EXPOSED: DARRYL ASPIN

But that was never the intention when, on a blustery March day in 2020, Darryl ran across an ad for the Glowforge. Bored and hockeydeprived due to lockdowns, on a whim he hit the 'Buy Now' button and his Glowforge adventure began To him this was just a new art form to explore - there was no grand plan to conquer the world, just to have fun and play with a new toy. But the world thought differently and within a few weeks, while sharing posts of creations from his new tool (monogram, anyone?), people were ordering finished products and laser users were clamoring for the files. And just this past spring, needing more production capability, Darryl add a Thunder Nova 51 to his tools. "It's been a great addition. It's bigger and faster, a perfect upgrade for Glowforge users " [Video]

Design is not a new endeavor for Darryl Aspin who began his career as a paid artist when he i thi d d Ch i t f hi

He went on to college, majored in visual arts, and was immediately hired by a Toronto ad agency after graduation where he became the youngest Creative Director in the business. Within 5 years he stepped out on his own, launching Spin Commercial Creative.

Beyond business life, Darryl is married to his teenage sweetheart, Danielle. They live on the water, outside of Toronto, in a house full of love and laughter. They have two teenagers, Aeris, their daughter, and Caden, their son.

Aeris just graduated from high school and is headed toward a career in teaching, specifically working with kindergarteners. Her dad says, with no small amount of pride, that she has a magical way with little ones and was born to it. She is most like her dad with a wicked sense of mischief. You can sometimes catch Aeris on camera during live streams and she has been known to press the 'Go Live' button and not mention it!

Caden is the more reserved of the two kids, preferring to stay off camera. He is still in high school but has plans to be an electrician and is already working toward that. For now, as often as possible, he can be found playing video games.

Water is an important element for Darryl. It is the great equalizer and resetter of energy. It certainly played a central role in choosing their current home in Port Perry, Ontario

He spends as much time as he can on one of his boats or on a sea-doo, whichever calls to him at the moment. Even when Darryl travels he finds his way to the water – often hanging out on the west coast of Florida, close to family. And again – often out on a boat!

As we continued to chat I asked Darryl what surprised him the most about his laser journey, expecting an answer about the laser itself While he did talk a bit about how the capabilities and limitations altered his design process, that was not what affected him most “I was most surprised by how much people liked my art, the support of the community and so many people who just loved what I was doing. I found that refreshing and nice to see. [Video]

Up to that point in his career, Darryl explains, his whole focus as a commercial artist had been on servicing his clients through his agency –Spin Commercial Creative. As he puts ithelping big corporations get bigger and richer This laser community was a completely new thing to him It was an opportunity to help individuals, give back, spend time to help people to thrive “The Facebook groups are not just about business to me It's a community It's the way that it makes me feel It's a way to give back. It's a way for me to make people smile sometimes. It means a lot to me. So this is special to me still. 100% worth it, very rewarding.

What I want is everybody to succeed. I am not a jealous person. I love to cheer people on and surround myself with those who feel the same.” [Video]

Often you see people in this business who don't have an arts or graphics background say that they are not creative They feel people like Darryl are the imaginative ones and that they simply finish what he creates So I had to ask him what he would say to people who struggle with the idea that they aren't creative And his answer? “Hogwash! Everyone has a form of creativity Everyone has ideas, everyone can create. Even the simple act of choosing a color is creative. People, in general, are inherently creative. Some people are just more outwardly creative, like me. It only takes the ability to imagine which then inspires. If you're inspired, you'll create. Laser files are lines, that's all! I'm providing the instructions to the laser head on where to go. That's it. After that it is THEIR art now, they create the final art with colors and finishing Finishing takes massive amounts of creativity ” Watch the video to hear more on this [Video]

Knowing Darryl loves music I wanted him to share with us what that looked like in his life He is in a band as the lead singer and rhythm guitar player When performing the whole room is his stage and he says you will often find him out in the crowd, jumping on tables, trying to make people laugh and have a great time They play all around Ontario and perform across several genres including rock, country, and pop [Video]

As for what musician, living or dead, he would most like to do a set with he had two answers, the first being Gord Downie, since passed, of The Tragically Hip, an iconic Canadian band. His other choice is none other than Ed Sheeran. “He is ridiculously talented on his acoustic guitar. What he does on stage with his acoustic and loop peddles by himself, that would be absolutely amazing to do something with him onstage.” Agreed! (Hey – 6 degrees of separation – anybody know Ed and how we could get these two together?)[Video]

What you get when you talk to Darryl is his true self He is right there, engaged, enthusiastic and in the moment It made me w what words of wisdom had formed him in both life and business.

His motto in business is from his dad.

'Hustle, never be outworked.' You can see with Darryl that's true. He plays full out, hobby or a job, he gives it all he's g

His grandmother gave him words o wisdom to live life by, 'treat others as you would like to be treated Respect everyone and know we are all equal Nobody is above or beneath anybody Be kind '

His words to live by are essential to Darryl For you to get the sense of who he truly is, I quote him next word for word. I encourage you to watch the video to truly appreciate the passion of his sentiment.

“I know it's really simple, maybe people are expecting some grand thing from my head or something creative - it's not. I say it all the time. Be Kind. I really, truly cannot express to you enough how those two words, to me, mean so much because there's a lot of crap in this world Be kind to other people You don't know what people are struggling with Every day people have anxiety and I suffered really bad through a five-year anxiety disorder I went public with that in my groups. I'm heartbroken sometimes by how cruel other people can be to each other. Be kind, be nice to each other because we're all we've got. We're all the same. Nobody's better than anybody. Be kind, please. That's what I live my life by. Every day I wake up and I ask myself, 'How can I make somebody else's life better? How can I make someone smile?' If they're having a bad day, even if I'm having a bad day, I will go out of my way to put on a happy face and do something stupid and silly and embarrass myself to make that person smile Because if that's the only smile they got that day then it's worth it.” His full answer was a bit longer and you can watch it here. [Video]

As we closed our chat, Darryl had some final words for all of you. “I love my communities. Thank you. I can not thank everybody enough for following me, supporting me I'm more than happy to give back with everything I've got and I love them all That's something I want everyone to know, how much I truly, truly appreciate them I don't take any of it for granted ” [Video]

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