Next Level University

What We NEVER Learned In School But Desperately Need To Know (2012)

• Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

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Is traditional education enough? In this episode, Kevin and Alan discuss the most significant lessons they’ve learned outside the classroom—ones that aren’t in textbooks. Alan shares insights from his recent college speech, highlighting the gaps in formal education, while Kevin reflects on what he wishes he had learned earlier. From managing insecurities to recognizing life-changing opportunities, this episode is a must-listen for anyone who feels unprepared for the real world.

Learn more about:
Next Level Live 2025: Saturday, April 5th, 2024 (10:00 am to 4:00 pm EST)  - https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/next-level-live/

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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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Kevin: https://www.instagram.com/neverquitkid/
Alan: https://www.instagram.com/alazaros88/

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Alan: https://www.facebook.com/alan.lazaros
Kevin: https://www.facebook.com/kevin.palmieri.90/

Email 💬
Kevin@nextleveluniverse.com
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:
(2:15) What school doesn’t teach us
(5:52) Are you still learning as much as you should?
(9:46) Alan’s experience speaking at a college
(12:30) Internal Vs. External learning
(20:23) What most people struggle with after school
(23:08) Join Next Level Live: A virtual, immersive event for those committed to growth, meaningful relationships, and a life they love. https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/next-level-live/
(28:57) Why self-education is more potent than formal education
(34:24) The top life lessons we should have learned earlier
(39:57) The impact of mentors on success
(45:16) Outro

Send a text to Kevin and Alan!

Kevin Palmieri:

I had a nightmare the other night and this is real that I went to college. And when I woke up I told Taryn. I said I just had a nightmare, that I went to college. She said why was it a nightmare? And I said because I feel like I'm learning more now than I've ever learned in my entire life and I can't imagine any version of school would have ever taught me most of what I know today. I think it would have taught me a lot about a specific thing, but I don't know anything that teaches you as much about life as life does.

Alan Lazaros:

I am an academic, I grew up in academics, I was taught to focus on education and that education is everything. What I've come to understand I just got back from a speech I gave earlier today at WPI, which is the college that I went to. This was a group of undergraduate engineers and it was about business, and this was sort of their first exposure into business is what this course was, and I've come to understand that what you learn in an educational setting is super valuable, especially, though much more so, when it is in tandem with self-education. I think personal development, personal growth, self-improvement and self-education is so much more important to have in tandem with professional development and the traditional education.

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 Completely free. Welcome to Next Level University, next Level Nation, today for episode number 2012. 2012. I believe there's a movie called 2012, where the world ends.

Alan Lazaros:

I believe yeah man A little John.

Kevin Palmieri:

Cusack action what we never learned in school but desperately need to know. Alan's first company no, I believe it was his second company, alan Lazarus LLC. You're welcome, I'll put some respect on your name. His tagline was what you'll never learn in school but desperately need to know. And Alan would wonder why. He didn't get any speeches at schools and that is why that is why I actually did.

Alan Lazaros:

I know somehow what you'll never learn in school, but desperately in all caps need to know. I showed the logo earlier. It actually apparently is not in all caps. I made that up in my head. There's two different logos. The one that I showed today didn't have it in all caps.

Kevin Palmieri:

You, sir, are a liar.

Alan Lazaros:

How dare you? How dare you?

Kevin Palmieri:

That's what we're talking about today. Alan gave a speech, as you heard in the intro, and he was talking about how, from maybe from a perspective of professional development and certain things that you'll learn, awesome, super valuable, but I think there are. Again, I'm not going to be the, the kid who didn't go to college, that craps on college. I'm grateful I didn't go, honestly because things, because things have worked out, but if I was hating my life, maybe I would think that was the reason that I was hating my life. So that's not necessarily the direction I'm going to go. I think that the only way to learn about your life is to experience your life, and it's to question things and it's to dig deeper and it's to look in the mirror the proverbial mirror when you don't want to, and it's.

Kevin Palmieri:

I don't think that can ever really be taught in school, because that's not. It doesn't seem productive to be good at relationships Like how could you grade me on how good I am at a relationship? In school, I didn't. It doesn't work that way. What in school? I didn't. That doesn't. It doesn't work that way.

Kevin Palmieri:

What I will say is I remember, you remember Hutch we had a teacher named Hutch, oh yeah, and I was in and sit down for this and you'll have to put some respect on my name after this. Honors, international Studies, honors, and the only reason was there was not a regular International Studies, there was just an honors one. So it didn't matter. It's not like I was smart to get in there, but I'm pretty sure in that class, in psychology class, those classes I learned more than any other class. I would say, yeah, loved psychology, it was the best I remember. We watched one flew over the cuckoo's nest. We watched so many good movies and I learned a ton through the movie and then the explanation of it. But in I believe it was international studies, we had to choose stocks and we had to track our stock and we have to figure out whether or not we were making money. And I remember what'd you choose? Garmin, nice.

