Next Level University

#1746 - No One Really Stumbles Upon Success…

• Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

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Curious about the secrets behind high achievers? Join Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros as they uncover the game-changing habits and mindsets that propel successful individuals to the top. In this episode, they explore the world of high achievers, sharing practical insights and wisdom from Evan Carmichael’s high-level mastermind event in Toronto. Tune in for inspiration on achieving and sustaining success!

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Kevin: https://www.instagram.com/neverquitkid/
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Alan@nextleveluniverse.com

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Kevin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-palmieri-5b7736160/
Alan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanlazarosllc/

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Show notes:
(2:32) Success traits of high achievers
(7:12) Overcoming self-doubt
(13:28) Recognizing failures in achieving success
(16:08) Community support and humbleness
(19:36) Building expertise through repetition
(21:50) Meet like-minded people and jumpstart your journey to achieving your dreams while optimizing your life. Join Next Level Group Coaching. https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/group-coaching/
(24:24) Continu

Send a text to Kevin and Alan!

🎙️ Hosted by Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

Next Level University is a top-ranked daily podcast for dream chasers and self-improvement lovers. With over 2,100 episodes, we help you level up in life, love, health, and wealth one day at a time. Subscribe for real, honest, no-fluff growth every single day.

Speaker 1

Next Level Nation. Welcome back to another episode of Next Level University, where we help you level up your life, your love, your health and your wealth. Today, for episode number 1,746, no one really stumbles upon success. So, as you know and I have mentioned in the previous episode, yesterday's episode I was in Toronto last week with Evan Carmichael and it was Evan Carmichael's mastermind and I think this was Evan Carmichael's most expensive mastermind. I won't say numbers because I don't want to give away any information I'm not supposed to, but we are talking thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars a year to be part of this.

Speaker 1

And the first gentleman I met, greg super, super cool dude, very, very, very nice. I saw him do a little bit of an interview with Evan and then somebody else was doing an interview, so he and I went and grabbed coffee across the street at Starbucks. Just a really cool guy, very successful and now trying to help as many people as he can, based on some of the stuff that he was struggling with. And I found a through line of of the stuff that he was struggling with and I found a through line of all the people that were there. They were all very, very intentional with everything that they did. They were all very intentional with their calendars. They were all very intentional with their sleep. They were all very intentional with drinking enough liquid. Alan, one of the young ladies there, got a hundred sleep score, really, on one of the nights and I was like how did you do that?

Speaker 1

no yeah, yeah, and she was talking about how she's like oh, I'm somebody who I am very, very focused on taking naps. I, I sleep eight hours, no matter what, every single night.

Speaker 2

She's like, like it's just been a habit, but she used to skydive. The highest we've ever got was 94. Well, she got 100.

Speaker 1

In a random place which is wild. She used to skydive. She did a lot of skydiving. Like you, are an interesting human being. Best-selling author. What that was a through line for me is these humans take really, really good care of themselves and they are very intentional about everything that they do, and most of them were very, very quick to take a thought that they learned and then put it into practice. Most of them are very, very fast to do that, and it just it helps me understand that most people that are successful are just doing a lot of things behind the scenes that you just don't see.

Speaker 2

Let's go into that.

Success traits of high achievers

Speaker 1

Yeah, you just don't see the behaviors and a lot of it's by design. A lot of people don't want you to see what they're doing.

Speaker 2

So I want to interview you. So the people in that room you said are very successful statistically speaking.

Speaker 1

Yes.

Speaker 2

What are some of the things that you've noticed? So what did you notice about them that's different than the general population? And again, this is not Kevin being unkind. This is Kevin teaching something that can help all of us.

Speaker 1

Well, this is something I wish I knew seven years ago. For sure, they all ask questions. They all everybody in there asked really really good questions. Even at the risk of looking potentially stupid, they all asked really good questions.

Speaker 2

It's almost like they didn't care if they looked stupid. No Right.

Speaker 1

No, when they didn't understand something, it was more important to get the information than it was to look a certain way. That was one. What else? Everybody was on time, nobody was late. Everybody was there prompt.

Speaker 2

Nice.

