Next Level University
Confidence, mindset, relationships, limiting beliefs, family, goals, consistency, self-worth, and success are at the core of hosts Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros' heart-driven, no-nonsense approach to holistic self-improvement. This transformative, 7 day per week podcast is focused on helping dream chasers who have been struggling to achieve their goals and are seeking community, consistency and answers. If you've ever asked yourself "How do I get to the next level in my life", we're here for you!
Our goal at NLU is to help you uncover the habits to build unshakable confidence, cultivate a powerful mindset, nurture meaningful relationships, overcome limiting beliefs, create an amazing family life, set and achieve transformative goals, embrace consistency, recognize your self-worth, and ultimately create the fulfillment and success you desire. Let's level up your health, wealth and love!
Next Level University
#1844 - Your Potential Is UNIQUE
In this episode, hosts Kevin and Alan share their personal experiences and dive into the challenges of dream chasing. They talk about the importance of self-awareness, setting realistic goals, and how understanding your strengths can lead to success. Alan reflects on his journey from pro gaming aspirations to becoming a podcast host, while Kevin discusses the significance of knowing what goals align with your true self. They explore the critical role of humility and self-belief in achieving dreams, offering actionable insights for listeners. Tune in for an episode filled with lighthearted moments, deep reflections, and practical advice for those looking to level up their life, health, love, and wealth.
Link mentioned:
Next Level Group Coaching - https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/group-coaching/
Group 16 - The 1st call is on Tuesday, October 8, 2024, at 5 PM EST, and the group runs for 3 months. Discount Code for N.L. Group Coaching (30% off): NLULISTENER
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NLU is not just a podcast; it’s a gateway to a wealth of resources designed to help you achieve your goals and dreams. From our Next Level Dreamliner to our Group Coaching, we offer a variety of tools and communities to support your personal development journey.
For more information, please check out our website at the link below. 👇
Website 💻 http://www.nextleveluniverse.com
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Any of these communities or resources are FREE to join and consume
Next Level Nation - https://www.facebook.com/groups/459320958216700
Next Level 5 To Thrive (free course) - https://bit.ly/3xffver
Next Level U Book Club - https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/next-level-book-club/
Next Level Monthly Meet-up: https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/monthly-meetups/
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We love connecting with you guys! Reach out on Instagram, Facebook, or via email. We’re here to support you in your personal and professional development journey.
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Email 💬
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LinkedIn ✍
Kevin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-palmieri-5b7736160/
Alan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanlazarosllc/
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Show notes:
(1:15) Kevin reflects on his growth in dream-chasing
(3:12) Alan's journey from pro gaming to podcasting
(10:56) Setting realistic goals based on personal awareness
(17:53) Alan's biggest takeaways from coaching thousands of people
(24:08) Meet like-minded people and jumpstart your journey to achieving your dreams while optimizing your life. Join Next Level Group Coaching
(27:55) On humility, self-belief, and achieving dreams
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the challenging thing is you need permission to add value, because without the awareness that you can actually add value based on your awareness, it just comes off as being arrogant. That's what.
Speaker 2:I think a lot of people do. I think people don't achieve their goals and then victimize themselves when in reality, they just don't have accurate thinking. You just don't know who you really are. You aren't looking inside and you're allowing other people to tell you who you are, and most of the feedback you get from the external world is not true.
Speaker 1:Welcome to Next Level University. I'm your host, Kevin Palmieri, and I'm your co-host, Alan Lazarus. At NLU, we believe in a heart-driven but no BS approach to holistic self-improvement for dream chasers.
Speaker 2:Our goal with every episode is to help you level up your life love health and wealth.
Speaker 1:We bring you a new episode every single day, on topics like confidence, self-belief, self-worth, self-awareness, relationships, boundaries, consistency, habits and defining your own unique version of success.
Speaker 2:Self-improvement in your pocket, every day, from anywhere, completely free. Welcome to.
Speaker 1:Next Level University. 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 had to slide back a little bit. While doing the intro Today for episode number 1,844, we're going to do a spin-off of what we did yesterday. So yesterday, alan asked me what I thought about dream chasing today versus what I thought about in the beginning and all the just the powerful wisdom I have accumulated over the years of doing this. Today we're going to flip the script and I'm going to interview Alan on a very similar line, but obviously it's going to be very different, because Alan and I are very different human beings. Somebody said that they reached out to me, alan. They said that one of the reasons I resonate with you guys is because I feel like I'm a little bit of both of you and I said we're, we're better my side, come to my side.
Speaker 2:My side's the way, but it's we, as in the part of you that's like me and me us.
Speaker 1:We is in us and us is is in we. Perfect, all right, cool. So obviously it's different, because I had no idea what this is going to be like. I didn't really understand. For me, dreams were just things that I hoped would happen one day, and you are somebody who has been reverse engineering outcomes for most of your life as an engineer and as somebody with the ability to do that and the foresight to do that and the vision to do that. So I'm nerves, your nerves a little bit. There's the the unlovable part of you, because you're gonna, if you're gonna, speak your truth and you're gonna live in your truth, a lot of it's gonna be. It's probably not gonna resonate with some people for sure, so understandably. So I would just start by saying what was the first dream you remember? Did you hear that? Yeah, what was that?
