When You’re In Over Your Head You Learn To Swim (2130)

What if the pressure you’re under is exactly what you need to grow? In today’s powerful episode, Kevin and Alan get real about what it feels like to be thrown into situations you're not ready for and how that pressure can create the foundation for lifelong skills, character, and clarity. From managing impossible jobs to leading teams and facing harsh truths, this is a reminder that sometimes being in over your head is the best place to be.

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:
(4:44) Realizing it wasn’t all your fault
(6:47) Why we misjudge our performance
(10:27) High standards and hard conversations
(14:32) At NLU, your success is our purpose. Join our Monthly Meet-up every first Thursday of the month for tools, insight, and the spark to move forward. https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/NzwOxCMxTDyRJg4CLJS1qg
(16:48) Pressure creates the growth you need
(19:07) The missing piece
(23:15) From $120/hour to $11/hour
(25:44) There’s no shortcut to success
(27:17) Outro

🎙️ Hosted by Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

Next Level University is a top-ranked daily podcast for dream chasers and self-improvement lovers. With over 2,100 episodes, we help you level up in life, love, health, and wealth one day at a time. Subscribe for real, honest, no-fluff growth every single day.

Chapters

• 4:44 Realizing it wasn’t all your fault
• 6:47 Why we misjudge our performance
• 10:27 High standards and hard conversations
• 14:32 At NLU, your success is our purpose. Join our Monthly Meet-up every first Thursday of the month for tools, insight, and the spark to move forward.
• 16:48 Pressure creates the growth you need
• 19:07 The missing piece
• 23:15 From $120/hour to $11/hour
• 25:44 There’s no shortcut to success
• 27:17 Outro

Transcript

Kevin Palmieri

(0:00) When I am really high emotionally or really low emotionally, I reflect. (0:04) You've heard me say that a million times. (0:06) I was reflecting last weekend and I went all the way back to 2016 emails.(0:12) Okay, I'm perusing Gmail from 2016 and that was my inspiration to talk about what we're going to talk about today.

Alan Lazaros

(0:20) We used to say this all the time on the Hyperconscious podcast, diamonds are created by pressure. (0:26) Too much pressure and it's destructive. (0:28) Too little pressure and you get complacent.(0:31) Aim too high and you get humble pie. (0:33) Aim too low and you don't grow. (0:34) Welcome to Next Level University.

Kevin Palmieri

(0:37) I'm your host, Kevin Palmieri. (0:38) And I'm your co-host, Alan Lazarus. (0:42) At NLU, we believe in a heart-driven but no BS approach to holistic self-improvement for dream chasers.

Alan Lazaros

(0:48) Our goal with every episode is to help you level up your life, love, health, and wealth.

Kevin Palmieri

(0:55) 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

(1:11) Self-improvement in your pocket every day, from anywhere, completely free.

Kevin Palmieri

(1:17) Welcome to Next Level University. (1:22) Next Level Nation today for episode number 2,130. (1:26) When you're in over your head, you learn to swim or you sink.(1:30) But even when you sink, you might get better at swimming than you thought. (1:33) That's not the whole title, but you get the drift. (1:35) Okay, the other day, the drift pun intended, uh yes, the strong work, strong work.(1:41) Taryn came home and I was out on the deck and she's like, and I was like, you know how sometimes I like to look back at weird stuff? (1:52) She said, yeah. (1:53) I said, I'm doing that.(1:55) And she said, what are you looking at? (1:55) And I said, I'm looking at old work emails from 2016. (1:59) And she's like, okay.(2:01) And I think she just walked away because she knows like when I get in that mood.

Alan Lazaros

(2:05) Yeah.

