Next Level University

The Internet Is Making Us MORE Delusional (1933)

• Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

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Imagine if you could see through the smoke and mirrors of online success stories and focus on what’s real and achievable. In this episode, hosts Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros debunk the “overnight success” myths and expose the traps of quick-fix solutions. From influencers posing with rented luxury cars to promises of instant riches, they reveal how these illusions can derail your goals. But it’s not all bad news! Together, they share their journeys, inspiring stories, and practical strategies to help you focus on what truly works. This episode is your guide if you’re ready to build a meaningful life and break free from shortcuts.

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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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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.

Instagram 📷
Kevin: https://www.instagram.com/neverquitkid/
Alan: https://www.instagram.com/alazaros88/

Facebook ✍
Alan: https://www.facebook.com/alan.lazaros
Kevin: https://www.facebook.com/kevin.palmieri.90/

Email 💬
Kevin@nextleveluniverse.com
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:
(2:40) Unrealistic work and wealth expectations
(7:28) Alcohol vs. Success and Delusion
(12:12) Building an honest online brand
(20:08) The pitfalls of social media comparisons
(24:35) Meet like-minded people and jumpstart your journey to achieving your dreams while optimizing your life. Join Next Level Group Coaching. https://bit.ly/49SyVHz
(33:15) The compound effect in real success
(44:37) Group coaching opportunities
(46:52) Out

Send a text to Kevin and Alan!

Kevin Palmieri:

the way that it was sold was you. Create pain, create tension, create more pain. Tell a story about the pain. Highlight the bright solution. Mitigate objection. Mitigate objection, mitigate objection. Put a timer on it, so if you don't buy it today, price goes up by 50%. That's all reverse engineered to take advantage of you.

Alan Lazaros:

You bring people from TikTok to your LinkedIn blog and then at the end of your blog you can talk about your guided journal and maybe you get 100 people to view your TikTok video. Maybe 10 of them read the blog and maybe one of them buys the guided journal, and then you can build from there. That's sustainable. You can build a real brand online and you can start small and you can build.

Kevin Palmieri:

Welcome to Next Level University. I'm your host, Kevin Palmieri.

Alan Lazaros:

And I'm your co-host, Alan Lazarus.

Kevin Palmieri:

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, 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 1933, the internet is making us more delusional Not just delusional, because I think it's very easy to be delusional. As a human being, I've been delusional for most of my life and I'm sure I'm still delusional in some ways, just hopefully less than I've ever been. So Alan and I were talking behind the scenes and I did a, I did a uh, how do I want to? I want to keep things anonymous.

Kevin Palmieri:

I had a conversation with somebody the other day and they reached out to me and they were asking about podcasting and kind of hey, how can you help me? What can you bring to me in the form of lessons and cheat codes and all that stuff? I want to be more successful. Cool, love that. And at one point in the call the person said well, honestly, I don't really want to work any more than 20 hours a week, and some weeks I don't even want to work 20 hours. It's like respect, respectfully, not a lot is going to change then. Not a lot is going to change Now. This person did say to me honestly, I don't really care about making that much more money, I just have to make enough money to sustain my lifestyle, which I'm already doing, but it would be nice if I was able to retire my partner Like well, if we're talking that there's, in what world do you work half full time, part time and make no, no, half full time.

Alan Lazaros:

I know you make you know what I mean though.

Kevin Palmieri:

I don't know, know, but let me do it for the sake of the math. Okay, you work literally half full time, you work 20 hours a week and you make enough money to support an 80 hour a week lifestyle. That's, that's just maybe if you've been doing it for like 25 years and you're already well off and you already have a bunch of stuff going on and I was thinking, okay you break that down a little bit more.

Alan Lazaros:

So what, kevin? And again, maybe you did a great job at this, so maybe this is useless, but I, I highly doubt I do. Two 240 hour weeks is 80 hours a week. So him and his partner, right, is it? He or uh, I'm gonna keep it anonymous. Keep it anonymous. Okay, it's a he or she. Him and his or or her partner.

Kevin Palmieri:

It's a person.

Alan Lazaros:

It's a, it's a human, it's a human, and I'm just going to assume it's a. He, okay, he and his partner.

Kevin Palmieri:

He wants to essentially work 20 hours a week for the both of them and provide a lifestyle as if they were both working full time lifestyle, as if they were both working full-time, but better, but, but better, but okay now, the reason I even bring that up is because this person didn't come into the call and say I only want to work 20 hours or less and I want to retire my partner. That's not what they said. If they said that, I probably would have had to get off the call and say look, this is not. I mean, this is just gonna be a waste of both of our time because you're not going to like what I say. And, honestly, I just don't want to offend you. I just don't want to offend you. I don't want to say stuff that's going to seem offensive, like I'm attacking you and I'm not. They didn't start with that and when I gave them feedback on, honestly, there's going to be, I respect that, oh, okay, nice, I respect that. But I have had calls with people where they say well, honestly, I had a call with somebody one time who he, him and I met I don't remember I think he, I'm, he found me at like a speaking engagement or something and then he booked a call and him and I were chatting and I was like tell me about your business, what do you do. He's like I don't know. It just doesn't seem like anybody wants my products or my services and nothing really seems to be growing. It's like okay. And I said, well, this is my suggestion. I would suggest doing this, this, this and this.

