18 | Stop Chasing Results, Start Reclaiming Peace: A New Path to Leadership for Working Moms featuring Alan Lazaros

👉 Are you hitting goals… but still feeling drained or disconnected?

👉 Wondering if there’s more than just the hustle, the burnout, the non-stop push?

👉 What if success and peace of mind could actually go hand in hand?

In this episode, I’m joined by Alan Lazaros, CEO of Next Level University and host of a Global Top 100 podcast. After surviving a near-fatal car crash, Alan rebuilt his life from the inside out—and created a blueprint for sustainable success, holistic performance, and deep fulfillment.

Whether you’re in corporate, running your own business, or raising the next generation of leaders—this conversation will challenge how you define success…and show you a better way to live it.

🔥 In This Episode:
✔️ The real difference between happiness and fulfillment—and why it matters more than ever

✔️ How working moms can prevent burnout without sacrificing results

✔️ The “Pyramid of Fitness” Alan swears by to sustain high performance and mental clarity

✔️ Practical strategies to reclaim your mornings, manage your energy, and protect your peace

💬 Key Quote:
"Being selfish—when it's about becoming better so you can serve more—is actually the most selfless thing you can do." — Alan Lazaros

🛠️ Try This Action Step:

Ask yourself:
👉 Am I optimizing for success or for sustainability?

👉 Where am I sacrificing long-term peace for short-term results?

Now pick ONE thing from Alan’s 7 Fitness Fundamentals (sleep, hydration, nutrition, training, mobility, breathwork, supplementation) and build it into your daily non-negotiables.

🔗 Connect with Alan Lazaros:
🌐 Website: https://www.nextleveluniverse.com
📱 Instagram: @alazaros88

💼 Ready to Lead With More Peace and Power?
🚀 Take the FREE Leadership Style Quiz to uncover your strengths as a working mom leader:👉 https://theshannonfox.com/leadership-style

📩 Join the Career EmpowHERment Collective (FB Group):
👉 https://www.facebook.com/groups/careerempowhermentcollective

✨ New episodes drop every Tuesday. Subscribe and level up with us!

Kat and Tanner by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org/

Transcript

Intro:
What if success without burnout was actually possible? In this episode, I'm joined by Alan Lazaros, CEO of Next Level University and Global Top 100 podcast host, who shares the raw truth behind fulfillment, performance, and sustainable success. After surviving a near-fatal car accident, Alan rebuilt his life from the inside out—and he's giving us the blueprint.

Welcome to The Shannon Fox Show, the podcast where we empower career moms to thrive. I'm your host, Shannon Fox, a career advancement coach dedicated to helping moms like you leverage your strengths to land your dream job, secure that well-deserved raise, or finally get that promotion—all without sacrificing time with your family. Each week, I'll bring you actionable strategies, inspiring stories, and strength-based tools to help you align your career with your natural gifts and step into your full potential.

So, if you're ready to stop feeling stuck and start building the career and life you deserve, you're in the right place. Let’s get started.

Shannon:
Hello and welcome. I'm thrilled to have Alan Lazaros with me today.

Alan is the founder and CEO of Next Level University, a Global Top 100 self-improvement podcast that’s helped listeners in over 175 countries reach their full potential. After surviving a near-fatal car accident at 26, Alan began questioning everything in life and realized that external success is empty without internal fulfillment. That experience led him to holistic self-improvement, which he now teaches through coaching, training, and his podcast. Alan's approach is heart-driven but no BS, and today he’s here to share how we can optimize our success and fulfillment—without burnout.

Alan:
Optimize our success and fulfillment without burnout—yeah, that last part’s tough, but I’m excited. I’ve approached burnout several times in the last decade, so I know how to deal with it. I'm grateful to be here. Thank you so much. Gratitude first. Thank you.

Shannon:
Well, your journey started with a life-changing event—your car accident. How did that impact your life and get you where you are now?

Alan: 
I’ll give you the shortest version because I know we’ve got a limited time. There are three major events that really shaped who I am. I’m 36 now, so I’ve had time to reflect.

First, my birth father, John McCorkle—my real last name is actually McCorkle—passed away in a car accident when he was 28. Second, I had a stepfather, Steve Lazaros, from age 3 to 14. When he left, we went from boats, ski trips, and BMWs to my mom trading in her car for a little Honda Civic and me getting free lunch at school. From the outside, things had looked great, but from the inside, not so much.

Third, I bootstrapped my way through school—straight A’s, scholarships, financial aid—and got my degree in computer engineering and a master’s in business. By my early 20s, I became a global 1% earner. I’d learned how to live without much, so I saved and paid off debt.

Then came the car accident. I was 26, driving with my 17-year-old cousin, when I crossed the double yellow. Head-on collision. My fault. It wasn’t a fender bender—the entire front end was gone. But I was driving what I called “the tank,” a 2005 Volkswagen Passat. Both airbags deployed. We were physically okay, but mentally and emotionally, I was wrecked. My dad died in a car at 28—and here I was, 26, getting a second chance he never got.

It was my quarter-life existential crisis. That’s when I stopped chasing external success and started focusing inward. That’s when everything changed.

Shannon:
Wow. That’s powerful. And even in the midst of all that, you had to learn how to balance—especially for our listeners who are career moms—balancing health, wealth, work, life. Can you speak to that importance, and how to do it without burning out?

Alan:
Yeah, absolutely. When I first started my podcast eight years ago—right after the car accident—I had launched Alan Lazaros LLC. My slogan was “What you’ll never learn in school, but desperately need to know.” 