Kevin Palmieri

(2:05) So, okay, real quick story. (2:09) 2015, my ex left me. (2:13) October of 2015, my ex left me.(2:18) Work was slow. (2:19) I had an eating disorder from my bodybuilding show and I was fucking miserable. (2:24) I went to bed one night and said a lot of things.(2:28) I was practicing positive affirmations. (2:30) This was like me dipping my toe into self-improvement. (2:32) The thing I said that I remember the most was, this is the year I'm going to make the most money I've ever made in my entire life.(2:38) So 2016 is the next year. (2:41) And I got a promotion at my job. (2:42) I became a foreman.(2:43) I'm running jobs. (2:45) That is the year that I spent 10 months living on the road. (2:47) Every single week, all of our contracts were in other States.(2:50) So I was all over the place. (2:52) The biggest job we had ever done at the time, or the biggest job we were getting ready to do was given to me. (3:00) Our company was in Massachusetts.(3:02) This job was in Virginia, Newport news, Virginia is where this was, which was like a 12 hour ride. (3:12) We couldn't take parkways. (3:13) So sometimes it took like 15 hours to get down there.(3:15) It was brutal. (3:17) And this was the biggest job we ever had. (3:20) It was like a hundred and something buildings.(3:21) And I was the dude who was responsible for it. (3:24) It was me. (3:24) Was not ready.(3:26) I have no fucking clue why they, why they gave me this job. (3:29) Not a clue. (3:30) They, you were probably the next best.(3:32) I, there was people far better than me. (3:34) I have no idea why they gave it. (3:35) Yeah.(3:36) I wasn't ready for this. (3:37) I was not ready for this fucking job. (3:39) No way.(3:40) But I was looking back on my emails and I remember thinking I did a terrible job. (3:49) I remember thinking like, I really fucked this up. (3:51) I, I lost money.(3:53) I remember all of these thoughts in my head. (3:54) I did terrible. (3:55) I fucked this up.(3:56) We missed stuff. (3:56) We had to go back and do it. (3:58) You always kind of have to go back and do stuff.(4:00) It's called punch list items. (4:01) That's fairly normal. (4:03) And then I saw an email from my boss to me, my boss at the time and the people that we were doing the job for.(4:12) And it said, Hey, whatever their name was, we're having a lot of access issues with the buildings. (4:18) KP, that's what they called me. (4:19) KP can't get into buildings.(4:22) There are buildings that don't even have power. (4:24) Like you, what the fuck is going on? (4:26) Essentially.(4:27) I'm going to pull the crews out for the next two weeks until we can get our stuff together. (4:30) Cause right now it doesn't make sense for us to do what we're doing. (4:33) I forgot that happened.(4:35) I thought I just fucking sucked so bad at this job that everything went horribly wrong. (4:40) I didn't realize that there was a lot of circumstances that I was out of it. (4:44) They just were out of my control.(4:45) That was first thought. (4:47) Well, second thought, I found pictures in my email of me taking pictures of the floor plans, sending them to my boss. (4:55) And I remember that was the first and only time ever.(4:59) I think that you had to get on calls with people after work hours. (5:08) That was part one, part two, we were living in Virginia for weeks at a time. (5:13) That was the first time that had ever happened.(5:15) Ah, second time that had ever happened, but we would go down and stay down there for two or three weeks and then come home. (5:21) And there was calls I had to take in scheduling on weekends. (5:25) And that was the first time that that had ever happened.(5:28) And I remember thinking I was so far over my head. (5:31) I was so far over my head. (5:33) And now I do that for a living.(5:37) Essentially. (5:38) I talk to clients every day. (5:40) I was in, as we were talking about a little, a little bit in the previous episode, I was in Vermont this week and I had a client say, Hey, any chance you can chat today?(5:49) I was like, yeah, what do you got? (5:50) What do you need? (5:51) He's got, I don't know, like 3.00 PM work for you. (5:52) I was like, yeah, my wifi is terrible, but whatever, man, let's do it. (5:55) So I hopped on a call, helped him solve some problems and cool. (5:58) Bada bing, bada boom.(6:00) Saturday we had a team meeting that I was at. (6:02) I didn't think I was going to be there. (6:03) I was there.(6:04) So I just, I got the panic message. (6:07) Yeah. (6:07) I was like, dude, I fucked up.(6:08) That's on me. (6:09) Please don't think I'm, I care any less about the business. (6:11) I know.(6:12) I promise I can't promise. (6:15) But I thought I was in so far over my head when in reality I was in over my head, but a lot, I learned a lot of skills and I learned a lot of stuff that I wouldn't have learned. (6:26) And for some reason, when you're going through it, you either think you're doing really well when you're not, or you think you're doing horrible when you're not.(6:34) And that was kind of the lesson for me of.