Alan Lazaros:

No, I didn't know what it was at the time gps turned out to be a pretty lucrative investment at the time yeah, at the time fake investment, lucrative fake investment, fake investment. But that's what I remember.

Kevin Palmieri:

I remember that the most. I don't remember almost anything else because most of it was just wildly specific to being productive in a certain direction or being knowledgeable in a certain direction I or being knowledgeable in a certain direction, I don't know. I mean, if I designed a school, how would I do it differently? I don't know, because you've got to know math and you've got to know prepositional phrases and nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives. Yeah, you've got to know all that. But interpersonal stuff, I feel like, was never, ever, ever, ever taught, unless you did something wrong and then you were disciplined for that and maybe you got a lesson through that. But I don't know.

Kevin Palmieri:

And the other thing is okay if we were to do this, we were to play this game, if you were to break your life up into four-year segments, if this isn't the four-year segment that you've learned the most, I think that's a potentially very dangerous thing. Agreed? So if I think of 35, 34, 33, and 32, this right now, the last four years I've learned the most out of any years in my entire life. Next year it should be the same thing. I'm going to learn more next year than I did this year. That's the goal. So in theory. Maybe school is a good setup. But yeah, interesting conversation Again. I didn't go to college. Don't villainize me. I don't know what it's like. I know you can party and stuff. Never did it. College was a blast.

Alan Lazaros:

I've heard College was a blast. I've heard College was a blast. I had too much of a blast, if anything. Okay, so I was on campus earlier and I posted this on my story. I took a little photo on the bridge that was right next to my dorm when I was a freshman and I said this is the 36-year-old version of me going back to college and it's just interesting. I didn't understand.

Alan Lazaros:

I know we've talked about this in the past, but self-education versus professional education and again, I know this is a global show, so every country has its own sort of education system. For us it's preschool, kindergarten, middle school. No, no, preschool, kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, high school and then college. And I think there's. Last time I looked it up, there was 5,200 colleges in the US, which is wild. I think it's the most of any country on the planet. And to give this some context for our Australia listeners, there's a couple that I, one that I coach actually two and there's only 47 colleges in the entire country. So just to put that in perspective, there's more in Massachusetts than that.

Alan Lazaros:

And again, this is not me picking on Australia, this is just statistics that I'm fascinated by. But my point of all this is, regardless of where you're from, there is a certain education system and there's a certain education per capita. And what is education? Education is your knowledge, your understanding, your awareness and that first company, second company that I started after my car accident at 26, 10 years ago now. What you'll never learn in school but desperately need to know, was built on this idea of when I was in that college earlier with those undergrads shout out to any of you if you're listening I had several of you reach out on Instagram, bunch of new followers, super grateful but there was a moment where I said you're gonna learn something in this speech, as arrogant as this might sound, that you will definitely not learn here in your education.

Kevin Palmieri:

I don't think that sounds arrogant.

Alan Lazaros:

Okay, well, I'm grateful you and I are talking about things that are not being talked about in the classroom. I said use this as an opportunity, please sincerely use this as an opportunity to ask me things, because I want to help you understand some things that you're just not going to learn, particularly about business, but in general about life, that you're not going to learn in school. I said 16 years ago I was in the seats you're in and I didn't know so much of what I'm going to share today. So ask, and they did. I mean there was at least 15 questions, if not upwards of 20. I mean I had to stop at the top of the hour.

Alan Lazaros:

I was only supposed to go for a half hour and I'm grateful for that too and the questions were things like what, what, what was life like for you after college? What didn't you expect? I said, number one I was broke in high school and college. So having money was wild, it's awesome, right. And then we went through it and we went, we went down that rabbit hole. But so having money was wild, it was awesome, right. And then we went through it and we went down that rabbit hole. But what I wanted this episode to be and Kevin and I talked about it is what do we understand now that we never learned in school that we wish we had learned in school? What?

Kevin Palmieri:

comes up for you. When I ask that Ego, insecurities, I feel like, again, I didn't go to college so it's different. But I just imagine in high school if there was like some level of talking about insecurities, that is when you are wildly insecure, that's. I feel like that would have been so, so helpful. That relationships there was nothing about that. I remember when you and I we interviewed Caroline Zani a couple times.

Alan Lazaros:

I think she's a teacher Our middle school health teacher yes, our middle school health teacher.

Kevin Palmieri:

She asked the class. She said does anybody know what condoms are made of? And I raised my hand, said latex and then, I eventually. I eventually dated her daughter for a time, which for several years, so that was always, that was weird. When I first saw her I was like hey, I remember me.

