Next Level University

Why Starting Something New Kind Of Sucks… (1916)

• Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

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In this episode, Kevin and Alan discuss why beginnings often feel tough and how to overcome self-doubt and fear of failure. Drawing from their experiences, they share practical strategies for sustaining belief in yourself even when success seems far away. Whether starting a business, launching a project, or pursuing a personal goal, this episode offers valuable lessons to help you keep going.

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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
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Next Level U Book Club - https://bit.ly/3BQBYDr
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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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Alan: https://www.instagram.com/alazaros88/

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Alan@nextleveluniverse.com

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

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Show notes:
(2:01) Why starting new things is humbling
(4:42) Fear of failure and overcoming self-doubt
(7:09) Shifting focus from speed to mastery
(8:53) The five S’s of success
(18:27) Handling client loss and learning from setbacks
(19:52) Meet like-minded people and jumpstart your journey to achieving your dreams while optimizing your life. Join Next Level Group Coaching. https://bit.ly/4eE5RF5
(27:07) Building resilience and bouncing back faster
(34:05) Self-belief, humility, and fewer reckless mistakes
(39:28) Outro

Send a text to Kevin and Alan!

🎙️ Hosted by Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

Next Level University is a top-ranked daily podcast for dream chasers and self-improvement lovers. With over 2,100 episodes, we help you level up in life, love, health, and wealth one day at a time. Subscribe for real, honest, no-fluff growth every single day.

Kevin Palmieri

there's an even deeper layer of. Is it the actual validation that you want? Yeah, I could get in really good shape again, go diet and take off my shirt and post pictures of that, and I'd probably get more validation. My fitness content does way better than anything else, but that's not. I don't want to do that. That's not the validation that I'm looking for, for lack of a better phrase.

Alan Lazaros

What once knocked you out for a day now is going to knock you down for a couple minutes, and that is a process of growth, because if you're going to win at a high level, you better be ready to lose at a high level too. And that's just the freaking truth. I mean, if you want to win a championship, you also have to risk taking the championship shot and missing and letting the entire freaking team and entire city down.

Kevin Palmieri

Welcome to Next Level University. I'm your host, Kevin Palmieri.

Alan Lazaros

And I'm your co-host, Alan Lazarus.

Kevin Palmieri

At NLU, we believe in a heart-driven but no BS approach to holistic self-improvement for dream chasers.

Alan Lazaros

Our goal with every episode is to help you level up your life, love health and wealth.

Kevin Palmieri

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.

Alan Lazaros

Self-improvement in your pocket, every day, from anywhere, completely free.

Kevin Palmieri

Welcome to 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. Today, for episode number 1,916, I would say this is kind of an overarching self-improvement episode. I want to start saying that what's the? Is this? Health, wealth, life, love. What the hell are we talking about today? This is this is life.

Why starting new things is humbling

Kevin Palmieri

Why starting something new kind of sucks Almost always. It almost kind of sucks to start something new, kind of sucks Almost always. It almost kind of sucks to start something new. Alan asked me before we did this episode. He said what are you learning from the stuff that you're doing Coaching, podcast growth, university, podcast growth, nation, all that stuff? And I said, honestly, starting something new really sucks, because podcast growth U is two years old. I just started a Facebook group a little while ago probably two, three months ago, and it's a reminder of what it was like in the very beginning of Next Level Nation. And I put a question up of hey, what episode do you want me to do on the podcast? And just crickets. There's nothing. Oh, was it Just crickets?

Kevin Palmieri

And again my relationship with Good for you for owning that Well my relationship with that now is completely different to the point where in the first two years of NLU, I was obsessed with listens. Every day I was like, oh no, that's. And with podcast growth, you, I look at them, but it's not. I said this to you, I don't know if I said it on the podcast the other day. I'm not thinking of how fast can I get there, I'm thinking of how good can I be there when I get there, or how good can I be when I get there. And I'm trying to adopt that with Podcast Growth U and Podcast Growth Nation.

Kevin Palmieri

But I mean, it's very humbling. It's very humbling to to see a goose egg when you ask a question or something. It's very humbling to. I was thinking. I was thinking of this the other day. I don't know how, don't ask me how I happened upon this, but there was this, this wrestler who was wrestling at like a gymnasium or something in front of in front of like 10 people, and somebody commented. Somebody commented something negative and the guy said I would, I don't care if there's 10 people or one person, I'm going to put on a hell of a show.