Speaker 2:my computer. It's a gaming laptop. Yeah, it just restarted on me and that sounded like that's how it sounds when it starts up by the way it sounded like it farted on you a little bit it goes whoosh, it's like a gaming. Yeah, it's a gaming laptop.
Speaker 2:I was looking at that. Yeah, what was your first dream ever? First dream ever? Yeah, probably pro gaming. Yeah, I would say probably pro gaming. Okay, yeah, I would say probably pro gaming. Okay, I used to play, I mean, the first starcraft for the people who are our generation will remember the computer game starcraft, age of empires, and I loved starcraft. So the types of video games that I loved were real-time. Strategy Makes sense in hindsight.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Real-time strategy games. It's you got to play on your feet. Mini economies, you got to build villages and conquer lands, conquer lands and you have allies, you have allies. So I used to play Starcraft 1, which I think came out in 1996, I want to say Okay.
Speaker 2:Something like that and one of my friends at the time his name was David we would play against his stepfather and his stepfather would be and this is way back with pre. Any sort of massive multiplayer online game didn't exist. So we were system linked and he had a computer in his master bedroom closet and we were in his bedroom, david, his master bedroom would be two versus one yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So the, his parents, had a master bedroom and there was a huge closet in the master bedroom and his computer. It was sort of his little man cave or whatever and david and I would do 2v1 against his father and I eventually I mean, he stopped us for the first several months and I just decided to be unreasonably good at it and eventually we started beating him and eventually it had to go the other way. It had to be 2v1 against me Because I just got really, really good at StarCraft.
Speaker 1:And what did it feel like for it to be the dream? When did that happen? When did it cross? I like doing this. Oh wow, I'm pretty mastery driven. I get really good at things too. Okay, I want this, like what was the dream to play professional video games?
Speaker 2:Well, so StarCraft 1 led to many other video games and I was never the big RPG. So there's role-playing games, there's first-person shooters FPS, and then there's real-time strategy, rts, and I was big on real-time strategy and FPS. I think role-playing games were, and now I realize experience-driven people like role-playing games. And then there was Diabloablo 2, which is a massive multiplayer online game. But I was big into competitive gaming so you can ally up and go do quests or you can fight each other and duel and I used to love to duel and in high school my friends would bring me in because I was the best. So they would like talk crap to other people and then say my friend could beat you and then they'd bring me in, I'd win and then leave.
Speaker 2:It was so weird and in hindsight this is all very clear. But when did it become clear? Eventually, with halo 1, I remember I played land parties is what they were called local area network land. This is pre massive multiplayer online internet games on consoles. So computer games were always online and there's also counter-strike, which is a first-person shooter. That's big online at 1.5 1.6.
Speaker 2:Some gamers out there will recognize everything I'm talking about if you're not a nerdy most people will not yeah, most people will not, but ultimately uh, to answer the original question, I, halo 1 was one of the biggest games in history and halo 2 was, per capita, probably the biggest game in history. In other, halo 2 was, per capita, probably the biggest game in history. In other words, it was the first Xbox Live game. Xbox Live was the. So in Halo 1, you would have to go through your computer to simulate local area network across the internet. It was sort of a workaround to almost play with people globally. That wasn't actually connected to the. Xbox live didn't exist yet.
Speaker 2:So anyways, microsoft created xbox live and halo 2 was the very first massive multiplayer, first person shooter online. And I was 20th in the world on bungienet. So bungienet had the rankings of the best players on the planet and I was 20th in the world and like yeah, and and in high school you didn't know this because you were sports popular and people actually liked you and you were good at baseball.
Speaker 2:But I essentially was not only the best halo player in our high school, uh, but the best, one of the best halo players in the world. And my teammate his name was StrongSide, his gamer tag he actually went on the best team in the world and went on to make millions and millions of dollars and was one of the most. It's the most famous Halo team in the world. It's called the Ogres and it's called Final Boss, doesn't matter If anyone's a gamer, they would recognize it. But the point I'm making with this is I knew with halo 2 that this could be a career and I played with some other people whose parents were a lot more short-sighted and who didn't understand the value of being a pro gamer. And so I playfully joke that I kicked strong side off my team because he kept taking my sniper rifle and I was better than he was and I was team captain. And then he went on to the best team in the world and was sponsored and made millions of dollars.
Speaker 2:And I joke and I say I got a girlfriend and went to college, which I playfully joke because going to WPI, wilshire Polytechnic Institute, was the best decision I've ever made genuinely and I really mean that Best decision I ever made was going to WPI. Second best decision I ever made was leaving my ex. Third best decision I ever made was DMing Emilia Smith and I'll stick by that forever. That's just the truth. But ultimately I knew with Halo 2, when I was 20th in the world, I wasn't even trying that hard. That was me playing for fun. I mean, imagine if I and I used to go to tournaments that I've won thousands of dollars playing Halo.
