Next Level University

#1369 - Belief Is The Biggest Thing Holding Us Back

• Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

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Do you ever wonder just how far consistent daily growth can take you? In this episode, hosts Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros unravel the power of the compound effect. They discuss exponential growth and how it can impact not only our finances but also our personal growth. They examine the importance of habits and their compounding effects on our lives, both positively and negatively. They share vulnerable stories and insights from their experiences that shine a light on the power of self-belief. 

Links mentioned:
Podcast Growth University - https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/podcast-growth-university/
Next Level Blog - https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/next-level-blog/

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Website 💻  http://www.nextleveluniverse.com   

The best way to track your habits is here! Download the app: Optimal - https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/optimal/   

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We love connecting with you guys! Reach out on LinkedIn, Instagram, or via email

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

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

Email 💬
Kevin@nextleveluniverse.com
Alan@nextleveluniverse.com

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Show notes:
[5:14] The compound effect 
[11:36] The results of habits stack up
[14:27] Your habits will determine how you will be five years from today
[21:40] Chad shares how Next Level Podcast Solutions transformed his podcast and provided invaluable assistance along the way
[22:34] Believing plays a big part in what you can achieve
[25:24] How can you make someone believe?
[30:22] Hard is contextual
[35:38] Do enough of what you believe in
[40:52] Outro


Send a text to Kevin and Alan!

Speaker 1:

on. All right, this is going to be a good one. You're not going to like it, but I'm going to love it. Look man.

Speaker 2:

I don't care. You know I ain't scared.

Speaker 1:

Says that now I do this for a living.

Speaker 2:

Let's do it. I missed last words.

Speaker 1:

Let's do it. I do this for a living, you funny.

Speaker 2:

Let's do it. Here we go. Next Level Nation. Welcome back to another episode of Next Level University, where we teach you how to level up your life, your love, your health and your wealth. We hope you enjoyed our latest episode. It was episode number 1,368. Hard work beats talent. Today, for episode number 1,369. Alan interviews me. So we did this last week And I think it's just a good opportunity for us to. I don't want to say, talk about what we're going through, but just make sure that we're sharing personal stuff with you. One of the benefits of this podcast, and one of the goals we've had since the very beginning, is we want to share our struggles as much as our successes, and I don't know what Alan's going to ask me. I'm going to interview Alan in the next episode. Alan doesn't know what I'm going to ask me. He doesn't know what I'm going to ask him, so I think it creates a unique dynamic. So the floor is yours sir.

Speaker 1:

So the purpose of this podcast, as you know as a co-founder of Next Level University, is to help. We want to have the most helpful podcast possible. We want to help you improve yourself, which will help you improve your life. So that is the goal here. I told Kev he's not going to like my questions, but hopefully we like his answers. You know what I'm saying. Well done, thank you. All right. So without further ado, i'm going to tell a quick story about earlier today.

Speaker 1:

So Kevin and I earlier today we get in the studio And by the studio I mean our home offices, home studios And we get in Zoom And I say, kev, i'm fired up with rock and roll. So we go into the financial calculator, which is just a web app that calculates finances, and I put in $100 into the financial calculator And we start to unpack what would happen if you grew that $100. This is a personal growth podcast, so please stick with the analogy here. If we grew that $100 by 0.1%, ok, and I said let's imagine 0.1% for a second. Take a pizza 10 slices. Take one slice, slice that into 10 slices. Take one of those, slice that into 10 slices. Could you eat one little bite each day. Kev's like yeah, awesome, ok, we proceed to go through this And we show what it would be in five years, 10 years, 15 years.

Speaker 1:

So if we took $100, kev put it into a bank account and it were to grow by 0.1% per day for 15 years, you andI together we determined it would be $24,000. So $100, 15 years later, 0.1%, 24k. So you have $24,000. Now I asked Kev. I said what do you think it would be? That's 15 years. What do you think it would be in 50 years? And I set him up for failure here. Because of this concept is so powerful. Einstein called the law of compounding the eighth wonder of the world. I said Kev, can you guess what the number would be If you had $100 growing by 0.1% per day for 50 years? just guess, just give me a wild guess.

