Get Lucky With Mister Lucky with Mark Lachance: An EOFire Classic from 2022

0:01John Lee Dumas:Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, brought to you by High Level, the all-in-one sales and marketing platform. On today's classic episode, we'll be breaking down how to get lucky with Mr. Lucky. That is Mark Lachance. Mark is a serial entrepreneur and CEO of Maxi Media, a global agency that blitzscales brands across major digital platforms. And today we talk about how luck equals internal mastery plus external mastery plus action. It can really be that simple and oh so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Mark and our sponsors.

0:39John Lee Dumas:If you are building a real business, you need real infrastructure. High Level gives you website hosting, funnels, email marketing, automation, calendar booking, payments, and course hosting all on one platform, plus award-winning 24-7 support. Get a 30-day free trial and my full bonus stack that includes a 50-minute private call with me and much more at highlevelfire.com. Highlevelfire.com. Fire Nation, 50 days will fly right on by. The only question is, will you have something to show for it? I created a free YouTube series called 50 Days to Something, a step-by-step path to build a real product, service, or offer in just 50 focused days.

1:17John Lee Dumas:Start today for free at eofire.com slash YouTube. Mark, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. JLD, thanks for having me. Glad to be on Fire Nation. I'm pumped up. I've been listening to you for a long time and I finally get to be on. It's like one of my visualizations and it's come true. I love it. But so one thing that people disagree with, which is crazy, by the way, JLD, is when I talk about meditation and I talk about that being my secret weapon, people give me the yeah, yeah, yeah a lot. Or they say, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll try it.

2:01And they never actually do it. So that leads me to believe is that they don't believe or think it's true or don't want to take the initiative or the, let's say, the time to actually meditate. It's work and the benefits are tremendous. But I think that's kind of a contrarian viewpoint, even today.

2:20John Lee Dumas:Well, Fire Nation, I've gotten to hang out with Mr. Lucky himself in my home in Puerto Rico, in Palmas Del Mar. And I can tell you that his vibe, his energy, what he brings to the table is legit. It's real. It's fun. And you can tell why he's done what he's done after we kind of get through some of these exciting refreshers of the topics we're going over today because we are getting lucky with Mr. Lucky today. And that is Mark Lachance. And you went, brother, from five to 250 employees in less than two years. And you went through this phrase dubbing of blitzscaling companies. So tell us that story and exactly how we can emulate your specific blitzscaling technique.

3:09So it's actually the third time that I, quote unquote, blitz scale a company. So the first time was back in 2001. I was myself, the owner of the company. I was a minority shareholder and the tech guy. And we grew that from three to 240 people within about a year and a half. Fast forward to 2009, it was myself was the first employee along with my business partners out in New York City, sorry, Long Island. And we grew that company from one, myself, to 215 employees within about two years. And then this one, like you said, to within two years to 250. And we're actually getting closer to 300 now, John.

3:49So that's pretty awesome. So how do you do it? But, you know, it's obviously it takes intestinal fortitude might be the word, but it takes the willingness to to hire the right people, fire the wrong people and continually adding to it and rolling your profits back in and back in and back in. I mean, it's just it is a learned skill, but it takes some time, but you can do it. You know, it takes a lot of reading, personal development, business development, learnings, go to events, meet people like JLD, listen to podcasts like yours. And it's a process, but you can get there.

4:26John Lee Dumas:So let's go through maybe one of the biggest mistakes that you see other people make when they're going through this rapid growth. I mean, you've done this now three times. And as you mentioned, you're over now 300 employees and a little less or a little over two years, like right around that two year mark and growing. So talk to us about those common mistakes that could be so avoidable if people just knew when they're going through their version of blitzscaling? A huge mistake is, I think you alluded to, I just wrote a book called The Lucky Formula. And I write about what's called, I think I named this, I don't know, John, but you can tell me, but I call it the entrepreneur's dilemma.

5:05And what that means is often a founder and an entrepreneur and a startup entrepreneur believes that they have to be the smartest in the room or the smartest in the company at everything, which is a complete fallacy. I went through it. So I thought I had to be the best salesperson, the best, you know, the best person in underwriting customer service and legal and, you know, HR, which is complete fallacy. So I found myself in 2010, after launching my first company where I was the CEO, the first time I was a CEO on a blitzscaling endeavor. So the first one back in 2000, I was the VP of sales. This one, I was the CEO.

