Armando Leduc is an award-winning writer, director, and producer. He is the CEO of Leduc Entertainment, a creative video production company that helps businesses scale using visual content marketing. With over 20 years of experience in the entertainment field, Armando and his team specialize in business videos, wedding videos, promotional videos, and more.
A few of Armando’s most acclaimed productions include Bourbon Whiz, Mr. Right Now, and the screenplay for Chronicles of Count Carlos. In addition to his video advertising work, he also creates music videos for acclaimed local artists such as Panda City, As It Is, Dat Band, DPlay, and MC Hollawood.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- Luis Scott and Armando Leduc talk about how they first met over 20 years ago
- Armando’s thoughts on consistency — and his advice for finding your passion
- Where does Armando’s perseverance come from?
- How to slow down and identify your “why”
- The value of mentorship: seeing things from a different perspective
- The three rules of improv and how they can help you find success in any career
- How Luis’ reading challenge fueled his growth and doubled his income
- Business trends of 2021 and how companies of all sizes are evolving
In this episode…
Does your passion align with your career? Or, are you still searching for the drive that will change your life for the better? If so, Armando Leduc is here to explain how you can find your passion and start fueling your professional growth today.
Although Armando knew from a young age that he wanted to be in the entertainment industry, he still worked over 70 jobs to get there. Now, he’s sharing his strategies for getting the job you actually want — one that intertwines passion with profession. According to Armando, the key to fulfilling your professional goals is trying out different things, seeing what sticks, and finding the purpose that drives you.
In this episode of The Guts and Glory Show, Luis Scott sits down with Armando Leduc, the CEO of Leduc Entertainment, to talk about nurturing your passion. Armando discusses the value of mentorship, how reading can fuel your growth, and his tips for identifying your “why.” Plus, he shares how you can keep up with the business trends of 2021. Stay tuned!
Resources Mentioned in this episode
- Armando Leduc on LinkedIn
- Leduc Entertainment
- Eric Thomas
- The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondō
- The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron
- They Ask, You Answer: A Revolutionary Approach to Inbound Sales, Content Marketing, and Today’s Digital Consumer by Marcus Sheridan
- Luis Scott on LinkedIn
- 8 Figure Firm
- Bader Scott Injury Lawyers
Sponsor for this episode…
This episode is brought to you by 8 Figure Firm.
Co-founded by Luis Scott and Seth Bader of Bader Scott Injury Lawyers, 8 Figure Firm helps transform your law firm into a 7-figure or even 8-figure firm.
After their own law firm scaled from $3.5 million in revenues to $30 million per year in revenues in just two years, Luis and Seth started the 8 Figure Firm to share their strategies and help other law firms achieve exponential growth.
Visit www.8figurefirm.com to receive a consult call and start scaling your business today.
Episode Transcript
Luis Scott 0:00
I’m Luis Scott, managing partner of Bader Scott Injury Lawyers, one of the fastest growing law firms in the country. And I’m also the co-founder of 8 Figure Firm Consulting. I’ve successfully built multiple companies by focusing on leadership, operations and culture. Using these principles, my companies have generated close to $100 million in revenue. But before any of this success, I started my legal career as a receptionist, and I worked my way up to becoming managing partner. And each episode of this podcast, I sit down with leaders and entrepreneurs who have had the guts to step out on their own, and the courage to face adversity. They share with us their tips for achievement, the challenges they have faced and the glory of success. I welcome you to The Guts and Glory Show.
Hey, guys, welcome to The Guts and Glory Show. I’m your host, Luis Scott. And every single week, I am profiling big leaders, CEOs. And then people like my friend, Armando Leduc, because I’m a big guy, he basically a big guy. So excited on me that, that for that. Not that not that but super excited on the show. Because Armando is a friend of mine for 25 years, he’s a CEO of of Leduc Entertainment. And as you know, I am profiling people who have started from nothing and has have achieved great success who have nothing. And he has done that. And as you can tell this show is going to be awesome. You’re not going to want to miss the rest of this episode. Before I go on, you know that this shows been brought to you by 8 Figure Firm Consulting, and we help law firms turn into law businesses. So if you need help with your business, even maybe not even a law firm, right? Not even a law firm, we can help you make that house can help you. Alright, so let’s get started that we already gotten started started. Oh my gosh, so I’ve been capturing right, we started 25 years ago. That’s, that’s very true. So let’s talk about how we met. How did we meet?
