EP 44 | Mark Panciera on Hacking the Mind of Success

05.07.21 | 0 Market Scale

Undertaker-turned-leadership strategist for Fortune 1000 companies, Mark Panciera is the CEO of The Pacific Institute, a global consultancy organization that delivers bespoke solutions that drive performance. Mark is an accomplished business owner, community leader, and entrepreneur. He draws wisdom from over 20 years of experience in The Pacific Institute to educate leaders on the power of their mindset to ignite their thinking, align their teams, and embrace change. A distinguished speaker and executive, Mark’s professional insights are often sought by different media organizations, such as the ABC, The Wall Street Journal, and CNBC.

Mark joins me today to discuss why negative self-beliefs are like blindspots that prevent us from seizing life’s opportunities. He reveals the three dimensions of our thoughts and explains how we can work with them to create more effective self-affirmations. He shares his experience with impostor syndrome and describes how he overcame it. He also discusses the best way to maintain a habit, shares a few daily practices to build self-confidence, and highlights how the most impactful, meaningful changes we can make in the world begins with changing ourselves.

“When you hack your mind in a habitualized manner, you add new software to your hardware, creating this neuroplasticity that ensures your affirmations come true.” – Mark Panciera

This week on The Model FA Podcast:

  • Mark’s journey from being a director of funeral services to CEO of The Pacific Institute
  • How to change the beliefs we have about ourselves
  • Mark’s struggles with the impostor syndrome
  • The role of affirmation in reframing negative self-talk and creating positive thoughts
  • The three dimensions of thinking and how to cultivate affirmations as a habit
  • My journaling, affirmation, and gratitude habit and how I create triggers to help me be more consistent
  • How maintaining an affirmation habit improved different areas of my life
  • The Reticular Activating System and how it helps us discern value
  • The relationship between the Reticular Activating System and positive self-affirmations
  • Why affirmations are a practice and a few ways to exercise it
  • How to maintain your energy levels when reaching for your goals
  • The horizon beyond the horizon and the importance of being cognizant of the goals you’re setting
  • The power of making your bed every day
  • How to remove bad habits
  • Daily practices that build self-confidence
  • Creating efficacy in our lives and why we need to prioritize taking care of ourselves

Resources Mentioned:

Our Favorite Quotes:

  • “Changing your beliefs begins with an awareness of something that you might be missing.” – Mark Panciera
  • “All meaningful, lasting change starts within ourselves. We need to start believing in ourselves despite all odds.” – Mark Panciera

Connect with Mark Panciera:

About the Model FA Podcast

The Model FA podcast is a show for fiduciary financial advisors. In each episode, our host David DeCelle sits down with industry experts, strategic thinkers, and advisors to explore what it takes  to build a successful practice — and have an abundant life in the process. We believe in continuous learning, tactical advice, and strategies that work — no “gotchas” or BS. Join us to hear stories from successful financial advisors, get actionable ideas from experts, and re-discover your drive to build the practice of your dreams. 

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Our Team:

President of Model FA, David DeCelle

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FULL TRANSCRIPT

Mark Panciera  0:05 

Beliefs are the real driver. So if you believe that you're a poser, if you believe that you shouldn't be on stage, if you believe that you shouldn't be making the money that you're making, well, you're going to self-regulate back to the negative belief level. And that all goes to that self-talk that's driven from experiences when we were kids. And so going back to what we teach, we understand as leaders, we always want performance outcomes, and we say, okay, we need to change our behaviors in order to perform differently.

 