Kevin Palmieri

I was good for you. Good for you, but that's I mean it's really hard. Going back to the episode we did about, is it harder to stay humble or maintain belief when you're starting something new and nobody shows up? That's a really, really challenging thing. That was always my fear when we used to do events. What if nobody shows up when we, when we would do a a live thing on zoom? What if nobody shows up? What's?

Alan Lazaros

the belief underneath that? What does it mean about you when people don't show up? Everyone knows you're a loser Everyone knows, and the thing that is very important for all of us to realize in this moment if you're so afraid of no one showing up, you're not going to shoot the shot.

Kevin Palmieri

Right.

Alan Lazaros

Because there's always a chance of that, and two things Starting something new is really scary for this reason, but also sustaining, because we've had monthly meetups that have had 40 people on them, but some meetups the last one, I think we had 12 yeah and there's a little part of me that's like damn damn.

Kevin Palmieri

Is it more or less than it was at the beginning? What's that part of you like?

Alan Lazaros

I don't know, probably, probably less you know, maybe more, maybe.

Alan Lazaros

Yeah, it's interesting, it's way less for yeah it's more for me, and the reason why is because there's something that challenges my belief of the compound effect. Okay, okay, this is going to be a turn and we don't have to go down this road if you don't want to, so steer us back on track if you want, but in the beginning I feel like we were less intimidating, so more people reached out. Sometimes Not always. We have way more impact now globally, but we're you and I used to be on Snapchat. I used to get Snapchats all the time. I used to be on Snapchat, I used to get Snapchats all the time. I used to get DMs all the time and I still do, actually but a lot of it is clients or listeners that are sort of diehards, and I do feel like, in some ways, certain things were easier in the beginning and in other ways, things were infinitely were easier in the beginning, and in other ways, things were infinitely more difficult in the beginning.

Kevin Palmieri

Yeah, well, so many. I mean social media was so much different, so different in the beginning. I've been talking to clients about that 2017, 2018.

Alan Lazaros

It was a different game.

Kevin Palmieri

Yeah, it was a different time.

Alan Lazaros

Yeah, a different game.

Kevin Palmieri

Things were just different, the algorithm was different, everything, everything was different. But I think, as I've done it, more and more, it's almost I don't know. I think sometimes, when you get hit in the face with your biggest fear, and your biggest fear doesn't kill you, you just don't really worry about it that much anymore. Less and less and less. And I'm trying not to lose sight of what it was like in the beginning, because I was talking to a client the other day and I said, yeah, you'll do some monthly meetups or some live podcast episodes. I said in the beginning, nobody will show up. And then I was like, okay, hold on, let me dig into that, because it's going to suck and I understand that's your deepest fear. Blah, blah, blah. But that's the truth of it. Most likely nobody's going to show up in the beginning, and that's okay, as long as you're aware of that and you're practicing.

Kevin Palmieri

I think this is why it's very important I'm speaking to me. I'm not saying this has to be this way for everybody. It's very important for me to appreciate mastery now more than I did in the past, because am I getting the impact if nobody shows up? No, not really. Is there any money that comes from that. No, but you're getting better at the thing and I'm telling you that was a very important shift for me. It's not about how fast I can get there, it's about how good I can be when I get there. That is like a I don't know what happened.

Alan Lazaros

I don't know where that came from. I don't know what shifted, but it's not a. I don't know what happened. I don't know where that came from. I don't know what shifted, but it's not I don't know, it's just a different season, I think. Well, I want to take that one step further, which is you'll never get there unless you get better first.

Alan Lazaros

Yeah, and the weird thing with kevin and I, it's always the opposite. So in the beginning he was really concerned with no one showing up and now it's weird when people don't in a way, because I mean I've been doing book club for almost four years and we still have a really awesome. Shout out to the book club members. I mean we have a really diehard some people don't miss. I mean whoa. However, it's not exactly everyone trying to read this art of thinking clearly cognitive bias book. I always say we're selling kale outside a candy store, so shout out to you guys who are out there doing it and I think it's unbelievably valuable. Brandon's like it's free coaching. Why doesn't everybody do this? I don't know. I guess you know, maybe I don't know, I really don't freaking know the answer. To me it's the most, the most valuable thing ever. Like let's do it.

Kevin Palmieri

There's a lot of things going on Saturday at 1230. I think that's Great point. The time slot makes it hard too. It's a great point, in fairness, in fairness.