Armando Leduc 1:52
Well, it was a I think it was a summer of ‘95.
Luis Scott 1:57
Summer of ‘95. There’s a song written about that. Isn’t there? 69. Summer of 69. Got you. Wrong year, but very close. But we could we could make our summer of 95. Yeah.
Armando Leduc 2:07
Don’t worry about that. We’re in a hallway. So there’s, you’ll you’ll hear some beeping and that’s elevator. So we wanna Whoa, at 95 I was 15. I had just moved to the United States from Germany. And you had moved from Puerto Rico. Yeah, that’s right. I just moved from Puerto Rico. So yeah, and then we lived in the same subdivision in Grovetown, Georgia. We went to Harlem High. I tell people I went to Harlem High and they’re like, that’s cool. I’m like Harlem, Georgia. Yeah,
Luis Scott 2:33
that’s so cool. I was like population 10,000 Yeah,
Armando Leduc 2:36
no, no joke. You know, their their claim to fame is the fat guy from the Oliver Oliver Hardy. Yeah, the skinny and the fat guy with a mustache.
Luis Scott 2:47
I think they’re they’re better known as a different Laurel and Hardy. We’re all in
Armando Leduc 2:51
skinny in the fat. Well, you know what it is? Because in Germany when I grew up, that’s what they would call it. They did it and he did it. Guys like the skinny and the fat that sounds offensive. It is. It is offensive.
Luis Scott 3:04
Well, that’s amazing. And one of my favorite stories from growing up was not invited, being invited to a dance. And we went to a dance. That was a fun story. That’s kind of like that might be offensive. Well, no, we’re not going to tell the whole story. Okay, I’m just saying that that was a story. One of my favorite stories there’s a there’s a lot of stuff a lot of stories that are offensive you’re basically this friendship is the reason I can’t run for political office. So that’s what’s happening right now. So that’s why that’s why I keep turning it away. But no, it’s amazing because you ended up going to New Orleans after we people say Orleans New Orleans now you became an actor. I have producer entertainers songwriter, number one wedding band, Father husband. It sounds like the good friend from the gladiator right when he’s like a father to a murdered wife and right. Yeah, I should come up with like a you know, you killed my father. Prepare to die. Right. I love that movie. It’s a great movie. Yeah, that’s a great movie. But you went out to New Orleans, and you made a life for yourself. I made my tell me how many. Well, how many movies have you been in? Like,
Armando Leduc 4:09
y’all? What’s really cool is as of right now 50 I hit the 50 50 project mark of film and television projects. Queen of the South? Yeah. So you’ll be seeing that soon. I can’t tell you what I’m playing. Because you know, is it another train? Cuz I know, I said you were you were a tree. And I played blankies. And you know, I’ve had the your hand model and well, with a hand model. I drink tea in the background. Right. Right. So but yeah, it’s a it’s been an incredible 20 plus years in the entertainment business. Yeah. And, you know, I’m happy to be here.
Luis Scott 4:46
Well, one of the things that I want to know because that’s a long time of consistency. So I always teach people that consistency and committing to relationships is actually how you become successful because we’re like, we’re like in this incredibly transit time in our in our economy where people are just going from job to job, job to job, and they don’t realize that consistency is actually the key. So I’d like to know kind of what your take is on consistency, and what you believe that that has played in your life? Well, I’m glad you asked that question. Okay. Um,
Armando Leduc 5:15
I’ve been thinking about a TED talk that I wanted to put together, called Spaghetti on the Wall, which is going to be a podcast that I’m putting together called Spaghetti on the Wall, and nurturing what sticks, not just seeing what sticks, but yeah, nurturing what sticks. Because the thing is, when you’re putting yourself out there on a consistent basis, right, and you’re trying different things, and I recommend that you guys try different things, you know, when you’re in your 20s, and 30s. That’s, that’s time of discovery, that’s time of you know, trying out new things. So don’t try and get bogged down with, you know, trying to figure it all out. Go, go and try different things. And then you’ll start to figure out Oh, that’s, that’s sticking on the wall. Let’s nurture that a little bit that’s fallen off, let’s forget about that. You know, and then as you go, you’ll start to see that the things that are sticking to the wall are become your passions, become your drive become things that you know that you’re good at the gifts that you know, that you’ve been given by the universe, God, Allah, whoever, here’s
Luis Scott 6:16
the thing, but a lot of people, they have a hard time with that passion word, because a lot of people, especially people that that work with me, they don’t know what their passion is. And so they, they are just like certainty, you know, they’re searching, like, like, no matter just like wanders, and you kind of knew your passion at a young age, you knew that you wanted to be in entertainment. And so like, what do you tell people who don’t like, you know, like, for instance, my wife, she works in the corporate world. She loves her job. She loves her company, but I wouldn’t I wouldn’t say that she thinks it’s her passion. Right? Right. So like, what do you tell people in that situation?
