November 24, 2024 • 50 mins
Lachlan Stuart sits down with Mark "Lucch" Lucchiari to discuss life-altering experiences and their impact on personal growth.
From losing his father at a young age to surviving a near-fatal skydiving accident, Lucch shares how he turned tragedy into motivation to live fully, embrace vulnerability, and leave a lasting legacy. This episode is a powerful reminder that life is too short to let fear or past pain hold you back.
Key Takeaways:
🤝 How loss can shape your purpose and fuel your drive to succeed.
🤝 The transformative power of vulnerability and emotional honesty.
🤝 Why embracing fear is the ultimate way to live fully.
Listeners will be inspired by Mark's involvement in projects like "give and Get" and the creation of the Impact Men's Group.
We discuss the highly anticipated documentary "Impact," which chronicles Mark and his friend Benny's story of perseverance following a skydiving accident.
This episode is a testament to living fearlessly and with purpose, and you won't want to miss the insights into how Mark uses his experiences to inspire kindness and meaningful connections.
Follow Mark's journey on social media to stay updated on his remarkable adventures and endeavors.
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Website: https://themanthatcanproject.com/
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Do Something Today To Be Better For Tomorrow
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Lachlan Stuart (00:00):
Welcome back to the man that Can.
With Lachie Stuart, I'm veryexcited and this one has been a
couple of months in the makingour guest today, we've got Lucch
, or Mark Lucchiari, on the show, who has got an incredible
story to tell, so much so thatthere's a documentary coming out
soon which you'll be able toget your hands on, and one that
(00:20):
I know my audience will get somuch out of, and the documentary
is going to be called Impact.
Now, what I'm very excitedabout today, looch, is obviously
yourself and your, I guess,co-partner in the documentary,
ben.
I'll be chatting to him afterthis and then we'll do a double
up episode in a couple ofmonths' time where you guys who
(00:41):
are listening will be able toask questions or, if you want to
dig a little bit deeper andmaybe I missed some questions
that are on your mind we'll beable to hit Mark and Ben at the
same time as well with those.
But, mark, thanks so much forcoming on the show.
Mark Lucchiari (00:55):
Hey, thanks for having me here.
I'm a bit frothing for this one.
We had a good chat a few monthsago and I loved your game plan
of splitting us up and yeah'mexcited, excited to have this
chat, mate?
Lachlan Stuart (01:08):
yeah, definitely , it's going to be fun and it's
such a unique, I think, even forme being able to.
You know, I watched a lot ofyour content and I'll put your
instagram page and all of thatin the show notes for people to
watch.
But I watch a lot of peoplejumping out of planes, which is
something that you do.
You're an adventurer, you're athrill seeker and I just get so
(01:29):
inspired by it, but I wouldn'thave the balls to continue doing
it.
I've done two jumps in my lifeout of a plane and I think I'm
more comfortable with my feet onthe ground, that's for sure.
But you've got a pretty wildstory and one that I'm keen to
dive into here.
But obviously, as we said,you've got a diverse background
in adventuring, fromwakeboarding to Muay Thai to
(01:50):
skydiving and, obviously, abusiness owner and entrepreneur.
Before we dive in, I would likeyou to introduce yourself to
our audience.
Mark Lucchiari (02:01):
Got me talking about myself, all right.
Lachlan Stuart (02:03):
How long have we got?
Yeah, we got five hours there,joe Rogan special.
Mark Lucchiari (02:09):
Mate.
Look, I don't know, To me Ifeel like I'm just a simple man,
but yeah, I am driven.
I guess I'm driven to live lifeto the fullest.
I think it all stems I lost mydad when I was really young, so
I had a pretty big taste ofdeath and loss and tragedy and
(02:32):
trauma and literally shaped meto be the man I am and, yeah, I
guess it just made me reallyappreciate what life is and that
we need to live it to thefullest.
You know, I'm a family man.
I become a dad quite young, at19 years old, and yeah, I really
(02:56):
pride myself with my family andbeing the dad to my boys that I
never had.
That's so important to me.
And just making the most ofthis time that we have here
which is literally that and asyou're just saying about jumping
out of planes and all thatstuff makes you uncomfortable.
It makes me uncomfortable too,and that's what I enjoy.
I love being uncomfortable.
I don't like being.
(03:17):
What scares me the most in thisworld is normality.
So, that's me in a nutshell mate.
This world is normality.
So that's me in a nutshell mate, pretty much.
Lachlan Stuart (03:30):
I can definitely relate there.
But let's go back.
So you touched on your dad andobviously wanting to become a
father and a man that you didn'thave.
Can we go back to thatrelationship, because I know you
did move from Melbourne I thinkit was up to the Gold Coast at
a young age and there wasobviously reasons behind that.
Could we dive into that at ayoung age and there?
Mark Lucchiari (03:45):
was obviously reasons behind that.
Could we dive into that?
Yeah, yeah.
So yeah, look, my dad, you know, was a violent man and he had a
lot of issues himself and, yeah, he ended up taking his own
life when I was I'd just turnedsix, I think.
We just moved, we moved up, wewere kind of like, I said, very
violent and we were trying toescape him.
We were living in, like I said,very violent and we were trying
to escape him.
(04:05):
We were living in refuges andstuff like that and we were
running away and we were movingup to the coast and, yeah, it
all got a bit too much for himand, you know, sadly, he took
his own life and, yeah, kind ofleft my mum with myself and my
sister up here to fend forherself.
(04:26):
And you know, like man, what awoman she is, you know, and
bringing especially me up, yeah,it kind of like it literally
just shaped everything, everypart of my life and every aspect
of it too, from the smallestlittle details of you know
getting pretty deep and sad.
(04:47):
Here is, you know, he committedsuicide with a photo of myself
and my sister beside him, andall those little details,
everything you know, has made meto be the man I am today, you
know, and the father I am to mykids, and as much as most boys
want a dad, know, like I've Istill to this day, you know,
(05:08):
even though he wasn't a good manand he's had his issues, you
know, his memory to me is frozenas a six-year-old kid.
You know he was my hero, youknow, and, um, yeah, that's all
I've ever wanted, but I wouldnever change anything, um, in
saying that, because literallyevery, every detail of this
tragedy has shaped me to be whoI am today, the guy sitting in
(05:29):
front of you right now, yeah,yeah, so Thanks for sharing that
and obviously sorry for yourloss there.
Lachlan Stuart (05:39):
A lot of men listening to this, I know, will
definitely relate, because evenfor myself and a lot of people,
we all idolize our dad.
It doesn't matter how they'reshowing up in our life.
For some reason we'regravitated to them just being
like this Superman in our life.
As you said, he wasn't the best, but there's still something
that you just wanted him aroundand you wanted to aspire to
(06:02):
impress him, and I think youknow I don't really know why
that is, and one of thebeautiful things about what
you've gone on to do is continueto build upon that.
There's people who potentiallyrepeat the pattern and maybe
treat others in a terriblemanner and almost are like a
victim from their circumstances,but you've chosen to use that
(06:24):
moment in your life to go.
This is how I don't want to beand move forward.
Mark Lucchiari (06:29):
And look, it wasn't always like that either.
I was playing the victim.
I was using it as an excuse.
When I was younger, I wasgetting in a lot of trouble.
I kind of repelled against men.
I was a pretty big young fellaand I was going out and I was
looking at getting fights.
(06:49):
I just loved.
I kind of I guess I seen myselfas a bully basher.
I used to just go out, findtrouble and you know, punt on,
and I was using it as an excusefor all the bad things that
happened to me in life.
You, you know, and it kind of Ithink it was about 23 or 24,
and I had this realisation thatyou know, it was me causing all
(07:12):
the bad things and you know, notto use this tragedy that
happened to me as an excuse toactually use it as motivation.
And that's what I did from thatmoment on, kind of turned that
around and said fuck this, I'mnot going to play the victim,
I'm going to use this as amotivation to become a better
human.
You know, and yeah, that was amassive turning point for me.
So, yeah, it wasn't alwaysroses and sunshine.
Lachlan Stuart (07:33):
Yeah, yeah, yeah .
I was going to say for thosewho like and I said this to you
when we first met I'm likeyou've got someone that I would
not want to piss off, but you'velearned to channel that, and
I'd love to know was there likea specific moment along the way
(07:55):
that triggered you to, orencourage you to want to be that
best version of yourself andreally turn things around?
Because for me, I'm always verycurious around what that moment
is For people.
We talk about rock bottoms andeverything like that, and
there's some people who justnever seem to claw their way out
of that, I guess, dark place.
(08:16):
They just choose to wallow inthat, and I'm a big believer
that all of us, through, I guess, pushing through tough moments,
can find purpose and can findmeaning in our life, and I would
love to know what that was likefor you.
Mark Lucchiari (08:30):
Yeah, well, look , I think it was.
It was as I was mentioningabout 23.
My wife and I, we got togetherwhen we were 19.
We've actually known each othersince year six.
Lachlan Stuart (08:40):
That's like the full notebook style.
Love right there.
Mark Lucchiari (08:46):
Yeah, year six.
All right, look, I literally, Iliterally remember the moment
she walked into my life.
Now she's, she's a moldy girland she, you know, we're here on
the gold coast and she cameinto the classroom in year six
and it was I, straight away.
I was just, she just was sodifferent compared to everyone
else, you know, and just hadthis presence.
I literally remember the first,first moment I ever seen her.
Like it was crazy, but yeah, wekind of got together after high
(09:09):
school and we had, you know,we'd only been together for, you
know, nine months or somethinglike that, and I was actually
about to move over to Canada anddo the whole thing over there,
as a lot of the young Aussieboys do, and do the snow season.
And she fell pregnant and youknow, I was like, wow, that's it
.
Like, here I am.
You know, I'm not going toleave this.
You know, this kid without afather I'm going to man up and
(09:31):
you know, and yeah, we weregoing strong, but I was back in
that time, I was drinking, I wasaggressive, I was still, you
know, like using stuff, as youknow, using what happened to me
as an excuse and we actuallywere about to break up and you
know, we went and seen amarriage counsellor and we went
(09:52):
in and I've seen the marriagecounsellor for our relationship.
But the counsellor said to meit was a man and he was like, as
we're walking out, he's like,hey, mate, you know you've had a
bit going on in your life, youknow like, obviously because he
touched on my dad and all thatstuff, and he's like, would you,
I'd like to have a chat withyou?
You know like, come in and havea chat.
And and I did.
(10:12):
I went back like a few weekslater and it was the first time
that I actually listened to aman or had a man listen to me
and actually listen.
Not tell me what to do, youknow like, or tell me how I
should be.
He just, he was like man,you've had a hard life, you know
.
And then he said he goes, butyou can't move forward if you're
living in the past and, youknow, blaming all this stuff,
(10:33):
he's like you'll never be ableto take a step forward.
And I literally walked out ofthere, fucking like the world
had lifted off my shoulders.
I was just like, wow, this isit.
You know that was the moment ofchange and it didn't happen
instantly.
You know, like I always wentthrough these ups and downs, but
that was it.
That was the moment for me.
I had someone just tell me likehey, man, it's all right, like
(10:56):
you're not, you're not doing,you're not suffering this by
yourself.
Other people feel like this andit was, yeah, the first time,
like I said, the first time I'drespected a man, I guess because
, as I was saying, you know, Ireally was just a man-hater, you
know, like I just rebelledagainst that authority of a man
or anything like that, you know,and yeah, it was a real
defining moment in my life.
(11:17):
What was it about?
Lachlan Stuart (11:18):
him that allowed you to let the guard down and
allowed you to listen.
Mark Lucchiari (11:24):
Man I and he was just a caring, beautiful man.