Speaker 1

Yeah, everybody was there promptly. The fear of judgment. I told you this, this at the end of the first day. We did a thing at the end where we went around the room and you said you gave someone flowers, basically saying I want to compliment this person on something that they did today, and nobody was shy about talking. Nobody was shy about speaking in front of a crowd. Everybody was just yeah, sure, let me go. Everybody was very outgoing, Even people that were probably introverted just were they were very outgoing. There was, yeah, I think the ultimate thing was there was a lot of certainty.

Speaker 1

A lot of self-belief, a lot of self-belief, I would say.

Speaker 2

If you had to put zero to 10 level of self-belief a lot of self-belief, I would say. If you had to put zero to ten level of self-belief, statistically speaking, if you took the whole room, what's the average self-belief in the room?

Speaker 1

probably seven. There were a few. There were a few people that were probably newer to this journey, that definitely had some doubt and and weren't as high in self-belief.

Speaker 2

Was everyone in the room higher self-belief than you?

Speaker 1

No, no, which is weird.

Speaker 2

Was some people.

Speaker 1

Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely, probably 70% of the room was probably, I would say, probably higher self-belief than I.

Speaker 2

Cool, but a few years ago and this is Believe Nation, because Evan's thing is believe. Believe in yourself.

Speaker 1

Yeah.

Speaker 2

But a few years ago. And this is Believe Nation, because Evan's thing is believe. Believe in yourself, yeah, believe in your purpose, believe in your mission, built to serve. That's another thing that I've noticed, based on what you've told me, because I'm always reading between the lines of what you say. They're all there to serve.

Speaker 1

They're all there to serve Because Evan's there to serve, and this will be hopefully positive and powerful for anybody who has any villainization of success. They were all really good people, like really, really really good human beings, many of them. Somebody one of them literally just texted me did you have a?

Speaker 2

did? Did old kevin have any reversions of wanting to villainize I?

Speaker 1

I think in the beginning. Yeah, there were a couple that I had seen their content and I went in with a preconceived notion of who they were and then when I met them and then saw them speak and saw them interact with the group, that went away pretty quickly. But yeah, I think I was intimidated. I had a minute. No, that wasn't a minute. I had a time the night before I left. I had a minute. No, that wasn't a minute, I had a time the night before I left. So I left on Tuesday morning early, like 4.30 in the morning. It was a long day when I started to see the social media of the people who were going Because, like Evan would tag them, and I had a moment where I was like I am going to get found out so bad, I'm going to get found out so bad, I'm going to get found out so bad. These people are all unreasonably successful. So I was going in, I think, with that uncertainty and that fear.

Speaker 2

And ironically, if anything, it was the opposite. After your speech, some of the feedback you got was I got really good feedback yeah, but Ev said if anything, it was too smart. You're too smart for your own good.

Speaker 1

Yeah, he said make it simpler, Make it simpler than it was.

Speaker 2

So you thought you were going to get found out. It was actually the opposite.

Overcoming self-doubt

Speaker 1

Yeah, well, it was weird. It was weird for me, I think that's the thing. As I got deeper into it and I started making friends with people, I wasn't as worried, but the night before I left I was like this is going to be a disaster. I'm in trouble, I'm in over my head here. I definitely had that moment and I didn't say anything to anybody because I didn't want to, I didn't want to let it in, but I was close to telling Taryn like I think I'm in about what. Everybody here is more successful than me. Why don't? Why is why is this kid speaking? Everybody was older than me. I was the youngest one there. I'm pretty sure I would imagine that's another data point success comes with age.

Speaker 2

Usually yeah, yeah I wish that I could show people I always say this, this, and I doubt it ever lands, but I'm going to keep saying it forever. Young people have lower self-worth typically because they're just young. I coach a 16-year-old and an 18-year-old. The 16-year-old is lifeguarding and he's super pumped because he's making more money than he's ever made. But he doesn't understand that he's making more money than he's ever made, but he doesn't understand that he's he's making really good money relative to his age. I don't think other people think about that. I talk about age all the time, because being a multi-millionaire in your teens and 20s like almost isn't a thing yeah that's like, statistically that's a point zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, one percent of thing.

Speaker 2

I wish I could show the world the stats of the large, large, large majority of wealth in the world. Success in the world is in the hands of much older people because of the compound effect of time. You just don't. There are no like self-made billionaire 20 year olds, you know, and, and unfortunately there are a couple which skews our perspective, like mark zuckerberg was one of them. There's a couple, but statistically speaking that's not a thing and unfortunately social media makes that a thing and it's just not so yeah, those are like one thing, that you were the youngest there.

