Next Level University

#1455 - Another Way To Create More Accountability

• Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

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Today, hosts Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros talk about the powerful connection between accountability, commitment, and personal growth. They share their personal experiences, provide practical tips, and discuss how financial commitment can act as a strong motivator pushing us towards our goals.  The necessity created by these financial commitments often motivates us to follow through and make the most out of our investments. While investing in oneself can be challenging, it's one of the best investments we can make.

Links mentioned:
Book a FREE Breakthrough Session with Kevin: https://bit.ly/3I5bS0u
Business coaching with Alan: https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/next-level-business-solutions/

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

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Show notes: 
[3:48] Attach money to something
[11:21] We tend to do more not to lose than to win
[14:37] Kim thanks Kevin for going above and beyond in helping launch the Peaceful Productivity podcast
[15:16] Free vs paid
[18:18] Investing in yourself
[26:12] Outro

Send a text to Kevin and Alan!

Speaker 1:

Next level nation. Welcome back to another episode of next level university, where we help you level up your life, your love, your health and your wealth. We hope you enjoyed our latest episode, episode number one thousand four hundred and fifty four. Three common growth myths. Today For episode number one thousand four hundred and fifty five happy Sunday, another way to create more accountability. If my voice sounds abnormally manly today, it's because it's very early in the morning on a Sunday. I have the window open, the sun is rising, it's not that early, but it's a beautiful Sunday morning. Alan, I usually don't do Sundays, but I'm traveling and there's a lot going on. So here we are. Okay, another way to create more accountability.

Speaker 1:

I have been talking very often about my fitness journey and my lack of consistency in the way my shoulder was and my body and being disheartened every time I left the gym and eventually I went to physical therapy and that really helped and Then I said, all right, cool, I feel good, I'm gonna be able to lift consistently now and I was pretty consistent with my fitness regimen, but I wasn't as consistent as I am today and Two things really really made a large difference for me one, doing mobility every day To downloading this app when it comes to fitness and we're not sponsored by anything we're gonna talk about today so I have this app that Bianca actually showed me, I don't know, a year ago. It's called pliability, and Every morning, you can do these long form stretches and it helps you become more pliable. That's why it's the name of the company, and that's really important for me because it helps me in the gym. Okay, that's part one. So I'm doing mobility and I sell. My body feels good, awesome. All right, let me get back into the gym. Let me get back into the gym. Let me get back into the gym and I'm watching this video.

Speaker 1:

Alan, as I've mentioned, I've been watching a lot of fitness videos lately and this guy has a mid-roll on his video series and he says hey, if you like this channel, I have an app and it helps you track your workouts and it helps you track your sets and your reps and it even Predicts what weight you should use next time. And I said, interesting, okay, I'm gonna check this out. So I checked it out and I was like I really like this. This is a really nice app. Let me see how much it is. I think it's like $300 for the year and I was like, whoa, nelly, it's a lot of money. It's a lot of money. I said, all right, let me try out a month. I'm not ready to, I'm not prepared to sign up for a year yet. Let me see what it, let me kick the tires and see what it's like. So I signed up for a month and this app is amazing. It's the best. It reignited my passion for the gym. It makes me feel like I'm more Organized. It makes me feel like I'm more structured. It makes me feel like I'm taking it more seriously.

Speaker 1:

Another way to create more accountability in your life is to put skin in the game. It is to Attach money to something, and we've talked about commitment devices before. But this is a little bit different where, if you are Paying $30 a month for something, say it's a fitness thing, like I am, every time you don't go to the gym I'm gonna close my window. There's a fire truck going by. Every time you don't go to the gym, you are thinking about the $30 that you're burning. This is why Planet Fitness has such a successful business.

Speaker 1:

Planet Fitness, I believe 80% of their people, 80% of their memberships, don't actually go to the gym and the reasoning behind that is it's a dollar to sign up and it's like nine bucks a month. For a lot of people that's not enough quote-unquote skin in the game to actually make you go cancel your membership to actually keep you Committed in the gym. So my question for you would be where is, where is there a place right now that you are paying money and wasting it Slash? Where is? Is there an app? Is there a class? Is there a program? Is there a course? Is there a coaching opportunity that you would be more, more consistent with because you have that extra level of accountability?

