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Mark Lachance:

To be a great media buyer, you have to the intersection of, let's call it, creativity and almost mathematics. But on TikTok, you have to be savvy with the camera, with the video, with editing. I can show you millions and millions of dollars of traffic we're generating on all those platforms, Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube shorts now, and Facebook obviously, so social media absolutely does work.

 

James Robert Lay:

Greeting and hello. I am James Robert Lay, and welcome to episode 248 of the Banking on Digital Growth Podcast. Today's episode is part of the Exponential Insight series, and I'm excited to welcome Mark Lachance. Mark is the CEO and lead investor of Maxy Media, one of the largest TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, and Google Display network performance marketing agencies in the world. They do a lot of work with financial brands as well. And currently, Maxy Media is the number one advertiser in terms of monthly spend on the TikTok platform in Canada and is top 10 in North America. Mark is also the best selling author of The Lucky Formula. And today, we're going to be diving into the biggest opportunities for financial brands and FinTechs to capture when it comes to maximizing their growth through digital ads, as well as the role that mindset plays when it comes to future growth as well. Welcome to the show, Mark. It is good to share time with you today, buddy.

 

Mark Lachance:

Hey, thanks for having me.

 

James Robert Lay:

Before we get into talking digital channels and lead generation and digital ads for financial brands and FinTechs, what's good in your world right now, personal, professional? It is always your pick to get started on a positive note here.

 

Mark Lachance:

What's good in my world? Personally, we just got a horse, a family horse.

 

James Robert Lay:

I love that.

 

Mark Lachance:

That just came in two days ago and we went to welcome, his name is Peter Fox, peter Fox to the family.

 

James Robert Lay:

Peter Fox, the family horse. What type? What color?

 

Mark Lachance:

You're going to have to ask my wife what type? I don't know. It's her game, not mine, but it's a beautiful, darker color, so this beautiful brown with a black tail. It's actually a gorgeous horse. I don't know what type, I can't tell you. I think I want to call it a hunter, but I don't know.

 

James Robert Lay:

My wife is going to love this episode. She loves horses and would love to get some horses for the family as well. We're down here in Houston, so I'm-

Mark Lachance:

Well, that's cowboy country, isn't it?

 

James Robert Lay:

Yeah. I'm going to say yippee-ki-yay. We just actually had a couple of months ago, the Pasadena Rodeo.

 

Mark Lachance:

Wow, okay.

 

James Robert Lay:

We have the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, which is a big, big, big event. But then Pasadena also has their little rodeo as well, and the kids love going to that thing and seeing the horses and the bulls. Yeah, it's a great time for the family. Well, I'm excited for y'all.

 

Mark Lachance:

Yeah, it's going to be fun.

 

James Robert Lay:

Peter Fox. I love it. Peter Fox, the horse.

 

Mark Lachance:

Yes, sir.

 

James Robert Lay:

It's going to be good. It's going to be good. Well, let's parlay that into things that you have been seeing from your vantage point when it comes to lead generation and digital ads. It's been an interesting couple of years, I would say in hindsight, in retrospect. What have you seen? Big trends, big lessons learned.

 

Mark Lachance:

I mean, that's kind of a loaded question, but I'll try to unpack it. So one I've seen, obviously most of your listeners are financially savvy. They've probably seen the massacre of the Facebook stock, and I could probably tell you why that happened, has happened. It's, one, arrogance, it's, two, incompetence, it's, three... And I think you've done Facebook ads, so the way they treat you is unbelievable and not unbelievable in a great way either, so unbelievable in the other way. But anyway, so some of the trends I have seen that their compliance team is loosening up big time. They were very, very, let's say, you couldn't get ahold of anybody ever. They would shut your account with no explanations. They would hold your money with no explanations.

