Authentic Success for High Achievers with Alan Lazaros

What happens when your life looks incredibly successful on paper, but inside, something feels off?

In this episode, Dr. Caroline Sangal talks with Alan Lazaros, Founder and CEO of Next Level University, a global top 100 podcast with more than 2,200 episodes. Alan opens up about the patterns that shaped him as a young high achiever, the instability that drove his early ambition, and the wake-up call that shifted everything.

We explore:

• How early loss and upheaval shaped his drive
• The quiet exhaustion of being a “chameleon” achiever
• The head-on collision that became his turning point
• The three major phases of his journey
• How he now structures his days around clarity and purpose

If you’re a high achiever who looks successful but feels misaligned, this episode offers language, perspective, and hope for your next chapter. 

To learn more about Alan and his work check out  https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/ They offer everything from a free book club and monthly masterclass to paid group and individual coaching programs.

And, of course, remember to subscribe, share, and explore more at nextsuccesscareers.com.

Transcript

0:03

Have you ever hit a milestone you worked really hard for and then felt an unexpected emptiness? In today's episode, Alan Lazaros shares the wake up call that shifted him from high achiever on autopilot to intentional aligned living and the patterns he had to break to get there.

Caroline 0:22

This is the Your Next Success podcast, and I'm your host, Dr. Caroline Sangal. I'm a life first career coach and strategist on a mission to normalize questioning your career because I believe each of us is made on purpose for a purpose only we can fulfill. The longer we live out of alignment with who we are, what we do best, and why we're here, the more we miss out. And the more the world misses out on what only we can give. The Your Next Success Podcast is where we explore how to build a career that truly fuels your life. We talk about self-discovery, smart job, search strategies, professional growth, and you'll hear stories from people who've navigated big career transitions themselves so you can see what it's really like to make bold changes and feel inspired to create your own version of authentic success, one that is aligned, meaningful, and truly yours.

1:23

Today's guest understands the inner world of high achievers because he is one. Alan Lazaros is the founder and CEO of Next Level University, a global top 100 podcasts with more than 2,200 episodes and listeners in over 180 countries. He blends engineering thinking with personal development and lived experience to help people reach their potential in health, wealth, and love. His story is grounded, honest, and relevant for anyone craving alignment, and I am thrilled to share it with you. This episode's conversation goes deeper than career change. It gets right into the psychology of high achievers, the drive, the pressure, the patterns we adopt to be everything for everyone. And the moment we finally realize isn't working. Alan shares how his early loss, family upheaval and a head-on collision at 26, forced him to question the life he had built and the identity he was carrying. In this episode, you'll hear how achievement becomes a survival strategy. The subtle signs that tell you its time for alignment, the three phases of Alan's journey and the through line connecting them how he now designs his days with purpose, service, and wellbeing. This is a powerful listen For anyone who looks successful on paper, yet feels misaligned inside.

Caroline 2:51

Alan, I am so super pumped and excited to have you as a guest on Your Next Success today. How's everything for you today?

Alan Lazaros - Next Level University 3:01

So far, so good. I've had two excellent, one coaching session and one podcast. It's been tremendous. It's been awesome, and thank you so much for having me. Seriously, because at one point 10 years ago when I first in this space of podcasting, coaching and training, it was crickets. So I'm very grateful to be here.

Caroline 3:18

Yeah. Yeah. I remember, a few weeks ago I was like, really though, what's in it for you? Like, I'm at the beginning and you're more than 2000 episodes in, and you were so gracious to say, you know what? There was a time when someone took a chance on me and so you're kind of paying it back or paying it forward, and I'm paying it forward. So I do promise somebody hold me to this when I'm 2000 plus episodes in. Then I absolutely better be also meeting with people who have less than 20 published in this moment. So

Alan Lazaros - Next Level University 3:51

I will hold you to that.

Caroline 3:52

Please, yeah.

Alan Lazaros - Next Level University 3:53

it's a win-win because you get to practice your craft. You get to impact people and connect with people. It is, it is a win-win. It's my favorite work in the world. It's my second, third favorite work.'cause my favorite is coaching one-on-one. My second is training one to several, and my third favorite thing in the whole world to do is podcast.

Caroline 4:10

Awesome. That's awesome. That's awesome. Okay, so as you may remember, I love careers, career transitions. I think some of the thing, the work that we do is, similarly focused.

Alan Lazaros - Next Level University 4:23

Mm-hmm.

Caroline 4:24

Love to kind of go back to your story and kind of get a little bit deeper than maybe the, the surface level kind of thing. Can we dial it way, way, way, way, way, way, back.

Alan Lazaros - Next Level University 4:38

A lot of way.

Caroline 4:38

Yeah. And I know we've got, we've got a few, there's a few really, interesting pivots by choice or by force that your life went into and your career went into. But let's take it back to childhood. Tell me a little bit about that.

Alan Lazaros - Next Level University 4:59

Okay, so I am 36 now. I'm gonna try to condense 36 years into a very short amount of time so that we can get to the goods. But I do think it's important to know who you're talking to. So, started off very tough, born and raised in Massachusetts. I had a very unfortunate thing happen when I was very young, so I had a mom who was 31. I had an older sister who was six, and I was two and a half, almost three, my birth father, John McCorkle passed away suddenly in a car accident. Very sudden, very tragic, harder on my mom and my sister than me, because obviously I was still an infant. In some ways hard on me too.'cause obviously I never got a chance to meet my own father.

