Next Level University

Success Leaves Clues (1977)

• Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

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What if the key to success isn’t learning more but mastering what you already know? In today’s episode, Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros reveal why repetition beats information overload, how to spot accurate advice from hype, and why top performers focus on fundamentals. Plus, they share personal lessons on bad business advice, ethical mentors, and filtering what truly matters.

Link mentioned:
Next Level Live 2025 - Saturday, April 5th, 2025 (10:00 am to 5:00 pm) - https://bit.ly/4aTwC7Q

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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: 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:
(3:23) The downside of poorly researched advice
(5:23) Recognizing patterns in valuable lessons
(6:12) Breaking down key fundamentals in health, wealth, and relationships
(8:48) Why measurement matters for improvement
(11:36) Next Level Dreamliner: the planner, agenda, journal, and habit tracker to rule them all. Get a copy: https://a.co/d/9fPpxEt
(12:55) Balancing hard work and self-care
(15:30) Every conversation connects to growth
(21:22) The role of experience in mastery
(22:23) Outro

Send a text to Kevin and Alan!

Kevin Palmieri:

I've been exercising a long time. There are still things like oh, when I turn my hand out, it feels different. You're most likely not going to do that the first time you go to the gym. That's not the way it works. You're developing a new skill, you're downloading new awarenesses. Then eventually you can make those minute changes.

Alan Lazaros:

So, week over week, year over year, it's like a lawyer that's been in the industry for 25 years. You can't just make that up in two years. And I think that that's really important for everyone to understand, because if you want to be really successful, you're going to have to find the fundamentals and master and remaster them over and over and over again.

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. Our goal with every episode is to help you level 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 1,977. We're going to hit you with a quick 15 to 18 minute episode. Success leaves clues.

Kevin Palmieri:

So Alan and I were talking today and he said what book are you reading? And I said I'm reading the book that you suggested and I'll leave it out because I don't want to disparage the book because it is valuable. It's just, I'll get into it. And he said what are you learning from the book? And I was like was like, dude, honestly it kind of sucks.

Kevin Palmieri:

It's a really good concept, but then essentially it's just like all right, now we're going to tell you a story about the concept, concept. And then here's like an interview about the story about the concept. It's like I get it, I understand. Now it's very clear to me what the concept is. I love that. And so what are you learning outside of maybe, the book? And I said the thing that really is jumping off the page for me now is that when you start to see a concept or a fundamental across platforms so let's say, you watch a Ted talk about vulnerability and you're like, ah, this, I don't know about this vulnerability thing. It's kind of seems like it's kind of bullshit. Then you see a book about it and everybody's talking about it. It's like I don't know, I don't know. Then there's a Netflix special about vulnerability.

Kevin Palmieri:

It's like hmm, Maybe this is, maybe this. Then there's a podcast about it and then you see a book somewhere. Odds are that thing is probably pretty sound. Somebody asked me recently. They said do you listen to podcasts? I said no, nope, none Other than client ones when we're working on them. And they said why? And I said, because I know I know it's going to sound hypocritical coming from a podcaster you could just kind of jump on the mic, hit record and spout some shit.

Kevin Palmieri:

Where books are well-researched, they take a long time. Ted Talks are well-researched, they take a long time. That type of stuff it's more well-vetted than other stuff. I one time listened to an audiobook. I was learning sales, I was focused on sales and word on the street was this young man who is now older than he was at the time, grant Cardone, great at sales. So I bought all of his books, all of his audio books, and I remember just thinking this is fucking terrible. This is and if Grant was here I would say I don't like Grant. I'm not a fan of Grant, I just don't like him as a person. He just doesn't seem like a good person.

Kevin Palmieri:

One of the things in the book was it was like lesson number 25. How to sell when having a sales conversation with someone after you give them the price. Alan, what you're looking for is $25,000. If the prospect responds with I'm not sure I can afford that. Here's what you say. Just do it anyway. Wait, what, what, what? Somebody allowed you to put that in a book and that was like a whole. I mean, that was the whole thing. That was the whole piece of that lesson. That's terrible. You're most likely not going to see that across a bunch of different platforms because it's terrible advice. It's not good. It's not good. If you are someone out there who is looking to learn more about sales, phil m jones is your guy yeah, phil m jones is great we had him on the podcast.

