisdom of knowledge and everything is connected in nature and they're all in harmony and all in balance and all in communication with each other. All the trees are in communication and all the research coming out. Now, I just uh recently enrolled into an online force therapy certification training program. I never thought I do something like this before, but I'm fascinated by what nature does with the trees, the healing components of and you know, and the science behind it, the research that validates it in regards to like pine trees of what it does for us and you know, going into these ponds in the wilders out in the mountains and the minerals that come down from the water beds, you know, from the creeks and what those minerals do towards our physical body like. And there's so much so I want to get more relatable to this and understand more of what it's doing. So I bring somebody out into nature and they're dealing with stress or a loss of a parent or someone has passed away or they're doing some grief or some trauma that maybe nature can play a part in terms of helping in that healing journey, that healing process with someone. Absolutely. And you know, when it comes to, to leadership the, the way in which um you know, plants can inform and actually create a lot of uh knowledge and awareness and be able to heal our body from the inside is really how we've evolved as a species. But we've taken these plants and then we put them into little pills and then we've got people addicted into pharmaceuticals instead of actually reclaiming the, the, the origins of where a lot of the places come from. And the other thing I hear you saying in that is, is one of the things that's quite passionate for me is more around the permaculture design and how we can consciously work with the design of our landscape that we're in a symbiotic relationship with nature. And we're actually listening to what the gardens and the trees and the fruit want to do. And this is, you know, really what I see moving forward. One of the, the immersions I'll be running next summer is called Trick Living, which will be a lot of the discourse around, you know, the same work I've been teaching. But then in that be taking people down into the land and, and, and working with the, the, the tantric nature of the trees and you know, the herbs and the flowers and the plants and really getting them grounded in that way. And that's a lot of what I hear you saying with the, you know, the, the people you're working with and I think it's just, it's phenomenal. It's really what our, our world and our earth needs more and more of us to, to have that ultimately a deep relationship to listen to what's present with nature and, and let nature inform you in that way. Oh, yeah. Well, that's great. When we do nighttime hiking, take people out at nighttime, it's pitch black out in the wilderness and I'll have people shut off their head lamps and people, people lose their shit. They, they, they freak out freaking out. It's, it's fascinating. You know what I mean? And what goes on with people and, and then you deal with that up upset, right? It's like a small five year old kid having a tantrum for like 20 minutes and then all of a sudden they just chill and they just surrender and they let go and they realize, ok, we do you use the moon as our flashlight to guide you in the hiking trail where, you know, it could be a full moon, a full moon night or just gonna use it or we're gonna use our night vision be like, what do you mean? Night vision? I'm like, train yourself that you just say to yourself. I have night vision and now just train yourself. We're gonna walk through the forest when it's dark. And people like, wow. And then people finish after that hour, two hour hike. They're like, oh my gosh. Do I ever feel so much energy in my body? And they want to go home. It's like I can't sleep. Right. Because, and then, and the creativity, the imagination. I've had people writing books or working on research papers or coming out or working on big projects in their work or business. I'm like, let's go do a night time. M are you serious? Like, listen, you've got time for it. Let's go and bring about 11 o'clock at night. Like, where are we going? Just trust the process, you're safe. We've got your back. You're gonna be OK. And then having to, having to take off their clothes pitch black and we're gonna go into this water, this pond and I've been there many times in the daytime, so I know what's in the pond, it's safe. And like, are you nuts? Are you crazy? Come on. If you're 10 years old, would you do this if we were a teenager? Would you do this? They go in there like, oh my gosh, this is incredible. And, and, and people just feel so much joy from doing this, but it's incredible when you do that with people. So what do, what do you think it is because you see this common piece where, you know, a child has these very little inhibitions and they can run into that lake and they don't care. And then a certain age comes and there's a level of self awareness that comes in and then we kind of go on this journey of oh my God, I can't do these things. And do you feel like that, that has to be a natural progress for a human or do you think that self awareness? I think self awareness is also financial responsibility that people think if I get hurt, I don't show up to work, I'm gonna get behind and pay my bills. I'm gonna go into financial debt. I'm gonna have more financial stress or financial pressures. I think there's that accountability responsibility that feel like, oh my