Alan Lazaros:

Yes, I remember you too cool that must be a trip for teachers to see, I can only imagine she was kind of ahead of the curve.

Kevin Palmieri:

I remember when we interviewed her.

Alan Lazaros:

I interviewed her by myself.

Kevin Palmieri:

And then we did and she was trying to bring mindfulness and meditation and that type of stuff into the classroom and that was awesome. I am all about that. I don't know. It's almost like anything that was really close to me and my identity and anything internal. I feel like you learn a lot of external things. Yeah, I remember we learned how to balance a checkbook. It's like that's valid and not really anymore. I don't really need to do that. The apps do all that for you, but at the time that was valid, cool. I remember in foods and nutrition we learned how to cook Cool, that's valid. But that's all external, that's all. I think a lot of it was internal learning focused on external productivity. Now I wish that I learned a lot of stuff that was internal focused. That was just like the invisible work behind the scenes.

Alan Lazaros:

That's that more than anything. Yeah, it's very clear, and this is one of the problems is okay, I'll just use today as an example. All engineers first exposure to business, and I remember when I was an engineer and I had my first sort of business-ish course, we had to do a project and create a product and actually sell it and market it, bring it to market all this stuff. If you don't understand business, you don't understand your options. And one of the things too okay'm gonna boldly say this okay, this is one of the top engineering schools in the world and I just got done speaking to, I don't know, anywhere from 30 to 50, I don't know probably 50. It was a pretty big classroom and I would bet on you over the majority of them which you're not allowed to say out loud, by the way, but you're dude, you grew up from very humble beginnings. You didn't go to college. I would bet on you 10 times out of 10 over anyone in that room. And it's not because you're connected to me, it's because of your consciousness.

Kevin Palmieri:

Well, but yes, but I'm also 20 years older than them, I understand but this is my point.

Alan Lazaros:

What if you could transfer your consciousness into them, which you can through learning, through this podcast? But here's my point. So how, how is it that someone that's going to one of the top engineering schools in the world, I actually think, will be less successful than someone who came from nothing, who you know X, y, z? That? The point I'm trying to make isn't anything against those kids. Those kids are great. It's not what I'm making, of course. The point is is that you have learned things that they don't understand, and if they could learn them, they could far surpass you. In my opinion, with love, right and and to me that is the fucking base problem potential is predicated on your awareness, and your awareness is as limited as the environment you're in, but isn't there something to be said about the depth of their knowledge in their field?

Kevin Palmieri:

in order to get the level of depth that they need, they need to focus 80 of the time on that no, yes and no, he said it's not, no, no, let me think about it.

Alan Lazaros:

They're being taught about engineering.

Alan Lazaros:

They're being taught about constraint theory. They're being taught about systems. They're being taught about manufacturing engineering or chemical engineering or electrical and computer engineering, but they're not being taught about life. They're not being taught about their identity and the process and goals and metrics and habits and skills and emotional regulation and emotional vulnerability. They're not being taught what matters in real life in a way and again, it's not seriously.

Alan Lazaros:

I need to make this clear. Like I loved college College was great. I needed that. That was a huge Mario Kart booster for me in my career. I'm super, super grateful and I'm super grateful that I got financial aid and scholarships because I wouldn't have been able to go after my stepdad left. We were broke. Like I'm super grateful. This is not a lack of gratitude. This is a WPI was amazing, one of the best decisions I've ever made Top five decisions, no question in my life. Wpipi 100%. And holy shit.

Alan Lazaros:

There's a whole bunch of stuff that is just not taught in schools and I was there and I'm going to be courageous and bold here, because I do know that this is on a public medium where anyone could hear it. I could tell there's a little bit of a be careful, alan. Where you go in the speech there's a little bit of you don't talk about money, you don't talk about relationships, you don't talk about intimacy. You can, only you're not allowed to go outside the lines, kind of, if that makes sense. So I'm giving a speech about business and you know me, you've you've spoken with me at high schools. I mean, I go off the rails. But the point that I'm trying to make is I'm trying to teach. I don't go into a speech going, I'm going to teach you business. Today. I go into a speech going, I'm going to read the room and I'm going to try to share what I know will help this class reach their potential and flourish to the greatest capacity possible. And, based on the questions they ask, I can kind of hone okay, what needs to be said here? What needs to be said here? What part of my consciousness can I give you? Because if I can help you understand what I understand now, without you having to go through massive pain and failure over the last 16 years because these were 20 year olds and the average age in the room is apparently 20. I asked, I asked, what's the average age in the room? Professor was 45. I'm 36. They're 20. I need to know that. The reason I need to know that Is I need to know their context. I need to understand they never grew up without internet. They've never not had internet. Okay, I need to know.