 

And so over the last, I'd say the last couple of months, since their big dive in stock price, I've seen them loosen up on compliance and what they reject and what they don't reject. So that's one trend, and I think that's going to continue because if you've looked at their numbers, they're not great. And I think they're going to continue to allow different types of advertisements. Speaking in the financial space, they would be very critical on, let's say, personal loans or credit card issuing. And now, they're starting to loosen up on those. So this is pertinent, I think, to your people.

 

James Robert Lay:

Absolutely. Absolutely.

 

Mark Lachance:

So that's one trend. I mean, another trend is I'm seeing TikTok emerge as the... and that's what 65% of our revenues generated out of TikTok ads. It's emerging as the powerhouse social media company and ad platform right now. So those are two big trends that I've noticed.

 

James Robert Lay:

Let's talk about this shift because there has been a shift away from Facebook, and I think a lot of that began probably back in like 2017 with the Cambridge Analytica debacle. Then you see the rise of TikTok. But 2018, 20 19, I would say even 2020, within this vertical, within banks, within credits, within FinTech, "That's just for tweens and teens." That's not the case anymore. What are you seeing as a trend shifting into the TikTok space, considering the fact that that's 65% of all ad revenue that you're managing is through this one particular channel here. What has happened with this shift and adoption and maybe the transformation of users beyond teens and twins?

 

Mark Lachance:

Yeah, the users, I mean, it's aging up every single day. So it used to be Gen Z only. It Used to be, what, age 16 to 22, 23. And now I don't have the exact data in front of me, but large percentage are between 25 and 50, a large percentage, and maybe more than half right now. So obviously, advertisers need to go where the eyeballs are, so do not discount TikTok as a channel for your ads. Absolutely not. That's one of my definite, I guess, things that I want to impress upon your people.

 

James Robert Lay:

TikTok, what's the difference though, between running ads, say, there compared to what Facebook was previously? Particularly through the lens of, "I like what y'all are doing," lead gen, because you can run ads all day long for awareness, but then how do we move those people from awareness into some type of consideration, maybe doing some type of middle of the funnel lead gen there? Where are the opportunities, particularly through the lens of the banking world?

 

Mark Lachance:

Well, we are doing a lot in the personal loan space, which pertains to banking. We're top of the funnel, so we drive it to landing page, and then from landing page, it goes down a funnel. You collect all the data you need to collect, and then you do whatever you have to do on the back end. So it can be used for top of the funnel to drive people to your lander. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that if any institution wants to jump on any digital platform, they need to understand the full funnel. So not only top of funnel, which is what we do, we actually... The benefit that we have is that we service top of funnel. That's the toughest part in my view. Mid funnel and end of the funnel is not that difficult as long as you have that expertise in the house. But obviously, an institution has to focus on the full funnel, but there are companies like us that can handle top, which is getting the ad produced, getting the creators to do the ads, and then driving it to a lander.

 

James Robert Lay:

I would agree with you, the knowledge of the entire funnel, four different product lines. We see a tremendous knowledge gap, particularly with more of the middle of the funnel, maybe even the bottom of the funnel, the area of conversion, considering the fact that around 60 to 85% of applications that get started end up be being abandoned. It's like a leaky shopping cart. And so you can drive all the traffic you want at the top of the funnel, but unless we shore up those losses, which are in some cases tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars, then it's almost like we got to work backwards. Get that conversion point, get that middle of the funnel legion, and then let's start pulling all that traffic down to the top. If you think about digital ads and digital ads strategy through the lens of banking, what's a common misconception that you hear from people, from leaders that could be holding them back, that they might not be aware of, or that you just disagree with?

 

Mark Lachance:

Social media doesn't work is a misconception. TikTok doesn't work is a misconception. But I can show you millions and millions of dollars of traffic we're generating on all of those platforms. Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube Shorts now, and Facebook obviously, so social media absolutely does work. And if you understand the strategy and understand how the platforms work and the messaging of the platform, then that misconception is blown out of the water.