Alan Lazaros

(6:38) Wait, wait, wait. (6:39) You just said you feel like you're doing really well when you're not, which is delusion. (6:43) Yeah.(6:44) Or horrible. (6:45) Or horrible when you're not, when you're not delusion.

Kevin Palmieri

(6:47) This is the drive to five. (6:48) I thought I was doing horrible. (6:50) And based on the, based on so much of the circumstances, I saw another email where I, we used to get reports after jobs be like exceeded expectations.(7:08) It was either exceeded expectations or didn't. (7:11) And this one wasn't comprehensive. (7:12) This one wasn't a good one for me.

Alan Lazaros

(7:15) Let's do it. (7:16) This is the best.

Kevin Palmieri

(7:17) I was over the project by like 15% of the allocated time for sure. (7:23) And there was a couple of things, like there was a bunch of punch list items. (7:26) The job was Jeff.(7:28) What does punch list item mean? (7:29) It's just shit. (7:29) You didn't get done.(7:30) You missed it the first time you have to go back and fix it. (7:33) Yeah. (7:34) Yeah.(7:35) Yeah. (7:37) I remember I had a conversation with my boss at the time. (7:41) He was technically my project manager.(7:43) And I was like, dude, why do you keep sending me to train all the new people on these jobs that we have to get done quickly? (7:52) And then you don't factor in, you don't factor that into my fucking reports. (7:55) Of course, I was over hours.(7:56) This person didn't know how to use a drill. (7:58) What do you, what do you think? (8:00) What did you think was going to happen?(8:02) Nice. (8:02) What did you think?

Alan Lazaros

(8:03) And that's what happens when leaders aren't in the aren't.

Kevin Palmieri

(8:06) Yeah. (8:06) Get your feet on the ground, baby. (8:08) Yeah.(8:08) I can do this.

Alan Lazaros

(8:09) Go and see the work. (8:11) You gotta go and see the work. (8:12) There's a book we read.(8:13) There we go. (8:13) Business club. (8:14) You know it.(8:15) Book we read in book club. (8:16) No, no, no. (8:17) Dan Heath or Chip Heath, Dan Heath.(8:20) I think it's called. (8:23) Nope. (8:23) Hold on.(8:24) Hold on. (8:25) Reset. (8:25) You read reset.(8:26) Yeah. (8:27) There's a principle in that books called go and see the work. (8:30) Yeah.(8:31) Yeah. (8:31) That's really difficult. (8:31) Cause when you're leading a team, you don't always see it's hard what's going on.(8:37) Yeah. (8:38) It's hard. (8:38) So I mentioned in the last episode, someone coming down from their quote unquote ivory tower.

Kevin Palmieri

(8:42) Their ivory tower to see me.

Alan Lazaros

(8:43) I tell the team, I don't want to be in some ivory tower. (8:45) I need to know what's going on.

Kevin Palmieri

(8:47) It's hard. (8:47) There's a lot of, there's a lot of things going on, but I remember having that conversation. (8:52) I thought I was terrible at my job when in reality I had, and again, I definitely could have been better.(8:58) I wasn't the best, but I, I was given some terrible circumstances. (9:03) Some just, I remember I was training a dude who would stay up all night, just getting hammered, just hammered. (9:14) And then the next hammer drunk.(9:16) And then the next day he was like, I can't go to, I got to go to the pharmacy and get my riddle. (9:20) And I can't, I can't operate without my riddle. (9:22) And I was like, brother, we got to be at work at 7am.(9:25) Okay. (9:26) The pharmacy doesn't open till nine. (9:28) I need you to get your shit together.(9:30) That could have been something we did before. (9:33) Now, what are we doing here? (9:35) You're screwing up my life right now, man.(9:38) So then I had to cover for him because he had to sleep off his hangover. (9:42) It was like, he got fired. (9:45) Of course.(9:46) I felt so bad. (9:47) Everybody I trained got fired. (9:49) Everybody I trained got fired because they all were terrible at their jobs.(9:53) And that impacted me in a negative way. (9:55) And that impacted my self-esteem.

