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What’s Your Relationship With Roadblocks (1899)

• Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

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Are roadblocks shutting you down or fueling your determination? In this inspiring episode, Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros explore how persistence and self-belief can help you overcome challenges and unlock new levels of success. They share relatable stories and practical strategies for turning setbacks into stepping stones. From the value of quick action to the power of seeing problems as solvable, this episode will leave you feeling empowered to face any obstacle.

Links mentioned:
Next Level Nation: https://www.facebook.com/groups/459320958216700
Free-30 Minute Coaching Call with Alan: https://bit.ly/4f3MSUz

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NLU is not just a podcast; it’s a gateway to a wealth of resources designed to help you achieve your goals and dreams. From our Next Level Dreamliner to our Group Coaching, we offer a variety of tools and communities to support your personal development journey.

For more information, please check out our website at the link below. 👇

Website 💻  http://www.nextleveluniverse.com

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Any of these communities or resources are FREE to join and consume
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Next Level 5 To Thrive (free course) - ​​https://bit.ly/3xffver
Next Level U Book Club - https://bit.ly/3BQBYDr
Next Level Monthly Meet-up:  https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/monthly-meetups/

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We love connecting with you guys! Reach out on Instagram, Facebook, or via email. We’re here to support you in your personal and professional development journey.

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Alan: https://www.instagram.com/alazaros88/

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Alan@nextleveluniverse.com

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

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Show notes:
(3:57) What’s your relationship with roadblocks?
(6:45) Roadblocks as catalysts for growth
(10:18) The persistence of high achievers
(14:21) Next Level Dreamliner: the planner, agenda, journal, and habit tracker to rule them all. Get a copy: https://a.co/d/9fPpxEt
(16:46) Everything is figureoutable
(21:50) Balancing work ethic and self-care
(25:38) Outro

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.

Kevin Palmieri

Losing isn't as bad when you go in expecting to lose and knowing that the win is just the lesson. The win isn't the trophy, the win is the lesson. That's something he has. That's a big piece of it. He's really good at asking for help. What do I do? Tell me what to do. I need help here. I feel stuck. I feel like I don't know the answer. What's the answer? Give me the answer. I think that's something that requires self-belief. You've got the work ethic.

Alan Lazaros

We're good, there's the formula. We're going to figure it out. I am very high, 99% certain I could help Courtney become very successful If she said I only want to work five hours a week. I would be the opposite. I would say almost no matter what you do good luck.

Kevin Palmieri

Welcome to Next Level University. I'm your host, kevin Palmieri, and I'm your co-host, alan Lazarus. At NLU, we believe in a heart-driven but no BS approach to holistic self-improvement for dream chasers.

Alan Lazaros

Our goal with every episode is to help you level up your life love health and wealth.

Kevin Palmieri

We bring you a new episode every single day, on topics like confidence, self-belief, self-worth, self-awareness, relationships, boundaries, consistency, habits and defining your own unique version of success Self-improvement in your pocket, every day, from anywhere, completely free.

Kevin Palmieri

Welcome to Next Level University. Welcome to Next Level University, 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 1,899. Almost at 1,900. What's your relationship with roadblocks? I remember there was a time this was probably maybe the last year, year and a half ago Alan changed something on his laptop. He went from Windows 10 to Windows 11. And if you were with us, if you were listening to us, you will know, because you heard us just complaining about it all the time there was this popping thing that would happen all the time on alan's laptop. It just his mic kept popping and we'd listen and like what the hell is that? What's going on here? Is that, are we doing something in post-production? Is that on my end? Is that on alan's end? So, over the course of two weeks, I think, maybe three weeks dude, this was a couple months, I think. Well, no, but I mean yeah I came down to.

Kevin Palmieri

I made the hour and a half trek, I think, three weeks in a row, yep, to figure out how to fix this problem the last time I saw you, maybe no, no, I know I'm kidding, oh I can never tell when you're kidding, because sometimes you're just out to lunch, so it's like you might just have not thought of it. Like you know, that seems about the last time I saw you. I don't mean that to diss you.