 

James Robert Lay:

That is a misconception, it doesn't work. You're seeing it work, we're seeing it work. It does come back to the strategy and there's got to be clarity into that. Otherwise, we're probably not going to want to even begin to dabble in it because we're scared. There's the fear of the unknown. There's a fear of failure even. You mentioned YouTube Shorts. That's another potential opportunity. How do you cut through the noise to figure out where to focus? Because it's an abundance of opportunity, but sometimes it's like, "Okay, I got to put my dollars here, I got to put my dollars here." Where could you provide the dear listener with some clarity into prioritization?

 

Mark Lachance:

Well, it's like anything, so some traffic sources will work, as you know, and some won't so it's all about testing. So we built out an R&D team, and we test every single strategy, every single vertical. We test on multiple platforms. The ones that work we scale up, and the ones that don't work we just disregard. So I think it's important to have an R&D team that can test everything because there is... You're right, there's a lot of noise out there, but you don't know until you test. Look, you're a marketer, you understand that.

 

James Robert Lay:

And I think the idea of an R&D team, which is why working sometimes with an external who gives you a capability multiplier because to try to run R&D in house as a marketing team, in addition to all of the other responsibilities that you have, unless you're properly staffed, is an exercise that would probably never become reality. So let's talk about R&D. Because once again, I think that's another misconception that we see within this vertical is the idea of failure. "Oh, this didn't work, so we're just going to stop doing this all together." I'm like, "No, that's the perfect time to continue to do it so that you can continue to be even better by applying those learnings to the next iteration." That's so anti-bank think, if you will. How do you help others see... And once again, I know you're running all of this in house as an agency, but for those that aren't willing to optimize, they're probably not a good fit, number one, but for those that maybe they just lack the awareness, because it's completely, like I said, it's anti-bank think.

 

Mark Lachance:

Well, I'll give you an example is when we back in, and this brings Facebook back into the conversation, it's about almost three years ago now, Facebook literally shut us down. We were a Facebook only shop three years ago, and they shut off... We were running three or 4 million a month on Facebook alone, and they shut us down, so that means our revenue went from X amount to zero. So we had to test out, we had to then put our thinking caps on and say, "Okay, now we need an R&D team. Now we need to be diversified, so Diversification's going to come into this conversation at some point, so why not now?" So we had to diversify. And then TikTok, at that point, was launching their ad platform and beta test, so we were one of the first ones on the platform testing. And then we quickly found out... And you know this James that when you're buying media on Facebook, the media buyer and the creator are almost the same person.

 

So we found out quickly on TikTok, the creator is definitely not going to be the media buyer because the creator has a different thought process around media buying on TikTok. And so that kind of gave us an outlook and taught us something brand new, and we also figured out that, "Well we have now..." At that point out of the gate in the first two months, we had about 10 creators, now we have over 200 that are creating ads for us on a regular basis. I don't think a small business or even a medium size business is going to build out this creator network, so we felt that this was a huge capability that we're building and an opportunity for us to gain certain foothold in certain verticals, which banking is one of them.

 

James Robert Lay:

Creation, and we'll just call it content creation, versus promotion or distribution. Take this back, like you said, Facebook probably was one in the same, but now whether it be TikTok or YouTube Shorts, these are different types of creation opportunities for content that for a financial brand or even a FinTech trying to do this internally could be a bit of complexity. Now, talk about the creator network here because I think that opens up a whole new way of thinking about content creation. It doesn't have to be done internally. There are networks like the ones that you're building that you have the creation on one side, the distribution, the promotion on the other. Two independent schools of thoughts, so let's go a little bit deeper here.

 

Mark Lachance:

Sure. Well, on Facebook, if we go back to Facebook, like I said, the media buyer was often... So to be a great media buyer, you have to have the intersection of, let's call it, creativity and almost mathematics. But on TikTok, it takes it a step further that you have to be savvy with the camera, with the video, with editing. So oftentimes, an analytical person cannot do that. I can't do that. I'm more analytical. I was a media buyer, wasn't a very good one, but I was a media buyer, but you're never going to ask me to shoot a creative video, to edit the video, and to keep up with the trends on TikTok, so it's absolutely two different people. So you have one that's analytical and looking at data all day long, and the other one that's following trends and understands a certain platform and understands how to edit a video and make it pretty and have great, beautiful lighting. So it's two totally different mindsets to be successful.