Alan Lazaros

(9:56) Because I think you and I talked about this earlier, Kevin and I behind the scenes, we said, you have to hurt people to help people. (10:04) No, no, no. (10:04) He said, you have to challenge people to challenge people, challenge people, not necessarily hurt them.(10:09) But the truth is too, I said something to a client earlier and she responded. (10:17) I said, she said, I will prove everyone wrong about me. (10:20) I'm more capable than anyone thinks.(10:22) Even myself, she, she started doing the next level sales system. (10:27) And for those of you who don't know the next level sales system, I'll go quick with it is five posts, five likes, five comments, five DMS, five WhatsApp messages and five emails and five invites. (10:37) And I've done 65 days straight as of today.(10:40) And it's, it's brutal. (10:41) And she's the only other person that I've taught it to. (10:44) I've taught it to like a dozen people who has been able to sustain it.(10:47) And she said, I, I fucked up. (10:49) I had a tough day. (10:50) I couldn't do it.(10:50) I broke the streak. (10:51) She got to like 41 days. (10:53) And I said to her, and please don't take this the wrong way.(10:58) That's it's just the truth. (10:59) I was shocked you lasted as long as you did, to be honest. (11:02) And she thought, well, what the hell?(11:04) And I knew that would trigger. (11:06) It's like, no, it's nothing against you. (11:08) I know what it takes it.(11:09) Amelia and I have had to have a hard conversation. (11:11) We work until nine o'clock at fucking night, every night. (11:14) Like I know what this takes.(11:15) And I know your schedule. (11:16) I study you. (11:17) You're my client.(11:18) Of course, you're not gonna be able to do it. (11:19) It's not designed to be sustainable. (11:21) It's designed to be ridiculously hard so that you crush it in business.(11:27) But my point of this is you have to challenge people in order for them to grow. (11:32) You have to, this is, we playfully joked and called me, Christina and Kevin. (11:36) It's chief sales officer, chief operations officer, and then CEO, chief executive officer.(11:41) I call us the three cowards. (11:44) Playfully. (11:45) I think that's changing, but none of us want to be bad cop.(11:48) I don't want to come. (11:50) I don't want to always be the asshole. (11:53) I'm so sick and tired of being the fucking asshole.(11:56) But the truth is do your fucking job. (11:58) Oh my God. (12:00) That's the way I feel.(12:01) Someone has to, you know, when you have the highest standards, you have to sometimes like, what's the difference between next level coaching and regular coaching? (12:10) My fucking standards. (12:12) So you kind of have to be someone who holds people to higher standards.(12:17) That dude was getting blasted at night. (12:19) Of course he should have got fired.

Kevin Palmieri

(12:20) It was, there was another guy too. (12:21) There was, I'm telling you, for some reason, it was like they would find someone who everybody in the company knew was not going to work. (12:33) And they would assign them to me and they'd be like, all right, Kev, new person on the crew this week.(12:36) Let's hit your numbers. (12:37) It's like this, I can't hit my numbers. (12:41) One of the dudes crashed the van, got drunk and crashed the van.(12:48) I'm not, I can't work. (12:49) How am I going to fix this though? (12:51) How am I supposed to fix this?(12:53) What would you do if you could go back?

Alan Lazaros

(12:55) Now we're not as cowardly as we once were.

Kevin Palmieri

(12:57) Well, I'm still a coward. (12:57) I would just be more honest with the, with my, with the people I worked, my bosses and be like, look, I'm, I, I love the fact that we want to give people opportunities. (13:07) I love the fact that we want to give people that might never get in a great opportunity like this, a great opportunity.(13:13) Cause that was the opportunity I was given as well. (13:15) And we, we just need to understand how that's going to impact everything else.

Alan Lazaros

(13:22) You were given, you gave one of our friends who I adore this person and we'll keep it anonymous. (13:27) You gave him an opportunity. (13:30) Oh yeah.(13:31) Yeah, exactly. (13:32) What is your honest truth about that? (13:34) Because in hindsight, and I love this person, I think this is a great person.(13:37) I'm a huge fan of this person. (13:38) If this person was listening, I love you, brother. (13:40) Seriously.(13:41) Always have. (13:42) But what the fuck with the job thing, right? (13:44) At the end of the day, I don't want to be a dick, but I also need to be honest.(13:48) He fucked that up. (13:49) In my opinion.

