Next Level University

The 3 Steps To Get Unstuck (1928)

• Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

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Feeling stuck or unsure how to move forward? In this episode, Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros reveal a three-step method to tackle challenges and make real progress. With humorous personal stories and practical advice, they’ll inspire you to uncover the root causes of your struggles and take meaningful action. Whether you’re honing a skill or facing life’s trickiest hurdles, this episode offers powerful insights for everyone.

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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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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@nextleveluniverse.com

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

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Show notes:
(3:36) Kevin’s bowling story
(6:00) Alan’s basketball example
(12:46) Problem-solving in life and business
(15:07) At NLU, we want you to win! So, we’re giving tools and resources to ensure your success. Join our Monthly Meet-up every first Thursday of the month at 5 PM. https://bit.ly/49SyVHz
(19:09) Importance of addressing the root cause
(23:46) Expertise and its role in effective implementation
(24:05) 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

if your knee hurts. That's layer one. But I think you have to have an awareness when you're brainstorming. Sometimes I feel like I identify and then I brainstorm, and then I go back to re-identify, and then I re-brainstorm, and then I re-identify and then I implement.

Alan Lazaros

You had a bigger uptick in awareness than I did. Reading that book Doesn't mean I'm going to stop learning either. I had an uptick too, but awareness is rarely the gap for me. I know what to do. It's how do we do it and how do we get the resources to do it, and how do I get so. For example, I know how to coach.

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 from anywhere, completely free. 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 1928, the three steps to get unstuck. First of all, if you celebrate Christmas Merry Christmas, it was yesterday we jeffed because we recorded ahead and you know, I don't know what time it is or date it is or what month it is usually. So I should have given you all a Merry Christmas for those that celebrate, but this will be a belated Merry Christmas. So Alan and I were talking before this and again, we were supposed to record two episodes in this sitting. We ended up we're going to record this one because we were literally doing the thing that we're going to be talking about today.

Kevin Palmieri

But that's not my story. I went bowling a couple days ago. Every year we do family bowling. This year was candle pen. That's the little ball. Has ball never. Pretty good, never, never, no, I won't say never, but I'm pretty good at bowling. I am.

Alan Lazaros

I'm fairly good my, my nana used to take me I did try to hammer it.

Kevin Palmieri

Well, here's the thing. So we did three rounds rounds of bowling. First one I was slinging it and it was all over the place. Sometimes I knocked down nine other times I got three Kind of all over the place. Second frame, that's what it's called. Second frame I was slinging it Again, didn't learn from the first one. I want to throw the ball as fast as humanly possible. I like when you connect with a pin and it just flies into space. I like that. It's nice.

Alan Lazaros

Same Third Direction matters more than power, though.

Identifying and Implementing Solutions

Kevin Palmieri

Well, you'd think so and you'd be correct. Third string I slowed it down. So, first two games. I think and again don't judge me on this this is candle pen. It's been a minute. I'm a little rough, I'm a little rusty. I think I bowled a. I think it was like a 62, 67, 97. Nice.

Kevin Palmieri

So what I did is, before we started the third string, I identified what the problem was, kev. The problem is you don't have any feel on the ball, you're just trying to smoke it. I'm going to take it easy, kev, I'm not trying to smoke the ball, I'm trying to smoke it down the aisle. I don't know who's judging me. So that was first. I had to identify. What am I doing? Why am I turning my wrist over? I kept doing that. I was like I think I'm turning my wrist over. That's why it's hooking right, and when it hooks left, my arm's too far away from my body. Okay, cool. So that was one.

Kevin Palmieri

Second thing is I brainstormed? Okay, well, I used to bowl a lot more with my gram back in the day and I was good and I wasn't capable of throwing it hard because I was young. So what's going on here? I'm not focused on the fundamentals. So let me brainstorm around that. And then I implemented by slowing down saying, look, you don't have to look like the most powerful bowler here, just be good at what you do. And I had the best game yet. Now, next time I go, I won't have to work through those first two, I'll just implement a slower strategy and I'll most likely have a higher score. So the three steps to get unstuck Identify what's the root cause, like what's well, actually identify the problem. What's the problem? Brainstorm for the root cause and then implement new distinction.

Alan Lazaros

So kevin's identify the problem. I am sucking.

Kevin Palmieri

I suck at bowling that was the problem, and I hate myself because, that's the wrong problem to identify we were playing basketball yesterday at.