I don't know what it was I wasso young, but it was the first
time I actually did let my guarddown and I remember crying in
there as I was going right backto when my dad passed away at my
(11:47):
dad's funeral.
I can't even remember who itwas and I've tried to find out
who it was.
It was one of my uncles said tome he's like, you're the man of
this family.
Now don't you ever let anotherman tell you different.
And that was like.
So I was always like I'm nevergonna.
You know, from a five-year-old,six-year-old kid, you know and I
think that was the first timewith this counselor, um, that
(12:08):
I'd actually had listened to aman and respected what he said.
And yeah, it was just so.
It was so nice to have someonecare about a man, care about me,
you know, um, and like, looklike my, my mom had, um, you
know, uh, boyfriends and stufflike that and they were awesome
and stuff like that, but I justalways still rebelled and never,
you know, I was the man of thefamily.
(12:28):
I was told that when I wasyoung, you know.
So this is the first time Ilistened to a man and I had a
man listen to me.
Lachlan Stuart (12:35):
Do you think there could have been anything
that anyone could have saidduring that period of time and
I'm just thinking from, like,parents, who are listening to
this perspective would therehave been anything your mom
could have said or otherinfluences in your life that
would have helped you earlier?
Or do you think it was like adivine timing?
Mark Lucchiari (12:52):
It was divine timing.
Like I said, my mum did amazing, like she's a superwoman, but
it's just something she couldn'treplace.
She couldn't be that personthat I needed.
You know, I needed a man, Ineeded a father figure, I guess,
and that was the first fatherfigure that I accepted, I
suppose was that guy.
I only met him once.
You know that was it after thatsession.
(13:14):
We never went back.
Yeah, me and the missus werefine and you know, because I had
actually changed, I was likeman, you know I've got to stop
partying and drinking and be thedad to my son that I wanted,
because I was about to lose allthat.
You know, we, we were about tobreak up and I was like man, I'm
not losing this, this is what I.
Everything goes against what Iwanted as a father to my son.
Lachlan Stuart (13:37):
And when you talk about becoming that father
to your son that you wanted orneeded, how did you get clear on
what that was?
I know you mentioned cuttingout drinking and partying and
things like that, but were thereany other things that spring to
mind that you really justshifted in an instant to be that
better father and that betterhusband?
Mark Lucchiari (13:58):
Man, look, I didn't even know what a dad was
meant to be or what a partnerwas meant to be.
All I'd seen was violence withmy mum, even the ongoing, the
boyfriends after that was justviolence, you know.
And I just knew I didn't wantto be that.
I just I was like there's nofucking way I'm putting my wife
through that or my son throughthat either.
You know, um, I just knew thattime.
(14:22):
I knew, like I, straight away,I was working for someone.
Um, I'm, you know, did myplumbing trade when I was really
young.
I was working for someone.
I remember a sports day orsomething.
I wanted to have the day offand the boss said no.
And I was like what?
Like no, man, you don't getthat sports day back.
What if my son won?
I wanted to see him.
(14:42):
I didn't care if he lost, Iwanted to see him run that race.
I was like that's it, I'mworking for myself.
Lachlan Stuart (14:48):
Like.
Mark Lucchiari (14:48):
I'm never having anyone tell me I can't go to my
kids' assembly or whatever itis, you know.
So, yeah, I just knew timebecause I had no time with my
dad, you know.
So I was going to have as muchtime as I can with my kids and,
like I said, I just winged it.
Man, I don't know.
I just be real.
(15:10):
I don't, you know.
Be real with my kids.
They know everything about me,they know my bad past I don't
sugarcoat anything and they'retwo of the most beautiful men
I've ever met, you know.
Lachlan Stuart (15:24):
So something's worked.
Mark Lucchiari (15:24):
I don't know what it is, something's worked.
Lachlan Stuart (15:26):
Eh Well, I think one of the cool things that
jumped out for me just then waswhen you didn't necessarily know
what a real dad looked like orthat father figure was like.
You just had ideas of what youdidn't want.
And I think that's a greatplace to start, because quite
often if we go, I don't wantthat for example, I don't want
to be broke, or I don't want tobe aggressive, or whatever it is
we just go.
What's the flip of that?
(15:47):
Let's just work towards that.
It gives us a bit of directionand none of us really know until
we start getting feedback.
As you just said, looch, you'vegot two beautiful children now,
and you have an idea of how thatturned out, but you did a great
job and I believe personallythat transparency and almost
(16:08):
raising your kids withdiscipline and great values, but
also allowing them to get toknow you because, going back to
what we were talking aboutearlier, a lot of young boys
especially, and young men, wejust see our parents and our
dads especially, as superhuman.
Yet your dad was obviouslydealing with stuff.
Everyone's dads or parents aregoing through things and if we
(16:31):
can sort of share that withinthe family, we can go.
Okay, my parents aren't perfect, I don't need to be perfect
either, but let's all workthrough this together and we
start learning problem solvingfrom an earlier age.
We start learning emotionalintelligence from an earlier age
and I think, from what you'vejust told me, I feel like there
are some key things that I'mgoing to take away and look to
(16:51):
implement into my life.
Mark Lucchiari (16:53):
Yeah, 100%.
And the big thing, like as well, is like I thought men were
superheroes and then when Istarted having my own issues,
that's when I thought like, oh,am I weak, am I different?
And that was the big, you know,misconception about men.
It was like men can bevulnerable and I never knew that
(17:14):
.
It's only been the last six orso years that I had truly become
myself.
Who's a vulnerable man, who isemotional and who wears my heart
on my sleeve, and I'm not shyto show that.
Now I feel, as you said before,I'm a pretty big guy and
tattooed and beard, and you knowlike can fight, you know, and a
(17:40):
lot of people see that as whata strong man is.
But that is total opposite.
You know, a strong man is a manwho is in touch with his
emotions and his soul and canshow that and be vulnerable and
be humble.
And you know that's what a manwho is in touch with his
emotions and his soul and canshow that and be vulnerable and
be humble.
And you know that's what astrong man is.
And I think that is changing alot these days.
I think people are starting toget educated to that.
(18:00):
You know, like I said, it tookme a long time.
I thought that was weakness,you know, for a long time, but
now I see that that is strength,you know.
Lachlan Stuart (18:14):
Massively.
You know for a long time, butnow I see it that that is
strength.
You know massively and you were, so you're 45 now.
Yeah, so that would have beenlike 39.
Right for you to start makingthat change.
So it also proves that itdoesn't matter what age we are.
We can really start makingchanges.
When you started to lean intothat side of, I guess, a more
vulnerable version of yourself,did you experience any pushback
(18:35):
from people in your socialcircle around any of that, or
were they extremely supportive?
Mark Lucchiari (18:41):
I'm very lucky, extremely supportive.
Look, I know a few peopleprobably like not close friends,
might have been saying a fewthings, but like no, my wife is
like she, you know, she allowsme to be who I am and loves me
for who I am and she's helped megrow so much into this man.
(19:01):
Um, my children as well, myboys, um, just you know, yeah,
they love the vulnerability ofme as well.
I'm sure that you know myemotions get.
I'm a pretty, pretty intenseguy, um, poor larsen's, but uh,
(19:21):
yeah, man, and you know theother.
The other big thing too, was Ireally just didn't give a fuck
anymore what people thought ofme.
That was the whole thing whichjust released that it was like
man, I know who I am like, Itruly know who I am inside and I
know my purpose.
Now, and a lot of people don'tget to know that man, a lot of
people go through their wholelife pretending to be someone
(19:43):
that they're not or pretendingto be that.
You know it's like, scared ofbecoming the real who they
really are.
Yeah and um, yeah, veryfortunate that you know I've
discovered who I really am andand I'm, you know, accepting it,
and it still is hard, like it'sstill.
Sometimes I try to pretend tobe the person I'm not as well to
fit in or something you knowlike, even in the big corporate
(20:03):
world and stuff like that.
I try to be a bit smarter thanI I'm guilty of that as well.
Yeah, mate, it's just like Idon't know.
Yeah, and we get you know withall social media and everyone's
lives look perfect and thataround you, you kind of it's
hard, you know, to actually bewho you are.
And yeah, it's something Istill struggle with, but it's
(20:27):
something I work on daily andI'm evolving every day and I'm
loving as I'm getting older manand being content with who I am.
I remember turning 40 and mostof my mates were like, ah, 40.
And I was like I hit 40.
I was like, well, I'm roughing.
I'm content with who I am.
My relationship's amazing, mykids are amazing.
(20:47):
I'm financially doing well.
I'm like this is freakingawesome.
I bring on 50.
This is what 40 is like.
Let's go.
Lachlan Stuart (20:58):
There's so much strength that comes from that
and for me very similar toprobably what other people said,
it's like when I thought I gotto 30, I thought life is pretty
much done, the best years arebehind you and people like
yourself and many other rolemodels that I have in my life
are inspiring me that we're justbeginning.
Emotionally, we're able tolearn so much more.
Physically, we're still capableof so much more, which is
(21:19):
exciting.
But for you to have thestrength to lean into who you
are, I do truly believe that alot of people know what they
want to be and who they want tobe, but the fear of isolation,
the fear of failure, just fearin general, holds many of us
back from actually exploringthat.
(21:40):
And I just know from a young ageI had an idea of what I wanted
to be doing, which I'm doing alot of now, but could have
started 15 years earlier, right.
But eventually you get to apoint or not everyone does,
unfortunately but I got to apoint, much like yourself, where
you just get fed up with thesame shit and not being your
authentic self and once youstart, sort of you do have this
(22:02):
period where it's veryuncomfortable and you're
figuring things out, maybeyou're changing social circles,
but eventually you figure it outand find it, and it's hard not
to want to embrace that anymore.
You just want to lean into whoyou are in.
Life just skyrockets.
It's like watching some bloodymeme coin and crypto spaces go
from zero to a million.
Just like that.
That's what life's like andit's a beautiful thing.
(22:24):
So what you've shown is likethis incredible inner strength
to really embody who you are,and I know I just really hope to
the fathers that are listeningto this, to the young men that
are listening to this is it'spossible for anyone, and it may
not be perfect, but it'spossible and you're working at
it still daily.
(22:44):
I'm working at it still daily.
What would be some things,looch, that you're doing in
those daily?
Things that help you become abetter version of yourself?
Mark Lucchiari (22:54):
Yeah, like I've got a pretty strict routine with
mindfulness and like I dobreath work every morning.
It's something I don't knowI've probably been doing for the
last three or four or fiveyears, probably now more.
So I'm doing it more so evennow, yep, just being present,
you know, not being on my phoneas much, just trying to be that,
(23:17):
like I said, being mindful andbeing kind to myself, forgiving.
You know like I'm very hard onmyself.
You know, being verycompetitive and just accepting
myself for who I am and givingmyself self-love, and that's,
you know, with my breath work, Ido a lot of affirmations and
it's daily, like sometimes it'sI'm cruising through life, and
(23:37):
then other times I'm literallydoing breath work twice.
You know, like affirmationsnearly all day and yeah, um,
just being aware, I suppose, ofof your thoughts, uh, it's so
easy to get distracted with youknow work, with sports, with you
know, alcohol, all theseoutside, you know, things that
(23:59):
can distract you from actuallybeing present with yourself.
Yeah, so I've, you know,discovered that and just been.
I enjoy being by myself now,where I never used to, you know,
and I enjoy hiking by myselfand just being out in the
mountains by myself and yeah,just you know, and I enjoy
hiking by myself and just beingout in the mountains by myself.
And yeah, just you know.
