Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign the podcast for those who find themselves immersed in adversity and choose to write their story instead of having others write it for them. I'm Drew Duraney and I'm your host. Today's guest is Andrew Darlo. Andrew Darlo is a photographer, inventor, author and digital workflow coach. His tips and reviews have appeared in many publications and media outlets including Women's World, People Magazine, Animal Planet, and Reader's digest. For over 25 years, he has helped people preserve, protect and backup their irreplaceable photos, videos and other digital files. He is the author of four award winning books and the inventor of the Gallery Pouch custom art bubble bag made by frame destination.com Excerpts from Andrew's books and other contents are available at Backup fm.
Enjoy the show. Andrew Darlo, so good to see you, my friend.
[00:01:08] Speaker B: Thank you. It's great to be here, Drew.
[00:01:11] Speaker A: So I always thank the individual or individuals or whether it's a networking event, I always like to thank the N entity that introduced me to my guest. And this one was interesting because I had to look back at my records and Andrew Darlo and I met in a breakout room in March, March 7th of 2024 and the host of that breakout of that event was Sajad Hussein. So I will thank Sajad for that indirect introduction to Andrew Darlo for hosting that event. Event. So I wanted to like, get that out there because I always, I always like to see how I meet somebody because there's always a good reason why we ended up in the same place at the same time. And it's always fruitful to follow up with that kind of stuff.
So, and my audience knows this. Whenever I start out this podcast, I always discuss how when we're young, we're taught something.
We're taught and it's not malicious. We're taught that, you know, if we do things a certain way, that linear life, that linear path, if we do A plus B plus C equals D, do it in that order, D is going to happen. And for the most part, life is linear until it's not right. Ultimately, at some point, there's an external circumstance that gets in the way of one of those letters and kind of derails that straight path. And now we're living a circuitous route.
And when that adversity is in front of us, some of us see it and some of us don't. For those who see it, some of us choose to do something about it and some of us don't.
And with that, I believe there's three types of men out there, I believe there's man number one, who's got a ton of blind spots, has no clue what's going on in his life. He's just doing what people tell him to do, going on autopilot and on his deathbed with no changes.
That's it. Nothing special.
And then there's man number two, who's got a heightened self awareness. He sees that adversity in front of him, yet he looks at it and says, that's a barrier. I'm the victim. That's life doing it to me. He plays the blame game. He says, life is what it is. I have no control, goes through life the same way. Nothing changes. And on his deathbed, he's got a ton of regrets because he realized he could have done something. And then there's man number three. That's Andrew Darlow. That's the men and women who I have on this show. Man number three has even more heightened self awareness, sees that adversity and says, man, I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. That's not a barrier. That's an opportunity. That's life doing it for me. I'm going to take this adversity on and do something massive, massive action. And on the other side, I'm going to be a stronger man.
So I ask you, Andrew, reach back as far as you need for that defining moment. Whether it was the tap on the shoulder, the whisper in the ear, like what I needed two by four upside my head, that shifted you from the man you used to be to the Andrew Darlow we're talking today and what's made you a stronger man and how you utilize that in your personal and professional life. We'd love to hear your story, my friend.
[00:04:21] Speaker B: All right, thank you. What a wonderful question.
So I would say it happened at about age 17 when I was presented with an opportunity to apply for a scholarship to live and study in Japan for a whole summer right after high school. So I had a wonderful advisor for a group that I was in, and I applied and I received it. And I went off to Japan, 18 years old, into another home in another country. And they took me in sort of like a baby.
And I had a wonderful homestay, brother and sister and mother and father. And I went to Japanese high school.
And they took me. Both my homestay parents took me to wonderful cultural places, Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines. There was an amazing Silk Road festival at the time which showed the whole history of the Silk Road. And I can't say enough about that. Experience. It changed me in so many ways because to know that someone else would open their home and their heart to me was major. And then it also helped me to build more self confidence because now, like, for example, I had to get in front of a whole classroom on multiple occasions when my English was translated by my homestay father, and I had to speak in Japanese and address an entire auditorium.
[00:05:47] Speaker A: So, all right, so now you're speaking Japanese to a Japanese audience and you're kind of testing out how fluent you are in Japanese. What was the reaction?
[00:05:55] Speaker B: It was quite good. In fact, my homestay sister said later that the teachers were telling the students, andrew's only been in Japan for like three weeks and he's speaking Japanese this well. It was kind of funny, you know, I didn't know Japanese that well, but I could read the phonetic Romanji, as they call it.