Kevin Palmieri

(13:50) We, we had a mutual friend who was struggling to find a good job. (13:53) And I also huge fan of this person. (13:56) And I was like, dude, I could, I might be able to get you a job.(13:58) We're looking for someone. (13:59) And he's like, you think? (14:00) And I was like, yeah.(14:01) And I explained, I said, we get paid through government and or state contracts. (14:05) So literally if you start with us, you'll be making like anywhere from 60 to $120 an hour. (14:11) And he's like, what?(14:12) And I said, yeah, I know it's weird. (14:13) Just trust me. (14:14) I it's great.(14:16) There's a lot of travel, but you're down for that. (14:18) And he's like, yeah, I'm down for that. (14:18) Cool.(14:19) Only thing. (14:21) Only thing.

Alan Lazaros

(14:23) Wait, really? (14:23) Yeah. (14:24) Only thing.(14:24) Can't smoke cigarettes. (14:26) On the job. (14:27) Right.(14:27) You can smoke them. (14:28) You just can't smoke them on the job. (14:29) No, you can't smoke them.(14:31) Can't smoke them. (14:33) NLU listener, what is happening? (14:35) I just wanted to jump in here and let you know, if you want to get to the next level faster, we have a free virtual monthly meetup at the first Thursday of every month.(14:44) You can connect with like-minded people and become a bigger part of this amazing global community. (14:50) The link to register will be in the show notes.

Kevin Palmieri

(14:54) If we stay in a hotel and the boss comes and sees you smoking a cigarette outside, he's going to kill you.

Alan Lazaros

(15:01) No reason for that. (15:02) Just out of curiosity. (15:03) Now in hindsight as a business owner, is it just productivity?

Kevin Palmieri

(15:06) They're, they're assuming if you're smoking, you're probably going to try to sneak out. (15:10) They were very big on productivity. (15:11) If you're making that much per hour, you got to, I said that's a brother, brother, that's all you got to do.(15:18) That's it. (15:19) Just don't smoke. (15:20) Now again, I've never smoked.(15:22) I don't, I I've never been addicted to cigarettes, but God, if there's ever a time in a level of necessity, I think now is it brother. (15:29) That's the point of the episode. (15:30) Don't, don't fuck this up.

Alan Lazaros

(15:32) Yeah.

Kevin Palmieri

(15:33) Boss got him smoking, got canned.

Alan Lazaros

(15:36) Damn.

Kevin Palmieri

(15:36) Got canned. (15:37) And I said, I told you, of course it looks bad on me. (15:40) That's what I said.(15:41) I said, man, I vouched for you. (15:44) Yeah. (15:44) I vouched for you.(15:45) This is my fucking job. (15:46) I vouched for you. (15:47) I have like credibility here.(15:50) So yeah, I don't know what that really has to do necessarily with this, but necessity.

Alan Lazaros

(15:54) Okay. (15:54) He struggled to quit smoking and that was necessity. (15:58) Necessity is I am under pressure.(16:00) I think I'm going to put myself under pressure and I'm going to see what I'm capable of.

Kevin Palmieri

(16:03) He was given an opportunity that was in over his head and he did not swim.

Alan Lazaros

(16:08) Yeah.

Kevin Palmieri

(16:09) He did not, he did by Nicorette or by the gum or by the patch or there's, we got to do better than that, man.

Alan Lazaros

(16:17) Nice man. (16:17) I love that you're calling a spade a spade.

Kevin Palmieri

(16:18) I think you've got to do better than that. (16:20) I'm freaking out too. (16:21) I don't know what I'm doing half the time at this job.(16:23) I'm trying to figure it out, but that when you're in over your head, you either learn to swim or you sink. (16:30) And I think that a lot of us sink, we sabotage ourselves into sinking. (16:36) When, if you just tried to tread water for a little bit, you'd be like, Oh, is that a, is that a buoy over there?(16:41) Let me swim to that. (16:42) Or, Oh, this is okay. (16:44) I'm, I feel like I'm floating better than I have.(16:46) I just think it's, we don't want to be in over our head. (16:48) Understandable because it's uncomfortable, but that's where so much of the growth is.