Speaker 2

That's a big tell, that's a. It makes sense that they're more successful than you. You're the youngest one there. Well, it was just and in some of in some cases, they're actually not more successful than you, but yeah, yeah, Well, you and I yeah, yeah, I don't, I it reverting to.

Speaker 1

Wanting to be alone. Like wanting to just be alone instead of going and surrounding myself with everybody else, like just wanting to be a loner and stay in the room by myself. I did after my speech. So my speech was right before lunch and then I asked Evan for feedback and I was hanging out with justin, one of the videographers cool dude and then everybody, they were leaving. They're like you're gonna come eat and I said no, I'm good. Like I don't really eat. On days I speak ever I don't know if I ever have I don't eat. Especially I don't like when we do next level live, I never eat. When we go speak other places, I, I'm good, I'll eat when I go back. There's a thing for me is I don't like to eat until I'm completely decompressed and the day's over.

Speaker 2

And.

Speaker 1

I can fully relax. Yeah, fully R&R. So I stayed in the room by myself where everybody else ate lunch. I needed it. I just needed to be alone and sit with my feelings. But I think that was probably a. It probably started off as a little Kev thing.

Speaker 2

So so far, everyone was more intentional with their time, their calendar. No one's afraid to look dumb. Everyone asks a lot of questions. Everyone's really successful, everyone's very confident statistically speaking. What else?

Speaker 1

Everybody was very and I don't mean this in a negative way, if anybody's listening everybody was very specific. They were really really good at their thing. Whatever that thing was, whether it was health coaching or helping health coaches make money, or whatever it was everybody was really good at it, very niche. Yeah, everybody was really good at their thing and it was clear that they've worked a long time on that.

Speaker 2

When you say long time, talk to me.

Speaker 1

I mean, one of the individuals there has been a doctor for like 30 years, has been a doctor for like 30 years and now they're trying to help other doctors with some stuff that comes with being a doctor. I mean, they've been a doctor for 30 years. That is a long time to be a doctor, it's a long time to do anything. But how much have you learned in 30 years of being a doctor?

Speaker 2

Yeah, it's unreal. We're only seven years in, I know, so more than triple that yeah yeah, it's crazy and then the one of the other things.

Speaker 1

so there was a. There was a guy there, another justin, and he was talking about how it was his third YouTube channel that actually became successful. The first two were garbage and he quit. He was like they're not working, so that a lot of the people in there again they look successful, but they've had so many failures along the way to get them to where they are today. But you'd never see that you don't really know that you don't know about the albums that don't do well really you know the albums that do yep.

Speaker 1

So that's another thing is it's really easy to recognize success. It's harder to recognize the failures that created the success. Because number one understandably nobody highlights it, and number two, it's where do you look? If it's not notable, you don't see it. It If it's not notable, you don't see it. It's not noteworthy, you don't see it.

Speaker 2

Yeah, so true.

Speaker 1

That was a big one.

Speaker 2

Like the book that flops, doesn't get on the bookshelf.

Speaker 1

Yeah and you never yeah. It's like how would you ever know it exists? Where would you look? Yeah, you couldn't find it if you. That's the thing. You probably couldn't find it if you wanted to, because it did so badly. Everybody was very curious. It was very much when I was meeting new people. They wanted me to talk about me more than they wanted to talk about them.

Speaker 2

They're trying to pick your brain, right.

Recognizing failures in achieving success

Speaker 1

I guess I don't know. I think in my mind it was well, they're just curious, they want to know my story and nobody knows who I am. So this group of people had been together before. I was one of three new people and I was the only person, I think, who's not in the mastermind. So I think everybody was trying to figure out who I was and what I was doing there to a degree.

Speaker 2

Were they trying to learn from you?

Speaker 1

Were they trying to learn from you? Yeah, yeah. When they found out about podcasting and what I do as a podcaster, that's another distinction as well.

Speaker 2

Yeah, that was a distinction. Successful people are super curious.

Speaker 1

Yeah, everybody was very clear on their core values. That's something that I heard a lot was oh, you know, I used to do this and I used to do this, and now I want to make sure that I can do this and spend time with my family, or health is super important to me, and it wasn't always.