I could get through it.
[00:06:20] Speaker A: So when did you start learning it out when you were in Japan that three weeks. And you said you were 17 first.
[00:06:26] Speaker B: When I was 17 is when I first learned about it. And then when I was there, I had just turned 18.
And so I was 18 years old when I was there. And as far as learning language, they have this wonderful series of books, which they probably still have them today. It's called Japanese in ten Minutes a Day. And they have stickers that you put on things all around your home. And it really helps because every day you look at something and maybe you're looking at the toilet, it's toy day. So things like that. And you learn step by step by step. Yeah, at least some of the vocabulary. And then we had a crash course in at the University of Washington for like a day or two, maybe three. And so we learned some of the manners and some of the things like that. So funny. I learned the manners.
[00:07:16] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:17] Speaker B: But the first time I met my homestay family in front of their home, my homestay mother met me at the train station. We took the train to their home, and they tell you. And I knew this. Yeah, Japanese people don't wear their shoes in the home, so you're supposed to take them off.
[00:07:36] Speaker A: Yeah, okay.
[00:07:37] Speaker B: But I guess I was nervous. So right from the very second I walked in, I stepped right up on the main part of the house, you know, and it was like, oh, my goodness, what am I doing? Anyway, little fun things like that happen all the time.
[00:07:49] Speaker A: Tell me the. The biggest cultural difference from what you were accustomed to in your first 17 years. And then when you stepped on foot in Japan and were There for a few weeks. What was the. The biggest difference culturally, and how did you adjust?
[00:08:04] Speaker B: I guess the thing that comes to mind first is in school, you bow to your teacher, and the kids are essentially the janitors. So the kids are the ones who do all the cleaning, at least the vast majority of it. So they have, like, I guess, a day or so every week or a few days every week where everyone cleans up and washes things. And I thought that was really something, and it was kind of a shock. I think if that was implemented here in the United States, there would be some protests.
[00:08:33] Speaker A: I think there wouldn't be, which is unfortunate. But, you know, learning manual labor is a very healthy thing.
So how long did you stay in Japan?
[00:08:41] Speaker B: I was about eight weeks.
[00:08:42] Speaker A: Eight weeks. Wow. So when you came back to the States, the difference between the Andrew before he left to Japan and the Andrew when he got back from Japan, what changes did you notice?
[00:09:00] Speaker B: First, just an overall worldliness. The fact that my little corner of the world, which is New Jersey in the United States, is not all there is. And it's easy to kind of have that feeling when you grow up in the United States, even though I had traveled over the years here and there. But when you go into another place, and especially a place, let's say, in which we've had both wonderful relations and also a serious conflict with, what happens is a lot of the preconceived notions or things that people feed you in, you know, from history, go away. When you actually have a chance to understand and see and feel a culture, I would say.
[00:09:45] Speaker A: Right. Wow.
So when you. When you got back, you were. So you turned 18 when you were in Japan. So was it. Was that, like, in between your, like, eighth grade and freshman year in high school, or were you in.
Or you were already early freshman year and went. How did that interrupt your education at formal education in the states?
[00:10:08] Speaker B: I turned 18 just before I left, and then I had already graduated from high school, so I did that just before college, and I was back in high school.
[00:10:18] Speaker A: Okay, good. So this was me in between. Okay.
[00:10:20] Speaker B: I was back in time to start college.
[00:10:23] Speaker A: Okay, so the back end. Okay, so right after high school graduation, then back in time to start college. Wow. Where'd you end up going to college?
[00:10:30] Speaker B: The College of New Jersey.
[00:10:32] Speaker A: And did you. Did you speak any Japanese there? Did you, like, expand your. Your. Your knowledge base?
[00:10:39] Speaker B: Funny you should say that. I love Japan so much that one of the reasons why I went to that school is because they had an exchange program with a university In Japan, I went, I went back for an entire year in my second year.
[00:10:51] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:10:52] Speaker B: And it was absolutely incredible. There were people from like 10 to 12 different countries. Was right on the campus of a, of a wonderful university.
And I learned more Japanese at that time. So I made the most of my college experience and found a way to get back to Japan.
[00:11:10] Speaker A: Now did you get to see your host family when you went back second time? You did, so, yes. That's good. That's good.
[00:11:16] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:11:17] Speaker A: And you still keep in touch with them?
[00:11:18] Speaker B: Yes, I just heard from my Japanese homestay mother and I when my homestay sister and her three or four kids, I forget now, came to New York, I went in and we spent time together.