Also, just like, obviously,keeping fit, training, eating
(24:22):
healthy, all these things thatare cliché and everyone kind of
knows, but it really freakingworks, you know like it really
does, and not just one.
You know you can't just bedoing breath work and eating
like crap and drinking everynight.
You know one plus one equalstwo.
You've got to put these thingstogether and the more you put
together, the better you'regoing to be feeling and easier
(24:44):
life's going to be.
Lachlan Stuart (24:46):
And that reflection piece you speak of is
so powerful and it's why a lotof the time I'll get people to
introduce themselves even thoughI've got an iPad full of notes.
A lot of the time I'll getpeople to introduce themselves
even though I've got an iPadfull of notes, because often how
people introduce themselves isthe image that they have of
themselves.
And one of the biggestchallenges I have when
introducing myself is sort oflooking at some of the accolades
(25:06):
that I've got, because I don'twant to come across as arrogant
or whatever.
And a lot of the work that Ihave to do on myself is
overcoming the self-doubt butalso accepting that I have done
some cool things and whetherit's the Australian culture that
sort of makes us sort of keepthat behind closed doors a
(25:27):
little bit.
But the more you can start toembrace that and embody that,
the more confident we become asindividuals, as parents,
partners, business owners,whatever it is, and that brings
on the best version of ourself.
And it comes back to, I guess,things that you do with your
breath work and the affirmations.
We're just reprogramming oralmost guiding how we want to
think about ourself and how wewant to think about our reality
(25:49):
and the future that's to come,and I used to think it was
bullshit for so many years, likeI just thought it was like put
on your yoga pants, go smoke ajoint and that's kumbaya sort of
stuff.
But now I've really got into itand it's transformed my life
massively.
Mark Lucchiari (26:04):
Yeah, it's a strange thing that isn't it?
I don't know whether we'reprogrammed to think like that,
because it does free you andwithout getting down the
conspiracy theorist side ofthings, you know, of being part
of the system, because I find itdoes break you free, you know,
and I don't know whether it'syeah, and, and I am finding a
(26:24):
lot of my younger friends, youknow a lot of the younger
athletes are doing ice baths andbreath work and you know, way
different than when we like were.
You know for sure we wereathletes back in the day of just
partying and just sending it.
You know way different thanwhen we like were.
You know for sure we wereathletes back in the day of just
partying and just sending it.
You know, not looking afteryourself as well as we do these
days, but, um, yeah, it is.
It is a strange thing is why?
(26:45):
Why we find it hard to talkabout ourselves and and stuff,
like you know, like I said, evenwhen asked me, you stumped me
at the start.
I was like oh, okay yeah, likeI'm just this simple kind of guy
.
Lachlan Stuart (27:00):
Yeah, but I've got a bio written that would
impress people all over theworld about you.
Mark Lucchiari (27:05):
Yeah, and it's hard to even remember that too.
Like you know, I just got backfrom holiday and just been away
for three and a half weeks inEurope and had the most epic
time.
And you know, I was coming backand I started getting those
depressions coming back.
I'm like what the fuck am Igetting depressed about?
I'm going back to the mostincredible life.
Why does it have to end, like,just because I've been on
(27:26):
holiday, why does I have to havethis thing set in my mind when
I'm flying back?
As soon soon as I land, I'mback at work and I'm back into
this boring life.
I'm like my life's not boring,it's freaking amazing.
Like why am I?
Yeah, why am I getting thesefeelings?
And, yeah, man, it's, it'scrazy.
Our minds are crazy things.
Lachlan Stuart (27:44):
Hey, it really is why do you, why do you feel
you do have that period?
Because I've, you know, Iexperience a, I travel a fair
bit as well.
Mark Lucchiari (27:54):
So I I know exactly what you mean when
you're talking about that and Ihave my thoughts and ideas, but
I'd love to love to know ifyou've thought about that at all
yeah, mate, I've just,especially the last few days,
I've been really like, why is itand I think it's just my own
perception like I've put anending on something, something's
(28:14):
got to finish and something'sgot to start.
You know, even like I havetrouble with Mondays because you
know, I'm working during theweek and my weekend I'm jumping.
You know, most weekends we'llgo surfing in the morning,
skydiving after that, and thenI'll go for a climb, and I'll do
that Saturday and Sunday We'llhave beers and it's like just
have the most intense weekend.
(28:35):
And then Monday it's like, okay, that's over now.
Now I'm back, starting workagain and I just have this final
fun, and then the fun stuff'sfinished and now I've got to go
to work.
And it's just perception.
It really is the way youperceive things, you know, and
instead of looking at work, asyou know, all Monday as like, oh
(28:57):
, here we are starting the weekagain, it should be like, yeah,
let's go, let's attack the weekand, you know, let's get this
and let's improve myself again.
And this is a new beginning,you know.
Or it's just a continuationfrom Sunday to Monday.
It's just why is there an end?
I don't know.
I'm still figuring this one outmate.
Lachlan Stuart (29:13):
Yeah, it's interesting to think about
because I hadn't really thoughtabout perception, but I
definitely agree.
Like, even if this is reallyfor me, I was thinking like, oh,
is it my ability to deal withchange, even though I've chosen
the change?
Or, you know, I'm flying into anew city or we're crossing time
zones or someone else, you knowI'm going to a dinner party or
whatever it is.
It's just like I'm out of myroutine and I'm very
(29:36):
uncomfortable and I take alittle bit to settle in.
But it's also what you said.
It's like life is just this longmarathon.
Why does it need to be a startand a stop?
And I know people talk aboutbeginnings and ends and one end
leads to the new beginning.
I get that.
But if we just looked at it aslike one big beautiful story
(29:56):
where this part's allowing me todo that part, and you know it's
also like helping you manageyour energy.
Because if you were jumping outof I don't know, actually I
could be assuming here.
But if you were jumping out ofplanes every day, surfing every
day, doing some music every day,what did you start to take up?
Again when you get music, doyou feel?
Mark Lucchiari (30:15):
Yeah, I think everything loses its appeal when
you do it too much, doesn't it?
It doesn't matter how fun it is.
I guess and I guess that's thebeauty of humans is we always
got to keep.
Well, I know myself I'm neversatisfied.
That's why I've done I guessI've done so many sports.
You know wakeboarding orfootball to start off with, and
(30:37):
wakeboarding and always lovethose new challenges.
I think humans just lovechallenging themselves and you
know that's why we've spreadourselves across this globe and
do so many different things.
I guess you know and invent somany different things.
Lachlan Stuart (30:49):
It's yeah but what do you feel?
And I want to dive into whathappened in 2021 in a moment,
but just before we do, what doyou feel it is about you that
has enabled you to be a toplevel wakeboarder?
If anyone hasn't triedwakeboarding, that shit's hard
uh, an australian champion, muaythai fighter and, once again,
(31:11):
if anyone hasn't done muay thbrutal and then also skydiving
and base jumping and all thecrazy shit that you do now Like,
how have you been able to justbecome elite at everything that
you do?
Mark Lucchiari (31:28):
Hard work I'm not talented in anything and
just proving myself wrong, mydoubt wrong.
You know like I think it allstems from, you know, being that
young man losing his dad andhaving self-doubt and having all
this, you know, told that Ican't do this and can't do that.
(31:51):
I just love challenging myselfand I, just when I do something,
I just commit to it 100%, youknow, and that's where I just
try to, you know, instill in mykids and my friends and my
family around me.
I love pushing my limits and Ilove pushing the people around
me's limits as well.
Like humans, we don'tunderstand how powerful we are
(32:15):
and how much we can actually doand achieve and, like I said, we
get comfortable and I don'tlike being comfortable, so I
just push myself to the max, Iguess.
Yeah, just determination to notbe normal.
Like I said, the thing thatscares me in life is normality
and I just don't want to benormal, normal, so I just drive
myself to my limits ofeverything I do.
Lachlan Stuart (32:37):
I love it, man, and I'm with you.
I don't want to be normal aswell.
I observe what is normal and itdoesn't appeal to me at all.
There's not one part that I'mlike, apart from maybe the
security of it, or like it's noteven secure, but like the
routine of it.
Maybe sometimes that's nice,but aside from that, I look at
it, I nah, that's not for me andI'll do whatever I need to to
(32:58):
stay as far away from that aspossible.
But, looch, let's talk aboutJanuary 14, 2021.
Mark Lucchiari (33:06):
Yeah, what a day .
What a day, mate.
Yeah, where do you want tostart with it?
What do you?
Lachlan Stuart (33:15):
give.
Give people a rundown on whathappened on that that day mate.
Mark Lucchiari (33:20):
Well, I was in the wrong place at the right
time.
Is what's happened?
Um, yeah, look, it was just wewere.
It was a big skydiving.
Uh, weekends down at byron bay,um, we had these things called
boogies, where we all gettogether and we just jump all
day.
They'll be, you know, they'llhave coaches and you know it's
(33:40):
like an organised event and yeah, and then we party at night and
it's just yeah, having goodtimes.
And it was the Saturday, thefirst day of the event, and we
jumped all day with you know,and at the end of the day we
wanted to do this big sunsetjump and what's called a big way
, where there was.
(34:01):
You know, when we jump itdepends on what style of jumping
you're doing, but we usuallyjump in groups of three to kind
of five of us.
You know, we all fly theseformations and a big way is when
we have pretty much the wholeplane full.
There was 17 of us on the jumpand we're doing what's called a
big way angle, where we all flyacross the sky in like a
(34:21):
formation.
Um, so, you know, a lot ofpeople see skydiving.
You're just falling belly toearth, just flat down, but we
can actually move and trackacross the sky, and that's what
we're doing.
We're flying this formation.
You have some people on theirback, some people on their belly
.
We all have our slots.
What we call slots is ourpositions.
And, yeah, we were just anotherbig wave at the end of the day.
(34:46):
And, yeah, one of the boys justmade a mistake, mistimed his
approach to the formation.
Benny, he was the last diverout of the plane and, as you can
imagine, you know, by the timethe first guys leave the plane
and the last time the last guyleaves the plane, it's a long
distance between them.
So the last guy's got to divedown to the group.
(35:08):
So he goes in what's calledlike a dive, so he presents less
of his body to the the uh, tothe wind, which makes him fall
faster.
If we're falling like this andhe's falling head down, he's
going to fall a lot faster thanwe are.
So he just come flying through,flying through the group and
and need me in the back of thehead and um took me out and
completely ko'd me.
Um, you know, and and as he didthat, he's absolutely shattered
(35:33):
his knee, like his kneeliterally exploded on the back
of my head and, yeah, I wasfalling towards the earth
unconscious.
I did start coming to, but Iwas so out of it Like it was
actually out of my 43 fightsthat I've had and I've lost a
few from, you know, beingknocked down and stuff.
(35:54):
I've never been knocked outcold, so this was the first time
I'd actually been completelyknocked out cold in my life.
Lachlan Stuart (36:00):
Took someone's knee exploding to do so.
Mark Lucchiari (36:03):
Yeah, yeah, mate .
Yeah, it was yeah, lucky I'vegot a hard head, bit more skull
than brain, I guess.
But yeah, mate, look I wasknocked out, fallen towards the
earth, and a safety device wehave on our parachute saved my
life.
Literally metres from theground I did actually start
(36:27):
coming to and started.
I was still very, like, I guess, dazed, but was starting to
process what was going on.
Lachlan Stuart (36:35):
Were you just like, like spinning out of
control, or were you just sortof like still in free fall, or
how was that?
From what people have told youor the footage?
Mark Lucchiari (36:44):
So at first I was like just like a dead boy,
you know, just dead weight form.