Alan Lazaros

But all of this comes down to. When you start something, it's almost like everything in between. Start and sustain are the two hard parts. We have these five S's of success and I do these in my coaching all the time. It's sacrifice, struggle, suffer, success and then sustain. I think the sacrifice and the sustain part are the two hard ones Because in the beginning, if you're afraid of failure, you're not going to potentially want to show up and have four people at book club.

Alan Lazaros

But you got to endure that because that's a real part of the process I have. I have book clubs that had 25 people. I've had book clubs that have probably have 35 people. I've also had book clubs with five people, including me and Brandon. So that's three people and those are tough. Those are tough and I still perform, just like the guy who said, I don't care if there's one person or ten people, I'm giving it my all and I do and I still learn each time because I'm so mastery driven. So being mastery driven is very powerful, but you also got to promote and get the people. Kevin said you'll be the most successful. Order underneath the bridge Sid Speaker, not order.

Kevin Palmieri

Yeah, I didn't say order.

Alan Lazaros

At the end of the day, which of those do you struggle with most? Do you struggle with sustain? Sustain is hard because once you start winning, you might get cocky yeah.

Alan Lazaros

You might lose the humility to prep and to show up on time and to make sure you're doing the right stuff. That's my struggle, is sustain. But in the beginning that might be the struggle too, because you are so fearful of no one showing up. And the truth is, at the beginning of everything, everybody kind of sucks, at least in comparison to the experts yeah, it just makes it hard when you compare to what you see other people doing.

Kevin Palmieri

It's that's what makes it super hard is where somebody is today. We often think that's where they've been forever, and they don't really. Some people do but not everybody talks about year, month one month six, year one. What it was like back then.

Alan Lazaros

I wish that we lived in a world where everyone showed that.

Kevin Palmieri

Same Same Because it's definitely different than than people think yeah, it really is.

Alan Lazaros

That's why we did a meetup way back and I put up a picture of amazoncom in 1994 and it's this beat-up old office with jeff bezos just sitting there, just a complete and again, I'm being playful with this but just a complete loser. And he asked for investors and they said what's the internet? They didn't you know. And and now he's Amazon. So you know, people see him now. Now is everyone going to be Amazon? No, is everyone going to be Jeff Bezos? But everyone's starting there. Yeah.

Kevin Palmieri

And I think that's where all the doubts. If you need outside validation to keep going, that's when things get really dangerous Because you're. There's a couple different kinds of outside validation. Shout out to my mom and my grandmother who in the beginning, listened to everything. My grandmother still likes almost everything on social media. Kinds of outside validation Shout out to my mom and my grandmother who in the beginning listened to everything and liked. My grandmother still likes almost everything on social media, Not as much as she used to. Shout out to.

Alan Lazaros

Mima. Shout out to Mima.

Kevin Palmieri

But if anything that was like the opposite for me, I was like well, that's, I appreciate it, but if only my mom and my grandmother are liking my content, that's not a good look. We're in trouble. This is troubled times.

Kevin Palmieri

And again I still have posts that get three or four likes. Whatever, it is what it is, and that's why I'm okay talking about it, because it's not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. There are other indicators of success that matter far more to me at this point than how many likes I'm getting on social media or whatever. Are we focused on improving social media? Yes, of course.

Alan Lazaros

You know what came up for me during this. It bothers me because I don't understand. That's what bothers me more than anything. Yeah, I just don't understand because I see people post stuff that seems very similar to our stuff and they get a lot of love and I just don't understand sometimes. So yeah, in the beginning I don't think it bothered me at all. If anything, it was better than I expected. But in the tail end I mean we've been doing this a long time it's sometimes it's I'd be lying if I said it didn't bother me that I don't understand why. That's really. What bothers me most is when I don't get it. I just don't get it. I mean, some of our content is just unreasonably valuable. It's so unbelievably valuable and I'm not allowed to say that because it's my content, but it is. I mean, I've seen it change people's lives and I'm glad that we are going to do it regardless. But God that we are going to do it regardless, but God, yeah, yeah.

Alan Lazaros

Sometimes it doesn't make any sense.

Kevin Palmieri

Yeah, it's hard. Well, that's, that's the other thing, and again, this is like a privileged thing to say. So sit with me, ride with a ride with it as I go through it. A lot of people think, okay, well, when I get to X amount, x, this, x results, then I'll feel better. Yes, and the dips are also a lot bigger.

