80% Of Success Is Showing Up (2142)

Is showing up the secret to success? In today’s episode, Kevin and Alan share the truth behind their 2,100+ episode journey and why consistency, not perfection, is what moves the needle. From dragging yourself to the gym on low-energy days to making peace with mistakes in business and coaching, they reveal how progress is built one imperfect step at a time. You’ll walk away feeling encouraged to keep going, even when things aren’t ideal.

Episode reference:
Article: “Macro Failure to Micro Success” - https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/micro-failure-macro-success-alan-lazaros/

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2. 👥Join our Facebook community “Next Level Nation” - https://www.facebook.com/groups/459320958216700

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NLU is not just a podcast; it’s a gateway to a wealth of resources designed to help you achieve your goals and dreams. From our Next Level Dreamliner to our Group Coaching, we offer a variety of tools and communities to support your personal development journey.

For more information, please check out our website at the link below. 👇

Website 💻  http://www.nextleveluniverse.com

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We love connecting with you guys! Reach out on Instagram, Facebook, or via email. We’re here to support you in your personal and professional development journey.

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/

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Show notes:
(3:33) Why 70% days still count
(5:19) Mistakes are part of mastery
(6:49) 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#/registration
(7:37) Consistency beats shiny objects
(9:48) Just showing up isn’t enough
(12:32) Growth comes through imperfection
(14:01) 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

• 3:33 Why 70% days still count
• 5:19 Mistakes are part of mastery
• 6:49 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.
• 7:37 Consistency beats shiny objects
• 9:48 Just showing up isn’t enough
• 12:32 Growth comes through imperfection
• 14:01 Outro

Transcript

Kevin Palmieri

(0:00) I'm trying to do a better job of giving myself credit when I do something that I don't want to do instead of beating myself up for not doing it perfectly when I do do it.

Alan Lazaros

(0:12) I was on a podcast yesterday called Project Focus. (0:16) He was from Australia. (0:17) It was 6 a.m. his time. (0:19) Shout out to that person. (0:20) Fully suited up. (0:21) He had a standing desk.(0:23) It was awesome. (0:23) Such a good interview. (0:24) It was an hour-long interview.(0:26) He was 52 years old and he asked me really important questions. (0:32) It was about fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals. (0:34) I basically said at one point in the interview, I said, I think 80% of Kevin and I's success was we just showed up every day for the podcast.

Kevin Palmieri

(0:43) Welcome to Next Level University. (0:46) I'm your host, Kevin Palmieri. (0:47) I'm your co-host, Alan Lazarus.(0:50) At NLU, we believe in a heart-driven but no BS approach to holistic self-improvement for dream chasers.

Alan Lazaros

(0:57) Our goal with every episode is to help you level up your life, love, health, and wealth.

Kevin Palmieri

(1:03) 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

(1:19) Self-improvement in your pocket every day, from anywhere, completely free. (1:26) Welcome to Next Level University.

Kevin Palmieri

(1:31) Next Level Nation today for episode number 2,142. (1:36) 80% of success is just showing up. (1:40) There's many, many quotes out there.(1:42) 90% of success is just showing up, all that stuff. (1:44) I don't think it's that simple. (1:46) We'll get into that in today's episode.(1:49) I woke up this morning. (1:52) My alarm clock went off at 6. (1:56) Ace likes to snuggle in between my legs when I lay on my stomach.(1:59) He slept with me all night, most of the night. (2:02) He does not like when I wake up. (2:04) He does not like when I get out of bed.(2:05) He claws me to grab me. (2:07) Then he goes and snuggles with mom. (2:10) I was like, God, I don't want to do it today.(2:12) It's Friday. (2:13) It's been a busy week. (2:15) Last week was travel, just trying to catch up.(2:17) I said, all right, let me just get up. (2:18) Get my ass up. (2:19) Let me get moving here.(2:21) I'll find my way to the gym. (2:22) I'll figure out what I'm going to do. (2:25) I get up.(2:25) I take my pre-workout. (2:26) I do my little morning routine. (2:28) That is just dog shit right now.(2:29) My morning routine is terrible. (2:30) It's not good. (2:32) I drive to the gym.(2:33) I get there at 6.30, as I do essentially every day. (2:36) Then it's like, all right, what am I going to do? (2:38) I don't have that much time because Alan and I are recording early today.(2:43) I got some stuff that needs to get done. (2:45) I'm just going to do cardio. (2:46) Then I felt bad.(2:47) I was like, Kev, go lift. (2:49) You're trying to build muscle. (2:50) Go lift.(2:52) I'm just going to do cardio. (2:54) Me going and doing cardio is better than me hitting snooze and going back to bed. (2:58) At least is that thing that I'm doing optimal?(3:02) No, not necessarily. (3:04) Is that thing that I'm doing going to 100% propel me to my goals? (3:08) Not necessarily.(3:09) The fact that I get up and I did the thing that I normally do that set me up for the rest of the day is super important. (3:15) When I was walking out of the gym, I did a video. (3:17) I said, very rarely slash ever, are you going to have the best workout you've ever had?(3:24) Are you going to have the best day you've ever had? (3:28) Are you going to have the best anything you've ever had? (3:30) Because by definition, the best is rare.(3:33) That means it's better than anything that's ever happened before. (3:35) The odds of that happening are very, very low. (3:37) So we have to be okay with operating on 70% days, 80% days.(3:42) There is a drastic difference between ideal and realistic. (3:47) Ideally, we would have an hour to do every single one of these episodes. (3:50) Realistically, that may never happen again.(3:53) We have to be okay with dealing with realistic and making realistic better.