Alan Lazaros:

If you don't know that business is an option, kev, you're not going to choose it, so you're this business owner you just got we just got a successful client. That is more than a lot of people's salaries. I'm very proud of us. I'm very proud of you. However, what I'm trying to make land here is that you never thought that was possible for you. It was always possible for you. You just didn't have the understanding necessary in advance to believe it was possible. Why would you choose something that you didn't even know was possible? You wouldn't, so you just default into whatever is. That's the base problem. Here is when I first found entrepreneurship.

Kevin Palmieri:

I was like, oh yeah, I'm gonna do that that was it.

Alan Lazaros:

I like left class, right, and I was like I'm going to start a company and I did campus Libre and that's took me off to the races. But if you don't know entrepreneurship's a thing and you don't know how business works, and you don't know how to become a business owner, and you don't know that it's a doable thing, and you don't know how to win at business, you're not going to choose it, so you're just going to default into something that isn't necessarily for you because you didn't have the option Awareness. When you go to the store and you buy food, you know the options. Okay, there's 20 different types of jelly and there's, okay, different types of mini tater tots, regular tater tots Okay, I know.

Kevin Palmieri:

Jelly and tater tots for dinner tonight.

Alan Lazaros:

Nice jelly and tater tots for dinner tonight. Yeah, you know, the point is is there's so much out there, but yet we have such a limited capacity to understand what's possible for us, and that's my lesson from today. I left that room thinking to myself you guys are 20, like you could do, within reason, anything you want Seriously, with the right mentor, with the right coach, with the right therapist, with the right guidance, with the right mindset, with the right belief. Like there's a lot of ifs, but it doesn't change the truth. Every single person in that room has the opportunity to be as successful as Kevin Palmieri. Very few of them will be, and it bothers me. It bothers me because how dare we not teach these kids what they need to know to be successful?

Alan Lazaros:

Everyone out there watching or listening, you are at bold statement and I'm just going to have courage to say it. You're learning things on this show that is not taught anywhere else, and it's important If we had this show, dude, if I had this show. That is is not taught anywhere else and it's important if we had this show, dude, if I had this show when I was 20. Are you kidding me? That's you.

Kevin Palmieri:

The knowledge is out there. It's not though you google. Anybody can google how to lose weight but this is not no. What we're talking about right now is not necessarily out there, but the, the entrepreneur dude I was watching when I was in my early 20s. Mid 20s I was watching Shark Tank. I love Shark Tank. It was one of my favorite shows. I knew entrepreneurship was an option. I didn't believe I could do it. I didn't believe.

Alan Lazaros:

I didn't believe I could do it.

Kevin Palmieri:

I would never learn how to do it. Remember, it's the same thing. Most people again, I'll speak for myself and many of the people I've worked with most people don't learn just to learn or grow just to grow.

Alan Lazaros:

You grow in a direction.

Kevin Palmieri:

What if today was the spark? What if today was the spark? I hope it was for someone. I hope it was for someone. I hope it was for someone. But to your point, there has to be a lot of ifs that happen after that in order for that spark to become an inferno.

Alan Lazaros:

One thing I want to go back to ask you this, as someone who didn't have mentors growing up you had a bunch of mentors with me for a while there. Yes, had a bunch of mentors with me for a while there, yes, do you? Is it obvious?

Kevin Palmieri:

to you that without mentors, you wouldn't have been successful at this stage.

Alan Lazaros:

Is that fair, for sure, okay, okay, sell mentors. Yeah, sell mentors. That's the thing I didn't. I had mentors my whole life, but but no one sold me on it.

Kevin Palmieri:

I've had very specific mentors, specific to one direction For the most part. I mean, if we really think about it, if we had to put all of the mentors I've ever had through Alan because I didn't get any of them on my own they all started from a place of self-improvement, they were business-minded, started from a place of self-improvement, they were business-minded and they were ahead of us. But it was speaking, podcasting, business, communication, self-improvement. I've never had a mentor for relationships. Really, I'd say Tori Aletto is the closest, but she was more of a friend. We've never had somebody that was that. I've had mentors in fitness, but it was chosen on. I want to get better at blank. I'll speak to fitness because I had fitness mentors before Alan. I want to get better at fitness.

Alan Lazaros:

Let me go find someone who's way ahead of me in fitness, so that was for me, that was all. That's more powerful than school, I think. And again, school's great. Like seriously, this is not a bash school session. I'm, I'm, I love academics, I think it's critical, but the right mentor will change your whole fucking life.