5:43And I found myself sitting at my desk a year and a half later with 215 employees, stressed out of my mind with about a thousand unopened emails. And I wanted to actually jump out the window. It was basically that stressed. And that's because I thought that I had to do everything and know everything that's going on. I was on every single distribution list, email list, and then it just becomes overwhelming. So the first, again, getting back to the the entrepreneur's dilemma, that's basically that you need to be the smartest and the best. So the way to avoid this is drop your ego, swallow your pride, and hire people that are a hell of a lot smarter than you to do the jobs that you're not good at, right?

6:25And stay in your lane and do what you're great at. Like JLD, you're the best at, I would say you're a great motivator, you're an unbelievable visionary. You took the podcast industry, I'll call it, by storm, because you laser focus on what you do best.

6:40John Lee Dumas:Keep talking, keep talking. You have an awesome voice. I'm not going to get into podcasting. I don't have the JLD voice, but you do. So I would have to, if I wanted to get into podcasting, I would hire somebody like a JLD to number one, coach me or put me through it. So hire the people that are better than you, swallow your pride and let them do their jobs and stay out of their way. That's how you blitz scale. I do love that mentality of focus, that following one course until success. What is your unique, amazing superpower, Fire Nation, that you can and should be doing all the time? And then how do you hire people around you who are doing all the other things that you're not great at, that you don't want to do, that drains you, that takes away your bandwidth, your energy, so you can focus on what it is you do?

7:24John Lee Dumas:I should be doing interviews like this, being guests on other shows, doing presentations from stage. I should be doing webinars, stuff along those lines. I should not be doing all the other things it takes to run my business. So I've hired a team around me to do just that. And I've been able to blitz scale my revenue from essentially nothing to where it is today for anybody who watches and listens and reads our income reports. That's what we focused on. And one thing that I'm a big believer in is leadership. I spent eight years as an officer in the U.S. Army, did a 13-month tour of duty in Iraq.

7:58John Lee Dumas:And so I saw the importance of the use of language in leadership and also the power of empowering employees. or in the case when I was in the army, the power of empowering the soldiers, the officers. And that was such an important thing. So let's talk about these two strategies one by one. Let's start with the importance of the use of language in leadership. I think it's huge because let's say you're, especially today, John, it's not like when I think when you're in the military, I think, you know, you're a little bit younger than me, but even when I was, let's say, starting in business back in, I graduated in 1992.

8:33So the language was different. The motivation tactics and tools and tips and tricks were far different. So for example, I grew up as a hockey player. And coaching then was way different than it is today. So I'll give you a great example. When I was a sports agent back in when I graduated university in 1992, I started representing NHL or professional athletes. And I remember one of the coaches from one of my clients, he was just old school and he would just rip guys and just verbally abuse them. And look, that may have worked back in the 50s, 60s, 70s, but it certainly didn't work in the 90s and it doesn't work today.

9:12So using empowering language versus disempowering language is huge. So telling people, pointing out their positive attributes versus ripping them down and pointing out their negative attributes goes a heck of a lot further than the negativity. So that's one thing. So use language that's empowering versus disempowering. That's definitely one way to get better use or better productivity out of your team.

9:38John Lee Dumas:That's super fascinating, Fire Nation, the ways that things have evolved over the years and just how that use of language is super important. Can you give maybe a specific example of what a use of language would look like that's maybe a good way, a good use of language, and then maybe a bad use of language? Well, let's say, for example, when I was writing my book, I had an editor named Alex, right? And so I write about the language part in the book and the use of language. And he says, look, I don't understand it. Give me an example. I said, well, Alex, I've read a lot of your stuff. I've read a lot of your articles and the books that you wrote.

10:17And I think you're a phenomenal writer. I think you kept me riveted. I was on the edge of my seat. And then you could just see him. you could see his language, his body language just perk up. You could see the fact that he was wide-eyed and happy to get the compliments. So JLD, do you think this guy is going to work harder for me or less hard for me? Had I pointed out the negative things that I didn't like about his writing, what do you think?

10:46John Lee Dumas:I'm going to go with harder. Exactly. That's the point. So that's what empowering language will do for you. It'll get people to rally around you and work harder for you versus trying to get out of anything to do with you. Let's talk about the power of empowering employees. What is something that you've really found is important and ideal here? You want to put people in the position that they will succeed. Number one, you want to give them all the opportunities and not step on their toes. So for example, if you're going to put somebody in the VP of business development role, don't do the job for them.