Alan Lazaros

NLHF and we were playing horse, Haas, we were playing horse and there was, I think, six of us, six of us playing horse 6,000.

Kevin Palmieri

6,000 of us 6,000 of us.

Alan Lazaros

Yeah, six of us playing horse, that's a big game of horse right there. It's a lot, yeah, and I was not sinking shots at all. That first game I was struggling Kev was. I went after Kev, so whoever goes after you, if you have someone who shoots before you, that's really good. You're in trouble. And you were sinking quite a bit. Actually, at the beginning you were hammering threes and I could not get it in.

Kevin Palmieri

Yeah, yeah.

Alan Lazaros

And I did the same process, and I'm doing this in my head all the time and in everything Earlier today. My monitor wasn't working and I needed to figure that out. So I Googled it. But first I had to identify the problem. My HDMI cord, apparently, is broken, because I tried two different HDMI cords, my HDMI port. I'm sorry. First I had to check is it the cord? Okay, no, both cords don't work, both monitors don't work. Okay, so it's not the monitor, it's not the cord. All right, maybe it's the driver. So I downloaded some new drivers, wasn't that?

Alan Lazaros

so I think my hdmi port itself is actually broken, which really sucks tough, however the drivers that I downloaded ended up fixing a different issue that you and I keep having. I think. I think we'll if this literally happened three hours ago, not even, but anyways. So basketball, back to basketball. I started realizing that the problem is that I'm not number one, I'm rusty. I haven't played since probably the summer. Number two I'm not focused.

Alan Lazaros

Kevin's in my head, he keeps talking shit and he's like I'm in your head and I'm like, yeah, yeah, you are. So, so I. Kevin's in my head, he keeps talking shit and he's like I'm in your head and I'm like, yeah, yeah, you are. So I started saying this in my head. I didn't share this with Kev yet, so this is cool. I started saying fundamentals. I probably said 8,000 times out loud, probably to the point where it was annoying.

Alan Lazaros

But the second one was trust. Just trust yourself, trust yourself, because I was overthinking it. There's a lot of pressure, six people, five people watching me while I shoot. Too much pressure. Just get out of your head. And right before I would shoot, when I started actually winning, I would say trust and I would just let it fly. I would trust my muscle memory. I played basketball a long time and I just got to trust that my body knows what to do. Now, if you're brand new in basketball, you can't do that, but the point is that was my solution. My solution was get out of your head and get into your body and trust the flow. You're overthinking it and you're shanking it. Shanking is the wrong term.

Kevin Palmieri

When I woke up this morning I was like how come we always play the games he wants to play? I had that moment. I'm like why can't we play baseball or something we do play wiffle ball? We didn't play it.

Alan Lazaros

Not a single ball was wiffle Not last night, not yesterday, but there was a lot of wiffle ball at the other NLHF event. Yeah, but I feel like it's a basketball court man.

Kevin Palmieri

We're in the gym. Yeah, so there's also a little b-ball, a bunch of square footage for anything, I do wish we had thrown the football a little more.

Alan Lazaros

Same. I asked Will, one of the kids that was there. I asked what do you want to play? What's your sport? Football or basketball? Because you had been throwing the football at that point he said basketball. I was like my man, I played volleyball with Violet, which was nice Volleyball.

Kevin Palmieri

I again, I'm 5'5", I think, I don't know. Taryn says she's 5'6" and I'm the same height as her. I think one of us is lying, I don't know which one. It is Most likely you Maybe. But I'm the same height so if anything, it makes me taller. But I am really good at volleyball and the reason is because I have very little self-preservation. So I'll just lay out I don't care.

Alan Lazaros

How are you feeling today by the?

Kevin Palmieri

way. My groins are pulled, both of them. Seriously how many groins do you have? They're tender. I also did leg day yesterday, though, so I don't know if it's from that, but I feel good. Yeah, I slept in a little bit extra. Same, either of my hips are broken.

Alan Lazaros

So this is again side tangent. But the cool thing about an LHF is that we play sports the whole time. The best awesome, Emilia. When I first got home she said so what's the assessment? How was the cardio? How was? How was the athleticism? Where are we at? We've exercised every day for 1025 days. I mean, how are we feeling here? I said sweetheart is great. Wasn't winded almost at all, except for a little bit playing knockout, but my left knee tweaked it a little bit oh no, yeah, it's like oh okay.