Speaker 1:

And you proceeded to say I believe $24 million, i think so And then I hit Enter And it was like well, kev, you seem to be slightly off. It was $84 billion.

Speaker 2:

Just missed really I was close, i just missed.

Speaker 1:

I lost, just missed Horses and hand grenades. Right, that's true, all right. So what's my question I want through you, kev, as someone who didn't fully understand this principle and obviously didn't understand it. Still, with all the love, and again, i don't think anyone could have guessed that It's wild Why do you believe it's so hard for people to understand the compound effect?

Speaker 2:

Because the compound effect is a layer of a layer, of a layer, of a layer, of a layer, where not only do you have to understand basic math, you have to understand the layer under that, you have to understand the layer under that. So it's almost like if you don't understand 9 times 9 is 81. If you don't understand how that works, like 9, and then I get another 9, then another 9, another 9, all the way to 9. Of those, that's 81. Now, instead of doing that, do 9 times 9 is 81. And then do 81 times 9. And get that, and then do that times 9. It's because it's just not. It leaves the realm of understanding very, very, very quickly, because it's not 10 times 10. It's 10 to the 10th power. Right, and those are. This is a really good one. This is a really good, really good understanding How many?

Speaker 2:

well, this is what happened for me. I was entering a code into something And the code ended up being a number that is associated with me. It was an old phone number I had And I was like what are the odds that the code of this thing, completely unrelated to me, is a number that I know? And I was like, well, how would I figure that out? Well, i would do so. There's 10 numbers it could be. It could be 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4. So 10. And there's five of them, so it's 10 times 10 times 10 times 10 times 10. If you do that number, 100,000?.

Speaker 2:

I'll do it 10 to the 5th power. The reason I'm saying this is that is the amount of combinations that there are, so there's 100,000 combinations it could be, and it's one that I actually knew. Which means it's a.0001% chance, which is just very, very rare, but even that thought process of there's 100,000. Imagine this is good. imagine if you've ever had to try to unlock something that's on like a number thing, like a number padlock or whatever, and you said no, i could probably get it.

Speaker 2:

No you're not going to get it ever. You're never going to get it statistically based on that number. I think that's why it's so hard to understand, because it's beyond basic math. If you can add awesome, if you can multiply awesome, but then it's your multiplying multiplication, which I just think is a.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's just a layer of a layer, of a layer Which is exponents Yes, so 10 to the 5th. When I talk about exponential growth, it's exponents, yeah.

Speaker 2:

So 10 times 10 is 100 times 10 is 1,000 times 10 is 10,000 times 10 is 100,000.

Speaker 1:

And that's 10 to the 5th And, if you do, to make this land even more, if you have so, on my iPhone there's a code. I only have a four digit code, so for me I won't say the code, but it's four digits. Therefore, it's 10 to the 4th power. So, whatever, that is 10,000. 10,000. So there's 10,000. So are you going to sit there and try 10,000 different things? Right, right And so fair, okay, cool. Next question, Please.

Speaker 2:

That go better or worse than you expected Better.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yeah, okay, i'm actually learning from you and Emilia how to explain mathematical topics to people who aren't naturally mathematical thinking.

Speaker 2:

You want to know another interesting thing? Of course Sonic. You know the restaurant Sonic. Oh yeah, for their drink there's over. I think there's over a million drink combinations that they have. Imagine that. But when you think that it's like well, there must be so many, it's like not really.

Speaker 1:

No, not me. That means that there's probably seven. What is it? 10 to the 7th, something like that, so there's 10 flavors, yeah, or something like that, and you can mix them together.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, Yeah, That's the interesting thing is, when you think about it that way, because I heard that recently there's over, we have over a million combinations And I was like how the hell, what is it? like a bank vault. You just have like a bunch of different flavors.

Speaker 1:

I just go in, I'm like I'm going to get a 14. Well, let's do it, but no, right It would be. It would be what All they would need is.