And then I started coming to,and when I was flipping onto my
belly and I was moving around,so I was out of control,
flipping around and kind of notvery stable, yeah, and then like
I was belly to earth, so mymind was starting to work to
(37:06):
fall, you know, because it's noteasy to fall belly to earth,
you know, a lot of people thinkthat's just how you fall, but
you don't, you know.
And yeah, so my mind wasstarting to work.
I even started trying to do myemergency procedures but didn't
finish them off.
And, um, yeah, I did startgetting a realization that, like
, hang on, I'm about to go inand and that term in skydiving,
(37:30):
going in, means I'm about to die.
And, yeah, I didn't know why,what happened, I just knew I was
about to die and I was like, ohman, this is it, this is it,
it's over.
And, yeah, I kind of thoughtabout my wife and my kids and I
(37:53):
kind of nearly gave in for asecond.
I was like, oh, this is it, youknow.
Then I was like hang on, andlike you know, like I said, my
mind was still trying to workout what was going on and I
thought my emergency proceduresmustn't have worked.
I remember trying to reach upand grab my parachute and try
and do something.
I don't know what the hell Iwas trying to do.
I was just trying to dosomething, but, um, yeah, and
then, and then the safety devicethat we have it fired and, yeah
(38:15):
, my canopy opened.
Holy shit, yeah, I really didlike you know.
I thought it was it.
I was as close to death as youcan get.
It was literally seconds fromhitting the ground, yeah, so she
was a pretty wild ride.
Lachlan Stuart (38:33):
I don't want to like.
I want to dive into more ofthat when we've got Ben on, but
I'd love to know, when you'refaced with death, you mentioned
thinking about your family.
Was there any like from thatlife experience?
Now, is there anything thatyou've changed in your life as a
(38:53):
result of that?
Mark Lucchiari (38:55):
Yeah, 100%.
Look like I said, I've alwayslived life pretty, you know, at
the fullest, what I thought thefullest, and chasing my passions
and whatnot.
But what it did make me realizeI kind of, you know, reflected
on a lot of things about life.
Why am I here?
You know like, yeah, I shouldbe dead.
Um, you know I'm like why, whyaren't I?
(39:19):
What?
What?
What is my purpose?
Um, you know, and, yeah, itjust made me reflect and made me
think what, what matters themost to me?
Obviously, you know, my family,um, spending time with my family
, and one of the big things thatresonated with me and that I
realised was that my purpose isto help out and give back.
You know, and I've suffered allthese tragedies and traumatic
(39:43):
incidences and stuff like thatto give me the strength and the
knowledge and the power to helpout and give back.
And whether it be one or, youknow, some small conversation
with someone, this podcast here,someone gets inspired by it.
Yeah, it really just made mechase my passion of helping out
and giving back, creating, youknow, give and Get, which is,
(40:08):
you know, we're developingtechnology to put money into
charities.
You know, help mentoringyounger men more so, even more
so than what I kind of was justfollow my passions more, and we
touched a little bit on itbefore about not doing stuff
because I'm scared of it.
We don't do stuff in lifebecause you're fearful of it or
(40:29):
you're worried about whatsomeone thinks, and that really,
like I said, I don't care whatpeople think.
Now I know who I am.
I know my purpose on life.
My purpose is to be kind topeople and to help humans out
and do my part and leave myimpact.
A little segue to the title,yeah, a little segue.
And man, this is only thebeginning to I don't know where
(40:52):
this is going to go.
Me and Benny have been talkingabout it, of maybe starting the
Impact Men's Group and I justthis is my passion, this is what
I'm here for and you know Ijust it makes me tick, you know,
and like jumping off, you know,jumping out of planes and all
that stuff is amazing and funand it does give me that rush.
But helping someone out,putting a smile on someone's
(41:16):
face, giving a friend a hug,whatever it is, is really what
freaking life's about.
Lachlan Stuart (41:24):
It's probably no different to jumping out of a
plane by yourself.
It's a fulfilling memory foryou, but if you jump out of a
plane with some buddies and allcan reminisce on that when
you're older as well like it'sso much more meaningful and I
think life is meant to be shared.
As much as some of us.
You know people have socialanxiety or we don't know how to
communicate well or we aren'tbeing our honest self or our
(41:46):
true self, so to speak.
If we can move towards that,like life's only going to be
that much richer because thereare going to be people out there
who just go.
That's my dude, or that's my,my chick.
Mark Lucchiari (41:56):
Like I vibe with those people and they're the
people that I want to you know,spend my life making memories
with yeah, yeah, 100, yeah, likeyou said, it did really make me
be comfortable with myself.
My life is like you know.
It just reminded me like holyshit, this things can be done
like you know.
It just reminded me like holyshit, these things can be done
like that.
You know?
Like what?
Am I wasting time pretending tobe someone I'm not, or what?
(42:16):
Am I wasting time doingsomething that doesn't benefit
myself or my family, or myfriends or the people around me?
So now I'm just reallyconscious of just being a good
human, I guess.
Lachlan Stuart (42:29):
And, yeah, following that passion, it's
awesome, and if people have notbeen inspired, listening just
yet, I don't know what it'sgoing to take to help you guys
get your ass in the gear andchase the life that you want.
But let's talk about thedocumentary Impact.
So it's going to be coming outsoon.
You've got a premiere coming up, which will be awesome, but
(42:52):
where will people?
Well, firstly, before we findout where people will be able to
watch it and get inspired by it, give us a bit of a rundown on
what it's about, why you decidedto make it yeah, so the the
film it was about a year or soafter the accident.
Mark Lucchiari (43:07):
Um, me and benny were just talking about, like
we hadn't showed many people thefootage.
Um, we know what we're going todo with it.
We had, we had no idea.
We just, you know, like, uh,benny was pretty banged up.
I was, you know, realizing, youknow, all the new things in
life for myself.
Um, and we were just talkingabout what we should do.
(43:27):
We should maybe put the footageout there to help educate you.
Just, you know, the skydiversfrom what can happen.
Um, you know, and then, likebenny was really struggling I
don't want to speak for him, buthe was starting to really
struggle, you know, um, comingto terms with the accident, his
injury and all that.
And the more we talked to people, the more people got inspired
(43:48):
by the little story of thefriendship me and Benny
generated after it.
And you know, I was like, wow,we've got something here, we've
got a story.
Like what I said to Benny islike we're just ordinary people
with an extraordinary story.
You know, that needs to be told.
And so we started puttingtogether.
We didn't even know what we weremaking.
(44:10):
It wasn't like looking atmaking a documentary, a
full-featured documentary.
It just kept evolving and, yeah, it's got to where it is now
and it's been circulatingthrough the film festivals all
around the globe for the last 12months and, you know, won
awards all around the world andI just recently screened at the
(44:32):
Byron Bay International FilmFestival, where, you know, the
reception there was incredible.
We've just been selected forthe Sydney and Melbourne film
festivals as well.
But, yeah, we have our officialpremiere on the Gold Coast here
at POTA, the Home of the ArtsTheatre, on December 14th at
5.30.
Yeah, so you can get ticketsfor that if you jump on our
(44:56):
website, um, you can findtickets.
I'm sure you'll check a couplelinks yeah the website or jump
on the hoda and just type inimpact and it will come up um,
yeah, and then, and then mate.
After that we're not reallysure.
Like I said, we're stillwinging it.
That's like I do witheverything in life.
We're still winging it.
That's like I do witheverything in life.
We're just winging it to seewhat happens and hopefully it
can get picked up.
(45:16):
You know if there's anyone outthere listening and you know
who's a distributor or you knowa production company who would
like to maybe get this story outthere, because it is a really
inspirational story and it'sdoing really good things.
And yeah, yeah, we'd love toget it out to as many people as
we can, but at the moment we'rejust going to do the premiere.
It's going to show up thesefilm festivals and then
(45:38):
hopefully, you know, we mightget picked up by a streaming
service or or you know, we mightend up just putting it on
youtube or on our website to bedownloaded.
Lachlan Stuart (45:47):
Man it's so inspiring to see how you've
turned something that was Idon't want to say tragic, it's
not the right word, but I guesspainful and caused trauma in
your life and everything likethat, and I look forward to
diving into that more when we'vegot Benny on as well.
But you've turned it into thistool now, or this resource, to
(46:08):
help inspire so many otherpeople and it's just in such a
unique way.
I've never seen it done throughthis sort of lens.
You see a lot of inspirationalstuff with gym and, I guess,
running and things like that.
Maybe that's because that's thefield I'm in, but to see now
this firsthand experience fromskydiving and stuff man, as I
said, I love watching it onYouTube it scares the shit out
(46:32):
of me.
My hands start sweating nowwhen I think about jumping out
of a plane.
But the fact that you guys havelived to tell this story and we
can hear it from both angles,that's what I'm really, really
looking forward to when we haveyourself and Benny on to hear
what it was like through twopeople's minds, because same
event, two differentperspectives, and I think that's
(46:52):
such a powerful tool for peopleto learn how to live a better
life as well.
Mark Lucchiari (46:56):
Yeah, completely different man, and I can't take
my hats off enough to Benny forhim telling the story as the
person who you know caused theaccident.
It's just, I really admire thatguy.
That's, you know, not manypeople would do.
That man, you know, put himselfout in the public eye saying I
made a mistake and he's doingthat to help people, you know,
(47:18):
and that's I just.
Yeah, it gets me emotionalthinking about it every time,
like what a fucking man to putthat story out there, oh 100%.
I'm just the dude who's got acool story.
I got knocked out and I'vesurvived and I've just got this
(47:40):
kind of cool story to tell herat the pub these days, you know.
But, um, you know, yeah, itreally is, and I'm, you know,
like I said, I was, I was in thewrong place at the right time.
I'd never take anything back,man.
It was that that moment lifewas really special and important
to me and I'd never take thatback, you know?
Lachlan Stuart (47:47):
um, so yeah, just your, your mindset around
it is incredible.
You're still jumping as well.
Yeah, yeah, I don't even knowthe right question to ask for
that, but I'm like, why?
Like, if I, if I'd had anear-death experience, I
probably would tend to be on themore cautionary side.
(48:09):
You've sort of just lent backinto it.
What motivates you to keepdoing that?
Mark Lucchiari (48:14):
man, well, I well, if I was gonna live life
fearful after this, I might aswell have died.
You know like what?
Like I said I I jumped more.
After it I went jumping more.
I've lived life more like I wasjumping.
Six days later I went back andI did my first skydive back.
I was pretty bang up, probablyshouldn't have been jumping.
But I was like this is whatmakes me happy, man, that's what
(48:37):
drives me makes me happy isjumping.
And if I can't do that anymorebecause I'm scared, well I might
as well have just gone in.
You know like.
Lachlan Stuart (48:44):
For sure.
Mark Lucchiari (48:45):
Because that would have changed every way,
every aspect I look at life.
So many people's lives arecontrolled by fear and um you
know, I was like fuck that,let's smoke and go ham, let's go
even harder at life.
Lachlan Stuart (48:59):
I love it.
Yeah, is it, mate?
Your mindset is incredible.
I truly admire it because Ithink a lot of people could take
away so much from that.
Where can people find you onsocials for everyone listening
along as well?
To make it easy, I'll have allthe links in the show notes so
you can just click and getinvolved.
But if you're driving along andyou want to follow luch, where,
where can people find you out?
Mark Lucchiari (49:18):
yeah, mate, just post um instagram is probably
the best for me, and it's justluch l-u-c-c-h.
Uh, you know, look up marklucchiardi on there.
Um, our website for the impactis impactdococom, our Instagram
is impactmovie Unfortunately wecouldn't get all the same
handles and our Facebook isimpactfilm.
(49:42):
All right, yeah, mate.