Kevin Palmieri:

His his work is really really good. He's been doing this for a long time. He's one of the best in the world and he does it ethically. His stuff you'll probably see across platforms. But yeah, and and maybe before I kick it to you, I'm sorry for epically long monologue no man, you're good go I I think the I think the dangerous thing now is some of the worst advice also gets spit across yeah a bunch of different platforms.

Kevin Palmieri:

So so we're in a weird time, but yeah, there's only so many fundamentals and there's only so many concepts and I feel like if you can find a handful or a dozen of them and just run them, you're probably going to be way more successful than somebody who is just constantly trying to digest different concepts. It's not, there's not that many, you know.

Alan Lazaros:

So, for anyone watching or listening, I don't want you to try to learn everything that I'm about to say, but I'm going to go through a couple of different things that I think a lot of people want to be successful at, and I'm going to go through a couple different things that I think a lot of people want to be successful at, and I'm going to go through the fundamentals.

Kevin Palmieri:

Health Fun with fundamentals.

Alan Lazaros:

Use fitness. I'll go. Fitness, sleep, hydration, nutrition, training, mobility, breathwork, supplementation Awesome.

Alan Lazaros:

You can zoom into each one of those. Zoom into sleep Temperature, amount of hours, quality and quantity, rem sleep, deep sleep you can zoom in, zoom in, zoom in. Okay, now, rem sleep. Zoom into that. How do you get? Okay, blue light. All this stuff. Zoom out, zoom out, zoom out. All right, now we're going to go to love.

Alan Lazaros:

Humility, courage, vulnerability, trust, effective communication, intimacy Awesome, you can zoom into humility. Okay, what does that mean? It means knowing you don't know everything, but knowing what you do know and having the courage to own it. Okay, boom, okay, zoom out, zoom out, boom, all right. Health, wealth, love, wealth, finance. Okay, earn more, spend less, invest the difference. Where do you put your time and effort to make money? Where do you invest your money? Okay, zoom out, zoom out, zoom out. These are all just business branding, marketing, sales, client delivery, community. You can zoom into branding, okay, who you are and what you are when no one's watching, what people say and think about you when you're not there. Outside in versus inside out. Okay, zoom out, zoom out. All of these are just fundamental principles. The thing that I think we're trying to make land in this episode the book that Kevin was referring to is Measure what Matters. When Emilia first suggested that book to me. It's called OKRs Objectives and Key Results. I said OK duh, ok duh.

Kevin Palmieri:

I always think about that when I'm reading it. I was like Was it cool? When you said it, Like did it come off as kind of cool?

Alan Lazaros:

Yeah, I don't know, probably not, yeah.

Kevin Palmieri:

OK, duh, I don't know if I'm like the cool guy.

Alan Lazaros:

You're pretty cool.

Kevin Palmieri:

Thanks, man.

Alan Lazaros:

You're pretty cool. Thanks, man, you're pretty cool. I mean, I don't care about bravado or whatever, so I think I'm probably more just nerdy. But okay, duh, meaning okay and that's probably why you're thinking it's not that valuable too is because, dude, we measure everything. Well, I think you're with an engineer.

Kevin Palmieri:

So seven years ago, Kev, this would be very, very, very mind-blowing. So I'm not saying it's not a good book. I don't think it's a good book for me right now where I am. Not that there's not a lot of value and a lot of lessons.

Alan Lazaros:

But okay, what you measure you focus on. What you focus on dictates what you say, think, do, feel and believe, and which persons places things and ideas you invest in your time and money and that determines your results. All of that stuff that I just said took a decade to really fully understand and I'm still mastering and perfecting that behind the scenes in my real life. So the the problem with fundamentals is that it takes a lifetime to learn them and a lifetime to master them, because it's almost like every book I've ever read. So Audible right now has a 14-day sale where you can get two books for one credit, and I bought four books yesterday with two credits.