Caroline 5:42

I'm sure you met him. You just don't have these conscious memories.

Alan Lazaros - Next Level University 5:47

I only have one. He used to put me on a pillow and lightly bring me up. I don't know if I dreamt that or if it's real. Yeah.

Caroline 5:54

I mean, how could it not be?

Alan Lazaros - Next Level University 5:56

I think it was real. I do think it's real.

Caroline 5:58

Seeing pictures, do you study those? I mean, I study pictures even now trying to look back of, was there a clue? What was the thing? Was I actually happy? Was I not? But like,

Alan Lazaros - Next Level University 6:08

Always.

Caroline 6:08

Yeah. Yeah.

Alan Lazaros - Next Level University 6:10

Yep. I have actually a folder, called Dad all of the pictures of him. Yep. And I also have another folder called Perspective, which is pictures of me in college. No, not just college.

Caroline 6:21

Well, I am so thankful that the internet was not a huge thing, when I was in college, so God bless you. I'm a little bit older, a little bit older, probably 13 years older, in this moment. Yeah, so I lucked out. There are a few pictures that exist that could be incriminating and they're not all over the internet, so.

Alan Lazaros - Next Level University 6:40

Yeah. when I first became a quote unquote public figure, I went back and I combed because for me, I'm in the generation when Facebook first started, it was only college students.

Caroline 6:51

Ah. Yeah.

Alan Lazaros - Next Level University 6:53

No one else were on it. It was only you had to have a college email to get on Facebook back then.

Caroline 6:56

Yeah.

Alan Lazaros - Next Level University 6:57

So yeah, there's a few things on there that I had to take down. But nothing crazy. I'm being playful. But anyways, so.

Caroline 7:03

What did you know about your dad? Like what did you know as far as like him. What did he do? What did he like? What did you, what were you told as you were growing up? Hmm.

Alan Lazaros - Next Level University 7:15

So back then I didn't know anything, but as I've grown up, I've definitely learned a lot more about him. Very, very outgoing, almost to the point of reckless, apparently. extremely fun, extremely funny. Just a bright light in everybody's life, from what I can tell. Now, it wasn't until my thirties that I started really sort of started doing therapy in my thirties. I have a therapist named Carol, and I started to understand there's pros and cons to everything. Every strength comes with a weakness, and so the strength was confidence. He was in sales. Everybody bought from John. Everybody loved John. I mean, that's the impression I get is, I mean, my mom basically says that. During his wake at funeral, they practically had to shut down Holden which is the town he grew up in, because there was so many people that came, like 600 people. so he had a huge impact in a very short time. He died at 28.

Caroline 8:07

Wow.

Alan Lazaros - Next Level University 8:07

actually that's one of the things that has driven me in hindsight, is legacy.

Caroline 8:11

Yeah.

Alan Lazaros - Next Level University 8:12

Because I grew up my whole life. Hearing about John and how much he impacted people even from such a young age was always very powerful for me.

Caroline 8:22

So did you kind of instill like you wanna do that or you want your life to also be impactful? When did that, when did that come in for you?

Alan Lazaros - Next Level University 8:30

Yeah, when I got in my car accident at 26, So I think it was instilled in me unconsciously from a young age of just, I think as a young boy, it's more significance driven. How to be significant, how to be seen. I also, you think I look young now, imagine me in high school, right? So, I couldn't get girls to look at me, nevermind be with me. And now that's very much changed, which is good. But I'm happily in a long-term relationship, but at 26, that was when I had my wake up call. I got in a car accident myself, head on collision, and it was with a lifted kitted pickup truck. Fortunately, no one was killed, but this was not a fender bender, this was head-on collision, 30 miles an hour, like life or death type. We're very lucky to be alive. Quite frankly. I, the only reason we are is I was driving a 2004 Volkswagen Passat. I used to call it the tank.

Caroline 9:21

Ah, good.

Alan Lazaros - Next Level University 9:22

Both airbags deployed. Yeah, good thing. One of the safest cars apparently ever built. So,

Caroline 9:28

Who bought that car?

Alan Lazaros - Next Level University 9:29

Yeah, I did. And back then I was just trying to save money. I don't want a depreciating asset.

Caroline 9:36

Yeah. So you were in this car accident, but I also wanna dial it back a little bit and then I wanna come back to this. As you were growing up, like let's say when you kind of went to school and all that, what types of activities, things, subjects did you enjoy?

Alan Lazaros - Next Level University 9:53

Math. Obsessed with math and science. Absolutely obsessed. Loved it. Without a question. The math and science nerd, the math and science nerd, I call it Stem-Biff, science, technology, engineering, mathematics, business and finance. And those are the things that always came very, very, very naturally to me. And English and writing and communication. And I was actually just on a podcast with an engineer, and him and I talked about how hard it is as an engineer to have a math modality of thinking. You think in graphs like X, Y, Z axis. A lot of people, quite frankly, don't, so it's very hard to communicate an engineer to people who aren't.

Caroline 10:34

Okay. So school-wise, you're growing up. You are loving math and science. You're kind of realizing you've got this maybe engineering mindset, although you might not have the words in in that particular time. And are you recognized for those things too? Right? You're getting all the awards, all the accolades,

Alan Lazaros - Next Level University 10:52

Very much. My mom said she, she tells me this story. My seventh grade math teacher, his name was Mr. Balloonis. And came in to parent teacher conference and his first reaction was, what are you doing here? Like, Alan's fine. You don't need, because back in those days, you basically don't go unless something's wrong. And she said, I'm here because I need to know if this is gonna stick. And Mr. Balloons told her, apparently, yeah, without a question, like he's gifted and she got me physics tapes and it was back VHS

Caroline 11:24

Yeah. Yeah.