Alan Lazaros

No, you know what I mean, it's okay.

Kevin Palmieri

Your primary thought is not going back to last episode. Your primary thought is not when's the last time I saw Kevin?

Alan Lazaros

No, so but I came.

Kevin Palmieri

That's pretty much what my world revolves around. I would hope so, man, I know I just I don't expect much, but a little obsession wouldn't hurt. You know what I mean. It's not the end of the world if you lose sleep thinking of me. At night I came down probably three times over the course of a month, three weeks a month. I don't know what it was and I just I was. I was literally losing sleep.

Kevin Palmieri

I didn't want to record episodes. Like Alan it's not, we need to fix this man. Like, what are we doing? I need to come down. I would text Alan on Saturday and say, hey, man, you know what I'm going to say, right, and he'd be like you think you should come down Monday? I'd say, yeah, I think I should come down Monday. And it was a giant pain in the butt because we didn't record together. So I would drive down for an hour and a half. I'd spend seven or eight hours with Alan, I'd drive an hour and a half home and then by the time I got home it would be six or seven and we still have to record episodes because we hadn't done it yet. And it was terrible. But that's the point of today's episode.

Kevin Palmieri

What's your relationship with roadblocks. That was a giant roadblock and it might not seem like that big of a deal, but it's just a pain in the butt, especially when you don't know why the problem is happening. We've had so many examples of that type of stuff over the last seven or eight years, and I think that that's an attribute of someone who is most likely going to succeed, because the people I work with that hit a roadblock and then find a way around it are always more successful. What you do with the roadblock is just as, if not more important than the roadblock you face. That's a fundamental. You're going to face roadblocks. Of course Things are going to happen. You're going to lose opportunities. You're going to get opportunities you don't know how to handle. Yet how you face those is just as, if not more, important than what the thing you're facing actually is.

Alan Lazaros

So that's today's episode in a nutshell, we've known for many, many years who upgraded her life tremendously. She bought a gorgeous mansion up in Maine 2.4 mil Decent, Sold her business.

Alan Lazaros

It's a decent amount of house, I would say and she is someone who, I am certain, has this attribute and the house is. They have 44 acres. It's gorgeous, but it didn't have good internet, and Kevin, as her podcast coach, said hey, we got to get good internet here. You can't. You need good internet. You have an online business now Need good internet, fundamental. We spend way too much money on internet. Internet it's too much bothers me, but anyways need good internet. She spent twenty thousand dollars to have them come with excavators and all that stuff. I don't know how they do it, but to get good internet. Now she has rock star internet, and now she. That's an investment.

Alan Lazaros

The point is, though, is that the people there's someone who I learned from Michael Burt, and for some people, it's not your cup of tea, for some people it is. He rolls in some circles that Kevin and I might not agree with. However, I do love his content, and he says I have schools that teach young people the top habits of the top 1%, and while I'm not going to, oh, these are the fundamentals of the top 1% like that's not really our brand. What I will say, though, is that, if you do aspire to be in the top 1% of health, wealth or love. You need to be like this. This is a must you have to when you face a roadblock. It must ignite you. It can't shut you down.

Alan Lazaros

And I can think of many, many different examples, that being one of them, of imagine someone who just got a brand new house, super pumped about it, dream home and oh no, my business is never going to run as well as I need it to. And this is long before Starlink. There weren't a lot of other options back then. She spent twenty thousand dollars and many, many days renovating the entire property to get this roadblock taken care of. Kev, when you wanted to get a studio, you were persistent, super persistent about getting the studio set up. You could not, he could not move on until it was set up. Everything to a detriment at times.

Alan Lazaros

Yeah, for sure when it's like dude, we have other things to do. He's like don't care.

Kevin Palmieri

I gotta fix the lights. The light's gotta be a certain way.

