Next Level University

When 1 Thing Changes, EVERYTHING Changes (1979)

• Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

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What if a tiny change could shift everything? A new perspective or decision can reshape how you think and act. In today’s episode, Kevin and Alan reveal why even minor changes feel uncomfortable, why “good enough” can hold you back, and how new awareness transforms your outlook. They share real experiences that prove growth isn’t easy—but it’s worth it.

Learn more about:
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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Show notes:
(3:42) How new awareness reshapes perception
(5:26) Thinking differently as a business owner
(7:13) Frustration with technology and growth
(9:40) Inspirational quotes Vs. Reality
(12:09) Next Level Dreamliner: the planner, agenda, journal, and habit tracker to rule them all. Get a copy: https://a.co/d/9fPpxEt
(15:53) How much do you really care?
(17:23) Why being comfortable can be risky
(19:57) Growth is painful but necessary
(21:48) Outro

Send a text to Kevin and Alan!

Kevin Palmieri:

It was so negative in my life that it made sense to do it, you know. That's why good enough or Good enough is dangerous, and also kind of bad is dangerous. Kind of bad might not be enough to change. Good enough might be a safe place. So you don't get any better.

Alan Lazaros:

Same with business. So you go into an escape room for Valentine's Day and now you're thinking, okay, how does this work? $68. Okay, so now you can learn more when you go to this escape room and maybe you find out something they're doing that's actually really intelligent, because you're thinking in this new way. And then you bring it back to NLU and go hey man, what if we?

Kevin Palmieri:

did this. Welcome to Next Level University. I'm your host, kevin Palmieri, and I'm your co-host, alan Lazarus. At NLU, we believe in a heart-driven but no BS approach to holistic self-improvement for dream chasers.

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 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 1,979, I'm all over the freaking place because I got a new laptop and it very much goes in alignment with what we're talking about today. When one thing changes, everything changes.

Alan Lazaros:

Excuse me, yes, just a laptop.

Kevin Palmieri:

This is a MacBook Pro 8,017.

Alan Lazaros:

I don't know what any of that means no, I made up those last a on the team macbook pro.

Kevin Palmieri:

He was like you getting the m7. It's like I don't know whatever alan ordered, that's that's what I'm getting.

Alan Lazaros:

It's the brand new macbook pro. It's the yeah, it's good. It's good so far, so good.

Kevin Palmieri:

Strong I've been doing some video editing. I'm trying to figure out if my audio or video sounds or looks any different. That's why we're trying to figure it out. But we you know us over here at NLU we take messy action. How old was your old machine? The old machine was I got it in 2018, I think Okay so it was 2019.

Alan Lazaros:

I was eight years old, Five, six seven, seven, seven years old, six years old. So the MacBook Pro that you're using right now is of significant improvement.

Kevin Palmieri:

Things change.

Alan Lazaros:

Even though right now it doesn't seem that way.

Kevin Palmieri:

Well, that is what we're talking about today. We have talked about this in the past and this is a philosophical kind of concept. I'm sure Alan will bring it home with some level of tactic, but this is a good example. The laptop changed. Everything is different one thing now. That's a big change, obviously, and it's not always like that. But I ordered the laptop. The laptop took a couple days to come. In the meantime was researching and I was like oh, it doesn't have any USB ports, so I have to order three micro to USB. Is that even going to work with my camera? Meh, sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. That's why you think, that's why those adapters aren't always good.

Kevin Palmieri:

We'll figure it out. Maybe I need a. Maybe I need a USB to USB to USB-C. Yes, I'll do some research today In the very limited time I have, but I think this is why change is scary. So here this is a good thought. Okay, we've used this as an example before, but I don't know if there is a better one. Alan and I have had the opportunity to meet some people in person that are very attractive and they have a profile online that shows off their attractiveness. I'm not saying they're not attractive in person. They're just not as attractive in person as they are online.

Alan Lazaros:

Yeah, it's not close.

Kevin Palmieri:

Might be the same for me. If you saw the picture I posted in the gym yesterday and you came and looked at me. Right now I don't look the same way because I'm not pumped. The lighting's not there. So that's an example. Now, every time I see somebody online, I think to myself what do they actually look like? That one thing, when that one thing changed my perception of people, changed. Every time I look at somebody, it's different. Every single time I look at somebody, it's completely different, now that I'm a business owner and I go into establishments. So this episode is dropping. For Valentine's Day, taryn and I are going to an escape room. She said hey, are we doing dinner? What are we doing? I said I don't want to do dinner. We're going to do dinner Saturday. I don't want to do dinner like everybody else does dinner on Valentine's Day. I want to do something different. So I'm going to surprise you with something. We're going to do an escape room. Nice, why did I even want to? Why did I bring that up? What was I saying before that?