David DeCelle  0:48 

Welcome, Model FAs. I am super excited for this podcast episode today and also excited to share with you how this all happened. I have a number of friends over at a financial planning company called Commonwealth Financial Group. Sam Philbrook, over there, Rick St. Jean, Eric, and Vinny. They had invited me to a session that they were holding with the Pacific Institute. And a gentleman by the name of Bob Gregoire was the host over that — I think it was a two-day session. And I was so intrigued with everything. It built on some of the personal development stuff that I've been working on over the last couple of years. But they did just an amazing job in their organization, as well as the delivery of the information that I wanted to learn more. So Bob was kind enough to introduce me to Mark, who's with us today. And lo and behold, couple years later, here we are on the podcast together. So excited to have you here. And just to introduce you, Mark, briefly, so I'm going to introduce you through your actual bio, and then I'm just going to introduce you myself as well. So Mark Panciera is an accomplished business owner, community leader, executive, and entrepreneur, applying his personal formula for personal achievement. Mark has distinguished himself as an advisor to a diversified group of clients in a variety of industries. He is now the CEO of the Pacific Institute and really focusing on driving growth and performance for both the Pacific Institute as well as some of the firms that he serves as well. He's worked with multiple Fortune 1000 companies, government agencies, healthcare systems, educational institutions, athletic teams, and nonprofit organizations. As a well-recognized speaker and author, Mark is frequently asked to share his professional insights and experience. He's appeared on a lot of major news outlets ranging from ABC’s Wall Street Journal reports to CNBC to the Canadian Broadcast Company. He's also been quoted a number of times in Forbes, The New York Times, the Miami Herald, Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, and featured articles appearing in USA Today. Mark is also very, very much involved in his community serving as the board or chairman of multiple organizations in his area. He earned his BA in Business Administration from the University of South Florida, and an MBA from Florida Atlantic University. He's happily married to Tiffany, and his three children are Diana, Donna, and Mark number two. So with that being said, Mark is awesome, so my own personal introduction. So Mark received me with open arms, so to speak; he was very much open to meeting with me. We actually got together at his office down in Florida, where I live now. He had mentioned before we started recording, where do I get my energy? And I think I can ask that same question back to him because he's super open minded, super collaborative, super welcoming. And Mark, I wanted to welcome you to the show, and I'm grateful for the time we're gonna spend together today.

 

Mark Panciera  4:08 

Oh my gosh David, you are so darn kind as always listen to my bio. I said, oh my gosh, as I'm approaching my 60th year, which I'm a bit nervous about, I think to myself is that me? Oh my gosh, who is he chatting away about. A lot of things, a lot of water under the bridge, but yeah, you just, you energize me. I've so appreciated the way you've embraced me after meeting you through Bob Gregoire and the great people at CFG; Eric Spindt as well. And you know, beyond your celery juice, you just got a good vibe, my brother, and so you give me energy. And I appreciate that, and certainly I appreciate and I'm humbled by this introduction and also, most importantly, the invitation to be with you today.

 

David DeCelle  4:50 

Love it. Thanks so much. And one thing that will be included in the show notes, for those of you who would like to take a look, Mark also had done a TED Talk. And I've watched that Ted Talk — it’s awesome. And other people think it's awesome, too. It's got like 200,000 views; 10,000 plus likes. So feel free to probably just Google “TED Talk Mark Panciera”; there'll be a link in the show notes as well for you to check that out. So feel free to go and take a look at that, once you're done listening to this show, of course. So Mark, I guess to start off, you shared, or I shared I should say, a little bit about your background through your bio. I'm more interested in your journey from where you started to where you're at now. So you're the CEO of the Pacific Institute, which has a global reach. Which is pretty badass. But I'm sure you weren't born as a CEO, so to speak; maybe in your DNA, but not in reality. So where'd you get started, and bring us through the journey from then up until now?

 

Mark Panciera  5:52 

Certainly, thank you for asking. Well, interestingly enough, I am an undertaker, born and bred in funeral service. And actually, you just mentioned my TED Talk. That was the provocative headline, and also the platform that I played upon, which actually began my journey toward the Pacific Institute. I'll go there more in just a second. But yeah, born and raised in the funeral business; third generation funeral director, we own funeral homes here in South Florida. My son, Mark Anthony, is fourth generation, my wife is now running that business; but netting it out, I'm a caregiver at heart. I just have a big old heart set. We talked a lot about mindset, but heart set for others. And I want to go back to me thanking you for how you embraced me. Because not only did you bring me energy, but you brought me opportunity — opportunity to look much beyond my own comfort zones and the way we've done business over the last dozen odd years. That's how long I've been with the Institute. But embarking upon new relationships, new market segments, for example, in insurance sales, financial services; and just the whole notion of how to be able to connect others to the power of mindset, habits, attitudes, beliefs, and expectations to drive greater personal and professional performance, no matter what walk of life they are traveling. So going back to my journey. Yeah, started in funeral service. I learned about the Pacific Institute, which I can go a bit deeper on about if you like, but then never looked back. On now a caregiver much beyond death care, but to leaders around the globe. And in my TED talk, I tell a little bit more about that. Back to you, David.