Alan Lazaros

(16:52) I last story, I know we got some time. (16:57) I worked with someone before you keep it anonymous. (17:01) Again, love this as a person, as a person, huge fan, genuinely one of my close friends growing up.(17:08) And I remember when I started working with you, Kev, I was like, Oh shit. (17:13) Oh shit. (17:15) I cannot go back.(17:18) Your work ethic was just there. (17:19) You were always reliable. (17:21) Your work ethic was really strong.(17:23) It obviously had to be for that other job, right? (17:26) If you don't have good work ethic, I can't work with you. (17:30) I'm going to work harder than everyone on the team, the NLU company, 18 person team.(17:35) If any of you are working harder than I am, I should be fucking fired. (17:39) That's actually how I feel. (17:42) I'm not kidding.(17:42) I know. (17:43) I just laughing. (17:44) If any of you are ever working harder than me, you need to call me out immediately, but that's not going to happen because I set the pace and I set the standard.(17:52) And, and I just, I was again, interviewing someone very successful, 33 years, coach Michael Burt earlier for business growth university. (18:00) And I asked him this, I said, I said, brother, you've been around nineties, two thousands, 2010s, 2020s. (18:07) Like what have you noticed?(18:08) And he said, America has gotten complacent. (18:11) He said, it's not like it used to be. (18:13) He said, we've gotten entitled and complacent.(18:16) We've gotten, everybody gets a trophy thing. (18:19) Listen, I'm all for opportunity. (18:20) I'm all for give people opportunity.(18:23) I am. (18:23) I believe in open source knowledge. (18:25) That's why this is free.(18:27) But if you don't have work ethic, you're not going to just win what, if that's the case, everyone should have, why, why should one person spend time and effort to get better every single day? (18:43) And the other person have the same exact level of success. (18:47) The world gets better.(18:48) Like the best farmer produces the best food with the most food and they have the most productivity. (18:54) So they make more money and then they reinvest back in the farm. (18:58) The whole world gets better when you get better.(19:00) And diamonds are created by pressure. (19:03) So every new opportunity comes with a new level of responsibility. (19:07) And I think that we don't talk about responsibility enough.(19:09) We're all talking about opportunity. (19:11) Oh, it's a new opportunity. (19:12) Yeah.(19:12) I want a new opportunity. (19:13) I need another opportunity. (19:13) Oh, I didn't have the opportunity.(19:15) You know, what you need to do is take more responsibility. (19:18) There's a big movement in the personal development space with Mel Robbins, and I'm not necessarily for or against Mel. (19:24) I think she has a great place in the world.(19:28) But the book is Let Them. (19:31) And the idea is simple. (19:32) It's let them think what they want, let them do what they want, let them make fun of you, let them whatever.(19:38) But the other part of the book, the deeper part of the book, if you actually read it, is let me. (19:42) So after you let them complain about you and talk shit about you and all that stuff, you have to let me. (19:47) What can you do?(19:48) Let me look in the mirror, take ownership. (19:53) If your life sucks, I've been there. (19:55) But there's something you can do to make it better.(19:58) And if you're not doing all you can to make your life better, then you're not leading by example. (20:05) And your future is not going to be as big and bright as it could be. (20:09) And so the original part of the story was when I first started working with you, I set a new standard in me.(20:17) Once I experienced working with you, I was like, oh, I can't fucking go back. (20:21) That other person, in my honest opinion, is a little bit lazy. (20:25) That is my honest opinion.(20:27) Maybe they've changed since then. (20:28) If you're listening, maybe you've changed since then. (20:30) But at the end of the day, we can't win with a bunch of lazy people.(20:37) I know you can't be successful with lazy people. (20:39) People know that. (20:40) That's not not known, right?(20:42) I imagine Apple, everyone's just lazy. (20:46) Amazon, everyone's like, I don't really feel like. (20:48) Imagine at Amazon, they're not getting blasted, crashing the vans.(20:53) Well, I'm sure there's some, probably some people. (20:56) I'm sure there's probably some. (20:59) That's not the standard.(21:00) And I don't know if we talk about this enough, but next level you, if you want to get to the next level, that means you have to create a new standard inside yourself first.