Alan Lazaros

And again identify the problem. Left knee has a problem. Seriously, it's not terrible, but it's there. Solution Brainstorm a solution. What are your thoughts on doing mobility Okay, ever maybe.

Kevin Palmieri

Right.

Alan Lazaros

It helps, and so I need to focus on mobility more in 2025.

Kevin Palmieri

But ultimately, I am very much obsessed with this Especially I've told this story many times of when my shoulder was bothering me. I went and learned a bunch of physical therapy exercises and stretches and mobility stuff and strengthening stuff, and then I went to work on that and my shoulder problem went away and then my knee was bothering me and then I went to work on that. And I'm always doing this in some way, always in some way shape or form. The problem I have is it's very hard for me to move on. When I identify a problem, it's very hard Like, okay, this is behind the scenes, we'll take you behind the scenes. Last week, alan and I tried to do something different.

Alan Lazaros

Oh yeah, man, we're going to switch it up. We to do something different. Oh yeah, man.

Kevin Palmieri

We're going to switch it up. We're going to get new cameras. Right now we don't have new cameras. We've got to order them. We're going to take care of all that, but in the meantime, let's set up our cell phones and let's do it. And then we set up our cell phones, we're going to use them as cameras and we were going to use a different platform. It didn't work and I was like I don't know if I we didn't have time.

Kevin Palmieri

We didn't have time, but going back is hard Going back is hard, because when you identify an opportunity, the last thing you want to do is go back to the same. It's very hard to. For me, it's very hard not to implement something when I have a new awareness Dude.

Alan Lazaros

Yeah, dude, one of the things that we've learned about ourselves and each other, and this is for the listeners as well. When kevin gets a new awareness, he implements very quick. I like it.

Kevin Palmieri

But, dude, awareness was the gap for you yes, speaking of that for those watching on youtube, I'm wearing the the hyper conscious podcast t-shirt that my wonderful wife gave me. She gave it to us the day of Top Notch Live and I did not give her nearly as much attention as I should have in the moment because I was so anxious and she said, kev, just take a minute. I was like I don't have a minute. I've got to get these PowerPoint presentations, I've got to get this freaking music right, I'm about to have a mental breakdown. And then I cried after she gave it to me and I was very grateful.

Alan Lazaros

So now, I'm rocking it today. It wasn't opportune timing. I think you were about to go on stage within 10 minutes.

Kevin Palmieri

There was a lot of stuff, but it's the thought that counts and I'm grateful. Yeah, absolutely.

Alan Lazaros

So what was?

Kevin Palmieri

I talking about Awareness.

Alan Lazaros

Yes. So you get a new awareness and you immediately implement. I think that's a superpower. But one thing that I think you're going to find as you've evolved as a business owner is awareness is no longer the gap. So for me the old me might not have shared this, but I, the awareness isn't necessarily the problem I'm aware of a thousand things we could do better.

Problem-solving in life and business

Alan Lazaros

The question is, which one do we choose next, which one is most optimal? And so you lived in a world where the the gap was knowledge, or awareness, or expertise. And that's why the hyperconscious podcast changed your life so much. It was changed the way you think, change the way you act, change the way you live in that order, change the way you think. For me, I already have the awareness most of the time, not always. Sometimes it's that next breakthrough, but I'll read a book. I remember kevin. I both read the same book. He said what percentage is new for you in that book algorithms to live by? And I said I don't know, maybe like a couple percentage. Most of that I already knew, because you came to me like, dude, you think like this. And I said, dude, you don't. And what percentage was new for you in that book?

Kevin Palmieri

oh man, I don't know, probably 90, at least most of it so you had a bigger uptick in awareness than I did.

Alan Lazaros

Reading that book doesn't mean I never I'm gonna stop learning either. I had an uptick too, but awareness is rarely the gap for me. I know, know what to do. It's how do we do it and how do we get the resources to do it and how do I get so, for example, I know how to coach Me. Learning how to coach more effectively is not the gap. Me helping portray myself in a way where other people know how much I can help them is the gap. So so what does that mean? That means the gap is marketing branding. Okay, well, what am I missing? Okay, well, people, you need to share success stories more from your clients, because that's what shows that you're a good coach. Okay, awesome, boom, boom, boom. But so every single person out there listening or watching three steps to success. I would even go as far as to say Identify the problem or opportunity, because an opportunity is just a problem that hasn't been solved yet.