Alan Lazaros

Exactly Same with audio quality. So I had a mentor one time who said Alan, you want people who run toward the fire that don't run away from it. Kevin and I don't share this often because we don't want to bolster ourselves, but when we reach a roadblock, against that is up against the goal that we're trying to achieve we all. Can I go around? Can I go under? Can I? What do I do? We can't move on until we fix it. And we eventually fixed it to the point where I bought a new computer that didn't have that popping noise and I made sure that I bought the Zenbook, Asus Zenbook Awesome, Windows 10. And I made sure that I kept Windows 10.

Alan Lazaros

I can't stand Windows 10. I want Windows 11, baby, I love it. I don't like using old tech. I'm a computer engineer that drove me bonkers Piss using old tech. I'm a computer engineer that drove me bonkers pissed me off for a freaking year and a half. I upgraded it to windows 11 and luckily the popping sound didn't come back. I was willing to risk it, but the point is I went and bought a whole new computer because I could not allow the audio quality to be less. Now I'm not saying to do that with everything, because if you're doing that with everything, you're probably going to drive yourself nuts however, or go broke or go broke exactly, yeah, so be careful.

Alan Lazaros

One last story we had someone way back who's very, very successful. Her name is katherine fitness model and we were driving in florida to go get fro yo share with the katherine and I was very big into studying the people we spent time with because, back to the last episode about supplemental versus primary, this is one of the primary things that made Catherine successful. Catherine is very, very successful. She has achieved many of her dreams in a really big way that a lot of people would adore, and when we were heading to Froyo, she was trying to play music to show us a workout playlist on our way to fro-yo and it was probably a 20 minute drive. I'm in the back seat, kev's hammering. Wait, what she?

Kevin Palmieri

you're driving oh, hammer, hammer. I said hammered. No, no, no, paint me in a bad light here, sir. So I'm in the back. I talked a little bit about I wanted to have a glass of whiskey, you know. He said he's hammering, like it was going hammered down the road.

Alan Lazaros

It was unclear. I'm in the back. I talk a little bit about.

Kevin Palmieri

I wanted to have a glass of whiskey. You know, I said he's hammering, you're going Hammered down the road. It was unclear.

The persistence of high achievers

Alan Lazaros

Yeah, kev's hammered, I'm joking. So I'm in the back and I see Catherine cannot move on. She could not get this Bluetooth in the car to work for the life of her. She could not get it to work. She tried everything, she could not move on. She couldn't almost to a detriment where it's like Catherine, you're kind of ruining the trip, but I respect it. You want to know why I respect it. It was a roadblock and she is the type of person. This is an identity thing.

Alan Lazaros

She is the type of person who never gives up until the outcome you want happens. I get intense in my voice on purpose. I don't want anyone to feel bad about the way that you are. What I am telling you is there is something about persistence. Emilia has this so much it's not even funny when something's wrong with her computer or her office. She wanted to have this template on her journal, for we have remarkable there are these really digital journals that are awesome. Kev got one for taryn and I got one for emilia. She just got the new colored one for our five-year anniversary. She wanted this template and remarkable for the longest time wouldn't allow you to create your own templates. She researched everything. She spent a day. She would not do anything else at all until that was complete check done. Now these people seem nuts to a lot of people. They are Catherine a little bit crazy, this other person with the mansion a little bit crazy, kevin and I a little bit crazy.

Kevin Palmieri

Definitely more than you got on In a good way.

Alan Lazaros

And I don't mean in a bad way Obsessive compulsive disorder, ocd. I say OCE, obsessive compulsive excellence. We will not allow any roadblock to hold us back. We will not, we cannot. We have to find a way, and that's just an intensity that a lot of people don't have, and I think a lot of people aren't honest about it, and the people who are honest about it are kind of toxic. So I hope that we can bring that to people.