 

James Robert Lay:

Left brain, right brain.

 

Mark Lachance:

Absolutely.

 

James Robert Lay:

And if we think about the traditional banker, they're a left brain, analytical-driven leader, where the right brain, particularly through the media consumption of TikTok, we're talking about seconds if not milliseconds of engagement. Looking for trends in human behavior and emotion and empathy, what's connecting, what's engaging, what's not. If we stay on this subject of left brain and right brain from a creative and an analytical standpoint, and we're looking out towards the future here, what are the opportunities to marry the best of both worlds together to get an exponential value on the other side, particularly through the lens of banking? Because my concern, it's there's so much left brain driven thinking that we're missing or we have huge gaps in empathy on the other side of the spectrum of the right brain.

 

Mark Lachance:

Well, James, I think we were educated almost in the same place, so we understand if you don't have a particular who... You used the term earlier, and we know who taught us that.

 

James Robert Lay:

Yeah.

 

Mark Lachance:

If you don't have a particular who, so if you are left brain and you don't have a right brain, you have to go out and find it. The key is going out to find the who's that you don't have in your organization. So if there's any friction points, what can solve a friction point is a who that understands the other side of it. We were talking before this. We were talking about multiplier versus simplifier. I would assume that bankers are probably mostly simplifiers, I would assume. Am I right about that?

 

James Robert Lay:

I would agree with you on that point. And Dan and I have had some really good conversations. Dan Sullivan with Strategic Coach. We've had a couple of conversations on the podcast about the idea of putting the who before the how, because how is often where the complexity comes from. And I agree with you, bankers simplify the complexities of money, but then to take that back out into the marketplace to drive more acquisition, to create more awareness, to generate more leads, that's a capability gap.

 

Mark Lachance:

Absolutely. So look, they have to go out and find the who either through acquisition or through partnership or through JV. I mean, those are the only ways. And an organization that we... James, I think you're going to be part of it, is the free zone. It's all about collaboration. And actually, there is a gentleman from Minnesota, I forget his name, but he's the CEO of a large bank in Minnesota.

 

James Robert Lay:

David. David.

 

Mark Lachance:

Yes. David.

 

James Robert Lay:

Sunrise I believe is his bank up there.

 

Mark Lachance:

There you go. So he's done an amazing job at partnering with the who's of the topics he doesn't understand. I guess the learning out of this is that if you don't have a capability, you find the person that has that capability, and you give it off to them. That's the way we scale, I scaled my company. Again, like I said earlier, I'm not a very good media buyer, so I had to find media buyers that could do a much better job than I could. I'm not a content creator either, so you have to find the content creators out there. So as long as you're able to step out of your own way, drop your ego, and find other people that are better at a certain topic than you are, then you'll be successful.

 

James Robert Lay:

I think what you just said right there, that was gold. Let's roll that back. Drop your own ego. Ryan Holiday has written about this prolifically in his book, Ego is the Enemy, and I see the ego in banking is a roadblock. A lot of bankers, they don't want to raise their hand and say "I don't know," or "I need help," and that prevents a lot of future growth. And I think as we look out towards the next few years, it's going to be a bumpy ride again. I've been saying that since 2020, buckle up buttercup, it's going to be a bumpy ride. I'm not that smart. I just went back and looked at history and said, "Okay, well here are the trends, here are the patterns, this is what I predict," and I'm so glad we got it on podcast because it's documented now that we can keep coming back to a couple points of reference and time.

 

When it comes to digital ads, I will share a concern that I have for a vast majority of this industry, is they're going to cut marketing budgets. It's always the very first thing that gets cut.