But yeah, look, looch is whereyou can find me Everything's in
the bio there and follow my, my,uh, crazy journey through this,
uh, amazing thing we call life.
Lachlan Stuart (49:56):
Luch, you're an inspiration mate.
You're an incredible man andyou're doing such incredible
things for the world, and thefact that you're still
continuing to expand what'spossible in your life really
inspires me and I reallyappreciate your time today
cheers, mate.
Mark Lucchiari (50:10):
I uh, yeah, thanks for giving me the
platform to tell my story.
And, mate, right back at you.
You know you're doingincredible things yourself and,
yeah, it's been such a pleasureto meet you, man, and share this
space.
Welcome back to the man that Can.
With Lachie Stuart, I'm veryexcited and this one has been a
couple of months in the makingour guest today, we've got Lucch
, or Mark Lucchiari, on the show, who has got an incredible
story to tell, so much so thatthere's a documentary coming out
soon which you'll be able toget your hands on, and one that
(00:20):
I know my audience will get somuch out of, and the documentary
is going to be called Impact.
Now, what I'm very excitedabout today, looch, is obviously
yourself and your, I guess,co-partner in the documentary,
ben.
I'll be chatting to him afterthis and then we'll do a double
up episode in a couple ofmonths' time where you guys who
(00:41):
are listening will be able toask questions or, if you want to
dig a little bit deeper andmaybe I missed some questions
that are on your mind we'll beable to hit Mark and Ben at the
same time as well with those.
But, mark, thanks so much forcoming on the show.
Mark Lucchiari (00:55):
Hey, thanks for having me here.
I'm a bit frothing for this one.
We had a good chat a few monthsago and I loved your game plan
of splitting us up and yeah'mexcited, excited to have this
chat, mate?
Lachlan Stuart (01:08):
yeah, definitely , it's going to be fun and it's
such a unique, I think, even forme being able to.
You know, I watched a lot ofyour content and I'll put your
instagram page and all of thatin the show notes for people to
watch.
But I watch a lot of peoplejumping out of planes, which is
something that you do.
You're an adventurer, you're athrill seeker and I just get so
(01:29):
inspired by it, but I wouldn'thave the balls to continue doing
it.
I've done two jumps in my lifeout of a plane and I think I'm
more comfortable with my feet onthe ground, that's for sure.
But you've got a pretty wildstory and one that I'm keen to
dive into here.
But obviously, as we said,you've got a diverse background
in adventuring, fromwakeboarding to Muay Thai to
(01:50):
skydiving and, obviously, abusiness owner and entrepreneur.
Before we dive in, I would likeyou to introduce yourself to
our audience.
Mark Lucchiari (02:01):
Got me talking about myself, all right.
Lachlan Stuart (02:03):
How long have we got?
Yeah, we got five hours there,joe Rogan special.
Mark Lucchiari (02:09):
Mate.
Look, I don't know, To me Ifeel like I'm just a simple man,
but yeah, I am driven.
I guess I'm driven to live lifeto the fullest.
I think it all stems I lost mydad when I was really young, so
I had a pretty big taste ofdeath and loss and tragedy and
(02:32):
trauma and literally shaped meto be the man I am and, yeah, I
guess it just made me reallyappreciate what life is and that
we need to live it to thefullest.
You know, I'm a family man.
I become a dad quite young, at19 years old, and yeah, I really
(02:56):
pride myself with my family andbeing the dad to my boys that I
never had.
That's so important to me.
And just making the most ofthis time that we have here
which is literally that and asyou're just saying about jumping
out of planes and all thatstuff makes you uncomfortable.
It makes me uncomfortable too,and that's what I enjoy.
I love being uncomfortable.
I don't like being.
(03:17):
What scares me the most in thisworld is normality.
So, that's me in a nutshell mate.
This world is normality.
So that's me in a nutshell mate, pretty much.
Lachlan Stuart (03:30):
I can definitely relate there.
But let's go back.
So you touched on your dad andobviously wanting to become a
father and a man that you didn'thave.
Can we go back to thatrelationship, because I know you
did move from Melbourne I thinkit was up to the Gold Coast at
a young age and there wasobviously reasons behind that.
Could we dive into that at ayoung age and there?
Mark Lucchiari (03:45):
was obviously reasons behind that.
Could we dive into that?
Yeah, yeah.
So yeah, look, my dad, you know, was a violent man and he had a
lot of issues himself and, yeah, he ended up taking his own
life when I was I'd just turnedsix, I think.
We just moved, we moved up, wewere kind of like, I said, very
violent and we were trying toescape him.
We were living in, like I said,very violent and we were trying
to escape him.
(04:05):
We were living in refuges andstuff like that and we were
running away and we were movingup to the coast and, yeah, it
all got a bit too much for himand, you know, sadly, he took
his own life and, yeah, kind ofleft my mum with myself and my
sister up here to fend forherself.
(04:26):
And you know, like man, what awoman she is, you know, and
bringing especially me up, yeah,it kind of like it literally
just shaped everything, everypart of my life and every aspect
of it too, from the smallestlittle details of you know
getting pretty deep and sad.
(04:47):
Here is, you know, he committedsuicide with a photo of myself
and my sister beside him, andall those little details,
everything you know, has made meto be the man I am today, you
know, and the father I am to mykids, and as much as most boys
want a dad, know, like I've Istill to this day, you know,
(05:08):
even though he wasn't a good manand he's had his issues, you
know, his memory to me is frozenas a six-year-old kid.
You know he was my hero, youknow, and, um, yeah, that's all
I've ever wanted, but I wouldnever change anything, um, in
saying that, because literallyevery, every detail of this
tragedy has shaped me to be whoI am today, the guy sitting in
(05:29):
front of you right now, yeah,yeah, so Thanks for sharing that
and obviously sorry for yourloss there.
Lachlan Stuart (05:39):
A lot of men listening to this, I know, will
definitely relate, because evenfor myself and a lot of people,
we all idolize our dad.
It doesn't matter how they'reshowing up in our life.
For some reason we'regravitated to them just being
like this Superman in our life.
As you said, he wasn't the best, but there's still something
that you just wanted him aroundand you wanted to aspire to
(06:02):
impress him, and I think youknow I don't really know why
that is, and one of thebeautiful things about what
you've gone on to do is continueto build upon that.
There's people who potentiallyrepeat the pattern and maybe
treat others in a terriblemanner and almost are like a
victim from their circumstances,but you've chosen to use that
(06:24):
moment in your life to go.
This is how I don't want to beand move forward.
Mark Lucchiari (06:29):
And look, it wasn't always like that either.
I was playing the victim.
I was using it as an excuse.
When I was younger, I wasgetting in a lot of trouble.
I kind of repelled against men.
I was a pretty big young fellaand I was going out and I was
looking at getting fights.
(06:49):
I just loved.
I kind of I guess I seen myselfas a bully basher.
I used to just go out, findtrouble and you know, punt on,
and I was using it as an excusefor all the bad things that
happened to me in life.
You, you know, and it kind of Ithink it was about 23 or 24,
and I had this realisation thatyou know, it was me causing all
(07:12):
the bad things and you know, notto use this tragedy that
happened to me as an excuse toactually use it as motivation.
And that's what I did from thatmoment on, kind of turned that
around and said fuck this, I'mnot going to play the victim,
I'm going to use this as amotivation to become a better
human.
You know, and yeah, that was amassive turning point for me.
So, yeah, it wasn't alwaysroses and sunshine.
Lachlan Stuart (07:33):
Yeah, yeah, yeah .
I was going to say for thosewho like and I said this to you
when we first met I'm likeyou've got someone that I would
not want to piss off, but you'velearned to channel that, and
I'd love to know was there likea specific moment along the way
(07:55):
that triggered you to, orencourage you to want to be that
best version of yourself andreally turn things around?
Because for me, I'm always verycurious around what that moment
is For people.
We talk about rock bottoms andeverything like that, and
there's some people who justnever seem to claw their way out
of that, I guess, dark place.
(08:16):
They just choose to wallow inthat, and I'm a big believer
that all of us, through, I guess, pushing through tough moments,
can find purpose and can findmeaning in our life, and I would
love to know what that was likefor you.
Mark Lucchiari (08:30):
Yeah, well, look , I think it was.
It was as I was mentioningabout 23.
My wife and I, we got togetherwhen we were 19.
We've actually known each othersince year six.
Lachlan Stuart (08:40):
That's like the full notebook style.
Love right there.
Mark Lucchiari (08:46):
Yeah, year six.
All right, look, I literally, Iliterally remember the moment
she walked into my life.
Now she's, she's a moldy girland she, you know, we're here on
the gold coast and she cameinto the classroom in year six
and it was I, straight away.
I was just, she just was sodifferent compared to everyone
else, you know, and just hadthis presence.
I literally remember the first,first moment I ever seen her.
Like it was crazy, but yeah, wekind of got together after high
(09:09):
school and we had, you know,we'd only been together for, you
know, nine months or somethinglike that, and I was actually
about to move over to Canada anddo the whole thing over there,
as a lot of the young Aussieboys do, and do the snow season.
And she fell pregnant and youknow, I was like, wow, that's it
.
Like, here I am.
You know, I'm not going toleave this.
You know, this kid without afather I'm going to man up and
(09:31):
you know, and yeah, we weregoing strong, but I was back in
that time, I was drinking, I wasaggressive, I was still, you
know, like using stuff, as youknow, using what happened to me
as an excuse and we actuallywere about to break up and you
know, we went and seen amarriage counsellor and we went
(09:52):
in and I've seen the marriagecounsellor for our relationship.
But the counsellor said to meit was a man and he was like, as
we're walking out, he's like,hey, mate, you know you've had a
bit going on in your life, youknow like, obviously because he
touched on my dad and all thatstuff, and he's like, would you,
I'd like to have a chat withyou?
You know like, come in and havea chat.
And and I did.
(10:12):
I went back like a few weekslater and it was the first time
that I actually listened to aman or had a man listen to me
and actually listen.
Not tell me what to do, youknow like, or tell me how I
should be.
He just, he was like man,you've had a hard life, you know
.
And then he said he goes, butyou can't move forward if you're
living in the past and, youknow, blaming all this stuff,
(10:33):
he's like you'll never be ableto take a step forward.
And I literally walked out ofthere, fucking like the world
had lifted off my shoulders.
I was just like, wow, this isit.
You know that was the moment ofchange and it didn't happen
instantly.
You know, like I always wentthrough these ups and downs, but
that was it.
That was the moment for me.
I had someone just tell me likehey, man, it's all right, like
(10:56):
you're not, you're not doing,you're not suffering this by
yourself.
Other people feel like this andit was, yeah, the first time,
like I said, the first time I'drespected a man, I guess because
, as I was saying, you know, Ireally was just a man-hater, you
know, like I just rebelledagainst that authority of a man
or anything like that, you know,and yeah, it was a real
defining moment in my life.
(11:17):
What was it about?
Lachlan Stuart (11:18):
him that allowed you to let the guard down and
allowed you to listen.
Mark Lucchiari (11:24):
Man I and he was just a caring, beautiful man.
I don't know what it was I wasso young, but it was the first
time I actually did let my guarddown and I remember crying in
there as I was going right backto when my dad passed away at my
(11:47):
dad's funeral.
I can't even remember who itwas and I've tried to find out
who it was.
It was one of my uncles said tome he's like, you're the man of
this family.
Now don't you ever let anotherman tell you different.
And that was like.
So I was always like I'm nevergonna.
You know, from a five-year-old,six-year-old kid, you know and I
think that was the first timewith this counselor, um, that
(12:08):
I'd actually had listened to aman and respected what he said.
And yeah, it was just so.
