Next Level University

How Being A Hero Is Actually Hurting You (2053)

• Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

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In today’s episode of Next Level University, hosts Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros uncover the quiet toll of always rushing in to save the day. Behind the hero’s mask, burnout often waits. They explore the four roles we all play — victim, villain, hero, and guide — and reveal how real strength lies not in rescuing, but in teaching others to rise. If your heart is tired from giving too much and receiving too little, this is your invitation to lead with wisdom, hold your peace, and become the guide you were always meant to be.

Learn more about:
Free 30-minute Business Breakthrough Session with Alan -
https://calendly.com/alanlazaros/30-minute-free-breakthrough-session?month=2025-04 
Free 30-Minute Podcast Breakthrough Session with Kevin -
https://calendly.com/kevinpalmieri/free-30-minute-podcast-breakthrough-session-with-kevin

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

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Alan@nextleveluniverse.com

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

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Show notes:
(2:39) Understanding self-worth and self-belief
(6:08) Victim, villain, hero, guide framework
(10:48) Real victims Vs. Playing the victim
(14:57) How guides create win-win outcomes
(17:53) Meet like-minded people and jumpstart your journey to achieving your dreams while optimizing your life. Join Next Level Group Coaching. https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/group-coaching/
(21:04) Burnout from overgiving
(26:07) Growth lessons from the hero phase
(28:41) Be the lighthouse, not the lifeboat
(30:04) Helping by becoming your best self
(34:06) Outro

Send a text to Kevin and Alan!

Kevin Palmieri:

I believe being a hero feels really, really, really good at the ego level, but unfortunately, being a hero often attracts victims, it often attracts villains and unfortunately, you're probably going to martyr yourself so somebody else can be more successful, and that just isn't sustainable and, honestly, it doesn't feel good.

Alan Lazaros:

Givers need to set limits because takers have none, and when you set a boundary, it's the people who were benefiting from you not having that boundary that will get the most upset welcome to next level university.

Kevin Palmieri:

I'm your host, kevin paul mary 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.

Alan Lazaros:

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

Kevin Palmieri:

Welcome to Next Level University, next Level Nation today for episode number 2053, how being a hero is actually hurting you. So we literally just got off of group coaching and we realized that most of the members of group coaching are people that really, really like to help other people, but oftentimes they martyr themselves to help other people, and Alan and I have both been through that journey. That was a big piece of this, I remember. I remember one time one of the reasons I quit smoking weed in like 2020 One of the reasons I quit smoking weed in like 2020 was because I literally told my buddy. I said I have to make sure if anybody in Instagram DMs me, I can answer. It's like one of the reasons I stopped smoking weed, cause I wanted to make sure if anybody ever messaged me I'd be there to answer. Does that come from a noble?

Alan Lazaros:

place.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah for sure. Does that also come from like a significance driven place? Definitely possible. Does it come from a core wounding, trauma response place? Definitely possible. I think the most important thing is it's not sustainable If we were to label victim, villain, hero, guide, victim. Oftentimes let's just do self-belief and self-worth. A victim is somebody who usually has really low self-belief, really low self-worth. I don't feel very valuable. I don't feel like much is going to happen for me. I don't think I'm capable of much. Unfortunately, the world tends to take advantage of that person, Unfortunately.

Alan Lazaros:

For the new listeners, can we articulate self-belief and self-worth? Hammer it, hammer it. We often use. Self-belief is your certainty that you can build the castle. Self-worth is how much you believe you deserve to live in it and you protect it and honor it. And I often use the metaphor of someone with low self-worth will build the castle and then invite their friends over and let their friends spill beer on the carpets and ruin the towels and spill beer on the couch and they just trash the place and they don't have the courage to say anything about it.