 

Mark Lachance:

I'm concerned about that also. But on the flip side, you always have aggressive, opportunistic thinkers that will take the other side of that bet. So they'll double down on their media and... Go ahead.

 

James Robert Lay:

That's what I'm saying. There's two sides of the coin. 80% are going to cut, 20% will double down. But for the 80% that are cutting, what's the danger there that you see? Because you've lived through this through a couple of different iterations over time.

 

Mark Lachance:

I think it's pretty obvious, you're going to lose market share. If you're cutting your marketing, you're cutting your voice, you're cutting your lead generation, you're cutting your new business, you're cutting your revenue, you're probably going to have to end up cutting staff as well. So you're cutting the positive aura around your business. If you're not growing, you're dying. Again, we were schooled at the same place. We know that growth equals happiness equals success, and shrinkage equals debt. That's what I see. I mean it's going to happen.

 

James Robert Lay:

You're cutting off your future to spite... for short term pain of the present moment.

 

Mark Lachance:

That's right. That's right.

 

James Robert Lay:

And I think that's a really philosophical point that I'm trying to facilitate a lot of conversation and thinking around for organizations in the Digital Growth University. And they're understanding that, but it's this kind of a divide. And I think that's good. I think we will see those that survive and kind of hang on, we'll see those that eventually fade away, and we'll see those that continue to thrive. I think a lot of it's going to come down to mindset here and the way that we just perceive the world around us. And that's where I want to take you back to 2007 because you've written a really good book on the subject around luck. And you've been here. You've experienced this back in 2007 when things got tough, when things got challenging. Can you roll us back to 2007 and what was going on and how this has shaped your own personal journey of growth?

 

Mark Lachance:

Yeah, sure. I mean, when you fail miserably ,or a mega failure as I call it, you often learn, and that's your best learning. So when people say, "Hey, would you take it back? What happened to you in 2007, 2008?" And I stop and I pause and I say, "No, I wouldn't because I wouldn't be where I I am today if I hadn't had that colossal failure." So basically, just to give it in a nutshell, I know the story, but back in 2007 I made a huge investment in a real estate project north of... when I was living in Montreal, Canada. Two hours north was a famous recording studio called Le Studio. And if you look it up, there's some really famous acts that recorded their albums there. If anybody knows Rush, they did most of their albums there. I'm sure everybody knows David Bowie, Sting, Celine Dion, Rolling Stones, Keith Richards, on and on. The Bee Gees. So they all recorded albums there. And so I was kind of a sold. As a sales guy myself, it's easy to... The easiest people to sell are salespeople.

 

James Robert Lay:

Salespeople. Yeah. So true.

 

Mark Lachance:

So I was sold into a mega huge opportunity to multiply my winnings by X percent, by how many X's at the end of that. But anyway, so long story short, rolled all my money, literally put everything on red into a real estate project, upside down in 2008 when the market crumbled. Where was I? I was in London at a conference, at a trade show where a month before that trade show was packed with people buying properties in Canada. And when I was there, I had a paper airplane and me and the Sotheby's guy were just throwing the paper airplane back and forth, with no risk of hitting anybody because nobody was there.

 

James Robert Lay:

Wow.

 

Mark Lachance:

So all my eggs in one basket, one basket explodes. And anyway, so the rest is history. But what the failure taught me was many things, but that led me down the path of personal development, led me down the path of, I'll say, spirituality and meditation and working on myself, led me down the path to ultimately meeting you by the way, because had I not gone down that path, I probably wouldn't be in Strategic Coach and probably wouldn't be working on myself like I do right now, and definitely wouldn't be as successful as I am right now. So failure makes you stronger is the point.

 

James Robert Lay:

I bring this up because of what I'm looking at at the next maybe two to three to five years could feel like, and I use that word feelings because I think that's a key essence. I'm right there with you. I hit my rock bottom back in 2012, and it's been a decade, and I'm grateful for it, and have had a couple of other rough patches along the way, and don't regret them for one bit. And I think a lot of it is the way that we just perceive things. And one of the points, and this comes from your book, The Lucky Formula, which I highly recommend the dear listener grab a copy of, what's your take on luck? One of the things that you wrote about in the book, and I'm going to quote this here, "Luck is a force, and you can harness its power if you learn the formula and leverage the formula." What do you mean by this?