Kevin Palmieri:

Well, I wonder what. I think I would ask you this what does it teach you about discipline? What does it teach you about timeliness? What does it teach you about responsibility? What does it teach you about ownership that you might not get, because there's going to be something you get there that you might not get, or there might be Next Level Nation? We are very, very excited to announce that we are doing our first purely virtual Next Level Live. On April 5th 2025, from 10 am to 4 pm Eastern Standard Time, alan and myself will be live streaming from Worcester, massachusetts.

Alan Lazaros:

Next Level, live 2025. Be there, it's only $47 for a full day of personal development, self-improvement, holistic health, wealth, life and love we have a global audience.

Kevin Palmieri:

Obviously, if you live somewhere else in the world, it's hard to come across the country or across the world for a one-day event, so we wanted to make sure it was accessible to everyone.

Alan Lazaros:

you're not going to get to the next level of your life by default. You're going to get there by design. Join us, design that next level. I think it's just another level of responsibility. You're paying now. You have debt. If you know you have a responsibility, you also learn resume it almost is and I think that what you learn more than anything is social skills. You now have the in high school. If the bell rings, you got to be in class, otherwise you get detention In college. No one gives a shit. I mean, if you're not there, you just fail the class and lose the money. So it's more self-accountability.

Alan Lazaros:

But I I would love to teach a course one day on personal responsibility and self-discipline and goal setting and how you're the sum average of the five people you spend the most time with, and how to design your life rather than default into the treadmill that was designed for you and all this, and then trauma and all this different stuff. I mean next level you. Next level university. Next level you. It's a place where you learn how to reach your own unique potential. It's a place where you learn how to find your own unique version of success. It's a place where you improve yourself to improve your life.

Alan Lazaros:

I think that that's critical in tandem with academics, and I get fired up. I don't mean it in a negative way, I care so deeply, I just I know there's people that grew up in an environment like I did. That's not, that's very dark and not not a lot of hope. And I think that the hope is there, the could be there, but personal development, self-improvement and personal growth is not taught in school. I coach a very, very, very successful ap calc teacher and if you're out there watching or listening, brother, you know who I'm talking about. And I ask him like is personal development and self-improvement and productivity and personal growth like a big part of? And he's no. He says not at all, like there's a little, but no, not really. To me that blows my mind. Well, who's going to teach?

Kevin Palmieri:

it. Someone's got to teach it. Someone's got to teach it Anyone.

Alan Lazaros:

Anyone could teach it. No, no.

Kevin Palmieri:

You've got to live it. You've got to live it to teach it. There's no four-year well. I guess there probably is. There's no four-year degree in well, there is. I mean you can go get a philosophy degree and then teach philosophy.

Alan Lazaros:

But that's not the way it goes unfortunately, without personal development, all of your success goes, I know, but if we just, I just don't.

Kevin Palmieri:

If we just think back to who was teaching me Again. I was in high school. I'm not talking about college. I didn't go to college, it's different, but there was no. None of our teachers were going to teach us about self-improvement. They were sleeping with the students, they were divorced and unhappy they were.

Alan Lazaros:

Which teacher first names? Only in high school do you think could have or would have been excited to teach personal development or self-improvement or personal growth?

Kevin Palmieri:

caroline zani.

Alan Lazaros:

That's the one that comes in my mind nice and hutch, hutch, yeah, agreed, hutch for sure, yeah, but were they super into self-improvement in their own life too? That is one thing that's very clear, too, on a college campus. And again, this is a self-improvement podcast, so I'm super grateful. I love the fact that I was able to speak today, but I, I did. I live in an echo chamber of self-improvement, so do you? I mean we. We live in the world where you know we're waking up each day trying to get one percent better. We, every day, is personal growth, personal development, self-improvement. And then when you, when go into the world, it's oh so Atomic Habits. The book by James Clear is not that common Right, and it's oh so. The compound effect by Darren Hardy is not.

Kevin Palmieri:

It might be some of the most successful books in this space, but like it's not. I mean Harry Potter and Atomic Habits are not. I don't know. Again, I don't know where the data is on, I don't know how many copies of Atomic Habits have been sold, but yeah.

Alan Lazaros:

I think it's like 5 million or 10 million or something, I don't know the data either. But yeah, that's. I think that's a base, what you'll never learn in school but desperately need to know. Self-education matters more than external professional education. It does, because in the, in real life, who you, who you allow to influence you, what you learn from I mean, the podcast you choose dictates so much of your future, for sure, the podcast you choose dictates so much of your future, for sure the books you read dictate so much of your future. And again, I know that this is my thing, but everyone.