Speaker 1:Probably tens of thousands. To be honest, an interesting side of you because I didn't know you. I knew you, we were in the same school, but I hated you at that point well, I was obviously very good in a virtual world.
Speaker 2:Can you see? Why I may have right, you know, for sure, for sure, I want to be good at.
Speaker 1:I want to be good at real life. On the baseball field you're best one of the best in the world at this online, but I I remember some of those games.
Speaker 1:I wasn't. I wasn't as big of a gamer as you. All right, let me ask you this question, something you've said many times. It's always interesting interviewing you because I just have so much context where I've talked to you every day for seven years where if I'm interviewing somebody I don't know, I have context of just very limited. Something you've said often is I don't set goals I know I can't accomplish. I don't set goals I know I can't accomplish. For anybody out there, like myself, who is not engineer-minded, is not really good at reverse engineering outcomes and maybe isn't hyper-aware of what they're capable of, how do you go about knowing what is possible for you and what's not? And just give me one sec, I have to open the door to let Ace out, but start, start, I will have my headphones on so I'll be able to hear you.
Speaker 2:Okay, I'm here, so the question is essentially, I don't. The context is I don't set goals that I don't know that I can achieve.
Speaker 1:That you don't believe you can achieve Correct yes.
Speaker 2:Yep. And the second part of the question was what?
Speaker 1:How does somebody, how does somebody know what is possible for them?
Speaker 2:how does somebody know what is possible for them? It's actually almost impossible without the mathematics, and this gets really hairy for lack of a better phrasing. Emilia is very similar to me in this, which I've been studying her since I met her, and vice versa, and I'm trying to understand what's different, because she's similar but it's a different, uh, approach. So for me, I actually reverse engineer it. So with Halo 2, for example, okay, I'm 20th in the world and I'm barely trying. I'm going to be the best if I really want to be and I wouldn't say barely trying, I mean I had fun with it, but it wasn't my career If I really dedicated myself. I mean, I know One of the things that I'll share too, and this is also a knowing. I have a knowing that I could never be the strongest man on this planet. I have a knowing it's impossible. What is the knowing?
Speaker 1:What does it feel I think it's a calculation.
Speaker 2:I I think it's a calculation, so okay, based on what?
Speaker 2:what? What are you? What are you? My genetics, okay, so.
Speaker 2:So there's in book club, we're reading a book called identity shift and and, uh, a good metaphor that I do think will land is my gaming laptop. When I say my gaming laptop has the hardware that's better than your computer, kev, and the operating system is better than your operating system, because I'm using Windows 11, you're using Windows 10, and I have better applications on it, because Microsoft is focused on Windows 11 more than Windows 10. Now, so when I say to Kevin, hey, my laptop is more capable than your laptop, you don't get triggered. However, if I say I'm more capable than you, it triggers people. But the same is true I have better genetics in certain things and I have a better operating system and I have more software upgrades, which I would.
Speaker 2:So in this metaphor, genetic potential is the bottom, which is the hardware of the computer, the random access memory, the graphics card, the motherboard, the hard drive, all of it. And so in that case it physical genetics. And in this case, like a lebron james has different physical, physical genetics than I do, and no matter how hard I try, I'm never going to be lebron james and no matter how hard he tries, he's never going to be maybe as mathematically intelligent as me and and that's my truth, as much as I would never have said that in the past because I would have sounded like arrogant and I would have sounded mean to him. I don't know, lebron, I just I intuitively can tell.
Speaker 2:So, uh, that said, the hardware is your genetic potential, the operating system is your mindset and your belief and your conditioning. And and then the, the software like, uh, an app on your computer like facebook messenger, for example, is an app that's skills, like Facebook Messenger, for example, is an app that's skills, in this metaphor. So, if you have the genetic potential, you have the operating system and you have the skills. It's just a matter of time. With the right metrics, habits and identity that you would like, you are going to be a very successful podcaster, and when that happens, it will not have been a coin toss. I actually calculated it.
Speaker 1:I know, but I don't know how.
Speaker 2:Well, let's go through it. Your genetic potential, your modality of thinking, is words and concepts. You're really good with words and concepts. You're relatable. You understand most human beings, certainly better than I do in certain regards how they think and what they need to hear and how to lift them up, and that kind of stuff. You have a voice for radio. No, but seriously, you're funny. You also are consistent and have work ethic and grit. You love podcasting. You're obsessed. You're obsessed. You love it. I do love, I do. You love it more than you think you love it it's. You could not stop podcasting if you tried, and so I've just calculated the, the long-term compound effect of that. Plus, you also have someone in your corner who, who complements your skill set, and so you're, you're gonna succeed with a very high statistical probability, whereas a lot of podcasters are not and unfortunately it makes me very sad when I go on a podcast and I realize, oh no, damn, that sucks.