Kevin Palmieri

I think that's a really good point. That's a really good point Because I think there's a lot that goes into overcoming roadblocks. And again, am I certain of this? No, but I think the higher your self-belief is, the easier it is to overcome roadblocks. I believe that we have a client who just was born in India, came to the US to go to college, was homeless for a time, ended up getting his master's in electrical engineering, went to go work at some of the most prestigious companies in the world. Left to start his own thing was 41% body fat. Decided to change his life and got down to 6% body fat for a bodybuilding show Just a high performer. And he just figures it out, not necessarily Go ahead, talk to us.

Alan Lazaros

What are some of the things you notice about him that are different than the norm?

Kevin Palmieri

we're not trying to this isn't better than worse than.

Alan Lazaros

This is different than the norm, because if you want extraordinary success, you have to study the difference between average. There's a reason most people, anyone who's very above average in anything there's. There's reason most people, anyone who's very above average in anything there's.

Kevin Palmieri

There's fundamentals underneath that that you can learn from. He doesn't. He takes action very quickly, always takes action very quickly. I think his expectations are the thing that I am doing that I've never done before. My assumption is it will be hard and it will test me, and I most likely won't succeed on the first pass. I most likely am going to run into a brick wall for lack of better phrasing, and that's just the expectation. There's something to that. We talked about that a while Again, I don't know I'm losing track of episodes, but we talked about how losing isn't as bad when you go in expecting to lose and knowing that the win is just the lesson. The win isn't the trophy, the win is the lesson. That's something he has. That's a big piece of it.

Kevin Palmieri

He's really good at asking for help. Just what do I do? Tell me what to do. I need help here. I feel stuck. I feel like I don't know the answer. What's the answer? Give me the answer. I think that's something that requires self-belief. Publicly states what he's going to do and then goes and figures it out.

Alan Lazaros

Hello, hello, hello. Nlu listener. Thank you, as always, for listening to Next Level University. Real quick, I just want to jump in and let you know about the Next Level Dreamliner. This is a journal that I use every single day. Achieve your dreams 90 days at a time. It breaks down your dreams into goals, milestones and daily habits. We hope you enjoy it. The link will be in the show notes Kev. As someone who wasn't always ignited by Pain and failure and roadblocks, what do you recommend for someone who is shut down by roadblocks?

Kevin Palmieri

I don't think I'm ignited. I wouldn't say I'm ignited. I exist with failures and roadblocks. I don't like them. It doesn't ignite me.

Alan Lazaros

I don't think how have you? I mean the audio thing. It doesn't ignite me.

Kevin Palmieri

No, it has to get done. It doesn't ignite me. No, I just it has to get done. It doesn't ignite me, I think.

Alan Lazaros

I just don't like You're like hey, can I come down?

Kevin Palmieri

I don't want to. I don't want to, not that I wanted to come down.

Alan Lazaros

My thesis is that frustration, roadblock Okay. Goal is frustration, roadblock Okay. Goal is set, roadblock is there. Roadblock creates frustration. Does frustration shut you down or ignite you? Ignite means take action.

Kevin Palmieri

I don't like open loops. I like to close loops.

Alan Lazaros

You had something happen recently that shut you down for like the whole day. Yeah, it rocked you For me. Relationship stuff shuts me down, success stuff ignites me. I get frustrated and I go let's figure this the F out. Asap, rocky, we got this, we can do it. You think it's self-belief that's making the difference.

Everything is figureoutable

Kevin Palmieri

Yeah, I do this. So the thumbnail for this episode is everything is figureoutable. If you have the thought that everything is figureoutable, that means you have some level of belief in your own unique capability of figuring it out. Yeah, that I went down to. We had, and again, sometimes it's not sustainable and it's weird and it seems like a waste. It's a whole thing.

Kevin Palmieri

We have clients that live in New Jersey. I live in New Hampshire, so New Jersey, where they live, is like six hours from where I live and virtually I could not figure out what was going on with their setup Very unique. There's three of them in person, sometimes virtually. Other times they also wanted the ability to record episodes off the grid no power, no electricity and I was like you guys are asking for a very specific setup. I have to come to you. It's the only way I can do it. I don't know how else to to you. It's the only way I can do it. I don't know how else to do it. It's the only way I can do it because I need to test it.

