I believe that we are born into this world with endless possibilities in front of us and that we’re capable of doing more than worrying about ourselves and just surviving.
I believe that it’s in our nature to want to engage, serve, help and make a difference in other people’s lives. But somehow along the way, we can get pulled away from these fundamental truths. As we get older, life starts to steer us away from our higher purpose and, before we know it, our existence becomes more about survival than about designing a life worth smiling about.
Like many entrepreneurs, my story started with struggle. The kind that changes the way you look at life, people and your future.
In the early years of my childhood, my father wasn’t around a lot. It wasn’t that he didn’t love my mother or me, but there were circumstances that often prevented him from being home with us. Because of this, I grew up being very much influenced by my mother. Now, she was a character! She was constantly singing and dancing around the house (seriously). My grandmother had been a Rockette at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, so that was the environment that my mother had been raised in. She had also done some modeling, and her sisters had done some singing; my point here is that there was definitely show business in our blood.
This love of singing and dancing, and a flair for the dramatic, did not escape me. As far back as I can remember, I wanted to be an actor. I was in my first play when I was eight. During the next several years, I performed in plays, went on auditions in Manhattan for TV commercials and took acting classes, including some at the prominent Lee Strasberg Institute. I was crystal clear about my dream of becoming an actor. I was working toward it, and I was happy.
When I was fourteen, my father passed away unexpectedly, leaving me untethered in many ways and with a mom not really capable of effectively managing her own life, much less parenting a young teenager. She couldn’t cope with her loss and had a breakdown.
That left me to take care of the funeral arrangements. I remember picking out the casket, the flowers, and the headstone, along with negotiating payment arrangements with the funeral home. I didn’t really question it—I was just going through the motions and handling the details of what had to be done for my father. Needless to say, this event changed me and the way that I interacted with the world.
After two complicated years of unhealthy parenting and a constant battle for my own mental and emotional well-being, the relationship with my mom reached a breaking point.
She wanted to move to Queens, NY with a new person in her life, and I needed to stay behind in East Rockaway, NY (about a 45 minute car ride away) … so my mother helped me to file the court papers necessary to become an emancipated minor. At 16 years old, I was officially an adult—on paper. I could legally enter into contracts, sign leases or do whatever else I needed to do to live on my own. This allowed me to stay and finish high school in East Rockaway and to get my own apartment. I paid the rent by working three (sometimes four) jobs at once, while still going to school.
Needless to say, I grew up very fast, and my original dream of a living a life of creativity as an actor and performer was set aside as I had to focus on very real life survival questions such as…
- Where will I live?
- How can I pay rent?
- How will I support myself?
- Will I be able to finish high school?
- Who can I count on?
The truth is the person I learned to count on was really just me, and while that served its purpose at the time, it definitely affected every future adult relationship that I was destined to have. I made it through though.
I worked before and after school, wherever I could find a job. Stocking shelves at grocery stores, bussing tables, odd jobs, even working at a nightclub late into the night. My life was work, school, work, sleep, repeat.
I did it! I did graduate from high school. Not with flying colors or honor accolades or parties or fanfare. But I graduated – and I took with me a passion for the arts, theatre, self-reliance, and a few teachers that made a difference and sense of accomplishment.
Now, I entered the next phase of my life…..that was college. I still had aspirations to be an actor so I enrolled into college as a theatre major. While I was in college, I heard about real estate sales. It sounded like a great profession: you could be your own boss, make your own hours, and (if you were good at it) make a nice income. I thought this would be the perfect way to support myself while I pursued acting, so I took an elective course in real estate. After that, I took my licensing course, and finally the state exam. So there I was: 19 years old, licensed by the state of New York to “facilitate the transfer of real property between a buyer and seller.” Yeah, baby! I was feeling very grown up and excited; I was going places!
From the beginning, I seemed to have a natural affinity for the business. I really enjoyed the work, and I was very driven. Success came easily for me right from the start.
On my own from such a young age, I had no role models or trusted adults to help guide me. Then I met Mac Levitt, who became my broker.
Mac and his wife, Pat, took me under their wings and taught me much of what I now know about not just being a successful real estate professional, but about being a man of value and integrity. I am forever changed by their care and compassion.
Finally, I had people who were in my corner that I could trust to tell me the truth, guide me with kindness, and answer questions that had long gone unanswered … and for this I am eternally grateful.
After a relatively short time, I was asked to become the manager for Mac’s office and I quickly brought us to number one in our marketplace. Things were finally turning around in my life, but the interesting part was what was going on behind the scenes.
