E60: Work Hard or Stay Stuck? with Alan Lazaros

Alan Lazaros, founder of Next Level University, breaks down what real work actually means in a world chasing shortcuts. From leaving corporate engineering to building a global coaching business, Alan shares why personal development is overlooked, why self-belief is the ultimate skill, and why success comes from doing what others avoid. If you’re tired of quick fixes and ready for real growth in health, wealth, and love—this episode delivers practical, no-BS insight.

Connect with Alan:

https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Work is when you do something that is building toward a better future. We usually don't wake up until after some trauma, but what people care about most is being successful. Nobody wants personal development, but that is really what they need. Let's roll right in. All right, welcome to the Work Sucks But I Like It podcast. Today we have Alan Lazarus. He took the traditional career to live the American dream, although something was missing. He is now the founder and CEO of Next Level University, a top 100 podcast and seven-figure business focused on helping others reach their full potential in health, wealth, and love. Alan, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_01 0:49

Thank you for having me, first of all. I really appreciate it. And for anyone who is listening, I don't take that lightly. The 21st century is extremely noisy. The most important thing you have is what you pay attention to. So again, thank you for having me and thank you for listening.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Awesome. No, thank you, Alan. So first question I'd like to ask yes, Alan, is how do you define work today? How do you define it?

SPEAKER_01 1:11

The first thing that comes up when I think of work is building toward something meaningful that is good for the world, your customers and clients, the company, and then you. Um work to me is meaningful work building toward a bigger, better, brighter future. That's the way that I would define it. And yeah, you can do products and services, you can do building a company, you can work in corporate, whatever path, nonprofit, charity you name it, even if it's volunteer work. Work is time and effort in for a bigger, better, brighter future for yourself and others.

SPEAKER_00 1:49

Now I love that. So, Alan, how does that look for you today? How do you apply that definition today?

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Yeah, work looks a lot different for me today than it used to, but now it's primarily uh I actually have it right over here. I call it Alan's snowball of success. Nice. Three steps, simple. There's a snowball in the center, three, three steps. Coach more, earn more, delegate more. Coach more, earn more, delegate more. My primary skill, the thing that I want to do most, that I love the most, the most meaningful work for me is business coaching. I have 28 clients currently. I'm trying to increase that and then delegate the other parts of my business. Now, in the beginning, you have to do everything yourself, but now I have a 24-person team. So I'm trying to fill my calendar with more and more coaching. Kevin and I, my business partner, we joke. He is a podcaster at heart who tolerates coaching. I'm a coach at heart that tolerates podcasting.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

Well, thanks for tolerating to be on the podcast today. You're welcome.

SPEAKER_01 2:46

I do love it too, just not as one-on-one. One-on-one is better than one to many for me. I love it.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

Love it. Gotcha. So I definitely want to like, you know, tap into what you're doing today, but let's go back to when you were living this sort of traditional song and dance, as I like to call it, this American dream that you were chasing. What did you feel like you needed back then? What was missing that led you to the work that you're doing now?

SPEAKER_01 3:11

So, in hindsight, uh, I probably would have answered differently back then, but in hindsight, it's very clear. So every year, I call myself Allen version 3.7. I was a computer engineer. So I'm 37 years old. And 11 years ago, I kind of started my own company and left corporate. But what was the original question again, one more time?

SPEAKER_00 3:33

Just going back to like when you were in corporate, I guess let's start with that. What did you feel like you needed, you know, and what was missing in corporate to lead you to what you're doing today?