Alan Lazaros:

Oh, I'm all as a business owner, you think about this $68 for two tickets to this escape room.

Kevin Palmieri:

And immediately I'm thinking why $68? Well, it's got to be a pretty big location and they have like five or six rooms. So you're looking at probably I don't know probably $8,000 to $10,000 in rent per month. Okay, you could only have so many people in there per time. I mean, there's only so many time blocks throughout the day and you can book the room. So there's only two of us. We have the entire room to ourselves. Sometimes there's six people. So six people it's more expensive. So, like they're doing the math on that, I kind of don't look at anything the same anymore. Yeah, I still don't understand how Domino's does $6.99 pizzas. I don't get it. I don't get it. I mean, obviously it must cost them. You know, maybe it's $4.99 to make the pizza. They're making $2 per pizza. Whatever it is, I don't know, but they have determined somewhere that nobody just orders pizza.

Alan Lazaros:

It's significantly lower than that.

Kevin Palmieri:

Is it.

Alan Lazaros:

Yeah per pizza, but yeah, this isn't a business conversation.

Kevin Palmieri:

Let me keep it high level. Let me keep it high level. I got you. It's hard for me. I love it.

Alan Lazaros:

I know I love business.

Kevin Palmieri:

The number they have determined somewhere along the lines that, well, it's going to increase how often people do it and nobody just gets a pizza. If they get a two liter, we're going to get that at full price. If they get this we're talking about today, I'm so pissed off that my camera isn't as good.

Alan Lazaros:

I am upset and it's hard for me to do this episode without just researching how to make it better. I need you to know that I do know that I can tell.

Kevin Palmieri:

I've been working with Kev for a long time. Doesn't like when the it's so frustrating.

Alan Lazaros:

Yeah, we don't like, we don't like getting worse I'm gonna try something real quick.

Kevin Palmieri:

I know you don't want me to do it, but I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna. I'm gonna put on one of the things to see if it makes it any better can I do it live at next level university.

Alan Lazaros:

Oh, it's even worse. Is it worse? Yeah, significantly shit, it's all good. I'm it worse? Yeah, significantly Shit, it's all good, I'm going to leave it At Next Level University.

Alan Lazaros:

We're very big on improvements, improving, getting better it's really important to us, and getting worse isn't really our thing, but okay. So I was on with a client recently. We talked about this. There's a quote I talked to Kev about this yesterday when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. Okay, just like bumper sticker, self-improvement. That quote needs to be unpacked, otherwise it's just kind of a fun quote that kind of makes sense but also doesn't. Quote that kind of makes sense but also doesn't. It's like.

Alan Lazaros:

By the way, I told emilia the other night I playfully joked, we were talking about how we've been grinding lately and she said I'm so proud of you. You've been absolutely crushing. I've never seen anyone work the way you do. Thank you so much for all that you do for our family, all this stuff. I was super grateful and I said well, you know how I do it. Fall down seven times, get up eight, get up eight. And she's like and I said isn't that the dumbest shit ever she's like. What do you mean? I said if you fall down seven times, you can only get up seven times.

Alan Lazaros:

And it was like oh my God, yeah, it's nobody.

Kevin Palmieri:

Now what if you're already on the ground?

Alan Lazaros:

You can still only get up seven times, no, no.

Kevin Palmieri:

If you were to say you fall down seven times, get up eight, but you're already starting from the ground you've got to get up one time.

Alan Lazaros:

to get up yeah and then fall down seven more times. And then Hmm, kev, hmm, dumb saying.

Kevin Palmieri:

Imagine if the person who came up with it was already laying on the ground. You didn't think of that, did?

Alan Lazaros:

you. No, I didn't. Kev's worked on this because he's like there's no way that saying's not real. The point that I'm making with this is there's a lot of quotes that are inspirational but inaccurate. There's so many. You can do anything you set your mind to. No, you can't. No, you can do anything you set your mind to no, you can't.

Alan Lazaros:

No, you can't. Kev cannot survive being hit by a bus at 80 miles an hour. You just you could really set your mind to it, and you're gonna set your mind to being deaded. So, at the end of the day, I understand why these quotes exist, but they're not accurate. So change the way you look at things. The things you look at change.

Alan Lazaros:

Let me unpack that fully when you change the way you see a business or the way you see a person, now all of a sudden, you go out into the world and you start gathering new data that you didn't have before, and then, as you gain that data or feedback, you start to draw conclusions that you never could have drawn before, which changes what you say, think, do, feel and believe, and then it changes the outcomes that you can create in your life.