Kevin Palmieri

That was a giant pain in the ass, giant Driving down there. I drove down because I made a stop in Connecticut for another client. So it was cool and it was really cool. It was really cool to be on the road going to see clients right, I've met a good amount of clients in person, but it was really cool and I wanted to be in and out of there in a couple hours. I spent probably six hours at their house testing out different stuff, zooming in from one of the other rooms. It was the worst.

Alan Lazaros

I know we got to jump, but I want everyone who's listening or watching your dream chasers. We want to see you win. We care about your success. You have to have that level of tenacity. Sometimes that's a thing that you and I realize in hindsight. We work directly, slash, indirectly with 63 podcasters. A big part of the reason we've gotten to have a 1% of 1% of 1% podcast is that your willingness to do that on probably a Saturday or whatever it was. Was it a?

Kevin Palmieri

Saturday I don't know, it was a couple days I drove down, I stayed in, I drove down, drove straight to their house. So I drove from New Hampshire to their house. Then from there I had an Airbnb like 20 minutes from where they lived. And then the next day I woke up at 5 and then drove to Connecticut, did a setup in Connecticut and then I drove home. That's just so much persistence.

Alan Lazaros

It's such there's so much persistence there. It's really critical.

Kevin Palmieri

It is a necessity and that's why I'm always. I don't want to crap on. If it's meant to be, it'll be Again. If you're down and you're struggling and you're riding the struggle bus and you just went through a hard breakdown, a breakup, I want you to have some positivity and some stuff. That might not be the most rational. I'm okay with that when you're riding the struggle bus, but when it comes to really achieving your dreams, there is going to have to be a level of persistence. You're just going to need it. There are some people that I've talked to and they say how have you and Alan got to where you are? It's like, well, we work a minimum of 12 hours a day, Monday through Friday. I work six to six. At least that's a minimum. Alan's working. At least that Alan works all day Saturday. So it's like that's how. That's the truth, that's the primary there's two of us.

Alan Lazaros

Can you imagine doing that and not being successful?

Kevin Palmieri

Yes, Because it felt like that in the beginning, right yeah it did yes, because it felt like that in the beginning.

Kevin Palmieri

Right, I was getting ready for bed last night and I was literally thinking of this Because I want to make sure I can answer questions effectively and I want to answer them in a valuable way. And again, this isn't a flex, this is the persistence Between Alan and I. You and I are working 24 hours a day. That is why. So if you were to break it down and you would split our schedules up, every hour on the day is accounted for five days a week, and then Saturday I usually work like six hours, alan usually works like twelve, so that's eighteen, and then Sunday I'm off to lunch on Sunday, so Sunday doesn't really count for me. I know you do stuff, we do a lot of stuff around the house, but that that is the difference.

Alan Lazaros

Yeah.

Kevin Palmieri

That is the, that's the. That is the biggest thing. Is my morning, my morning mindset and my morning routine Good? Yes, a hundred percent. I have a great, great morning routine, but it's the other 11 and a half hours that matter. So again, well, it's hard. It's hard because I don't want it to be the toxic. I outwork you and that's why I'm more successful. I don't want it to be that from a toxic place. But I've never met a podcaster who works as much as we do. I just I've never met. I don't know if I've ever met somebody who works as much as we do. Yeah, I just I've never met. I don't know if I've ever met somebody who works as much as we do combined, because it's not possible. You would die because there's there's two of us. Yeah, there's only one of you.

Alan Lazaros

You can't work we almost a day. Yeah, it's been a it's been a journey so that's peace persistence.

Balancing work ethic and self-care

Kevin Palmieri

You know you're good. Persistence is one of those things that I think we want to believe we can accomplish our goals without. Yeah, but I you're gonna need it. You just are you're gonna need it, and it's always something that you have an opportunity to improve very last piece, uh was on with a woman named courtney.