gosh, I'm trading time for money in my job or my career. And if something happens, I don't have any lifeline, I have no insurance here. Right? And so that's a risk for people. And so people calculate as an adult thinking, you know, as kids, we don't think about that risk analysis right in our mind. You know, we do crazy stuff as teenagers and young kids growing up and as we get older, I think, oh my gosh, that, that may hurt. Like I remember when I was a young kid on my mountain bike, my BMX bike and I go over the handle bars and I get back up and keep going down that trail right now. Then you go over the handle bars and you fall off your bike. Like when I was a kid, we didn't wear bicycle helmets and something we just didn't have. But now you see bicycle helmets everywhere, right? And uh, you know, and things like that. So I think the thing is that when going out into nature is that it's that, that self-awareness, but also that risk thing. But also people, again, as we, our brains develop, we want to look good. We don't want to look bad and we don't want to feel embarrassed or we want people to make fun of us or say something about us and it's so important. But as kids, you know, we just want to be, we want to experience things, we want to do things. And that's why I love being people on the hiking trails and whether morning hikes or nighttime hikes because you bring people out and, and like I had a guy recently came up with me 34 times. I followed up with him 34 times. He's like, they're not too busy. I don't have time. You know, he kept on blowing me off, blow me off, blow me out 34 four times. Said Darren, you're not gonna quit. And I said that I am committed to you having an experience in nature. You need to be out in nature. It will, it will make a difference in your family. Trust me, your, your wife will call her to text me like I, I don't need, I have time for this. Like, no, I'm gonna stand for you. I'm standing that you're gonna come up with me on a hike. I'm not a hiker and it's like no, I said you're coming out with me. So he was running shoes. He came up with me. It was a beginner hike. He had the time of his life. And also too, I encourage people to go on an early sunrise hike. Get up when it's dark, go hiking in a hiking group. There's lots of groups around the world you can visit. I, I've got a group next week and we're going out, we're taking people up in North Vancouver in British Columbia and in Vancouver to Mount Seymour, we're doing a, we're doing a sunrise hike and, uh, we'll have a large group. We're gonna start at 3:30 a.m. pacific time in the morning. We'll get up around 536 in the morning. The sun will come up. It's so far. The weather forecast is great. We have a clear, clear sky and people come, you look around and people are crying because they just the sun starting to come up because the coldest part of the day is the hour before sunrise, we saw that we experienced on Killman Gerald. But for people to just feel that sun coming up and you're on top of a mountain with unt reviews. Just a magical experience. I remember one of my most favorite hikes was a half dome in Yosemite. And I started at 11 p.m. and hike through the middle of the night and they get up to the, this absolutely glorious, you know, slab of rock up by up up in the mountains and uh you know, the sun rises and we also there with a group of people and yeah, sunrise hikes just, it really is a deep uh to, I think it touches into the place inside of us that knows and energy beyond this human body, it taps into our eternal nature. It taps into a, a source that recognizes our, our relationship to me with death. Ultimately, it's like at some point, I'm going to die. And this beauty, this magnificence, this incredible feat of creation is still going to be here. You know, two things I want to share one. What's amazing actually is in this property. I'm, I'm getting in Portugal. They have all these intricate rock walls that they built for the waterways and the terraces and they were probably built in like the 15th 16th century, but they're just woven through all of these like rolling mountains and hills up there in Central Portugal. And what it reminds me is, it's just the people's relationship with nature even more so, you know, 2, 304 100 years ago, that's just so much different now because of this technology in the, in the sense. The second thing I want to share is um this past weekend, one of the participants in the uh that I was a friend as well who does a lot of work in the Middle East and he's working on a project. Now, I forget what country it is. But they're planting 7 million trees in, in this very, um, you know, wealthy, middle Eastern, um, you know, country basically because they're having so much wealth and so much money and so, like, they're wanting to build more, you know, another Dubai, another big place, another, let's throw all of our money into this. And he's like, actually let's plant some trees. So he's been fighting against some of the government stuff. But they're like, oh, yeah, this is pretty beneficial. And I, I've seen a lot of different movements in that way of replanting into the earth and giving back to the earth and helping this earth replenish itself. And when I was hearing this, it was just a such a refreshing reminder that even in, uh you know, some of these places like Saudi and Qatar and Oman and places that are very, you know, thriving into this metropolis world are actually still having some places to, to want to build and grow, grow some trees and go into more of that connection to nature. It's actually quite refreshing to hear that. I hear that. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Um And so with your, you know, the, the foundation you're building, with the hiking and the, the schools, like, what's the, the bigger vision of that? What's the piece that's really like the, I can obviously feel what's driving you and the impetus but like, what's, if you could have the, the five year vision on that. What would it be for you? Yeah, great question. So we have an international foundation called Link Foundation that T and I created, we've got a team. So it's an international foundation, it's Register Foundation in Canada and the USA. And so in 2022 when I got negative, so Darren Jacqueline by the royal family out of Spain, I was one of two Canadian citizens, one of 24 people in the world to be knighted under there's eight different categories. So I was chosen out the uh area of global philanthropy and entrepreneurship. When I took my oath with the sword, I made two public global declarations. Number one was to be a global ambassador for mental health awareness. And number two was to be accountable, responsible and committed to building 100 schools around the world to help alleviate poverty, provide access to clean drinking water, food security and education for the next generation of Children living in impoverished conditions around the world, in different villages and communities around the world. And so when I started hiking over the last few years and started documenting my journey as a digital footprint on social media. I started to have more and more people starting to follow me because they're like so inspired by the journey, me releasing the way to my mental health changing to start to look younger. So the five year plan for me is to actually have take a hike build the school in multiple different cities throughout North America that eventually internationally. And we're working on that right now. I've got a team of people, volunteers like myself doing this. And so we're gonna have, take a hike, build the school. So you'll be in California, you'll be in Colorado, you'll be in Oregon. They will be in Australia will be in Europe will be in the UK. We will be all over the world. So like 5 to 10 years, just like an iron man or like a tough mudder, like a marathon, we'll have multiple different, take a hike, build the schools going on around the world for people's mental health, but also the networking, the collaboration, the community building, just how much of the, you know, makes a difference in their lives for their, their mental health and their stress. But then we'll have those global buildings, this global community of like minded people that want to be outdoors, wanna be in nature, right? And what I find is that, you know, when people talk about environmental things, I find that you take them out into nature or take them out on an ocean and they actually be on the ocean or be in nature. They have more of the love and appreciation for being environmental, being stewards of this planet because when you see the beauty of nature, you want to protect it and take care of it, right? Same with our oceans. And so the the master plan for this is to have 100 schools built in the next 10 years. But also as a legacy people come out to take, I could build a school because what gets rewarded gets repeated. And I want to catch you on doing things right, that benefit their health. And also the longevity, there's a lot of research coming out now regards to force bathing and being out in hiking in terms of the flexibility, the range of motion, core strength to balance what it does for you is as we get up there in age in the fifties, sixties, seventies and eighties. When the human bodies may start to slow down. The key thing is if you have a fall, it could change your life when you're older. But if you keep it up consistently with hiking and being like the 88 year old man and he actually a woman that deeply inspired me, right? When I saw them, I thought man, I want to be like them. And so what I envision with E two E elevate to educate where we take, I can build the school is these all over the world and we're enriching, we're creating aliveness, we creating joy, creating fulfillment. Yeah, we're raising money to build these schools and create sustainability. But also as we build these schools, we can then build playgrounds, we can also grow up with fruit trees and have gardens, talk about permaculture. So now the Children in these villages, no child goes hungry. And then we're all starting actually to clean drinking water with food, food, water filters. But also, then two is that we can provide education. So these Children can grow up out of these impoverished conditions and alleviate them from poverty, providing education and nourishing them with good proper nutrition and food that's harvesting, growing off their lands. And also showing the importance of physical fitness and being out in nature now. So I'm excited about what we're doing. And I've seen, you know, we've had a few 100 people the last three years that we did the pilot for taking, we can build a school and we've had people from all walks of life, all age groups, all different backgrounds, from many different countries come out. And we've already built our first school over in Liberia, West Africa as our pilot school. We have over 300 Children now from preschool to grade six, going to school for the first time in their lives. And now we're actually starting to pre plan for uh Honduras and Central