Have you ever thought that luck just happens to some people and it doesn’t for others? Or have you thought that maybe luck is manifested through your own action? In our interview, Mark Lachance shares with us his Lucky Formula. This is episode two of Mark Lachance’s interview, a first for our podcast. If you missed last week’s episode, Mark shared with us marketing suggestions on how to find success in advertising on TikTok.
Mark recently finished his now best-selling book, The Lucky Formula, and he shares with us just what The Lucky Formula is and how you can make it work for you.
LINKS FROM THE EPISODE:
- Learn more about Mark Lechance and his book: https://marklachance.com/
- Check out Mark’s company website: https://maxy.media/
- If you are ready to franchise your business or take it to the next level: CLICK HERE.
ABOUT OUR GUEST:
Mark Lachance is a serial entrepreneur, strategic thinker, and investor. He is a renowned figure in the business world, one who possesses a deep understanding of blitz scaling companies. Having owned and operated several businesses that have experienced hyper growth through creative business development and lead generation, he is a master of sales and marketing and continues to apply and grow his expertise through current projects.
ABOUT BIG SKY FRANCHISE TEAM:
This episode is powered by Big Sky Franchise Team. If you are ready to talk about franchising your business you can schedule your free, no-obligation, franchise consultation online at: https://bigskyfranchiseteam.com/ or by calling Big Sky Franchise Team at: 855-824-4759.
f you are interested in being a guest on our podcast, please complete this request form or email podcast@bigskyfranchise.com and a team member will be in touch.
TRANSCRIPTION:
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (00:00):
Welcome to the Multiply Your Success podcast, where each week we help growth minded entrepreneurs and franchise leaders take the next step in their expansion journey. I’m your host, Tom DuFore, CEO of Big Sky Franchise Team. And as we open today, I’m wondering if you’ve ever thought that luck just happens to some people and it doesn’t for others. Or have you thought that maybe luck is manifested through your own action and your own activity? Well, in our interview today with Mark Lachance, he shares with us his lucky formula. And this is episode two with Mark Lachance. In fact, our first interview was last week, and if you missed it, Mark shared with us his marketing suggestions on how to find success in advertising on TikTok. And the interview was so great and with great content that we broke it into two episodes. Mark recently finished his now bestselling book, The Lucky Formula, and he shares with us just what the lucky formula is and how you can make it work for you. So let’s go ahead and jump into my interview with Mark Lachance.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (01:06):
Let’s talk a little bit about The Lucky Formula.
Mark Lachance, Maxy Media Inc. (01:09):
The Lucky Formula. There it is. Yeah. So it launched in November. It actually hit Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestseller, which I was pretty excited about. When you see your name ahead of Matthew McConaughey, that’s pretty cool, for about a couple weeks. I was pretty [crosstalk 00:01:28].
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (01:27):
Congratulations.
Mark Lachance, Maxy Media Inc. (01:28):
Thank you. Thank you. It was great. The book, it’s basically the lucky formula, that luck is not a fluke, but it’s a formula. And kind of the subtitle, the premise is how to stack the odds in your favor and cash in on success. And people might say, how do you do that? How do you do that? Well, look, luck and success to me in this case is synonymous. So it’s luck equals success in this book. And it actually is a formula. And the way I’ve broken it down is internal mastery, and I’ll explain this in a second, so internal mastery plus external master plus action equals success. So I plus E plus A equals luck. And what does that mean? I mean, there’s a whole bunch of different things to master internally, externally, and there’s action to take to be lucky and successful.
Mark Lachance, Maxy Media Inc. (02:20):
So Tom, if you want some examples. So for example, internally. When you wake up in the morning, what do you tell yourself? What’s your narrative? What do you say to yourself? Do you wake up like, whoa is me. This is going to be another terrible day? Or are you talking to yourself like this is going to be an amazing day. I’m a fearless leader. I am amazing. I am lucky? Now, how are you speaking to yourself? What’s your narrative? That’s one tip and trick.