Alan Lazaros - Next Level University 11:25

And yeah, ever since, I mean for me, always wanted to be a math teacher and I used to literally say they don't make enough money, And now I teach math to business owners as my playful joke because I coach 21 business owners now. And the truth is. If you run an online business and you don't know mathematics, you're leaving so much opportunity on the table. So we reverse engineer dreams, goals, metrics, habits, priorities, skills and identity work. And, and it's all based on mathematic modalities. So, again, I digress, but

Caroline 11:58

I resonate, I resonate with it a lot. I was recognized, at a young age for math, for science. My dad was a teacher, principal, superintendent. I loved school. I love learning. I wanted to be a teacher and he said, girl, I don't think that's gonna support the lifestyle. I think you want to be accustomed to do science, do math, right? So got a bachelor's in chemistry, a PhD in polymer science, rubber plastics. I studied cracks and crack propagation and fatigue, and I studied them. To see how they broke so I could make them stronger, and now decades later, I do it with people. So I know how cracks start, I know how they grow, but I want to help people be more resilient, stronger, and help them to have lives that they love and careers that fuel it, not drain it. So totally resonate. Okay. But let's go back. What did your mom do? What was her profession, aside from being an amazing mom?

Alan Lazaros - Next Level University 12:56

She says that she was a cook. She didn't like when I would call her a lunch lady, but the truth is she was a lunch lady and she also did culinary stuff and she was at a trade school, so I guess she taught other people how to cook too. So she was a, a culinary instructor slash lunch lady. Whatever way you wanna frame it. I'm not really big on the whole status stuff.

Caroline 13:13

Oh, I think she's nourishing people. I think she's feeding them. I think she's sustaining them. I think she's giving them something to feed their body souls mind and have good conversations and relationships at the same thing. So I'm a big like, everybody is

Alan Lazaros - Next Level University 13:30

I just don't like the whole statusy

Caroline 13:32

It's external, that's somebody else's nonsense and judgment.

Alan Lazaros - Next Level University 13:36

So many people are so focused on their job title and stuff like that, and I'm CEO of the company, so I get it. You need that.

Caroline Sangal 13:44

But what did you do for fun? What was your beyond school? What are the activities that really drove you?

Alan Lazaros 13:50

I was one of the OG online gamers way back. Yeah, so eSports Halo One for the Xbox was at one point I was, and then it was Halo Two and they used to have rankings, bungee.net. And, I was 20th in the world at the time, which was cool. And it was the biggest online game in the world. So I was one of the best halo players in the world. And, but I loved online games and I also did all the other stuff. So my mom and stepdad, they had what I refer to as a pleasure centered paradigm. They think life is about having as much fun as possible. And this was the nineties. The nineties were wild in the US in particular, but dot-com bubble nineties, the economy's growing like crazy. I playfully refer to from age three to 14 with my stepdad as boats and bs. Yeah, so motorcycle trucks, snowmobiles grew up on a lake. They had an apartment building. We had a yacht.

Caroline Sangal 14:46

That was a fishing lake or like skiing

Alan Lazaros 14:48

More like a small lake, big pond. But that whole part of my life, There, it would be easier to tell you what we didn't do. I was very grateful for two things. Number one, my mom and stepdad did not get along, and that's a polite way to put it. So my childhood in that sense was not good. However, when it came from experiences, we traveled, we did everything. Row boats, every sport you can think of, I experimented a lot and I realize in hindsight now that I'm 36, that those early years were big for my development of just not only awareness, but skills and,

Caroline 15:27

Was it work hard, play hard?

Alan Lazaros 15:29

Yes.

Caroline Sangal 15:30

And then at 14, why the end at 14 did that relationship fizzle.

Alan Lazaros 15:36

So my stepdad left 14, took his entire extended family with him. Still to this day, never seen or spoken to a single one of them since.

Caroline Sangal 15:45

Oh wow.

Alan Lazaros 15:46

Yeah. Same year, hardest year of my life, mom got in a fight with my Aunt Sandy, her sister. We get ostracized from her side of the family. To this day, I've only seen or spoken to two human beings from her side, and we didn't associate much with the McCorckle's anymore. My dad's side, because we were trying to be the Lazaros', I took my stepdad's last name probably around age seven. And, that same year my sister moved out as well. So you wanna talk about just challenging loss abandonment. So from zero to 14,

Caroline Sangal 16:18

How about your sister? When she goes out.

Alan Lazaros 16:20

She was 17. Three years older than me. Yep. And so up to this point, all I've ever really known is loss at 14, right?

Caroline Sangal 16:31

So you've got achievement recognition at school for the things you're doing, and then the relationships that you're having that, that you believe and people tell you could, should be stable and nurturing, are appearing differently. And then, oh, by the way, people leave either by choice or by force. And now you're just left to dig into continuing to achieve

Alan Lazaros 16:57

Yes, I became, that's when I became a super achiever, quote unquote,

Caroline Sangal 17:01

Aha.