SPEAKER_01 3:43

Meaningful work that was aligned with my true purpose and passion. So I worked in industrial automation for a company called Cognex. That was where I ended up. I had a bunch of different tech companies before that, but we sold industrial automation equipment into manufacturing facilities all across the world. Have you ever heard of Cognex?

unknown 4:00

No.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

They do machine vision. Yeah. So eyes of robotics, industrial automation stuff. And I was an inside sales engineer and then I was an outside sales engineer. I did Vermont, Connecticut, Western Massachusetts. So uh I know you're up in New Hampshire, so you know these areas. And there's actually quite a bit of manufacturing in Connecticut. And that was I had Covidian and up in Vermont, there's GE, jet engine turbine stuff. So I would sell this automation equipment, and I think what I came to eventually was automation's gonna happen. I would see these pictures on the wall of you know, the 70s, the 80s, and the 90s, and there was manufacturing facilities of tons filled with workers, and now it's one floor manager and mostly robotics, and automation, and and that's gonna happen with or without me. But what I figured out, and this is sort of what struck me, the statistically speaking, I'm a big numbers guy. So there's 8 billion people on planet Earth, there's 195 countries, there's six billion online now with Starlink, it's 5.65 going up. But back then, this is probably back in 2014, 2015, and I came to this really kind of stark realization. The people who had lower levels of education, they tended to have more children and they had children younger. The people who had who were more educated uh had less children and usually waited. Like Emilia and I, I'm 37, she's 31, we don't have children yet. We were intending. And I saw the the exponential population increase of the less educated population increasing, while simultaneously the jobs available to those people was decreasing exponentially because of automation. And this was before a lot of the AI stuff blew up. Self-driving cars. I remember one time I got my McDonald's on a conveyor belt instead of a human. Like this is, and then you you go into grocery stores, the self-checkouts, Panera has the kiosks instead of a human. Like, this is never going away. This is gonna increase exponentially forever. And so I decided, okay, instead of me making a ton of money selling industrial automation equipment being a part of the problem. And again, I don't know if I call it a problem because I'm a techie, but part of the problem. I'm gonna start a company called Alan Lazarus LLC, what you'll never learn in school but desperately need to know. And instead of taking jobs and making money, I'm going to provide people with the equipping necessary to create their own jobs and make money. So it's not about money, it's about how you make your money and whether or not that's meaningful work for you. And whether or not that's meaningful work for you is is aligned with the heart as well as the head. And so for me, be the change you wish to see in the world is just a mantra that I just have so deeply now. Um, and now I am the change I wish to see in the world. Whereas back then I wasn't necessarily doing anything wrong or bad, but it definitely wasn't 10 out of 10 aligned with like what I believe is best for the world.

SPEAKER_00 7:03

That's such a unique perspective and experience, Alan. Thank you for sharing that. Because when I hear people talk about leaving corporate, it's usually because of like a crappy manager or their work sucks or whatever. But yours was interesting in that like technology is replacing these people, and that sucks.

SPEAKER_01 7:21

Like that's that's really wow. Brother, I had this one moment. Uh, Ben and Jerry's was one of my customers up in Vermont, which is actually owned by Unilever. Um, and I remember seeing there were people that were doing quality assurance, checking to make sure everything was good. And I would sell equipment that checked. So imagine these ice cream containers going down a line, and this picture this camera takes pictures of them to make sure the cap's on right, measurements, all that stuff. And at the end of the day, the truth of the matter was the more equipment I sold, the less jobs there were. And so again, I don't blame Cognix for that. That that is necessary. You produce more for less time and effort. Like I get it, um, and it's actually necessary, but I want to equip people. The people who are hungry and willing, I want to equip people to create jobs.

unknown 8:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:13

I love that. So walk us through now how you started searching for this like opportunity. You form your own LLC. What are you now looking for to create? You're kind of talking about it, but kind of walk us through now sort of the details of how you've built it to where you are now.