Mark Lachance, Maxy Media Inc. (02:44):
The next thing. Are you visualizing? Are you seeing your future, your big, bright, massive, awesome future? Or are you saying, oh, whoa is me. Inflation’s 8%. My bills are rising. Whoa is me. What am I going to do? Are you visualizing big, bright future or death and despair? So that’s another thing. So what about your thoughts on a constant basis, on a regular basis during the day? How are you thinking? What are you thinking? I love, by the way, your logo above your head, Big Sky. You’re thinking big.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (03:19):
That’s right. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and that’s what we tell folks. That’s where the kind of the idea for the name came from. You’ve got to be a big thinker. The sky has no limits. Kind of this big vision thinking.
Mark Lachance, Maxy Media Inc. (03:34):
That’s right. I love it. So I could see it right above your head, man. That’s awesome. But look, that’s part of the lucky formula. If you’re looking at Big Sky every single day, then that’s helping your internal narrative, your internal thoughts. What’s your physiology? Right now, I’m standing up. I’ve got a standing desk. I’m standing. I feel great. My energy’s awesome. Some people slouch in their chair like this. Well, what kind of energy, what kind of luck do you think you’re going to generate if your energy levels are low? So that’s another aspect. So those are kind of internal things.
Mark Lachance, Maxy Media Inc. (04:07):
And when you talk your external situations, like for example, your crew, or I call it crew in the book, but it’s who do you hang around with? What’s your circle of influence? So if I’m hanging around with Tom who thinks big in Big Sky, well, there’s a good chance that I’m going to think big all the time. If I’m hanging around with somebody who has little sky instead, the Little Sky Franchise Team, maybe I’m going to think little. So I’d rather hang around with the people that think big, like Tom, versus the people that think little, like Little Sky. So that’s a big thing.
Mark Lachance, Maxy Media Inc. (04:37):
So here’s a question for you, Tom. This is a Jim Rohn’s quote. I stole it nicely from Jim Rohn. You’re the average of the five people you hang around with. So imagine if you’re hanging around with four other billionaires. Do you think there’s a pretty good chance that you could become a billionaire?
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (04:58):
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Mark Lachance, Maxy Media Inc. (05:01):
And why is that? Why do you think?
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (05:03):
Well, certainly. Well, there’s going to be some sort of a kind of keeping up mentality that’ll you’ll want to keep up and you’ll see what they’re doing. You’ll want to engage in activities like they’re engaged in, going to the events or part or hanging out with people or whatever they’re doing.
Mark Lachance, Maxy Media Inc. (05:26):
Exactly. And think the conversation. And they think possibility. They don’t think scarcity. They think abundance. So that’s the value of hanging around with a crew that thinks differently and thinks bigger and thinks bolder. And people might be asking themselves, well, how do I hang around with five billionaires? Well, you don’t have to. But you do, in my view, hang around with five people that think big because you’re eventually going to get to where you want to be when you’re thinking big and taking big action.
Mark Lachance, Maxy Media Inc. (05:58):
And another one is how do you eat? What’s your nutrition? So I’ve got a story around that. So back in 2001, I moved to Canada from Boston and we started a company called Pivotal Payments, and myself and the CEO of the company, we would go to lunch every single day and have this huge lunch and have a dessert. Never failed. Every lunch. So what do you think happened right after lunch? Get back to my office and I’m crashed out at my desk. So are you getting lucky if you’re crashed on your desk and you’re not on the phone hustling? So nutrition is a big piece. Maybe about 14 you years ago, I fixed my nutrition. And I was 25 pounds overweight. My energy levels were basically a four on 10 all day long. And now, fixing my nutrition, fixing my supplementation, my energy is 10 on 10, all day long. And low and behold, my income has grown along with my energy levels.
Mark Lachance, Maxy Media Inc. (06:56):
So supplementation, nutrition, people you hang around with, personal development. Do you do personal development? Do you read books like The Lucky Formula? Do you look at this bookshelf on this side? Do you read books like Tell to Win or Bold or Jack Welch or The 4-Hour Body? And I can go down. There’s about 1,000 books on that side. So personal development’s a huge part of the lucky formula.
