Next Level University

#1418 - If You’re Waiting For Perfect… You’ll Be Waiting Forever!

• Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

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Have you ever been frozen in fear, waiting for the perfect moment to take action? In this episode,  hosts Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros talk about persistence, practice, and self-belief. Remember when you started something and were terribly bad at it? Well, so was everyone else. It's how you muster the courage to persevere, how you shift your goals when life throws curveballs, that truly defines you. The magic happens when you keep pushing and keep practicing. So, if you're sitting on the fence and waiting for things to get perfect, jump off now – because perfection is a myth, action is reality.

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Kevin: https://www.instagram.com/neverquitkid/
Alan: https://www.instagram.com/alazaros88/
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Show notes:
[4:39] Kevin talks about preparing to speak at a summit
[9:16] Why Alan shows his new clients his first Youtube video
[11:45] Amanda shares how Alan made her feel valued and supported during their first consultation call and how she appreciates his holistic approach
[12:30] Just start doing it
[15:26] It's the reps
[18:51] Better your best
[24:49] Outro

Send a text to Kevin and Alan!

Speaker 1:

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, episode number 1417. One feeling we all need, excuse me, there was a lot of food talking there, talked about steak, talked about potatoes, we talked about a bacon, egg and chi on a croissant many different things. So if you're hungry, go listen to that episode. If you're full, go listen to that episode. If you're hungry, maybe, don't. Maybe get full and then go listen to that episode. Today. For episode number 1418, if you're waiting for perfect, you'll be waiting forever. Flashback a few years ago, alan and I went to California to attend a Brennan Bouchard event and when we went out there, we said okay, well, before we went out there, we said we know some people out there. So dr Nikki, star brandt, pinvedic, kim and spike Spencer, anthony trucks, david Meltzer, david Meltzer, I'm missing anyone five. I Think that was it. I think that was it as well.

Speaker 1:

Yeah we are going to set up interviews. We're gonna interview people while we're out there. We've had many of these people on the show already. A lot of them live in California. Anthony trucks is gonna be speaking at the event. Let's see what we can do. So we we go out there and the first half of the trip I think we were out there for maybe a week, may five to seven days. The first half of the trip we were in Malibu and we were interviewing dr Nikki and some other people. Then we went for the last half of the trip. We went to when was the event? Santa Monica, san Diego, san Diego and we went to Brennan Bouchard's event. Day one happens, then on day two did Anthony speaker.

Speaker 2:

Can't, don't worry about that don't worry about those details.

Speaker 1:

So we go to brand Bouchard event and Anthony trucks, one of our mentors at the time. He's a friend now. He was speaking the next day and he agreed to come up to our hotel room. We're gonna interview him. And we said Anthony, before this interview, we get some food man. And he's like yeah, no, I'm in where you guys going. We said we're gonna go to In-N-Out burger, where East Coast boys there's no in and out. We got to get in and out, he's got, I'm gonna show you guys something. And we said sure man, whatever, hop in the back, I'm gonna take us to know.

Speaker 1:

So Anthony trucks in the back seat, we drives in an out burger and we're sitting in the drive-through. It's very busy at all times in an out burger. If you go, you know, and Anthony's in the back on his cell phone working on his presentation that he's going to give in front of 3,000 people the next day On his cell phone. And I remember thinking to myself I could never get to that point and if I was as good of a speaker as Anthony, I probably I wouldn't really need to prep that much either, because he's a really, really good speaker. And then he said, hey, whose draws are these? And we turn around and he's holding a pair of Alan's underwear and I was like oh, those are mine.

Speaker 1:

They're clean though, and it was weird. It was a very strange night. Anthony gets his flying Dutchman, which I think is three or four patties no bun, just meat and cheese. We go back to the hotel, we eat, we interview Anthony the next day, he gets on stage and he absolutely crushes it. He got a standing ovation. He was probably the best speaker there.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, he was the only one to get a standing ovation.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and there were some really good speakers there.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we were right in the front row. He crushed it.

Speaker 1:

He crushed it.