Armando Leduc 6:53
I go back to throwing things at the wall, you know, trying different things and being okay with failing at it, you know, like, when you’re going out and you’re trying new things, and you fail, it’s not failure to learning experience. It’s, that didn’t work right. When Edison was trying to invent the light bulb. He invented, what 20,000 ways not to do it. Right. So I think that that’s the key is, you know, trying to figure out what you want to do by trying a bunch of different things and not being afraid to do that. And in the process, you’ll figure it out like I had 70 70 plus jobs. Yes. 70 Wow. seven zero from being a safety Health and Safety Officer at the Tuscaloosa, Alabama Mercedes Benz plant, right. Which that’s a whole story in itself. Selling door to door. You know, Kirby vacuum cleaners, go
Luis Scott 7:44
knives like go knife. Parents still have those Cutco knives. They’re amazing. They are amazing. If you guys don’t have Yeah, this show is not brought to you by Cutco, knives, smartwater, smartwater. Thank you. Yeah. I mean, that’s, that’s awesome. Now you learn to you learn a lesson, right? The lesson was that you’re employable? Like,
Armando Leduc 8:03
you know what? Absolutely, that was exactly. I, from a young age, I was always sort of running around to the beat of my own drum, right? Nobody, you know, I was just a weird person, because I just thought differently, you know, and I can see it in my I can see it in my daughter now who’s you know, who’s about to be too and she’s just a, she’s going to be a weirdo, just like me, but like, you know, you you, you start to figure out who you are, and you’re okay with it, and not try to let other people give their opinion on how you should be living your life. You know, whether it’s family or friends, you know, like, cuz everybody’s gonna want to tell you, oh, this is what you need to do. And, and I think in the United States, everybody tries to, like, try to like fit everybody in the same mold. Right? But it’s not how it works. You know, we
Luis Scott 8:51
educated that way. We’re educated. So so like, you go to school, everybody sits in a classroom is taught the exact same way. And I think things are changing a little bit, but we’re educated, we’re taught we’re indoctrinated, that everyone is going to achieve success the same way. Everyone’s going to achieve their dreams the same way. And there are principles, but there’s, you know, there’s different ways to getting there, if you apply those principles. Now, you were saying something about how you you tried something, you want to see what sticks. And the word that I kept hearing that you weren’t saying was perseverance or something? That’s right, because I consistency is one thing, like being consistent is one thing. But being consistent in the midst of failure is like a totally different thing. Like it takes, like, where do you Where do you derive that? Drive? Yeah, well, not the drive because like, there’s a lot of people who are driven but for some reason they give up. They get like disenfranchised, like, Where do you get that perseverance? Is it a trait? Is it something people can develop? Like? What do you think about that?
Armando Leduc 9:49
I think that once you find your y that’s greater than yourself, you’ll start to excel right? It will wasn’t until I met my wife. And it wasn’t until I had my child that I really started to become the person that I am right now. Right. And so, when I was growing up, it was just me and I didn’t really, you know, really care about me that much, right? I mean, like, You’re out. And, you know, in my 20s, I did crazy stuff, you know, and alcohol and drugs and all of that, which, you know, I would not recommend No, I don’t recommend that. No, it’s not a recipe for success. You know, however, I learned, you know, and I’m just trying to be authentic here. You know, I mean, like, I learned that that wasn’t the way of cool, you know what I mean? And like, and I didn’t really care about myself, and when you start to care about people that are not you, you’ll get to another level. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, Eric Thomas, who I follow a lot, and if you guys don’t follow Eric Thomas, the hip hop preacher, like when he speaks like he’s Yes, my heart. Yeah. But he, that’s what he talks about. He’s like, when your why becomes greater than you, right? You’ll start to operate at a higher level, because now you have more people that are counting on you. And that’s, that’s what really drove me to be successful. where I am right now is because of my wife. And because of my daughter. Yeah. And because of my family, and that drives me more than things drive me. Sure, personally.