 

David DeCelle  7:35 

So one thing that I really like about what you guys do over there. I've spent a lot of time over the last three or four years really focused on personal development, mindset, having belief in myself, dealing with imposter syndrome — just based on my age, when I started consulting for folks or managing assets and implementing risk management strategies when I was an advisor — and the question that I have for you to kick things off is… I guess, to give some more background first, there's a lot of people that we work with, that we don't work with, and myself, where at different points in my life and at various points throughout their lives, they've lacked a certain belief in themselves — that either something was possible or that they were capable themselves of accomplishing whatever goal it was that that was important to them. How does someone increase the belief that they have in themselves in order to work toward the goal that they have?

 

Mark Panciera  8:38 

Well, let me open by saying, guilty as charged, because there's been a lot discussed and written about imposter syndrome. I think that there's a bit of that consideration in all of us and at times our self-talk just takes control, and we tell ourselves that we're not worthy. I say guilty as charged because going back to my funeral service career, that's basically what I believe I faced as a third-generation funeral director, born into this family business really crushing it, having all the blame, kids going to private schools, driving the right cars, wearing the right watches all those kinds of things. You know, great life, but realizing that or thinking as if I'm the one who hit the triple. Meaning, man, I’m the one who crushed it. I scored, look at what I got, look — but then hitting that glass ceiling and having that little imposter self-talk go off saying, well, man, you're third generation. Did you really do all this? Yeah, you grew it, but without those that came before you — your father, your grandfather — maybe you'd be a greeter at Walmart or serving your drug of choice, Starbucks, if you will. Which isn’t a bad thing; matter of fact, it probably is very, very fulfilling, but I just knew I had more gas in my tank. I had more to offer, and so when I was introduced to the Pacific Institute and went through, because note, I brought in a performance psychologist to our grief recovery group called Wings of Hope. And I needed to give them a booster shot to help them go through their loss journey, their recovery journey more specifically. And this performance psychologist puts the group through an exercise to uncover blind spots, we call them Scotomas. In Greek, the word scotoma means blindness or blind spots, something that's cognitively blocked out of your mind. It might be right in front of you but you're missing it. For example, you're talking to a friend, oh, wait a second, let me go back in the restaurant because I just paid the bill and I put my phone down. I think I left my cell in the restaurant. And your pal says on the phone, hey Panc, right? You're on your cell, you called me from your mobile, and it's right in your hand. That's a scotoma. You tell yourself that you've lost something and you haven't, but it's hidden in plain sight. So no, I went through that exercise with this grief recovery group, and I realized that oh, my gosh, I had big blind spots. I had big blind spots to other opportunity. But the belief, going back to your question, David, the belief was that this was my lot in life. Third generation, proud of the family, I'm going to keep doing this. And oh, my gosh, have I made it? But I always had that little imposter in my mind, or at least the chatterbox, who was saying, Pancie, are you the real deal? Or are you just paper lion? Are you a bit of a head fake kind of thing; vaporware. And so to conclude my answer, and I want to get deeper into how to change beliefs, but it all begins with, there's more to it, but it begins with an awareness. An awareness of something that you might be missing, that's right in front of you, that you need to then set a plan to go and achieve to secure. But it begins with awareness first. And so that's how I started my journey with the Pacific Institute, and have risen through the ranks to become a CEO.

Mark Panciera  0:05 

Beliefs are the real driver. So if you believe that you're a poser, if you believe that you shouldn't be on stage, if you believe that you shouldn't be making the money that you're making, well, you're going to self-regulate back to the negative belief level. And that all goes to that self-talk that's driven from experiences when we were kids. And so going back to what we teach, we understand as leaders, we always want performance outcomes, and we say, okay, we need to change our behaviors in order to perform differently.