SPEAKER_01 8:28

So 11 years ago, I started, as you you heard, Alan Lazarus LLC, what you'll never learn in school but desperately need to know. Desperately was in all caps. Good luck getting speeches at high schools and colleges with that tagline, by the way. I found self-improvement, personal development, and personal growth, which at the time I thought was like everything. And I still do, but I was a straight A student. So I didn't understand why I didn't learn about habits, why I didn't learn about goal setting, why I didn't learn about finance. I didn't take my first finance course until grad school. So I didn't understand why these fitness uh habits, goal setting, courage, humility, vulnerability, virtue, time management, productivity, like these are critical understandings to have to be a successful individual. And yet we didn't learn them in school. There was no communication class, there was no class on relationships, there was no self-awareness class. I mean, as someone who was a straight A student in high school, I was alarmed at how little I learned about these really important things. And then when I found sort of self-help, self-improvement, personal development, and personal growth, I was like, this is it. I'm bringing this to the masses, personal development to the masses. I now realize that we're selling kaleats at a candy store on the internet. Um, but it's still that same through line. And so that's really what I'm still trying to do. The way I'm doing it though has shifted. So I used to think I would I would bring personal development to the school systems and to the masses, and that was I was an inspirational, motivational, educational speaker, and I was gonna go into these schools and you know help people get excited. And in hindsight, personal development is not cool until usually after you have like a pretty hefty ego death. Um, so for me, it was a car accident. For some people, it's death of a loved one, death of a pet, serious illness. Like usually we don't wake up off autopilot until there's some sort of massive trauma. For me, it was a car accident, but I realize now that what people care about most is being successful. And even more than that is seeming successful, looking successful. So now the company is focused on helping people be healthier, wealthier, and more in love. So holistic success is what we call it. Um, and I can define those for you if you're interested. And then we end up teaching personal development, self-improvement, and personal growth. So I'll give you an example. So I coached someone who did 9 million last year in their business in Massachusetts, Danvers. And he came to me because he wanted to dial in and be more effective and grow his company. So people come to you for what they think they want and then they get and stick around for what they need. Nobody wants personal development. What they need is personal development. So I pepper that in to the business coaching because usually the bottleneck is the leader's mentality and/or habits and/or lack thereof habits. And um, so hopefully that answers your question. But what I'm building now is a business and a company that leads leaders. I used to try to go directly to the masses for lack of better phrasing, and I that wasn't working at all. Um so now I just I find these hardworking, super inwardly humble, uh, self-improvement-oriented people, and I and I lead leaders and I help them grow their impact and become way more profitable, which then reinvests. And and so now, you know, if you touch a thousand lives and those thousand lives take a thousand lives, it reaches a million and then a billion very quickly. So we all do matter mathematically more than we realize. And to me, I'm now looking for my 300 Spartans instead of, you know, 300,000 individuals.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

I think you're hitting like an important topic that's really overlooked today, right? Why is personal development overlooked, but yet that's the thing that we need? Why do you think it's missing in sort of the work we do today?

SPEAKER_01 12:26

Two reasons. And I appreciate the question. And I see all the books behind you, so I knew I was in good company. Yeah. Uh number one is the so we all live in two worlds, the social world and the real world. And what's supposed to happen, I think, is we care about one of them in high school, social world. You care what other people think about you more than what you think about you. And you're supposed to grow out of that. Um, some people never do. And so both matter. So the social world is the wedding photos, the real world is the actual marriage. The social world is your Instagram account, the real world is your bank account. The social world is uh your Facebook, the real world is how you feel about yourself when you're by yourself, when you wake up in the morning. We all have both, and we all have to win in both because the economy is built on this one. It's built on the social world, the ecosystem, the economy, your reputation, your brand. A brand is a reputation of a business. So you need that. You can't neglect that. I neglected it and almost went out of business. But it shouldn't be that first. So people have their syntax wrong. That's number one. It needs to be real life, who you are and what you are when no one's watching will always matter most. That has to be number one. And then you also have to care about your branding and your marketing and your reputation and that kind of thing. Give a speech in front of a thousand people, you have a thousand reputations, you still only have one character. Character first, reputation second. Both matter. I tried character only, it didn't work. Um, I also tried in high school, reputation only, also miserable, right? Terrible idea. So you're supposed to grow out of that. So the number one answer to your question of why personal development is not awesome or or uh ubiquitous is because the social world doesn't care. And here's why it's a cred hit to work on yourself. Because in order to work on yourself, you have to admit you're not awesome. You have to showcase where you suck. That's why coaching one-on-one works so well. Because it's just me and you, and we're private, so you get to actually tell me where you actually suck instead of pretending on Instagram you're great at everything. So at the end of the day, it allows for courage, humility, and vulnerability behind the scenes. And that's why I like coaching more than podcasting. Now, that said, personal development is not ubiquitous because number one, it's a cred hit in the social world, typically. Because if you have to work on yourself, it means you're not that great. And people with a fixed mindset think that talent is innate and they don't like to admit that they're actually unhappy, unfulfilled, not successful, not dialed in, not consistent, not sustainable. Okay, that's number one. Number two is it's actually pretty painful to look at all the places that you're inadequate. So I think ChatGPT, all these AIs are overly affirming. They're very overly validating.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