It was so nice to have someonecare about a man, care about me,
you know, um, and like, looklike my, my mom had, um, you
know, uh, boyfriends and stufflike that and they were awesome
and stuff like that, but I justalways still rebelled and never,
you know, I was the man of thefamily.
(12:28):
I was told that when I wasyoung, you know.
So this is the first time Ilistened to a man and I had a
man listen to me.
Lachlan Stuart (12:35):
Do you think there could have been anything
that anyone could have saidduring that period of time and
I'm just thinking from, like,parents, who are listening to
this perspective would therehave been anything your mom
could have said or otherinfluences in your life that
would have helped you earlier?
Or do you think it was like adivine timing?
Mark Lucchiari (12:52):
It was divine timing.
Like I said, my mum did amazing, like she's a superwoman, but
it's just something she couldn'treplace.
She couldn't be that personthat I needed.
You know, I needed a man, Ineeded a father figure, I guess,
and that was the first fatherfigure that I accepted, I
suppose was that guy.
I only met him once.
You know that was it after thatsession.
(13:14):
We never went back.
Yeah, me and the missus werefine and you know, because I had
actually changed, I was likeman, you know I've got to stop
partying and drinking and be thedad to my son that I wanted,
because I was about to lose allthat.
You know, we, we were about tobreak up and I was like man, I'm
not losing this, this is what I.
Everything goes against what Iwanted as a father to my son.
Lachlan Stuart (13:37):
And when you talk about becoming that father
to your son that you wanted orneeded, how did you get clear on
what that was?
I know you mentioned cuttingout drinking and partying and
things like that, but were thereany other things that spring to
mind that you really justshifted in an instant to be that
better father and that betterhusband?
Mark Lucchiari (13:58):
Man, look, I didn't even know what a dad was
meant to be or what a partnerwas meant to be.
All I'd seen was violence withmy mum, even the ongoing, the
boyfriends after that was justviolence, you know.
And I just knew I didn't wantto be that.
I just I was like there's nofucking way I'm putting my wife
through that or my son throughthat either.
You know, um, I just knew thattime.
(14:22):
I knew, like I, straight away,I was working for someone.
Um, I'm, you know, did myplumbing trade when I was really
young.
I was working for someone.
I remember a sports day orsomething.
I wanted to have the day offand the boss said no.
And I was like what?
Like no, man, you don't getthat sports day back.
What if my son won?
I wanted to see him.
(14:42):
I didn't care if he lost, Iwanted to see him run that race.
I was like that's it, I'mworking for myself.
Lachlan Stuart (14:48):
Like.
Mark Lucchiari (14:48):
I'm never having anyone tell me I can't go to my
kids' assembly or whatever itis, you know.
So, yeah, I just knew timebecause I had no time with my
dad, you know.
So I was going to have as muchtime as I can with my kids and,
like I said, I just winged it.
Man, I don't know.
I just be real.
(15:10):
I don't, you know.
Be real with my kids.
They know everything about me,they know my bad past I don't
sugarcoat anything and they'retwo of the most beautiful men
I've ever met, you know.
Lachlan Stuart (15:24):
So something's worked.
Mark Lucchiari (15:24):
I don't know what it is, something's worked.
Lachlan Stuart (15:26):
Eh Well, I think one of the cool things that
jumped out for me just then waswhen you didn't necessarily know
what a real dad looked like orthat father figure was like.
You just had ideas of what youdidn't want.
And I think that's a greatplace to start, because quite
often if we go, I don't wantthat for example, I don't want
to be broke, or I don't want tobe aggressive, or whatever it is
we just go.
What's the flip of that?
(15:47):
Let's just work towards that.
It gives us a bit of directionand none of us really know until
we start getting feedback.
As you just said, looch, you'vegot two beautiful children now,
and you have an idea of how thatturned out, but you did a great
job and I believe personallythat transparency and almost
(16:08):
raising your kids withdiscipline and great values, but
also allowing them to get toknow you because, going back to
what we were talking aboutearlier, a lot of young boys
especially, and young men, wejust see our parents and our
dads especially, as superhuman.
Yet your dad was obviouslydealing with stuff.
Everyone's dads or parents aregoing through things and if we
(16:31):
can sort of share that withinthe family, we can go.
Okay, my parents aren't perfect, I don't need to be perfect
either, but let's all workthrough this together and we
start learning problem solvingfrom an earlier age.
We start learning emotionalintelligence from an earlier age
and I think, from what you'vejust told me, I feel like there
are some key things that I'mgoing to take away and look to
(16:51):
implement into my life.
Mark Lucchiari (16:53):
Yeah, 100%.
And the big thing, like as well, is like I thought men were
superheroes and then when Istarted having my own issues,
that's when I thought like, oh,am I weak, am I different?
And that was the big, you know,misconception about men.
It was like men can bevulnerable and I never knew that
(17:14):
.
It's only been the last six orso years that I had truly become
myself.
Who's a vulnerable man, who isemotional and who wears my heart
on my sleeve, and I'm not shyto show that.
Now I feel, as you said before,I'm a pretty big guy and
tattooed and beard, and you knowlike can fight, you know, and a
(17:40):
lot of people see that as whata strong man is.
But that is total opposite.
You know, a strong man is a manwho is in touch with his
emotions and his soul and canshow that and be vulnerable and
be humble.
And you know that's what a manwho is in touch with his
emotions and his soul and canshow that and be vulnerable and
be humble.
And you know that's what astrong man is.
And I think that is changing alot these days.
I think people are starting toget educated to that.
(18:00):
You know, like I said, it tookme a long time.
I thought that was weakness,you know, for a long time, but
now I see that that is strength,you know.
Lachlan Stuart (18:14):
Massively.
You know for a long time, butnow I see it that that is
strength.
You know massively and you were, so you're 45 now.
Yeah, so that would have beenlike 39.
Right for you to start makingthat change.
So it also proves that itdoesn't matter what age we are.
We can really start makingchanges.
When you started to lean intothat side of, I guess, a more
vulnerable version of yourself,did you experience any pushback
(18:35):
from people in your socialcircle around any of that, or
were they extremely supportive?
Mark Lucchiari (18:41):
I'm very lucky, extremely supportive.
Look, I know a few peopleprobably like not close friends,
might have been saying a fewthings, but like no, my wife is
like she, you know, she allowsme to be who I am and loves me
for who I am and she's helped megrow so much into this man.
(19:01):
Um, my children as well, myboys, um, just you know, yeah,
they love the vulnerability ofme as well.
I'm sure that you know myemotions get.
I'm a pretty, pretty intenseguy, um, poor larsen's, but uh,
(19:21):
yeah, man, and you know theother.
The other big thing too, was Ireally just didn't give a fuck
anymore what people thought ofme.
That was the whole thing whichjust released that it was like
man, I know who I am like, Itruly know who I am inside and I
know my purpose.
Now, and a lot of people don'tget to know that man, a lot of
people go through their wholelife pretending to be someone
(19:43):
that they're not or pretendingto be that.
You know it's like, scared ofbecoming the real who they
really are.
Yeah and um, yeah, veryfortunate that you know I've
discovered who I really am andand I'm, you know, accepting it,
and it still is hard, like it'sstill.
Sometimes I try to pretend tobe the person I'm not as well to
fit in or something you knowlike, even in the big corporate
(20:03):
world and stuff like that.
I try to be a bit smarter thanI I'm guilty of that as well.
Yeah, mate, it's just like Idon't know.
Yeah, and we get you know withall social media and everyone's
lives look perfect and thataround you, you kind of it's
hard, you know, to actually bewho you are.
And yeah, it's something Istill struggle with, but it's
(20:27):
something I work on daily andI'm evolving every day and I'm
loving as I'm getting older manand being content with who I am.
I remember turning 40 and mostof my mates were like, ah, 40.
And I was like I hit 40.
I was like, well, I'm roughing.
I'm content with who I am.
My relationship's amazing, mykids are amazing.
(20:47):
I'm financially doing well.
I'm like this is freakingawesome.
I bring on 50.
This is what 40 is like.
Let's go.
Lachlan Stuart (20:58):
There's so much strength that comes from that
and for me very similar toprobably what other people said,
it's like when I thought I gotto 30, I thought life is pretty
much done, the best years arebehind you and people like
yourself and many other rolemodels that I have in my life
are inspiring me that we're justbeginning.
Emotionally, we're able tolearn so much more.
Physically, we're still capableof so much more, which is
(21:19):
exciting.
But for you to have thestrength to lean into who you
are, I do truly believe that alot of people know what they
want to be and who they want tobe, but the fear of isolation,
the fear of failure, just fearin general, holds many of us
back from actually exploringthat.
(21:40):
And I just know from a young ageI had an idea of what I wanted
to be doing, which I'm doing alot of now, but could have
started 15 years earlier, right.
But eventually you get to apoint or not everyone does,
unfortunately but I got to apoint, much like yourself, where
you just get fed up with thesame shit and not being your
authentic self and once youstart, sort of you do have this
(22:02):
period where it's veryuncomfortable and you're
figuring things out, maybeyou're changing social circles,
but eventually you figure it outand find it, and it's hard not
to want to embrace that anymore.
You just want to lean into whoyou are in.
Life just skyrockets.
It's like watching some bloodymeme coin and crypto spaces go
from zero to a million.
Just like that.
That's what life's like andit's a beautiful thing.
(22:24):
So what you've shown is likethis incredible inner strength
to really embody who you are,and I know I just really hope to
the fathers that are listeningto this, to the young men that
are listening to this is it'spossible for anyone, and it may
not be perfect, but it'spossible and you're working at
it still daily.
(22:44):
I'm working at it still daily.
What would be some things,looch, that you're doing in
those daily?
Things that help you become abetter version of yourself?
Mark Lucchiari (22:54):
Yeah, like I've got a pretty strict routine with
mindfulness and like I dobreath work every morning.
It's something I don't knowI've probably been doing for the
last three or four or fiveyears, probably now more.
So I'm doing it more so evennow, yep, just being present,
you know, not being on my phoneas much, just trying to be that,
(23:17):
like I said, being mindful andbeing kind to myself, forgiving.
You know like I'm very hard onmyself.
You know, being verycompetitive and just accepting
myself for who I am and givingmyself self-love, and that's,
you know, with my breath work, Ido a lot of affirmations and
it's daily, like sometimes it'sI'm cruising through life, and
(23:37):
then other times I'm literallydoing breath work twice.
You know, like affirmationsnearly all day and yeah, um,
just being aware, I suppose, ofof your thoughts, uh, it's so
easy to get distracted with youknow work, with sports, with you
know, alcohol, all theseoutside, you know, things that
(23:59):
can distract you from actuallybeing present with yourself.
Yeah, so I've, you know,discovered that and just been.
I enjoy being by myself now,where I never used to, you know,
and I enjoy hiking by myselfand just being out in the
mountains by myself and yeah,just you know, and I enjoy
hiking by myself and just beingout in the mountains by myself.
And yeah, just you know.
Also, just like, obviously,keeping fit, training, eating
(24:22):
healthy, all these things thatare cliché and everyone kind of
knows, but it really freakingworks, you know like it really
does, and not just one.
You know you can't just bedoing breath work and eating
like crap and drinking everynight.
You know one plus one equalstwo.
You've got to put these thingstogether and the more you put
together, the better you'regoing to be feeling and easier
(24:44):
life's going to be.
Lachlan Stuart (24:46):
And that reflection piece you speak of is
so powerful and it's why a lotof the time I'll get people to
introduce themselves even thoughI've got an iPad full of notes.
A lot of the time I'll getpeople to introduce themselves
even though I've got an iPadfull of notes, because often how
people introduce themselves isthe image that they have of
themselves.