Alan Lazaros 17:02

Basically, this is the cycle I was running unconsciously. I didn't know this at the time, but it was aim higher, work harder, get smarter, like aim higher, work harder, get smarter. So there was two trauma responses. So there's fight, flight, freeze, and fawn. Fight is the aim. Hire where harder, get smarter part behind the scenes when no one's watching. But socially, I became a chameleon, fawn, appease, people pleaser, chameleon. And that's why I was so good at sales in corporate because I could be anything for everyone. Because

Caroline Sangal 17:30

Yep.

Alan Lazaros 17:30

unconsciously at 14, and again, none of this was conscious, but unconsciously it was like, just don't lose any more friends and family. So be whatever other people need you to be.

Caroline Sangal 17:38

Be whatever you need so that they stay.

Alan Lazaros 17:40

In order to have they stick around. Yeah. 26 happens, I get in my car accident and that's when I realize all of this. And I just, I realized that I'm too much for I, I'm basically everything for everyone and nothing for myself. And that's when I flipped the script. That was 11 years ago, And then I went all in on me again.

Caroline Sangal 18:00

And you realize, okay, so you're hyper achieving through high school. You go to college, you're hyper achieving. You've, you're getting then a double major right in.

Alan Lazaros 18:10

So it was, straight A's through high school.

Caroline Sangal 18:12

Yeah.

Alan Lazaros 18:13

the scholarships and financial aid I could get.'cause when my stepdad left it, I didn't think I'd get into college. I didn't think I'd be able to go. I knew I'd get in, but my stepdad was mostly, he took 95% of the income. So we went from boats and ski trips to no cable. Like I shop at Salvation Army. My mom trades in her BMW for a little Honda Civic. I get free lunch at school now'cause our income is so low. How do we keep the house in the family? We weren't gonna starve, but definitely my college was 50 grand a year back then, So I went from, my hope I get in to, even if I do get in, I can't go straight A's through all of high school, get what's called the President's Award. All the scholarships of financial aid engineering school, high distinction, master's in business, boom into corporate. And then I become a global top 1% earner within my early twenties. Paid off all my college debt in a single year. I have a bunch of money in a Vanguard account, all different tech stocks. So I became, I just used my gifts and I became the work hard, play hard thing

Caroline Sangal 19:08

Yeah.

Alan Lazaros 19:09

I just ran that all

Caroline Sangal 19:11

What were you doing to play hard in that time?

Alan Lazaros 19:15

Parties.

Caroline Sangal 19:15

Prior pre-accident. Parties. Okay.

Alan Lazaros 19:18

High school. We had the party house.

Caroline Sangal 19:21

Okay.

Alan Lazaros 19:22

College,

Caroline Sangal 19:23

Parties look like in high school? Because I've heard about parties, but I was so fear driven that alcoholism ran in our family and I was starting to, and not our immediate family, but I saw it in some of the extended family and I was terrified. Terrified. How do you know which drink is gonna be the drink? I didn't know so, but but what are people who are getting great grades and being the party house, what does that look like?

Alan Lazaros 19:49

Never been asked that question before. on a public medium anyways. We had bonfires. We grew, like I said, lake. We had five acres of land. It was, we ran amuck and I gotta be very transparent here. We had a freaking blast. Like an absolute blast. Crazy. Like I always joke, I parted enough for 12 lifetimes. I'm never gonna have the midlife crisis. I didn't live thing. That's not gonna happen for me. And so I was, that's exactly what it was. Socially, I was a chameleon, social butterfly, rally people together, that kind of thing. Privately, behind the scenes I was unhappy and unfulfilled. So I used achievement.

Caroline Sangal 20:30

Aha. You're outwardly being this guy whose life of the party having fun, bringing everybody along,

Alan Lazaros 20:36

A hundred percent.

Caroline Sangal 20:36

blah, blah,

Alan Lazaros 20:37

Yep.

Caroline Sangal 20:37

In the quiet moments. See now, like there was a time where I just kept going, going, going, going, going, going, going until I was exhausted would get up and go again. And then I never actually had to think and deal with stuff.

Caroline 20:49

Imagine what your life would be like if your career aligned with who you are, what you do best, and actually fueled the life you want. At Next Success, we support all ages and stages through career transitions from students exploring majors or careers to job seekers actively searching or re-imagining their next move to professionals committed to self-awareness and leadership growth. Stay connected and explore what's possible at nextsuccesscareers.com and follow@nextsuccessmethod on LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook.

Alan Lazaros 21:26

Yep.

Caroline Sangal 21:26

Did you have quiet moments where you had to think and deal with stuff?

Alan Lazaros 21:31

Yes. Always been quite the existentialist. I was always trying to figure out why most people are so miserable.

Caroline Sangal 21:38

Ah.

Alan Lazaros 21:39

And I was miserable too. Like I feel like I had a thriving social life. I brought my high school friends to college friends, to corporate. Literally, they had a referral program at my company. It was a company called Cognex, and their motto, by the way was work hard, play hard.

Caroline Sangal 21:51

Oh, nice.

Alan Lazaros 21:51

Was their actual motto. I used to say work hard, play harder.

Caroline Sangal 21:55

Aha. Love it. Okay. And, the off moments, what was that looking like? What was that feeling like with that you weren't articulating for other people to be aware?'Cause they could judge. You should be happy.