America to actually build multiple schools over there over the next while. So that will start to unfold here very soon in the coming months. And so I think it's fun that people come out, they take a hike, they build the school. But then in five or 10 years now they can go and they can take their family or their Children, their grandkids and they can go to a country that we built a school and like, oh, my gosh, because I went out and took a hike, I've now helped build the school and made a difference. And so I just think it's such a great way to, not only for our mental health but our physical fitness, but also to make a difference in other people's lives. Oh, I love this. It reminds me one of the uh at the end of all the initiation tree, we do some type of um community piece with either the land that we're on or in the area that we're in. And when I was running it in uh Nicaragua a few years ago, I got connected to a local charity school that had, you know, young impoverished kids that were in there. And we, we brought all the guys in and we planted and we bought a bunch of trees in the local, uh you know, florists and then we planted a bunch of trees in the area. The woman that was running, it was married to a Nicaraguan man was from the US. But she was really like her life mission there showing up and supporting. And then we donated a bunch of money to it as well. And yeah, it was so beautiful to actually see her, her young child running around through the yard and, and to feel that, you know, from our impact, it was going to then be able to support so many more Children in the years to come. So I, I really appreciate and love that vision even in, you know, it's a little bit different in Portugal. It's still in the eu so it's a bit developed. But some of these areas in central Portugal are quite uh impoverished in that way. And I've seen some old schools actually that will probably try to support the local community as we get more involved there. So, yeah, it's, uh it's great work that you're doing, brother. I appreciate the way that you show up. And uh yeah, it's, it's beautiful. It takes a team of people which I'm grateful for. Right. It's a team of people that work together. Absolutely. The, the other thing I, I, you know, we spoke about it briefly but I know you've had this, uh this big new, new mission going up to uh Antarctica. So if you'd like to share a little bit about that and you, I know things have changed with it, but tell me a little bit about your, your journey with that. What's happening? So, I met a guy 2020 years ago. He's in law enforcement. I was in a course in Vancouver one day and uh um this gentleman is now retired from law enforcement. He was a clandestine operator and worked with some real bad actors around the world, worked in human trafficking as well. And of course his mental health and the stress of his job of a, of a law enforcement officer. So he's done six of the top seven summits in the world. He's done Mount Everest twice successfully. And his last one to complete is Mount Vincent, Antarctica, which is 16,050 ft in Antarctica. So he asked me if I would consider being open to going to Antarctica to Mount Vincent to actually go and summit Mount Vincent with him. So I thought absolutely again, like mountains are absolutely crazy. Again, this is winter time. It's cold weather minus 30 minus 40 below freezing. So I thought what a great way to get my, my body in the best shape of possible but also take on doing things that most human beings don't do in the world to create visibility and awareness and exposure around mental health. And so I thought, you know what? So I've been training for the last year for this. We were planning to go in January of 2026 probably 2025. But because we're going to wilderness, uh very cold weather environments, I figure we have to have more contingency plans because we have to self rescue. If something goes wrong, worst case scenario, we have to self rescue. So over the last couple of months, we've been collaborating in regards to, should we do it in January 2025 or should we go in January 2026? And I said, you know what, I'd rather err on the side of caution and safety. And let's go in January 2026. Let's get more training development under our belt first. Let's do a lot more scenario planning, the best case, like the case of worst case scenario. So we have a lot of scenario planning in place in terms of risk management. And then let's go in January 2026. And so, um that it's been an incredible experience just dreaming of this, thinking about this because, and that came as a result of you, you inviting me to Mount Kilman Gerald, like you were, you were, you were the one that contacted me. And this is all ripple effected because of your, your um invitation for me to come out. So that's one thing I'm grateful for and blessed with my life is you never know when you just say yes to things how your life unfolds in the next few years going forward because I would never ever dreamed of doing something like this. Never dreamed of taking a hike and building a school, building 100 schools around the world. So hiking, never mind. You wouldn't invite me to kill the drill that never would have happened as a result of that. So I wanna thank you as a ripple of impact for this. So I'm excited about mental health awareness being one of the very few human beings on the planet to ever do this. About 1200 people have actually done Mount Vincent around the world since the 19 fifties. And so I think it'd be just fun to go out there and have an