 

David DeCelle  0:48 

Welcome, Model FAs. I am super excited for this podcast episode today and also excited to share with you how this all happened. I have a number of friends over at a financial planning company called Commonwealth Financial Group. Sam Philbrook, over there, Rick St. Jean, Eric, and Vinny. They had invited me to a session that they were holding with the Pacific Institute. And a gentleman by the name of Bob Gregoire was the host over that — I think it was a two-day session. And I was so intrigued with everything. It built on some of the personal development stuff that I've been working on over the last couple of years. But they did just an amazing job in their organization, as well as the delivery of the information that I wanted to learn more. So Bob was kind enough to introduce me to Mark, who's with us today. And lo and behold, couple years later, here we are on the podcast together. So excited to have you here. And just to introduce you, Mark, briefly, so I'm going to introduce you through your actual bio, and then I'm just going to introduce you myself as well. So Mark Panciera is an accomplished business owner, community leader, executive, and entrepreneur, applying his personal formula for personal achievement. Mark has distinguished himself as an advisor to a diversified group of clients in a variety of industries. He is now the CEO of the Pacific Institute and really focusing on driving growth and performance for both the Pacific Institute as well as some of the firms that he serves as well. He's worked with multiple Fortune 1000 companies, government agencies, healthcare systems, educational institutions, athletic teams, and nonprofit organizations. As a well-recognized speaker and author, Mark is frequently asked to share his professional insights and experience. He's appeared on a lot of major news outlets ranging from ABC’s Wall Street Journal reports to CNBC to the Canadian Broadcast Company. He's also been quoted a number of times in Forbes, The New York Times, the Miami Herald, Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, and featured articles appearing in USA Today. Mark is also very, very much involved in his community serving as the board or chairman of multiple organizations in his area. He earned his BA in Business Administration from the University of South Florida, and an MBA from Florida Atlantic University. He's happily married to Tiffany, and his three children are Diana, Donna, and Mark number two. So with that being said, Mark is awesome, so my own personal introduction. So Mark received me with open arms, so to speak; he was very much open to meeting with me. We actually got together at his office down in Florida, where I live now. He had mentioned before we started recording, where do I get my energy? And I think I can ask that same question back to him because he's super open minded, super collaborative, super welcoming. And Mark, I wanted to welcome you to the show, and I'm grateful for the time we're gonna spend together today.

 

Mark Panciera  4:08 

Oh my gosh David, you are so darn kind as always listen to my bio. I said, oh my gosh, as I'm approaching my 60th year, which I'm a bit nervous about, I think to myself is that me? Oh my gosh, who is he chatting away about. A lot of things, a lot of water under the bridge, but yeah, you just, you energize me. I've so appreciated the way you've embraced me after meeting you through Bob Gregoire and the great people at CFG; Eric Spindt as well. And you know, beyond your celery juice, you just got a good vibe, my brother, and so you give me energy. And I appreciate that, and certainly I appreciate and I'm humbled by this introduction and also, most importantly, the invitation to be with you today.

 

David DeCelle  4:50 

Love it. Thanks so much. And one thing that will be included in the show notes, for those of you who would like to take a look, Mark also had done a TED Talk. And I've watched that Ted Talk — it’s awesome. And other people think it's awesome, too. It's got like 200,000 views; 10,000 plus likes. So feel free to probably just Google “TED Talk Mark Panciera”; there'll be a link in the show notes as well for you to check that out. So feel free to go and take a look at that, once you're done listening to this show, of course. So Mark, I guess to start off, you shared, or I shared I should say, a little bit about your background through your bio. I'm more interested in your journey from where you started to where you're at now. So you're the CEO of the Pacific Institute, which has a global reach. Which is pretty badass. But I'm sure you weren't born as a CEO, so to speak; maybe in your DNA, but not in reality. So where'd you get started, and bring us through the journey from then up until now?