Speaker 2:And then I want to help them. But then if they don't know that I know that and that I can help them, it just becomes this, this thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that becomes. That becomes the issue for lack of better phrasing. Somebody asked me on a podcast recently. They said what does it mean to add value? Cause you're very big on adding value and I said that's a great question and I I don't remember what my answer was, but I said you know the the the challenging thing is you need permission to add value, because without the awareness that you can actually add value based on your awareness, it just comes as being arrogant yeah, 100, and I know that's one of the deepest pains of my life.
Speaker 1:I understand, I understand. Okay, all right, I want to jump off of you. Sounded weird. I would like to jump off of off of you. Also, is there a father board or is it just mother board? No father board.
Speaker 2:That's a massive oversight no, it's only a mother board. It's like a mother ship, you know, I don't know why there could be.
Speaker 1:I never watched star trek. I don't know anything about that stuff. My goodness, no father board.
Speaker 2:Hey, give the women, that one will you?
Speaker 1:no, no, that I'm just saying it, that that laptop's gonna end up like, like me, no father board here either. I had a motherboard, no father board you know what I'm saying, okay, I want to, I had to, I want to redirect.
Speaker 2:For all the listeners of all that I just taught him. That's what he took out of it. Well, I already knew. I've heard you say that so many times. Behind the scenes I'm being played.
Speaker 1:I know, and I do have LeBron on speed dial. I could call him up right now.
Speaker 2:If you want, I'll say, hey, lebron, he would beat me at basketball. Definitely Baseball too, I'm sure Pretty much any sport?
Speaker 1:Yeah, most likely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, his genetic potential is very gifted. What have you?
Speaker 1:learned? You've coached for thousands of hours, mm-hmm. What have you learned about dream chasing that you could give to the audience that would be of value?
Speaker 2:what top three takeaways from coaching so many people when it comes to them accomplishing their dreams, based on where they are in the beginning and then what is the process of getting them to get momentum loaded question we looked up the stats january 1st 2024, we did a meetup I think it was january 2nd actually and the latest research shows 94 percent of 96 I'm sorry only four percent of people ever achieve their dreams, their goals, their goals. It said goals. We were doing a meetup on setting clear goals for 2024, or something like that, and I think the reason why most people don't achieve their goals which is another form of dreams is low self-awareness. So the first answer to the three things I already have all three the first one is low self-awareness, which is you are setting goals based on what you think you want, but not based on who you actually are. So I'll give you an example.
Speaker 2:So when I was young, I was a really strong snowboarder relative to my peer group and there was a. I was painting up in Maine. I was 19 years old and one of the painters on the paint crew. His name was Liam and he grew up on a mountain and he was one of those skiers who does double backflips and I had a moment where I said good job, Alan. When you were nine, you decided not to be a professional skier because you didn't grow up on a mountain, and that was the right decision, because it's impossible for you to compete with someone like Liam who went to a high school that was on a freaking mountain.
Speaker 2:If I get to play Halo every day and have the genetic potential equally to you in video games real time feedback, that kind of thing, intelligence, IQ, processing power and you get to play every day, or get to play every day and you only get to play once a month, you're never going to come close, no matter how hard you try. Trust me, I've played against the best in the world. So you need the genetic potential, but you also need the environment, and so the first one is low self-awareness. Most people just have low self-awareness. They don't understand that the things they're going for are not aligned with their, their genetic potential. Okay, Okay. Number two hyper-consciousness.
Speaker 1:you know what I'm saying. Yeah, Hyper-consciousness, yeah it is, but I was guilty of that too for a lot of the stuff that a lot of the goals that I set were just like I, honestly, at this point in my life I'm 35. I thought I'd have the Winnebago, I thought I'd be just kind of driving around the country, just retired at this point and slightly off. I was slightly off with that.
Speaker 2:so to answer your question about all three in one metaphor. I think the best analogy, the best metaphor ever, is the self-driving tesla. So emilia and I drove from massachusetts to south carolina her family. So Emilia and I drove from Massachusetts to South Carolina Her family has a place and we drove through eight states and I only had there's something called supervisor mode, which essentially means the Tesla driving itself. You just are responsible if it crashes and you need to keep your hands on the steering wheel, otherwise it yells at you and beeps at you. And they went all in and for some reason they pulled that and they updated it. Now it doesn't let you, it doesn't self-drive nearly as well.
Speaker 2:This thing was world-class, this thing, I'm telling you, I had to stop it five times in eight freaking states. It was amazing, and that was for bunnies or birds. I just cannot allow any animals to get hurt. But the Tesla wasn't looking for that, it was looking for cars. And so, anyways, this self-driving Tesla, I think, is a good metaphor for how human beings work.