Kevin Palmieri

(21:09) There was also, I've told this story before, but it got to the point where I hated my job so much, where there was an internal job posting for a project manager. (21:21) And it was like literally 50, I was going to take a 50% pay cut. (21:26) It was $55,000 a year.(21:28) I made $100,000 a year the year before. (21:30) And I applied for this job. (21:31) They fucking, they call me and say, hey, Kev, come on in.(21:36) We'd love to talk to you about it. (21:37) After I apply, right? (21:38) This is an hour drive to the office.(21:40) I'm like, I told Matt, I lived with Matt at the point. (21:42) I was like, dude, I got it. (21:43) Fuck yeah.(21:44) Let's go. (21:44) Here we go.

Alan Lazaros

(21:45) Of course you got it. (21:45) Why else would they call you?

Kevin Palmieri

(21:46) Why else would they call me? (21:47) Dress up in my finest khakis, of course. (21:50) I go in, I sit down and they're like, it's not going to work, Kev.(21:54) We gave it to somebody else. (21:57) You could have, simple phone call. (21:59) What are we doing here?(22:00) You probably could have texted me. (22:01) You could have fucking texted me. (22:03) Email, fucking snail mail that.(22:04) What are we doing? (22:05) What are we doing?

Alan Lazaros

(22:06) Yeah, you could have called me.

Kevin Palmieri

(22:07) That was, that was my...

Alan Lazaros

(22:08) You wanted to be respectful and say it to my face. (22:09) What would have been respectful is not waste my time.

Kevin Palmieri

(22:11) Yeah, seriously. (22:12) What do you mean? (22:12) It was 1920.(22:14) I don't have to do it in person. (22:15) What are we doing? (22:16) I don't care.(22:17) I don't care at all. (22:18) There was also a last, last story before I go, because I remember this the other day too. (22:23) I, cause I saw the email.(22:24) The email from my boss was, hey, I just want to give everybody a heads up. (22:27) Work's going to be really slow for the next few months. (22:30) Cause we were in between contracts.(22:32) I think this was like 2015. (22:34) This might've been 2015. (22:36) This might've even been 2014.(22:38) I don't know, 2014. (22:40) And I remember I went on Craigslist and there was a job for a demolition company. (22:46) And I was like, I could do that.(22:48) I'm fit. (22:49) I know how to use tools. (22:50) I can't, how hard can that be?(22:52) And I applied and he's like, you're in man. (22:54) Cool. (22:57) It was like, fuck.(22:58) I just went from making, I went from making $120 an hour to 11 bucks an hour is what it is. (23:02) I got to do what you got to do. (23:03) I got to pay the bills.(23:04) Yep. (23:04) So the first job was in Boston, which was an hour from where I live. (23:07) Took me an hour and 45 minutes to get there.(23:10) I was like 40 minutes late my first day on this job. (23:15) And if you, if you do demolition, you are a fucking trooper. (23:21) Some of the hardest work I've ever done in my entire life.(23:24) It was fucking brutal. (23:26) I know Kevin isn't saying that lightly. (23:28) No, it was, this was, I mean, shout out.(23:31) If you do that for a living, you are cut from a different cloth and you must be in shape and you must be in shape.

Alan Lazaros

(23:36) Yeah.

Kevin Palmieri

(23:36) And we get to the end of the day and I was like, I can't fucking do this, man. (23:40) I said, man, I, I lost money coming here today. (23:44) I gotta be really, it took me an hour and a half to get here.(23:47) I can't fucking do this. (23:48) This is, I'd rather wait it out for my company. (23:51) I can't do this.(23:52) The never quit kid. (23:53) And he was like, well, sometimes quits kid. (23:55) You're, you're really good and you seem like you'd be a really good fit.(23:58) Like we'll bump you up to 13 an hour. (24:00) I said, man, it's, that ain't it.

Alan Lazaros

(24:02) I appreciate it.

Kevin Palmieri

(24:02) I appreciate it. (24:03) I can't do this.

Alan Lazaros

(24:04) Keep in mind, Massachusetts is one of the highest cost of living on planet earth.