Speaker 2:

One of the best speeches I've ever heard, actually he did a really, really, really good job.

Speaker 1:

Fast forward. So tomorrow I am doing a summit, a virtual summit on relationships, and again, it's not in front of 3,000 people, but I haven't prepped for it at all. I don't even know what I'm talking about. And tomorrow I'm going to wake up and I'm going to go to the gym and before my first calls, I'll figure out what I'm going to talk about. I think I have an hour slot. I'm going to put it all together.

Speaker 1:

That never would have happened five years ago. Five years ago, I would be pooping my pants. Right now I'm giving us a summit. We're doing a summit. How long is it? An hour, an hour, yeah, yeah. Then in two days, you and I are driving to Pittsburgh to give a speech in front of I don't know 100 people, hundreds of people I don't know, and we don't really know what we're talking about. Yet. We have an idea, but we don't have it planned out. That would be unacceptable five years ago.

Speaker 1:

The reason I wanted to do this episode is because I had a lapse in thinking when I said if I was as good as Anthony is, I would be doing the same thing as him If I was as good as Anthony was. That also would mean I would have to have started when he started. So if you're waiting for perfect, you'll be waiting forever. This is how I want to tie it all together. In the beginning, I can't imagine not prepping days and days and days for something like that. But that's because in the beginning you have to prep days and days and days for something like that, and eventually you get another opportunity and you're a little bit better at prepping, and then you're a little bit better at the thing, and then eventually, five years down the line, you've done it so many times where you don't need to prep like you used to. But you look at somebody who does that in the backseat of your car, in the Internet drive-through, who's giving a speech to 3,000 people, and you say, wow, I could never get to that point. You're not at that point yet, and neither was he when he was at your point. So if you're waiting for perfect, if you're waiting to be 10 out of 10 confident, if you're waiting for it to be easy, if you're waiting to have the opportunity to prep like somebody else in your space, whatever that means to you, you're going to be waiting forever, because they started long before you did and they're just further along in the journey. And that was a moment from me, alan, where I said I looked at my calendar yesterday and I said, oh, that's on Tuesday. Okay, I haven't done anything yet.

Speaker 1:

If somebody was watching me say I say that to clients, yeah, I have this summit and I don't even know what I'm going to talk about yet and I'm sure it's going to go well, it's going to be fine they would probably say how the hell did you get to the point where you're not worried about that at all?

Speaker 1:

Interesting, the way I got to that was I was anxious for everything else I did and it just got a little bit easier and a little bit easier and a little bit easier and a little bit easier. Just like when we do these episodes, we have an idea of what we're going to talk about, but in the beginning I used to have bullet points. I'm going to touch on this. I'm going to touch on this. Okay, I want to make sure I hear my question. So if you're waiting for it to seem very, very, very easy to you and feel perfect, you're going to be waiting forever because it wasn't perfect for the people who make it look perfect either and I'm not saying we make this look perfect or the summit is going to go perfect tomorrow. It's not. I'll make mistakes, but that's also part of this whole equation.

Speaker 2:

We have one of the members of the production team, the head of the production team, ron. She said this to me one time because I always ask her feedback, because at one point before we had a smaller or a larger team, rather when we had a smaller team, she was listening to more podcasts than anyone I know, because she was listening to every episode, because she was editing them and putting in the intro and all that kind of stuff. So I would always ask her which podcast do you think is the best and why what resonates most? And a couple. I mean she says NLU is always top three, but there was two other shows that we were up against in her consciousness and so, anyways, she said she eventually gave me this feedback. She said I have no idea how you do it. I was like what do you mean? She's like you know, it's like lights, camera, action. Kevin tells you the title go, but that's the same thing.

Speaker 2:

Right, I couldn't have done that at the beginning. You remember how long you and I would have to spend before doing a single episode. I mean we would have to prep questions. I remember when you and I interviewed Evan Carmichael on his YouTube channel, I said to Kevin, right before I was like dude, can those notes? Get rid of those notes? Man, we're ahead of that Now. That was a dangerous game because if you use notes as a crutch forever, you're in trouble. You got to take the training wheels off at some point. But if I had told you can your notes the first time we ever interviewed him, you would have been probably not capable. You probably would have froze up.