Kevin Palmieri:

And the person said Kev, you're going the wrong way. And I was like what do you mean? They said I don't. This is my favorite. What am I supposed to do? This is my favorite.

Kevin Palmieri:

I don't have a magic wand. Do you think I've worked as much as I have over the last eight years because I wanted to? I just like decided you know I could be way more successful with less effort, but I think I'm going to really grind it out. No, no, I would have taken the easy way. Trust me, I would have. If I had it, I would have taken it and I would have sold it as a product or a service and everybody would know about it. I'd be screaming it from the top of the mountains. That just isn't real. Now here's Alan has a way. He wants to go with this. I have many ways I want to go. I just feel like delusion is something that is toxic, but it feels really good in the moment. I think it's like alcohol when you're and again, you have a different relationship with alcohol than I do, and everybody has a different relationship with alcohol when you're. When I'm sipping whiskey, it's nice. Yeah, of course it's nice.

Alan Lazaros:

I agree with that 1,000% man.

Kevin Palmieri:

Hell yeah, I knew we'd be on the same page.

Alan Lazaros:

Yeah, we're on the same page. That's why it's potentially toxic is because it's fucking awesome.

Kevin Palmieri:

Well, it is also physically toxic scientifically toxic?

Alan Lazaros:

It actually is toxic. That's why you get drunk it is poison.

Kevin Palmieri:

I watched something. So tara and I yesterday we were doing parallel activities, she was reading a book and I was watching dumb shit on youtube, and what I watched yesterday was it was alcohol versus weed. What's worse for you?

Alan Lazaros:

yeah, and I was like it's alcohol by far, right, by far, of course I didn't realize.

Kevin Palmieri:

It was something along the lines of and again, don't quote me on this, but but it was. I think it was 30% of all motor vehicle accidents have alcohol involved. 40 to 50% of all violent crimes have alcohol involved. 25% of cancer potentially is alcohol involved. Don't quote me on that one because that one might be way off. I feel pretty confident in the first two. I didn't realize how bad it was.

Alan Lazaros:

I used to say and this is such a side tangent and again, I grew up in an environment with a lot of alcohol and I definitely drank too much and too often in my early 20s and before that too honestly, and I don't regret all of it. Some of it was awesome and some of it.

Kevin Palmieri:

I regret. I would argue anything before your early 20s is probably too much, anything before 20 21 is probably too much, depends what you're talking about.

Alan Lazaros:

But I used to say, if you could, if I could, eliminate one thing from the earth and have the biggest positive impact, it would be alcohol I never have agreed more of that than I do now. Yeah, it's, it's very, very detrimental. There's a lot of terrible parents out there that are that are neglecting their kids, and it's a whole thing. It's it's really not good yeah.

Kevin Palmieri:

But do you know when? I would never agree with you if I wanted to continue believing that I could drink alcohol and not have any detrimental side effects. Yeah, yeah, and that's exactly what we're talking about today, because here's the difference. Let's say you log on to a meeting with me. Let's say you log on without, because most of you aren't podcasters, and it just won't land the same. And you say you know, I've seen a lot of these people on Instagram and TikTok and I don't know.

Kevin Palmieri:

It just seems like they like walk around on the beach all day and they get to live their dreams and they are financially free. I want that. Cool, awesome. How do you think they got it? Well, right now they're pushing a course on manifest your way to success. It's like well, okay, do you think that's how they got there in the first place? I don't know. Okay, well, maybe we should start there. Let's do some research to figure out how did this person actually get to where they are today? Let's start there, because it's I've said this on podcasts before and it's this really weird thing, and it's weird for me to say this because we have courses, but it'll make sense. There's a lot of people out there. Imagine this If I was a terrible person, I could make a business out of this. I'm just going to preface with that.

Alan Lazaros:

This is my favorite. I this is my favorite. I love this.

Kevin Palmieri:

I would go on Turo, which is an app where you can rent cars all sorts of cars but you can rent some really nice cars like maybe a thousand bucks a day. I can go to Lamborghini right now for a thousand bucks a day. Cool, I'm going to rent that thing for two days. Two Gs here we go, put it on a credit card. We're going to take a ton of videos of me in the Lamborghini. I'm going to take a ton of pictures of me in the Lamborghini and I'm just going to get a year's worth of content and I might rent. I might rent one for one day and then one for another day. So I have Lamborghinis in different colors, because you're immediately going to think I'm more wealthy than I am. Then I'm going to flex on Instagram and TikTok about how I am financially free, through whatever it is. I decide, and here's my Lamborghini one and this I actually don't even like to drive cars the same cars back to back days. I never, I don't ever drive drive the same car back to back days. So this is Lamborghini one. This is the Monday, wednesday, friday car. This is Lamborghini two. This is Tuesday, thursday, sunday. Just you know, just in. I don't want anybody to get confused Never the same car and again, this isn't really me, this is pretend Kev Then I would try to grow an Instagram following and a TikTok following, and the first and only thing I would talk about in almost every video would be if you want to achieve this level of wealth with very little effort and it's going to happen pretty quick, like probably quicker than you want to achieve this level of wealth with very little effort and it's going to happen pretty quick, like probably quicker than you want it to happen, because there's all these downsides too that come with having this much money.