experience. But it's also the camaraderie, the collaboration, the preparation, you know, the, the training development, everything I learned about myself about other people and then just getting really, you know, intimate with people because you're going to do something very few humans ever do. So you're really gonna open up and look at your fears, your doubts, your worries, your insecurities, and your strengths of what you're capable of doing as a human being. And so I just love the transparency but the authenticity and the vulnerability of it, but also the inspiration to enrich other people's lives. But also to create that ripple impact of younger men and women through social media, watching what I'm doing and giving them hope and possibility. You can do things to make a difference in your life. So I'm doing this as a thing for my own self to, to, you know, because to expand myself, my consciousness, my awareness, but also to make a difference around mental health awareness, but also to build 100 schools around the world through link foundation and need to elevate to educate, leading, leading by example, the, the last thing I'd love to bring up just to get your perspective, you know, around mental health and especially around suicide. And you know, we're both in male bodies and especially since COVID, you know, there's the male suicide rates have, have, have gone up, you know, there's a lot of men that feel alone, they feel lost inside their world. And, you know, in regards to that, obviously, you're being such an amazing advocate globally for this mental health foundation supporting them in this way. And, you know, to someone who might be listening now or someone who's listening, who has someone close to them, who's, they can tell her on that edge and like your friends that, you know, just took their lives, what would you say, like directly to an individual like that who's kind of on that edge? And they're, you know, wondering whether it's, it's, it's worthwhile to stay in this body, you know, at that place, you know, if you can go someplace with them in private, like go for a walk with them, uh find out something that they love to do, like what, what's in their value system of what's important to them in their lives, right? Like, so sometimes, like I, I met somebody recently that, you know, had body piercings all over themselves and tattoos and purple and pink and hair and all that stuff, which was suicidal. And this person was very big into arts and culture and stuff. So I always find meet people where they're at but go for a walk, go for a hike with them, go for a coffee or a meal with them if you can and just sit down and really listen to somebody. Uh, you know, earlier this morning I sent out text messages to people that I know they're dealing with some big things in their life, some big decisions and stressful situations going on. I just said, hey, I just said a prayer for you this morning. I was thinking about you one, I love you and I have your back and I sent out 22 text messages this morning to people and I've got four backs so far. And I don't expect I'm not attached to if everybody responds or not. But I had four people respond to those 20 text messages saying, wow, thank you so much. Your text message meant so much to me. I've been dealing with a lot of stress and a lot of things going on in my life right now and it just shows that we care, right? Um And that's important. So I think the biggest thing is number one to show that you care whether it's having a conversation in person by telephone, by text, by email. Uh because some people are more, more safe by a text message or an email or direct message than, than meeting people face to face and uh come from a place of non judgment. He's come from a place of just full, you know, standing for this person, full appreciation, not judging them. I have a great, good friend of mine just came out on a hiking trail. Last couple of weeks ago, I brought him out. He's not a hiker, brought him out. And he said, Darren, I'm dealing with a pornography addiction. And, uh, it's might cost me, my marriage, my wife found the pornography on my, on my, on my, my technology devices. And, um, so I asked him, what do you plan to do? You're gonna go to counseling, you gonna go for therapy? And he said, Darren, what would you say? I said the biggest piece of advice that I can give you from brother to brother is you need to look at your life and stop lying to yourself when I was in my early forties. That was a big thing. I confronted myself in my life was to stop lying to myself. And I opened up my journal and I started to make notes of where do I lie to myself and where do I lie to other people? Do I to exaggerate things? And, and I just come full transparency with my life and realize stop lying to myself because as human beings, we lie a lot to ourselves. I lied about my weight for many years. I was a food aholic. I was addicted to sugar until I was almost 48 years of age when I realized, oh my gosh, I am statistically obese and I'm gonna stop lying to myself that I'm addicted to sugar and I'm addicted to fast food because I, I it was a way of masking myself. Whenever I got stressed, I would go eat, I go eat fast food, go to Dairy Queen, go, go get sugar, things like that. Go get sweets. And so I realized, oh my gosh, I'm not making healthy choices and people around me knew but nobody said anything to me and, and I can relate to being suicidal because in my early twenties, I was suicidal, did multiple suicide attempts in my life because I was in a lot of