So it's been nice to stay in touch.
[00:11:34] Speaker A: That's beautiful. It's like an extended family.
[00:11:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:37] Speaker A: When you, when you came back and got, and what did you study in college?
[00:11:41] Speaker B: What was like your business, finance and international business? Those were kind of the major minor.
[00:11:49] Speaker A: All right, so after graduation, how much of those majors did you use in your first professional job outside of college?
[00:11:58] Speaker B: Well, what I did before I hopped into the working world is I found another place to go right after high school because I really wanted to see Europe affordably if I could. So I found an international university in Heidelberg, Germany, and I went there for four months.
[00:12:15] Speaker A: No way.
[00:12:16] Speaker B: And I had the best time and I got a URL pass and visited wonderful places from France to Switzerland.
[00:12:24] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:12:25] Speaker B: Prague and Hungary and all kinds of fun places. So it was amazing. And if I hadn't gone to Japan the first time, I probably wouldn't have gone the second time and I probably would not have gone to Europe.
[00:12:38] Speaker A: Yeah, to Europe. That, that's amazing, man. And most people have all that stuff on their bucket list and then they die before they fulfill it. So you've, you've done all that stuff. So that's wonderful, man. And that probably shaped you as a more well rounded man than would have if you hadn't ventured out.
So what was after you did that four month stint and then you hit college and graduated college, what was your first taste of employment?
[00:13:06] Speaker B: Well, I wasn't that excited about working for a bank or some big company on Wall Street. So it happened to be. My grandfather had started a company about 100 years ago in the printing industry. And my uncle still ran it. My dad also helped run it. So I jumped into that opportunity because I love photography almost more than anything. And photography was sort of something that started back in high school and then just got stronger and Stronger as I visited different places and took more photographs. So I went into the large format printing area, which they have these big printers that do work for buses and trade shows and the fronts of buildings and stores and things. And I just went just like any other employee. And I was working there and I was, I was cutting the boards, the mounted materials and packing up stuff. And luckily there was a little program that had come out a few years earlier called Photoshop. And so I jumped in, learned Photoshop and then somehow, just like you said earlier when we were talking, like things sometimes just happen and you don't know why they happen. But someone brought in a job and we ended up renting some digital photography equipment, which was like brand new at that time, that whole idea of high quality digital photography. And I helped out and I had been studying photography quite a bit. And then I, after that it worked out so well. I helped build the studio and I started doing work for all kinds of wonderful companies like the Body Shop cosmetics. I was photographing Rolex watches for New York Times ads and chocolate and diamonds and all kinds of cool stuff. So it's funny how I ended up finding a way to make my passion my profession.
[00:15:03] Speaker A: I love it. So tell me, so now you are an entrepreneur, you have your own business and photography is your thing. So tell me what the biggest challenge it's been being, you know, self employed and making a living with photography.
[00:15:21] Speaker B: I'd say because I've really focused on training and helping people to organize their photography to make wonderful prints and backup. It probably hasn't been quite as challenging as many people experience if they're wedding photographers, portrait photographers. I mean, there's a lot of opportunity there. But I feel like because I found a niche, it's been probably a little bit easier for me even throughout the pandemic, to help people over zoom and things like that, to organize their life and to make books and to make wonderful prints and then to protect through automated backup and all kinds of fun stuff related to backup. So that's sort of been my focus. Even though photography has been such a big part. I have tens of thousands of images. I've sold my work over the years. I've had exhibitions, but you know, focus is kind of an important thing. So my focus really has been on helping people with their photography and also organizing, printing, backing up. But I'm now moving more toward really focusing on sharing more of my artwork with the world.
[00:16:33] Speaker A: Good for you. Good for you.
So how do you go about getting your artwork back to the to to have People outside, you know, your four walls at your home to see your work.
[00:16:46] Speaker B: So what I'm leaning into is this idea of referral partners.
Because I've learned from others that one of the best ways to find new people is through referrals. It's.
And until maybe, I don't know, 10 or 15 years ago, it was much harder. You pretty much almost had to find either a gallery or you had to really be out there at art shows or in museums, which is all great.
[00:17:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:18] Speaker B: But in today's world, all you have to do is have something of value and find people who will be your cheerleader. That's my feeling. And so that's at least where my focus has been, and I'm moving in that direction.
[00:17:35] Speaker A: Good for you. What do you like taking pictures of mostly?
[00:17:39] Speaker B: Oh, gosh, I love just exploring cities.