Kevin Palmieri:

Just click the first link in my bio and it'll take you to my course and it's going to be whatever you know. Uh, ballers university unlimited. That's what my course is, and it's only three payments of $497. And I guarantee that you're going to make that back in the first month. So here I am now. I have effectively created something from nothing. I rented the car, I made the content, I built up a social media following. I have accomplished actually nothing. I have done nothing. I have created nothing in the world accomplished actually nothing.

Kevin Palmieri:

I have done nothing. I have created nothing in the world, but people think I have and they buy my course. Then my next course would be how to sell how to sell a high ticket course and then from there I could do essentially whatever I want, because I have enough money now. It doesn't matter, I can do anything I want. Then I could tell you how to build a store on amazon, or I could tell you how to whatever all the shit. The internet makes that possible. That wasn't possible before, not to the degree it is now, because, okay, cool. First of all, you couldn't go rent an exotic car from the internet, because the internet didn't exist. It wasn't like it is today, where people that have really good ideas for being grimy are getting a lot of success just through grimy ways.

Alan Lazaros:

I want to share this and this will be anonymous as well. I was coaching someone recently and we were talking about her dreams and goals and I'm a business coach, so I was trying to help her grow an online brand in business and she said, well, I sell these guided journals. And I said, okay, awesome. And we were going through the. The way that you build a real, a real brand online is you know social media and you do a youtube or podcast or blog something, something scalable, and you have usually a group around. A core value for us it's self-improvement. And you know, level up yourself, level up your podcast, level up your business. And then you do meetups where you get people together and workshop and help people real people in the real world. And then you know you can also usually sell a product or a service for products, its customers, for services, its clients. And you know we have a dreamliner that we sell. That's a product that you can use to reverse, engineer your dreams and make sure you're on point and it'll help you be more productive. And that's the truth. So she said, well, I have a journal too. I said, oh, cool. She said, yeah, it's this guided journal. It's awesome, okay, awesome. So you know what are your goals.

Alan Lazaros:

And she said well, I want to sell 50,000 journals in the next six months. And I said, okay, let's reverse engineer the math on that. So I said that's 8,033 journals per month for the next six months. So let's do 50,000 divided by six and that's 8,333 journals per month. I said how much do you think you make on each journal? And she said about 25 bucks. I said, okay, so you're going to make $1.25 million in the next six months.

Alan Lazaros:

And she said yeah, yeah, and don't hey Alan. She said yeah, yeah, and don't hey alan. Whatever you do, don't tell me I can't do this. So, okay, don't worry. Like I believe in possibilities, I'm, I get it. Okay, it's possible. It's improbable, but it's possible. And I essentially said so how many of you sold? And she said four. And she said but they're pre-order. I haven't actually sold any real journals and I'm not picking on this person, okay, this person is learning. Because here's what I did. I really wanted to know how this happened, like how did this happen? And so I asked her and and she's a very sweet person, so I was very kind and, again, like I said, not picking on her. I said where did you get the idea for 50,000? Like, where did that number come from? She said, oh, this woman. She talked about this manifestation woman on YouTube and I looked her up and it said that she. And she said yeah she's amazing.

Alan Lazaros:

She made $32 million in six months. And I looked her up and I said listen, that's not true, she's lying. I coach business owners all over the world. Some of my mentors are multimillionaires and some of them actually do have $32 million. Okay, this isn't real, she's lying. Now, it doesn't mean that she's lying about everything. Maybe she did make a lot of money in a short time and something went viral and it popped. Okay, I'm not saying that everything's a lie. What I'm saying is she did not make $32 million in six months. Maybe she built a brand for 20 years and then had a big six months and and and. Even if that's true which, by the way, it's not based on what I've researched these are results not typical.

Alan Lazaros:

So you shouldn't build your next six months and design your life around this idea that you're going to sell 50 000 journals when you've only sold four. Like, let me help you build a real business. And this is what I did. I said, okay, uh, she's like well, my podcast stopped. I said, okay, what do you like? She said writing, and I'm condensing an hour into a very short time here. I said, okay, well, what's your favorite social media platform? She said TikTok, I said perfect, okay, here's what you do. You post content on TikTok about your favorite passion and then you write a blog on your LinkedIn because she loves LinkedIn too LinkedIn articles. You bring people from TikTok to your LinkedIn blog and then at the end of your blog, you can talk about your guided journal and maybe you get a hundred people to view your TikTok video. Maybe 10 of them read the blog and maybe one of them buys the guided journal. And then you can, you can build from there. That's sustainable. You can build a real brand online and you can start small and you can build and that's actually sustainable. And yeah, who knows, maybe in the next six months you sell a couple hundred of these, maybe even a thousand, maybe even 10,000.

