Next Level University

Your Community Raises Your Awareness More Than Anything Else (2095)

• Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

Share episode

In today’s episode of Next Level University, hosts Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros explore the surprising power of community and how being around driven, like-minded people can elevate your standards, mindset, and motivation more than anything else. From accountability groups to masterminds, they share personal stories and practical tips to help you rethink your inner circle. If you're ready to grow, it might be time to grow together.

Learn more about:
Next Level Nation - https://www.facebook.com/groups/459320958216700
Next Level Book Club - https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMkcuiupjIqE9QlkptiKDQykRtKyFB5Jbhc

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

_____________________

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

_______________________

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.

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

Facebook ✍
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/

_______________________

Show notes:
(2:18) Early influence and risky choices
(4:13) Awareness through group conversations
(8:25) Motivation from team accountability
(10:48) What your reference group reveals
(12:19) Next Level Dreamliner: The planner, agenda, journal, and habit tracker to rule them all. Get a copy: https://a.co/d/9fPpxEt
(14:44) Signs of a strong community
(20:04) Relationships built on goals
(22:18) Outro

Send a text to Kevin and Alan!

Kevin Palmieri:

I never really understood why being around other people was that valuable, and I know it sounds funny, but if you said, kev, spending more time around people who do the same thing as you is going to pay off way more than you think there's 0% chance I would have believed you, as dumb as that may sound.

Alan Lazaros:

I said this to one of my clients. He played D2 football and he was a rock star in high school and I asked him. I said when were you the most motivated? And he said back when I was trying to play college ball. There's a lot of reasons for that. We're going to get into that today.

Kevin Palmieri:

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 level university, next level nation. Today, for episode number 2095, your community raises your awareness more than anything else. Where did you learn to drink? The people around you the first time you smoked weed? I'm I'm not going to guarantee it, but you probably weren't by yourself. You're probably with questions. The first time I drank I I mixed captain morgan and a bunch of sugar into a poland springs bottle and then we lit a fireball. We lit a tennis ball on fire and threw it at each other. That was the first time I ever drank. Oh my god, yeah, it was awesome brother it was fucking awesome.

Alan Lazaros:

Kevin and I came from a interesting place. It was awesome, first time I ever drank. My sister was older and she threw fucking ragers at our house and she had all older friends. So she was three years older than me. So I was 14 or 13, 14 and she was 17 and her friends were 21, 23, 24, just wild parties, big, big parties and our neighbors, they had, uh, older brothers. One of my friends, mark, had older brothers that were friends with her and it was just a party house on a lake and uh, kiki and I my friend in freshman year we raged and we didn't know what the hell we were doing, but we were with the cool kids at the time.

Alan Lazaros:

And by the way, I no longer think those are the cool kids.

Kevin Palmieri:

First time I ever smoked weed was out of a crushed up soda can in the woods. Don't do that. Don't do that. But again, you want to know something funny? Slash sad the person I drank with the first time and I smoked weed with the first time with the same person. It's not a coincidence? No, it's not.

Alan Lazaros:

There was one time.

Kevin Palmieri:

Welcome to Next Level Degenerate University pills. But who do you think it was? With Same person? I don't think that's a coincidence. So there was a question in the next level fitness accountability group the other day and somebody was asking about caffeine intake.

Alan Lazaros:

And I was thinking a lot about drugs here, man. Yeah, we are talking a lot about drugs.

Kevin Palmieri:

Caffeine's a good one, though. Caffeine's an okay drug, I guess, as long as you know how to use it. As my last remaining.

Kevin Palmieri:

As alan sips his caffeine of the day, somebody asked how much caffeine are you intaking on a daily basis to the group? As alan's camera freaks out as it normally does hasn't had time to fix it. This episode is going to be a shit fest, I can tell already. I said to alan one of the benefits of being in the next level fitness accountability group is not necessarily that you're gonna learn anything. It's not necessarily that you're going to learn anything. It's not necessarily that we're going to teach you anything. You're going to be around people who are doing the same thing as you, so your awareness will get raised.

Kevin Palmieri:

If somebody says well, I set this goal and I, you know, I realized it probably wasn't good for me, that might help you adjust the goal that you're going to set. When I said I'm taking 300 to 350 milligrams per day of caffeine, maybe that raises somebody's awareness of oh okay, I thought 150 milligrams was a lot. I think the daily recommendation is 400 milligrams. That's the max, but I know people that do way more than that.

Kevin Palmieri:

If somebody posts something about their workout, you might get an answer to a question that you didn't even know you had, or you might get an awareness or a consciousness that allows you to ask a better question, and I think that's one of the biggest benefits of being in a specific community, and that's one that I never had, because I was always afraid to ask the question and I assumed everybody else was afraid to get to ask the question too. So I probably wasn't great to be in a community with, because I wasn't going to give you any new awareness based on my questions that's really shifted uh, I still don't like asking questions, I don't know.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah, it's shifted for sure, but that's not my natural. My natural is not to be curious and ask questions. I don't think. I think that's something I've just developed over time that was the point of the hyperconscious podcast the point of it in the beginning was just to have cool conversations, so it was like I guess there's a difference between asking a question to one person versus asking a question to a group.