Speaker 2:

And this is why I always show my very first YouTube video to my clients. A lot of my clients become podcasters. A lot of my clients become business owners. A lot of my clients become YouTubers and I always show them the very first video of me with something I called the real life superheroes series and it is just awful. And that was the first time I had ever spoken in front of a camera. Even that isn't true. I spoke in front of the mayor. I digress, kevin. Anthony Trucks and I are getting into the car to go to In-N-Out Burger.

Speaker 2:

I don't know if you remember this part, kev, but I asked him how many speeches do you think you've done in your life? And he said I don't know 250? And I was like okay, 250 speeches. You better believe that his 250th speech in front of 3,000 people at a Brennan Brashard event is way better than his fourth speech and you better believe his fourth speech. He probably prepped more and bombed. And that's just the way it works with mastery Everybody sucks at first and that's why I show that first YouTube video.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I had done speeches in college and I had done some speaking in high school and I did college projects. I remember I spoke in front of the mayor and the two Massachusetts senators. That was nerve wracking. That was super scary for me at the time. Now I really could do that without a ton of challenge. I would still be challenging for me to be and portray confidence, because I think I still have a part of me that doesn't want to come off as arrogant. I don't think I definitely have a part of me that doesn't want to come off as arrogant. So that's a new challenge and I also have a new standard for myself.

Speaker 2:

But the reason I show that first YouTube video is so that my clients realize that I didn't start here either. That's why I tell our listeners and different people that I've coached on how to coach. I say Kevin, and I coached for free. Kevin's first client shout out to Jenna was free for like three months. Weekly coaching for free. My first client, amy Diaz, shout out to Amy OG, amy, she was free for a while before she started paying. Thank you so much.

Speaker 2:

So if you want to be a coach, you want to be a podcaster, you want to be a speaker, you want to be a trainer, you want to be a writer, you want to be an artist, you want to be a musician, you want to be a dancer, you want to be a rapper, you want to be an be an executive, you want to be an accountant, I don't care. Whatever you want to be, just start doing it. That first YouTube video was so bad and I kept going after that. And when you watch these videos, it's really hard to watch them. They're not good. I couldn't believe it. I remember having this moment of I am so bad at this and if your delicate sensibility, your ego, can't handle that, you're gonna stop. I had to publish those and then promote them on my social media. I was so embarrassed and I got made fun of so much. So many of my friends made fun of me, my family, I had some people that were supportive, but more people were making fun of me than anything. Definitely.

Speaker 2:

I read some of my old articles that I wrote seven years ago. I read an article blog number seven is available. Put the link in the show notes, please and I read it to Emilia on Sunday out loud. She was blown away and I remember when I first started writing I was so bad. I was so bad at writing and I was reading Atomic Habits. Atomic Habits is such a good book. That's the standard I've set for myself. I think James Clear is one of the best authors, best writers in the world. In my opinion. He makes really powerful concepts really simple and tangible and tactical, and I think that he's the best at making things land for people in a way that is actionable. I don't like just teaching for the sake of teaching. So that's my standard. I want to be on James Clear's level. I'm intending on that. I'm actually intending on surpassing that, but I know that it's going to take. I mean, is it going to be blog number 150 where I surpass that level? Is it going to be book number 15?

Speaker 2:

Everyone is so bad at first, whether it's tennis or basketball or snowboarding. Just remember, you're going to be so bad at first. It's whether or not. You can handle it. If you can't handle being bad at something, you'll never eventually be at Anthony Trucks level or whatever. And now Kevin is going to crush this summit, and you will. I think you're going to do great. We talk about health, wealth and love. Love is one-third of the equation. You're going to do an awesome job, but that's because you've done this a thousand times.