Alan Lazaros:

But I'm telling you, most likely that is not going to happen and I don't want to see your self-esteem get crumbled by the fact that you've been set up for failure Because someone is lying in the digital world and in the real world. That's not going to happen, especially not if you want to do it ethically and with truth and honesty and build a real business and a real brand. That actually is something you can be proud of, because Kevin and I we've built a business and the thing I'm most proud of isn't just the fact that we do very well. The thing I'm most proud of is how we earn our money. We work with 65 podcasters.

Alan Lazaros:

I work with 28 business owners and I'm proud of what the work we do in the world, for the money we earn and I say earn because it's earned we're earning that and we've graduated 16 groups of group coaching. We're coming up on our 17th group, like I'm really proud of that. I believe the people who have invested in NLU have gotten 10 times the value over the long term, not right away, not the first month, but I do believe that over the long term, you know, one year, where you're really dialed in, can change your whole world. And I feel like we built our business on Helping real people in the real world with the real challenges that they face, and not sort of faking it till you make it, and I'm very proud of that. And I think that unfortunately, in the 21st century with the internet, 5.85 billion people are out there on the internet and not all of them are honest.

Kevin Palmieri:

I just don't. I just hate seeing people get taken advantage of, like that's the biggest. The thing I hate the most is when I see people that get taken advantage of, because, honestly, it's hard to know. I have an obsession with figuring out how people got to where they are and but for you it's like the big, big, big, big, big companies. For me it's like how did this person go from? How did this person get 17 million followers on Instagram? How did that happen? And then why is nobody commenting on anything? They're all bots. Oh, they bought it. Oh, interesting, can I figure out when they bought it? And, yes, you can. Yeah, nobody gets a million followers every day for seven days and then stops. It doesn't work that way. It's not the way it works. It's not the way it's. So it's out there.

Kevin Palmieri:

There's a lot of stuff out there about how many people are doing this. Again, I don't want the entire episode to be that. I think that expectations can be very dangerous because, to Alan's point, if you take a supplement that's guaranteed to do something and then it doesn't do the thing that it was guaranteed to do, you feel bad about you and you think you're doing something wrong, when in reality you've been taken advantage of based on a delusion, and I'm not saying I'm not talking down to you if you have a delusion. I have delusions too. Everybody does. I think the ultimate goal is how do I become less delusional tomorrow than I was today? That's, that's the goal. I'm always. I'm way less delusional than I was in the past, but I still have blind spots and I still think things are the way that they're not, and that's why self-improvement and self-awareness and all that is important.

Kevin Palmieri:

I was talking to Alan about this the other day. I said I took a video of me squatting in the gym. I'm squatting 225 pounds and I said I almost didn't post it. I almost didn't post it Because in the sea of Instagram, that is shit and it's not impressive and no one cares. You know how many people reached out to me and how many people like that the story I put up and I told out I almost didn't post it Because in my head, that's not that impressive for me. Somebody reached out and said Kev, you make it look easy. It's like well, that was easy for me. That wasn't that. It wasn't that heavy for me, but compared to the people that I'm comparing to, that is nothing. It's nothing. That is their warm-up and it's just. It's this weird thing.

Kevin Palmieri:

On again, you only see the top 1% of 1% on social media. That's the stuff that looks good, that's the stuff that gets traction, that's the stuff that isn't necessarily real. So I just I don't know. It's's this really, alan, and I we, you and I know someone. We don't talk to them anymore, we don't associate with them anymore, because the closer you get to someone, the closer you get to the truth. And every time there was like this new thing that came out, this person would just lie about how they have mastered it and that's how they made all their money brutal. And there was. I saw one of their ads. I don't know if it was their ad or I saw their profile before I unfriended them, but it was something along the lines of how I got my six-figure business with AI, and AI didn't exist to the degree it exists when this person was doing their business. It wasn't a thing. They didn't know anything. We were there, I was with. This person was doing their business. It wasn't a thing.

Kevin Palmieri:

They didn't know anything. We were there. I was with this person when they were learning about AI.

Alan Lazaros:

I was physically with them.

Kevin Palmieri:

Physically, but it's, that's the stuff. That's the stuff that it makes me super sad, and I think there's because there's a piece of me that thinks I probably would have fallen victim to that at some point. It never really happened to me in fitness, because I got in fitness early enough where it was like these ads are just stupid. There's no way this bodybuilder, this bodybuilder, is on steroids. There's no way he's taking this protein, even if he is taking the protein, fine. That's not what made the difference, though. It wasn't the protein. It wasn't the protein.

Alan Lazaros:

My favorite.

Kevin Palmieri:

I've seen enough videos on YouTube about people who buy these life-changing courses and they're just nothing. There's nothing in them of value. There's nothing. And then I don't know what's the love equivalent of that. I don't know. I guess it's the toxic stuff that you know. It's the toxic, whether it's the toxic masculinity of this is how you're supposed to treat a woman, or whether it's the toxic femininity of whatever. I don't know. It's just a weird time. It's a weird time to be alive and I think there's a lot of stuff that's If it plays on the emotions you already have about the expectations you want. It's like, oh, this is awesome. I've been looking for something that's going to make this easier. There's stuff that can make stuff easier, for sure. There's apps that make stuff easier, for sure, but I don't think there's a magic bullet that is going to do anything.