Mark Lachance, Maxy Media Inc. (07:19):
And then there’s the take action. So the A. And I’ll give you a pretty cool story around that. So do you go to events, Tom? I would assume you do. But do you go to, let’s say, personal development events?
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (07:29):
Yes, I do. Yep.
Mark Lachance, Maxy Media Inc. (07:31):
Okay. So I’ll give you a story on that. And this is a pretty funny one. So I went to Dave Asprey’s event, Dave Asprey’s a pretty big bio hacker. And so I’m into supplementation, nutrition and biohacking, essentially. And I was at his event in Orlando in September. And so I’m at the lunch and I’m sitting down at the VIP lunch and this woman sits next to me and her daughter and her boyfriend sat on the other side of me. And it turns out the daughter is ranked 25th in the world in tennis. I was like, that’s pretty cool. That’s pretty unbelievable. And then I started talking to the mother, I’m like, “Oh, what do you do?” She says, “I’m the president of the Buffalo Sabres.” And I was like, “Wow, that’s pretty awesome,” because I’m a huge hockey fan and I love the game. And we started talking about some of the players and she knew everything about it, which I was pretty impressed.
Mark Lachance, Maxy Media Inc. (08:23):
And then I look at her name tag and her name is Kim Pegula. And I’m like, “Wow, you’re not only the president of the Buffalo Sabres, you own the Buffalo Sabres and the Buffalo Bills.” And so it turns out that by taking action to go to this event, I’m sitting next to the owner of the Buffalo Bills. And then I start talking to her about her marketing, how do they market the Buffalo bills and what are the issues? What are the problems? She’s like, “One of the problems is that our clientele is 50 year old males.” And I’m like, oh, interesting. And I’m like, “What are you doing to attract, let’s say, gen Z or other demographics?” And at the time, they didn’t have a real great strategy. So I immediately got on the phone and I called my creative director and I said, “Listen, I need 10 videos now of our youngest creators creating video on how the Buffalo Bills might attract gen Z.”
Mark Lachance, Maxy Media Inc. (09:18):
So anyway, within two hours, I got 10 videos back and I showed them to her and she loved them. So we’re still in the negotiation process, but there’s a good chance we’ll get the Buffalo Bills as one of our clients. And only because I was at that event and I took action and I spoke to somebody. So if you’re taking action, going to events, speaking to people and not living in fear, you’re going to get lucky. So that’s a potential lucky situation. Or serendipitous, if you will. So in a nutshell, Tom, that’s it. So it’s I plus E plus A. That’s the lucky formula.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (09:51):
I love it. I love that. And I think that a lot of folks that’ll tune into this, they’re entrepreneurs, they’re people who are action oriented, taking action and getting things done. I think they will really relate to it and be able to enhance what they’re already doing. And how can people find it? Where can they get a copy of your book?
Mark Lachance, Maxy Media Inc. (10:15):
You can find it on Amazon and on Audible. And the voice is yours truly also on Audible. That was one of the toughest things I’ve ever done.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (10:27):
Well, perfect. Well, Mark, this is a great time for us just to transition into the formula for the show. And we close every interview with the final four questions we ask every guest, which the first one is, have you had a miss or two along the way and something you learned from it.
Mark Lachance, Maxy Media Inc. (10:44):
A miss or a total wreck. How about that?
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (10:49):
Your choice. Total wreck sounds interesting.
Mark Lachance, Maxy Media Inc. (10:52):
I’ve had a lot of misses and one mega total wreck or a bad move in my career. So Tom, you might remember back in 2006, 2007 was the height of the real estate craze. So I invested in a big real estate project. I took everything that I won. So you remember, I told you I moved to Canada in 2001. Well, I got equity in a company. And for five years, we built it from zero to 250 employees and then I sold my shares back to the owner for several millions of dollars. And I took every single dollar and rolled that into a real estate deal at the end of 2006, going into 2007. And I think you remember what happened. So we had the big blow up. I literally lost everything. And I was on the verge of bankruptcy, anxiety, depression, all the above. And that was a huge learning experience.