Alan Lazaros:

That's, that's different for me I want to give a huge shout out. Today the fitness group's on fire. Kevin and I just kind of randomly started doing this, yeah, yeah, it's awesome, shout out if I mispronounce anyone's first names, I apologize.

Alan Lazaros:

I will do first names only jacklyn, bianca. Carla richard. No, I know, not, not sure, not sure, not sure. Amy Bianca Carla Richard. No, not sure, not sure, not sure. Amy, my man, greg. Amy again, greg again. Tanya Kev me, amy Steph. What's happening? These are the people that are in Mike Mike. What's happening? Another Mike, two different Mikes, one's Michael, one's Mike Claudia. Shout out to you, odette, what's going on. I don't feel like we give enough shout outs.

Kevin Palmieri:

Evelyn Joined today Did she? That was yesterday, yesterday. Yeah, I saw it today.

Alan Lazaros:

Who else we got? These are the people that are engaging lizzie, lizzie. What's happening, lizzie. And then we've got I'm just scrolling through. We got 42 people in the group now. So if I missed you, 43, 43, if I missed you, I apologize. These are just the latest posts in here.

Alan Lazaros:

Again, if you want inspiration and motivation, dm kevin or myself, we used to put the link in the show notes. We stopped doing that because we started getting a bunch of bots or whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and so we're not going to do that, but reach out on Instagram or Facebook. I promise you this you will be in a community of people that will help inspire and motivate you. I looked this up earlier because I always talk about reference group. You say community and on Business Growth University, we're talking about branding, marketing, sales, client delivery and community. The next episode's community, which is kind of why I didn't want to do this one, to be honest with you, because you can just go over to Business Growth University to talk about community. I am joking. The reference group matters because it significantly influences your beliefs, behaviors, attitudes and goals.

Alan Lazaros:

I mentioned in the opening a client of mine. He's on the team as well Brandon Paying client team member. Awesome Brandon, what's up. He played D2 college football. He was a rock star in high school, running back, and Brandon wouldn't mind me sharing this. He is a much smaller stature than running back and Brandon wouldn't mind me sharing this. He is a much smaller stature than most football players. Statistically speaking, the chances of him playing in college were unbelievably low. They already are. Never mind for his size, right, because I think he's. Do you know how tall he is?

Kevin Palmieri:

5'4", something like that I think he's 5'4" 5'5". Him and I are very similar height. Yeah 5'4", 5'5". Him and I are very similar height yeah, 5'4", 5'5".

Alan Lazaros:

And I remember when I was coaching him way back this is early he's been on the team for at least five years, if not six, and early 2020,. I remember saying when were you the most motivated, when were you the most dialed in? When were you the most on fire? That's a question I like to ask people. And he said, dude, when I was trying to play college ball. And I said, okay, well, let's explain, let's break it down and I've talked about this on the show before you had an offensive coach, you had a defensive coach, you had a head coach, you had teammates, you were named team captain, you had your grandfather rooting for you, you had your father there with you, you had your family counting on you, you had accountability, you had practices Monday through Friday and a game every Sunday. So you had why, power and you had motivation and you had structure and community around you. The whole school was counting on you. You're going to be 10 times more motivated than you are by yourself.

Alan Lazaros:

And I actually broke that down and deconstructed what organized sports do, and that's actually how we created the group coaching program, because in group coaching right now, we have eight people coming tonight, 10 people in the group two aren't going to come and they're going to watch virtual, but the reason why our group coaching members feel on fire and feel like they're in momentum and feel inspired and motivated and educated is because they're in a group. There's something very powerful about small groups and this fitness accountability group is definitely that as well, and so I looked this up. These are the I use reference group all the time because there was this Harvard business review study where they took they said that up to 90% of your future success is based on your reference group AKA who you unconsciously compare to. So if you listen to this show every day, you are comparing unconsciously to Kevin and I, at least to some extent. We track habits, we track metrics, we're consistent, we believe in consistency, we believe in discipline, we believe in hard work, we believe in work ethic, we believe right. So we believe the next level matters more than the current level. We believe in you and we believe in your future and we believe in ourselves and we believe in self-worth and self-belief and all these things. These are all norms, social norms. So this is what came up your reference group, aka your community, sets social norms. It shapes your identity. It influences motivation, it affects decision-making, it reinforces and challenges old beliefs and it impacts emotional well-being Some of the places in the world where people are the most happy.