Kevin Palmieri:

Hold on, you, son of a bitch. Yeah, I'm not even paying for Audible. You told me we were getting rid of it. You, son of a bitch.

Alan Lazaros:

I never got rid of it. You, son of a bitch. You lied to me. I didn't know. You got rid of it. I think we had that conversation. No, no, hold on. We had that conversation and you said, dude, seriously, is that what we're doing? And you said, yes I did.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah, you said you can get free books on spotify 100. You can't, you can't. Hey, you can.

Alan Lazaros:

And then there, was probably a book that I couldn't get on spotify.

Kevin Palmieri:

And I was like you gotta keep the kid in the loop.

Alan Lazaros:

I'm just out here recycling goods what do you do if you can't get a book? Listen to music? No, no, I meant you just buy for the book because audible. You're not getting credits every month now, right?

Kevin Palmieri:

no, well, I have some leftover credits, which is nice, but I buy books.

Alan Lazaros:

When you tell me to buy books, so don't do it on your phone. Go on audiblecom. We're not getting paid for this.

Kevin Palmieri:

Everyone watching, or listening.

Alan Lazaros:

There's a sale right now where you can get two different books for one credit, and it's going for 13 more days.

Kevin Palmieri:

Kevin Winks, I told you we're not getting paid for this. Hello, spotify, hello.

Alan Lazaros:

Audible person A book called how to Decide by Annie Duke. You know the book that we love.

Alan Lazaros:

Thinking in Bets, yes, yeah by Annie Duke how to Decide. It's simple tools for making better choices. Love it. Now, here's the deal. Let's be honest. I'm not going to read this book and be like, oh my goodness, I had never considered a decision-making paradigm before, I had never really thought about my cost value analysis and whatnot. It's going to be oh interesting, interesting, that one little.

Alan Lazaros:

So in the beginning of personal development and personal growth. I want to give this to everybody, something like the five second rule of countdown from five, and just do it. It feels like holy crap, that's like that's awesome, great. And then when you get 10 years into the journey, it's like okay, that's awesome. So I think everybody I said awesome sarcastically Hello, hello, hello.

Alan Lazaros:

Nlu listener, thank you, as always, for listening to Next Level University. Real quick, I just want to jump in and let you know about the Next Level Dreamliner. This is a journal that I use every single day Achieve your dreams 90 days at a time. It breaks down your dreams into goals, milestones and daily habits. We hope you enjoy it. The link will be in the show notes. Everybody has to go on this journey and if you take nothing else from Kevin and I today, number one, I hope you believe you can trust this podcast because Kevin and I work really fucking hard to not say anything inaccurate on this show. I mean really hard. I'll make really bold, awesome statements and kevin will be like come on, not a hundred percent of the time and I'm like, yeah, you're right.

Alan Lazaros:

Okay, 90, whatever percent and same same on my end exactly we're constantly checking each other to make sure that we're as accurate as possible, because we actually really do want to help. And life is a spectrum. Consider it zero to ten and, and on the 10 end it's work hard, grind hard, do never take a day off, wake up at 4 am, sleep when you're dead and on the zero end, it's everything's going to work out. You got this, don't worry so much. And neither one of those is true.

Alan Lazaros:

It's an equation, it's a spectrum, and Kevin and I are trying really hard to accumulate wisdom and knowledge and experience from the world, filter it through our own lives what we've tested, experimented with what works, what doesn't work and give it to each of you and to ourselves on this show, and we want you to feel like you're on this growth journey. I think, think about this all the time In the Conscious Couples podcast. I'm the host and I open up with welcome to another very special episode. I can't do the intro right now because for some reason, I'm not in the spot.

Kevin Palmieri:

You know the vibes. It's like a certain thing.

Alan Lazaros:

But I always pre-frame the listeners. I say listen, we're not here for any reason other than to help you improve and flourish in your intimate relationship At NLU. We're here, next level you, to help you learn how to become the best version of yourself Boom, health, wealth, life and love. That's all we're here to do. And you have a resource in your pocket every single day, completely free from anywhere on the planet, that kevin and I pour our time, effort, money, heart and soul into to guarantee that you learn all of the fundamentals over and over and, over and over again. And kevin and I spend a lot of time behind the scenes figuring out what we do and don't want to talk about. I can't even tell you how many hours we've spent like hey, you want to talk about this? It's like, ah, fuck that. It's like, okay, what about this? Ah, no, that's not really good for the listener. Okay, what about this?