Alan Lazaros:

Think back to 10 years ago, one decision they made that everything would have been different. Like if you had decided to not partner with me. Like how much of your life would be different. Like if you had decided to not partner with me. Like how much of your life would be different, oh, if I had not met Emilia. I mean these. That's where you learn the most, through the people you spend time with. You have to be wildly discerning with who you spend time with, and that's another thing that we didn't learn in school. Necessarily, like parents are.

Alan Lazaros:

I guess, supposed to teach that-unquote. I say supposed to in quotes. But yeah, business success, finance, personal development, self-improvement, personal growth, humility, courage, vulnerability, character, personal responsibility, self-belief, self-worth. I mean these are the the things that even just my own coaching I mean I coach a lot of people now. It's it's goals, priorities, metrics, habits, skills and identity. None of those were taught in school, I mean we didn't even learn goal setting.

Alan Lazaros:

Yeah, that's fair. I mean mean goal setting is a fundamental. I mean, if you don't know how to set goals, your future is very much in jeopardy. And yeah, I'm just grateful we get to do what we do, because that's what NLU is about it's filling in the gaps. I am convinced that I know for a fact people are more capable than we think. You know. One of the students came up to me after the lecture you know who you are if you're listening and he talked about Next Level Live and all this stuff and I said I'm thinking about putting together a group coaching program for the people that invited me, the entrepreneur group that invited me, the entrepreneur group that invited me a couple months ago. And I said if you guys pooled together your money, I mean we could make it work 12 week. It's kind of like a mentorship slash, group coaching type of thing where it would be, you know, every other week on Zoom Dude. That would be so awesome. I mean that 12 weeks, that 90 days, could change their trajectory forever. And I think that that's just my deepest passion, because I know that that zoom will be full of things you just won't hear anywhere else you might.

Alan Lazaros:

I mean emilia's family, her parents. They taught her things that most parents don't. I mean she learned a bunch of stuff that I was never taught for sure. Her family was entrepreneurial and all that stuff about success. And you hang out with shit, you smell like shit, like stuff like that. I mean it was hardcore, but it was legit, and you do, you hang out with shit, you smell like shit, period, and I hung out with a lot of shit in my life and I wish that I hadn't, and I wish I had someone to shake me and say, alan, wake the fuck up, bro, what are we doing here? You need to leave that person behind ASAP. Rocky, your future is not gonna be bright if you don't learn these things, and I just didn't have people available that said that, and or I didn't have the humility to listen. It's mostly the first one, though, because I was open, I was ready, I was eager. I would have loved to have met a speaker at college or again I.

Kevin Palmieri:

That's a you thing, so I that that's always my thesis on these episodes is I.

Kevin Palmieri:

I know you would take it, run with it, but I don't think as many people as you think would that's my thesis because they, I don't know, when you're that young, I don't know if you're ready to learn all that stuff yet you don't take much seriously. Again, I'm thinking of high school, not college, because I didn't go, I can't speak to that. But I don't know, you don't take it that seriously yet. Maybe one day it'll. I mean, look, 25 years ago, if you talked about the fact that you had any struggles or resistance with mental health, you were the outcast of the group. Now that is so common and so widely accepted, which is amazing and awesome, and people talk about therapy all the time. It's amazing, it's the best. I wonder if it'll go in that direction over time.

Alan Lazaros:

I don't know what would it have taken for you.

Kevin Palmieri:

Somebody uber successful that had all the things that I valued, to sit me down and say this is exactly how I did it and this is what you need to know, and unfortunately there were none of those people around.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah and they certainly weren't donating their time to come talk to, or they weren't character-driven or whatever. Whatever it is, I needed somebody to don't tell me like, show me why. Don't tell me what to do, show me why I need to know, why I'm a visual learner. You can give me all the show me, show me what happened and how you did it and show me the results.

Kevin Palmieri:

I it's because I just wouldn't have bought in. I would. It doesn't surprise me when you and I go to speak to to students and that some of them don't buy in it does it's. It surprises me for the kids that do. It's like hell. Yeah, I just want to understand why they don't. Because they're not into growth. Why not? Why aren't they into baseball? It's they just not not. Yet they don't understand the upside of it, just like I didn't understand the upside of it for 26 years of my life.

Alan Lazaros:

That's the question to ask is how do we get them to understand the upside of it? Show them the benefits.

Kevin Palmieri:

Show them the best benefits humanly possible. Well, let's hammer those off quick, You're going to have a better. I was literally going to say this. If we just thought of, like, what does the average 35-year-old person struggle with the most? If we were to say that Fitness, Fitness, nutrition, finance Well, fitness, nutrition and health in general, Finance, debt and making more money.