Kevin Palmieri

Ooh, I thought you were going to say a problem in disguise. Yet oh, I thought you're gonna say a problem in this. Uh, problem in disguise, I think was what I was thinking you were gonna go with that yours is better, though, for sure.

At NLU, we want you to win! So, we're giving tools and resources to ensure your success. Join our Monthly Meet-up every first Thursday of the month at 5 PM.

Alan Lazaros

Nice, what did I say? Identify the problem or opportunity, because an opportunity is just a problem that hasn't been solved yet. Nice, it's true, though, nlu, listener, what is happening? I just wanted to jump in here and let you know if you want to get to the next level faster. We have a free virtual monthly meetup at the first thursday of every month. You can connect with like-minded people and become a bigger part of this amazing global community. The link to register will be in the show notes. All businesses are built on problems that haven't been solved yet, like Netflix, streaming, okay well, blockbuster, you got to go. You got to rent it, you got to return it. There's a late fee. Netflix just was like what if we just brought this right online for people in their home?

Alan Lazaros

Interesting, Interesting way to think about it, so all businesses are built on problems that have not been solved yet. And then they solve them and they get very wealthy, and then now that's a commodity and now they have to innovate again. So you can never stop innovating. But that's another conversation. Number one identify the problem, slash opportunity. Number two brainstorm potential solutions. People say, well, there's no such thing as a bad idea. It's not true. There are terrible ideas. However you gotta, you gotta bring the bad ideas and then sift through them and find the good ones and I like to presuppose every idea is terrible and then prove that it's not terrible. Seem to be a pretty positive guy to be around you know what man?

Alan Lazaros

and then the third is implement. So I think everyone, with every triad, everyone has a good one, a bad one, a bad one and a decent one. So for you, when I first met you, kevin says people love it when you tell them about them.

Kevin Palmieri

I don't mind when you tell me about me.

Alan Lazaros

Well, that's good news. This probably wouldn't work if you did. Your good one was implement Real good. Implement quick. Oh, I had to do an online course. God has done way before mine. I had been talking about it for six months. Okay, implement Real good. Brainstorm Decent. Identify the problem. The root cause of the problem was your bottleneck. Holy crap, whoa. That's what I helped you with. I would say so. I helped you go to the deeper root.

Kevin Palmieri

But it's interesting because the fruit, yeah, I feel like it depends on. There were certain things that I was good at, but it wasn't like fitness I was good at. I could identify, brainstorm, implement. There's certain things.

Alan Lazaros

That's because your awareness was higher it's almost like if you have low awareness. You can't't identify. Yeah, that's why awareness is so important. That's why emotional intelligence was my bottleneck, because I wasn't good. Self-awareness was my issue. I didn't understand myself in comparison to the statistical norm. So I couldn't implement. Well, looking back eight years ago, which one of these were you bad at and why?

Kevin Palmieri

I would say identify. No, I think identify was the one I had the biggest weaknesses, because I didn't. No, honestly, I think it was probably constructive brainstorming Right, because in order to brainstorm, you have to know what matters. In order to come to a resolution, you have to have a growth mindset.

Alan Lazaros

Yeah, because otherwise it's just. I was thinking about this with nlhf yesterday. We're playing basketball, we playfully will make excuses, but that's not helpful. Like if you identify wrong you're gonna not brainstorm. So, for example, ah, the, the court slippery, okay, well, what are you gonna? What are you going to do? Get a mop out? That's not useful. So constructive, it's almost like if you do the first one wrong you're automatically going to screw up the other two.

Importance of addressing the root cause

Kevin Palmieri

Yeah Well, I think that's what feeling stuck is. I know what the problem is and I'd implement if I had a solution. I don't know what the solution is. I don't know how. I don't know how do I brainstorm a solution?

Alan Lazaros

I don't know what it is, but you might know what the problem is, but you don't know the root cause of the problem. That's the key. I always say this in my coaching. There's a digital asset that I pull up. It's just a picture of a tree, but it's called mother root. The mother root is the biggest root of a tree and it goes the deepest and if there's toxins around the mother root, the whole tree will start to die. Essentially, and I always say if you want to change the fruit, you have to go to the mother root I've never once heard you say that eight years never heard you say that I say it in coaching I've never heard about the mother root until today.