Speaker 2

Everybody was very curious. Yeah, so they were older and wiser of making all the mistakes of going astray for a long time. A lot of them probably regretted grinding so hard, but in the wrong values.

Speaker 1

In the wrong way. I would say those are the big ones. If you see me looking, it's because Ace is crawling into a box in the corner and I didn't know what that noise was. So that's why I looked over weird. I would say those were probably. Those were probably the big ones. And then I guess the last big one for me was everybody wanted to help everybody else win. There was no competition. There was no. Yeah, there was no competition. There was no there. Yeah, there was no competition. Everybody wanted to help each other yeah, there's no.

Speaker 2

You have to lose for me to win no, yeah, none of that was there any of the stag status? Ego bonking crap? No, why?

Speaker 1

because ev doesn't yeah, because I think evan create that a humble human who attracts humble people in yeah, humility was high, super high humility was. I told you it was higher than I expected.

Speaker 2

Again, you don't know when you don't know what to expect what's the humility in the room if, if belief is seven, nine, that's awesome it was very I can tell, based on your experience, that it was really high. I could tell by your audios, because kev gave me an audio update every, every evening, and I could tell that it was rocking you, but in a good way yeah, it wasn't bad.

Community support and humbleness

Speaker 1

It wasn't bad, it was. It was very powerful. It was definitely very outside my comfort zone, Because that's the other thing too is. So I did an interview with Evan on Wednesday and usually when I'm done with my thing I can relax. It's like all right, the interview's done Now I can relax and learn for the rest of the week, and it was well. No, the thing actually hasn't even happened yet. The thing's on Friday. The interview was the easy part and the speaking was the harder part, and speaking was the harder part. Interview went really well. I think it went really well. Got good feedback from people that heard it and from Evan. Cool. Easier than I expected, based on the fact that it was an hour and a half and I had questions and I didn't even look at my sheet. Went really well I felt good Speech was. I was more nervous than I thought it was going to be.

Speaker 2

Did you bring your notebook? Yeah, with the questions on it?

Speaker 1

Yeah, but I didn't look it was there, but I didn't look at it.

Speaker 2

Next step is no notebook at all.

Speaker 1

Yeah, I don't know. There's a piece of me that.

Speaker 2

Wants to stay humble in that? Yeah.

Speaker 1

Yeah, I just want to make sure it was valuable. I don't want to assume that I don't need anything. It's not that I needed it. I very clearly didn't need it. I didn't need the notebook, but I wanted to make sure that I had all the most important questions, just in case. But we ended up flowing in a different direction.

Speaker 2

But the speech was. It was like Aime at the Next Level Live speech. She ended up coming to me afterwards and I know she wouldn't mind me sharing this, but she said I think I would have been better off without the, the notebook, and I said you're ready? You're ready to go?

Speaker 1

up there in the beginning worst advice ever.

Speaker 2

Yeah, it's not great. It's not good advice, so this is not for anyone who's new, but if you've been doing it for long enough, you can tell. You can tell when you're worse off. Reverting to your notes, it crosses a. I had a moment not long ago. What was I doing? I was on a podcast and I knew that this advice would be terrible for someone else, but I had a moment of. I think that I'm actually better without any prep whatsoever. And by no prep whatsoever I don't mean not having a presentation. I think the can of a presentation needs to be solid, but I don't need to have any'm gonna go in this way. It's.

Speaker 1

It's almost like a what's going on I just have a cat on my desk oh, okay, ace is making an appearance.

Speaker 2

Yeah, I. I think that I'm better off reading the room in the moment and reading the energy in the interview, Because I had a podcaster say don't worry, I'll send you the questions in advance. And I said do you have to? This is a pre-chat. And he said well, I always do, because you never know. I said, I feel confident, Would you be willing to not send them? He's like are you sure? I said yeah, yeah, man, it's going to be fine. Just, I'd rather not know. I can be more present and in the moment and yeah, I'll fumble. I mean, I did in the last episode. I had two or three brain farts.

Speaker 1

It's going to happen but I can pick it. You can fumble either way. That's the thing you you're either going to fumble because you don't remember what you want to say, or you're going to fumble because you don't know what you want to say yet that's all or you're going to fumble because you try to stay on rails that aren't actually most valuable.

Speaker 2

That's fair, yeah, and so it's one of those things where you can prep, but then you can also over prep, and the amount of prep is predicated on your experience see.