 

Mark Lachance:

Well, first of all, I want to clarify one thing. Why am I qualified to write about luck? Well, my last name Lachance or Lachance actually means luck, so I was born lucky, so that number one qualifies me. But number two is, I'll call it almost a self-fulfilling prophecy. So my nickname growing up was Lucky.

 

James Robert Lay:

Wow.

 

Mark Lachance:

So, "Hey Lucky, hey Lucky, hey Lucky," so maybe it became a self-fulfilling prophecy. But above and beyond that, it started when I was a kid. My father, the first book he ever gave me was Think and Grow Rich. The next book he gave me was a Dale Carnegie book, and then Awaken the Giant Within, so it's all about what you feed your mind, as you know. If you feed your mind success, there's a great chance you'll have success. If you feed your mind failure, you'll have failure. I mean, do you wake up in the morning as a victim or as a victor? How do you wake up? Do you wake up on fire or are you just Woe is me. Getting back to luck. Luck, I believe, is not a fluke, it's a formula. I believe that you know can stack the odds in your favor and cash in on success. And how do you do that? So for example, James, when... I was at the Genius Network last week, and I believe that every event I go to something serendipitous will happen.

 

I don't know what it's going to be, but I believe that I'm going to have an amazing meet this person, that person, something amazing will happen. Well, that happened. we're launching a different division. I was looking for a certain product. And boom, low and behold, it fell out of the sky. It happened. I became tighter with a lot of our buddies from Ten-X and Freezone, and business opportunities keep on coming out of all that. So the more you work on yourself, the more you put yourself in position with the right mindset, the luckier you're going to get. So it's not a fluke, it's not some woo woo thing.

 

James Robert Lay:

No.

 

Mark Lachance:

It's if you stack things in your favor, things will happen is what it is.

 

James Robert Lay:

And I want the dear listener to take note of this because we did not rehearse this. I always do these conversations, kind of got an idea of where things will transpire, but I want to roll this back, Mark. You identified as more of analytical mind. And now, you're talking about this idea that this is not woo woo, this idea of luck and mindset. I have watched this transpire for organizations, marketing teams, sales teams, leadership teams, leaders who are more analytical, and they're like, "Ah, this is just a bunch of hocus pocus," and I'm like, "No, it's not." And I bring this up because an article was published over the past couple of weeks... It was an opinion piece by a FinTech CEO, the title of the article, Why Traditional Bankers Make Terrible FinTech CEOs, and the very first point that was made is bankers are pessimist. And I was like, "Okay, this is really interesting," and it has me thinking about this, particularly as I look ahead to the next two, three, five years in this vertical, the role mindset is going to play for CEOs and senior leadership teams.

 

And I'm willing to bet, those that make the investment to work on themselves, to work on their teams, all transformation begins within the team and then the organization, I think is why "digital transformation" has been such a challenging undertaking because it's all been externally focused trying to move from the org level to the team, to the team to the individual,, then you're just like, "What's going on? I'm confused. I'm lost." You've experienced this. For someone who's like, "Okay, this is just like woo woo," because those were your words and I'm like hocus pocus, how can we help the logical analytical mind maybe navigate some of this because it's just a little bit of a different way of thinking about the world?

 

Mark Lachance:

Okay, look, luck is not... Let me define it in another way. Maybe energy or maybe success is another way. So I'll give you an example. So when I first moved to Montreal in 2001, myself and the CEO of the company would go to lunch every single day. We'd go to lunch, we'd have this big meal, and then we'd never failed to have a mega dessert at the end of the lunch. Never fail. So guess what happened for those next two hours where I was sitting at my desk? My energy levels crashed.