Kevin Palmieri

Yeah, when you go from whatever it is having a very successful month to a very skimpy month, or a lot of listens to very little listens that can really be hard because it can bring you back to the way you used to feel and it can make you question who you are as a person and that you want to talk about an identity crisis. We have had the. I have had those so many times along this journey and now I don't know. I think it because deep down I know. I mean, yeah, if, if you and I were, something happened and we were put on whatever the big nighttime show is or daytime show, I don't know, I don't watch that kind of tv would that help us a ton? And when we get new exposure and new eyes and it would grow the business, yeah for sure, that would be a big thing, but like we're not gonna go viral. Most likely, that just isn't gonna happen. It i't know.

Kevin Palmieri

I'm just more and more comfortable with the fact that it's going to be plus or minus 20% day to day here. Some days are going to be awesome. I'm going to get a big client. I've been talking about that. I have an opportunity to work with some really awesome people. I have a lot of really cool clients that have come in recently. That's awesome, but I've also had months where there were no clients and it was.

Kevin Palmieri

It was just like is any of this working? Is any of this even worth it? What are we doing? I never no, that's a lie I never said is any of this worth it, because that's the thing that's gotten me through most of this. But is any of this working? Do I know what the hell I'm talking about? All of that?

Kevin Palmieri

The highs have been really high, but when you're when you do have really high highs, even average lows feel terrible. So it's this weird thing that would be my lesson from this episode if I was talking to me at the beginning of this journey is outside validation feels really good, but it's a very dangerous thing to rely on, because when it goes away, you have to be able to validate yourself, because there's 365 days in the year. You're not going to get outside validation every day. There's no way. There's no way that's going to happen. And then there's an even deeper layer of is it the actual validation that you want? Yeah, I could get in really good shape again, go diet and take off my shirt and post pictures of that and I'd probably get more validation. My fitness content does way better than anything else, but that's not. I don't want to do that. That's not the validation that I'm looking for, for lack of a better phrasing.

Alan Lazaros

This is a rabbit hole of a conversation, because early in my self-improvement journey I was fitness model, fitness competitor, fitness coach and there was a lot of external validation from the fitness modeling and self-improvement is just less sexy, metaphorically and literally. And two things I want to share here. I want to make sure I don't forget the second one. You were talking about the highs and the lows and how the okay. The first thing I want to share is we have 54 podcasters we work with, plus the 11 from group coaching, so that's 65 podcasters we work with and that I have 28 clients right now and I'm very, very grateful and Kevin's very, very grateful and Kevin's very, very grateful and that's awesome and it's been a long road to that level. Let me unpack this a little bit when I say that that's whatever 65 plus 28.

Kevin Palmieri

What is that 65 plus 28,. They're 95 minus two, 93.

Alan Lazaros

93. Okay, so there's 93 clients that we work with, and in the beginning, kevin and I started from nothing. We started from coaching two people for free. So 95 clients is awesome. But here let me take you through the journey. First it's two clients for free, then it's four, then it's back to three, then it's four, then it's back to three, then it's seven, then it's back to five, Then it's nine, then it's back to seven, then it's 15. Holy crap, we made it. And then it's 12. What the hell is happening? And then it's right you lose.

Alan Lazaros

I've coached hundreds of people, hundreds. I've done 297 free breakthrough sessions, and that's honestly low because I've done several since that. I haven't updated my thing. Of all the hundreds of people that I've coached over the years, I still only have 28 left. So I've taken more L's than any W's. So it's really cool to go from zero clients seven years ago to 93.

Alan Lazaros

You said 93 clients now, but how many clients have we lost? How many team members have we lost in comparison to how many we still have? We have 17 team members now, but we had 22 at one point. So it's, it's a. You hit a new level and then you sometimes go back and to your point, as long as the trend line over time is up. But let me tell you what going from 22 to 17, or 7 to 5, or 50 to 42, it still hurts, yeah, it still affects you, it still messes with you. Wait a minute. I've had clients that I've helped 10x their income and then leave and it drove me bonkers Because I would rather suck as a coach and have you not have achieved your goals. That's what breaks my brain. That's what messes me. Up is when the content gets better and the results don't.

Meet like-minded people and jumpstart your journey to achieving your dreams while optimizing your life. Join Next Level Group Coaching.

Kevin Palmieri

It messes with my brain. 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.

Alan Lazaros

And I had another client uh, she might even be listening right now and she signed a $35,000 contract and that's awesome and it was exact. We achieved all three of her Q4 goals together. And she said I'm just going to take a break, I'm coming back, don't worry. And I I said to be completely vulnerable and honest, I don't believe you and that's okay if you never come back, do you? But I gotta be honest, like can I have some constructive feedback as to why you're taking this break? Like we just achieved literally every goal you wanted to achieve and kevin's got some theories on that.