Alan Lazaros:

So a good example of that would be when Kevin was a young lad, a young man he would assume that every girl online that looked really attractive was actually that attractive in real life. Then he went on a few dates and he realized oh okay, so this is different and it changed what he did. So so now you won't be hoodwinked for lack of better phrasing and you'll have the right expectations from now on again. That's just a silly example, but same with business. So you go into a escape room for valentine's day and now you're thinking, okay, how does this work? 68. Okay, so now you can learn more when you go to this escape room and maybe you find out something they're doing that's actually really intelligent, because you're thinking in this new way. And then you bring it back to nlu and go hey man, what if we did this? You want to?

Kevin Palmieri:

do it? Have we ever considered?

Alan Lazaros:

this? No, absolutely the next level escape room, absolutely not. And again, god, I sound like such a dick when I say things like that. It's like the next level escape room. I wonder if people even know you're joking.

Kevin Palmieri:

No, I'm serious, you're joking, right? No, I'm serious as shit, you're not. I'm looking to branch out into some other industries, your next level escape room. Next level escape room.

Alan Lazaros:

Yeah, that sounds smart.

Kevin Palmieri:

The only way to get out of the room is to improve yourself. No, you're the final boss. The only way to get out of the room is to do a math equation with you Is to fight me To do a math debate with me. Which one of these isn't real Fall down seven times, get up eight. We'd have to come up with some other ones. Which one of these isn't real? Fall down seven times, get up eight, we'd have to come up with some other ones.

Alan Lazaros:

Which one of these isn't real? You can do anything you set your mind to, except for the stuff you can't do that is the impossible stuff that is.

Alan Lazaros:

That is a fact, hello, hello, hello. 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.

Kevin Palmieri:

Well, I think this is why change is so hard, because no-transcript. But it was like when you get a new awareness, you can look back in your past and everything is different. It still happened, but now you can see it from a different way. And that's where regrets come in. If you're getting better, if you're improving, if you're becoming more consistent, if you're more aware, if you're evolving, if you're believing in yourself more, if you're leveling up your self-worth, you might have more regrets.

Alan Lazaros:

If you're looking back on the past, I won't say that.

Kevin Palmieri:

See, this is good. This is the debate, because I think, talk to me about why I do to a degree. I do to a degree, not as much as you do. I think you have way more regrets than I do.

Alan Lazaros:

Not because you made dumber decisions than I, which you did. I have more awareness. What if your regret is?

Kevin Palmieri:

predicated on your level of awareness. It's not just awareness, I think it's awareness, and uh, care standards, yeah, yeah care, yeah, how much you actually care. I think you care more about your. You care more that you used to drink a lot than I do, because it affected your brain and it affected your potential. I don't think of it that way.

Alan Lazaros:

But what if I have higher awareness of my potential than you do of yours? So therefore I regret it more.

Kevin Palmieri:

I would venture to guess that you also care more about maximizing your potential than I do.

Alan Lazaros:

I don't think it's just awareness yeah Right.

Kevin Palmieri:

care more about maximizing your potential than I do. I don't think it's just awareness, yeah right it's awareness, and I don't know what would other than care, what would the?

Alan Lazaros:

word be. This goes back to the knowledge is not power thing. We're having the same discussion in a different way because I believe that caring comes with awareness. How can you be aware of something and not care? People know smoking kills, people still smoke, every day they start smoking every day, but I think they delude themselves into thinking that they're not going to die or they'll be the exception of well, my grandma lived to 96, and she smoked every day of her life. It's well, that's probably the one out of a million Maybe.

Kevin Palmieri:

My mom always used to say I'm going to die one day, like okay like okay, you got me there, logically, you got me, you win.

Alan Lazaros:

Well, she quit, she ended up quitting. But okay, the debate there would be. Well, we all are. But that doesn't mean I know smoking weed's not good.

Kevin Palmieri:

I know that. That's why I very, very, very rarely, if ever, if ever, smoke now. But I knew that I'm starting to come to your end on this.

Alan Lazaros:

So there are some people who just don't care about being out of shape.

Kevin Palmieri:

I think. So this is a good example. If I wanted to, I could never have a drink again in my life. I don't have any dependence on alcohol, I'm a social drinker. If I wanted to, I could just say, okay, I'm done, and I would never drink again. Well, you can do anything you set your mind to. I could do that, I know you could. I could do that.

Alan Lazaros:

As someone who's five years sober, who definitely liked alcohol more than you, I know you could.

Kevin Palmieri:

Is it worth it? Do I care? Do I think that the current way I'm living is detrimental enough to change? That's it.

Alan Lazaros:

Is drinking bad, and that's based on core values. It's based on what you value.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah, yeah Is drinking bad.

Alan Lazaros:

Yes, it's one of the worst things you can do for your physical for your physiology. I don't think there's much worse that you can do.

Kevin Palmieri:

It's one of the worst? Well, I would probably. There's probably some hard drugs out there there's. Give you a run for your money you talk about legal. Yeah, like legal acceptable yeah, this is another one of those alien moments like imagine if an alien landed and they're like what are you drinking poison? Why makes me feel?