11:26Let them do the job. So you need to manage them from, in my view, from afar and what's worked for me. Let them either succeed or fail. And if they're good, they will succeed. If they're great, they'll succeed. And if they're not, you're going to know by the data, by the numbers. And that particular department won't do well. So that's it. So you put people in the position to succeed, let them succeed. And that's sort of the empowerment role.

11:52John Lee Dumas:And I love giving people power, Fire Nation, making them feel like, hey, this is your thing to make a success or to be a failure with. And now you're making people like really specifically tied to the success or failure of that project. And now they're going to take loyalty. They're going to take ownership. They're going to take pride in what they're doing because now they can't just say, well, I just listened to everything that Mark said because he's a micromanager and And I just followed Mark's orders. And since it went bad, it must be Mark's fault because all I did was just do what he said.

12:22John Lee Dumas:He said, hey, you got this. You're smart. You're empowering. You can do this. Do it your way, the way that you find best. Now, all of a sudden, it's on them. If they succeed, it's because they crushed it. And that's a huge win for them. If they fail, it's because they failed. And it's on them. It's on their shoulders. So they need to take 100 % responsibility. And we're going to be talking about the lucky formula and so much more when we get back. from thanking our sponsors. There are two things I know about you for sure. You're an action taker and you love to learn. Otherwise, you wouldn't be listening to this podcast.

12:56John Lee Dumas:So I'm excited to share another source of inspiration I know you're going to love, Blinkist. Blinkist is an app that takes the world's best nonfiction books and breaks them down into 15-minute reads or listens. So whether you're commuting, working out, or in between calls, Blinkist delivers insights you can apply immediately without the week it takes to read a full book. And get this, there are over 9 ,000 titles available to you on mobile anytime you want so you can get straight to the key ideas and action points, no fluff. Some of my favorite titles on Blinkist, The Lean Startup by Eric Ries, The One Thing by Gary Keller, The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday, and so many more.

13:32John Lee Dumas:So let's get into a new daily learning habit, one 15-minute session at a time. Turn your spare moments into learning moments with Blinkist. Go to Blinkist.com slash fire to start your free trial and lock in an extra 30 % off today. That's Blinkist.com slash fire. Fire Nation, if you are building a real business, you need real infrastructure. That is why High Level is Entrepreneur on Fire's featured partner. High Level gives you a website builder and hosting, funnels and landing pages, email marketing, appointment scheduling, payment processing, course and membership hosting, and so much more. everything you need to succeed all under one roof.

14:11John Lee Dumas:No duct tape, no juggling five platforms, just one clean system for your business. And their award-winning 24-7 support has your back when you need it most. When you sign up at highlevelfire.com, you also get my exclusive bonus stack, a 30-day free trial, a private 15-minute call with me, JLD, access to my weekly live office hours, a digital copy of my book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, my 50 Days to Something Execution Roadmap, and more. Visit highlevelfire.com and start building your something today. Mark, we're back and you are the bestselling author of The Lucky Formula. Talk to us about why you wrote this book and why Fire Nation needs to read it.

14:56JLD, I think you have a French Canadian roots, I believe, with your last name Dumas.

15:02John Lee Dumas:Quebecois is where the old family comes from. There you go. Me too. Me as well. So if you look at my name, it's not really La Chance. It's La Chance. As I am Dumas. There you go. There you go. So what my name means in French is lucky. So just the fact, the mere fact that I have a name that means lucky qualified me to write a book called The Lucky Formula. Well, my name means dumbass. So where do I go from here? Well, you're clearly not a dumbass. So your next book should be Don't Be a Dumbass. Or how to not be a dumbass, even if your last name says you are a dumbass. There you go. That's a good one, man.

15:42So the lucky formula is all about how to stack the odds in your favor and cash in on success. And the premise is, look, luck is not a fluke, it's a formula. So we spoke about empowering language before. So imagine if you're stacking empowering language on top of positive thinking, on top of a narrative, on top of a great story, on top of other things like meditation and affirmations in the morning, and a whole host of other things like supplementation or eating right and working out and other aspects. So for example, the lucky formula is 20 aspects. So it's internal mastery. So the formula itself is internal mastery, I, plus external mastery, which is E, plus action, which is A.

16:31So I plus E plus A equals luck. So mastering your internal self, so like your internal narrative and your internal language, meditation, acknowledgement, which is, John, basically, if you're ever feeling down and you're feeling like you're not successful, well, you sure have been successful on 20 things. So write down 20 things over the course of your life that you've been successful in. It's going to change your mindset. And again, there's other parts to the internal. And then the external part is who do you hang around with? What kind of language do you use? What kind of knowledge are you putting into your head?