Alan Lazaros 22:08

Yeah, exactly. At this point, you're making so much money. At this point, I had a beautiful girlfriend, lived on a lake our own place, making almost$200,000 a year. In my early twenties, I paid off 84 grand worth of college debt in a single year. I had all tech companies in vanguard and stocks and index funds, and I was just getting wealthy. And I had all these friends and friends of friends, and so behind the scenes it was wildly unfulfilling. I was everything for everyone. I remember at one point I was like, how am I gonna be in 11 weddings because I was gonna be the best man and or in the grooms party of 11 people. Now zero. I'm not gonna be in any weddings now. And so all of that upbringing, a lot of other people loved it. Like people from my past pre 26. All those people I grew up with, I think that they really loved their childhood and for me, I, it wasn't for me. And at 26, I decided

Caroline Sangal 23:05

It was empty. You were feeling like something in your body. You were crying, you were sleeping, you were just. Like numbing your life with other substances? What, what was it for

Alan Lazaros 23:17

The best way to describe it is I don't belong here.

Caroline Sangal 23:21

That just this inner feeling like, you're better than this, or these just aren't your people. This isn't it.

Alan Lazaros 23:28

Both.

Caroline Sangal 23:30

Okay.

Alan Lazaros 23:30

The way that I would describe it is the people that I grew up with. I was a tourist, but it wasn't, I didn't move in and my dreams saved my, so, okay. Small town. Small-minded town. As upset as some people would get from me saying that, I always had huge dreams, Caroline. Huge.

Caroline Sangal 23:56

Were your huge dreams that you were having? What were these thoughts?

Alan Lazaros 24:00

Okay, so I had a bunch. But there's two really serious ones that I genuinely intended on. I intended on all of them, but like pro gamer, Abercrombie model, all that kind of stuff. Like kids dream, right? But the two that I really actually sat down with myself and thought out I was gonna be lawyer, politician president,

Caroline Sangal 24:18

Okay.

Alan Lazaros 24:19

Or I was gonna be engineer, MBA, CEO, like my hero at the time, Steve Jobs. So I built my first computer at 12. I used to argue with my buddy Kiki, who's smarter, Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, and I used to think it was Bill. Now I think it's Steve. But at the end of the day, I wanted to be a Fortune 50 CEO, like my hero, Steve Jobs. No longer my hero, but, and that's what I did.

Caroline Sangal 24:44

No longer your hero because you realized what, or because he's not like what?

Alan Lazaros 24:49

Yeah. Everyone's a warning and an example. Steve did a lot of incredible things, obviously, but he, didn't take care of his health

Caroline Sangal 24:57

Yep.

Alan Lazaros 24:57

And he was toxic in his leadership at times. And again, still a hero, but

Caroline Sangal 25:03

With a perspective, right? Jim Rohn would say, you can't, pay somebody else to do your pushups, right?

Alan Lazaros 25:08

Yeah. Exactly.

Caroline Sangal 25:09

Yeah. Okay. So are you having any of these realizations before this huge accident at age 26,

Alan Lazaros 25:18

Yeah, there's whispers. I would say your intuition, your highest self is whispering to you all the time, but sometimes those whispers become a scream after something really bad happens.

Caroline Sangal 25:29

Yeah.

Alan Lazaros 25:30

And so the car accident it, it became a scream. Yeah,

Caroline Sangal 25:33

Yeah.

Alan Lazaros 25:33

For sure.

Caroline Sangal 25:33

Tell me more about that. You, it's what time of day, where are you going, what are you doing, what's your thought? And then what happened?

Alan Lazaros 25:41

Up in New Hampshire with my second cousin Dan, one of the two people from my mom's side that actually did come back after the whole ostracization. He and I are gonna TGI Fridays we're playing Call of Duty Ghosts. I remember back then, this is back in 2015, winter, bad winter. The snow banks were covering the yield sign and. Heading TGI Fridays, not drinking, not partying, nothing crazy. I look down at the GPS I, look up pickup truck. I'm on the wrong side of the road. I was supposed to yield and I didn't. Head on collision. Physically, we were okay. No one was killed, fortunately,'cause if we were, it would've been my fault.

Caroline Sangal 26:18

Yeah.

Alan Lazaros 26:19

Car accident was my fault.

Caroline Sangal 26:21

Yeah.

Alan Lazaros 26:22

And so luckily no one was killed. No one was permanently damaged. Like I said, the tank. I invested all my money. I didn't want a depreciating asset, so I'm so glad I bought the Volkswagen.

Caroline Sangal 26:32

Yeah.

Alan Lazaros 26:33

And we were very rattled, though it was definitely not a fender bender. It was. And so I was sitting in an armchair drinking whiskey, contemplating my entire existence. And my dad died in a car when he was 28. So I'm sitting there just okay, I'm 26. What if that was it for me? This is the second chance my dad never got. And that moment till now. I have put it all on the court. That was, I used to live from the outside in. I didn't know it. I'm a warm-blooded American male with dreams like, of course you're gonna be extrinsic.

Caroline Sangal 27:08

Right.

Alan Lazaros 27:09

But at 26, that's when I went inside out, because I used to be externally extremely successful. And internally unfulfilled. And I flipped the script and I actually was fully fulfilled. Fitness model, fitness competitor, fitness coach, health first, fulfillment, start my own company, Alan Lazaros, LLC. What you'll never learn in school, but desperately need to know. But I ended up broke, so I went from externally successful and internally unfulfilled to internally fulfilled and externally unsuccessful. I liquidated all my assets.

Caroline Sangal 27:38

How is your mom?

Alan Lazaros 27:40

How is she now?