Mark Lachance, Maxy Media Inc. (11:48):
And a couple things I take away from that is number one, don’t ever put all your eggs in one basket ever. Number two is definitely do your homework when you’re getting into a business relationship. I had a business partner. It turns out he wasn’t who he was supposed to be. And that was one of the reasons that my nest egg went to pretty much zero. And when you are in that situation, by the way, you can always get out of it. Look, I was in, for six months, almost total full blown depression, but then one day I decided I’m going to get out of this. And so I guess the learning from that is you can change at a snap of a finger, at any point. So I was able to dig way out, and fast forward how many years later now, it’s almost 15 years later, I’m doing pretty well. So we made it back and then some.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (12:41):
Beautiful. Wow. What a story. And let’s look on the other side of this, a make or two. You shared some great stories already. But is there a make or two that you’d like to highlight in addition?
Mark Lachance, Maxy Media Inc. (12:55):
Yeah. Look, if you’re always curious and you always have your eyes open, you’re always going to come up with opportunities. So one of them was how we started Maxy Media. So basically, after the 2007, 2008, blow up, bankruptcy, blah, blah, blah, I was able to finally get back on my feet and launch another company, which I did in 2009 and then sold that in 2016. And then from 2016 for almost about a year, I was working in our fitness and nutrition center, but then I got the itch again. And as long as your eyes are open to new opportunities … I met this gentleman named Max, and you can probably guess why the name of the business is called Maxy Media. But anyway, so this gentleman was great at media buying, amazing at media buying, but didn’t know how to scale a company.
Mark Lachance, Maxy Media Inc. (13:57):
And so my forte or my expertise is scaling a company. So he had a one man shop, or one person shop was just him. And so I saw an opportunity and I’m like, wow, the guy’s got skills in a certain area but he doesn’t have what I have, which is capital and the ability to scale. So I put one and one together, which should equal two but in this case equals about maybe 1,000 or 10,000 or a million. So always look for opportunities. And that was my big win is I found an opportunity to invest in an opportunity where it was an undervalued situation. So I always look for undervalued opportunities and I found it in Maxy Media.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (14:38):
Excellent. And how about this idea of a multiplier? We talk about this. The shows multiply your success. Has there been a multiplier that you’ve used in growing and expanding, whether yourself personally, the businesses you’ve built?
Mark Lachance, Maxy Media Inc. (14:52):
Well, I would have to tell you that there’s a couple of multipliers that I can point to, but one of them being, it’s kind of esoteric or people might view it as woo-woo but I don’t. If you read Tim Ferriss’ book Tools of Titans, that’s right up there, I think he interviews 500 titans, if you will, or 500 monsters in their domain, 75% of them meditate. And that’s one of the things that I’ve taken up over the last 10 years. And I’m going to tell you, for me, it’s been a multiplier. And why? Because it, number one, allows you to make decisions based on logic and not emotion. I used to be very emotional. If something came at me, I’d react instead of standing back and thinking clearly and then reacting after I’ve had a clear plan. So for me, a major multiplier has been meditation. It might not be something you’re used to hearing, but for me, I’m going to call that my secret weapon. So that’s a multiplier.
Mark Lachance, Maxy Media Inc. (15:53):
And to be quite Frank, everything I’ve written about in the book is a multiplier. Another great multiplier is your circle of influence. And I moved from Montreal back in September, Montreal, Canada, to Florida, South Florida. That’s been a multiplier. And why? Because it’s just the people around here and the neighborhood that I’m in. And the people that I hang around with now in Florida think much differently than, let’s say, they did in Montreal, they did in Canada. South Florida’s very entrepreneurial, very, let’s call it, business oriented. Whereas, Canada is a socialist country and it’s a different mindset. So it’s capitalist here versus, let’s say, socialist. So a multiplier could be where you live, could be who you hang around with, could be how you think. There’s many different multipliers. But for me, again, it’s my proximity where I live, it’s the people I hang around with and it’s meditation.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (16:48):
Amazing. Amazing. And the final question we ask every guest is what does success mean to you?