Speaker 2:

I don't know, i don't know how to reverse six exponentials.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, but it's not that much. It means I mean, how many different ice cream flavors are there? Think about it, ben and Jerry, it's infinite. Because you can throw okay, i throw cookie dough in that one, okay, this one's cookie dough, reese's and M&Ms They get creative Big fan.

Speaker 2:

Same Huge fan. This is a math episode. Who knew? Who knew we were?

Speaker 1:

going to be doing this.

Speaker 2:

Imagine Kevin in geometry cheating off of the person next to me. We'll just say Doug Cheating off of Doug Mr Syvestri's class. Mr Syvestri did not like me very much.

Speaker 1:

He was an interesting character That.

Speaker 2:

I'd be talking about math on an international podcast with you. Who would have guessed? Who would?

Speaker 1:

have guessed it All right. Second question, second question Now that you have witnessed and experienced the power of the compound effect in podcasting, in holistic self-improvement, in doing spreadsheets, how would you convince or persuade or influence to ignite the compound effect in their own life so that two, five, 10, 15 years from now they can have the life of their dreams like you have now?

Speaker 2:

Oh man, that's the billion dollar question. I don't know. This is a hard thing to explain, but I did a video in my car the other day talking about this. I said the problem with habits, both positive and negative, is you don't see anything from day to day. We talked about that recently. But here's the interesting thing, number one five years from today, you are going to be drastically different than you are today. It's going to happen. You will not stay the same. It's the law of the universe. Time never stops, so you never are going to stay the same. It just doesn't work that way. So you can either wait five years and see what happens, most likely end up disappointed, frustrated and regretful because you're just going to continue doing the stuff that you're doing and you're going to continue getting the results that you're getting, or you could say well, what if I just did five pages a day? So five pages a day again. I don't know the number off the top of my head. Five times 365, whatever that is.

Speaker 1:

I got you.

Speaker 2:

Probably like 1750, maybe 1825. That's the year I was born, boss 1825. 1825, boss. So that's 1825 pages. So what is that? Probably six books, depending on how long they are.

Speaker 1:

I think the average book is 250 pages, so it's more than that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so it's probably seven.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, like seven and a half books. So imagine that.

Speaker 2:

I try to just break the mountain down into rocks, into small rocks. If you saved 50 bucks a week for 52 weeks, that's whatever 2,500 bucks, whatever it is That it just this stuff adds up. No matter what, you are going to be drastically different in five years. It's just up to you for whether or not it's going to be accidental or on purpose. That's part one. Part two is even if we were just going to try to think about it from a looking back perspective, do you remember every single day of your life? No, you don't. You probably remember a handful, but it's every single day you've ever had that has made you into the person that you are today. That is compounding That. it's just most of the stuff that makes us better. we don't even recognize. It's so hard to recognize. I don't remember episode number 12. I have no idea what it was. I have no clue. I don't know. I don't remember the first math principle I learned. I don't remember the first speech about speaking or communicating. I don't know. You don't know.

Speaker 2:

It's such a large addition problem that you lose sight of. This is what I would say. Number one the biggest difference between who you are today and who you want to be is your habits 100%, unless you're relying on luck and you're playing a losing game. unfortunately, you already have habits. So the habits you are currently practicing are going to determine how you look, how you feel, your relationships, your bank account, all of that stuff. five years from today. That's a really good indication of, even if you don't know how much progress you're making or losing. if you shifted a little something, you're going to get drastically different. So that's probably what I would say. It's just really hard. It's a really hard thing to explain because it's not logical. I mean it is logical, but it's almost not. The fact that if somebody came up to you and said if you could have a penny that doubles every day, or a million dollars, what would you take? Everybody's taken the million, of course. Give me the cash. I don't want a penny that doubles every day.

Speaker 1:

The hell's that going to do For 31 days.

Speaker 2:

For 31 days. But yeah, was it? 10.7 million? 10.4 million, 10.4. That is so hard to understand logically It doesn't seem real. It doesn't seem real. So I would probably use the magic penny analogy, because I think that's powerful. But just the understanding that the reason you are the way you are today is based on the habits you've had for your lifetime, positive or negative. The reason you are going to be who you're going to be in the next five years are your habits, and if you change your habits in a very small way, you can change your life in a very big way. But it's very hard to make that land.