Luis Scott 11:20
Yeah. I mean, I kind of say the same thing about things like I’m not, I’m not in the business of accumulating things. Like I’m not a huge things person. I’m not a hoarder. I throw away stuff. Like constantly, once I’m done with it, you know, I throw it away. But what really driving it? Do I want to throw it away? Do I think it? Yeah. What does that mean? Thank you, your product, for me for providing for me. I’ve never done that. Maybe I should do Marie Kondo.
Armando Leduc 11:42
Yeah. She, I read a book. It’s called tidying your life. Yeah, the Magic of Tidying Up. Okay. And she talks about that, you know, she talks about like, when when you give away something that you’ve used for a long time to thank it. So like, when I just got my new car, I was like, I think my old Buick I was like, Hey, you know, thank you for for all of your service. I
Luis Scott 12:00
know you just do have that Mazda Miata, or no, no, I don’t I got rid of that thing. But I think Did you hear about Did you hear about that one accident and Mazda Miata fly hidden thing fell apart? Wow. That’s a bad endorsement. Mazda. I’m sorry. They have good quality cars, don’t they? Good. Quiet. Is that better than the smart car? My mom has a smart car. Did she really, really smart? You love one of those little tiny gold card? Every time I see that. I’m like, there’s a roller skate where it’s Where’s the other pair? Yeah, pretty much. I just feel like every time it came on, it was like, Oh, my gosh. But yeah, I mean, like, the thing is, I you know, going back to things, I don’t want things. What I want is experiences. What I want is to help my family What I want is to let my kids have the vehicle that they need, that they’re going to be safe and not the, you know, the car that their parents could afford. And like, obviously, you know, my parents, I love my parents. They did the best that they absolutely could. But my very very first car was a 13 $100 Ford probe. Whoo. I’m telling you, that’s awesome. It was fast. I got those at the time. The the rims, you could get the fake rims, right? Did you get the spinners I got the spinners because you get this. They get wet. They stop spinning. So once they get wet, they stop spinning. So I got the I got the spinners. I put a stereo system in it. But it wasn’t like a true car stereo. I took these tall stereo speakers that I had at my house. And I put those in the car. And I rewired them. Yeah, I was like legit, pretty cool. I thought maybe I was gonna be like, into into, like technology and engineering stuff. But then I realised I didn’t really enjoy that. But I had a Ford probe, I think did at 80 miles an hour. Now I understand why and Back to the Future. They thought 88 miles an hour was because like i at this word probe was like shaking. It was rattling, rattling flow. So like, you know, I want to be able to provide those things for for my kids. And that’s my why right? My wife my family experiences and really enjoying life. But some people they never find that Why? Like,
Armando Leduc 14:02
I don’t think they need to slow down. I think you need to slow down get off Facebook, get off social media stop getting take some time I read this book called The Artist’s Way. Okay. And one of the principles in this book is write three pages a day. And it’s something that I’ve done for the last five, three pages of what everything anything just streaming as soon as I wake up I just start writing stream of consciousness stuff. It’s not if you saw it, it looks like hieroglyphics. Yeah, I don’t go back and read any of it. It’s just a way to get my thoughts out on paper. And it’s a way to centre myself. It’s a way for me to meditate, right? Um, and when you slow down, you can start to realize things but if you’re on the go and you’re getting bombarded with you know, social media and emails and text messages, and bla bla bla bla you know, it’s gonna be hard for you to try to figure out what it is that you want because you haven’t slowed down enough to to know what you want what you like how you know, analyze the things that are coming into your life that you Like and that you don’t like, right? But if you’re not slowing, if you’re not slowing down enough to do that, how are you? How can you even figure that out? Yeah. And we’re living in such a fast paced microwave society that everybody wants things right now right now right now.