Kevin Palmieri:

Perfect, okay so in this case, the victim has very little self-belief and very little self-worth. The uh will go in the the right order. The hero is somebody who has very low self-worth but very high self-belief. So I can save this person, even if it literally kills me to do it. And again, we're talking like energetically. If you know, if a fight breaks out in a mall and there's a kid that's about to get hurt, you want to be a hero. Awesome, I don't think that's a bad thing. Yeah, agreed. And also you might get hurt too. So there is a downside to that, right, that's. That's why it's hard. Then you have the guide. So a guide is somebody who has really high self-belief and really high self-worth healthily high self-belief, healthily high self-worth, not delusional. But this is somebody who has gone through the journey of being a victim, being a hero, and then they've gotten to the guide stage. And then, where I think all of us unfortunately go through a phase, is when you're a villain. A villain is somebody who is low in both. Oh no, what is?

Alan Lazaros:

a villain is villain is inflated self-worth.

Kevin Palmieri:

And inflated self-belief. So deep down they don't believe in themselves. But you're jeffing in real time.

Alan Lazaros:

But they have inflated, over-validated, entitled self-worth. So a villain is someone who believes they are better than others. A villain is someone who lacks humility. A villain is someone who believes they are deserving of things with minimal effort, and they think so in film or literature. We'll use film just because I watch more movies than I do read fiction books. In film the villain is usually arrogant, usually deeply insecure but pretending not to be, and usually they are bullies. They think they're entitled, they think they deserve something because of the color of their skin or because they have a certain last name or because their daddy or their mommy was a certain person. It's always someone who basically doesn't appreciate the throne or the opportunity or whatever.

Kevin Palmieri:

It's someone who's an ungrateful person, an ungrateful, entitled, spoiled brat so to, and we've all been there to a degree, I think. Right Like we all go through the phase, I think a lot of us think we want to be heroes, because heroes solve the problems. Heroes save people. Guides help people save themselves nice, and those are two very different things. And I was thinking of batman uh, was it the dark night? I think it was the dark night where one of the scenes christian bale wakes up in bed and alfred goes in and he's got bruises all over him and it was like rough night last night or whatever, and they were talking about how he got bit by a dog or whatever. You'd probably remember the freaking scene better than I would.

Alan Lazaros:

I do.

Kevin Palmieri:

But that is the downside of being a villain. That's the downside of being a hero. Sorry, it's been a long freaking day. You'd think I'd know it. Literally, we just did an hour and a half session on it. Think I'd fucking remember them. My brain is cooked. That is the downside of being a hero. That is the downside of being a hero, because what you're doing as a hero is you are literally using your pain to help other people avoid that pain. But it's not super sustainable.

Kevin Palmieri:

Two thoughts on this. One anytime somebody reaches out to you and says I need you run in the opposite direction, because that person most likely is looking for a hero, not looking for a guide. That's one thought I, also for any dream chasers out there that are in a similar category to what we are. I had a client message me today and he said hey, man, how do you know how much to charge for like a speech or something? And I was like yeah, dude, it's a great question. He's like is it like you know, if you're coaching somebody, it's X amount of dollars, but if you're speaking to 10 people, you just charge less or more depending on the audience. And I said it depends on a lot of things.

Kevin Palmieri:

But I think this is why so many people tell you to kind of charge more than you're worth, because it feels bad to say honestly no dude, you're kind of kind of have to be a hero and you're just gonna have to go do this free and you're probably gonna have to do that a lot and then eventually it'll get to the place where you can be a guide. But I don't think you can really skip from, I don't think you can skip the hero part. I think that's a, that's a part of it. So, yeah, that's that was my thoughts to get today's episode rolling. Pardon the fact that I fucked up nine times the growth journey is victim, villain, hero, guide.

Alan Lazaros:

It's, and it's not necessarily in that order, but I do think that tends to be the order people go in. You're born, you are ignorant, you don't know yourself or the world yet, and a lot of times unjust treatment happens because you're too naive and too. This is when people lose their innocence, because there's someone who is stronger and smarter who takes advantage of you being innocent and naive and weak, so to speak. And then a lot of times and this is a really cool understanding, I heard this once Both the villain and the hero in every story get treated unjustly. This is the generational trauma. Let's just say hypothetically, person A and person B. Person A and person B both experienced sexual trauma when they were younger. Person A becomes the hero and says I'm going to become an activist to try to prevent sexual trauma in children. The other one says I was hurt, so fuck it, I'm going to hurt other people, and none of this is conscious by the way.