Try getting booked at a high school with that one.

Eventually, I teamed up with my now business partner Kevin, and we launched what’s now Next Level University. We just passed our 2000th episode last week.

Shannon:
That’s amazing—congrats!

Alan:
Thank you! It’s been a journey. And a big part of that journey has been understanding holistic success. When I was in corporate, working for tech companies, I got to a point where I realized—I don’t even want my boss’s boss’s boss’s job. I was climbing a mountain I didn’t even want to be on. So I started questioning everything.

Many of my mentors were wildly successful financially—but they weren’t healthy. A lot were divorced. And I thought, “I don’t want to get to the top of the mountain and not be in love, or be unhealthy.”

After the accident, I went all in on fitness. I became a fitness model, competitor, and coach. I did 43 photoshoots, competed three times—just fully immersed myself. In hindsight, those four years of deep commitment to health—ages 26 to 30—laid the foundation for how I now perform at this level without burning out.

Shannon:
That’s powerful.

Alan: 
And I track everything. It’s the engineer in me. I’m coming up on 10,000 hours of coaching, training, and podcasting. My PR for one week is 52 sessions— coaching, podcasting, or speaking. But I can only do that because I prioritize the fundamentals.

I protect my mornings and evenings. I sleep well. I exercise every single day—no exaggeration. My girlfriend and I started a challenge three years ago: work out every day. At first, it was four months, then a year, and eventually we committed to forever. We log it on a whiteboard downstairs. Some days it’s walking, swimming, a 5K—movement counts. But we’ve done it every day for three years.

Shannon:
That’s commitment!

Alan: 
And it’s what keeps me grounded. Most people don’t realize—if you want to avoid burnout, you have to take ridiculously good care of the asset: your body and mind. Especially Type A achievers, who tend to be the go-to person at work. 

You take on more, say yes to everything, because that’s how you’ve succeeded. But eventually that becomes a limiter. Burnout hits, and you’re no good to anyone—not at work, not at home.

If you want to serve more, love more, lead more—you’ve got to take care of yourself first.

So I created a pyramid of what I call the 7 Fundamentals of Fitness—because everything is a formula in my brain.

Sleep – It’s the base. Without good sleep, everything else crumbles.
Hydration – Always have water nearby.
Nutrition – Quality food, macros, calories, micros.
Training – Daily movement. Doesn’t need to be intense, but needs to be consistent.
Mobility – Stretching, foam rolling, massage—this one I struggle with.
Breathwork – I wasn’t introduced to this until I was 31. But it’s powerful for stress, clarity, and grounding.
Supplementation – Vitamins and nutrients—but it’s at the top for a reason. It’s not the foundation.

Most people try to start at the top—because you can sell supplements. But you can’t sell sleep or hydration. And so many people skip the basics, wondering why they feel off.

Shannon:
Yes! And without guilt, right? So many moms struggle with taking time for themselves.

Alan:
Absolutely. And you will feel guilty. But that doesn’t mean you should. My partner and I coach couples through this all the time on our Conscious Couples podcast. Typically, one person struggles to prioritize themselves—and the other doesn’t. That’s a dangerous combo if not addressed.

Self-care isn’t selfish—it’s the most selfless thing you can do when you do it to become greater and serve more. Taking care of yourself allows you to show up better for everyone else.

Shannon:
Yes! That’s so true. And I’ve felt that too—when I go get a massage and feel guilty the whole time. But it’s like, no—I need this to reset and show up as the best version of myself.

Alan:
Exactly. We call it “martyrdom.” It’s pervasive, especially among high-achieving women. But you don’t have to sacrifice yourself to succeed.

Shannon:
You talk about fulfillment a lot—and how so many people chase happiness instead. What’s the difference?

Alan: 
I love this question. It took me years to figure it out, but I eventually broke it into a formula. Most people chase “happiness,” but they don’t even know what that means.

So here’s the real deal—what we call “happiness” is actually three different things:
Joy – Are you enjoying the moment you're in? Like right now, I’m enjoying being on this podcast. That’s joy.

Pleasure – This is result-reliant. Eating a donut? Pleasure. But it’s fleeting. It won’t fulfill you—it’ll just fill your stomach.

Fulfillment – This is the long game. It’s about growth, contribution, and becoming the next-level version of yourself. For me, it’s Alan 3.6 being better than Alan 3.2, who’s better than 2.6 when I crashed that car.

Fulfillment doesn’t go away when you’re tired, stressed, or even sick. It’s a result of becoming someone you respect and admire.

Shannon:
Yes! That totally makes sense. Fulfillment is deeper—it lasts.

Alan:
Exactly. And here’s the hard truth—most of what brings fulfillment doesn’t feel pleasurable. I haven’t taken a full day off in 10 years. I’ve missed weddings, barbecues, vacations. I don’t drink anymore. I’m sober five years. It’s not always fun—but I’m fulfilled.

Shannon: 
I love that. Okay, one last thing—we always leave listeners with an action step. What mindset shift would you want them to take today?

Alan: 
Personal responsibility. Period.

It’s not your fault that someone left you. It’s not your fault something hard happened. But it is your responsibility to make something out of it.

Responsibility is power. If you say, “This is on me now,” you take back the power to build the life your younger self dreamed of—even from a dark place.

Shannon:
So good. Thank you, Alan. This was incredible.

Alan:
Start with gratitude, end with gratitude. Thank you for having me.