Alan Lazaros:

No.

Kevin Palmieri:

There is a downside to it. There is a downside to anything that has a massive upside, just like there is a downside to anything that has a massive upside. Just nobody talks about the the downside like that. Somebody just won the billion dollar jackpot or something you know. There's a massive downside that comes with that right like all the people that have known you since high school start reaching out if your name is public and they're looking for a little bit, and your family, who you haven't talked to in 70 years, is looking for a little bit, and the school you went to is looking for a little bit. And then everybody in the gym's looking, looking at you a little bit different, and then every person you ever meet.

Kevin Palmieri:

From now on, you have to second guess. Does this person see my face on the news? Does this, this person, want to date me and marry me because I'm a bajillionaire, or do they, like they really see the heart that I have? That again, I've never won the lottery, but you can see it. It's not. It's not just all positive. It's not all positive. I'm okay with it. I you know you want to give me the. I would take it yeah.

Alan Lazaros:

I'm happy to give some already in love man, let me read this real quick. Hold on, I'm gonna read a little something. We used to do something called dramatic reading.

Kevin Palmieri:

Kev loves it what will this dramatic reading be from next level nation. What is happening? If you've thought to yourself I want to try coaching, but you don't really know where to start, group coaching would be a wonderful place for you. That's really why we created it in the first place. We start a new round every 90 days. So if you're hearing this, go to the website nextleveluniversecom and we have the landing page where you can actually hold your spot right now. Even if there's a group going on right now, you can still lock your spot for the next one. The biggest thing that we've seen is, as we get closer and closer to the date, unfortunately, some people end up missing. The group fills up and they can't do it, and then they end up regretting that. So please head over to the website. The link will be in the show notes and we would love to see you there.

Alan Lazaros:

The compound effect. Ah yes, by Darren Hardy.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yes.

Alan Lazaros:

Oh, this is actually the 10th anniversary.

Kevin Palmieri:

Hard copy version.

Alan Lazaros:

I paid a good 10-15 bills for this Bad Larry.

Kevin Palmieri:

Well, it's made you billions? Of course it has.

Alan Lazaros:

It's made me gajillions and billions Of dollars Real quick. My favorite Part of this book Hold on. It says a note about the anniversary edition. So here we go.

Alan Lazaros:

This book is about success and what it really takes to earn it. It's time someone told it to you straight. You've been bamboozled for too long. There is no magic bullet, secret formula or quick fix to success. You don't make two hundred thousand dollars a year spending two hours a day on the internet. Lose 30 pounds in a week with a Hollywood diet. Rub 20 years off your face with a cream. Fix to success. You don't make $200,000 a year spending two hours a day on the internet. Lose 30 pounds in a week with a Hollywood diet. Rub 20 years off your face with a cream. Fix your love life with a pill. Or find lasting success with a get-rich-quick scheme. It would be great if you could buy your success, fame, self-esteem, good relationships, health and well-being in a nicely clamshelled package at your local walmart. But that's not how it works.

Alan Lazaros:

We are constantly bombarded with increasingly sensational claims to get rich, get fit, get younger, get sexier all overnight, with little effort, for only three easy payments of 39.95. These repetitive marketing messages have distorted our sense of what it really takes to succeed. We've lost sight of the simple but profound fundamentals of what it takes to be successful. I'm tired of it. I won't sit back and watch these reckless messages derail people any longer. I wrote this book to take you back to the basics. I'm going to help you clear the clutter and bring focus to the core success fundamentals that matter. So NLU, I think, is built on this idea, because if I were to ask Kev hey, you've studied me, for lack of better phrasing you've known me for eight years working together. Like, what do you think made me successful.

Alan Lazaros:

Seriously or no? Yeah, like, give me the top three reasons that you think I've been able to achieve my goals and dreams.

Kevin Palmieri:

I would say I'm in the top three, kevin paul mary three times. Kevin paul mary three times, yeah, uh grit, strategy and consistency be those three nice, don't tell me about me, or you got anything nice to say about me. No, I'm totally no, but I think that that last piece of this episode.

Alan Lazaros:

I, kevin, was bamboozled on accident. When he first met me, I was a fitness model, fitness competitor, fitness coach and I was coming out of corporate and I had paid off 8484,000 worth of debt in a single year college debt and I had $150,000 put away in an investment account in Vanguard in different stocks and tech companies. And he saw me live in the dream. He saw me on the beach. He saw me in the gym. He saw me eating Chipotle, hanging out, living the dream. I had a girlfriend, I lived on a lake and my rent was 900 bucks no, it was 1,500 each, 490 something. And I had a car that was $5,000 cash. I just had tons of money and very low expenses and that was by design. And, if I'm honest, my life looked awesome and I was in the very beginning of self-improvement and building my own brand. Fitness, all this stuff fitness coaching, fitness modeling, fitness competitions and Kev saw my life and was like dude, I want to live the dream. I want that. But let me unpack for you what actually created that success. So in middle school I took quote, unquote eighth grade off. My mom said if you promise me that, you'll get the president's award in high school, which means you get straight A's through all of high school. I'll let you take eighth grade off, you don't have to try. I was like, okay, I'm listening, and I effed off in all of eighth grade. So before eighth grade it was literally all A's, maybe a B or two. And then in eighth grade it was C's and D, a, b or two. And then in eighth grade it was c's and d's and b's and almost no a's. And then in high school it was straight a's all of high school. I got 189 in honors english. Luckily it was an honors class and it got weighted. I never took honors english again after that, but anyways. So ap classes, straight a's. I got the president's award. It's behind me, signed by George W Bush. That's how few people get these and I used to be too much of a coward to talk about this, but he actually signed it. George W Bush actually physically signed it, because there's not a lot of kids who do that.