Speaker 2:

my question, my early question in this episode I remember when I first went to college, kev, I was really quick, I was. I was this close to when you were saying I know my voice sounds really manly today I was this close to being like and mine sounds that's why I was laughing at the beginning.

Speaker 2:

Anyways, I remember in college I went to a very, very, very expensive school. I was so worried that I wouldn't be able to go because of money, and I remember the necessity was so high, the pressure was brutal. As a matter of fact, and this might sound a little morbid, but the school that I went to actually had a pretty scary suicide rate, and the reason why is because it was such a hard school. A lot of people fail out and it was so expensive. And if your parents are paying $50,000 a year for college, or you're paying that or you're going into debt and then you fail your classes, that's a lot of pressure for a 19 year old. You know, 19, 20, 21 is when you're in college, and so that was like a real. They had like an actual suicide place, they had counseling, they had all kinds of stuff and the school was really, really hard. And I remember my very first engineering course. I actually failed and I had such a hard time with that because that was essentially $4,500 gone, like you know, and they called it NR. So instead of having an F, you actually got no record. It was as if you never took the course, even worse, even worse. Well, actually technically better because it didn't crush your GPA, which I actually liked. No record, it was ABC no record For some reason. That's what WPI did. What's your polytech? But anyways. So when it comes to the necessity, when you're in college, that's why you go to class, that's why you get good grades, that's why you work so hard, that's why you study so much. It's because you're under so much pressure and you don't want to waste the money.

Speaker 2:

And I was on the phone with a client yesterday and she has a personal trainer and I asked her. I said how much is it? And she said it's $110, $111 every four sessions. I said that's actually pretty good. I said is he a good trainer? She's like he's the best. I was like keep that. It's really good.

Speaker 2:

She's been crushing. She just hit a PR of 170 pound squat, which just awesome, because that's way more than she weighs. But she's killing it all these areas. She's doing group coaching for, of all ventures, she's doing coaching with me. She has a therapist and she has a personal trainer. Her life is so set up for success. She just got a new job. She just doubled her income with this new job. Like that she's winning. She's winning, but she has necessity everywhere. She has a marriage, she has a house, she has six pets, she has a personal trainer, she has a group coaching team that she's on, she has me as her coach, and then she has A therapist. So she's just set up for success. She's not going to waste all that money.

Speaker 2:

The other reason too and this is another example I recommend to my clients using Audible all the time, because if you pay $15.99 a month, I think, is what it is, you just keep reading. Because you don't want to waste money. That keeps me reading. I don't want to waste that money. And you get a credit, you know, every month. So it keeps you reading. It keeps you reading. So if you want to read more, if you want to work out more, if you want to track habits more, if you want to be more consistent, put your money where your mouth is and you might be pleasantly surprised with what you become.

Speaker 1:

I like the recurring style too. I think that works really well, because what I was thinking before is yeah, you could buy a treadmill and you could say okay, this treadmill, it's a nice treadmill, it's $1,200. All right, I'm going to use this every day, but how long? Until you forget about how much it costs. I feel like that's pretty normal for us, right? Rather than having a recurring thing of $20 a month. You see that every time and this is the other thing when you do get to the level of okay, now you're tracking your finances and you understand the importance of necessity and accountability when it comes to this. And then you see whatever, jeff and Jeff fitness, $20. It's like, ah, two thoughts. One, I should cancel that, which is a giant pain in the ass. It's easier to go to the gym. It's just easier to go to the gym than it is to cancel membership. Unfortunately, you're, unfortunately, depending on how you want to look at it Jeff and Jeff fitness, jeff and Jeff fitness. Or you say you know what? I'm sick of wasting money. I should really start going, I should really go.

Speaker 1:

And then you ask yourself well, what are the other things that I'm paying for that I shouldn't be using? That's a whole different conversation. But I'm telling you it is night and day for me. I haven't missed a day. Well, I have. I've probably missed five days of fitness and mobility over the last two months, and that's including when I was traveling I was doing mobility. When I was in Vermont with Teran, I was doing mobility and I had a gym membership up there. And one of the reasons is I know, I know I'm already paying for it. I might as well just pay with my time to. I'm already paying with the money. There's a lot of thought when it goes into that. When my alarm clock goes off, I'm thinking about that. I want to go get a workout and I want to. I want to make the best use of the money that I'm already spending and I like the recurring. Normally we might advise against that because if you're paying forever it adds up, but I think the top of mindness of that is important.