Alan Lazaros

Shout out to courtney, one of the podcasters we work with awesome. I jumped on a business breakthrough session with her and she said I'm ready, let's, let's rock. And the moment I found out, she's like oh, I'll work eight hour weeks if I have to. I went we're good, everything is figureoutable, I've got that. You've got the work ethic. We're good, there's the formula. We're gonna figure it out. I am very high 99, certain I could help courtney become very successful if she said I only want to work five hours a week. I would be the opposite. I would say almost no matter what you do, good luck. The truth is it's there is no four-hour work week. I just I like tim, I respect his work. Tim ferris, that title is a dishonest title and I'm calling it and I'll say that forever it's a dishonest title there was uh, we had a.

Kevin Palmieri

He wasn't a mentor, I guess he was a collaborator. He said the only person who ever got rich off the four-hour work week was tim ferris I've never read it so I can't.

Alan Lazaros

By the way, tim ferris works 48 hours a week minimum for his entire life and in the beginning it was 80 hour weeks trust me.

Kevin Palmieri

Yeah, well, again, I haven't studied, I haven't studied him that much, so I don't, I don't know, but he's he's.

Alan Lazaros

I respect his work a lot, but that title is very dishonest to you well, I think that's it's a marketing title right.

Kevin Palmieri

This the subtle art of not giving an F it's like that's the worst advice ever. You kind of have to. Karen is kind of underneath. Yeah, you kind of have to give an F, but again, I haven't read the book. But what?

Alan Lazaros

he's trying to say is don't give an F about things you can't control.

Kevin Palmieri

That's kind of what he's trying to say it doesn't make a good title, it's too long, it's too long. So yeah, again, this is one of those attributes. It's just an attribute. It's an attribute that most likely will take you to the next level. If you can level up the persistence, it will take you to the next level. Just like if you overwork and you don't have self-care, that will take you to the next level, but that just tends.

Alan Lazaros

if you overwork. Overworking and not having self-care is bad. Yeah, yeah, and you level up your self-care.

Kevin Palmieri

Oh yeah, That'll take you to the next level. But that's more rare, right, it's more rare to. If you pick 100 people out of a room, how many of them are working out seven days a week and working too hard in the gym and they're too dialed in on their fitness. It's like, hey, you could take a day off every once in a while. That's just. That's more the exception than is the rule, right? So that's why I think hustle porn came out as hot as it did, because there is truth to it.

Kevin Palmieri

But the truth is you don't have to work 24 hours a day like Alan and I do, because you don't want what we want. But if you're not working the correct amount based on what you want, that's a recipe for regret. Okay, if you're looking for a community of dream chasers, people who are trying to get to the next level life, love, health and wealth, we have a private Facebook group called Next Level Nation. We'd love to have you in there, because community is one of the pillars, and if you're surrounded by growth-minded people and you're surrounded by people who are putting in the work and figuring out the habits, you are probably going to be more successful, and we want that for you.

Alan Lazaros

If you want to level up yourself, level up your podcast or level up your business or all three Goals metrics habits, skills, identity. Reach your true potential, Help others do the same. Impact, Profit Awesome. Just saying words now.

Kevin Palmieri

Please reach out Seriously, margins.

Alan Lazaros

Yeah, just saying random words. Seriously, though, if you want to dial in to another level, let's say you're at a seven, operating at a seven right now. I'll get you to eight, nine, we'll dial that up. I really want to make sure that you are aligned with both success and fulfillment Success and fulfillment by design. That you are aligned with both success and fulfillment, success and fulfillment by design.

Outro

Kevin Palmieri

That is what I do. Please reach out, 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. Keep after it. Next Level Nation. Thanks for joining us for another episode of Next Level University. We love connecting with the Next Level family.

Alan Lazaros

We mean it when we say family. If you ever need anything, please reach out to us directly. Everything you need to get a hold of us is in the show notes.

Kevin Palmieri

Thank you again and we will talk to you tomorrow. You.

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Alan Lazaros

Host
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Kevin Palmieri

Host