Kevin Palmieri:

So financial awareness, debt overwhelm. And making more money, so financial awareness, debt overwhelm. And acquiring more money. And then spending time with shitty people who are misaligned, intimate relationships with the people closest to them and probably family. If we could have those classes, I feel like that would be absolute fire. But you have to show the result of okay, well, this is what you'll never get your dream relationship until you become the person who is capable of attracting that person, sustaining and then growing with them. It's never going to happen. Yeah, I know everybody's most of the people around you are going to go into debt when they leave college. They're going to go into debt and they never going to happen. Yeah, I know Most of the people around you are going to go into debt when they leave college. They're going to go into debt and they're going to buy nice shit that they can't afford. I know you're probably going to look like a loser for a while if you don't do that, but I promise eventually it'll be well worth it, and I know McDonald's is dank.

Kevin Palmieri:

It is the finest fine there is, and I know it's going to be hard. You're going to be looking for jobs. You've been working on this college degree. You've been in school for however many fucking years. I know you want to take some time off and you want to relax and you want to eat whatever you want and sleep in.

Kevin Palmieri:

I know it gets harder as you get older to maintain a physique and to stay healthy, and it gets harder. I know you're not going to believe that right now because I didn't believe it. But, coming from a guy who didn't believe it and now is believing it, I might look like I'm in really good shape, but it's harder than it was when I was your age. I might look like I'm in a really good relationship and I am, but I would be way more capable as a partner if I started when I was your age. And yeah, I might look like I have some money, but I do not have anything compared to what I would have if I actually understood what the fuck I was doing in my early mid and late twenties. Nice that, and then somebody might be into it, but even that it might be like who the fuck is this guy?

Alan Lazaros:

It's so brutal. I consider the work that we put into the show and trying to make it as valuable as possible. It doesn't matter unless someone listens right. And that's the hardest part about being a speaker and a podcaster and inspiring, motivating, educating and being into personal growth and self-improvement and in this space, that's the hardest part. I mean I can come and I can give a speech and I can speak eloquently and I can be effective in my communication and I can have a good physique and at the end of the day, one speech can't do shit. That's why. That's why I told the guy afterwards. I said, if you want to do that training like, let's set that up because that can change 90 days, I can. We can make some real change. A speech can spark something. It can, it can ignite something and you can learn something. But if you listen to NLU daily or you do group coaching or you coach with me one-on-one every week, every other week, every whatever, I mean it can change everything. It can change everything. It will. It will change everything.

Alan Lazaros:

I've coached everyone from a 16-year-old to a 54-year-old. I think I coached someone right now who's 62, actually, and she's at the beginning, she's pumped, she's like I got 12 more years before I want to retire and she's cranking. She's coming to Next Level Live too. But the point is this isn't the end. This is the beginning, and you can put NLU in your pocket every day. You can listen to books consistently, you can go to the gym regularly. You can change your life. There's nothing more inspiring than that, and if you're miserable, own it. There's a lot of miserable people out there and you can change. You can change your life and you can. You can achieve your goals and dreams. You can, and but you have to listen to this stuff. You have to practice this stuff, not once, but over and over and over again. I have speeches that I've listened to 50 times, dude I'm not even kidding I know, and I think that that it just fires me up.

Alan Lazaros:

I'm so grateful to have gone earlier, but it does. It fires me up because I see so much potential in these kids. Dude. It's like, oh my God, you guys are 20. If I knew this when I was your age and I actually took it and ran with it, I mean I'd be leagues ahead of where I am now. I know you're all impressed and I appreciate it. Awesome, 2000 episodes, great. It's not close to what could be and I I'm grateful and I'm proud and I'm proud of us and that's awesome. But you guys are capable of this too, and I could sense some insecurity and challenge and they're overwhelmed and all this stuff Little bit each day, little bit each day.

Alan Lazaros:

Get the right mentor, get the right therapist, get the right coach, get the right person in your corner who actually wants to see you win, who really cares. Maybe it's uncomfortable around them, maybe you freak out before every call, like some of my clients. It's worth it. It's worth it. You got to get a coach or a mentor who believes in you. You got to. I'm not even going to sugarcoat it, you just need it. You need it so much. We all do? We all need someone in our corner who believes in us and who lifts us up and who fucking challenges us and who makes sure we reach our potential.

Alan Lazaros:

We can't do it alone it's a fact for sure yeah, gets fired up, I do, I get, so gets fired up it's my purpose, man, it's my purpose I. I want to bring self-improvement to the world. I think it's. I think it's the missing piece.

Kevin Palmieri:

I do well, I think it's. It's more out there than it's ever been yeah, fair, fair. Right and.

Alan Lazaros:

I need you to make it cool. I can't do it.

Kevin Palmieri:

You've got to. Let me start my car channel. I can make it cool. I'm convinced. I know I can do it because we're going to do it eventually.