Luis Scott 15:12
Well, and the thing is that social media, which is funny because we help companies, social media, but the thing about social media is that we spend so much time comparing our everyday mundane life to like, the highlight reel of other people. Like right now, if I go on my social media, I get on my phone, everybody’s at the beach. Everybody’s on vacation, everybody’s on spring break. But what we know is that everybody’s not at the beach, everybody’s not on vacation, there’s people working, there’s people doing other things. And so we begin to believe that we’ve somehow not made it. And then the next thing, you know, we’re overwhelmed by the sense of like, not making it and not achieving and not having success. And, and I love the concept of slowing down, which is the reason that I believe you work hard in between your vacations, and then on vacation, you truly vacation, because you have to slow yourself down it. It reminds me of the movie cars. Have you seen the movie Cars? Yeah, with the with the race car on the right, yeah. Where he says you got to turn left to turn, right. And he’s like, That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard, you know, turn left, turn right, turn left. But it was in the in the course of your life. If you’re on the dirt track of life, not not that symmetric. But if you had the dirt track of your life, right, sometimes you have to do the unorthodox. Sometimes you have to turn left to go right. And sometimes to speed up, you have to actually slow down. Yeah, yeah. 100%. And so I think that, that, that, that that’s a valuable lesson for people, especially high performers, because that’s who I have on the show, that’s who watches these podcasts is like high performers, and so forth. So, you know, you were talking about your TED talk, and you said, I’m gonna have a TED talk, whatever, you know, nurture whatever sticks. How do you nurture? What sticking like how, what are some things that you do to invest?
Armando Leduc 16:57
I have enlisted a mentor. I’ve always been, I’ve always been somebody that is been a proponent for mentorship and for people that can see things from a perspective that you don’t see, right? When you’re living your life. You can’t see the forest for the for the trees is what they say. So when you can find somebody that you respect, that is somewhere where you want to be then then then follow that person Denzel Washington. I love him has an acting coach. Oh, does
Luis Scott 17:29
he really? Yeah, I had no idea. Yeah, but the professional athletes have coaches, they have coach Tiger Woods, how to tie the Swing Coach. You know, and who knew he did swing? Yeah.
Armando Leduc 17:46
But, but what I’m saying is like, so you got to figure out how to separate yourself from you. Get some mentor shit, right, and start seeing things from a different perspective. And then that’s when you know, people like, like Luis or whoever your mentor is, can start to see things go, Hey, did you know that this is happening? Because of this? Perhaps, right? Oh, I didn’t even make that correlation. You know, I’m not even seeing that. Right. And so you already know that because of the business that you’re in and how successful you’ve been? You’re like here in the process here in the in the stage, and I’m here in the stage, right? So I’m like, Okay, well, if, if I’m here, it doesn’t matter that you have a law firm doesn’t matter. I have a videography company, doesn’t matter if you have a concrete company, you know, the steps of business as a business is business. Yeah. You know, and the principles is what I wanted to say the principles, the principles business are the same no matter what. So I, I’m always about how do I get better, you know, told me to read 52 books a year, I started doing that at the beginning of this year, and like, my mind is just like, on overdrive, it’s on overdrive. My passion has just been like, I’ve been super inspired. I’ve been super successful. I’m like, I’m on a different level. And it’s like, three months in
Luis Scott 19:05
Yeah, the thing is that, that it’s not just the book reading. It’s the discipline that’s created from the book reading, right kind of Kingston. So with, like the principles of success, and, you know, nurturing and finding a mentor, because you went into the mentorship thing, in the same way that we can’t tell when our breath stinks. You need some right. Like I saw this guy the other day, he said, he said, Your nose is one inch from your mouth, right? But if your breath stinks, you can’t smell it, but everyone else around you can smell it, even though it’s only one inch from your mouth, right? And it’s because we can’t detect our own bull. Oh, right. Come we can’t detect our own. So we need someone who tells us you know, I was I was consulting with somebody recently. And she told me she says, look, for three years, I’ve been making the excuse that I didn’t want to grow because of the responsibility that I have to my kids. But what I realized when You called me out on it. That’s what she’s telling me that I was using my kids as an excuse, because I was scared to grow. Yeah. You need somebody who can see that, who can call you out on it. I need somebody, you know, we all do. We all need somebody. And so I think that that’s, that’s one great way to nurture it. And then you mentioned reading, so mentorship reading, like, what else? What else would you suggest people do to nurture that
Armando Leduc 20:25
I want to get? I’m gonna get to that in a second. But you reminded me of something as far as like, holding back, right. So I have a videography company. Right. And they say what the cobblers kids doesn’t have shoes. That’s right. I don’t have videos, right. I do entertainment for me. I don’t have videos. And and I’m gonna tell you why I don’t. And this is something that like, is super embarrassing, because I have this perfectionist attitude towards video that I feel like if I put something out, it has to be like here, right? So it’s so in my brain. I’m like, oh, it has to be here. I don’t I don’t need to do it then because I have to prepare. Right? And so it’s gonna take me a lot longer for me to do it. Yeah. And then so I’m, I’m caught up in a bull, because I don’t need to be perfect. I just need to be putting out cars, right? You don’t mean and I know my
Luis Scott 21:18
girls on TikTok are making 30 million a year dancing. There’s some videos right?