[00:17:42] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:17:43] Speaker B: That's probably like, number one, just going out and exploring things that I see around the world. But I'll show you a couple things since we are able to show imagery. So flowers have been one of my really passions over the years. This is actually timely. I mean, right now we're in spring is a purple iris.
[00:18:05] Speaker A: It's beautiful. Yeah.
[00:18:06] Speaker B: Thank you. From 30 years ago.
[00:18:08] Speaker A: And I've made an iris 30 years ago. Geez.
[00:18:11] Speaker B: Photographed on. On film.
[00:18:13] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:18:13] Speaker B: And so I had like a launch party for this not too long ago. And I.
So flowers is one area that I'm really focusing on. Then I have many, many others.
But maybe what I'll show is this is more. I have a lot of pet photography. So this was my first sort of print project that I did. What I mean by print project, I've made a number of these prints because what I love about this, and for anyone making prints for others or for sale, whatever, consider at least in the United States, 18 by 24 inches.
[00:18:53] Speaker A: As.
[00:18:53] Speaker B: Your size, because you can pretty much walk into anywhere and find an 18 by 24 inch frame. And wouldn't it be nice if you could create something and give it as a gift and not have it be an obligation that they have to think they have to spend 100, 200, $300 for a custom frame?
[00:19:10] Speaker A: I love that. All right, so that's a good, good, good advice there with the 18 by 24.
Now you and I have something in common.
Our children with special needs. And I would like to touch on what it's like as a father with a child with special needs and what it's like balancing having your own business.
Now, do you work out of home or do you Have a studio.
[00:19:36] Speaker B: I work out of my home.
[00:19:37] Speaker A: Okay. The challenge of. I do, too. So the challenge of working in your home and still wanting to be that father who is there physically, emotionally, and all that kind of stuff for your child who of special needs. Would you like to get into it just a little bit so we can. Sure. Audience?
[00:19:56] Speaker B: Yes. Well, it's both a challenge and a blessing. I believe that the more that we spend time with my son, my wife also works full time, so we balance well together because I don't have to have a specific schedule. So that. That helps, first of all.
And when we spend time with him, it's absolutely wonderful. And I think the key has been whether it was when he was in school or now, I think not getting frustrated if he's not doing something that maybe we consider we would like him to do at that time. Instead, maybe try to get into his head a little bit. As long as he's not hurting himself or others and praising him when he does things that we approve of and having fun with him, I think that's probably the best.
[00:20:56] Speaker A: I love it.
[00:20:56] Speaker B: Thing that's happened for us is every moment that we have fun with him, that we can share positive experiences and help him to become more independent. It's all been positive, but it's been quite a road. He's over 20 now, and so it's. It's been quite a road, but it's helped me to help others who also have kids on the spectrum, because I know about a lot of different resources and a lot of wonderful programs.
So I feel like it's a challenge, but also a blessing.
[00:21:29] Speaker A: A blessing. You know, I. I see it the same way.
There's, you know, I'm. I'm getting into now coaching caregivers on how to take care of themselves, because I know I neglected myself, my health, in many different ways, just focusing on my son.
How do you still take care of yourself to keep yourself the best version of yourself so you can help your son as much as possible?
[00:21:57] Speaker B: Probably the most important thing I do is drink a lot of water or seltzer water.
That's probably my best thing that I do for myself.
And apart from that, like, recently, I was on a call and a training, and I just turned my video off and I walk. I just walk around my house. I've created, like, an area that I can do laps, and that helps a lot. So I'll walk miles a day whenever I can, or on a.
On like a treadmill or outside.
[00:22:30] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:31] Speaker B: So that's all very helpful. And then fitting in sleep, that's important. It's not always easy to get the sleep when I want to, but sleep has been really important. It helps me so much. And there have been books on sleep. There have been people who talk about sleep. So I don't have to say why sleep is important. It just is.
[00:22:52] Speaker A: Yeah. So the key points, drink a lot of water, move your body as much as possible, and get some sleep.
That's definitely good self care.
Is there anything else you'd like to share with the audience that we haven't touched on yet?
[00:23:07] Speaker B: Well, sure, if I can talk about my little PSA that I created.
[00:23:11] Speaker A: Yeah, give me your psa.
[00:23:12] Speaker B: So I did this I don't know how many years ago.
So I channeled my frustration into a psa, and I think anyone can do this. All it is is a hashtag. And the hashtag is first day light check. If you put that into any of the major social media channels, you will see my psa, which basically encourages people on the first day of every month to check the lights on your vehicle front and back.