Alan Lazaros:

And so one of them develops this huge ego and becomes entitled and well, it happened to me, so I'm going to do it to others. And the other one is trying to prevent it. It's all the story we tell ourselves. It's all the reaction to trauma. And if you've ever seen a film where you kind of resonate a little bit with the villain because they have, it's understandable. A little bit like if you've ever seen a movie, kevin likes and again likes is probably a loose term, but John Wick, when his dog gets killed and then he goes and kills the person who killed his dog, that's obviously a villain. Move An eye for an eye and we all go blind. But whoever killed his dog, fuck that guy. So this is just the narrative of human beings. But to bring it less esoteric and more down to earth, where were you an actual victim?

Alan Lazaros:

There's a big difference between being a victim and playing a victim. Being a victim is you were treated unjustly and someone used power and control against you when you were weak or vulnerable or whatever. Playing the victim is oh, I'm helpless, there's nothing I can do about it. And I always say if you take back responsibility, you take back your ability to respond. And so I always say it wasn't my fault my dad died, it wasn't my fault, my stepdad left. But it is my responsibility to figure out how to make a life out of that, because I don't have a choice. And if I played the victim and just poor me, poor me, and hid behind all my excuses, then I wouldn't have been able to build a life. That's better. And I also understand. You know, some people actually are victims.

Alan Lazaros:

The idea here is that the story to the victim's, story to themselves, is learned helplessness. Someone needs to help me, someone needs to save me, please save me. The story of the villain is fuck everybody else, I'm going to get mine. The story of the hero is I can save you. I spent my a lot of my life there. It's this I'm going to. So the victim has nothing to give and thinks they have nothing to give. The villain is a taker who gets theirs. Quote, unquote. The martyr, the hero that we're talking about, a lot of our listeners has low self-worth and they give, give, give. But if a tree doesn't receive as much as it gives, it eventually dies. If I don't eat as much as I expend in energy, I die. And so every business. Every business has to earn money to stay in business. If all we ever did was give away free content.

Alan Lazaros:

I was on a podcast earlier about podcasting and he said well, how do you guys make money with the podcast? And I said we have two trains. We have the short-term profitable train and the long-term profitable train. The long-term profitable train is building a brand, next level university brand. The podcast is free, social media is free, monthly meetups are free, book club is free.

Alan Lazaros:

We have a bunch of free stuff for people who want to succeed and personal development. We also have paid stuff. Kevin's a podcast coach, podcast producer. I'm a business coach and I help you grow your business. We have group coaching, all this other stuff. So we have some free and some paid, some free, some paid, some free, some paid, some free, some paid.

Alan Lazaros:

The free builds relationships with our target audience and some of them, I said, it's inspiration, motivation, education and accountability. The deeper you get in Kevin and I's life, the higher the accountability, the better and customized the coaching is and the more value. So the deeper you go, the more value, but the so it's it's inspiration, motivation, education and accountability and the idea of in the beginning we were doing everything for free and we didn't make any money. And we started coaching for free. And I think in the beginning you were doing everything for free and we didn't make any money and we started coaching for free. And I think in the beginning you got to do that to build a brand and to build a business, but ultimately eventually it became. Kev came to me he said we got to pay our bills. Like, I need to pay my bills, what are we going to do? And we started getting paid and we started charging and then we ramped up from there. It's boom, boom, boom. Okay. So now we have an 18 person team.

Alan Lazaros:

We have to make sure we're making enough money to pay for all this and it's a snowball. So you give 10, and this is in the business world. It's 10x the value for one, 10th the price. So if you make a $10 investment in us, we're going to give you $100 worth of value. That's the goal, anyway. So group coaching is a certain price. We try to 10x the value you get so that you earn that much more long term than you invest. And that's an investment. That's watering the plants. You invest water into the plant. The plant grows at the expense of themselves, never receiving. The villain is only ever taking, never giving, and the victim isn't giving or taking. The guide is give and receive, give and receive, give and receive, but always give more than you receive.

Alan Lazaros:

When we give a free speech, it's not just altruistic. Kevin and I give a free speech, but we also get to practice our craft and we also have new listeners. I've spoken three times One was paid, two were free in the last six months. More than that, actually, probably four or five times. I'm giving, but I get to practice speaking. I get to pour into the lives of other people. We also get more listeners. More listeners means more potential clients.