Alan Lazaros

You know what I mean I say in coaching I pull up. I literally have it in my folder. I have an everything folder where I search everything. It's called mother root. I can look it up right now, I feel like in a past life you were.

Kevin Palmieri

Did you take horticulture in high school? Like I did. I feel like you should.

Alan Lazaros

I took AP bio. So yeah, Wait, is that the same thing? Excuse me.

Kevin Palmieri

I took horticulture. Okay, I didn't take AP nothing. We get to go out and pet the plants.

Alan Lazaros

You ever get to go out and pet the plants. Let me type in mother root and see what comes up. Yeah, it came up. It's a picture of a tree with a mother root and, yeah, it's awesome.

Kevin Palmieri

It's called the root crown. There's a drip line.

Alan Lazaros

There's a root protection zone.

Kevin Palmieri

How do you brainstorm more effectively? Because that's, I feel like that's the one Better questions From yourself, though, yeah, and you have to be around someone who you're willing to be vulnerable with. Let's say you don't have that, though how do you ask yourself better questions, dude, there's no, we don't have enough time, he says. He says we don't have enough time. He says, says we don't have enough time to answer that question.

Alan Lazaros

That's fixed mindset. I'd say we have two minutes.

Kevin Palmieri

I think that's accurate so I was on with one of our clients chris kevin and I both coach him awesome, great guy, he has a business called missouri barners Crushing it.

Alan Lazaros

We went through his entire team, nine person team. What's the root cause? And I always say this in my coaching. I said you know what Cause I'll ask a question and then I'll I'll say no, no, no, you know what? Let me ask a better question, because I can see their brain going and I know we're not going to get to the answer. So I say let me ask a better question. Okay, how am I doing that? I have no idea.

Kevin Palmieri

It's a tough one because you have to have the awareness to ask better questions. I know Maybe we'll do a part two, because I think that's where most of the stuff is If your knee hurts. That's layer one. But I think you have to have an awareness when you're brainstorming, like sometimes I feel like I identify and then I brainstorm and then I go back to re-identify and then I re-brainstorm and then I re-identify and then I implement, because sometimes, like my knee has been my left knee has been bothering me on and off, I've done like back-to-back leg days, no problems, don't know why. I'm just going to keep doing the same mobility I've been doing, I'm going to do the same warm-up I've been doing and if it happens again, I have to go back and brainstorm again well.

Alan Lazaros

This is why physical therapists they're supposed to know more about the knee, so that they can identify the root cause better and therefore present a better solution. This is why expertise is so powerful, because it's very hard to know what questions to ask, to get to the root cause of something and then to present a solution and then implement it. When you don't, it's like the mechanic, your car breaks down. You don't, it's like the mechanic your car breaks down and you don't know, I don't know. So you've got to go to someone who understands how cars work and why they work that way, and that's why I focus on business coaching and Kevin focuses on podcast coaching, because we understand Very last thing, I know I've got to jump. I was on with a podcast earlier that wanted to charge me $2,000 to be on the show.

Kevin Palmieri

I researched it. I researched it after I saw.

Expertise and its role in effective implementation

Alan Lazaros

I said, that's not aligned, definitely not. And in my head I know that this is not worth that. No one else does, so you're taking advantage of people who don't know. It's like well, what's your reach? Oh, we have a big reach. Okay, what does that mean? Well, it's millions of. No, it's not. No, it's not. You're lying and you're lying to me and you're lying. So, at the end of the day, expertise is how you implement these three, so I think a part two would be powerful.

Outro

Kevin Palmieri

We're gonna do a part two. I'm gonna make a note of it because I again, sometimes we do episodes like this and I'm learning on the episode. Brainstorming and re-brainstorming and re-identifying is huge. Alright, next Level Nation we're going to do a part two at some point. Again, happy holiday season. Make sure you subscribe if you never want to miss an opportunity to get to the next level. Tell a friend we appreciate you, grateful for each and every one of you and LU. We don't have fans, we have family. We will talk to you all tomorrow, keep after it, Next Level Nation.

Kevin Palmieri

Thanks for joining us for another episode of Next Level University. We love connecting with the Next Level family.

Alan Lazaros

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.

Kevin Palmieri

Thank you again and we will talk to you tomorrow.

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Alan Lazaros

Host
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Kevin Palmieri

Host