Totally agree.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

And the internet is overly overly validating, in my opinion, lately. Um, the 21st century is is trying to convince you that you don't have to work hard and that you're already enough and that everything's gonna work out. First of all, no, it's not. Certainly not where I grew up. Um, and and you might work every single day for the rest of your life and still not make it. Like that's humility, inward humility. I think it's entitled and arrogant to think that you can work four hours a week and still be successful. I genuinely think that's arrogant. I do. It's funny you say that because I was thinking about the same thing, man.

SPEAKER_00 16:03

That's so funny. That meant it's not true. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:07

It's trust me, I fell for it for a little while too. It doesn't work. Um and again, I was reluctant to share this in the past, but now I feel like it's an obligation. I haven't taken a day off in 11 years. So now that I am quote unquote successful and being seen as successful, I feel obligated to share that. Sometimes it's an hour a day, sometimes it's 10 hours, sometimes it's 18 hours, usually it's around 10. But I say that not to brag, not to say that that's good for everyone to do. I say that because I think it's arrogant to work 20 hours a week and think you're gonna beat me in business. There are people out there that really are goal-oriented and they really don't quit, and they really are every second of every day on moving the needle somewhere, right? Even if they're RRing, it's just so they can crush it again tomorrow. So I feel obligated to share that. But the answer your original question, the two things personal development. Number one is the social world doesn't care and it's a cred hit to work on yourself. Number two is it's actually pretty, it can be very devastating to I always say the gold is buried where you least want to dig. For me, it was looking at my past, my dad's death, my stepdad leaving, like all that stuff. It's like really painful to look at all that stuff, but that's where the transformation is.

SPEAKER_00 17:22

No, no, no, that's great. And it's funny, Alan. Like, we all know, well, for the listeners out there, I mean, we're talking about Tim Ferris's book, right? The four-hour work week, right? And not that it's like a totally bad book and all, but it's like, I agree with you, Alan, that self-help today is like, what's the five steps to get to happiness and like all these sort of shortcuts? And it's just the wrong type of language that we're using. So I love how you brought that up. So one of the things, Alan, I want you to kind of build upon here. So one of the things we like to say on the show is that success is not a matter of good luck, it's good skills. What would you say is the skill to go inward? Why is it so hard for people to look at themselves, to have that humility? And what's the skill to kind of do to sort of navigate that sort of dark territory?