Alan Lazaros:

good, makes me feel weird, makes the shit fun, let's, let's get weird.

Kevin Palmieri:

If I drink enough of it, I lie down on the bed and the whole fucking bed spins.

Alan Lazaros:

The spins the worst.

Kevin Palmieri:

Terrible. There are probably some people out there that maybe they have more of a negative relationship. It would probably benefit them more, but they have to. Of a negative relationship. It would probably benefit them more, but they have to come around to that. You and I, we both quit watching porn. There's a reason. For me it was massive pain but it made it was so negative in my life that it made sense to do it. You know. That's why good enough or good enough is dangerous, and also kind of bad is dangerous. The kind of bad might not be enough to change. Good enough might be a safe place. So you don't get any better. I'm sorry.

Alan Lazaros:

Well, in the self-improvement space, Kevin and I have a lot of things, obviously, that we think are maybe not optimal, but one of the things that I really adore. One of the famous sayings is let me not butcher this yeah, people that are happy but they're not happy, but they're not unhappy enough to do anything about it. That's a very scary place. I don't like to stay there long. Have you ever heard the quote? And again, I know why some of these quotes just sound so stupid. The only way I'm comfortable is if I'm uncomfortable. Yeah, it's like, the people that are comfortable, the people that win in life or succeed in life, are the people who are uncomfortable being comfortable. I know why that's a quote because I don't like being comfortable. I, I like being challenged. I, when I'm not being challenged, I know my future is gonna be worse. I'm certain, because you just can't grow. So when I'm not growing, yeah, you should see if you're on youtube, kevin's, kevin's the aliens just came.

Kevin Palmieri:

They tried to take me but I held on tight Grab your tinfoil hat, alright.

Alan Lazaros:

So Any of our stuff Taken out of context Would be bad. We don't believe any of that stuff, or maybe we do, who knows. Okay, we're moving forward.

Kevin Palmieri:

I do have to go in Four minutes, so I'm gonna need you To wrap this shit up.

Alan Lazaros:

I do know that you know what I mean I do all right, ready real quick alcohol, weed aliens that's all you need to live.

Kevin Palmieri:

That's all you need to live a successful life when you change one thing, everything changes.

Alan Lazaros:

When you get one new awareness, it's like you're okay, my therapist, carol, I know your camera's freaking out no, no, that was.

Alan Lazaros:

I was just freaking out in general my therapist, carol, said when you go to the eye doctors, all of a sudden, click, click, click. Oh, now I can see clearly. I can see clearly now. The rain is gone, yes, but I can see clearly now. Okay. So now I see the world differently, I see myself differently, I see others differently. Now I'm going to make new decisions based on that. And so when you change one thing, everything else changes. This is why growth is so fucking painful. Seriously, growth is painful. Here's why Kevin gets a new computer, and it's an opportunity for everything to be better, and everything just got worse. That is what it takes to get better. Unfortunately, it's up, down, up, down, up, down, up down. The key is to make sure the ups are higher than the downs, the peaks are higher than the troughs and the trend line needs to be up. So you just had one step back for, hopefully, five steps forward. We'll fucking see.

Kevin Palmieri:

Time will tell last thing before we get out of here, because we both have meetings right after this. I think of it like a puzzle. You imagine you had a puzzle and you did it all and you put all the pieces and then you found an extra piece. It's like interesting, so this puzzle, everything about this puzzle is different than I thought. I'm missing pieces. Now I have extra pieces. Everything's different. Now you put that piece somewhere and then you have the ability to build on that. I think awareness is the same thing. You only know what you can see of the puzzle and you can only see of the puzzle how aware you are. That's why they give you an outline of what the finished puzzle is supposed to look like.

Alan Lazaros:

Well, remember, when you first interviewed me, I used to have that metaphor of if you can see, imagine two people doing a puzzle. I know we've got to go.

Kevin Palmieri:

Two people doing a puzzle.

Alan Lazaros:

One of them can see the cover the vision, and one of them can see the cover the vision and one of them can't. Who's gonna put the pieces together quicker? Who's gonna be more effective? It's the person who has a vision that's gonna be able to make the border and all that, whereas the other person is just winging it, throwing pieces together and it's gonna be a shit show. You haven't used that one in a minute. It's been a long time, long time since I used that Alright Abrupt ending.

Kevin Palmieri:

We gotta get out of here. Next Level Live April 25th Sorry, april 5th 2025. The website is almost done. The landing page will be fully done soon. Shout out to the team for working so hard on that behind the scenes. As always, we love you, we appreciate you. Grateful tomorrow, keep it Next Level, 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

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Kevin Palmieri

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