 

Mark Panciera  5:52 

Certainly, thank you for asking. Well, interestingly enough, I am an undertaker, born and bred in funeral service. And actually, you just mentioned my TED Talk. That was the provocative headline, and also the platform that I played upon, which actually began my journey toward the Pacific Institute. I'll go there more in just a second. But yeah, born and raised in the funeral business; third generation funeral director, we own funeral homes here in South Florida. My son, Mark Anthony, is fourth generation, my wife is now running that business; but netting it out, I'm a caregiver at heart. I just have a big old heart set. We talked a lot about mindset, but heart set for others. And I want to go back to me thanking you for how you embraced me. Because not only did you bring me energy, but you brought me opportunity — opportunity to look much beyond my own comfort zones and the way we've done business over the last dozen odd years. That's how long I've been with the Institute. But embarking upon new relationships, new market segments, for example, in insurance sales, financial services; and just the whole notion of how to be able to connect others to the power of mindset, habits, attitudes, beliefs, and expectations to drive greater personal and professional performance, no matter what walk of life they are traveling. So going back to my journey. Yeah, started in funeral service. I learned about the Pacific Institute, which I can go a bit deeper on about if you like, but then never looked back. On now a caregiver much beyond death care, but to leaders around the globe. And in my TED talk, I tell a little bit more about that. Back to you, David.

 

David DeCelle  7:35 

So one thing that I really like about what you guys do over there. I've spent a lot of time over the last three or four years really focused on personal development, mindset, having belief in myself, dealing with imposter syndrome — just based on my age, when I started consulting for folks or managing assets and implementing risk management strategies when I was an advisor — and the question that I have for you to kick things off is… I guess, to give some more background first, there's a lot of people that we work with, that we don't work with, and myself, where at different points in my life and at various points throughout their lives, they've lacked a certain belief in themselves — that either something was possible or that they were capable themselves of accomplishing whatever goal it was that that was important to them. How does someone increase the belief that they have in themselves in order to work toward the goal that they have?

 

Mark Panciera  8:38 

Well, let me open by saying, guilty as charged, because there's been a lot discussed and written about imposter syndrome. I think that there's a bit of that consideration in all of us and at times our self-talk just takes control, and we tell ourselves that we're not worthy. I say guilty as charged because going back to my funeral service career, that's basically what I believe I faced as a third-generation funeral director, born into this family business really crushing it, having all the blame, kids going to private schools, driving the right cars, wearing the right watches all those kinds of things. You know, great life, but realizing that or thinking as if I'm the one who hit the triple. Meaning, man, I’m the one who crushed it. I scored, look at what I got, look — but then hitting that glass ceiling and having that little imposter self-talk go off saying, well, man, you're third generation. Did you really do all this? Yeah, you grew it, but without those that came before you — your father, your grandfather — maybe you'd be a greeter at Walmart or serving your drug of choice, Starbucks, if you will. Which isn’t a bad thing; matter of fact, it probably is very, very fulfilling, but I just knew I had more gas in my tank. I had more to offer, and so when I was introduced to the Pacific Institute and went through, because note, I brought in a performance psychologist to our grief recovery group called Wings of Hope. And I needed to give them a booster shot to help them go through their loss journey, their recovery journey more specifically. And this performance psychologist puts the group through an exercise to uncover blind spots, we call them Scotomas. In Greek, the word scotoma means blindness or blind spots, something that's cognitively blocked out of your mind. It might be right in front of you but you're missing it. For example, you're talking to a friend, oh, wait a second, let me go back in the restaurant because I just paid the bill and I put my phone down. I think I left my cell in the restaurant. And your pal says on the phone, hey Panc, right? You're on your cell, you called me from your mobile, and it's right in your hand. That's a scotoma. You tell yourself that you've lost something and you haven't, but it's hidden in plain sight. So no, I went through that exercise with this grief recovery group, and I realized that oh, my gosh, I had big blind spots. I had big blind spots to other opportunity. But the belief, going back to your question, David, the belief was that this was my lot in life. Third generation, proud of the family, I'm going to keep doing this. And oh, my gosh, have I made it? But I always had that little imposter in my mind, or at least the chatterbox, who was saying, Pancie, are you the real deal? Or are you just paper lion? Are you a bit of a head fake kind of thing; vaporware. And so to conclude my answer, and I want to get deeper into how to change beliefs, but it all begins with, there's more to it, but it begins with an awareness. An awareness of something that you might be missing, that's right in front of you, that you need to then set a plan to go and achieve to secure. But it begins with awareness first. And so that's how I started my journey with the Pacific Institute, and have risen through the ranks to become a CEO.