SPEAKER_01 18:05

The skill is self-efficacy. So self-efficacy is the fancy psychological term for self-belief. What I've found is people who think they have a growth mindset subconsciously and unconsciously often don't. And some people who think they have a fixed mindset actually do have a growth mindset, they just don't know it. Um, some people think they believe in themselves 10 out of 10, but subconsciously and unconsciously they don't at all, which is why they don't execute. I always say, why would someone with level 10 confidence have level two goals? It's not real. And then why would someone who says they barely believe in themselves, like my COO Christina, she was one example of this. It's like, she's like, I don't think I believe in myself that much. And it's like, you crush it at everything. I think you believe in yourself more than you think you do, because that's the conscious mind. The subconscious and unconscious is where real belief is built in. And so the people who have really high self-belief, they don't really know that, and they usually dim down socially because they don't fit in. But behind the scenes, they're beasts, absolute beasts. And then some people behind the scenes are actually like really uh sort of self-doubt and struggle bus, but publicly they act like they have tons of self-belief, when in reality it's usually inflated self-worth or and or arrogance. And at the end of the day, um, self-efficacy, you can build it. And at NLU at my company, we talk about how to build it. So Evan and I, he didn't believe in himself. He thought he got lucky. I had a lot of self-belief, but didn't know it. He was an all-star baseball player, we went to high school together, middle school, high school. He didn't go to college, I did. And we reconnected in our 20s. He had suicidal ideation, I had a tough car accident, we were both in our mid-20s, we call it our quarter life crisis, found each other in a hopeless place and built something special. Both grew up without fathers, both raised by two women, his mom and his Mima, my mom and my older sister. Kind of a cool, crazy, synchronistic story. But what I would say is I had no idea that people don't believe in themselves. I was naive as hell back then, it's 11 years ago. Because everyone around me acted like they did. But I didn't realize they were mirroring me. And socially, most people act like they do. Right? It's very vulnerable to say I don't believe in myself, I doubt myself constantly, even though behind the scenes that's very true. Kev was vulnerable and honest about it, and I was like, oh. He's like, dude, that's not gonna make any sense to someone who struggles with self-belief. Because I used to say these things like, I never once questioned whether or not I could do it, just whether or not it was worth it. And he's like, that makes no sense. And so eventually we figured out that I have high self-belief even though I didn't know it, and he has low self-belief even though he didn't know it. He was an all-star baseball player, thought he got lucky. And I was like, wait a minute. You didn't decide in advance to be an all-star baseball player? And he was like, No, dude, I didn't even like baseball. My mom made me play. And I was like, Can you imagine if you actually wanted to do that? You were a rock star baseball player with by accident? So the the formula is state prove self-assign. Start with level one self-belief, set a level one goal, hit it, self-assign it. Now set a level two goal, hit it, self-assign it. Now you have level two self-belief, set a level three goal, hit it, self assign it. This is unconscious and subconscious. This is not conscious. And I was doing this not even knowing I was doing it. I said, Kev, I decided to get straight A's before I got straight A's. He's like, What? So this is my point. If you have premeditated goals by design, you You are building self-belief. And most likely people don't like you and you don't know why. If you're not doing that, you fit in very easily. You love social settings, you fit in and you belong easily, but you don't feel like you can achieve your goals and dreams and you feel out of control. It feels like your future isn't in your control. And so we're all on one side of the spectrum and it's zero to 10. Um, and and we call it a drive to five. So five is humble and confident. 10 is I don't need a mentor, I'm already there, and that's arrogant. Zero is I don't think I can get a mentor. Right. So we call it a drive to five. And so that's the number one skill by far is self-efficacy, also known as self-belief. If you don't have self-belief and you're not building it, I don't want to say it's impossible to achieve your dreams, but it's very, very, very unlikely.

SPEAKER_00 22:52

No, that's excellent. I love that skill too. Um, so Alan, take us now to what you're doing with you said NLU. I'll use that acronym as well. The next level university. Walk us through. Is that drive to five part of it? Like what do people kind of get? What are they looking for in this program? What's that next level that you're trying to take them to?