Mark Lachance, Maxy Media Inc. (16:57):
Well, look, I think, are you a great father or parent? Are you a great leader? Are you successful financially? So I think it’s holistic and it’s not just one thing. So people might say, “Oh, success means you’re rich.” Well, that’s part of it. But are you a great person? Are you giving opportunity to people? Are you a great husband? Are you a great father? Are you a great leader? I think it’s a holistic approach. It’s not just one thing. So success for me means all that.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (17:29):
Yeah. Amazing. Well, this has been a fantastic interview, Mark. And as we bring this to a close, is there anything you were maybe hoping to share or get across that you haven’t had a chance to yet?
Mark Lachance, Maxy Media Inc. (17:40):
Well, before I get it, I’d like to leave your guests or your listeners with a gift, which is, I’d like to give them a free lucky quiz. So it’s a quiz that’ll measure your lucky score. And so it’s on a scale of one to 100 and it asks you several questions and then it spits out a score of how lucky you are or how prone to success you are. And if your scores are lower, it gives you tips and tricks on how to increase your ability to catch luck. And like I said earlier, luck is not a fluke, it’s a formula. And if you use a formula, there’s a big chance or great chance that you will get lucky and you will get successful. And lucky isn’t, again, this woo-woo thing. It’s a formula that you can build on top of each other. So how do you get this quiz? You get it at TheLuckyFormula.com/quiz. Again, TheLuckyFormula.com/quiz. And have fun with that.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (18:39):
Perfect. Well, and when someone tunes in, we’ll make sure we link that in the show notes so anyone who’s listening in can click on that and take them right to it. And we’ll include the links back to your book as well, to the Audible and Amazon. And Mark, I’m really grateful for your time. This interview has been absolutely fantastic.
Mark Lachance, Maxy Media Inc. (19:00):
Tom, thank you very much. It was an awesome time. Thank you.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (19:03):
Mark, thanks so much for being a guest and providing such valuable content that we decided to turn this into two different episodes. So let’s go ahead and jump into today’s three key takeaways. Takeaway number one is when Mark talked about don’t ever put all your eggs in one basket. And certainly, that’s a lesson we’ve been taught, for many of us, probably we’ve heard over and over and over repeated. But Mark found himself in that situation and having to rebuild after having catastrophe occur in his life when he did put all of his eggs in one basket.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (19:38):
Takeaway number two is understand who you’re getting into business with and do your due diligence. I just think that’s a good practice for all of us to be doing, no matter what that’s for, whether that might be with business partners, as Mark described in his case, maybe it might be adding franchisees into a system or maybe finding a new vendor or supplier to be doing business with.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (20:00):
Takeaway number three. If you’re always curious with your eyes open, you will always come out with something positive. I thought that was just a great little nugget. Just keep your eyes open. There is a silver lining somewhere. You just got to look for it.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (20:14):
And now it’s time for today’s win-win. So today’s win-win is the lucky formula. Mark described that for his definition as internal mastery plus external mastery plus action equals success. And he described that by talking about internal mastery. How are you talking to yourself? How are you visualizing yourself? How are you thinking? What’s your physiology and body language? External is who are your friends? What do you eat? What is your personal development? What books are you reading, podcasts are you listening to, like Multiply Your Success? And the final part is action. Take action. Do things. Get something done. And when those three are together, that creates the lucky formula.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (21:03):
And I thought that’s a great way to end the episode and just great practice. And for folks who are successful out there, you may already be doing some of this. But this is something for you to apply to maybe help get to that next level. And so that’s the episode today, folks. Please make sure you subscribe to the podcast and give us a review. And remember, if you or anyone you know might be ready to franchise their business or take their franchise company to the next level, please connect with us at BigSkyFranchiseTeam.com. Thanks for tuning in and we look forward to having you back next week.