Speaker 2:And the Tesla needs three things. Number one is self-awareness. It needs to know a current location. If the Tesla thinks it's over there and it's actually over here it's going to drive into a building over and over and over again and then blame the world. That's what I think a lot of people do. I think people don't achieve their goals and then victimize themselves when in reality, they just don't have accurate thinking. You just don't know who you really are, you aren't looking inside and you're allowing other people to tell you who you are, and most of the feedback you get from the external world is not true. Kev, how many people were like oh, what are you talking about? You're so handsome and you're so amazing, all stuff. It's like listen, if you're not handsome, you have to know that, otherwise you're going to make poor choices. And I'm not saying you're not handsome, I was gonna say what?
Speaker 1:no, no, relax, what are you doing? I actually dude, trust me, I actually think you are handsome.
Speaker 2:The point I'm making is that low self-awareness creates poor decision making. Imagine kevin trying to be a six foot tall model for his whole life because he was told by his mommy that he was really handsome.
Speaker 1:My mom did tell me I was handsome when she used to comb my hair when I was a young boy. But, there was no delusion of the six foot tall, unfortunately.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, okay. So the second piece is you need an accurate goal. So self-awareness has to be first, because otherwise the goal will not be aligned with what your genetic potential is Makes sense. So self-awareness first. Current location in the Tesla Accurate current location. Second thing the Tesla needs is an accurate destination address. So we drove to McDonald's last night and I put that in the GPS and it had an accurate address. I actually could see it in my head.
Speaker 1:Is it McDonald's? Like literally two minutes from where you were? Oh yeah, man, you used to go to the McDonald's all the time.
Speaker 2:The Tesla won't self-drive unless you put it in oh, okay, okay.
Speaker 1:I do supervisor mode all the time. You're milking it, getting your money's worth.
Speaker 2:You know it, man uh, so it needs an accurate destination address, which is an accurate goal that is predicated on its awareness that it can't fly and that it can't swim and it can't second as a submarine right, okay and that's a good metaphor for how human beings it's. Oh well, no, no, I can totally fly. No, no, no, no, no. Physics doesn't care about your delusions. You're going to fall and break your knees. This is bad. So, and again, that's a metaphor too.
Speaker 1:Next level nation. What is happening? If you've thought to yourself, I want to try coaching, but you don't really know where to start, group coaching would be a wonderful place for you. That's really why we created it in the first place. We start a new round every 90 days. So if you're hearing this, go to the website nextleveluniversecom and we have the landing page where you can actually hold your spot right now. Even if there's a group going on right now, you can still lock your spot for the next one. The biggest thing that we've seen is, as we get closer and closer to the date, unfortunately, some people end up missing. The group fills up and they can't do it, and then they end up regretting that. So please head over to the website. The link will be in the show notes and we would love to see you there.
Speaker 2:So the third thing and this is the thing most people do not understand, and I'm not trying to come off as pretentious or self-righteous with that you need to know the accurate data of the terrain. If the Tesla thinks there's a mountain to the left and a lake to the right and that you're supposed to stay straight, but in reality there's a mountain right in front of you, it's going to hammer right into that mountain and then blame the world, and I'm convinced that you need accurate thinking more than anything if you want to achieve success and that's what you mean by terrain is yes, accurate, accurate.
Speaker 2:So remember the garmin way back, the crappy old gps's. So for people that are our age or older, they used to not update that often. You used to have to the Garmin and then MapQuest was brutal, and so you essentially just what? If you had a GPS system that guarantees you never get to your goal? Of course you're going to not believe in yourself and then ego up or have low self-worth or whatever. So I feel like my coaching all it really is is me trying to undistort self-awareness.
Speaker 2:There's three things you need. You need to know how you work and why you work that way. You need to know how other people work and why it works that way, why they work that way psychology, neuroscience, human beings, human condition. And then you need to know how the economy works and why it works that way, how the world works and why it works that way. You need to know the difference between government and business and profit versus nonprofit, versus charity, and you have to know the difference between commercial and residential. And you have to understand how this all works different country to country to country, different currencies, different exchange rates.
Speaker 2:If you understand, imagine being a chess player and you understand the chess board. You understand the game and you understand what each piece does, you're going to have a higher probability of succeeding at winning the game. And I think that all of us start off naked, scared and ignorant and we don't know anything. And, unfortunately, most of us don't have the humility to be students long enough to actually become the guide. And I understand why, because being a student is usually a status hit.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, we're going through a lot. I dig it. I dig it. Humility now, when it comes to goal setting, and let me preface dreams and goals, because there's a lot of people that if I set up two people, if I said this person is 10 out of 10 humble, but they don't have a ton of self-belief and they struggle. They struggle on a day-to-day, they struggle, they do, they struggle, they're, they're human being with human experiences. Okay, you can bet on them, or you can bet on this person who has very little humility, but they're extremely intelligent. They have a lot of the hard skills. Who would you bet on? I'm willing to bet. Most people, including former Kevin, would bet on the second one. Now, I'd bet on the first one. Same. Why second one?