Armando Leduc 21:21
Right. So you got you got me like, right, there you go. I’m gonna have those dancing videos. Yes, you will be. But you know, so. So yeah, the the the the roadblocks that you’re experiencing. Because you’re in your own head, it’s good to get somebody else to understand that. But coming back to the nurturing aspect of what you’re trying to accomplish and how you’re trying to find your way, and what drives you and your passion. It really is all about going out there. Getting out of your comfort zone. I used to I’ve been an actor now since 1998. And I’ve taught acting and one of the biggest things that I teach my actors is that it’s it’s really a mindset thing, right? You don’t I mean, because like your your value of valuable as an actor in your field, how you look? Right? There’s space for you. But if you don’t see that your voice is important. If you don’t see that your perspective matters, and that your art matters, then you’re going to be caught up with Oh, what do the casting directors want? Oh, what? What are they? Right? How am I going to impress them instead of this is my audition room. I’m doing it this way. If you like it great. If you don’t, that’s cool, too. Yeah, no harm, no foul. And so that’s the that’s the biggest mind. overhaul that I have to, you know, to teach my students when I’m teaching them acting is that understand that your perspective matters. Believe in yourself. Yeah, trust in your instincts. There’s the three rules of improv, right? I taught taught. I took improv in LA with the Upright Citizens Brigade. And the three rules of improv are say the first thing that comes to your head, okay, which is, you know, it’s the instinct, trust that trust that voice, you know, to mean, say yes. And right. So if you’re, if we’re building something together, and this is just good for life, this is not just good for improv. But if we’re building something together, and we’re working together, and I have an idea, build on my idea, don’t just say, No, but this So hey, yes, I like that. Not only do I like that, I’m going to build on it. And let’s build this wall together. Right? So yes, and, and then make your partner look good. Make your partner look like he’s a rockstar. So if he does something, you’re there to back them up no matter what. So if you’re like, we’re in a scene together, and I’m like, Hey, Dad, and you’re like, I don’t know, you, like, improv is going awesome. Right? So don’t deny it go with they just took it to a different direction. Yeah. So So it’s, you know, it’s, it’s those things that like, I try to implement into my life, you know, to help me grow, to help me move and to help me go into into passions and things that interests me. And that keep me going every day. Like, my passions are what gets me up in the morning. my passions are, I wake up at four, you know, for 430 every morning because I just can’t sleep because I’m so excited about like getting it you know what I mean? Like sounds
Luis Scott 24:12
to me, like what what you’re talking about is part of the nurturing process is developing your skill set, right? Because I yeah, yeah. Cuz like, You’re, you’re going out and you are focusing, if something stuck, you’re getting a mentor, you’re making sure that you’re you’re developing yourself and reading, but now you’re developing your skill set. So like, that’s like the third component of that nurturing? Yeah, because I think that a lot of people, they don’t know how to grow. I get this question all the time that like how do I grow as an individual as a professional as a person financially, and those are three great keys, you know, get a mentor, read some books and develop your skills. There you go, because because financial growth really comes from just growing your value. And I think that’s the case for even a law firm a business, any business. The more you grow, your valuable your your value, the more valuable you become. You Yeah, so I think that that’s kind of like, you know, the direction that that I most people need to go in when they’re starting to find and develop their their passions for their lives. So that’s awesome stuff. Yeah. Now you were talking about reading reading books, and I love that, that you’re taking on my challenge, okay, for years. For years, I’m gonna tell you, I gotta tell this backstory about my reading challenge. I stumbled across this challenge on accident. All right, this was total accident. About 15 years ago, I decided that I was going to read 52 books in 52 weeks, people told me I was stupid. Like, that makes no sense. You’re not going to remember everything. You’re not going to keep all the information. But I knew that I knew I wasn’t going to keep it. But I thought it would discipline me it would be a great achievement. And what I realized is that I didn’t need to remember everything from the book. All I needed to remember what’s one thing, right, that’s all I needed to do. Just remember one thing. So 15 years ago, I do this challenge. And from the moment that I did the challenge 18 months later, 24 months later, around that time, about two years, I doubled my income.
