About

• Founder and Coach of the Business LIFT Coach
• Consultant with The Property Investment Store 
• Joint Owner of 2 Quick Service Restaurants – Zambrero’s Dickson & Nowra
• Joint owner – Milky Lane burger restaurant in Lonsdale St, Braddon, Canberra.
• Founder and Managing Director of God’s Money Matters Pty Ltd a financial education company where Christian’s learn both online and in direct workshops, events and seminars.
• Founder and former Shareholder / Director of Milestone Financial Services Pty Ltd. Milestone’s achievements include…
  • 19%pa growth between 2009 to 2014
  • Recognised as one of the top 5% privately owned financial planning companies in Australia.
  • Winner of 3 National Innovation Awards.
  • A fully systemised business that delivers tailored outcomes for clients.
• A former owner and Director of InsuraNET – one of Canberra’s most successful General Insurance Agencies which has also won consecutive national annual awards for business performance. Darren was able to successfully exit himself out of this business where he was a director/owner.
• A former owner and Director of The DACSTAR Group of Companies which included Beyond Property & Investments Pty Ltd, Infinity Partners Finances Pty Ltd, LawSource Pty Ltd and other service companies.
• Formally a board member of Canberra’s 1WayFM radio station and a regular presenter of the God’s Money Matters program.
• Currently a Director of the Life Choices Foundation.
• Former treasurer and board member of Hughes Baptist Church .
• From 1995 to 1997 held various roles including – National Sales Manager and National Operations Manager of Motyaj
• Various church boards and committees, the treasurer of many Christian organisations, is a leader with The Boys’ Brigade (more than 30 years service), and regularly attends his local church.

Darren’s Top 5 Strengths are (based on Strength Finder 2.0 )…

1. Achiever = “…highly driven with a constant need for achievement, a fire that burns within that pushes to achieve more.”
2. Communication = “Likes to explain, to describe, to host, speak in public and to write. Has a need to bring ideas and events to life, to energise them with stories, metaphors and images. Your word pictures pique their interest, sharpen their world, and inspire them to act”
3. Learner = “…love to learn, and will always be drawn to the process of learning. You are energised by the steady and deliberate journey from ignorance to competence.”
4. Responsibility = “you take a psychological ownership for anything you commit to, whether large or small, you feel emotionally bound to follow it through to completion. Excuses and rationalisations are totally unacceptable.”
5. Belief = “You have certain core values that are enduring. By nature, you want your life to really matter. You are determined to contribute to the wellbeing of individuals and the human family.”

If you are around Darren for any length of time, you’re bound to hear these at least once…

• No original thought in a routine situation
• Do what you do best, and outsource the rest
• Vision Leaks (therefore you need to re-cast the vision often)
• Don’t make perfect the enemy of good (in other words, get on with it and develop as you go)
• There is no failure, only feedback – therefore give things a crack!
• Turn Complex to Simple through Systems
• Change the urgent and the important into systems with the outcome of only dealing with the important
• “Kaizen It”.  Kaizen is a Japanese word essentially meaning continual, progressive improvement. One of the most notable features of kaizen is that big results come from many small changes accumulated over time. However this has been misunderstood to mean that kaizen equals small changes. In fact, kaizen means everyone involved in making improvements. While the majority of changes may be small, the greatest impact may be kaizens that are led by senior management as transformational projects, or by cross-functional teams as kaizen events.