Alan Lazaros:

So it's a win, win, win, win, win, win, win scenario. The guide creates the win, win, win where no one is losing. The hero creates the win, lose, so the victim is lose, lose. The villain is I get mine and you lose, lose, lose. The villain is I get mine and you lose. The hero is I lose but you win. And the guide is we both win, kevin and I both win. The listener wins and we win, the business wins and the group coaching members win. It's the win-win scenario and I think that if everyone out there looks at their person's places, things and ideas in their life and they say where are the win-lose situations and where are the win-lose situations and where are the win-win situations?

Kevin Palmieri:

I've talked many times. I I had a friend who would call me all the time when he needed something. It was like I was the hero, I would help him solve his problems, but I, he was not capable of helping me solve mine, and so that's a. That wasn't. It wasn't sustainable. This is my thought, do you? I had a conversation with Alan recently and Alan has many clients and one of them is many of them listen to the podcast every day and I said, hey, one of your, this, this client, he's does the YouTube thing. He's on YouTube Right. I said I want to do a call with him and I was like, what I want to do a call with him and I was like what I want to do a call with him yeah, and do like a coaching

Kevin Palmieri:

call and I was like why? And I was like I don't know, I just want to. If he seems like a good dude, he's a big, he's a big piece of the community. I've had some conversation humble, humble dude. I learned something recently that I think might be valuable and I was like you think of like a paid coaching call? I was like, no, I just want, I just want to give it to them. I just want to like add value. I don't, yeah, no, I don't expect anything. I just want to add value. I think there's always going to be a part of me that has a little bit of hero. I don't, I don't want to ever lose that. That's important to me. Do I want that to be the majority? No, because yeah, if that's all you ever did.

Alan Lazaros:

You're in trouble. You're in trouble about a business, yeah yeah, but if you never did that, we wouldn't be in business.

Kevin Palmieri:

Well, that's a fulfilling part. Exactly, it's super fulfilling to go find somebody who was where you were at a certain point.

Alan Lazaros:

Did you?

Kevin Palmieri:

have that call yet no, it's tomorrow.

Alan Lazaros:

Nice.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah, it's tomorrow, nice. I'll probably bomb it and add no value, but I'll feel good about it. You definitely won't.

Alan Lazaros:

I'll feel good about it. He listens to you every day, so I'm sure it'll be good, maybe, or he hates me low-key, no, I'm just kidding.

Kevin Palmieri:

Next level nation. What is happening? If you've thought to yourself, I want to try coaching, but you don't really know where to start, group coaching would be a wonderful place for you. That's really why we created it in the first place. We start a new round every 90 days. So if you're hearing this, go to the website nextleveluniversecom, and we have the landing page where you can actually hold your spot right now. Even if there's a group going on right now, you can still lock your spot for the next one. The biggest thing that we've seen is, as we get closer and closer to the date, unfortunately, some people end up missing. The group fills up and they can't do it, and then they end up regretting that. So please head over to the website. The link will be in the show notes and we would love to see you there.

Kevin Palmieri:

I mean again, you're listening. I'm joking. I'm in a strange freaking mood. It's been a day for sure.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah, I don't know if it's ever going to be 100% zero, but I do know that it can feel really good, from a significance point, to be a hero, but it also, I think, it fucks with your self-worth because you almost never get the thanks or you never get the credit. Self-worth because you almost never get the thanks or you never get the credit. I remember I worked with certain people that they were just it just screwed with me so bad. It screwed with me so bad they were. They were just energy suckers. They just sucked energy and it was like no matter. It was never you did a good job, it was only when you do a bad job. But it wasn't that you did a bad job. It was that they were going through something and they needed you to save them in some way shape or it's weird, it's a strange, it's a. It's a strange thing.

Kevin Palmieri:

So if you're out there right now and you feel like you're in your hero phase, I would just say tread lightly, be aware of it and really figure out how do you feel after quote unquote saving someone. Again, I know we're not. I'm not talking about saving somebody's life. I'm talking about somebody needs you to throw them the life preserver, whenever it is that you do. If, if you're a photographer and somebody reaches out to you and it's like hey, I'm in trouble, I got this thing coming up. I had a photographer, they screwed me.