 

James Robert Lay:

Couldn't keep your eyes open,

 

Mark Lachance:

Couldn't keep my eyes open. So think about this, think about this. If my energy levels, and then I'll give you another example after, if my energy levels are on are a two on 10 and not a 10 on 10, how lucky or how successful or how energetic am I going to be? And the answer is not, right?

 

James Robert Lay:

Correct.

 

Mark Lachance:

Because I'll probably miss that conversation. You're probably going to sleep walk through the next meeting or whatever it may be. Now, fast forward to today. My energy level's 10 on 10 all day long, all day long from when I wake up in the morning to when I go to bed at night, regardless of what happens to me, regardless of what hits come at me. So I'm going to tell you that I believe that my ability to catch luck or success or energy or positivity is exponentially greater than what it used to be. So that's one thing. Now, here's another piece. Let's say that James, I tell you how your deep voice is unbelievable and you're a great radio talk show host and how cool you are and it was a pleasure meeting you, and when we met Chicago and before that, a couple months earlier in Chicago, again, and I keep on throwing positivity and great words at you. There's a chance you're going to like me. There's a chance.

 

And if you like me, there's a chance you're going to refer business to me and you're going to refer this or that, so that's another piece of the formula that I want to talk about. So if you're positive and you're throwing out great... If you're throwing flowers to people and you do it authentically, then guess what? Great things are going to come back at you. It's just going to happen. So I think that answered your question, but anyway.

 

James Robert Lay:

No, it did. Now, let's tie this and take this all the way back to the digital ad space because I think if the mindset of an individual, a team, and an organization at a financial brand is on a higher level, more of a positive level, then the content and the media that comes out of that organization has the propensity to be at a higher, more positive level. And this is where it's no longer woo woo because Frost Bank, a bank out of San Antonio, Texas, did a study around optimism in banking and found that optimists are more likely to be financially "successful" than pessimist. And therefore, if we can transform the organization internally to have a more positive perspective of the world, even in the times of chaos, then therefore, the messages in our communication will be more positive. I'm predicting that perhaps possibly our account holders will then also be a little bit more successful compared to the general market.

 

Mark Lachance:

Well, I have to agree with this. I mean, anytime you're dealing with an organization and the messaging out of that organization is upbeat and happy, it's going to attract me to it. If it's not upbeat, if it's like woe is me and the end of the world is coming and do you think I want anything to do with that? I mean, I can give you an example. So I had a business partner back in... What was it? Back in 2015. I started a nutrition and fitness company, and it was with my personal trainer actually. And I couldn't wrap my head around it. I didn't understand energy at that time, but I couldn't wrap my head around it why This guy's a genius. He's an absolute genius, but he is where he is financially, which was nowhere. And I come to find out it's just because the energy and the aura around that person, so aura around a person and aura around a business is the same thing.

 

So if you've got positive aura, positive energy, upbeat attitude in your organization, it's going to permeate through the whole organization. I mean, I can use that example in my company, I can use that example in many other companies, and I actually would love to read that study, and I wholeheartedly agree with that study by the way.

 

James Robert Lay:

I'll get that. I'll send you a copy because it's a very fascinating perspective that had... I think it came out back in 2020. So they were doing the research ahead of the pandemic, and it provides a tremendous opportunity for growth in a little bit of a different perspective historically, when it comes to just the way that we communicate. Communication is a two way street. It's the internal communication, it's the external communication. I know there's a $6 billion family community bank that's [inaudible 00:36:22] Digital Growth University that has finally solidified their purpose. They've been in banking four generations family CEO, 126 years, and they're going down. Their whole reason for being is to enrich lives through financial guidance for an even better tomorrow.

 

Mark Lachance:

Amazing. Amazing.

 

James Robert Lay:

And that's their north star now. And it's going to move them. And I think they're going to unlock completely new opportunities that weren't there before.

 

Mark Lachance:

Agreed.