Alan Lazaros

But my point is is that this, this journey, is going to mess with you, whether you're on my end of the drive to five or Kevin's end, whether you're super confident in your abilities or not? It's going to mess with you because the highs are great but the lows come after the highs and it's a constant cyclical up and down, up and down, up and down, up and down, up and down, but the trend line over time is up. So if you were to trend line the last seven years, the road to 93 clients for lack of better phrasing I mean the amount of dips in that journey. I mean, if you can't handle the dips, you're in trouble, you're going to quit Because the dips suck.

Kevin Palmieri

The dips suck so hard and most people don't talk about them. I think last year in Q4 was the Q3.

Alan Lazaros

Was it Q3? 19 clients.

Kevin Palmieri

Yeah, so we got 19 podcast clients in one quarter that was a good quarter.

Alan Lazaros

Really good, really good, really, really good. And then we freaked out in Q4.

Kevin Palmieri

Because now you have to deliver. Yeah, but I was going through an internal struggle of I don't of those clients, a bunch ended up leaving yeah, a bunch stopped doing their podcast.

Alan Lazaros

They went in different directions what's the most clients you lost in a in a month?

Kevin Palmieri

oh jeez, six, maybe, dude it was bad, it was brutal.

Alan Lazaros

These are people we care about. These are people we work for. In a way, we serve these people. I mean losing clients sucks.

Kevin Palmieri

Well, this is the other thing. Again, shout out to John Lurito. Client's been with us. I mean, he's on and off now. He doesn't produce as many episodes as he used to, but started in 2020, I think of 2020, yeah, because it was.

Kevin Palmieri

It was pandemic five years ago yeah, he said kev, the press is never right. You're never as good as they say. You're never as bad as they say. I think it's the same thing when, cool, you got 19 clients, strong work, keep doing what you were doing. Oh shit, you lost seven clients. That sucks. Keep doing what you're doing. That the steadfast, that's a word.

Alan Lazaros

I'm not just keep doing what you're doing, we'll do seven clients and then go do it better do better yeah, and that's what kevin and I can say authentically, as much as I'm scared to share this is we always went back to the drawing board when we had 19 clients in one quarter. Okay, brother, what are we doing? Well, yeah, what can we do better when we lose seven clients in one month? Okay, brother, what?

Kevin Palmieri

are we doing wrong? Well, I was freaking out. I was freaking out, I couldn't. It's like dude, I don't want to go get new clients because I'm afraid they're going to leave and I'm going to go through this, it just and it. But here's the thing, here, this is the, this is the weird thing. And then we'll get out of here because I don't know how long, because we did back to back episodes, but we're going to be coming up on close to 20 something here.

Kevin Palmieri

In the very beginning, I was so afraid to ever even get a client because I was terrified of sales. I didn't want to talk about money. I didn't know how to do what most people were asking and eventually that became normal. I talk about money all the time. Oh, what you're looking for, yeah, it is X amount.

Kevin Palmieri

I had a conversation with someone. It's like yeah, well, I mean, that's $10,000. What you're looking for is $10,000. And it was just a weird. It was a weird, it was a very weird. We were talking about something and I said this is what I would do if I was you. But I said is you? But I said it's easy for me to say, because I'm not paying. And they said, well, yeah, but how much is it? How much is it going to be? And I said honestly, it probably run you about 10 grand, and these people are they're, they're, they have a lot of money. So 10 grand to them, believe this or not, it's not that much money to them, it's all relative, it's all relative, but that conversation I couldn't have that in the first year.

Kevin Palmieri

Are you kidding me? I remember people would say how much is it? And I'd say, I'll, I can send you an email. I'll send you an email with the prices in the numbers I'll send you an email, kind of kind of communicate through there. I find that that's better. Okay, cool, eventually get clients get comfortable in that. I went three years before I ever lost multiple clients within.

Alan Lazaros

Yeah.

Kevin Palmieri

Like last year, I think was the first time I ever really lost a meaningful amount of clients. You know why? Because it was the first year I gained a meaningful amount of clients too.

Alan Lazaros

I remember Kev came to me one time he's like dude, I don't know what I'm doing wrong, Lost four clients. I'm freaking out.

