He wanted to move to Los Angeles after graduating high school. However, his parents made a deal with him. If he obtained his college degree, they would help him get to California. After 1 year at Illinois State, he transferred to San Diego Mesa College before graduating from California Polytechnic Univ., Pomona. 

(about an hour east of LA)

After graduating college with a Bachelor's degree in Communication/Public Relations, he moved to the heart of Los Angeles. He lived in Studio City, then Marina del Rey before settling in Venice Beach where he started On Tracy Lane. Darryn pursued and lived the dream he had since childhood. He also dabbled in acting, commercials, and some modeling. He worked a variety of jobs including everything from substitute teaching in Santa Monica to limo driving to being a driver for strippers in the Hollywood Hills. (sorry Mom)

He sang in a couple rock bands (EarCandy, Smackerjack) before starting his own all-original rock band On Tracy Lane. OTL got a break by having actress Lacey Chabert star in a music video produced for the song "Back to Maybe". He recorded several CDs, toured the US, toured overseas to play for the US troops, did tons of press, had a couple small record deals, licensed over 15 songs via ASCAP, had a couple songs get some traction at college radio, and opened for several national acts including Avril Lavigne, Butch Walker, American Hi-Fi, Local H, Phantom Planet, 

Sugar Ray, and The Urge.

After living in LA for over 10 years, Darryn moved to Nashville TN when he started his own publishing company, Richmond Avenue Music. Darryn was able to license many of his own songs and he signed other songwriters to his agency as well. This was in 2008/09 when the economy took a turn for the worse. He then had plans to move to New York City; however, this trip was cancelled when he met his future wife, Crystal, and moved into her house in St. Louis.

When he realized he probably wasn't going to move away again, not only did him and Crystal start a family, in 2012 Darryn started an audio & video production company, The Mayhem Network. TMN started producing The Darryn Yates Show, a web series and podcast that featured interviews with entertainers, pranks, live performances, etc. Darryn quickly caught the attention of St. Louis radio VIPs and in 2013 he was offered an early-morning radio show on CBS Sports. After creating a huge buzz, in early 2014 he was offered a morning-drive radio show on 1380AM KFNS, 6-10AM Monday thru Friday. The Darryn Yates Show was also a local TV show for several months in 2015. There were times Darryn had 6-8 sponsors onboard. He won and was nominated for many local St. Louis awards including Best Entertainer, Best Radio Show and Best Radio Host/Personality. 

After deciding to get out of the local radio business and around the same time Crystal and Darryn had their 2nd child, in 2016 Darryn launched his own online radio station, Riot Radio. When an investor backed out at the last minute and Darryn hating sales, Riot was able to sustain itself only for about 18 months. 

At this time, Darryn felt he had to start working 9-5 jobs to help support the family more consistently; he was always back and forth from getting fired and doing entertainment. After getting fired for at least the 20th time on March 7, 2019 from the corporate world, having their 3rd child, and also dealing with a bulging disc in his lower back...Darryn soul searched to figure out what he should do next.

of the Empire He’s Been Working Toward His Entire Career.

In early March of 2019, Darryn Yates was sitting in his hand-me-down car (from his wife) parked in a church parking lot hiding the fact he had once again been fired from a job, too many to count. (the # is at LEAST 20) Darryn was also experiencing constant excruciating pain from a bulging/herniated disc (L5) that was pressing against his sciatic nerve. The pain was anywhere from his lower back down to his right leg. It had started in April of 2018 and it was off and on, but it was getting progressively worse and by mid-late Feb of 2019, it had become a constant pain. Oxycodone and Hydrocodone had stopped working. Physical therapy, electro-stim therapy, 2 epidural cortisone shots, medical marijuana, bio-cranial therapy...nothing was working. 

His wife Crystal was pregnant with their 3rd child, due in April of 2019. Since he was fired on March 7 of 2019, Darryn was now losing his insurance so not only was the possibility of back surgery not going to happen anytime soon, but now Darryn could not help out with the upcoming baby bills. Darryn was the brunt of a couple financial/job jokes over the years and they were echoing in his head. 

Darryn had been trying so hard to keep a corporate job or a sales gig to ‘grow up’ or ‘be a man’ for his family. Everyone had stopped talking about or even asking about anything related to his entertainment journey. Often times he felt like an outcast in his Midwestern hometown area as he was always pursuing & living some kind of dream in Music, Radio, or TV. He was settled down now; he knew he couldn’t go back to Southern California. Driving to Nashville wasn’t an option either, as he had done so many times before he moved there 10 years earlier. He hadn’t been doing anything in entertainment for many months prior to him being fired in March; this was one of the things that hurt the most. As much as he tried to hold back the tears he felt building up, screw it...maybe they would help somehow.

After several days of sitting in his car pretending to be at work, the only thing he knew for sure was that he was never going to work any kind of job ever again that he wasn’t 100% passionate about. Darryn needed a job he could look forward to every day, a job he was proud of, and a job that could incorporate his true personality, his entertainment & business experience, his variety of talents and all the stories & advice he wanted to share. Not to mention his inability to get along with bosses who are incompetent and disrespectful. Darryn knew he needed to be his own boss.