unknown 23:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:13

So next level university is is a podcast. It's also a company, it's also the name of the brand. Next level university, the podcast, the tagline is success and personal development in your pocket every single day from anywhere on the planet, completely free. That is next level university. And I believe in open source knowledge. I believe everyone should have a chance to be successful because I was given uh scholarships and financial aid to go to one of the best engineering schools in the world. It was 50 grand a year back then. And it I got straight A's in high school, which fortunately gave me scholarships and financial aid. So yeah, I earned it, but I also didn't. So uh I'm very grateful. And so I want to give back to people who have a sincere interest in getting better. And that's what NLU is. It's totally free. We have 2,400 episodes now, 1% improvement in your pocket every single day. Um the company, what are we doing? So we have a book club, we do masterclasses every month, we produce 86 podcasts now, I have 28 business clients. Um, it's gotten it's growing. It's good, it's very good. I'm in demand, I'm overwhelmed, but that's a good thing. Um but anyone who we always say this nothing works unless you work. If you want big rewards for minimal effort, you're you're gonna hate us. You're gonna hate us. I I'm not interested at all in any of that because I just don't think it's real. I think you can you can lie, steal, and cheat your way to success if you want. You can play the social networking game if you want, that's your prerogative. But if you want real success in real life with your real marriage and your real body and your real finances, it's gonna take a ton of work and mastery and and impact and and these things that are yeah, that are not quick fixes. There are no no easy shortcuts. So the the last thing I'll share is if you if your day-to-day is hard, your life will be easy. If your day-to-day is easy, your life's gonna be really hard because you're gonna crumble the first time that it that it goes wrong and it's gonna go wrong.

SPEAKER_00 25:20

I love that outlook. So, Alan, how do you define sort of success and peak performance today? What does that look like for you?

SPEAKER_01 25:29

Yeah, so I was with Kev earlier. We did an episode at NLU on the quality, quantity, sweet spot. For me, it's I want to maximize my potential. So that's like ultimately what it is. Maximize my maximize my own unique potential and help others do the same in health, wealth, and love. So health is physical, mental, emotional, spiritual. Love that. Wealth is how you earn your money, meaning is it meaningful work for you? Is it increasing or decreasing based on where the economy is going? And then where do you invest it, not spend it, but invest it. And then love, immediate relationship, intimate relationship, uh pets if you have them, children if you have them, extended family, clients, colleagues, mentors, mentees, business partners, friends, that whole thing. Um, but really to be healthier, wealthier, and more in love every single day, and that's a mountain that gets higher as you climb it, peak performance to me is the consistent and sustainable pursuit of my own unique potential and the greatest level of impact that I can have in alignment with what I value and what's meaningful to me. So, for example, uh, if you were to talk to me about some reality TV show, I just would shut off. Like it would be like, oh, me too. Okay, we're I'm gonna go over here now. Like I just don't care. I never really have. I used to pretend to because I wanted friends, but now I don't really care about any of that. And I and I don't pretend to anymore. And I think I'm 37 now and I'm just done with all that. So at the end of the day, I I I focus on alignment and I focus on optimizing my life around reaching my full potential. And I think that every time I don't do that, I regret it. And every time I do, I'm fulfilled, even though it's atrociously difficult. So that's how I would define peak performance now.

SPEAKER_00 27:21

So this is the work sucks, but I like it podcasts. So, Alan, can you share with our listeners what sucks about your work today and what are you doing to make it not suck?

SPEAKER_01 27:30

What sucks about my work today? Um uh hopefully by now everyone out there listening knows that I'm uh I try to be as direct and honest as humanly possible. There's a lot of things I do that suck. Um I call it, I told you this before we hit record, the want, love, hate framework. This works for everybody, including me. I want more clients. I love one-on-one coaching. I hate social media. Hate it. I hate it, but it's entitled to not do it. I work from home, global impact, six billion people on the internet. Like, it's entitled for me not to do it. So I decided to find what I do love, which is fitness, and merge it with social media. So my Instagram, Kevin always makes fun of me. He's like, You're a business coach, man. It's like, yeah, but I love fitness, so it's it's on there. Um, want to be in great shape, love weight training, hate dieting, hate it. Absolutely hate it. Now, it doesn't mean I don't do it. I think there's two types of people. There's people who accept they hate something and they do it anyway because it's necessary to be successful. And then there's people who tell themselves a story of, well, I don't really like that, so I shouldn't have to do it. If you are telling yourself a story that you shouldn't have to do X, Y, or Z, success is a formula. X, Y, or Z is probably in that formula. I've coached 7,000, 6,966, I call it my magic number. 6,966 hours of one-on-one coaching with people from all over the world. I'm telling you, it works every time. If you're not getting a result you want in life, you can find it is because you're not consistently doing something that you don't like and or hate. And unfortunately, we all have to humble ourselves and say, I know I hate it. I know I hate dieting. I hate it, but I have to do it if I want the result. Or I have to be humble enough to be like, you know what? The result's not worth it. I'm not gonna diet, and I'm gonna not have an eight-pack again, right? So um, most of the things we want are on the other side of something that sucks. And trying to change that is is not a great idea. That said, how am I making it better? I think more acceptance. That's how I'm making it better.