Kevin Palmieri

(24:08) Yeah. (24:09) Yes. (24:09) Yeah.(24:10) And I think the other piece was I'll just wait for my job to come back and hopefully it does. (24:14) I called my boss on the way home and I was like, Hey, just let me know when it picks back up. (24:20) I'll figure it out until then.(24:22) What a, what an interesting training years, interesting training years that job was for me.

Alan Lazaros

(24:28) Uh, agreed. (24:28) Last piece. (24:29) Yeah.(24:29) Three minutes. (24:30) Yeah. (24:30) I, one of the things that helps me, I meant what I said.(24:37) If anyone at the company outworks me, I should be fired. (24:41) If anyone at the company outworks me, I will fire myself. (24:44) You heard me recorded now.(24:47) Why Alan? (24:49) You work from home, dude. (24:51) I think about that.(24:52) I painted houses in Maine. (24:54) My shoulder was going to fall the fuck off. (24:57) Okay.(24:57) I never forget that. (24:59) I never forget and lose sight. (25:02) It's so easy to get entitled, man.(25:04) It is so easy. (25:06) I'm so grateful to be where we are right now. (25:09) And I will earn that every fucking day.(25:13) That's why we're successful. (25:14) You just don't get entitled. (25:16) Now I'll be honest.(25:19) It's hard. (25:20) It's hard to be that way. (25:22) It's very difficult to wake up in the morning and go, well, at least I'm not painting houses in Maine.(25:27) It's not easy. (25:29) You know, you have to take a shit in the woods. (25:30) It's a whole thing.(25:31) Like I came from very humble beginnings. (25:34) When my stepdad left, we didn't have cable. (25:36) We couldn't afford cable, dude.(25:38) Like we weren't going to starve. (25:40) Okay. (25:40) I understand that.(25:41) But I remember being like, what the fuck just happened? (25:44) We were on a ski trip and shit like not Xbox Christmas presents. (25:49) Now inside out, my mom and stepdad didn't get along.(25:52) There was a lot of adversity, but financially we were, we were fine. (25:56) And when my stepdad left, we were financially screwed. (25:59) And I never forgot that dude.(26:01) And I'm grateful. (26:02) We both have that because we would never gotten here. (26:05) One thing in this personal development space, there's, there's a lot of people out there that are trying to tell you, you can be successful with you.(26:13) People who want big rewards for minimal effort. (26:16) That is a losing formula. (26:18) Now I'm not, I'm all about leverage.(26:20) I'm all about Pareto principle. (26:21) I'm all about doubling down on things that make the most money. (26:24) I'm, I'm, I'm all for getting good at a skill.(26:26) That's really valuable in the marketplace, all that. (26:28) But if you want big rewards for minimal effort, you'll never work for me.

Kevin Palmieri

(26:33) Anytime it starts with all you have to do is it's like, all you have to do is buy into this and then sell it to 80 or friends who then sell it to Ada there for all, that's all you have to do. (26:41) And then you're rich. (26:43) Interesting.(26:44) Anything that starts out with all you have to do is dangerous.

Alan Lazaros

(26:47) And what does every episode of NLU start out with?

Kevin Palmieri

(26:49) Well, you're not going to like this, but you're not going to like this, but probably truthful. (26:55) Look, I think that's what's needed, right? (26:57) There's, if there's a lot of places out there that will tell you how to change your perception of success and all that.(27:03) And I want to, I want to make sure that we help you level up your life, your love, your health, and your wealth and redefine what success means to you. (27:08) And that is what we do at NLU.

Alan Lazaros

(27:09) As I get an email, someone trying to buy NLU, all you have to do is, okay.

Kevin Palmieri

(27:15) All right. (27:16) Alan's got a coaching call. (27:17) As always, we love you.(27:18) We appreciate you. (27:19) Grateful for each and every one of you at NLU. (27:21) We don't have fans.(27:21) We have family. (27:22) We'll talk to you all tomorrow. (27:23) Keep it Next Level.(27:24) Next Level Nation. (27:28) Thanks for joining us for another episode of Next Level University. (27:31) We love connecting with the Next Level family.

Alan Lazaros

(27:34) We mean it when we say family. (27:36) If you ever need anything, please reach out to us directly. (27:39) Everything you need to get ahold of us is in the show notes.

Kevin Palmieri

(27:43) Thank you again, and we will talk to you tomorrow.