As I starting managing and training others, the job became less about me and more about the people I was leading. I knew in my heart that, as a leader, I was responsible for more than the number of houses these agents sold. I needed to be able to give them guidance, support and motivation. I understood the qualities that a good leader should have. The problem was, I didn’t have them. You see, while I was experiencing success externally, on the inside I had turned into a pretty angry guy. Being a teenager is confusing enough, even when you have the right support structure and role models around you. Without a father figure, I was struggling to figure out how to be a man. I was selfish, angry, distrustful and always in “survival mode.” The bottom line is that I wasn’t the nicest person to be around.
–Thankfully, I was able to look at myself and see these weaknesses. I had a love of learning, enjoyed my training as an actor, and always liked to take classes. I decided that it was time to do some work on me. Thus, I began my own journey of self-improvement. Whatever books there were on finding your “true self,” reaching your goals, letting go of your baggage, or all the above, I bought them and read them. If there was a program on being a better person or a better leader, I listened to the cassette tapes (younger people don’t know what those are!). I attended transformational training programs. I explored my faith and spirituality. I wanted to understand what it meant to be human, to find answers to the questions: Why am I here? What’s my purpose in life?
I had no idea that this journey would prepare me for a whole new career. But as time went on, I realized that my real joy came from helping others—from understanding the internal motivations that make people do (or not do) things that will make them successful. And as I attended other motivational seminars and watched other speakers help people transform their lives, I started to yearn to do the same.
From the very start, my commitment as a speaker wasn’t to become famous; it was to make a difference in people’s lives.
I wanted to take what I learned about limited belief systems, overcoming challenges, and the power of a positive mindset, and share it with others. I wanted my training sessions to define and teach the necessary listing and selling skills that would help agents reach financial abundance so they could better take care of themselves and their families.
I wanted to teach people to live from distinctions that served me such as integrity, commitment and honor so they could wake up every day and feel inspired by the work they were doing.
Lastly, because of my upbringing and early entrance into adulthood, I learned how important it is to simply create joy and find reasons to truly enjoy your life. Laughter is such a great equalizer, tension-breaker, and experience elevator, and I knew if my students were laughing as well as learning, the messages I was sharing would resonate in a more profound way. Combining education with entertainment was something I felt born to do and making people smile certainly makes me smile and brings joy to me every day.
I am truly now living my dream job. I get to fly all over the world helping people have more fun and less stress in their lives, and teaching them how to design a life worth smiling about.
I do this by being a professional speaker, trainer, author and motivator. I work for organizations and associations across many different industries, with a focus on real estate, as you might imagine.
I’m really on a mission because I believe that we are each born to be happy and fulfilled. But life can throw us curveballs, and we can get thrown off course. As you can imagine from some of what I shared about my personal life, I know what it’s like to be thrown curveballs, but manage to get through to the other side.
We have one life with a finite amount of years available to us, and I believe that while we’re here, what we all want is to have a loving, nurturing relationship with others (and with ourselves) and to create memorable moments that we can smile about. I believe the answer to that life question of “What’s the endgame?” is that we have a life worth smiling about. If you’re not happy with who you are or what you’re doing in your life, then something’s got to change and change now, because our lives are not forever. All we have is right now, today. It’s important that in every moment, we are happy.
I am truly now living my dream job. I get to fly all over the world helping people have more fun and less stress in their lives, and teaching them how to design a life worth smiling about.
I do this by being a professional speaker, trainer, author and motivator. I work for organizations and associations across many different industries, with a focus on real estate, as you might imagine.
I’m really on a mission because I believe that we are each born to be happy and fulfilled. But life can throw us curveballs, and we can get thrown off course. As you can imagine from some of what I shared about my personal life, I know what it’s like to be thrown curveballs, but manage to get through to the other side.
We have one life with a finite amount of years available to us, and I believe that while we’re here, what we all want is to have a loving, nurturing relationship with others (and with ourselves) and to create memorable moments that we can smile about. I believe the answer to that life question of “What’s the endgame?” is that we have a life worth smiling about. If you’re not happy with who you are or what you’re doing in your life, then something’s got to change and change now, because our lives are not forever. All we have is right now, today. It’s important that in every moment, we are happy.
Darryl entered the real estate sales industry at the early age of 19. With an eagerness to learn and a burning desire to pave a success path, he became a master student of sales which led him to become a top producing salesperson his first year in the business. Leveraging that success, he opened a sales office that became the number one selling office within six months. Since then, Darryl has taken his knowledge and skill base, and transformed them to develop some of the most powerful sales systems and training in the industry for hands-on success and sales skills. Because of that, Darryl is a highly sought-after speaker, trainer, and coach for all of the most recognizable brands and some of the most top-performing agents in the real estate industry.
Today, Darryl passionately delivers more than a hundred power-packed, humor-filled, inspired keynotes, workshops, and one-day intensive sales events every year globally. Audience members and clients share testimonials of life-changing impact, career-changing skill development, and laugh-out-loud experiences.