Speaker 2:

I think the recurring is a good thing when it comes to investing in yourself.

Speaker 2:

And so group coaching? This works too. A lot of our members they don't. They don't want to waste their money. So when they pay upfront, or even recurring because it's $97 a month with the promo code to join group coaching and a lot of times what happens is, when you pay, you just end up doing more work because you don't want to waste it, and this is a fundamental cognitive bias. I'll go brief about this, but it's it's.

Speaker 2:

Human beings will do a lot more not to lose than they will to win, and this is the idea of keeping your back against the wall. This is you'll be blown away with how innovative you get. When your bank account hits a certain number, when it goes below what you're comfortable with, all of a sudden, you'll, you'll, you'll get ignited. Well, yeah, you'll have a tough day or a tough night, or maybe even a tough week, but after that you'll innovate. You'll start noticing job opportunities that you didn't notice. You'll start dog sitting on the side. You'll start driving Uber or Lyft. You'll start doing you know, uber eats whatever it is to make extra capital. That's necessity. And so when you put skin in the game, when you invest in something, the idea here is when you pay, you pay attention and because of that, nlu is no longer free and we're going to have you paying every single episode. I'm kidding, no, we would never do that.

Speaker 2:

But honestly, if any of you listeners want to be more consistent, want to go deeper, want to work harder, want to track habits, want to track finances, I'm convinced that's half the reason why my clients work with me. It's because I don't want to work with them unless they track habits. I said that after a call yesterday. I said listen, your system is set up awesome, you're in, you're winning. You're gonna keep winning, I know you will. You're just you're crushing. Just track the system is awesome. Trust the system. Track your habits. That's all I ask is that you track. That's your only homework. It's just track your habits. And because she's paying for the coaching and I'm convinced she's doing it more for me and more for that than she is for herself, but I think that's how we're wired I don't think that's a bad thing. I think that's knowing yourself and you are more likely to track habits. As a matter of fact, I'll share this to this point.

Speaker 2:

Who was it? I had a client who came back. Oh, that very same client. She took like three weeks off my coaching. She wasn't tracking, she didn't track at all. Then when she came back, she's like well, I went back, I took educated guesses but I wasn't tracking. And I said to her I said I want you tracking every day. Don't do this three weeks and then go back and take guesses, like, actually track each day, because you're just gonna be so much better off. I'm not saying that for me. I'm saying that because your life is gonna keep getting better and it has.

Speaker 2:

From the moment she started coaching with me many, many years ago to now. I mean, she wouldn't even recognize her old self. It's unbelievable. She didn't believe in herself, she was shy, she wasn't fit, she was struggle bus, and now she's just crushing it in all these areas. She's married, she's got a house. It's just awesome. So if you're out there listening, you know who you are. I'm so proud of you. But at the end of the day, it's not just me, it's not just the coaching, it's also this principle of when you pay for coaching, you want to get the most out of it. So you end up becoming more and doing more and learning more and reading more and tracking more, and I think that that's just. It's just a cheat code that we all really need to tap into.

Speaker 1:

Imagine two scenarios. One you have the opportunity to attend a free concert, versus you paid $150 for tickets. The free concert you're more likely to not go, because something might quote unquote come up but you're not going to be able to do that. You're going to be able to do that, you're going to be able to do that. You're going to be able to do that. You're going to be able to do that. And then something might quote unquote come up. The paid concert you're going to go because you're going to work around it. Everything you do is going to be based around that. That's just another example of that.

Speaker 1:

I was on a podcast the other day and we were talking about this. We were talking about this thought process and I said look, if you paid, there are some people out there that require you to pay them for them to come on your show. If you paid somebody $500 to come on your podcast, you're never going to show up late and you're never going to miss. You're always going to be there. But if it's easy for you to get guests and you have a million guests lined up and there's not that much necessity, you're going to miss, you're going to miss. That's just another example of this. So really think about this what life love health wealth. So love health wealth.