Caroline Sangal 27:42

How was she? So here you are, you're 26, living the life. So successful. Great thing. So proud of my son. And for her to get a call. Hey mom, is it an accident? But I'm okay. Like

Alan Lazaros 27:58

I'm sure that was tough. Yeah. Yeah.

Caroline Sangal 28:02

You start questioning and having all these things, and then you do the complete flip now internally fulfilled and now broke.

Alan Lazaros 28:09

She had trouble with that for sure. And she even said, Alan, you have everyone else's dream. Like you make six figures, all this stuff. I said, this is not my dream anymore.

Caroline Sangal 28:18

Okay.

Alan Lazaros 28:19

Yeah. And here's the truth too. I'm 10 years in, 11 years to starting my own company. Everybody, almost everybody, not everybody, almost everybody doubts you. Like it was insane. Oh, you're a podcaster now. Oh, you're a bodybuilder now. Just ridiculous. And by the way, it's hilarious. Nobody questions it anymore.

Caroline Sangal 28:41

Now they don't.

Alan Lazaros 28:42

Yeah.

Caroline Sangal 28:43

My husband is the only one not questioning me. He's buddy, I know you. I know you.

Alan Lazaros 28:47

Yeah.

Caroline Sangal 28:47

There's always an incubation period, and then you rise to the top.

Alan Lazaros 28:50

You'll make it work.

Caroline Sangal 28:51

I'm not worried. You're a safe bet.

Alan Lazaros 28:52

Nice. Nice. In the beginning. And you know what's funny? I don't need you to believe in me now. I needed it back then. So have that chip on my shoulder for sure, Caroline, and, I'm never taking it off.

Caroline Sangal 29:04

Okay, so then. What happened to, to flip from, all one way, all the other way to then like defining the life that you want and having the career fuel it.

Alan Lazaros 29:18

So that was 11 years ago that car accident. And it's been a process for sure. And now I have a whole framework and I coach on it. And, Where do I even start? It started with personal development. Every personal development book I could get my hands on, and I'm talking Stephen Covey, James Clear, Jim Rohn,

Caroline Sangal 29:36

Yes.

Alan Lazaros 29:36

All of it. And I just put it all in here, baby. And I dialed up self-improvement and personal development and personal growth to, to 11. Every seminar, it was awesome.

Caroline Sangal 29:46

Yeah.

Alan Lazaros 29:47

Every speech I could find and then eventually you realize, okay, it's interesting. So I've been in sort of three main phases of my life. One of them was professional development, that's the straight A's engineering degree, master's in business corporate. So I did the traditional road, I did the preschool, kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, college, corporate.

Caroline Sangal 30:13

Yep.

Alan Lazaros 30:15

Then I left corporate, so that was professional development.

Caroline Sangal 30:18

Yeah.

Alan Lazaros 30:18

That was IQ. Then I flipped it to fitness.

Caroline Sangal 30:24

Yeah.

Alan Lazaros 30:24

I was a fitness model, fitness competitor, fitness coach, 43 photo shoots, three fitness competitions. My whole world was fitness and I went from 160 pounds skinny fat, just not healthy drinking too much and too often to quitting drinking. And being on stage winning trophies. It was unbelievable. It was really cool. And some of the best times of my life, honestly. Because if you're not healthy, you're not happy. it's, you don't know the difference. Trust me, I've been unhealthy and I've been really healthy. It's unbelievable on this side. And then I went entrepreneur land, which, basically the personal development. And so what you find in these three worlds, it's like fitness has some personal development and almost no professional development. And then corporate has no fitness. Insane. Like why does corporate have no fitness? It's weird.

Caroline Sangal 31:12

Why are doctors doing residencies and getting no sleep?

Alan Lazaros 31:16

That's what I'm saying.

Caroline Sangal 31:17

Who wants a doctor that's been up for 70 something hours Making life or death decision about you. Crazy. These are the people that are our pinnacles of sick care. But anyway,

Alan Lazaros 31:25

Yeah, but that's the thing, right? Professional development, like I've been at many tech companies and I worked for a bunch of tech companies. I had robots inside of technologies, all these things, and it's okay, there's very little fitness and very little personal development. And then you go into the personal development space and there's some fitness, but there's no professional development. It's this weird, siloed thing. And so that's what my brand has become is, the merger of fitness, personal development and business. Because one thing you'll find, you're new in podcasting, but we work with 117 podcasters and business owners right now. We produce, we do all kinds of stuff. What you'll find is, and again, I don't want this to come off wrong, but I need to share it. There are a lot of people don't have real businesses. These are like, solopreneurs who don't actually know how to build a real company. And that's actually what I do. So I'm not judging, I just,

Caroline Sangal 32:18

Yeah.

Alan Lazaros 32:18

there's not a lot of engineers in this space. That's the best way I'll put it.

Caroline Sangal 32:22

Yeah.

Alan Lazaros 32:22

Kevin, when we built our business model, he, I said, this is the business model. this is the best business model in the game. I was playful. He's how do you know? I said, there's no engineers in this space. Dude, I've been in the corporate world. I know organizational design.

Caroline Sangal 32:34

Yeah. You know how to test it. You know the metrics, you know how it matters. To have the metrics. You could just like, yes.