Speaker 1:

Well, even when I had that moment of oh, that's tomorrow, it wasn't. Oh, my goodness, I have to cancel everything. It was okay, I just have to. As long as I have an hour in the morning, I'll throw something together. I'll just come up with my stories. I've spoken enough where I can hold space, that. But it really is the reps. I say that on podcasts all the time. A lot of it's the reps, the reps that you do when you don't feel like you should do them anymore. Those are the most important reps. I suck at this. I should stop. No, that's exactly when you should keep going, because that's usually when people stop.

Speaker 1:

I was talking to somebody the other day, a podcaster, and she said well, I really want to start coaching, but I don't know what to do. We dug in, we dug in, we dug in. We got to the point where she said well, I've done it in the past, but when I was a yoga teacher, I would talk about it and sometimes nobody would show up. A lot of times one person showed up. I said yeah, but that's the unfortunate trap of all this is, that's normal. That's not just you. You're not the exception to the rule. You are the rule. That's how it works. That's what happens. You stop and then you convince yourself yeah, I couldn't have done it. I started, I tried to do yoga teachings and nobody would show up.

Speaker 1:

The podcast is going to be the same thing. Your mindset coaching is going to be the same thing. Your dog shelter or your dog walking service or it's going to be the same thing. That's more a representation of how it works, not how it works for you. It works that way for most people. That's just.

Speaker 1:

I've seen that. I haven't seen that. But if you haven't seen it as many times as we have, you might think it's just you. It's not. It's just the way it works. That's why it took us six years to get to where we are today. It'll take us another 16 years to get to the next layer. It's just a lot of. It's just a time thing. My next level nugget.

Speaker 1:

If you could only have one takeaway for this the reps are unreasonably important. They are unreasonably and when I say reps, I just mean whatever it is, the performance, the activity, the coaching, call the yoga class, the tennis lesson, whatever it is, whatever the performance is for you, it's the most important thing, because you will not get better by accident. We've all probably had that situation where we look at somebody and say, wow, that person is amazing, I could never get that good. They weren't always that good, they just probably did it longer than everybody else and eventually they make it look easy. And if you're making something look easy, it's because you did it when it was really really hard and you kept going when it was really really hard.

Speaker 2:

Kev, I would like to hypothetically compare the summit you do tomorrow to a speech you gave at the beginning. I want to try to make this land for everybody. Let's say Kevin preps for 15 minutes and then he does an hour-long summit tomorrow. If I could somehow record that and compare it to your very first speech, I guarantee you the 15 minutes of prep for the hour-long summit is going to be so much better than the first speech you ever gave.

Speaker 2:

Which is why it's so cringe-worthy for you and I to watch old content. It's very challenging to go back and watch old content because it's like, oh my God, because it seems like these inches, these inch pebbles that lead to milestones, that lead to goals, that lead to dreams. It seems like it's not making a big difference in the moment. Each episode there's a little tweak, each speech there's a little tweak and it stacks and it compounds and it accumulates. This is what I want to land. Your worst workout now, assuming you've been getting better and better and better and better and better, is better than your best workout when you started.

Speaker 1:

That's fair.

Speaker 2:

My worst workout. Let's say I got no sleep. Let's say I was struggle bus. Let's say I didn't hydrate. Well, let's say I get a crappy workout in. That's still going to be a 10 times better workout than my best workout was when I first entered the gym. When I first entered the gym, I didn't know how to do curls, I didn't know how to do pull downs, I didn't know most of the workouts. I didn't know what I was doing. I was brand new. So my worst workout now would crush my best workout back then, and so that's why I always say better your best, better your best, better your best.

Speaker 2:

But this whole perfect thing. I don't even know if you're ever going to feel that good about your performances. I certainly don't think this episode is super articulate, but I guarantee you it's way better than our old ones. I definitely have said less filler words than I used to, but I listen to certain episodes and it's very difficult. Sometimes I don't want to listen. Yeah, same, because it's too much feedback. It's just annoying. But I know that I'm supposed to listen because that's how you get better. Improvement is the goal, and you can't improve if you don't put in the reps.