Kevin Palmieri:

What do you know? What am I learning?

Alan Lazaros:

Yeah, every time, every time there's there's a lot of time behind the scenes, off the microphone, where we're trying to figure out the right topic Set in the right way for and I just feel like this is such a and I've been listening a lot lately. I've been actually reviewing our show every single day and it's so valuable to just chew on these topics that are so relevant and applicable, and I do again, of course I'm biased because it's our show, but I've listened to a lot of other podcasts, man and I have trouble listening too, because it's not as tactful, it's not as useful, it's not as strategic, it's not as useful, it's not as strategic, it's not as.

Alan Lazaros:

It's kind of like hey, you have a book, come on my show, yeah and then we'll just talk about that concept and then we'll tell some stories and then get out of here just gonna get through the seven minutes of ads in the beginning.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah, exactly and camera.

Alan Lazaros:

Through those with you and I dude I never want to lose sight of why we're here. We're here to help you improve yourself and improve your life and I will ever ever want to get through. I never want to fuck that up same same.

Kevin Palmieri:

Every conversation is always going to be connected to growth in some way shape or form. Even when we're silly and we're laughing and we're giggling and we're tired, it's always going to be connected to self-awareness, self-improvement, life, love, health, wealth, ego, arrogance, confidence, belief, all that stuff. I think you make a really good point, and this was a point that I was going to make, that you made before I did. Eventually, it's like just the minute changes, right? So the first self-improvement book I ever read was Rich Dad, poor Dad, right? So the first self-improvement book I ever read was Rich Dad, poor Dad. That took me from zero to five, holy. And then the next book was like eh, 6.11. Like there wasn't that much that, and I think that's just how it works.

Alan Lazaros:

And then when you read Grant's book, it went back to 4. I went back. I lost brain cells reading this book. I do not like Grant Cardone, don't like him Not a fan.

Kevin Palmieri:

I think it's fucking stupid. I think most of what he says is bullshit.

Alan Lazaros:

Don't like him. I just don't like him. Well, you do know, if you don't make at least $400,000 a year, you're a fucking loser. Yeah, it's like Grant.

Kevin Palmieri:

One of the things I saw for him. He had like a room of 100 people and he's like, by the end of this, every single one of you could be a billionaire, it? No, that's not how. No, no, no, no. We got to play with the numbers here.

Alan Lazaros:

And, by the way, there's only 3,600 billionaires on planet Earth, so you're going to go and you'll just go create another hundred today.

Kevin Palmieri:

Okay, good for you.

Alan Lazaros:

I just think he's yeah again, allegedly he's a grifter, he's a blowhard, he's a grifter. He takes people's money and I do believe he's going through again allegedly a court case right now based on that. But whatever, this isn't about Grant.

Kevin Palmieri:

We don't like people who allegedly are taking advantage of people. Yeah, no, not a fan, not a fan, not a fan. That's not how we do it. No, no, no. I like people that are good in real life. I think that's a really good way to put it. I've been exercising a long time. There are still things like oh, when I turn my hand out, it feels different. You're most likely not going to do that the first time you go to the gym. That's not the way it works. You're developing a new skill, you're downloading new awarenesses. Then eventually, you can make those minute changes. You can make those very, very small things that Imagine you're building a bridge for the first time. Thing's going to be mangled.

Alan Lazaros:

You're not going to, oh yeah.

Kevin Palmieri:

I'm not worrying about the pitch of it, so the water comes off. I don't fucking know what I'm doing. Just get this thing up, let's get people across it. Eventually you get to the point where you're thinking about every centimeter, because that's how good you are, that's how much awareness you have. I think learning is is very similar, so you might not learn anything from a book, but it might reinforce, it might remind you, might remember. Right, remind, reinforce, remember. Those are all read. That means coming back to you.