Building expertise through repetition

Speaker 1

But I think that's why I felt good is because I in in my mind, I could almost see, I knew the questions. I spent enough time like writing questions down where they were in my mind. It was just in case we got to a dead end and I really wanted to touch on something that I didn't know if we were going to. So it felt constructive. It didn't feel like a crutch.

Speaker 2

Do you think you're ready for no Note but still doing the prep behind the scenes?

Speaker 1

Yeah, I think I could have done it then I just I don't know if I want to. It's more a conversation of. I think I'm perfectly capable of it, especially now. I felt really good Best I've ever felt in an interview, for sure but I don't know if I want to. I think I'd like to have the notebook there in case, in case there's something specific. Like I was interviewing evan on youtube, so I want. I had very specific things that I want and I didn't even get through all of them. I had what are the most important three metrics. You track all of that stuff. I didn't even get to those based on where the conversation was. So, yeah, I think I'd probably still do it the same way. I I just kind of see what happens.

Speaker 2

You, aime and I and I want to bring it back to the original point, but I've come to understand this too. With podcasting going on so many other shows and our show too we are extremely, extremely, extremely on the far end of go in with a topic and speak what's on your heart about that topic in that moment, on some guardrails, but it's not. We've never written a speech. Remember how you messed up one word on your first speech? Yeah, there's no such thing as that anymore for us, because that we're not going in with any script whatsoever. There's no like notes on our slides. There's no read anything. The the only thing I can think of that is scripted is actually on the slide that we read verbatim. That's very unique. I'm realizing that. I'm watching, I'm taking a lot of trainings and I have the course I bought. These are super scripted things and it bothers me a little bit too, because you can tell and I wonder what's different about us in that. But that's been fascinating, for sure. Is you and I just don't script anything anymore.

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Speaker 1

The reps, I, we've done a lot. It's been One of the things that somebody asked me like, how did you get to where you are in terms of the amount of episodes and all that? And I said, when one got easy, we did two a week, and then when two got easy, we did three, and then when three got easy, we got. And I for years at this point, 21 was brutal, 21 in a week was brutal. Yeah.

Speaker 2

On top of the seven others.

Speaker 1

Seven isn't too bad. I mean, there's a lot of other stuff going on, but I said it's just that you just start with one, and when one it's the old weight, it's the weightlifting example when five pounds gets easy, you go to 10, and then when 10 gets easy, you go to 15, and eventually it takes longer. Eventually you're very, very strong, but it takes longer to progress I think that's kind of where we.

Speaker 1

I'll speak for myself. That's where I am now, where this is the first time I ever gave this speech. I literally made. I finished it the morning of, didn't do any dry runs, I just went up there and said, all right, let's see what happens. And I miss. I missed some stuff that I wanted to say for sure, because I I after it was it was hindsight is 2020 oh, that would have landed awesome if I did that there. I wasn't there when I did it.

Speaker 2

It wasn't in my head, so I didn't do it is that ever? Not going to be the case, though. There is no perfect game, no, but we'll.

Speaker 1

There's only a perfect, no. Perfect game no, but we'll do meetups and stuff.

Speaker 2

There's only a perfect game when you script it.

Speaker 1

Yeah, but we'll do meetups and stuff where I feel like I hit 90% of what I wanted to say. I didn't feel like I hit 90%. I was probably like 75% of what I wanted to say.

Speaker 2

No kidding, but your 75% now is better than 150% three or four years ago, right?

Speaker 1

And and I'm not beating myself up I still think it was good. I think it was a really good job. It just wasn't. When I'm looking back, it's like I'm really glad I get to run that back on July 4th. I get another shot at that, because that's good, it's fresh. I can add more to it because it's longer. I'm really excited to do it again, based on the fact that I already did it one time.

Continuous improvement and value of personal investment

Speaker 2

That's cool the fact that I already did it one time. That's cool. One other thing that jumps off the page back to the similarities in the room this is a mastermind. That's very expensive per year. Very expensive is obviously relative, but expensive. The type of human being who invests that kind of money into their own personal and professional development is naturally humble. I mean, who's who's going to invest that kind of money into being personally and professionally more developed? That isn't humble, I don't. That's like not a thing in a way, unless it's a statusy thing. Some people do invest in things that are status-y but it doesn't seem like that was.