Speaker 1:

And there's that part where you think, oh, I really should have said this instead of that, but you can't change it, it's already out there, there's nothing you can do. So if you can take the I should have's to what I will do in the future, then it's constructive For some reason. I'm thinking of recipes. It's been a very heavy food week for NLU, but if you've only Well, you are a master chef now I am a master chef now.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I'm going to add that to the old resume Forklift operator, podcaster, master chef, moving on up. We're moving on up. I can imagine if all you know how to make is eggs. Yeah, there is different versions of eggs sunny side up, scrambled eggs, benedict. There's probably a bunch of different ones. But if you know how to make eggs and bacon, you can make something different. You know how to make eggs, bacon, toast pancakes, and that you can make something different. The longer you practice cooking, the more recipes you have, because you test out with different stuff. Where, if you gave me the same ingredients, you ever watched Chopped? You ever see that show. Chopped is a wonderful show, especially when you're dieting. For some reason, I love watching food shows when I'm dieting. I don't know what it is. It's always been a thing for me, but they have these things called mystery baskets that judges pick out and it's just a bunch of random food and you have 20 minutes or a half hour to make the best dish you can.

Speaker 2:

If I went on there, I have seen I know what you're talking about.

Speaker 1:

Now. If I went on there, I don't even know what this is. What is what? Even is this? I don't know how to cook it. I don't know how to cut it. I don't know what's safe to eat. It's a turnip. It's a turnip Cool. Let me fry this. My hands are very frozen. Let me fry this turnip. But when you have been cooking for X amount of years, everything starts to make a little bit more sense, and that's exactly what I want to get to land in this episode. Did you give your next love a no?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I. To make it concise Everyone sucks in the beginning. You just have to get a little bit better and a little bit better and a little bit better and eventually you will be.

Speaker 2:

If you continue, if you stay consistent long enough, you will be really good at whatever that is. You will, because not a lot of people are willing to do things that long. A lot of people Are dabblers. They don't. We've had podcasters come and go and that's fine, that's their prerogative, but they're not gonna be as strong a podcasters as we are because we just kept at it. You know we're very strong podcasters. We suck at a lot of stuff, but you know, coaching, speaking, writing I'm never gonna stop doing those things. So eventually I'll just I know I'll be good, not because I was naturally good, but because I just stayed consistent and focused on improving a little bit each day, and I hope that everyone Everyone does that for themselves if you want to see the behind-the-scenes shenanigans of me cooking or Alan doesn't do a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff, not as much as I do make sure you follow us on the various social media platforms.

Speaker 1:

Instagram I am at never quit kid. Alan is at a Lazarus 88, al AZ, d-a-r-o-s 88, and then Alan Lazarus, kevin Paul Mary on Facebook good little Perspective into the behind-the-scenes. You'll see my kiddies. You'll see me at the gym. I'm on my story quite often dropping Life-changing knowledge, I'd say Pretty regularly. You'll see me watching UFC eatin Taco Bell.

Speaker 2:

Well, that's that, if you have ever considered starting a podcast, there is a specific podcast by a podcaster named Kevin Paul Mary. It is called podcast growth university. It is focused on helping you, the podcaster, learn from all the massive mistakes that we've made over the last, coming up on seven years, and Kevin is only focused on that show on helping podcasters grow their podcast and have a bigger impact. So if you are considering being a podcaster, check that out. The link will be in the show notes.

Speaker 1:

Check it out. I say where we talk all things podcasting all the time.

Speaker 2:

Next.

Speaker 1:

I'll sorry. Podcast growth university. It's hard to have multiple sign-offs inside. It's a total thing. Tomorrow for episode number 1419. One thing a lot of people Forget about their goals. I had a goal that I had set. That has changed, it has shifted, I have pivoted. We will talk about that. As always, we love you, we appreciate you, grateful for each and every one of you and an L you. We did not have fans, we have family. We will talk to you all tomorrow.

Speaker 2:

Keep putting in the reps. Next elimination.

Speaker 1:

Nice, nice.

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Alan Lazaros

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Kevin Palmieri

Host