Speaker 1:

Where are you struggling? If you're struggling to do check-ins with your partner, there is a bunch of apps out there that can help you do that. It might be $15 a month. That might create a little bit of extra necessity If you're struggling with. We had somebody in next level nation the other day ask I'm new to tracking calories. What app should I use? I would say the one that actually costs money, not necessarily the free one, because I think the necessity would be a little bit higher, especially as long as you're in a financial place where that's reasonable, and then in wealth. I mean, there's a lot of different things you can do. But maybe it's a, I don't know. Is there an app that reminds you every time you spend money, or something? That might be a thing too.

Speaker 2:

Kev. I just realized this goes the other direction too. I pay for maxcom, which is HBO Cinemax, and something else. I don't remember what the bundle is.

Speaker 2:

I'm pretty sure Cinemax bought HBO or whatever, I don't know, but I pay for maxcom and I Think there's an unconscious desire to use it. If you're paying for it, which might actually not be good, that's fair. So it could go the other way. If you're paying for Netflix and Hulu and Max comm and Disney plus, you might end up watching more TV shows. Then maybe is what's best for your productivity or whatever. So this, this principle, applies to everything. I have a course that I'm taking on leadership right now. That's expensive and I'm paying monthly and you better believe I. Actually there's 25 modules to this course and I am learning this course constantly. I'm going through it my second time now and every single day I don't miss and it's been super beneficial, super, super beneficial. Remember these apps. It's an upfront cost.

Speaker 2:

A Lot of people have heard in the personal development industry what if you could put $1 into a slot machine and you get four back? That's like investing in yourself. Here's the problem, kev. This would be quick. You, you don't get it back right away. Like if you invest in my coaching or Kevin's podcast coaching or whatever. You're gonna make your money back eventually. It's just not gonna be right away. You imagine you put a dollar into a slot machine and then you all you get is pain and suffering, and then eventually you make all your money back and ten times that. That's what Investing in yourself is really like.

Speaker 2:

Yeah versus you put a dollar into Netflix and you actually get more dollars taken out later Because you're wasting so much time and again. I love Netflix too, so I'm not judging. The point is, one is a net return on investment that's positive. When it comes to investing in yourself, investing in my fitness pal or, or you know, a mobility or pliability, the app you mentioned, or audible audible, in my opinion, is the best investment you can make. I'm not being paid by audible. I've had an audible subscription for Eight years, something like that. I got a Christmas gift for Emilia. I paid for an entire year for her of audible and now she's hooked on phonics. She just keeps, keeps rolling.

Speaker 1:

Last thing I would add this would also be my next level nugget, more of a story for an excellent nugget. We have a free course on the website and I was talking to a group of people who had downloaded the free course and I said, hey, I saw that you downloaded the free course. What did you think of it? And they said, oh, we haven't started it yet. I know, and I know that's why free courses aren't always the best thing. Maybe it's a good place to get started for sure, but there isn't as much necessity. You didn't pay for it. You most likely aren't gonna prioritize it the way you would if you paid, however much it is, even 50 bucks, even if you paid 50 bucks, if you paid $100 for a dinner, there's more necessity to either eat it or send it back to make sure it's the way you want it.

Speaker 1:

There's money and, yeah, there's money in the game. There's skin in the game. There's. There's money on your mind. So that would be my next level. My next level nugget would be free is really good. Free is really really good, but it might not be as good for you and your productivity as we wish it was. If somebody gives you a free meal. You might not eat it, you might not. You might say, well, I'm not, I'm not that hungry, or this isn't exactly what I wanted. If you paid for it, you're gonna savor it and you're probably gonna find a way to try to eat it.

Speaker 2:

Your money is a vote for what you believe in, and If you do believe in yourself, you will invest in yourself, and I just really hope everyone's doing that and Kevin and I are investing in ourselves constantly. He spent $4,000 on a bet. I did, I spent, I've spent thousands of dollars on courses. I've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on my education and I just, I just hope that everyone understands the return on investment of people, of these things.

Speaker 2:

Personal trainer I'm telling you that person I'm talking about I'll keep it anonymous, but she has group coaching. She has a team of amazing, like-minded people around her. It's not even our program, it's not our program out selling our group coaching right now. She's got me in her corner as a coach, business Career, really, more than anything. She's got a therapist in her corner. She's got a personal trainer in her corner. She's just gonna crush. She's gonna crush.