Speaker 1:

I want to share this. So at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, i remember I was headed to Target I forget why New shirts or something. And it was right at the beginning when everyone was really freaking out A lot of people buying toilet paper and the whole place was going nuts. I didn't understand what was going on And I tend to be someone who rationality and logic is what drives me more than anything else. And if you are listening and you don't resonate with a lot of what I say, it's probably because I'm more rationally driven than emotionally driven. But trust me, underneath there there's deep emotions. If you listen to episode 1,000, i talked about that I said not a lot of people think of drive and work ethic as emotion, but it really is underneath everything And hopefully I've been vulnerable often enough on this show for that to shine through. But in life I try to let logic and rationality drive more than emotion. The emotion is the rocket fuel underneath the logic Instead of some people are very just emotional and they don't have a ton of logic underneath it. And again, i'm not making that wrong. I'm an engineer, all right. So I'm an engineer who doesn't tend to overreact to much.

Speaker 1:

Things Like the clubhouse is a good example. Clubhouse was so big I was like Kev, don't worry about it. You're like we need to be on clubhouse. You know I'm like dude, don't worry about it Now. If clubhouse is around in five years then we probably should consider it Right. But I didn't think it would be. And it's still going, but barely So.

Speaker 1:

Anyways, covid was something that really threw me for a loop, and the reason why is because if you look at history and study history, there's always something that's doomsday end of world situation happening And most humans are very irrational and the news perpetuates it. So they get your attention. It's a whole thing. I don't let the random emotional storms affect my sail of my ship. For lack of a better reason, i try not to.

Speaker 1:

So in COVID I was actually very, very centered and very, very stayed the same course. I didn't change much of anything. I didn't buy toilet paper, i didn't go prepare, i didn't set up a bunker, right, i just did what I do Now. Here was fascinating, emilia and I. This is the only time we've ever not been on the same page to this extent. Her fan bam was really freaking out and she was really freaking out and I wasn't, and I'm like sweetheart, this is it's gonna be fine, like this has happened before. We have the technology. It's gonna be fine. I was at dinner with them and we pulled up a laptop and I looked at the numbers.

Speaker 1:

I saw a graph of the growth rate of COVID and that's when I started freaking out. The numbers were extremely scary. That's when I realized this is real, when I saw the graph, because the graph it's not one person gets COVID, it's one, two, four, eight, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024,. It's the magic penny. It spreads across the globe very quickly. That's also what happens when a YouTube video goes viral, ghanam style. That's all that happened. That wasn't even a good video. It just, you know, it spreads.

Speaker 1:

And so I think that that's a really important understanding that your habits are rippling into your life more than you realize, and you just have to know that if you can't understand the math. And so after I saw the graphs, i was like, oh, this is serious, this is gonna be around for a couple years. And then I started to talk to you about it and we have to re-strategize, we have to go virtual blah, but before that it was just another fad. I thought A lot of people are freaking out about a lot of weird stuff And I try not to let that affect me, but I just wanted to share that, okay, third question.

Speaker 1:

Third and last question Wow gotta make it a good one.

Speaker 2:

You don't have one planned.

Speaker 1:

No, no, no, no, no. this is all off the cuff Like that. Yeah, it's all off the cuff. What do I believe would be the most helpful for our listeners? The right question can unlock some real gold.

Speaker 2:

He says to himself with his eyes closed.

Speaker 1:

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Okay, okay, weird question, gonna see what comes of it Why do you think more people aren't focused on being successful? I know it sounds like a weird question and I'm gonna provide some context. I've always been focused on being successful, and what I mean by that is being good at what I do and being able to achieve what I believe is valuable. Why don't you? you aren't someone who like focused on your career a ton Like it's not. Like in high school you were like oh, i'm gonna focus on my career, i'm gonna build a resume, i'm gonna get a LinkedIn, right.