Speaker 1

No, that was not the case there. One of the guys literally said when I was making a YouTube channel, I saw Evan and somebody recommended him to me. I did a call with Evan and then I signed up the next day. It was just I feel like he can help me skip steps, so they were willing to ask for and pay for help. Now again, not everybody has the financial means to pay that level of dollars.

Speaker 1

I understand that that's a small subset of humans, but they were very, very much. They were very clear on the goal they wanted to get to. They were very clear on the fact that they didn't know how to do it. They were very clear on the fact that they could find someone who could, and they were very clear on the goal they wanted to get to. They were very clear on the fact that they didn't know how to do it. They were very clear on the fact that they could find someone who could, and they were very clear on the fact that that would make their journey easier was that the most successful people you've ever been around?

Speaker 2

in terms of the amount of humans yeah.

Speaker 1

In terms of quantity of yeah, I would say so yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2

What does that mean for kev?

Speaker 1

I trust me. I was thinking that I had a. I had a moment when I finished my speech where I was like I can understand why people lose themselves a little bit, like people were wanting to take pictures with me and again, it wasn't like whoa, my goodness, you're the best ever.

Speaker 1

I need to get a picture and an autograph. Can you sign my, my 8x10 photo of you? It wasn't that, but it felt really good to have people say well, that was really good like would you mind taking a picture with me? I was like, yeah, cool, sure, of course what do you?

Speaker 1

mean, yeah, it was. I can understand why it gets weird for people. For sure and again, I'm when I say that I am zero. I'm not zero level of success, but I'm not. In the grand scheme of things, I'm more successful than I ever thought I would be, but I'm further away from the success we're striving for than I ever thought I was too.

Speaker 2

So it's an interesting paradox nice, nice, if you will, paradox. New favorite word for 2024.

Speaker 1

It was a very humbling experience. It was very highlighting, very humbling, very revealing to me. It was awesome. But it was one of those things where, when I'm really high emotionally or really low emotionally, I always reflect. So that night after I went back, I did my work, I ordered tacos later that night because I had tacos like every night. I was there and I was just exhausted. I was just beat Mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually. I was just beat and by the time I ate it ended up by the time I had time to eat. It was late and I was just looking at old content, like I do, and it was just. I watched one of my. I wrote a song one time. It was like a minute song about suicide, about how I was suicidal, and I was just like crying in bed Not a bad cry, it was just like a release of oh, this was like another thing to check off. That's really cool. I'm very proud.

Speaker 2

I. This was, this was like another thing to check off. That's really cool. I'm very proud. I'm very proud of myself. So that was cool. Yeah, that was cool, cool. Then I ate my tacos. One question you're gonna hate then we'll go sure. Now keep in mind listeners, anyone viewing or listening. I'm asking kevin this, and this is not something kevin would necessarily want to lead with what is the really really, really, really, really, really, really, really hard truth that you would be scared to share with our listeners, slash viewers that you think would make them more successful if they really took it in, based on what you learned in toronto? You are afraid to say it because you don't want to hurt anyone, but it is the fucking truth I think a lot of people take unimportant stuff way more serious than they do their goals.

Speaker 1

A lot of people are celebrating like the celtics won the championship. I guess, I don't know, I didn't watch it but the celtics, alan and I live in. I almost called you like six different names for some reason. That was like the fifth one that came. I was like, oh, this is alan I don't know why.

Speaker 2

It's because I have so many names in my head we live in live in new england.

Speaker 1

The boston celtics are a new england basketball team and they won the championship. There are some people who are more focused on that and celebrating that and that is putting more excitement into their life than anything else they're doing, and that is a recipe for you ending up old and miserable one day. So it would be that it would be. One of the through lines was everybody there was focused on growth and getting better and adding more value and saving money and being healthier and being a better partner. Everybody there was focused on growth and getting better and adding more value and saving money and being healthier and being a better partner. Everybody there was focused on their goals, supremely focused on their goals, and it's not going to the topic of this episode. If and when they become more successful than they are, it's not because they stumbled upon it, it's because they designed it. So it would be that I know again.