Kevin Palmieri

I said, dude, I've lost more clients than you've ever gained son yeah, and I always say, doesn't help me, dude, that ain't it, that ain't what I'm looking for.

Alan Lazaros

Yeah it sucks, because we care so deeply about these people too, that for me it's it's always been losing. Losing people is never fun, uh well, I internalize it.

Kevin Palmieri

It's like did I do something wrong? This is the solace, though and again, this is negative, but it's it's solace. It's not like. It's not like people leave and go other places. They usually they're like yeah, I don't, I don't, this podcast thing isn't what I thought it was gonna be. I'm gonna, I don't want to do it anymore.

Alan Lazaros

Well, did this help you. When I talked about this, I said kev, what's the? Is it attrition rate? I don't know if attrition is the right word. What's the rate of podcasters that don't make it past 21 episodes?

Kevin Palmieri

you know this guy's better than I do now. It's more than 50. At this point it's probably like 60 or 70 yeah.

Alan Lazaros

So I said, even if you I mean we have a podcast production company I mean, yeah, that means you lose half the clients right there. So the fact that you aren't losing half the clients already means we're doing something right. Yeah, but it doesn't help. I know, emotionally it doesn't help, but rationally, hopefully, it helps a little. And and here's my point everybody out there listening or watching your dreams if you're not ready to get kicked in the teeth whether it be emotional or financial, you're in you need to be able to get back up stronger. You have to fall down seven times, get up eight turns out. You can't do that. You can fall down seven times, though, and get up seven times, and you have to. And, and what I say, what I try to help my clients with, is I try to get up quicker and smarter and faster each time.

Alan Lazaros

I used to have bad months way back when I was younger, and then it turned into bad weeks, and then that turned into bad day, like bad weekends, and then it turned into bad days, and then it turned into bad.

Alan Lazaros

I mean, now it's it's down to minutes and moments and don't get me wrong I mean I'll have a bad morning or whatever, but at the end of the day, what once almost what once knocked you out for a day, now is going to knock you down for a couple minutes, and and that is a process of growth, because if you're going to win at a high level, you better be ready to lose at a high level too, and that's just the freaking truth. I mean, if you want to win a championship, you also have to risk taking the championship shot and missing and letting the entire freaking team and entire city down. Um, you know, it's not as hard, and when you're playing pickup basketball in a small town now you're in the nba finals, right so? But luckily you don't just teleport to the nba finals and you have to yeah that's why they have middle school, then high school, then college, then you know.

Kevin Palmieri

D3, D2,.

Alan Lazaros

D1, and then professional. And the reason why is because if you're a tiny minnow in a huge ocean, you can get eaten very quickly. Luckily, by the time you're in the ocean, hopefully you can swim with the whales.

Kevin Palmieri

I saw a clip today that somebody was interviewing a very successful business owner and they had 300 locations of whatever it was that they did. I didn't get the details and he said you don't go from zero to 300. You go from zero to one, and then you go from one to two or three and then maybe three to six. He said there's no way I could have gone from zero to having 300. Everything would have died. There's no way. But you have to be ready for the success that comes and the failures that come. That you gotta the good. You got to get ready for the good vibes, because it's really easy to go off the rails when you get some good. Oh, that worked interesting.

Alan Lazaros

You remember our first time ever making 20 g's. Yeah, you and I, uh, I. I think you lost it more than I did, but probably if I'm honest not anymore though it's really easy to over swing when you have a big month.

Kevin Palmieri

Well, I think we assume that that normal is the new normal on both ends.

Alan Lazaros

I just lost seven clients I'm going to lose all the clients.

Kevin Palmieri

It's probably not true, unless something drastically changed. And I just made. I just had my first $10,000 month. That's going to happen forever? Eh no, unless you continue doing the things. And I just had my first $10,000 month. That's going to happen forever? Nope, Unless you continue doing the things. And even then, if you made $10,001, you're probably going to make $9,000 the next month and then maybe you'll make $11,000 the next month.

Alan Lazaros

Last piece it doesn't work the way I thought it did. Yeah, go ahead. Self-belief and humility Two most important character traits other than self-worth and self-belief, but self-belief and humility, let's just run this for a second. I have a client of mine who is a contract executive for a company and I'll keep this all high level. It's in the mortgage industry and they do coaching and training for people in the mortgage industry. Now, when the economy is really winning and at the beginning of covid it was a seller's market everybody was selling and buying homes. I mean, it was just wild. And my mom sold her home as well. Your matt is the one, the real estate agent that sold it. Uh, kevin's friend, matt Matt too, but his best friend. This company, years ago I'm going to share this anonymously, I could tell was going to struggle when things contracted.