Alan Lazaros:

I'm on a podcast after this in Iceland and when I was doing my research I was watching one of the episodes and they were talking about how Iceland is statistically one of the happiest places on earth, based on all the surveys, and the episode was about why that is. It's the. It's the culture. We don't talk about culture on next level university because this isn't a business podcast, even though it probably feels like it sometimes.

Alan Lazaros:

Culture at nlu, on the team culture is who the fuck you are and the type of person you are and the group that like attracts, like birds of a feather, flock together all that kind of stuff. So, kevin and I believe in humility, work, ethic, discipline, all this stuff. If you're a next leveler, if you're a next level fitness squad, if you're in next level group coaching, there's an identity that comes with that. It's unconscious, but it's there and no one wants to let the team down. You have to leverage that. If you're a bodybuilder, that's an identity and you hang out with other bodybuilders and there's a lot of things in the bodybuilding world that a lot of people outside that world think is really in the bodybuilding world. So many people take steroids in the real world, in the regular world, no one does. One of the things that I hated about the bodybuilding world is that everyone else was on fucking steroids when I wasn't. It bothered me so much because I'm competing with these people, right, but at the end of the day, there's an identity with every community, whether it's conscious or not.

Alan Lazaros:

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:

My point for this was being in a community is probably one of the only things where you don't have to. I won't say you don't have to do anything, but by being in the community you're going to get exposure to awareness that you didn't have that. So there might've been a bunch of people thinking like how much caffeine should I I be take? Should I take a pre-workout? Should I do this? Should I do this? The fact that that person asked that might have answered a bunch of people's questions without them having to ask it, and I think that's huge, especially if you're somebody who has lower self-belief and you're not ready to ask that question. Yet if you're in a group, there's a bunch of people that probably think the same thoughts and they're probably at a similar level than you and they probably have the similar questions. That was my point for the whole thing. I think it's just a cool extra benefit on top of all the other stuff Accountability, and you don't want to let the group down. You're far more willing to do something for somebody else as opposed to yourself, all of that. But if you're in a group, it's almost like you get to see the brain of the group, and the brain of the group helps you grow your brain and it's one of the best ways to do it.

Kevin Palmieri:

And that's just one that I never, I never understood. I just didn't get it. If you're somebody, if you're let's let's just use this analogy If you're like a professional driver, like a formula one driver, you being in a driving group is probably not going to be super valuable for you, because nobody really knows what it's like to be you and you're probably more skilled than almost anybody else. But if you're Somebody, if you're a kid who's just learning to drive you're 16 and you're just learning to drive there's so much value. Almost everybody's ahead of you, so it's just, hopefully, wisdom. Again, you have to take that with a grain of sand, a grain of salt, whatever the fucking saying is.

Alan Lazaros:

Lately you've been coming with topics that we used to talk about, but I feel like you understand them now at a deeper level, Like when you say you didn't really really understand when we used to talk about masterminding. That's what mastermind is.

Kevin Palmieri:

It's, it's a bigger brain the whole is greater than the sum of its parts yeah, the people that we very honestly, a lot of the people we masterminded with didn't know that much. Yeah, so I always felt like we were giving and there was. I just wasn't getting what I wanted back. Not that these people don't. When I say they didn't know that much, I mean they didn't know what I was trying to learn. We were in a lot of podcast masterminds with people that just didn't know that much about podcasting and we didn't know it at the time. Yeah, I've been in fitness masterminds.

Alan Lazaros:

Nah, you know, I, I, I how does someone know if they're in a good group, a good community?

Kevin Palmieri:

Every day, you leave the community either learning something that you didn't know or questioning something that you didn't question. I think that's a great place to start.

Alan Lazaros:

And motivated. A big part of life is just staying motivated.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah, for me, the masterminds never motivated me. There were always things that I didn't want to do. It was always like, ah fuck, that's on the calendar this week.

Alan Lazaros:

No, I know, but being around people that are driven is very motivating.

Alan Lazaros:

It's called primal triggers. Yeah for sure you don't want to be the only non-in-shape friend. No, definitely not. I was on with a client yesterday. Shout out to you, brother. And no, definitely not. I was on with a client yesterday. Shout out to you, brother, and I asked him. I said, brother, how many times are you the most out of shape in the room? And he said almost never.

Alan Lazaros:

I said give me one friend who you know in person who's in better shape than you. He's like um. And he gave me a name and we looked him up on Facebook and he wasn't. I said how much more in shape is he? He's like meh, slightly more. I said, dude, that's, that's not a good thing. If you've ever heard me say you got to get around people that make you uncomfortable at the ego level, what I mean by that is you got to get around Kevin. You said this to me behind the scenes, dude, you got to get into a gym that has some actual lifters in it, like you're in a small town, little big fish, small pond, right, and that's so true it's unconscious, it's so important yeah, and and again, I'm not two minutes away, I'm not gonna you know, but we do have one gym that has some monsters in it that we go to usually once a week.