unknown 29:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:47

What do you mean by that? Can you go more acceptance of what?

SPEAKER_01 29:50

Uh acceptance that the things that I value most in life are on the other side of something that sucks. And I'm embracing the suck. Uh, for example, I'm doing Mile every day. It's called hashtag miles for mindset. I've been doing it for like 15 days. We're doing a 10-pound in 10-week challenge. We've got 28 people in the challenge, 55 in our fitness group, all totally free, just next levelers, crushing it. Some of people are gaining weight, some people are losing weight. I'm behind. So I was like, okay, I gotta lose 10 pounds in 10 weeks. Started February 1st, end April 11th. I'm gonna do a mile every day. And then because of my obsessive nature, I'm like, what if I beat my mile time every day? And I didn't do that. I'm doing hard days, easy days, periodization because I realized after five days I can't keep that up. Um, but I did a 728 earlier, which I'm more of a bodybuilder than I am a runner. So for me, that was pretty much just suffering. Um, so acceptance that if you want to achieve great things, my accept I have to accept the fact that my day-to-day is gonna be really hard and painful. And no pain, no gain is a real thing. So choosing to suffer and struggle by choice for something meaningful and great, I think is magnificent. Suffering for the sake of suffering, I think is just dumb.

SPEAKER_00 31:07

I appreciate that transparency, Alan, with all that. So thank you so much. Alan, if listeners want to learn more about your coaching or level up with your team, what's a good place for them to land?

SPEAKER_01 31:17

Yeah, thank you again for having me. I really appreciate it, man.

SPEAKER_00 31:20

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 31:21

Yeah, that's fun, Alan. So next leveluniverse.com is the website. If you have high humility, we have our absolutely people and our absolutely not people. Our absolutely not people are bullies and spoiled brats. So bullies are people who tear others down to feel bigger and better about themselves, not interested. And spoiled brats are people who want huge rewards for minimal effort, not interested. If that's not you, and you're sick and tired of the internet telling you everything should be easy and you should be, and you're comparing your real life to everyone else's airbrushed, fake, inflated, uh, plastic surgery life, uh, then you NLU is for you. You want to get back to real life with real people in the real world. NLU is for you. Okay. High humility, high work ethic, high improvement orientation. Come ready to play and play all out. And uh you can reach out on Instagram or Facebook. Instagram is best, nextleveluniverse.com. And the best place is really just listen to the podcast because all rivers lead to the podcast, and then the podcast leads to all rivers. When it comes to NLU, it's kind of an ecosystem and it's a global community now, so it's been pretty cool. Um, you can get fit. The fitness group is free. Um, just reach out on Instagram and or check out the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 32:32

Alan, thank you so much. It's been a pleasure having you on the show today.

SPEAKER_01 32:36

Thank you for having me, Tony. I appreciate you.

SPEAKER_00 32:39

Your social world is your social media, but the real world is your bank account. Growth happens behind the scenes where courage meets vulnerability. And yeah, it's uncomfortable to face where you're falling short, but that's the work. So the skill today for success is that you need to identify what triggers you. You might need a therapist or someone close to help see what you can't see in your own, though. Don't buy into the story that you don't have to work hard. That's just avoidance dressed up as comfort. The truth, you often have to do things you don't like to build the life you do.