Alan Lazaros 32:39

And in the podcasting world, there's none of that. Almost none of that. There's a few, obviously it's loosey goosey. It is crazy. And it's listen, you're not gonna win winging it. Imagine if Apple was like, yeah, we just wing it. We don't really track anything. What are we doing here? So I'm merging those worlds, professional development, personal development, and fitness. I think they should be the same. You can apply engineering principles to all three of'em and goal achievement and success and all that kinda stuff. So anyways, I digress. But ultimately those are the sort of the three main phases. I went all in professional development while the party days. Then I went all in fitness to overcome the partying because to me goals I set goals that required me to overcome partying.'cause what's the worst thing for fitness is alcohol. So for me, I set a fitness goal that meant more to me than any social life. And so that was my transition from professional to personal development. And then I realized I'm merging all three now in my thirties.

Caroline Sangal 33:36

I like to also consider, so I'll say there's eight factors to somebody's. Career decision and what could be the right thing for them in that next chapter. So it's where are you in your career development stage? And there's multiple times in someone's life that they naturally start to question and so it, and it's gonna come around again, right? And then what are your natural abilities? What are the things you've invested, time, effort, and energy to learn? What are your interests? And those change, by the way, right?

Alan Lazaros 34:00

Yeah, a hundred percent.

Caroline Sangal 34:01

Go ahead Tell a 15-year-old pick your college based on your interest. That 15-year-old, 10 years before liked dinosaurs and cars, right? And 10 years from then is gonna something completely different and 10 years from then. and then it's gonna be your personal style. So are you introvert, extrovert, generalist, specialist? What's your communication behavior? All those influence how you're showing up at work and the type of activities that are energizing or draining for you, the family you come from.

Alan Lazaros 34:26

Yep.

Caroline Sangal 34:27

And your family you have now, or your friendships or relationships, your goals, your values, considering all of those, then making a vision. What do you want your life to look like after going through all of those detailed, of course there's data driven, scientifically backed, valid assessments under them. I have to have that underpinning. I wouldn't be the great scientist if I didn't and I wouldn't feel comfortable'Cause sometimes it's oh, your inner knowing knows. Awesome. And I don't know how to listen to that. So give me some hardcore data A beginning. or it's you can take an assessment, you can do Clifton strengths.

Alan Lazaros 35:00

Yeah.

Caroline Sangal 35:01

I'll take it five weeks later and I'll take it five weeks later again. And they were all fricking different and I'm like, I can stand behind that.

Alan Lazaros 35:07

You know what I think is the best assessment is looking through your own experience. Look through your own life. But here's the problem. When you're young, you don't have enough experience to actually have enough data to do it. But if you look at the list, 36 years of my life, there are themes, there's through lines, there's patterns.

Caroline Sangal 35:23

Yes.

Alan Lazaros 35:24

What are you great at? What are you deeply obsessed with? And I say obsessed on purpose. And then what does the world actually need? And what is it willing to pay for? And it's very hard to find the epicenter of those three things. So you and I are obviously very passionate about engineering, a career, engineering, your passion, purpose, profit, career, all these things. And we can dig into that if you want to. Yes. Data-driven decision making. Got it. Yeah.

Caroline Sangal 35:48

Now also though, I'm curious about this because I see you all, you now have a podcast with your, beautiful, significant other as well. So it's it's gonna be performance, relationships, and wellbeing. And

Alan Lazaros 35:58

Nice.

Caroline Sangal 35:59

And there may come a time, I don't know, but is it in your future design to ever go from the two of you separate to possibly not or

Alan Lazaros 36:10

Of course. Absolutely. Yes. It's already part of the roadmap, so we already have the next 60 years planned out. I know, that's wild. But yes, we're both extremely future oriented, goal oriented individuals, which is why it works. Right now it's Conscious Couples Podcast. Eventually it's gonna be Conscious Parenting.

Caroline Sangal 36:27

Nice.

Alan Lazaros 36:28

Then it's gonna be Conscious Business Owners. So we're gonna have a whole, the company is called The We. And thank you for doing your research. I really appreciate it. I feel very respected. And the fact That you know about that is great. So we've been coaching couples for five years.

Caroline Sangal 36:39

Nice.

Alan Lazaros 36:39

One of our couples last week, no, earlier this week, just got engaged.

Caroline Sangal 36:44

You won't be in their wedding, but you will congratulate them.

Alan Lazaros 36:47

Thank you. So you've really done your research. Okay. So yes. So how do you know that? So Caroline, that's exactly it.

Caroline Sangal 36:54

Yeah.

Alan Lazaros 36:55

To give a little context rather than me just sounding like a dick there. It's Emelia and I are extremely selective with what we do and don't do. And we have to be to, because we run three businesses between the two of us. Yeah.

Caroline Sangal 37:08

So what does an ideal day look like for you? Like in your, if you could dream it and you wake up and there's nothing you have to do and everything that you could want to do, what's your ideal day look like?

Alan Lazaros 37:20

Exactly what I'm doing today. So I break my days into thirds. I'm an engineer, so forgive me for that. But everything is by design in my life and I know that not, that's not for everybody. Some people want to go with the flu. I get it. That ain't me. So I like flow and I go with the flow within structure. So every day at 11:00 AM my first meeting is from 11 to 8:00 PM Every single day I do. So I do, my first third is for me. So from when I wake up, which is luckily whenever I want now, which is awesome, from when I wake up to when I have my first meeting at 11:00 AM it's for me, the first third is for me, pour into myself. That's when we exercise, that's when I do my learning. My targeted learning is what I call it, my skill development. That's when I do me, I pour into me before I go poor in the world. The second is for service, so from 11:00 AM to 8:00 PM every single day except for Sunday, Monday through Saturday. I am doing coaching, training and podcasting. That's what I'm doing right now, podcasting. Then the third, third after 8:00 PM I call, we call it our heart out in the military, we learn a lot from Seal Team Six and Delta Force.'Cause they obviously are the most elite.