Alan Lazaros:

haven't been lately, but at the end of the day, this reference group thing I feel like did you not like being a part of? Okay, did you not like being around people that were way ahead of you?

Kevin Palmieri:

No, cause they weren't ahead of me. They just talked like they were. They weren't that far ahead of us. No, I love being around I. The workouts I used to have with my coach Justin were some of the best workouts ever. He is leagues ahead of me, leagues ahead of me.

Alan Lazaros:

Why do you think most people don't have a great community around them? I would argue that most people don't.

Kevin Palmieri:

Well, I agree. One, because you have to put yourself out there, and then two, having a great community around you does not necessarily mean that all the people think the same exact way that you do, and I think that's a common thing is you don't. You don't want to get into a group where you're super overwhelmed by being behind. It's all like for us. The fitness group is for everybody. Anybody who wants to improve in fitness Awesome. I don't care how you do it, I don't care you do you. I'm not going to preach about anything, you do you. And the entire group is focused on improving their fitness health. Awesome.

Kevin Palmieri:

Everybody does it in a little bit of a different way. Everybody. Some people are more consistent, some people are newer, some people have been doing it longer, whatever. But you have to be okay with potentially seeing me with my shirt off and maybe I'm in better shape than you and I can understand how that could be too much for some people, and you and I had that conversation in the beginning of dude. I'm afraid, as I get into better shape, people are going to not want to be part of this anymore because they're going to feel like maybe this isn't the group for them and I want this to be the group for them. I want this to be safe. I also want to be able to feel safe sharing my stuff, because if I can't share in this group, it's not going to work for me. So how do I juggle that? I don't know yet.

Alan Lazaros:

Yeah, I think what came up for me and I know we're going to jump how do you make sure your community is a byproduct? And this is going to. I think that some people's relationships are a byproduct of mutual core values. So, growing up, the stories Kevin and I opened with that was a byproduct of geography. I think everyone's relationships everyone, I think would benefit if more of their relationships were a byproduct of their goals. 100% that fitness group.

Alan Lazaros:

You're not in there to build relationships. Maybe you are, but you're in there for your goals first. Relationships second and I didn't understand early on that a lot of the people in my life were in relationship with me for lack of better phrasing friends, family, whatever. It was just to be in a relationship rather than friendship, whatever, rather than goals. And one of the things that I'm scared to share out loud, but I do think it's critical, is I don't think that you can achieve your dreams if they're really really high. I don't think that you can achieve your dreams if they're really really high, unless you flip that.

Alan Lazaros:

Kevin and I, most of our relationships are now a byproduct of our goals. The NLU team is a byproduct of a mutual beneficial goal. We are all trying to get to the next level. Our community, my community, growing up was not good in my opinion, not good for my goals. I'll say that Good for fun. For sure we had a lot of fun, but that's it. And now I feel like I have a community, a global community around me. That's really really good for me, aka good for my goals and my aspirations, and I just I think most people end up being friends with people out of geography or out of their past rather than the future they want, and I think that's a wildly detrimental. I felt for that for sure, and that was life as a byproduct of who you're, of your next level or maybe of your previous level, because if it's of your previous level, you might be in some trouble, well, and it's easier to find people than it's ever been.

Kevin Palmieri:

Facebook groups are, I mean. That's why we talk about Next Level Nation all the time. That's why we talk about the accountability group. You can literally be in a group of people that you'll never meet in person, and it's kind of the first time in history not the last, however many years but it's different than it used to be. It's not just based on geography. You don't have to hang out with the people that are next door. You have to mastermind with the people next door. You can listen to podcasts, watch YouTube channels, all that stuff. So we'll have all that stuff in the show notes below. If you are looking for a community Next Level Fitness Accountability Group, reach out to Alan or myself. Our stuff is in the show notes. And then Next Level Nation, private Facebook group growth every single day. Awareness every single day. Conversation every single day. Community every single day. We'll have the links in the show notes.

Alan Lazaros:

Speaking of community, if you want to be a part of Book Club, we're reading reset by dan heath. We're actually on the last chapter every saturday 12 30 pm eastern standard time. We have read 20 books together. It's been over four years. We're picking another book. There will be a poll in next level nation with three options for our next book. The link to register for book club will be in the show notes. That is a link on zoom, totally free. Add it to your calendar.

Kevin Palmieri:

Boom as always, we love you. We Grateful for each and every one of you. In an 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.

Kevin Palmieri:

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

Alan Lazaros:

We mean it when we say family. If you ever need anything, please reach out to us directly. Everything you need to get a hold of us is in the show notes.

Kevin Palmieri:

Thank you again and we will talk to you tomorrow.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Alan Lazaros

Host
Head Shot

Kevin Palmieri

Host