Speaker 2:

She's investing a lot in her own. It shows humility, it shows skin in the game, it shows that she's serious, she's got necessity. She's not gonna waste your money, she's gonna do. This version of her is gonna be way more and do way more than the version of her. That said, you know what I'll just. You know, I'll still go to the gym, but I'm not gonna invest. I'll still track habits, but I just don't really want to coach. It's not the same game. What's ironic is, the people who succeed are the people that are humble enough to get a physical therapist and invest in themselves. So just invest in yourself as much as you can and Obviously within reason. Don't be reckless, and that's my next level nugget.

Speaker 1:

Put your money where your mouth is. Mm-hmm son, you think if you paid for a Mobility app, you do more mobility?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I do, I actually did back when I was paying for Ram? What, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a interesting Consideration that I need to think about.

Speaker 1:

That's why I threw it. I threw it out to you.

Speaker 2:

Mm-hmm, because I it's, I definitely would.

Speaker 1:

It's not that you couldn't just screenshot it. That's why I remember you said that you're like dude. I just screen kept the videos, it's good. And I said I I need to pay for it if I screen kept the videos. I'm not gonna do it.

Speaker 2:

I only screen kept the the intro once. Yeah, it was a little outside of integrity otherwise.

Speaker 1:

But yeah, I just called you out publicly on that. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

First but it's true, it's true, yeah, no, that's fair.

Speaker 1:

Next love a nation. If you are a podcaster and you are looking to create more Accountability, more necessity and an easier life hopefully in terms of Back-end production, not life in general Please reach out. I would love to do a free, 30-minute podcast breakthrough session. You don't have to sign up for anything, you don't have to do anything after that. I just want to add value. And if you say, hey, what do you guys do and how much does it cost, I am more than happy to share that with you. We do all the production and all that stuff, but might not be the right fit for where you are today. A free call might be, but again, like we just talked about, you still got to show up, you still got to show up. It might be free, but it doesn't mean it's not valuable and I always plan on bringing that fire. So we will have the link to my free podcast breakthrough session in the show notes below.

Speaker 2:

Last week, or a couple episodes ago, kevin and I did an episode about a concept called want, love, hate. What I want is a great physique and to be an extraordinary athlete. What I love is weight training. What I hate is mobility, to Kevin's earlier point. But what I need is mobility. And so If you want to be a business owner, that's awesome. If you love, I know, passionate about what your business is about, like podcasting, for example, or whatever business you have.

Speaker 2:

What you might need but not really want, is a business coach, and so, similar to this episode of putting skin in the game, I can tell you my business coaching is far more affordable than Pretty much any other business coach that I've ever met, and that's for a reason because I really, really want to help our listeners, and I know that a lot of our listeners struggle financially. So the goal here is to help you make your money back as soon as humanly possible and long-term. There's no question You're gonna make your money back. There's no, no question about that whatsoever.

Speaker 2:

But my goal with the business coaching is to help you make more money in your business than you invest in the coaching. So if you could pay me a A certain amount per hour and I could guarantee that you make that back within a month. Would that be worth it? Because over the long term you're gonna make way, way, way, way, way more. So if you could put a dollar in now and then, in the next couple years, make ten back, that's what business coaching is, because it's gonna pay dividends forever. So, anyways, if you want to start a business, grow a business, monetize your business Solopreneur, entrepreneur, business owner, brand new never done it, just reach out. I'm happy to help. The first session is completely free and the link to the landing page to check out that will be in the show notes.

Speaker 1:

Tomorrow for episode number one thousand four hundred and fifty six. You're not a mind reader and that's okay. I have another very interesting time at the gym. I have two stories for that episode. Both of them are at the gym, so I'm actually at. Two are at the gym and two are clients so we will tell what Kev's been working out.

Speaker 2:

I'm working on a lot. Yes, it's, it's either. I'm on a podcast.

Speaker 1:

I'm in the gym. That's pretty much it.

Speaker 2:

Those are where, probably three month period there where you heard no gym stories. That's why I'm excited to catch up on content. I'm excited to catch up.

Speaker 1:

So we'll talk about that tomorrow. 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. Put some skin in the game next definition.

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Alan Lazaros

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Kevin Palmieri

Host