Alan Lazaros:

You're not necessarily learning anything new I know we're gonna jump, but that's the difference between a black belt and a newbie. Right is someone who, yes, the newbie might know how to grapple and know how to bop, but they might know how to kick, but they haven't practiced that to every finite detail.

Kevin Palmieri:

Finite, excuse me, finite.

Alan Lazaros:

Distinct detail Minute, minute.

Kevin Palmieri:

Or finite.

Alan Lazaros:

Well, shit, shit, okay, two minutes. Whenever I'm under pressure, it's like fuck, okay. One thing I needed to say. What was it? It was going to be super fast and you, you jeffed me. I'm sorry, I had to.

Kevin Palmieri:

You had to you're you like accuracy. I can't let you out in the world saying finite to people.

Alan Lazaros:

We'll lose all our credibility, you know credibility, you know it. What was I going to say?

Kevin Palmieri:

I honestly don't know, because I interrupted you, I'm sorry. What?

Alan Lazaros:

were you talking about before this?

Kevin Palmieri:

Black Belt. You're talking about Black.

Alan Lazaros:

Belt. No, no you. What were you talking about?

Kevin Palmieri:

Bridges, building bridges and shit, civil engineering type stuff. Books oh no, 6.1 to 6.11 going backwards after reading yes, got it, got it I was on a podcast yesterday.

Alan Lazaros:

I'm going to turn on my computer cause I got a call. Uh, I was on a podcast yesterday. The dude was awesome and he was like so you guys are leagues ahead of me, holy crap, I'm so blown away. I was like thank you very much. And at the end of the interview he had one of those moments of holy shit, like am I ever going to be able to get to that level? And I'm grateful it was awesome. I mean, we've been doing this a long time, perfecting every minute detail, kevin minute. And he said so you're like a podcasting genius. And I almost punted it. I was like oh no. And then I was like oh no, I mean we. And then I was like wait a minute, alan. I said we've failed for 10 years straight, basically in the self-improvement space for me personally, because the podcast is 7 years, me 10 years. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we failed a lot. We know a lot. We know a lot yeah.

Alan Lazaros:

And I had to own it. I was like, yeah, yeah, we failed a lot, we know a lot, we know a lot, yeah, and I had to own it. I was like, yeah, I don't know if genius, but yeah, I would say probably, statistically, as you can see, I'm still struggling to own it. But, dude, that is true. I mean, this is all we do all the time. I did 51 last week podcast coaching sessions, training sessions, podcasting, coaching and training. So week over week, year over year. It's like a lawyer that's been in the industry for 25 years. You can't just make that up in two years, and I think that that's really important for everyone to understand, because if you want to be really successful, you're going to have to find the fundamentals and master and remaster them over and over, and over again.

Kevin Palmieri:

Practice them, fundamentals. Even if you do it finitely, it's better than not doing it at all. I'm kidding Alan and I behind the scenes.

Alan Lazaros:

Oh yeah, we're good.

Kevin Palmieri:

Alan values accuracy. The last thing in the world he wants to do is mean not to call him out for a jeffing Minute, minute or finite. I can understand how you get kind of caught in the middle of those two words.

Alan Lazaros:

Well, you look at the timer and you have two minutes to get out, something that takes me 10. Yeah, that's true. That's what happened.

Kevin Palmieri:

Well, speaking of getting you out of here, we'll get you out of here because you have a call after this. Next Level Live, April 5th 2025. Virtual event 10 to 4, I believe it is. I said 10 to 5, but I think we changed it to 10 to 4 because we were just saying shit to messy action. Our way to it, we switched it back to 10 to 5. I think it's 10, to 5 maybe, whatever check out the landing page.

Alan Lazaros:

Whatever the show notes on the landing page say, that is the truth we'll have the landing page in the show notes nextleveluniversecom.

Kevin Palmieri:

There's an events tab it. We appreciate you, grateful for each and every one of you. As always, we love this, we're we're very blessed to be able to do this and at NLU we turn to fans. We have family. We'll talk to you all tomorrow, keep it finite next level nation 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.

People on this episode

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Alan Lazaros

Host
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Kevin Palmieri

Host