Prioritizing goals over distractions

Speaker 1

I know in the past I focused on stuff that just didn't matter, but it makes sense on why I wasn't successful. I knew more about what was happening on social media than I knew in my own life. I knew what was happening in the NFL more than I knew what was happening in my bank account. I knew what was happening more with the gossip at work than I had any idea that was going on in my personal relationships. It's no wonder why I was stuck where I was. So, yeah, it would be that it would be the things that a lot of us are focusing on are the things that bring us pleasure in the moment or escape in the moment, and, unfortunately're that's going to be the probably the trend for a long period of time, because you're not going to be creating a life that you don't want to escape from that.

Speaker 2

Yeah, I've been saying that for so long is I don't want to go on a vacation. I want to design a life so magnificent that I don't need a vacation. I don't want to. I want to design a life that's so magnificent that I don't want to escape from it. And I realize that that requires a lot of self-belief and I realize all that, but that's powerful, super, super powerful. I appreciate it, sir, of course. Thank you for sharing it.

Speaker 1

Of course, Great question. You must have got a hold of my Ask Great Questions presentation.

Speaker 2

I can see I've been with you asking questions for seven years, man. I I think that uh, did I give you any credit in the presentation.

Speaker 1

I don't think I did no I honestly don't think I did.

Speaker 2

I did well, dude, it's about asking great questions. I I didn't teach you that that you always had.

Speaker 1

I learned a lot of that from you, genuinely, but I did give you all the credit I could well. People are like how'd you you got? You got a big team and you have all that. And I was like, ah, it's not really me. It's not me. I get a guy at home who's the business guy. That's why I'm here.

Speaker 2

So I try to give you as much. He's at the beach, you know, yeah he's at the beach right now.

Speaker 1

I hope for everybody that they get the opportunity to do something like that, where it's really hard to explain because that's seven years of effort in a 45 minute speech. And then you go home to me, you go to the Airbnb and then it's nothing again. Not a bad nothing, but you go from the whoa what would that be like? And then it's nothing again. Not a bad nothing, but you go from the whoa. What would that be like? To wait is that actually that's actually going to happen? To the night before saying, okay, so this is really going to happen tomorrow. This is, I'm kind of screwed too. Okay, well, to it happening and you being on the top, getting the emotional release of being done with it, and then later that night being like, okay, that was that, all right, what's what's up next?

Speaker 2

Not in a bad level. Some would say yeah, yeah, not in a bad way I level. Some would say yeah, yeah, not in a bad way Next level.

Speaker 1

I think that's just the way it works.

Speaker 2

Can I share my biggest takeaway from this episode? So this is the biggest thing that I got from this episode was let me see if I can come up with it. It's been a long day I had it and then you and I were joking about next level. It's going to come back.

Speaker 1

Biggest takeaway, biggest takeaway.

Speaker 2

We need to go through all the things.

Speaker 1

And.

Speaker 2

I'll come up with it. The things about the room Intentional.

Speaker 1

Intentional, curious, curious, high standards, humble, confident, confident, decisive with decisions Asking for help Focused on their goals, focused on their goals. Focused on their goals. Older Most people are older.

Speaker 2

Yeah, there was one takeaway that was read between the lines and I'm trying to give those. I want to try to give those more, but there was something that when you were talking that I picked up on it and I wondered. I watched some speeches recently that got me thinking. It was a speech by a head coach of I'll just Patriots. So the Tom Brady is the best quarterback in history, arguably, but not really arguably. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame and his coach for 20 years in the Patriots.

Speaker 2

Again, for those of you who don't like American football which is most of you, because who does right outside of the US, but anyways. So the speeches I thought were really fascinating and I've been recommending these to certain clients, you included Kev, where I wanted you to see the difference between what Tom focused on versus what Bill focused on, versus what the audience was focused on. And I've come to understand that what I pull away from conversations Is so much different and I wonder if, rather than tooting my own horn on this, I wonder if I should just share more of those, and I'm trying to, and there was one in this conversation that I had and then I lost it. So go through what your experience was again Like high level.

Speaker 1

I think it might come to me oh man, I don't know what else I said humble no, no for you, like the takeaways were for kevin I don't remember asking for help was big. Um, being younger Was hard Wanting. There was a piece of me that was insecure and wanting to villainize, but I didn't.

Speaker 2

Nice, keep going.

Designing a fulfilling life

Speaker 1

Lots of self-doubt, for sure. Emotional release, emotional rollercoaster I don't remember any of the ones.