Speaker 1:

You and I have always been a little different in that And I never understood why fully, because it's the obvious play if you want freedom and a magnificent, rich, dynamic, positive life. Like if you're not successful you're gonna struggle, and you're gonna struggle either way, but at least you'll struggle less if you're successful. Why don't more people focus on success?

Speaker 2:

I don't want it to be the cookie cutter answer, because I don't think most people believe they can be successful. One of the things I've realized more now than ever. I had a moment recently. I was thinking of something. I don't remember what it was. I was thinking of some business and I was like I can run that business for sure, definitely.

Speaker 2:

But I never believed that before. I never believed that. I remember I told you recently I was talking to and this was months ago that that's recently to us because we talk so much, but that I was talking to the manager of the gym I go to And you were like you know you could run that gym, right, and I was like I don't know. And now more than ever, it's like. But you know why? Yes, i have worked diligently and I understand things at a lot deeper level than I ever have, but I also believe I could. And if you don't believe you can, you're not gonna imagine this. This makes it even harder. If you don't believe, you can do the minimum viable thing. So the minimum viable belief we talked about that recently, right, the minimum viable belief is I don't know how to start a podcast, but I do know I need a microphone. I'm gonna order a microphone, Or I do believe I can speak. It's not gonna be great, but I'll tell a story in the first one and whatever, maybe it'll help one person. Cool, that's a great place to start.

Speaker 2:

If you don't believe that's possible, you're never gonna believe in the 15, 20, 30 year goal. So think of it this way I'm a freshman in high school. The last thing I'm thinking about is what I wanna do in my 40s. I have no clue, no clue. I wanna be a fighter. I wanna fight for a living. You think I had a plan B, son? I wanna fight. I wanna get punched in the face professionally. That's what I wanna do. That sounds cool as hell.

Speaker 1:

But that is foresight, that is, that is.

Speaker 2:

It was delusion, I think, more than anything.

Speaker 1:

but But no, no, no, hold on.

Speaker 2:

No, it's not, you could have been a fighter, But I didn't. like I said in the previous episode, I didn't do the right stuff. I didn't treat it like it was real. Alan, I would have liked to be a fighter. I didn't think I could. I didn't think I could fight professionally.

Speaker 1:

So you believed that other fighters had something you didn't 100%. Okay, last question I promise, how do we fix that? Okay, i know, they didn't have anything. You didn't. You were athletic, you were an all-star baseball player.

Speaker 2:

I hope people are logically, logically.

Speaker 1:

There's nothing they have that you don't. Now some of them do right, some of them are. You know you're smaller so I have longer reach right.

Speaker 1:

So if we both do Muay Thai. You'll be better at wrestling, i'll be better at Muay Thai. I don't know what I'm talking about, but you know what I'm saying. It's not like it's logical, so why don't people consider it an option? I guess how would you tell people to actually believe it? Because this goes back to the compound effect. I mean now you know if I could talk to 15-year-old Kev and say, brother, you know you could help him become world-class right at this stage You're shaking your head. Cool, yeah, not, yeah, yeah not in my head.

Speaker 1:

Okay, talk to the listeners about that same thing. How would you get little Kevin to understand like that's a totally doable thing? Listen, i know you're just saying it, but you really could do it and then make it land. So he actually does it.

Speaker 2:

I would have to get the fact of this is gonna take a decade. I think that's a big missing piece. It's almost like I think we assume it's gonna take a long time, but we really have a trouble contextualizing how long a long time is And we've only been in business for six years. Yeah, I know, And look at all the shit we've been through, You know what I mean. That's only six years, man, Not that long. I'm 33. You know that's a six, not even not a six. That's a little more than a 20% of my life. Isn't that weird? It's very hard to commit to something for 10 years. That that is all. I think that's a big part of it. Not only do you not know if it'll actually work, you don't know if you're willing to do what it takes and you don't know if it'll be worth it Any-, But it's very hard to imagine creating something 10 years out.

Speaker 1:

It's almost like you have to do something, and I've never thought this before. I don't think It's almost like you have to do something. that is actually immediately gratifying.

Speaker 2:

Like podcasting.