Armando Leduc 26:04
And he was reading Harry Potter
Luis Scott 26:13
and I was reading Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter. It wasn’t even anything special. A lot of Nancy Drew A Yes, as a crime crime novels, and Twilight series. Series. Wow. That’s what Nike was the The Hunger Games, it taught me a little bit more. But now it’s, it’s it. It was it was very interesting. I double my income. And I was like, boo, could it have been? So then I got off from reading that aggressively. For a couple years, like I would read 20 books a year, still, you know, pretty important. But then I did it again. And I doubled my income again. Wow. It was like the most bizarre thing like it was coming from different places. Now, what what happened is I went from in that period of reading, I went from being a receptionist, to an attorney than from an attorney to a managing partner. And in those moments, I was growing myself so so big, that I was like believing in myself, and so forth. And so I realized that there was a direct connection. I don’t know how it worked. It’s like a universal principle, there was a direct connection between reading and enhancing your professional personal growth, because you start reading and you start understanding more. And so what happened was, that what I realized in the reading, was that I was becoming more well rounded. Like I was becoming, I did it, you know, my wife tells me she’s like, I don’t know, anybody who knows more about so many things, like, you know, you know enough about a lot of things, right? Because I’ve read so much like, I know a little bit of this about a little bit, but this, and people say, well, you’re not an expert. Well, no, what’s happened is because all of my books are central to one theme, which is business, I’ve become an expert in business, because I read only business books, and I get one thing, you know, and so I, there’s so much power in that. And so I love that you’re taking it on, but I have one employee who did it who’s already doubled her income by doing the challenge. And I’m and and I’m curious to know, what books have you read now in the last 13 weeks, that has really, really made an impact on you? They ask, You Answer. Hmm. It sounds like you’re about to preach
Armando Leduc 28:10
cool. I’ve been feel like I’ve been preaching daily. Let me tell you something, sales, is sales. But if you really want to sell you need to preach, you know what I mean? Like, you really need to be coming from a test, you need to be testifying, right, from a place that people can that people can feel, you know what I mean? Like when you’re trying to sell, it feels like sales, right? But when you’re preaching when you’re coming from a different place, right? Then you’ve you’ve become you’ve made them a believer, you know what I mean? And that’s that that’s been the success that I’ve seen in my business in the last few months from this, you know, from this book, and of course, nothing ship, you know, but but it’s it’s a whole different process regarding video marketing, right. And so I was under the impression Oh, I got a video production company, one commercial. That’s what you do, you run it on, you put it on radio, you put it on the TV, and that one video just circulates, right, set
Luis Scott 29:07
it and forget it.
Armando Leduc 29:08
That’s it. But that’s not that’s not 2021 That’s no longer the case. You know what I mean? Like, this book talks about how every company is now a media company. That’s right. That’s it like you want to compete in 2021 your your company is no longer just a construction company. Your company is a construction company, plus a media company, right? That’s it because they need to know who the story is. who the people are, they need to trust you. How are they going to trust you? Right? How could you because you’re going to humanize yourself because you’re going to share stories of your business stories of the people that you work with. You know, you’re going to connect with them on social media what connection they want connection that immunity that is the main reason why social media exists.
Luis Scott 29:49
I don’t I just I don’t see an environment anymore, where we go out into the marketplace and hire random strangers that don’t fulfil an additional relationship need with us. Correct, like, and so if your entire business is is focused on just marketing and having your name known, but you’re not making any connection, you’re actually going to fail this environment. Right? Yeah. And so I think that I think that us, we tell is that what they ask you answer they ask you and I were so close, you asked, we tell right, you asked me to tell you will tell you what you’re going to do. But they ask you answer. I think the point is that you are be building relationships with people in a way that was never necessary. Necessary today.