Caroline Sangal 38:25

Absolutely.

Alan Lazaros 38:26

Yeah, the most elite people on planet Earth basically. And, they have something called a hard out. So at 8:00 PM it's a hard out meaning we are done no matter what close the store.'Cause in the 21st century, it's very hard to shut down work, especially when your work and your life is completely merged. So eight o'clock hits done downstairs, boom. And then it's immediately fit food and family. And for us, our family is me, Amelia. We have a dog and two cats. And eventually it'll be more than that.

Caroline Sangal 38:56

Yeah.

Alan Lazaros 38:58

That Monday through Saturday, that's my schedule. And then Sunday is reflect and review. I still work on Sundays back office, reflect and review, review, but there's no front facing on Sundays. That has been a rule that's been unbelievable because it's basically like you don't have to dress up and,

Caroline Sangal 39:16

Yeah.

Alan Lazaros 39:16

Go out there and serve. It's, you just get to be. But Sunday's my favorite day of the week because I get to reflect on the last week and then improve the next week. And I get to, it's a, we go on little mini adventures and that kind of stuff. We were actually on the road last week from, we went from Massachusetts to South Carolina and back in one week and I didn't miss a single coaching session.

Caroline Sangal 39:37

if you do it again, I'm in North Carolina, right by the

Alan Lazaros 39:40

what part?

Caroline Sangal 39:41

so come on over,

Alan Lazaros 39:42

Very nice. We went through North Carolina. Yeah. Awesome. Blue Ridge Mountains and all that. So

Caroline Sangal 39:47

Yeah.

Alan Lazaros 39:47

That's my schedule currently. That's, and honestly, that is my ideal life.

Caroline Sangal 39:53

That's amazing in this chapter. I will be so curious to see how that is modified as you hopefully someday do get to bring other humans

Alan Lazaros 40:03

Into the world. Yep.

Caroline Sangal 40:05

And yeah. Yeah, because that was a

Alan Lazaros 40:07

It will have to modify for sure.

Caroline Sangal 40:08

Yeah. And that, And you adapt and you do that and you grow and you love it, and then you help guide other people. That's so amazing. How do people work with you now? How can they find you?

Alan Lazaros 40:21

Yes, Caroline, thank you for having me. I appreciate it. I, how can people work with me now? So this is what I always say. So I have a quadrant right over here. The y axis is coachability, which is also humility, and the x axis is work ethic. So I used to be. 10 years ago, I'll help anyone I can. That is a terrible idea. And I don't do that anymore. So I, all my clients, I teach them, you need your absolutely people and your absolutely not people.

Caroline Sangal 40:52

Yeah.

Alan Lazaros 40:52

So my absolutely people are in the upper right quadrant, high coachability, high work ethic. There's two types of people I do not ever work with. Number one is bullies. If you tear other people down to feel bigger and better about yourself, you can never come to me or talk to me ever. And number two is what I call spoiled brats. People who want huge rewards for minimal effort. I'm not your guy. I'm the ultimate try hard came from nothing. if you don't have work ethic, we're not gonna work together. So assuming you have high coachability and high work ethic, you can go to next level universe.com. You can go to the Next Level University podcast. We do an episode every single day. It's self-improvement, personal development, and success principles in your pocket from anywhere on the planet, completely free every single day. Next level you not next level me, not next level, Kevin, but next level you. And it's just get 1% better every single day. Our episodes are anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes every single day. We never miss 2200 episodes at this point, and we're there to help you succeed and achieve your dreams. That's what we're about. And if you reach out on Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn, that will be me who gets back to you, particularly Instagram. I check it every single day. So if you DM me on Instagram, if you wanna have a conversation, assuming you have high coachability and high work ethic, but. If you don't have high coachability and high work ethic, trust me, we're not gonna get along and I'm gonna be a pain in your butt and I'm not interested anymore, even though I did that for years.

Caroline Sangal 42:14

I get it. I get it. one final question. I'm huge on authentic success. And authentic success is how you define it. No one else.

Alan Lazaros 42:24

Yeah.

Caroline Sangal 42:24

In this moment, how do you define authentic success for you?

Alan Lazaros 42:31

Doing all I can with all I have every single day, reaching my full potential and helping others do the same.

Caroline Sangal 42:38

That's beautiful. That's beautiful.

Alan Lazaros 42:40

Thank you.

Caroline Sangal 42:40

Alan. I genuinely appreciate your time and, I would love to continue and possibly have you on again.

Alan Lazaros 42:47

Let's do it Caroline. Let's do it.

42:49

Alan, thank you for your clarity, your honesty, and your heart driven approach to growth. Conversations like this remind us that achievement can take us far, but alignment is what brings us home. Alan's story shows how quickly life can shift And how powerful it is when we start living from the inside out. If this episode resonated, follow the show, share it with someone who's wrestling with these questions, and come connect with me on LinkedIn. You can also explore what an aligned life first career could look like for you at nextsuccesscareers.com

Tara 43:25

Thanks for listening to Your Next Success with Dr. Caroline Sangal. Remember, authentic success is yours to define and includes aligning your career to support the life you want.