17:08What kind of conversations are you having? So if you're shifting all that external stuff and taking action, like learning about leadership, going to events and meeting people like JLD and sitting on JLD's beautiful sight lines when you're looking at the ocean and having amazing, empowering conversations, that's the action you have to take to be successful. So again, I plus E plus A equals luck or interchangeable with success.

17:35John Lee Dumas:So Fire Nation, there's so much that I love about the lucky formula. If there's one more strategy within this book that you really feel would be powerful for Fire Nation to learn a little bit more about today? Of course, we can't dive into all the strategies and all the details of the specific strategies, but what's something that you really feel like our listeners need to hear? I think everybody, especially today with all the negativity in the press, you need to be, it's called circle of influence or people you hang around with. I think I call it crew in the book. So what crew are you hanging around with?

18:09Like Jim Rohn. I think, John, I want to say that you wrote about this in your book and I think you did.

18:14John Lee Dumas:Oh yeah, I did. You did. Yeah, you did. So it's, it's all about the, you're the average Jim Rohn said you're the aggregate or the average of the five people you hang around with. So imagine if you're hanging around with five people that are nay, you know, naysayers and negative and no, that's never going to happen. And this is that, what do you think you're going to be on? Conversely, if you're going to events, like I was recently at a, at a Mark Moss event, whereas it was actually about investing and it was about protecting yourself in times of inflation and where to put yourself. So I've already positioned myself to be protected.

18:47And I hung around with guys like Bitcoiners. I don't know if you're into Bitcoin jail, I forget, but Greg Foss and Jeff Booth and James Lavish. And these guys are superstars in the game. But I had awesome conversations with these people. And just the knowledge that I gained by hanging around with people like this is phenomenal, rather than not going to this event. And I could have been hanging around with people that aren't as illuminated, as bright, and as fired up as these people are. And I wouldn't be as fired up as I am. So I think circle of influence is probably one of the huge keys. And that's part of the external action that I was talking about in my book.

19:27John Lee Dumas:Well, I do love that. And as we'll be talking about at the end of the episode, Fire Nation knows of the five people they spend the most time with as I end every one of my episodes. So let's bring it home on a high note, Mark. Give us the one key takeaway from everything we've talked about here today that you really want to make sure our listeners walk away with. Give us the call to action you have for the lucky formula and anything else. How we can connect with you and then we'll say goodbye. Well, I want to give your listeners a gift. So I want to give them their lucky score. So how do you get your lucky score?

20:04You can go to theluckyformula.com slash quiz. Again, it's theluckyformula.com slash quiz. It'll give you your lucky score on a scale from zero to 100. And no matter where your score is, you're going to get tips and tricks on how to get, how to become more lucky or more successful. So that's, I think that's very powerful for your listeners. And it's going to give them a very good read on where they're at. And John, as you know, what you measure or what you don't measure, you can't fix or what you measure, you can fix. So it's all about measuring where you're at and getting better and better as you go through life.

20:44John Lee Dumas:Fantastic. And Fire Nation, I want to guess that my lucky score is somewhere above a 90. I mean, I have won a car and the price is right. So if you want to go to eofire.com slash about, the video is posted there. It's pretty funny. It's pretty hysterical. So John, I want to challenge you. I'd love to see your lucky scores. So I'd love for you to text it over after you do it. I'm in. I'm in. I'm doing it. And Fire Nation, I'd love to hear yours as well. So let that happen. Now, what's the one key takeaway? If you could just leave us with one amazing parting piece of advice. So here's a question for you.

21:17How do you wake up in the morning? What is your morning routine? Are you fired up? Are you negative when you start the day? Well, I'm going to tell you my morning routine, I believe, is incredible. It's impeccable. I start the day on fire and I go through that in detail through the book. So how do you wake up in the morning? Just answer that question, right? And if you're waking up on a scale of one to 10, as a 10 on 10, then your day is going to be awesome. You're going to crush your day. But if you're waking up as two or three, like I used to in the past, then your day is going to suck. So how do you wake up in the morning?

21:50That's the question.

21:51John Lee Dumas:Fire Nation, how are you waking up in the morning? Because you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with and you've been hanging out with ml and jld today so keep up the heat and head over to eofire.com type mark in the search bar and the show notes page will pop up with everything we've talked about here today of course your direct cta theluckyformula.com slash quiz get over there get your score hopefully it's above a 90 like i think mine's going to be and mark thank you for sharing your truth knowledge value with fire nation today for that we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side.