Alan Lazaros:

And then I got into WPI, which is one of the most expensive colleges on planet Earth and it's also one of the most prestigious engineering schools on planet earth, and that was my dream and I got financial aid and scholarships luckily, because I wouldn't have been able to go otherwise um, through academic scholarships and excellence I'm really red talking about this. Then I got into corporate and I grinded my face off in corporate, where I started off at 65, worked my way to 85, went from 85 to 105, 105 to 125, 125 to 180, and I was I peaked at almost $200,000 a year for a company called Cognex. Now what you're missing is iRobots, insata Technologies, lens Americas. I lived in LA for a time. I had an interview at SpaceX at one point that I ended up canceling to come home, family stuff.

Alan Lazaros:

What you're not seeing is that Kev saw me on the beach living the dream fitness model, fitness competitor, fitness coach after 26. But what you didn't see is the 12 years prior to that grinding in academics and in corporate to make that possible. And so the truth of the matter is is that there's an beneath. The iceberg is so much more than anyone could possibly have the time to explain and, by the way, I only explained one, one thousandth of it. Right, you get the diploma that one day on stage, and I got my master's degree too. I forgot about that. I got my master's in business that one day celebrating with the diploma doesn't uncover the four years, two years, ten years prior to that, that that made that actually happen.

Alan Lazaros:

And so kevin and I had a big week last week, our biggest week we've maybe, maybe ever and we were having a big quarter and I said that in Q2, most likely would happen, and I'm so proud of us and I'm so grateful and thank you, thank you to all the NLU community. However, I told Kev this that was a big week, but it had nothing to do with what we did this week. It had everything to do with what we've been doing for the last eight years. Everything's an accumulated, compounded effect and there's no way we could have done any of this without work ethic. And I'm sick and tired of people wanting to believe that they can achieve their goals and dreams and telling people that you can achieve your goals and dreams without work ethic.

Alan Lazaros:

Very last piece, there's a woman Named jamie lee kern who wrote a book called worthy, and I was on the phone with a woman named linda Shout out to you, linda. And she said well, in the book, jamie lee kern says if you're breathing, then you're worthy. And I said and I know and I appreciate that and I agree. Okay, if you're breathing right now, you are intrinsically worthy.

Alan Lazaros:

However, you've got to understand that Jamie Lee Kearns spent decades with low self-worth behind the scenes, grinding her face off with her makeup company to become a billionaire. I went and saw her speak and I met her, and it's really important for people to understand that now that she wrote the book worthy and is trying to convince everyone that they're worthy as they are. That's not including the 20 years leading up to that. That really was necessary for her to become what you now know as Jamie Lee Kern and I don't even know if I'm pronouncing that correctly. I think I am, but the point is that anything that you think is too good to be true.

Alan Lazaros:

I'm not saying that possibilities aren't there, but most likely there's a catch and if you learn the catch, you will set yourself up for success in the real world. And the other piece of this is fulfillment is underneath earning it anyway, like that person kevin was describing, that hypothetical person who rented the cars and blah, blah, blah. That's not fulfilling. No, I know that person's not going to be fulfilled because they're not doing real work in the real world with real people. And if you're out there and you're heart-driven and you want to win and you want to help people and you want to turn your passion into purpose and to profit. It's going to require work, ethic and grit and self-discipline and these things that maybe are less sexy but are actually necessary, that most people aren't talking about.

Kevin Palmieri:

I think. The fact is, it does seem negative if you limit someone's dreams, but I think it also comes from a place of there was toxic negativity and grind, grind, grind, grind, grind and never see your family, and blah, blah, blah. It's like, well, that's not sustainable. If you value your family, just that's not what you should be doing. If core values, core beliefs, core aspirations we've talked about that a lot and then I think it was like, well, how dare you, how dare you put your limiting beliefs on me so well, no, no, there's a big difference between limiting beliefs and accurate thinking. Nice, there's a bit. I'm not telling you that you can't do more than you're doing today. I'm not telling you that you can't do more than you're doing today. I'm not telling you that. But if you come to me for podcast advice, those, those aren't limiting beliefs. Those are the beliefs that I had, too in the beginning, that have been beaten out of me and I just don't want you to. The last thing I want you to do is quit your job and go all in on your thing and then realize a year in that you can't pay your fucking rent. I don't want that for you.

Kevin Palmieri:

I've joked about this many times and I say this behind the scenes and I'm very serious about it this journey has taken pieces of me that I will never get back. I'm not kidding, I'm not saying that to sound cool. Trust me, I would not have anxiety like I do if I wasn't doing this. I'm certain of that. I remember what life was like before this. It was worse, but some things were better, believe it or not.