Speaker 2

I don't know if I'm going to get it, man, if we do, listeners, if it does come to me, I'll text Kev.

Speaker 2

It was something that I know is super different than what might be something that's focused on, and I think it will be important um if you come up with it, we can put it in next episode okay I'll text you, if I do, when you come up with it I hope I do, man, honestly, today's been, we've been in spreadsheets all today and I I also emilia told me this too, because she always can tell my energy she literally said like you're having a day huh, and I'm I, everything seems fine. So I'm not sure. But we talked about some deep stuff earlier yeah but not only that.

Speaker 2

I'm just I told her. I said I think I'm just overwhelmed the the whatever the next level is for kevin and I, just being transparent. I want to be super transparent. That's one thing about you and I. Even on the nlu team, we teach things that don't get taught in business. We're showing numbers, we're talking about things that don't get talked about. It's so I I'm very grateful for that. But whatever the next level is for you and I is stressing me out like a lot because there's so much learning and I feel like I don't have enough time to implement it. I I feel behind, which is interesting because everything's going really well. I'm very grateful, things are going very well. I just feel like this next chapter is going to be really hard. I have have to think. I don't have enough time to think. I feel like.

Speaker 1

So, anyways a little behind the scenes thoughts right there.

Speaker 2

But the thing I pulled out. This isn't the thing, the thing, the thing. But the thing I pulled out on this episode is look at how much they're willing to invest in themselves. Look at how high the humility was in themselves. Look at how high the humility was. Look at how much they don't butt heads with each other to try to be the guy in the room or the girl in the room. There was none of that. Like I want to look the best. I think that room is more. I want to get better, more than I want to look good. Yeah.

Speaker 1

I would say so Well. I think the self-belief thing is it makes it easy. When you have high self-belief, I think it's easy to invest in yourself because you believe it'll be worth it. Yeah, you're not going to buy a $10,000 course or whatever it is, if you feel like nothing's going to happen and nothing will happen if you don't believe in yourself in a way, yeah, yeah, that's fair that's a challenge implement that's a challenging thing.

Speaker 1

For sure, we'll never stop talking about self-belief and self-worth. All right, if you enjoyed this episode and you enjoy our podcast next level, you please leave us a review on whatever podcast platform you are listening to this on, and, whether you're listening or watching, please subscribe so you never miss an opportunity to get to the next level.

Speaker 2

If you're on YouTube, I'm holding up a book called Same as Ever by Morgan Housel. We put the poll in Next Level Nation. The results are in. Same as Ever is the book, and we had our first session on Saturday.

Speaker 2

The theme of this book is what about the world is never going to change? Design your life, build your life, build your career on the things that aren't going to change. I always say this. I don't know if it lands, maybe not. I say don't design your career or your life on fads. Fads come and go. Let me give you an example Kev and I going all in on TikTokok which we're not doing might be a mistake. Social media will always be a thing, tiktok might not. You don't want to build your entire career on tiktok, but you might build a career on social media and that's, I think, a really good metaphor for what this book represents, which is what about you never changed? What about the world is never going to change, and I think that it's really powerful.

Speaker 2

So, if you really want to stay curious, like the people in that room, book club is a lot. It's basically a mastermind about a book discussing persons, places, things and ideas with incredible human beings who care more about learning than they do about looking good. And, trust me, we don't look good in there. It's it's mirror club. For a reason, we we hold up and look at our inadequacies. We look at our strengths, we look at our weaknesses. We look at these books and we figure out what they can do to help us set new intentions. And at the end of every book club kev mentioned on this episode how everyone in that room was intentional at the end of every book club, we actually set specific intentions, because the goal is not to read books, the goal is to improve our lives it's a great book too, one of my favorite books.

Speaker 1

Alan suggested it. I read it. It's one of the yeah, there are very few books where I can say I didn't want to put it down or stop listening because I listen. That was one of them. It was very interesting. It's a very interesting book with a lot of stuff that will help you feel more certain about life. I think it's probably the best way way, that's what it did for me. So join if you are interested. As always, we love you, we appreciate you, grateful for each and every one of you, and at NLU we don't have fans, we have family. We will talk to you all tomorrow.

Speaker 2

Stay intentional Next Level Nation.

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Alan Lazaros

Host
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Kevin Palmieri

Host