Kevin Palmieri:

Is there any way you can fill in? I'm not saying not to do that, but if that's all you ever do, yeah, exactly. And if you're doing it more for them all the time, then you're doing it for yourself. I don't I'm not saying you can't do that occasionally. We just have to figure out like what's the, what's the positive, sustainable ratio for you, for money, for self-worth, for self-belief, for energetic? There's a whole nother thing we could get into where people know if you're being a martyr for them and there's a certain set of humans who will just keep coming back to you what Alan said in the very beginning givers have to set limits because takers have none. That is an accurate understanding. And if you think, oh, I'm going to give and I'm going to give and I'm going to give, I'm not saying that's a bad thing. It's a really good way to end up tired and burnt out and a lot of other I always talk about the optimal stopping problem.

Alan Lazaros:

Last piece you put the nachos in for three minutes, they burn. You put them in for 30 seconds and they're. The cheese isn't done.

Kevin Palmieri:

I got a bone to pick with you. You talk shit in the past, gently. Not real shit about how, when we were talking about systems thinking so input, output measure, whatever, I would talk about an egg sandwich, yeah, and you're like dude, dumbest shit ever. Now you're talking about nachos. What happened?

Alan Lazaros:

I've seen the error of my weight.

Kevin Palmieri:

oh nice, okay, never told me, told me, never once told me he just starts talking about it on the fucking podcast. Never once told me behind the scenes Just starts talking about it. You know no the truth is.

Alan Lazaros:

It's a simple way to explain it.

Kevin Palmieri:

I would connect that to nachos in the microwave I do.

Alan Lazaros:

Most likely, I think that is something. I now understand that if you connect as a speaker I did this on group coaching. How bad did I bomb on this? I connected something people don't understand to try to explain something people don't understand.

Kevin Palmieri:

That's a tough one.

Alan Lazaros:

Everyone knows nachos.

Alan Lazaros:

Everyone knows nachos, yeah, so yeah, it's a little simple and sometimes juvenile, but it is what it is. Baby, I love nachos, yeah. So, yeah, it's a little simple and sometimes juvenile, but it is what it is. Baby, I love nachos. So I'm on board. I don't do egg sammies in the way that you do them in the air fryer, missing out Right. I'm not against them, though. Not to mention that was a training, this is a podcast. They're different. I'm just saying Okay, I appreciate it. So, anyways, you put the nacho optimal stopping problem upside down, horseshoe on a graph too much, too little, goldilocks, real quick. You put the nachos in for three minutes, burnt, too long. Burnt cheese, plasticky, nasty, 30 seconds, not melted.

Alan Lazaros:

Giving you can be an over-giver, for sure, an over-giver Hero. Giving. You can be an over giver, for sure, an over giver hero. You also can be an under giver. That photographer, if they always say no, yeah, hypothetically. If they always say no, because here's the deal, let's say that photographer does show up for that person and does a great job. Referral, that's a great referral source. Maybe their friend sees the photo, oh, interesting. And then you get more calls, more calls. See, if you don't have any demand, you gotta give and you shouldn't do it just for that. I always say there's a primary intention and secondary intention. The primary intention should be to add value and to help. But if only all you ever do is help and never receive anything in return, you're going to burn to the ground. That is not sustainable giving. I always tell Kev we are generous people, we have to be sustainable generosity. I don't want to be. No. Kev wants to give a $300 tip on a whim and it's not sustainable.

Kevin Palmieri:

I know it's bad.

Alan Lazaros:

Anyways and again, we will allocate funds for that so that you can do that sustainably. But at the end of the day, if you overgive and never receive, you are a martyr and you will burn down and you will no longer have anything to give. If you never give, you won't have any people that you can help and you won't have demand and you won't. So at the end of the day, you got to find five. We call it the drive to five. Too much, too little. The drive to five is whatever's optimal for you.