Alan Lazaros

When fish are jumping in the boat and you take your eye off the ball, you're screwed.

Alan Lazaros

Here's what I'm trying to say to everybody If you can learn how to fish when fish are scarce, you're gonna crush it when it's abundance time, baby.

Alan Lazaros

Now here's the cool thing and I use forrest gump as an analogy, and hopefully most of you have seen forrest gump. If you haven't there's this scene where basically all the shrimp and boat captains lose their ships and Lieutenant Dan and Forrest Gump are the last remaining boat that didn't die in the storm for lack of better phrasing and all of a sudden after that they just crushed it because all the competition couldn't survive. And so there's something to be said for resilience, self-belief and humility humility when times are good and self-belief when times are bad, and that is staying power. And and when podcasts are crushing and everybody's listening, it's easy to get cocky, but when podcasters are struggling and you can stay the course and stay humble and keep figuring out new ways to add value. Next time it gets abundant, baby, you're going to be one of the only shrimp and boats out there, and I think there's something to be said for all that.

Kevin Palmieri

Yeah, so I told my story on a podcast today and they said you have a Forrest Gump story. I was like interesting Because he did all those random jobs.

Alan Lazaros

Oh yeah, ping pong champion. Yeah, I mean, I didn't do it. Oh yeah, ping pong champion, yeah.

Kevin Palmieri

I mean, I didn't do. None of the jobs Are really that cool. I was never a ping pong champion, never, I never Vesseled a shrimping boat.

Alan Lazaros

Not yet.

Kevin Palmieri

I don't think so. Next level shrimping boat, maybe in the future, who knows? I have some. I have some business ideas I could run by. Ya, if you're interested In hearing them, we'll table that For another time.

Alan Lazaros

Pineapple shrimp, barbecue shrimp, shrimp and potatoes.

Kevin Palmieri

It's a great movie. I love that film Far ahead of its time with their CGI, putting them with the president and all that stuff that was far ahead of its time.

Alan Lazaros

It's a great movie.

Kevin Palmieri

It's a great film, very inspiring.

Alan Lazaros

All right, very inspiring Also wildly not true? Yeah, no no, no.

Kevin Palmieri

I thought it was based on a true story the first time I saw it, because I'm just six years old, if you want to make sure you never miss an opportunity to get to the next level.

Kevin Palmieri

Make sure you're subscribed on whatever platform you are watching or listening to us on, and if you know someone who would find value in the weird, strange, deep, hopefully philosophical and valuable questions conversations that we have, let them know. Share this with a friend, share this with a family member. Maybe it's your loved one. One of the best ways to grow a podcast is by word of mouth. And if you know somebody who would take value, we would appreciate you bringing them into the community so we can serve them at a deep level, and we would yeah, we'd be greatly appreciative of that.

Self-belief, humility, and fewer reckless mistakes

Alan Lazaros

If this podcast has been interesting, of value to you and you've helped transform your life, yeah, please, just if you want to thank us, please share it with someone who maybe feels stuck or lost, because that's the point. The whole point of the podcast is to help people feel hopeful for a bigger, better, brighter future by taking personal responsibility and improving themselves holistically. And the more I go on these other podcasts and some of them are just magnificent I just think to myself man, if I had these when I was a kid particularly, I just got interviewed by a professor from uh Nichols college earlier today and everything we talked about I remember thinking you're going to give this to your students. I feel so jealous because I didn't understand any of this when I was their age and if I did, it really would have. I would have been ready, I would have taken it in. I know I would have. I would have at least taken something from it, so I would not. Yeah, please, share self-improvement, spread self-improvement. It's going to help the world.

Kevin Palmieri

100 I would not have taken it in, most likely. Yeah, I went to nickel. Did I ever tell you this? I went to Nichols. Did I ever tell you this? I went to Nichols College one time. Okay, I got drunk. A couple kids, a couple friends of mine Uh, what happened? I was playing pool out in one of the rec rooms. My shirt came off, as it did often when I drank, and then there was almost a scuffle, believe it or not? Oh yeah, some young lady came up to me and was interested, and her boyfriend was not happy about it. There was almost a small scuffle.

Alan Lazaros

That makes sense, because you took off your shirt. She was interested, the boyfriend was insecure.