Speaker 2:now I bet on the first one. Same why? Because the first one will actually get coaches, mentors and therapists. That will help undistort. It'll help them think accurately and the person who is too arrogant to you know it's so funny. Maybe funny is the wrong adjective. I keep on filtering it through, trying not to sound like a dingus Smart. I meet people who think they're smart, but what they don't understand is that there's levels and, ironically, the people who think they're really smart and again, I went to one of the best tech schools. I went to one of the best engineering colleges on the planet. Okay, it's $50,000 a year. Most people don't get in. Some of my best friends didn't get in. You have to basically be. You have to be the top 5% to even be considered Probably top 1%, to be honest with you.
Speaker 1:That's why they didn't get back to me.
Speaker 2:I'm just, I'm dumbing it down, I'm dumbing it down. That's why they didn't get back. So one of the best engineering colleges on the planet and I was around really, really quote, unquote smart people and when you look into the future and you see where they've gotten to, typically they peak, and the reason they peak particularly in their personal life, not necessarily in their economic life. I'll give you an example. So this is a really important example, I think. So everyone has a cell phone. Who's in? Not everyone. So there's 8 billion people on the planet. There's 5.44 billion online, probably 6 billion now with Starlink, but ultimately we all have phones Not all of us, but anyone listening to this has a phone, mostly Okay. So of those phones, about 48% of them are Androids and 52% of them are iPhones, depending on where you're listening from. Androids and 52 of them are iphones, depending on where you're listening from, and there's a couple other weird phone companies that whatever, maybe one percent is like all the others coke and pepsi type of thing.
Speaker 2:The point is that, uh, android. I had a past client who was an android coder and he made like three300,000 a year, working maybe four hours a day. I think he was fairly lazy, I'm just going to be honest, but he makes really good money. Of course, he makes really good money. Half the people of the six billion who are on the internet use an Android and every company needs an app on an Android, and there's very few engineers or computer scientists that are good at android coding, so he doesn't have to be good at anything else. I think that a lot of people don't understand this. You don't have to be that good at much to be successful in the economy. You have to be really good at one thing that happens to be in high demand. So someone who's an android coder in 50 years ago wouldn't have a job because there was no Androids and there was no need for it. Someone who's an Android coder now, you are winning if you're good at that one thing.
Speaker 2:That doesn't mean your wife is happy, that doesn't mean your husband's happy, that doesn't mean you have good kids, that doesn't mean you're smart in anything other than that. And so what I've found is that humility is the only way to be holistically well, and unfortunately, a lot of the smartest people quote unquote with the hard skills end up wildly not well-rounded, divorced, unhappy and unfulfilled. And I saw that in myself and the potential for that in myself, and I realized that I don't want that future what's the difference between?
Speaker 1:and I feel like I know the answer, but I'm curious to a different, deeper, new perspective. What's the difference between having a? Let me reframe Can a limiting belief ever be beneficial for someone?
Speaker 2:By definition? No, because it wouldn't be limiting, but I do think there are limiting beliefs that disguise themselves as empowering.
Speaker 1:Okay, hold on Part one.
Speaker 2:I can always tell when you get in those Kevin modes you're like on to something. This is good, I love it?
Speaker 1:What if the limiting belief stops you from trying something that you would never win at in the first place?
Speaker 2:Then it's not limiting by definition, it's actually empowering, All right.
Speaker 1:Pat, how dare you come with such vigilance and certainty? What if? What if the limiting belief creates more belief in you? Because a limiting, limiting does not suggest under, necessarily limiting suggests misalignment for potential right limiting means.
Speaker 2:It's a bottleneck to your true potential and day.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, some the. So there's we. We've said this a million times. I don't know if there's anybody that fully thinks accurately no, they're either under or over. I'm under or over, usually under alan's. Under or over.
Speaker 1:Usually under alan's under over, usually over but the extent of how inaccurate the percent error changes yes so I'm inaccurate still, but I'm less less than a smaller percent error error than when I was 15, but being over is still a limiting belief is it yes, 100, okay, okay yeah, I guess it can't be it can't, it couldn't really be.
Speaker 2:It's this weird duality of we are all limited and unlimited at a simultaneously. This is where it gets really weird. I love weird. Well, huge fan of it. Is it a limiting belief for me to think that I can't be the best snowboarder? No, that's empowering, because I would have dedicated way more time and effort, limited resources on this earth, to something that I can't make a big impact in. It's not my true potential. My true potential, I believe, is what we're doing here. I am uniquely suited to this and go ahead, finish, and I think that this is what fulfillment ultimately is. Fulfillment is an indicator. It's your soul saying you are in alignment with your true potential. That's why it's unfulfilling to win the lottery, even though everyone thinks that that would be fulfilling. If you're fulfilled already, winning the lottery is great. If you're deeply unfulfilled and then win the lottery and continue going outside of alignment, you won't be fulfilled, although you will have a lot more friends and hopefully that's answering your Probably not.
Speaker 1:No, I don't think it answered anything. All right, this is my last question. Are you ready? I'm going to F you up with the truth. Let's go. What is your dream?