And one of the biggestchallenges I have when
introducing myself is sort oflooking at some of the accolades
(25:06):
that I've got, because I don'twant to come across as arrogant
or whatever.
And a lot of the work that Ihave to do on myself is
overcoming the self-doubt butalso accepting that I have done
some cool things and whetherit's the Australian culture that
sort of makes us sort of keepthat behind closed doors a
(25:27):
little bit.
But the more you can start toembrace that and embody that,
the more confident we become asindividuals, as parents,
partners, business owners,whatever it is, and that brings
on the best version of ourself.
And it comes back to, I guess,things that you do with your
breath work and the affirmations.
We're just reprogramming oralmost guiding how we want to
think about ourself and how wewant to think about our reality
(25:49):
and the future that's to come,and I used to think it was
bullshit for so many years, likeI just thought it was like put
on your yoga pants, go smoke ajoint and that's kumbaya sort of
stuff.
But now I've really got into itand it's transformed my life
massively.
Mark Lucchiari (26:04):
Yeah, it's a strange thing that isn't it?
I don't know whether we'reprogrammed to think like that,
because it does free you andwithout getting down the
conspiracy theorist side ofthings, you know, of being part
of the system, because I find itdoes break you free, you know,
and I don't know whether it'syeah, and, and I am finding a
(26:24):
lot of my younger friends, youknow a lot of the younger
athletes are doing ice baths andbreath work and you know, way
different than when we like were.
You know for sure we wereathletes back in the day of just
partying and just sending it.
You know way different thanwhen we like were.
You know for sure we wereathletes back in the day of just
partying and just sending it.
You know, not looking afteryourself as well as we do these
days, but, um, yeah, it is.
It is a strange thing is why?
(26:45):
Why we find it hard to talkabout ourselves and and stuff,
like you know, like I said, evenwhen asked me, you stumped me
at the start.
I was like oh, okay yeah, likeI'm just this simple kind of guy
.
Lachlan Stuart (27:00):
Yeah, but I've got a bio written that would
impress people all over theworld about you.
Mark Lucchiari (27:05):
Yeah, and it's hard to even remember that too.
Like you know, I just got backfrom holiday and just been away
for three and a half weeks inEurope and had the most epic
time.
And you know, I was coming backand I started getting those
depressions coming back.
I'm like what the fuck am Igetting depressed about?
I'm going back to the mostincredible life.
Why does it have to end, like,just because I've been on
(27:26):
holiday, why does I have to havethis thing set in my mind when
I'm flying back?
As soon soon as I land, I'mback at work and I'm back into
this boring life.
I'm like my life's not boring,it's freaking amazing.
Like why am I?
Yeah, why am I getting thesefeelings?
And, yeah, man, it's, it'scrazy.
Our minds are crazy things.
Lachlan Stuart (27:44):
Hey, it really is why do you, why do you feel
you do have that period?
Because I've, you know, Iexperience a, I travel a fair
bit as well.
Mark Lucchiari (27:54):
So I I know exactly what you mean when
you're talking about that and Ihave my thoughts and ideas, but
I'd love to love to know ifyou've thought about that at all
yeah, mate, I've just,especially the last few days,
I've been really like, why is itand I think it's just my own
perception like I've put anending on something, something's
(28:14):
got to finish and something'sgot to start.
You know, even like I havetrouble with Mondays because you
know, I'm working during theweek and my weekend I'm jumping.
You know, most weekends we'llgo surfing in the morning,
skydiving after that, and thenI'll go for a climb, and I'll do
that Saturday and Sunday We'llhave beers and it's like just
have the most intense weekend.
(28:35):
And then Monday it's like, okay, that's over now.
Now I'm back, starting workagain and I just have this final
fun, and then the fun stuff'sfinished and now I've got to go
to work.
And it's just perception.
It really is the way youperceive things, you know, and
instead of looking at work, asyou know, all Monday as like, oh
(28:57):
, here we are starting the weekagain, it should be like, yeah,
let's go, let's attack the weekand, you know, let's get this
and let's improve myself again.
And this is a new beginning,you know.
Or it's just a continuationfrom Sunday to Monday.
It's just why is there an end?
I don't know.
I'm still figuring this one outmate.
Lachlan Stuart (29:13):
Yeah, it's interesting to think about
because I hadn't really thoughtabout perception, but I
definitely agree.
Like, even if this is reallyfor me, I was thinking like, oh,
is it my ability to deal withchange, even though I've chosen
the change?
Or, you know, I'm flying into anew city or we're crossing time
zones or someone else, you knowI'm going to a dinner party or
whatever it is.
It's just like I'm out of myroutine and I'm very
(29:36):
uncomfortable and I take alittle bit to settle in.
But it's also what you said.
It's like life is just this longmarathon.
Why does it need to be a startand a stop?
And I know people talk aboutbeginnings and ends and one end
leads to the new beginning.
I get that.
But if we just looked at it aslike one big beautiful story
(29:56):
where this part's allowing me todo that part, and you know it's
also like helping you manageyour energy.
Because if you were jumping outof I don't know, actually I
could be assuming here.
But if you were jumping out ofplanes every day, surfing every
day, doing some music every day,what did you start to take up?
Again when you get music, doyou feel?
Mark Lucchiari (30:15):
Yeah, I think everything loses its appeal when
you do it too much, doesn't it?
It doesn't matter how fun it is.
I guess and I guess that's thebeauty of humans is we always
got to keep.
Well, I know myself I'm neversatisfied.
That's why I've done I guessI've done so many sports.
You know wakeboarding orfootball to start off with, and
(30:37):
wakeboarding and always lovethose new challenges.
I think humans just lovechallenging themselves and you
know that's why we've spreadourselves across this globe and
do so many different things.
I guess you know and invent somany different things.
Lachlan Stuart (30:49):
It's yeah but what do you feel?
And I want to dive into whathappened in 2021 in a moment,
but just before we do, what doyou feel it is about you that
has enabled you to be a toplevel wakeboarder?
If anyone hasn't triedwakeboarding, that shit's hard
uh, an australian champion, muaythai fighter and, once again,
(31:11):
if anyone hasn't done muay thbrutal and then also skydiving
and base jumping and all thecrazy shit that you do now Like,
how have you been able to justbecome elite at everything that
you do?
Mark Lucchiari (31:28):
Hard work I'm not talented in anything and
just proving myself wrong, mydoubt wrong.
You know like I think it allstems from, you know, being that
young man losing his dad andhaving self-doubt and having all
this, you know, told that Ican't do this and can't do that.
(31:51):
I just love challenging myselfand I, just when I do something,
I just commit to it 100%, youknow, and that's where I just
try to, you know, instill in mykids and my friends and my
family around me.
I love pushing my limits and Ilove pushing the people around
me's limits as well.
Like humans, we don'tunderstand how powerful we are
(32:15):
and how much we can actually doand achieve and, like I said, we
get comfortable and I don'tlike being comfortable, so I
just push myself to the max, Iguess.
Yeah, just determination to notbe normal.
Like I said, the thing thatscares me in life is normality
and I just don't want to benormal, normal, so I just drive
myself to my limits ofeverything I do.
Lachlan Stuart (32:37):
I love it, man, and I'm with you.
I don't want to be normal aswell.
I observe what is normal and itdoesn't appeal to me at all.
There's not one part that I'mlike, apart from maybe the
security of it, or like it's noteven secure, but like the
routine of it.
Maybe sometimes that's nice,but aside from that, I look at
it, I nah, that's not for me andI'll do whatever I need to to
(32:58):
stay as far away from that aspossible.
But, looch, let's talk aboutJanuary 14, 2021.
Mark Lucchiari (33:06):
Yeah, what a day .
What a day, mate.
Yeah, where do you want tostart with it?
What do you?
Lachlan Stuart (33:15):
give.
Give people a rundown on whathappened on that that day mate.
Mark Lucchiari (33:20):
Well, I was in the wrong place at the right
time.
Is what's happened?
Um, yeah, look, it was just wewere.
It was a big skydiving.
Uh, weekends down at byron bay,um, we had these things called
boogies, where we all gettogether and we just jump all
day.
They'll be, you know, they'llhave coaches and you know it's
(33:40):
like an organised event and yeah, and then we party at night and
it's just yeah, having goodtimes.
And it was the Saturday, thefirst day of the event, and we
jumped all day with you know,and at the end of the day we
wanted to do this big sunsetjump and what's called a big way
, where there was.
(34:01):
You know, when we jump itdepends on what style of jumping
you're doing, but we usuallyjump in groups of three to kind
of five of us.
You know, we all fly theseformations and a big way is when
we have pretty much the wholeplane full.
There was 17 of us on the jumpand we're doing what's called a
big way angle, where we all flyacross the sky in like a
(34:21):
formation.
Um, so, you know, a lot ofpeople see skydiving.
You're just falling belly toearth, just flat down, but we
can actually move and trackacross the sky, and that's what
we're doing.
We're flying this formation.
You have some people on theirback, some people on their belly
.
We all have our slots.
What we call slots is ourpositions.
And, yeah, we were just anotherbig wave at the end of the day.
(34:46):
And, yeah, one of the boys justmade a mistake, mistimed his
approach to the formation.
Benny, he was the last diverout of the plane and, as you can
imagine, you know, by the timethe first guys leave the plane
and the last time the last guyleaves the plane, it's a long
distance between them.
So the last guy's got to divedown to the group.
(35:08):
So he goes in what's calledlike a dive, so he presents less
of his body to the the uh, tothe wind, which makes him fall
faster.
If we're falling like this andhe's falling head down, he's
going to fall a lot faster thanwe are.
So he just come flying through,flying through the group and
and need me in the back of thehead and um took me out and
completely ko'd me.
Um, you know, and and as he didthat, he's absolutely shattered
(35:33):
his knee, like his kneeliterally exploded on the back
of my head and, yeah, I wasfalling towards the earth
unconscious.
I did start coming to, but Iwas so out of it Like it was
actually out of my 43 fightsthat I've had and I've lost a
few from, you know, beingknocked down and stuff.
(35:54):
I've never been knocked outcold, so this was the first time
I'd actually been completelyknocked out cold in my life.
Lachlan Stuart (36:00):
Took someone's knee exploding to do so.
Mark Lucchiari (36:03):
Yeah, yeah, mate .
Yeah, it was yeah, lucky I'vegot a hard head, bit more skull
than brain, I guess.
But yeah, mate, look I wasknocked out, fallen towards the
earth, and a safety device wehave on our parachute saved my
life.
Literally metres from theground I did actually start
(36:27):
coming to and started.
I was still very, like, I guess, dazed, but was starting to
process what was going on.
Lachlan Stuart (36:35):
Were you just like, like spinning out of
control, or were you just sortof like still in free fall, or
how was that?
From what people have told youor the footage?
Mark Lucchiari (36:44):
So at first I was like just like a dead boy,
you know, just dead weight form.
And then I started coming to,and when I was flipping onto my
belly and I was moving around,so I was out of control,
flipping around and kind of notvery stable, yeah, and then like
I was belly to earth, so mymind was starting to work to
(37:06):
fall, you know, because it's noteasy to fall belly to earth,
you know, a lot of people thinkthat's just how you fall, but
you don't, you know.
And yeah, so my mind wasstarting to work.
I even started trying to do myemergency procedures but didn't
finish them off.
And, um, yeah, I did startgetting a realization that, like
, hang on, I'm about to go inand and that term in skydiving,
(37:30):
going in, means I'm about to die.
And, yeah, I didn't know why,what happened, I just knew I was
about to die and I was like, ohman, this is it, this is it,
it's over.