Kevin Palmieri:

I'm still the guy I do. I will never my goal and again, sit with me on this because it's going to sound negative. My goal is to never get to the place where I can't understand why somebody would do self-improvement or why somebody wouldn't do self-improvement. I don't ever want to lose. That's important for me to remember that I didn't want to do it. I had options. I had opportunities to do it before.

Alan Lazaros:

I didn't do it, but you didn't know what you were missing.

Kevin Palmieri:

You can't know what you're missing really, but you could, if the right person explained it. I don't know anybody who could possibly explain it that well, unless you're me by that rationale we should stop trying. No, we're not going to stop trying. You and I. I'm not trying to sell self-improvement when we talk. I'm trying to talk about my experience with self-improvement and how it's helped me. And you're listening to a self-improvement podcast. So it's different. It's not like I'm out on the street with a sign that says hey for that real good shit come down to this alley.

Kevin Palmieri:

And then when you get there, it's like all right cool we're going to talk about your core wound today, where that came from, and hear me out here, and then in like five years, you'll be okay with it. All right, you ready, here we go. We're off to the races. Whoa.

Alan Lazaros:

That's why you and I are a good dynamic, because I feel I just don't want to lose sight of it.

Kevin Palmieri:

It's important for me not to 100%.

Alan Lazaros:

I agree, and I'm not trying to make you lose sight of that. I think that's our dynamic. I was someone who was ready, who wanted to hear it, who it wasn't available to, and that is my. It's a pain point. I was looking, I was ready, I wish I had seen someone who. I was looking for mentors, especially male role models, and you were someone who wasn't ready and even if the right male role model came, you wouldn't have listened anyway, type of thing. So we have a good dynamic and I appreciate your honesty and.

Alan Lazaros:

I don't want you to come to my end, I just want to make sure we illuminate both ends. And yeah, of course I mean I. I would love to see a world where everyone has goals and dreams and tries to better themselves. Of course that's the world I want to live in. And today I got so fired up and passionate and all that is passion it's. I see so much potential in those kids. It's crazy and and I hope that they ignited and I hope they listen. I know some of them will. I know they will.

Kevin Palmieri:

Did you say to anybody hello, fellow college students. You say that, no, you try to pretend you were in a college. No, no, I fit right in. We go to, we, we go to middle schools. The kids are as tall as I am, so it's a real shame. All right, we're gonna get out of here. I don't know if I have a really good next level lesson. I would say the old adage, when the student is ready, the teacher will appear, is strangely accurate, although it is bumper sticker material. I had known you for many years before I started listening to the shit that you said.

Alan Lazaros:

Fair assessment. I think that when the teacher is courageous enough to share the vulnerable and courageous truths, the student might become ready Interesting.

Kevin Palmieri:

Slightly worse. Bumper sticker for sure, but it doesn't mean it's not true?

Alan Lazaros:

And what if both are true? And that's Kevin and Alan right there.

Kevin Palmieri:

Be a long-ass bumper. That would be a bumper sticker, that would just be a whole thing.

Alan Lazaros:

You know it Be on the whole side of it.

Kevin Palmieri:

All right. April 5th 2025. Next Level Live 2025. A full day event of self-improvement. If you're into self-improvement, okay, this is what we'll do. If you have been waiting to take a deeper dive into self-improvement and you feel like now is the time, Next Level Live 2025 is a great opportunity to do it. Tickets are literally $47. If you're going to go out to dinner and spend 90 bucks, if you're going to go to the movies and spend $47, whatever whatever you're spending $47 on, it's a real opportunity for growth. So that is me and my sales pitch for Next Level Live 2025. We'll have the link in the show notes and if you buy a ticket, you get access to the replay, so you don't have to be with us for the whole eight hour day. I know it's a long ass day, but you'll have access to the replay, You'll be able to watch it and you can watch it on your own time if you want, if that works best for you.

Alan Lazaros:

Here's my promise to you. I promise you, if you come to that event, you will leave with an understanding and strategies to become more successful on your own terms. That's my promise. You will leave with a higher probability of being successful in your own unique way, on your own terms.

Kevin Palmieri:

Perfect. That's a reasonable promise. And one person's going to win a billion dollars. You know, a bajillion billion dollars One lucky person's going to win a bajillion dollars All of the money in the world, it's not really going to happen. As always, we love you, we appreciate you. We are super, super grateful for each and every one of you. At NLU, we don't have fans, we have family.

Alan Lazaros:

We will talk to you all tomorrow, keep it next level, next level-ers.

Kevin Palmieri:

Thanks for joining us for another episode of Next Level University.

Alan Lazaros:

We another episode of Next Level University. We love connecting with the Next Level family. 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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