Kevin Palmieri

I feel like he had every right to be angry. In fairness, I'm not saying he did anything wrong, but I've been to I think I've visited colleges two times and they neither time have gone well for me, so it's probably good that I didn't go other time. Real quick, I'm gonna tell you this story real quick. I went to visit matt, so matt went to umass, dartmouth, went to visit matt again. I had never been to a college before isn't that college all concrete?

Alan Lazaros

yes, yeah, yeah, it's depressing as hell, is it really?

Kevin Palmieri

yeah, yeah isn't like I think that's like a big architecture school or something. You think like they make the buildings better than they are. But I remember we were like pre-gaming to go out and I was like, oh, this is awesome. And they're like, no, no, this is the pre-game kev. Like we're gonna, we're gonna go out to the bar after this and I was like I can't go, I don't think. I think I've had too much to drink already.

Alan Lazaros

This is like you didn't know how to party. No, I did not. Yeah, you guys have marathon, not a sprint.

Kevin Palmieri

Well, it was a sprint for bump into and again, I was very drunk and I was angry. I wasn't angry, I was angry at this age. I bumped into this kid okay, this kid at the time, matt was good friends.

Alan Lazaros

What were you angry about? Just life, just life in general, the adult of bad and I was just, I just yeah, pretty much I bumped into this kid alan at very self-proven oriented.

Kevin Palmieri

At this point you very big into next time this kid had the, I think the bench press, the squat and the deadlift record of the school. This kid was freaking huge, huge, like I don't know. I'll have to ask matt next time I see him but probably 6'3", 6'4", like 265 pounds. And I bumped into him and I said what are we going to do here? Man, we got an issue For reference by the way.

Alan Lazaros

That's basically the Rock.

Kevin Palmieri

Well, for reference, I am 5'5" and probably 165 pounds, so this person was a foot and 100 pounds taller than me and I was like let's 100 pounds taller than you 100 pounds more than me. And when we bumped into each other I was like all right, here we go, let's do it. I mean, if you want to do it, I'll do it. And then Matt, my buddy, ran over and was like no, no, no, I know him, I know him, don't kill him. And I, that would have been the end.

Kevin Palmieri

Then, when Mac graduated college, that kid was at the party and I was like yo, dude, that's on me, that's my bad man. I was going through it. I was an insecure and I still am. I'm just less insecure than I was. That's on me. You and I both know what would have happened, so we don't have to discuss it any further. But yeah, that would have been the end of me.

Alan Lazaros

So I appreciate you man, I'm sure he would have put you in a headlock gently or something.

Kevin Palmieri

No, I think he, because it was almost like he. It was like I was nibbling at him, I was like a mosquito and I think he was like dude, what are you doing? Hey, you don't have to do this, I do. I bumped into you and people saw it. I have to do this. You don't know me, I have to. I know it's not going to go my way, but I have to do it. I can't. And then Matt came in like a referee.

Alan Lazaros

That's the never quit kid in you.

Kevin Palmieri

Well, sometimes you should Almost died kid. Sometimes you should quit, sometimes you should quit.

Alan Lazaros

The way you do. One thing is the way you do everything.

Kevin Palmieri

Yeah, very unintelligently is what I would say about me All right, we're going to go. So we don't have any more stories.

Alan Lazaros

I think it's important for people to hear these stories because we've definitely gotten to many of our goals and dreams and it's important to realize that at one point we were reckless. I've made many mistakes. We both were reckless. I would say that for sure.

Kevin Palmieri

Yeah, we've made many mistakes, for sure. Oh, yeah, just less today than before.

Alan Lazaros

Significantly less.

Kevin Palmieri

No, I'd say probably more today than before, just less stuff like that. I mean, how many mistakes did you make today?

Alan Lazaros

Yeah, yeah yeah, more mistakes, but less catastrophic, unintelligent, reckless ones. Less reckless mistakes and ego mistakes.

Kevin Palmieri

That was an ego mistake. Definitely People saw me bump into them. I can't. You want to back down in front of these girls.

Alan Lazaros

Take your best shot Girls, I'll never see again.

Outro

Kevin Palmieri

Yeah, yeah, take your best shot. I'll give you one. Done Into space. All right, as always, we love you, we appreciate you. 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, talk to you soon. Thanks for joining us for another episode of next level university. We love connecting with the next level family we mean it when we say family.

Alan Lazaros

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.

Kevin Palmieri

Thank you again and we will talk to you tomorrow.

Head Shot

Alan Lazaros

Host
Head Shot

Kevin Palmieri

Host