Armando Leduc 30:37
It is. Well, I mean, I didn’t think it was not necessary before it was just done differently. You know, what I mean? Because the world was smaller things were things were happening here. But like, you know, I have now clients in Orlando, Atlanta, New Orleans, Lafayette and like, and it’s growing now. And it’s, it’s now becoming a national thing, rather than just a local thing. Right. You know, and, and a lot of times people need to start understanding, especially like, in smaller markets, that it is a global market, right?
Luis Scott 31:07
I mean, just because you live in a small town does not mean that you are not competing globally. That’s where if you want to compete globally, you got to be on your digital footprint needs to be there you need to because there are there are services, virtual assistants Fiverr that are that are more than happy to take your business locally. If you’re not you’re not putting yourself out there. Absolutely. Yeah. So it’s it’s really interesting how business has changed how the dynamics have changed. And and we won’t give all the information for your your, your business financials, but you 5x 5x this business, like straight up No,
Armando Leduc 31:44
no, no BS. I know people talk about that, oh, oh, I you know, I totally tripled my income and blah, blah, blah. I’m like, No, for real, for real life or dollar. Like, my life is now forever changed. And it’s like, just continuing to like exponentially. Like, boom, boom, boom, boom, but I’ve never had the nurturing process
Luis Scott 32:06
from the nurturing process, mentorship books, and getting better at what you’re doing the skills that make you better and
Armando Leduc 32:13
better and understanding that skill. He’s insane. So like, a lot of people are they’re, they’re, they’re trying to fit a round peg into a square hole. Rudy, the movie Rudy right. It’s a great movie. fantastic movie. Do you think that he wasted his time? Absolutely. He wasted his time. He was not a football player. Right. He could have been he could have been taking his hours doing something
Luis Scott 32:37
true and been and
Armando Leduc 32:39
we wouldn’t have we wouldn’t have the movie, Rudy, that we have today. But I mean, it just it It boggles my mind that a lot of people want to live a life. That’s not income, it’s ruined to where they are the who they are. And so they they’re living a lie. And they’re wondering why they’re not happy. Wow, you know what I mean? Like they’re just or maybe their family pushed them into something. Maybe they’re, you know, a significant other, push them into something. And now they’re stuck, because they’re somewhat good at it, but they hate it because it’s not in line with what they wanted to do. But because they’re so scared because they’re in their comfort zone. They’re never going to change. Never gonna get out of that. Right.
Luis Scott 33:22
Right. That’s awesome. Well, good having you in Armando, always. I knew I knew unscripted. It was gonna go fine on scripted on. So we have a teleprompter. So I actually we should have called the podcast, the unscripted pod the unscripted podcast. Look, guys. This is Armando Leduc. He has Leduc Entertainment out of New Orleans. But he’s like you mentioned he’s national, proud of working with in conjunction with him. We’re doing a video production for lawyers. So if you’re a lawyer out there watching this, you want to know how you can get yourself on social media. We have a joint venture where we’re working with lawyers around the country to help them maximize their marketing online because this year is a year of personal brand. If you’re a non lawyer, if you’re just a regular business and you want to reach out to Armando you can reach him where can they find you?
Armando Leduc 34:12
Leducentertainment.com I know it’s a lot. L-E-D-U-C maybe you should put it right here. We’ll put it at the bottom. L-E-D-U-C Entertainment like Leduc, but French
Luis Scott 34:24
But mostly, you know, most people they say law duck. Yeah. Do you say like, do you say that’s it? I didn’t lay on the ad and call it Leduc say that would be nice. You know?
Armando Leduc 34:36
Should people have spelled it? I’ll put I’ll say Leduc. And they’ll spell it L-A-D-U-K-E.
Luis Scott 34:43
Oh, no. I wouldn’t have thought that. Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Well, yeah. If you guys want to reach out to him, you can find him there. We’ll put the link at the bottom. I hope you guys enjoyed this podcast. And if you want to make sure you don’t miss any of my episodes, be sure to subscribe to my channel. And we’ll see you guys next time on The Guts and Glory Show.
Outro 35:02
You’ve been listening to The Guts and Glory Show with Luis Scott. If you enjoyed the show, be sure to share. For more information on this episode, please see the show notes at www.GutsandGloryShow.com and join us next time as we talk to another leader in business that had the guts to overcome all odds for the glory of success.