Alan Lazaros:

Now, what's optimal in the beginning of your journey as a photographer is different than what's optimal later. If you have 500 people in your DMs looking for photography, don't give it all away for free, because you're going to burn to the ground. If you have zero people, you might have to go and do some free work to try to get some reps and some mastery and to impact people so you can get referrals right. So you got to get some momentum going. So it depends on where you're at in your journey and that's why it's so hard on podcasts and speeches and trainings to give advice, because and that's why group coaching is of so much value because we get to know you as an individual in the group and then we can coach the group. And that's why one-on-one is even more valuable, because it's completely customized to exactly where you're at in the journey right now.

Kevin Palmieri:

Question before, and this is a 30 second answer. If you go, if you go 31 seconds, I'm going to throw my laptop through the window. I'm serious, would you rather? Would you rather be an over giver or an under giver over, whoa shit, that was the fastest answer you've ever given. Over same, yeah, man, same. And there you learn lessons. You learn more lessons from overgiving than undergiving 100%.

Alan Lazaros:

Right, 100%. You learn more lessons, okay, and it's more fulfilling and it's the higher road, but that road will burn you right to the ground if you overdo it.

Kevin Palmieri:

It's a good problem to have. It's a good problem to have Potentially, it's a good skill to have. I mean, if you're capable of really helping other people, that's a good problem to have. That's what business is the solution then becomes filtering correctly filtering and deploying correctly same yeah, 100.

Alan Lazaros:

How many skills have we developed by trying to help people? One of the reasons I'm even a good coach is because I tried to help all my friends. Growing up I've always tried. I helped my ex-girlfriend try to build her resume and cover letter and achieve. I've been trying to help people achieve their dreams my whole life. So while a lot of that was hero, now I'm benefiting from it because I learned how to help people. I learned how to coach. I learned how to influence.

Kevin Palmieri:

I would concur. Same, same for me, same for me. There's a lot of lessons in there, but again, everything has a season. So take the lessons from the season, take the growth from the season, take, take everything, take all the benefits from the season, but when the benefits, the detriments, are increasing too much, it's time to. It's time to move. It's time to move and that's what we all aspire to. We all want to be a guide in whatever it is but a guide is whatever it is, but a guide is my next level lesson.

Kevin Palmieri:

Honestly, sometimes being a guide feels worse than being a hero, because you know you're not going to save everybody. Whoa, it's not about. It's not about. It's about helping someone. When you, when you help somebody, learn how to save themselves, there's a lot of failing. There's a lot of failure, there's a lot of missteps, there's a lot of falling down and that sucks. That sucks to see you can't save someone from the pain. Even if you're, even if you're in, like, in the hero phase, you're not really going to save people from pain. They're going to feel pain in some way yeah so that would be mine.

Kevin Palmieri:

What is yours, good sir?

Alan Lazaros:

well said. I do think it's harder to be the guide because sometimes you have to sit back and watch people you love go through challenging shit. My next level lesson uh, figure out which end you're on. Do you tend to overgive If you're listening to this podcast, that's most likely the case or do you tend to underdo it? And you could really dial up some generosity and get some momentum going. Which end are you on and do you have to dial up or down? And last, last last thing, the metaphor that I think lands really well I used to take my ship into the storm to try to save my friends and family and I would crash in the storm myself.

Alan Lazaros:

And the guide is a lighthouse that can guide people home but isn't going to do it to their own detriment. And I think people do. They need a lighthouse and and be someone of value who is available to be seen and you can guide people. And I think admiration even though people won't tell you, I think admiration influences people.

Alan Lazaros:

There was someone I've told the story in the past of this bodybuilder who, like he, inspired me so much and got me motivated and he didn't even know it and I just hope that he was just being his best. He was funny, he was good looking, he was kind, he never mistreated me, he was jacked, he was just very admirable. He was just awesome and it just inspired the hell out of me, and so him being his best and reaching his potential inspired me to reach mine, and then, 10 years later, we had a connection. It was really cool. So you never know who you're inspiring and, honestly, if you're pouring into and investing in your own potential, I actually think that you can help more people that way than trying to run around saving everybody. To be honest, I would concur.

Kevin Palmieri:

What's going to keep more people dry? Designing and inventing an umbrella, or running around putting something over something? Designing the umbrella?