 

James Robert Lay:

We've covered a lot of interesting ground, areas that we have never even broached, subjects that we've never broached before on the podcast, so thank you sincerely for allowing me just to take you, and then more importantly, to take the dear listener into some of these uncharted waters together because I think the more that we can explore these waters, the more that we can find new opportunities for growth, personal growth, professional growth, organizational growth, growth within our own account holders. If we were to wrap this up and send the dear listener away with a very simple, practical, next best step to maximize their growth through digital ads, coming back to how we started this conversation, where can they get started? One small, simple step to guide them forward next with courage and confidence.

 

Mark Lachance:

I mean, an easy place to start to learn, if you're talking about starting from ground zero, I'm not sure if that's the question, but if that's the question, an easy place to start is YouTube, as crazy as that sounds. There's so much education possible on that platform, starting from media buying, to content creation to get your feet wet there. And if you want to scale it up, I would then head to any digital marketing conference. If you're a senior veteran, I would go to conf... There's the one in San Diego, I think you've been there, James, I can't remember the name of it, but there's many digital marketing conferences that are phenomenal where you can get great contacts, great ideas. So first, you start on YouTube learning the ropes, and then if you want to scale up your learning, you get to the conferences. I write about that in my book. The way you advance yourself is getting involved and speaking to people on a regular basis, and that's how you get lucky.

 

James Robert Lay:

That's how you get lucky. I'm going to cap this off here. Luck comes from continuous learning-

 

Mark Lachance:

There you go.

 

James Robert Lay:

... because you're continuously learning about yourself and the world around you and how all of these different data points connect. And from that, therein lies the greatest opportunities to overcome some of the roadblocks that are standing in our way right now in the present reality. Mark, great conversation. Thanks for joining me. What is the best way for someone to reach out, connect with you, get your book even?

 

Mark Lachance:

Get my book on Amazon. Mark Lachance, The Lucky Formula on Amazon. There you go. And I'm going to give your listeners, your dear listeners, a gift. If they want to get their lucky score, you can go to TheLuckyFormula.com/quiz. Again, TheLuckyFormula.com/quiz. James, I expect to see your lucky score in my email box later.

 

James Robert Lay:

I'm going to get my lucky score. I highly recommend the dear listener, you go get your lucky score. What is that URL one more time?

 

Mark Lachance:

It's TheLuckyFormula.com/quiz.

 

James Robert Lay:

There it is. There it is. Connect with Mark, get your lucky score, grab the book, and we'll all continue to grow together. Mark, thanks again for joining me for another episode of Banking on Digital Growth.

 

Mark Lachance:

Awesome. Thank you very much.

 

James Robert Lay:

As always and until next time, be well, do good, and make your bed.

 

Brief Summary of Episode #248

Digital marketers have been searching for the golden goose of lead generations on social media for years.

Fluid demographics, revolving trends, compliance - is advertising on social media worth the hassle?

Mark Lachance’s answer to that question, especially concerning TikTok: Absolutely.

“Advertisers need to go where the eyeballs are,” he said. “Do not discount TikTok as a channel for your ads.”

The CEO of Maxy Media and author of The Lucky Formula says his team ballooned from ten to 200 content creators because of successful lead generation on social media.

“I can show you millions of dollars in traffic we’re generating on all of those platforms: Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube Shorts, and Facebook,” Mark said. “Social media absolutely does work.”

So, what are marketers in the financial space doing wrong?

Mark argues that the key is understanding your entire funnel.

“If an institution wants to jump on any digital platform [for lead generations], they need to understand the full funnel - not just the top of the funnel,” he said.

By keeping their entire customer funnel top-of-mind, marketers can lead their financial brands or fintechs through digital growth.

 

Key Insights and Takeaways

  • Digital marketing trends on today’s social media platforms (3:50)
  • The ambiguity of content creation versus promotion (15:30)
  • How “luck” is a force you can stack in your favor (23:29)

Notable Quotables to Share

How to Connect With Mark Lachance

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