pain. I had a lot of childhood trauma and I just felt that if I share with people, it's just gonna, people are too busy, they don't want to listen to me, you know what you mean? But I didn't realize it. And I felt that I didn't matter. I felt that I wasn't good enough. I wasn't worthy enough. I wasn't smart enough because I have very low self esteem. I was very insecure with myself. And so what I always focus on a lot of times too is, is, is positively and authentically um praising and recognizing people, but it's coming from sincerity and not faking it being real with people. Acknowledging, praising people, recognizing you, writing people, handwrit notes, sending people take measures that you love them, you care about them, you appreciate them, these little things that make such a big difference in people's lives so important. You know, even when I'm out hiking with people, all the time I always acknowledging people like, man, hey, we've hiked four times now. I noticed when you first came out how scared you were or uncomfortable you were or, man, it was a big deal to get to the top of this mountain because last time you were out of shaping out of breath. And so I'm always constantly positively reinforcing people and acknowledging people, but just building those relationships with people is so important. And one thing I'll share with this people, you think that have it all together are some of the most loneliest people I've ever met in my life. Some of the most loneliest people you think that, you know, on the service, they've got the beautiful family and they've got money in the bank and they've got a job or career, they've got education, university or college degrees. They, they have a great business or a great corporate career job. But inside they're struggling in silence. And I've met many of these people over the last few years on hiking trails that have opened up authentically with me and shared me what they're really dealing with because as human beings, every human being is either coming for a problem. We're in a problem. We're heading towards a problem. Right. We're always dealing with something in our lives 1st 1st. That's going on. A lot of times people don't know where to share and who to open up to. How am I gonna be judged am I gonna be accepted? Are they gonna, you know, are they gonna distance themselves from me if I would tell them what's going on? I had, I had a good friend of mine recently just came to me and said, Darren, I have $5 million in debt right now in bad $5 million in debt. And I said, great, good for you and celebrating. He goes, what do you mean? I said, Dre, I said, listen, you live in the United States of America and you got to go $5 million below zero. You know how many countries around the world that, that, that they barter and trade, they don't have money in their pocket. They can't get credit cards or credit, they can't borrow money and go below zero. So be grateful that you live in the United States of America, you got to go five. You know how many people would love to have $5 million in debt? You know, many people love $5 million. So let's celebrate it first and then wait to go out and serve more people and solve problems and turn this around with integrity and being integrity, this and create a plan to actually move forward in the next couple of years. And he goes, wow, I just feel so much stress and weight off my shoulders. I said, yeah, don't look at it as a bad thing. Look, you got to do something. I, I've never been $5 million in debt. I don't know if you have, I've never, had, never been over 5 million in debt like he, you know. Yeah. No, it's a, it's a shifting of the way in which we get to look at things and, you know, I really hear that as well and everything you're sharing here. You know, and I, and I feel like those that are, you know, in that struggle with mental health, it's, it's a shift. It's a finding the place to where the, the why is the choice, the, the values, the decision to find that, why that's going to get them up in the morning and keep that movie ahead. And, you know, I hear so many beautiful inspiring whys and everything you're sharing and uh yeah, just very, very grateful for your presence, for your love and, and how you show up in this world as a inspiring service oriented individual that's making a difference on this planet. Very, very grateful for you're doing as well. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, beautiful. And those that are listening, if there's things that have arisen in our conversations that inspire you, that you have questions about, then feel free to reach out to either one of us. And if people want to get a hold of you, Darren, uh any other way than the website you, you said. Yeah, then go to hiking, fundraiser.com, hiking, fundraiser.com or you can find me on all the various different social media platforms as well and send me a direct message. And if you want to come on hike with me sometime again, we're doing this all over the world, just go to hiking fundraiser.com and you can see what we're doing with Link Foundation and E two E elevate to educate, to take hiking, build the school. People come from all walks of life, all age groups, all backgrounds. And uh it's a, it's a great, great experience show, great, meet great people, great tribe, great vibe, great networking opportunity. And uh it'll enrich, inspire your life. Amazing. Thank you so much for your, your presence and uh great, great to chat with you today. Grateful to be here. See you all next time on love, sex and leadership.