Speaker 1:

You have to do something that you actually enjoy enough to where you're getting the win right away, because that's the only way you're actually going to do it long enough to where you can be world-class. The win is the impact. The win is the impact, exactly, but you have to have something with a feedback loop, like in fitness, for example. You got immediate gratification by being jacked in high school. You know what I mean.

Speaker 1:

I got immediate gratification for being good at math. I really did. My mom was like congratulations, and my teachers loved me. You know I did, I got. So it's almost like you have to choose something where there's at least some immediate gratification, which the old me probably would have said that that's maybe not true, But if you don't believe in yourself, there it is. If you don't believe in yourself, you almost have to choose something that you immediately get some gratification.

Speaker 2:

What about this? Is it as simple as you get to the results you believe you can? Is it that simple? I mean, you and I are 1,370 episodes in. The only reason we're here is because we Well, you mostly, but now I believed we could get here. What stops somebody from you know is going to do their sixth episode getting here. I don't know if they believe they actually can, or this is the other thing. Excuse me, going back to the episode that we talked about Hard Work Beats Talent. It's almost like you got to do a lot of really, really challenging stuff to do what you love. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

No one talks about that. Yeah, it's like 20% I love. The other 80% is like brutal.

Speaker 2:

And now it looks really good and it's cool. And when I go on podcasts I say, well, i do a bunch of coaching calls with that. It hasn't always been that way.

Speaker 1:

But now imagine all the people who have the most influence are the people who are already successful. So it's called survival bias. In other words, like you and I get to do this, which sounds awesome and it is awesome, but this is such a small part of what allows us to actually do this. Well, and it's six years in, and it's six years in. It's so fascinating.

Speaker 2:

I like to watch behind the scenes of like movies. I know acting probably looks like a glorious job. I bet you it probably sucks pretty bad, definitely. You work 15 hour days. you work out, It's probably all the time.

Speaker 2:

Right, It probably sucks pretty bad, Definitely. I just think of it as it's almost like in the very beginning, the thing that you want to do that you love is just a supplement to you making a living. And then it's almost like this is the interesting thing. You almost have to find something where you can kind of make a living and then put the rest of your energy into doing your passion. But since you're not able to put all the money into making a living, you don't really make that good of a living and you're not really making that much progress on your dreams. So you're kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place until you find Whatever success means to you And then you realize it's really not what you thought it was in the first place, which again I'm very grateful.

Speaker 2:

I don't want to sound. I love. I love my life and. But my life is also the most challenging It's ever been. It's also the most fulfilling. So I don't want it to be. I don't want to make it seem like this is easy, but I also don't want to make it seem like we're not Blessed and privileged to be able to do what we do. But it's still a challenge. I'm tired all the time. You know, tomorrow, i told Alan is like yeah, tomorrow I have nine to 10, 10 to 11, 11 to 12, 12 to one, and I think it's like one, 15 to 145 and then two to three. I'm back to back for whatever, however many hours tomorrow, like that's what I hear is the interesting thing, that's what I want at the beginning. But it still sucks, just in a different way. It's still hard. Hard is hard is contextual. Mud is contextual. You will have mud. There is always mud, i don't care where you are.

Speaker 1:

Races man, you pay to go to go. That's good.

Speaker 2:

Overcome obstacles.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, why would someone do a Spartan race? Because they want to be a Spartan, they want to identify as someone who does hard things. What if you apply that like tough mutters? There are people who pay a lot of money to go and do tough mutters. It's like if you really wanted to, you could just go out in the back woods where I grew up.

Speaker 1:

I'm telling you there you know some of that stuff, but it's not about that. It's about the identity. It's about who you become. It's about being around other people that are also trying to do challenging things. It's the challenge that makes it great. Yeah, i adore that It's, and you're never going to live a life If your life wasn't challenging at all I know it sounds awesome You would go find challenge.

Speaker 1:

I know some people, i'm telling you they're not as happy without challenge. I know some multimillionaires who used to be happier while they were climbing And now they're unfulfilled and they don't know why, and they're going to find new challenges. They're probably going to, you know, do a new fitness regiment Like the moment we get bored as human beings. We're going to go find a challenge. You might as well choose the challenge that's fulfilling and that's going to contribute to other people. Go ahead.