And, yeah, I kind of thoughtabout my wife and my kids and I
(37:53):
kind of nearly gave in for asecond.
I was like, oh, this is it, youknow.
Then I was like hang on, andlike you know, like I said, my
mind was still trying to workout what was going on and I
thought my emergency proceduresmustn't have worked.
I remember trying to reach upand grab my parachute and try
and do something.
I don't know what the hell Iwas trying to do.
I was just trying to dosomething, but, um, yeah, and
then, and then the safety devicethat we have it fired and, yeah
(38:15):
, my canopy opened.
Holy shit, yeah, I really didlike you know.
I thought it was it.
I was as close to death as youcan get.
It was literally seconds fromhitting the ground, yeah, so she
was a pretty wild ride.
Lachlan Stuart (38:33):
I don't want to like.
I want to dive into more ofthat when we've got Ben on, but
I'd love to know, when you'refaced with death, you mentioned
thinking about your family.
Was there any like from thatlife experience?
Now, is there anything thatyou've changed in your life as a
(38:53):
result of that?
Mark Lucchiari (38:55):
Yeah, 100%.
Look like I said, I've alwayslived life pretty, you know, at
the fullest, what I thought thefullest, and chasing my passions
and whatnot.
But what it did make me realizeI kind of, you know, reflected
on a lot of things about life.
Why am I here?
You know like, yeah, I shouldbe dead.
Um, you know I'm like why, whyaren't I?
(39:19):
What?
What?
What is my purpose?
Um, you know, and, yeah, itjust made me reflect and made me
think what, what matters themost to me?
Obviously, you know, my family,um, spending time with my family
, and one of the big things thatresonated with me and that I
realised was that my purpose isto help out and give back.
You know, and I've suffered allthese tragedies and traumatic
(39:43):
incidences and stuff like thatto give me the strength and the
knowledge and the power to helpout and give back.
And whether it be one or, youknow, some small conversation
with someone, this podcast here,someone gets inspired by it.
Yeah, it really just made mechase my passion of helping out
and giving back, creating, youknow, give and Get, which is,
(40:08):
you know, we're developingtechnology to put money into
charities.
You know, help mentoringyounger men more so, even more
so than what I kind of was justfollow my passions more, and we
touched a little bit on itbefore about not doing stuff
because I'm scared of it.
We don't do stuff in lifebecause you're fearful of it or
(40:29):
you're worried about whatsomeone thinks, and that really,
like I said, I don't care whatpeople think.
Now I know who I am.
I know my purpose on life.
My purpose is to be kind topeople and to help humans out
and do my part and leave myimpact.
A little segue to the title,yeah, a little segue.
And man, this is only thebeginning to I don't know where
(40:52):
this is going to go.
Me and Benny have been talkingabout it, of maybe starting the
Impact Men's Group and I justthis is my passion, this is what
I'm here for and you know Ijust it makes me tick, you know,
and like jumping off, you know,jumping out of planes and all
that stuff is amazing and funand it does give me that rush.
But helping someone out,putting a smile on someone's
(41:16):
face, giving a friend a hug,whatever it is, is really what
freaking life's about.
Lachlan Stuart (41:24):
It's probably no different to jumping out of a
plane by yourself.
It's a fulfilling memory foryou, but if you jump out of a
plane with some buddies and allcan reminisce on that when
you're older as well like it'sso much more meaningful and I
think life is meant to be shared.
As much as some of us.
You know people have socialanxiety or we don't know how to
communicate well or we aren'tbeing our honest self or our
(41:46):
true self, so to speak.
If we can move towards that,like life's only going to be
that much richer because thereare going to be people out there
who just go.
That's my dude, or that's my,my chick.
Mark Lucchiari (41:56):
Like I vibe with those people and they're the
people that I want to you know,spend my life making memories
with yeah, yeah, 100, yeah, likeyou said, it did really make me
be comfortable with myself.
My life is like you know.
It just reminded me like holyshit, this things can be done
like you know.
It just reminded me like holyshit, these things can be done
like that.
You know?
Like what?
Am I wasting time pretending tobe someone I'm not, or what?
(42:16):
Am I wasting time doingsomething that doesn't benefit
myself or my family, or myfriends or the people around me?
So now I'm just reallyconscious of just being a good
human, I guess.
Lachlan Stuart (42:29):
And, yeah, following that passion, it's
awesome, and if people have notbeen inspired, listening just
yet, I don't know what it'sgoing to take to help you guys
get your ass in the gear andchase the life that you want.
But let's talk about thedocumentary Impact.
So it's going to be coming outsoon.
You've got a premiere coming up, which will be awesome, but
(42:52):
where will people?
Well, firstly, before we findout where people will be able to
watch it and get inspired by it, give us a bit of a rundown on
what it's about, why you decidedto make it yeah, so the the
film it was about a year or soafter the accident.
Mark Lucchiari (43:07):
Um, me and benny were just talking about, like
we hadn't showed many people thefootage.
Um, we know what we're going todo with it.
We had, we had no idea.
We just, you know, like, uh,benny was pretty banged up.
I was, you know, realizing, youknow, all the new things in
life for myself.
Um, and we were just talkingabout what we should do.
(43:27):
We should maybe put the footageout there to help educate you.
Just, you know, the skydiversfrom what can happen.
Um, you know, and then, likebenny was really struggling I
don't want to speak for him, buthe was starting to really
struggle, you know, um, comingto terms with the accident, his
injury and all that.
And the more we talked to people, the more people got inspired
(43:48):
by the little story of thefriendship me and Benny
generated after it.
And you know, I was like, wow,we've got something here, we've
got a story.
Like what I said to Benny islike we're just ordinary people
with an extraordinary story.
You know, that needs to be told.
And so we started puttingtogether.
We didn't even know what we weremaking.
(44:10):
It wasn't like looking atmaking a documentary, a
full-featured documentary.
It just kept evolving and, yeah, it's got to where it is now
and it's been circulatingthrough the film festivals all
around the globe for the last 12months and, you know, won
awards all around the world andI just recently screened at the
(44:32):
Byron Bay International FilmFestival, where, you know, the
reception there was incredible.
We've just been selected forthe Sydney and Melbourne film
festivals as well.
But, yeah, we have our officialpremiere on the Gold Coast here
at POTA, the Home of the ArtsTheatre, on December 14th at
5.30.
Yeah, so you can get ticketsfor that if you jump on our
(44:56):
website, um, you can findtickets.
I'm sure you'll check a couplelinks yeah the website or jump
on the hoda and just type inimpact and it will come up um,
yeah, and then, and then mate.
After that we're not reallysure.
Like I said, we're stillwinging it.
That's like I do witheverything in life.
We're still winging it.
That's like I do witheverything in life.
We're just winging it to seewhat happens and hopefully it
can get picked up.
(45:16):
You know if there's anyone outthere listening and you know
who's a distributor or you knowa production company who would
like to maybe get this story outthere, because it is a really
inspirational story and it'sdoing really good things.
And yeah, yeah, we'd love toget it out to as many people as
we can, but at the moment we'rejust going to do the premiere.
It's going to show up thesefilm festivals and then
(45:38):
hopefully, you know, we mightget picked up by a streaming
service or or you know, we mightend up just putting it on
youtube or on our website to bedownloaded.
Lachlan Stuart (45:47):
Man it's so inspiring to see how you've
turned something that was Idon't want to say tragic, it's
not the right word, but I guesspainful and caused trauma in
your life and everything likethat, and I look forward to
diving into that more when we'vegot Benny on as well.
But you've turned it into thistool now, or this resource, to
(46:08):
help inspire so many otherpeople and it's just in such a
unique way.
I've never seen it done throughthis sort of lens.
You see a lot of inspirationalstuff with gym and, I guess,
running and things like that.
Maybe that's because that's thefield I'm in, but to see now
this firsthand experience fromskydiving and stuff man, as I
said, I love watching it onYouTube it scares the shit out
(46:32):
of me.
My hands start sweating nowwhen I think about jumping out
of a plane.
But the fact that you guys havelived to tell this story and we
can hear it from both angles,that's what I'm really, really
looking forward to when we haveyourself and Benny on to hear
what it was like through twopeople's minds, because same
event, two differentperspectives, and I think that's
(46:52):
such a powerful tool for peopleto learn how to live a better
life as well.
Mark Lucchiari (46:56):
Yeah, completely different man, and I can't take
my hats off enough to Benny forhim telling the story as the
person who you know caused theaccident.
It's just, I really admire thatguy.
That's, you know, not manypeople would do.
That man, you know, put himselfout in the public eye saying I
made a mistake and he's doingthat to help people, you know,
(47:18):
and that's I just.
Yeah, it gets me emotionalthinking about it every time,
like what a fucking man to putthat story out there, oh 100%.
I'm just the dude who's got acool story.
I got knocked out and I'vesurvived and I've just got this
(47:40):
kind of cool story to tell herat the pub these days, you know.
But, um, you know, yeah, itreally is, and I'm, you know,
like I said, I was, I was in thewrong place at the right time.
I'd never take anything back,man.
It was that that moment lifewas really special and important
to me and I'd never take thatback, you know?
Lachlan Stuart (47:47):
um, so yeah, just your, your mindset around
it is incredible.
You're still jumping as well.
Yeah, yeah, I don't even knowthe right question to ask for
that, but I'm like, why?
Like, if I, if I'd had anear-death experience, I
probably would tend to be on themore cautionary side.
(48:09):
You've sort of just lent backinto it.
What motivates you to keepdoing that?
Mark Lucchiari (48:14):
man, well, I well, if I was gonna live life
fearful after this, I might aswell have died.
You know like what?
Like I said I I jumped more.
After it I went jumping more.
I've lived life more like I wasjumping.
Six days later I went back andI did my first skydive back.
I was pretty bang up, probablyshouldn't have been jumping.
But I was like this is whatmakes me happy, man, that's what
(48:37):
drives me makes me happy isjumping.
And if I can't do that anymorebecause I'm scared, well I might
as well have just gone in.
You know like.
Lachlan Stuart (48:44):
For sure.
Mark Lucchiari (48:45):
Because that would have changed every way,
every aspect I look at life.
So many people's lives arecontrolled by fear and um you
know, I was like fuck that,let's smoke and go ham, let's go
even harder at life.
Lachlan Stuart (48:59):
I love it.
Yeah, is it, mate?
Your mindset is incredible.
I truly admire it because Ithink a lot of people could take
away so much from that.
Where can people find you onsocials for everyone listening
along as well?
To make it easy, I'll have allthe links in the show notes so
you can just click and getinvolved.
But if you're driving along andyou want to follow luch, where,
where can people find you out?
Mark Lucchiari (49:18):
yeah, mate, just post um instagram is probably
the best for me, and it's justluch l-u-c-c-h.
Uh, you know, look up marklucchiardi on there.
Um, our website for the impactis impactdococom, our Instagram
is impactmovie Unfortunately wecouldn't get all the same
handles and our Facebook isimpactfilm.
(49:42):
All right, yeah, mate.
But yeah, look, looch is whereyou can find me Everything's in
the bio there and follow my, my,uh, crazy journey through this,
uh, amazing thing we call life.
Lachlan Stuart (49:56):
Luch, you're an inspiration mate.
You're an incredible man andyou're doing such incredible
things for the world, and thefact that you're still
continuing to expand what'spossible in your life really
inspires me and I reallyappreciate your time today
cheers, mate.
Mark Lucchiari (50:10):
I uh, yeah, thanks for giving me the
platform to tell my story.
And, mate, right back at you.
You know you're doingincredible things yourself and,
yeah, it's been such a pleasureto meet you, man, and share this
space.
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