Speaker 2:it's written on my whiteboard right over here you are here to reach your own unique potential and to help others do the same. Everything else is secondary. This is my dream. All of this is my dream. I remember you and I have gotten to a place in our life where we can authentically say we want our future to be an amplified version of what it already is.
Speaker 1:Very strange.
Speaker 2:But strange but true yes, that was not always the case. That's how I know you and I are in alignment. Would we change a couple things? Yes, and that's more in alignment. When we have more resources, it'll bring us more in alignment, and I think the growth journey in life is, I actually think, chasing a dream that's authentic, that's based on your actual genetic potential, based on your real potential, based on accurate self-awareness. Because here's the problem with you and me back in our mid-20s Gas reaction.
Speaker 1:Go ahead and tell me about me, the problem.
Speaker 2:The problem about you and I in our mid-20s is I was. It took me sitting behind a freaking desk for a company named called taiko safety products. I'll never forget it. I was working, I was driving to carpooling with a friend of mine who was also a wpi grad and we we were two interns, engineers at a. He was actually full-time, I was still an intern, I was a pleb and we would go and he loved it. The dude loved it, he was designing circuits, he loved it and I was getting miserable and I was literally like this is the worst and I had some deep conversations. So in hindsight, there was one of my mentors at the time. His name was jp. I. I like jp a lot. He always asked, like steve jobs or bill gates, and are you a fan boy? All stuff. Uh, and this is way back in the early days when steve was still around. But ultimately the deep conversation part was aligned and I learned a lot from jp. But I hated that job. I hated it it so much and I was like, if this is engineering, I'm out. And so ultimately my point is I became an engineer. Yes, because I'm good at math. My mom would sit me down and she'd say you're really good at math, engineers are really good at math. Engineers make a lot of money. You should be an engineer. And I took that and I was like, okay, I'll be an engineer, cool, I like computers, let's do this. But ultimately, when you and I am an engineer thinker. So I think that was aligned.
Speaker 2:However, in our mid twenties, we were chasing a dream that was not congruent with our true potential and with our potential and with what is most meaningful. It was not as meaningful. It wasn't meaningful work and I said this to a podcaster earlier. It's the last thing I say. I promise the Venn diagram of what is meaningful work to you is number one. Number two is what are you statistically great at going back to the genetic potential thing and number three is what will the economy actually pay you for? It's very hard to live a life where meaningful work that you adore, that you're passionate about, that you're obsessed with, is also something the economy will pay you for. That Android coder doesn't like Android coding, he hated it, right, but it's hard to give up up 400 000 a year, and especially when you have bills and stuff.
Speaker 2:So the the hard part about dream chasing and the thing that you and I did wrong, in my honest opinion, is we. We came from low self-awareness, which most dudes do. Dudes have lower self-awareness, statistically, than women. That is a fact. I could prove it If I had the data, and I kind of do a little bit. But the point is, is you? I could prove it if I had the data and I kind of do a little bit.
Speaker 2:But the point is, is you and I chased things that we thought would be meaningful work At the expense of the meaningful work we really were meant to do in the world, and so I am living my dream. I think you are living your dream and that is why we are so fulfilled, even though it's the much more challenging road when it comes to being paid in the actual economy. Because what's meaningful work? And I mean work, that's why it's meaningful work. The word work needs to be underlined in that, because it is going to be work.
Speaker 2:However, it's very hard to get the world to pay you for something that is meaningful work for you. But if you can find the sweet spot out there listening or watching this, if you can find the sweet spot of what's meaningful work and you're really, really good at it compared to others in the economy, compared to others, it is a competitive economy and you can get the economy to actually pay you for it and it's necessary and relevant and in demand. And now and in the future, I mean you. You are at the sweet spot of your dream and you can really crush it. And that's ultimately what we do At NLU. You do it with podcasters, I do with business owners, but at the same, we're all doing the same thing. We're all trying to help people reach their true potential, their own unique potential, because tesla should not sell energy drinks and red bull should not sell cars and not everyone likes the same movies. So some people aren't going to like me, some people aren't going to like you, some people are going to love both of us.
Speaker 1:Some people are going to at the end of the day, you got to be uniquely you and I think we're all ironically afraid of who we really are.
Speaker 2:We're either afraid and this is your quote last thing said say they're afraid that all of you is not enough, say it, or you're afraid that all of you is too much, or, in that person you mentioned in the beginnings case, maybe a little bit of both I think we did strong work today well, this episode yeah, I think, I think we did some strong work you talked more than I did.
Speaker 1:So you did more strong work than I did, but I did a little bit of light strong work.
Speaker 2:You did the questions that unlocked the stuff?
Speaker 1:Well, we'll find out. I have to listen back to figure out what the stuff was. This will be one you have to listen to a couple times NLU on repeat, Kind of like a double feature. If you will you ever drive by it Go ahead.
Speaker 2:I a double feature, if you will you ever drive by? Good, I think it's powerful. We interview you and then me, and that, again, this isn't necessarily something we're going to do all the time.