Kevin Palmieri:

I just don't want someone to yeah, I don't want someone to see an ad on the internet that says I can make sure that your show is a top 100 podcast and you're going to print clients on demand and blah, blah, blah, when that's most likely not going to happen. There are some people I know personally right now that if they just let me run their podcast for them, they would make a boatload of money tomorrow, guaranteed, guaranteed, not tomorrow. Three months, give me three months, give me three months, not tomorrow, nice, but that's because of them, not because of me. It's not because of me. I have some strategies that they don't know. Sure they have an audience. That's why.

Alan Lazaros:

It's because of everything they've done up to now 100% Right.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah, it's not because of the, it's because they have demand, it's because they have momentum, it's because they have the compound effect behind them. It's not something that I'm going to do. I'm going to do Last last, last thing. I did get hoodwinked one time and let me explain. I don't think it it wasn't negative, but honestly I think it was a little negative. Good for you.

Kevin Palmieri:

We went to a Brendan Burchard event and it was this was the first one, I believe and High Performance Academy, high Performance Academy, high Performance Academy. We get to the end of it and again, brendan Burchard's a business owner. He has a business, he has a large, he's got to make money to run the business. So I'm not making that wrong. But at the end there was a call to action for a course on how to make courses and I was like that's exactly what we need. We need courses, alan and I. This was 2019. We're grinding our faces off. We're working really hard. It would be really nice to have some passive income, money just coming in where we don't have to do anything for it. That'd be great, of course. That would be great. That would be awesome Again in my head.

Kevin Palmieri:

And we get to the end of that day and I was like, oh man, I don't, I don't know. I feel like I need this, like I really think I need this. So I go to the counter to get it and was I think it was three thousand dollars for this course and I had my discover card. I bought this course. I bought, I put three thousand dollars of my own money down to buy this course. Luckily, we had a mentor at the time who said I'm gonna buy it too. Just return yours and I'll give you the login, like thank god, because I don't have the money for this. So I'm gonna have to figure this out later. So really think about the position I was in. Those days were fun and brutal.

Alan Lazaros:

Yeah, brutal Mostly brutal.

Kevin Palmieri:

Think about I was desperate for a solution. A solution was presented for me, a solution I couldn't afford. Found a way to do it anyway. I was not going to make that $3,000 back. I'm telling you how much did you make on it $0 exactly $0.

Kevin Palmieri:

I lost money making the course because the team edited it. I probably did it at the time, I don't know. Is it because I don't have work ethic? No, that's not it. Is it because I didn't have the perfect course. I bought the course on how to make the perfect course. It was perfect, was that it? No, it's because nobody knew who the hell I was. That was the biggest problem. Now, do I think I got hoodwinked from Brendan Burchard? No, because of all the people. And honestly, this was a really good course and it was really valuable. Everything did it tell me I was going to blow up overnight. No, nice, it didn't. It said I will teach you exactly how. I will teach you the method that I use, that I've made millions of dollars with through my courses, and that's exactly what he did.

Kevin Palmieri:

So I'm not taking shots at Bram, but here's the thing. The way and again, you're not supposed to say this, like you're not supposed to say this as a business owner in the space that we're in the way that it was sold, was you create pain, create tension, create more pain. Tell a story about the pain. Highlight the bright solution. Mitigate objection. Mitigate objection. Mitigate objection. Put a timer on it. So if you don't buy it today, price goes up by 50%. That's all reverse engineered to take advantage of you.

Kevin Palmieri:

Now do we have calls to action at the end? Yes, will I ever tell you? We've literally said this before If you don't buy the dreamliner now, whatever you can get it next quarter. I don't think the price is, I don't think the price is going to go up. Um, I would really appreciate if you subscribe to the podcast, but is there any upside in you doing it? I mean, we drop an episode every day so you're not going to miss it. You know it. Yeah and please, and thank you, right, because it will help us help more people. Yes, but, like I mean, we have calls to action, but we literally said I don't want a fucking timer on the website that says, well, if you don't purchase it now, in the next 15 minutes it goes. I don't want to do that. I don't want to do that because I never liked when people did that. Just real quick. We do have countdowns.

Alan Lazaros:

Well, that's because that's when the date starts. That's when it starts. Your coaching, by the way, does end in 11 days and 54 seconds.

Kevin Palmieri:

I'm kidding, no, but there are timers, just so you know that's when it starts, and if you don't join before, then obviously we can't have you in the group because we're already going to be rolling.