Because if one of your headlights is out, that's bad. But imagine you're in a dark place and you want to make a turn and your second one goes out, people can no longer see you. Or if you're even worse, if you're coming straight and someone else wants to make a turn, think about the other person.
[00:24:09] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:24:09] Speaker B: If they can't see you, because roads, for the most part, at least in the United States, are dark, pitch black.
So imagine you now could potentially hurt someone else just because you did not look at whether you had a light out. And that could be front or back.
But it's often overlooked. And I. I sometimes do a test, and I. I figure it's 10 to 20% of all cars have at least one headlight out.
[00:24:37] Speaker A: Yeah. And we wouldn't know unless someone tells us or unless we check, like you said, for that to be your PSA has had something happened to you or somebody, you know, to make that, like, feel so important as something you had to get out.
[00:24:53] Speaker B: It's just frustration.
[00:24:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:24:56] Speaker B: Every time I saw one, it was like another.
What is that the Chinese saying? Death by a thousand?
[00:25:06] Speaker A: I think I know what you mean.
[00:25:07] Speaker B: Something like Chinese water torture, if you will.
So I just had enough. I was like, I have to do something. And so. But then I realized I was even, I would say, put onto another level of wanting to share this when I mentioned it to someone outside of a restaurant that we sometimes go to. And it was in the parking lot. I said, oh, by the way, I noticed one of your headlights is out. You know, safety first. You may want to just check it. And I, I like to go to this place sometimes. Or you can just go into YouTube and put your car model and the word headlight replacement so that you don't have to pay someone else. And then about a month or two later I walked in and he was the mater d and he said, you know what, I really appreciate that you told me that. And I changed my, I had my headlight changed.
[00:25:56] Speaker A: That's awesome. So you know what, you don't know how many lives you may have saved and, and him too for listening. So good for you.
The audience certainly has captured the essence of Andrew Darlow. And you got to get in touch with them folks if, if not to have him, you know, by his photography, just to meet him as a great human being.
Go on LinkedIn and just put in Andrew Darlow. You'll find him very easily and, or his website, he's using backup B a C k u p dot fm. But get in touch with Andrew. Very interesting man and a very good human being.
Before we finish, I got two questions for you. All right, so Vision Visualize. You're sitting in your happy place and you're sitting down with young 7 to 10 year old Andrew and you want to give him advice about life. What are you going to tell him?
[00:26:53] Speaker B: I'm going to tell him that it's not all about things and money. I remember when I was young and just starting to learn how to read, there was this comic book called Richie Rich. Now one part of it was all these amazing things this boy had. And so that was kind of alluring. But then he also helped people. So I would say to myself, it's not about the things, it's about the people and how you can help others. And obviously you have to live and you should enjoy your life, but it's not about the things.
[00:27:22] Speaker A: Love that. All right, so switch gears now. You're sitting down with young Andrew, the young entrepreneur, young businessman, and you want to give him advice about business. What are you going to tell him?
[00:27:35] Speaker B: I'll probably also tell him it's not about the things. But I also tell him that the more people you can help get what they want, this is not anything new. I think it goes back 5,000 years. And Zig ziglar is known for saying, the more people you can help get what they want, the more things you will receive in life. And I've seen it over and over and over again. So that's what I would tell him because I didn't really learn gratitude probably until I was a little bit older than the time you're bringing me to. So gratitude and what I just mentioned, I love it.
[00:28:10] Speaker A: Thank you very much. Very good advice. So, Andrew, I want to thank you for coming on. Also for coming into my life. And it happened for a reason. We're going to keep in touch, especially with us having similarities with our children. Keep doing what you're doing. You're a wonderful human being and the world is a better place with you in it, my friend.
[00:28:29] Speaker B: Thank you, Drew. I think what you're doing is wonderful. I can't wait to listen to more of the people you bring into the world for us.
[00:28:37] Speaker A: Absolutely. Everybody out there, please take care of yourselves.
Thanks so much for listening. If you enjoyed the episode, please subscribe and give us a review to help others find it.
I'd like you to answer this question.
Are you living the life you want to live, or are you living the life others want you to live? I'd like you to think about that for a second because I strongly suggest you live the life you want to live. If you want to learn more about what I stand for and my services and how I'm able to help many men get out of their own way, please go to my website at www.profitcompassion.com.
feel free to also email me at drewrophetcompassion.com I'd love to have a conversation with you. Take care of yourself and choose to write your own story instead of letting others write it for you.