Speaker 1:Well, this is this is how alan works. He's like dude, I think. I really think it'd be good to do like once a quarter and then he's like yeah, man, I don't know, I think I feel like once a month's a pretty good run rate. And then today, today, when we logged on, he's like all right, man, you good to interview me. I was like we just interviewed me yesterday, like yeah, no, I think it's time. Okay, it's the infinity symbol yeah, let's do it.
Speaker 2:Listeners, viewers, please reach out, let us know what you think let us know if you thought this was a value because you get two very unique perspectives on the same topic.
Speaker 1:That I think can be really powerful well, that was the goal in this episode. The goal was in the past. I think one of the goals was alan Alan be relatable, just be relatable. And now that's not what we're doing. That's not what we're trying to do. We're trying to figure out this whole thing in front of people with no rehearsal, as we grow and evolve and as our characters change I mean characters in this play analogy and we don't know what our lines are. We're just trying to figure out who we are, live in front of other people.
Speaker 2:It's a very interesting what do you mean, man? That whole thing was scripted.
Speaker 1:You have your script.
Speaker 2:I do. Yeah, I don't have a script. I didn't get mine. No.
Speaker 1:Oh no, can you imagine? Yes, I can, yeah, I can. Again, good for you if you can act it out that well. No, no, I'm just speaking to the fact that if we're going to talk about being authentic and being yourself and being aligned and being who you're supposed to be, we want to lead by example, and I think in the past we have been afraid to do that, and again it's this, it's vulnerable, this is vulnerable stuff showing parts of yourself that you've been hiding, or showing parts of yourself that have been villainized. So I'm proud of you for doing it, I'm proud of us for doing it, but you more than I, because I know these episodes are harder for you than they are for me. But that's one of the takeaways I want when we do episodes like this. This is like the most authentic, not saying we're non-authentic all the time. It's just as you figure out more of who you are, you can be more authentic, and that's kind of the beauty of it.
Speaker 2:I enjoyed it thoroughly Same. And I appreciate it, man Of course, for anyone watching or listening, I hope there was some. Think differently has always resonated. I feel like I can help people think differently and I know that that episode probably sparked some new thinking.
Speaker 1:I believe that I'm a little offended. You got a 43-minute episode. I got like a 12-minute episode. You do not get 12 minutes.
Speaker 2:I don't know. Come on, man, I'm the host. Supposedly you got at least a half hour.
Speaker 1:I'm the host, I'm the guy, I'm supposed to be the guy. 12 minutes Kid gets four times the amount I get. I don't know. I know things too. You know. I have knowledge as well. I'm just totally kidding.
Speaker 1:All right, next, on the nation we. I think we have a couple spots. We have a couple spots open still for group coaching and it is turning into a wonderful, wonderful group. Tough act to follow because group 15 was amazing. Group 16 is shaping up to be a really, really amazing, aligned group and I've been talking to a lot of the people who are going to be in this group for the last several months and I know them at a very deep level. Alan does as well. So if you're interested, make sure you lock your spot before it closes.
Speaker 1:It starts Tuesday, this coming Tuesday, at 5 PM Eastern Standard Time. There's a WhatsApp group. There's calls every single week, every other week with Alan and I and Amy, and the following weeks with just Amy, and it is going to be conversations like this behind the scenes how to accomplish your goals in a more aligned way, how to figure out more who you are from a place of self-awareness, consistency, commitment, all of that happy jazz, relationships, finances, if you've ever been interested, if you've ever been curious. Now is a great time to start, because 2025 is coming upon us and you can have the best start to the year possible by finishing this year strong. So link will be in the show notes. If you use NLU Listener, it'll take 30% off, up being 96 a month, which ends up being 924, I think, 24 dollars per coaching call. And where else are you gonna get a coaching call for 24 dollars? I can't even go. I went to taco bell the other day it was 33 dollars. I can't get taco bell for 24 dollars anymore. No coaching call for 24 dollars, pretty.
Speaker 2:Pretty good deal, nice, pretty good deal. For some reason, kevin and I were naive at the beginning of our journey together and we thought that personal growth was cool, yeah, and we realize now in hindsight that personal growth is cool among the right people, yeah, strong work. So Next Level Nation is the right people and it's a safe space. My dog is barking. It's a safe space where you're not. It's going to be respectful. There's going to be no bullies. You're. It's a safe space to practice being your authentic self and it's a place where personal growth, holistic self-improvement is actually cool and celebrated and struggling is okay, success is okay, you will be celebrated and there's no bullies allowed. So Next Level Nation the link will be in the show notes. We hope to see you in there.
Speaker 1:As always, we love you, we appreciate you, grateful for each and every one of you, and at NLU we don't have fans, we have family. We will talk to you all tomorrow. Please reach out. Thanks for joining us for another episode of Next Level University. We love connecting with the Next Level family.
Speaker 2:We mean it when we say family. If you ever need anything, please reach out to us directly. Everything you need to get a hold of us is in the show notes.
Speaker 1:Thank you again and we will talk to you tomorrow you.