Speaker 2:

It's just interesting because it's almost like no matter in the very beginning. You have to balance doing what you love with what you must, and that's a long road. It's just a very, very long road. And then eventually, here's the thing. Eventually it kind of transitions where you can do more of what you love and less of what you must, but your life actually somehow gets worse. That's the intro. But you're getting closer, you're actually getting closer, but just doesn't feel that way. Because, yeah, you know, i cut my hours at work when I'm doing photography more, i'm not making any, i'm actually making less money. It's like, no, that's not a bad thing necessarily. Because, going back to what we talked about, what if you're getting better at photography?

Speaker 1:

But you're not going to see that for five years. When you say getting worse, it feels worse. Yeah, when you're reading. I said this to an RTC client. The other day. Emilia and I were driving to the Tesla dealership. She's getting a new Model Y, which is going to be awesome. It was like being in a spaceship. This thing was sweet And dude. It says Bing. When there's a green light It's like how is it interesting?

Speaker 2:

Is that camera, Anyways?

Speaker 1:

I'm not going to go down the Tesla road, but it feels like being a part of the future. It's cool. So, anyways, she's getting that. And we were talking, we were actually audio-ing an RTC client Relationship talks client well, on the way to the Tesla dealership And I said I know it feels like you and your partner are losing right now, but that means you're winning. It's because you're in the mud right now, but I'd much rather you be red headed green than yellow headed red or green headed red. And that's the hard part When you feel, when you feel like you're losing, you're most likely actually getting better. When you feel like you're winning, you're actually not getting better.

Speaker 1:

And it's just like the workout. It's a tough workout that you feel like you're weak, you feel inadequate, you feel less than I was doing deadlifts and squats for the first time in a while, and the last couple of months I've been doing them and it feels like I'm losing in the gym because I'm pushing myself, i'm trying to do more than I can do, but I know I'm winning long term. Versus what I was doing before with kettlebells, it was easier and I felt better about myself, but I was not getting stronger. So that's. I think that that's a good analogy. So anyways, kev, what do you want to wrap this up with? Put this in a bow package. It. Deliver it via Amazon to someone's doorstep.

Speaker 2:

That is the interesting perspective is, as you get closer, i think it becomes more challenging because you've been doing it longer and you still don't have the results you desire. Everybody around you is living a different version of their life which you think is potentially better than yours. People are going on trips, buying houses, buying cars and you're like, here I am, podcast or whatever. Whatever it is for you, that was always an interesting one. For me, it didn't never really bothered me a ton, because it was more like I know eventually this is going to be worth it. If you don't believe it's going to be worth it, try to find out why. Because for a lot of us, i I believe if you don't believe it will be worth it, it's because you don't think you're gonna make it, not that you don't think it'll be worth it if you don't make it there I. That's my belief. My belief is a lot of people. It's not that they do not believe it would be worth it. They don't believe it will be worth it because they're afraid they're gonna die on the side of the mountain Understandably too. I'm not saying you shouldn't feel that way, that that, what, what do you feel would be worth it? that you could do. I Don't know, ellen. I honestly I wish I had a better answer. I think it's the belief thing. You have to do enough of what you believe in so you can you have some sort of platform. And when you get a platform and again, in this it's just a platform of belief Then you can see that the mountain, the next mountain, isn't as tall as you originally thought. It's like.

Speaker 2:

Ah, okay, mmm, so I host a podcast, i get interviewed on a podcast. I never thought that was possible in the beginning. Anthony trucks my first podcast interview ever. Like, why am I on your show, anthony? You're way too famous to have Alan and I on your show. Oh, wow, it's not that bad. I did a really good job. Interesting, Okay, speaking, yeah, i don't know. Okay, i believe I can speak to 20 people. All right, cool, let me do that. And then Pair that with a compound effect and you do a little bit more. Dad, just, a lot can happen over five years, ten years, 20 years, and a lot is going to happen over five years, ten years, 20 years. It's just whether or not it's gonna be by design or by accident.