Kevin Palmieri:

But it's not the same. I appreciate you throwing that out there, because if somebody was really important, yeah, but I just that's the thing again. I'm not saying who am I to say that what people are doing is right or wrong? I don't know, I'm just a dude with a freaking podcast, whatever. I just don't think that you should be taken advantage of. Agreed, and I was lucky enough to have a mentor at the time who has was balling and said kev, I'm gonna buy the course. A mentor at the time who has was balling and said kev, I'm gonna buy the course anyway, just return it and, by the way, balling from the 80s, 90s and early 2000s, not in a completely different industry

Kevin Palmieri:

yeah, not doing this stuff exactly, but I needed that money like that three thousand dollars, I mean, that was the year I couldn't buy christmas presents for taryn. Yeah, like I needed that freaking and I was trying to grow and build and turn this thing into a successful thing. That wasn't going to happen with that course. Are there some people out there that would yeah, if they already had an audience and they just needed to align some things in a different way. That wasn't me, yeah, and I wish I knew that. I wish there was a part where he said look, if you don't have any audience and nobody knows who you are, this is going to cost you a lot of money. You're not going to probably make any of that money back right now. I really wish I knew that, because I might not have done it. I don't know, I might not have done it. So that's the end for me no, that's fire man.

Alan Lazaros:

I think this, this episode, is very, very powerful, and Kevin and I want to help people achieve success and fulfillment and we want to help podcasters grow their podcasts and we want to help business owners generate revenue. And that's who we are and what we do and we're not going to it's heart-driven, but no BS. That's heart-driven is we want to see you win and we have pure intentions. No BS is if you only want to work five hours a week, you're not going to get the same results as us, and that's the truth, even though there's a lot of people working five hours a week who did something for decades before and or their husband or wife is fronting the bill and they are making it seem like they're more successful than they are. And kevin and I had to learn all this the hard way. We had to learn all this the hard way. I mean, we've been through it. We've been through the ringer, we've been up and down, we've been broke and we've been very successful and we've gone and swung and growing a real business in the real world, helping real people, turning your passion into purpose, into profit, is hard fucking work and that's facts and that's the truth. And there's no one I'm so proud of. Emilia. She built a six figure business and it's.

Alan Lazaros:

I watch what it takes Saturday, every Saturday, all of 2024. I watch what it takes, right? Bianca oh my goodness, she's my client, she's working with her. They they crank, they they grind, they work and and it works, they work and it works and it really works and they're winning and I'm very proud of them and I want to celebrate them and I want to celebrate anyone out there who's humble and courageous and who who has work ethic, because you, you really can achieve your dreams. But it's probably going to take longer than you think and it's going to be harder than you think, but it's on the other side of growth and challenges and most of this stuff that sounds too good to be true is and yeah, we just want to see you actually win.

Kevin Palmieri:

And you'll probably be more fulfilled than you thought you would too. I mean, if you're growing and contributing towards something that is greater than you, that's the most motivating thing in the world, anyway, and you're going to be fulfilled by the fact that you're growing and contributing. There's something to that. There's something to that. It's the best. All right, the best Next Level Nation. Make sure you subscribe, because if you don't, your phone is going to self-destruct in your pocket, if you don't and I don't want that for any of you Four, three, two, one.

Kevin Palmieri:

All right, you're subscribed. Thank you for that. We appreciate that very much. And group coaching. So the only timer we have on the website, alan is making me up to no, there's one for Next Level Live as well brother.

Alan Lazaros:

So I can't, we can't lie about anything.

Kevin Palmieri:

Well, those timers are based on something that is real and it is happening at a time and space in the world.

Kevin Palmieri:

Come to it because it's too late yeah, uh group coaching starts on tuesday, january 7th, 5 pm eastern standard time. Level up yourself, level up your podcast, level up your business. That is kind of what we have done over the last seven, eight years and that's what we're doing now in group coaching. So this will be the second group we've had that is filled with podcasters, which, quite literally, is a dream come true for me. And again speaking to what we've spoken about today, it took 16 groups to make that happen. Really, think about that.

Alan Lazaros:

We've got a lot of Four years.

Kevin Palmieri:

It took four years of doing calls for four groups a year and that's a lot of groups.

Alan Lazaros:

Yeah, 16 groups. Shout out four, four groups a year and that's a lot, of a lot of groups. Yeah, 16 groups. Uh, shout out to all the 16 groups. By the way, for those of you who are still with us listening like, shout out to you guys. Quick disclaimer here.

Alan Lazaros:

Seriously, we used to do group coaching for listeners of this show. That is going to come back in the future. Right now, it is only for podcasters, okay, so if you are a podcaster, please reach out to kevin or myself or go to the website nextleveluniversecom. Forward slash group dash coaching. The link will be in the show notes. It's only 10 people and it is only for podcasters, and we apologize for anyone of our audience who is not a podcaster. We are going to be bringing back another group coaching, similar to the old one, but this one is level up yourself, level up your podcast, level up your business. It's basically all of the six sessions that used to be the old group coaching are now condensed into the first two, and then Kevin does the next two with podcasting and I do the last two with business and all of that. So grow and scale yourself, your podcast and your business. Podcasters only for now.

Kevin Palmieri:

And we're testing it out. Eventually, podcast Growth U is going to have its own group coaching, allen's business stuff is going to have group coaching and then NLU will have its own. So we're testing out some stuff as we grow together. Yes, sir Boom, all right, as always, we love you, we appreciate you, grateful for each and every one of you, and at NLU we don't have fans.

Alan Lazaros:

We have NLU, we don't have fans.

Kevin Palmieri:

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.

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Alan Lazaros

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Kevin Palmieri

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