Alan Lazaros:

Exactly Ten times out of ten.

Kevin Palmieri:

I got a lot of umbrella analogies. For some reason.

Alan Lazaros:

I think our metaphors are coming up. Is that what it is? A?

Kevin Palmieri:

metaphor or simile or example, or fucking nacho cheese plate.

Alan Lazaros:

Metaphor and simile.

Kevin Palmieri:

Simile is a comparison using like or as 100%. Is that what it is? Yeah, hey, this guy didn't have to cheat in English, baby, not this guy. I had to cheat in math, though Heavy.

Alan Lazaros:

Shout out to Doug Never cheated in math, I only cheated in math. Had to. That is probably the difference between us, right there.

Kevin Palmieri:

It explains a lot. It explains a lot. Never once cheated in math. I'm not proud of it, but also I would do it the same way. I wouldn't change a thing. I know that's probably alarming, but like a g's got to do what a g's got to do, victim mindset, not good at math, not super smart, blind in one eye, like what do you fucking want last piece?

Alan Lazaros:

no, fixed mindset, yes, is usually the victim and the villain. 100% Growth mindset is hero and guide, and I think when you develop a growth mindset, you end up being more abundant. And then you give, give, give and you realize you can't sustain it. And so it's a journey You're not going to skip steps, like maybe it takes you till 50. For me, I don't feel like I started becoming a guide until my 30s.

Kevin Palmieri:

To be honest, Well, you're young in the game, you know I mean depends who you compare it to.

Alan Lazaros:

I would have preferred to have gone through this journey faster than that, For sure. Yeah, I mean, everybody would right. Yeah, of course.

Kevin Palmieri:

I would love to be at the end of the journey now, but that's not the way it works. No, no, no. Why would you want to do that? Be cool.

Alan Lazaros:

To see what it's like Now. You have no time.

Kevin Palmieri:

No time left, I'll take the time machine back. The time machine can go both ways. Okay, the one I'm designing can, at least. I know some of these other people. In the movies it only goes one way. That's the movies. That it only goes one way. That's dumb. If you're smart enough to design a time, alan hates when I talk about this. If, if you're smart enough to design a time machine that can go into the future, you better be able to figure out how to get back 100, but I don't believe time travel is doable you and I are on differing fronts on that.

Kevin Palmieri:

I do believe teleportation oh, interesting.

Alan Lazaros:

yeah, I think that will be a thing eventually, that like Willy Wonka style. I was thinking more Star Trek.

Kevin Palmieri:

Never seen it.

Alan Lazaros:

They warp up. You never seen the ones with Chris Pine.

Kevin Palmieri:

No, he's a stud, but no, I've never seen him. They're legit. I'm going to warp up to my kitchen because my cats are outside fucking screaming at the door right now. Yeah, we got to go. We do have to go. All right, if you're looking for guidance I couldn't think of like the word I was looking for in podcasting We'll have my link in the show notes for a free 30 minute podcast break the session. I know the majority of you aren't podcasters but hey, maybe you feel like you have a mission. You have a purpose that's connected to adding value to other people. Love to help you, totally free. You're not going to sell you any shit. Don't worry, alan will have his link for a free 30 minute business breakthrough session. Next level business, business accelerator I don't know what we're calling it nowadays. We're working on some brand shit. I don't know why I'm swearing so much. I'm off the freaking deep end. We'll have that in the show notes as well. Yeah, all that.

Alan Lazaros:

If you're out there and you are early in your entrepreneurial journey and you are an entrepreneur and you do need to start generating revenue, like we did reach out, I will help you set up the train tracks for success. To Kevin's point, I'm not going to sell you anything. The whole call will be adding value. On the call. The link will be in the show notes Free 30 minutes.

Kevin Palmieri:

We promise it'll be more valuable than this podcast episode was 100%. As always, we love you. We appreciate you, grateful for each and every one of you at NLU. We don't have fans, we have family. We will talk to you all tomorrow.

Alan Lazaros:

Keep it Next Level, next Level Nation. We'll talk to you all tomorrow. Keep it Next Level, next Level.

Kevin Palmieri:

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