Speaker 1:

Okay, i, i said no more questions, but Lightning round, sure, right? How confident were you, zero to ten, that you were gonna crush your first speech? Zero okay, okay, all right. six years later, how confident are you that we're gonna crush this speech In Pittsburgh? eight, okay, what made the difference?

Speaker 2:

reps, just reps, reps, reps, reps, reps, reps. Nice Failure. I've bombed speeches, so I know what not to do. That that my worst failure actually built confidence. It's my my worst fear has come true and I'm still here. That you know, if your biggest fear is bombing a speech and you bomb a speech and you get the show up tomorrow, it's like okay, i mean, nobody's gonna remember that. Nobody's gonna remember as much as I am, you know nobody's right, so other people got stuff that they care about.

Speaker 2:

It's not the two kids that came in that bombed the speech.

Speaker 1:

I believe it was 1976. Kevin Paul Mary bombed now speech at.

Speaker 2:

Milwaukee High School. But here's the. Here's the interesting thing. Eventually, maybe you will get privilege to the point where people remember you bombed a speech, like I went to high school. I get cool, if that, i mean, if that's what happens. Oh yeah, i saw them in 2022. They bombed their speech. Now it's 2042 and they're whatever. It's not that bad, i guess. Cool man, excellent, you're excellent.

Speaker 2:

Strong work, what makes me what? you're? very welcome. Oh, i have a podcast About podcasts. Nice work as somebody who identifies as a podcaster. If you meet me in the street and you say, hey, what do you do? I'm a podcast, i don't. Somebody asked me if I took your podcast away and I took all your knowledge away, what would you do? I said good luck. I mean Good luck. I'll send you my address. You can come try to take it from me. Son We. I was just joking with him but I said this is who, this is who I am. I don't know I started podcast. I don't know I figure out a way to start a podcast. I don't know I talk. I talk into a Campbell's.

Speaker 1:

That's what Kevin does every time he's uncertain in life. He's just a lot. Yeah, yeah, i'm ready.

Speaker 2:

I would. I would take a Campbell's soup can, attach it to another Campbell's soup can. I would talk into it and I'd report it, you know, into the the annals of time, i don't know. But I have a podcast about podcast. It's called podcast growth you, podcast growth University, and I actually was talking to somebody recently who is not a podcaster yet But wants to be one, and she said, honestly, listening to that show helped me a ton because it gave me the certainty I needed to Get the final push and do it. So maybe you don't want to start a podcast yet, a podcast yet, maybe you do. If you do listen to podcast growth you, you get a different side of me. It's far deeper than this and you're gonna learn something, hopefully, if I do my job right.

Speaker 1:

Couple of my clients listen to this show every day and Both of them are probably listening, so you know who you are and you both have told Kevin start your podcast, kevin To start your podcast.

Speaker 1:

So you've already invested the money. Start your podcast. You got this. You're gonna crush and both of you are gonna be awesome. Seriously, you're already way ahead of the game. You're both so developed. So, anyways, side tangent Mm-hmm, if you have not yet read my article about building self-belief and self-worth, check that out. I know that it will unlock something. At very least you'll leave that article going. You know what? Maybe self-worth is the issue. Maybe I do believe in myself more than I thought. Right, and that's very possible. If you're a listener of this show, you might have sneaky self-belief. You might not. I don't know, but check it out. At very least. You're gonna have more self-awareness when you leave. Our community loves more self-awareness. That's a lot of why this show has done well. So check that out and let me know what you think.

Speaker 2:

Tomorrow, for episode number 1370, i am going to interview Alan again. Don't know the title yet, but and I don't even know I'm gonna go I'm gonna just freestyle it because that's what I like to do with my interview. So make sure you check out that one. Will it be as long as this one? I don't know, maybe me. It'll probably be at least a half hour, so it might be a little bit of a longer episode. As always, we love you, we appreciate you, grateful for each and every one of you and an L you. We don't have fans, we have family. We will talk to you all tomorrow.

Speaker 1:

Remember the compound effect next civilization.

People on this episode

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Alan Lazaros

Host
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Kevin Palmieri

Host