He knew this was not going to be easy, so he started an intense & emotional soul search, a kind that he had never experienced before. He had been in tough situations before, but this was different. This next step was crucial for his family and his happiness; he had to figure out how to blend IL regular guy with CA entertainment guy who was only in IL for one reason: family.

The first thing he did was delete the Indeed app, which was where he reluctantly applied for more than 2,000 jobs in the past few years. He also deleted a couple voicemail messages he had received that morning from temp agencies who had info on some new job opportunities. The previous day he had been on an interview and had to leave in the middle of it due to the sciatic pain becoming unbearable. He told the HR person he wasn’t feeling well and did not return their calls.

After a couple days of intense research on his phone in the church parking lot and one drive where he just kept going and suddenly realized he was halfway to Chicago...he started looking into ways to help people who were also going through difficult situations. He started thinking about all the things he knew he was extremely good at. He started imagining what he was passionate about and what was truly in his heart & soul. How could his talents help others and how could that become a job? He tried to picture what the perfect job/work situation looked like.

Darryn started honestly answering all of these questions. After tons of emails, messages, online research, phone meetings, webinars, and a few online courses...he slowly started bouncing back. Darryn realized that what he was looking for was right in front of him the entire time. 

Darryn started Mentoring/Coaching artists as The Rock and Roll Life Coach. This led to him being inspired to bring back the Music of On Tracy Lane. He then realized he not only wanted to Mentor & Coach artists, but he wanted to help ANYONE going through anything that was making them Broke & Miserable.

Darryn was able to find his way through a difficult time and he will never forget how bad of a place he was at. He wants to help as many people as he can NOT ONLY get out of bad spots, but to Lean In to their talents and passions and Dominate. He is proud to launch a business where his sole purpose is to help as many people as possible in all the areas he’s experienced, anyone going through a difficult time, and anyone who just needs a friend to listen, to help or just be there for them.

Darryn started to finally be proud of himself for having the guts to always leave dead-end jobs and to always feel compelled to call out incompetent bosses. He started appreciating the Journey he had been on, the Dreams he had pursued and Lived with so much Heart, Passion, Soul, Grit and Determination.

He started feeling sorry for the people who had joked about his job and financial situation. They were the ones who needed to take some notes on Darryn’s communication skills, his infectious personality, his ability to have a positive conversation with anyone, the way any stranger he spoke to became a friend, the way he had always tried to help anyone he could along his entertainment travels, all the dreams he helped others achieve through his media companies, and his leadership skills that were clearly demonstrated in every venture he had been a part of. He realized weak insecure people make fun of someone else’s situation. True leaders lift up the people that need it. He had joked around when he was a teenager chasing the Rock Dream that he knew he was going to be broke or rich...and that the middle area was extremely boring to him. Darryn saw others stuck in a middle class salary that had a definite limit on how much they could make. The vision Darryn has for his company has no ceiling whatsoever, actually quite the opposite with No Limitations. 

Darryn realized he was a True Leader. His drive and ambition led him on an incredible road, a less traveled road that many just can’t comprehend. The road that took him overseas, took him all over the country as a rock musician, his original rock songs that can be heard in TV shows and commercials all over the world, landing a morning-drive radio show that was nominated for local awards, doing so well that the morning show at the big local FM rock station started taking notice, doing a music video in Los Angeles with a famous actress who had never done a music video before, running 3 media companies in Nashville & St. Louis and winning more local awards for the content & production, landing an opportunity to fly to Greenland on a C-17 to play for the US troops, etc. etc. Darryn will never settle for anything less than what was going to satisfy his heart and soul.

All of these natural characteristics, attributes, talents, passions, stories etc. were going to be the foundation for the biggest endeavor he’s ever taken on. Darryn knew it was time for him to build the empire he’s always envisioned. He knew people hadn’t seen anything yet. Now he wasn’t able to sleep for 2 reasons: the bulging disc in his back and his refreshed mindset to show the world what the Real Darryn was all about.

Darryn spent 1 more day in the church parking lot and wrote 20-25 pages of notes on everything he wanted to do in his new business. He called up some of the biggest gurus in the world and was able to speak with many GMs and executives after telling his story to some of their sales people. They wanted to hire him on the spot as he sat in his wife’s old car in the church parking lot, one even offered him a position with their company in Miami, another told him he could be one of their top coaches on the team, but Darryn politely declined every offer and told them that he was going to start his own business and that he would see them down the road when 

their paths crossed again.

He finally went home one day when Crystal was working at home and explained to her what had transpired in the last 7-8 days. He got to work in the basement, turning the man/couple cave once again into a studio. A couple months later, Darryn finally got the back surgery he desperately needed on June 7, 2019 after renewing his Cobra insurance. He is now pain-free. He has been working on the foundation of this business every single day...it will be 1 year straight in late April of 2020. 

To say he is back with a powerful & intense vengeance is an understatement. He now knows a true transformation in anyone is more than possible. But it’s only possible if you have the guts to chase your dreams, put yourself out there, be ridiculously honest with yourself and call your own shots. Darryn’s mess has become his message. 

Darryn loves each and every one of you and he appreciates your support!