Alan Lazaros

(4:01) I was thinking about this a lot recently. (4:05) How we did an episode not long ago, but embarrassment. (4:08) Yes.(4:09) And what's your reaction to embarrassment? (4:11) I'm going through this weird thing lately where I'm realizing how, how much credit hits I take like Oklahoma city. (4:22) Yes.(4:24) The old me wouldn't have thought anyone would even care about that because now I know that other people are like, well, if you were really smart, you'd know that. (4:32) It's like, no, no, no, no. (4:33) I don't care.(4:35) Like it's actually smart not to care about that. (4:37) I find it difficult. (4:38) I used to say, I find it difficult to remember things.(4:39) I don't give a shit about, right. (4:42) I'm not going to need to know that. (4:43) But now that I know that other people think that it's like, Oh, whoa, wait a minute.(4:48) If they don't think I'm smart, I said this to me yesterday. (4:51) I said, people's perception of you changes how they see you. (4:53) And how they see you is how they make choices.(4:57) And I never used to understand how much what you say and do affects people's perception of you. (5:07) Because if you're not insecure about your intelligence, you don't mind firing off Oklahoma city. (5:13) Whereas someone who's insecure about their intelligence, they would never say that because they're too scared to answer or too scared to ask a question or too scared to put themselves out there.(5:19) My point of this is this, you are going to make mistakes constantly. (5:25) If you keep showing up constantly. (5:29) And if you can't handle that emotionally, you won't keep showing up.(5:35) When I was on that interview yesterday, project focus. (5:38) And he said, wait, 2100 episodes. (5:43) And I said, yeah.(5:45) And he said, how often do you guys do it? (5:49) And I said, well, we started off with one, but we do one a day now. (5:53) He's like, you do one a day.(5:55) What's the average length? (5:56) And he wasn't coming at me. (5:57) He was kind.(5:58) It was very, yeah. (5:59) He wasn't coming at me. (6:00) I could tell the difference.(6:02) Oh, really? (6:02) What's the average link? (6:03) That is only two minutes per episode.(6:05) I can't stand when people do that. (6:07) I know.

Kevin Palmieri

(6:07) Isn't it so annoying? (6:08) Yeah. (6:08) It's like they have, I'll say Johnny, because it makes them feel insecure.(6:12) I'll say like 20 minutes and they're like, Oh, well they're not like our episodes. (6:14) Like, what do you, what do you mean? (6:18) What are you talking about?(6:19) What do you mean?

Alan Lazaros

(6:19) So that's a reaction to their insecurity. (6:23) Cause if they're on episode 60 and they think that's great, they're going to have to chop down your, I think that's great for you. (6:29) I agree.

Kevin Palmieri

(6:30) If you want to give me love, I will give you love. (6:32) I will give you more love than you can even fucking handle. (6:34) Shout out to you for getting episode 60.(6:36) You don't have to cut, you know, you don't have to cut us down. (6:38) You have 2,140 episodes. (6:39) I mean, you know, you don't have to cut us down.

Alan Lazaros

(6:43) I love it. (6:45) I love that you're getting that now. (6:47) I don't.(6:47) That's so exciting for me. (6:50) NLU listener, what is happening? (6:52) 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.(7:01) You can connect with like-minded people and become a bigger part of this amazing global community. (7:07) The link to register will be in the show notes. (7:11) He was very respectful, but he said, what's the average length?(7:13) And I said, 25 minutes. (7:15) I think lately it's probably been lower, but we used to have some long fucking episodes. (7:19) Um, what's my point of all this?(7:22) I said, in hindsight, it's very clear that, and we've, we've done very well. (7:27) I'm very grateful, especially lately again, um, anything can change, but I'm very grateful that we've gotten to where we are. (7:34) And particularly lately we had a big month.(7:37) This is our biggest month we've ever had, but 80% of it really does come down to just consistently showing up for the podcast. (7:44) If we, if we stopped that and I, and I wonder if I can explain this well, if we stopped that one thing, cause most people go from shiny object to shiny object, to shiny object, to shiny object, to shiny object, to shiny object. (7:57) Like you mentioned Steven Spielberg's net worth on an episode two or three episodes ago, dude, 90% or let's say 80%, 80% of his wealth was built in what from his movies.(8:10) Oh, it's directing films. (8:12) Yeah. (8:13) Yeah.(8:13) Yeah.

Kevin Palmieri

(8:13) I didn't know if there was like a, if that was a trick question or like directing and producing films. (8:17) Yeah.

Alan Lazaros

(8:17) Yeah. (8:17) Cause he produced Indiana Jones with George Lucas, Jaws, Indiana Jones, so many movies. (8:23) So if you take away film, you take away at least 80% of his wealth.(8:27) I'd put money on that.

Kevin Palmieri

(8:28) Yeah.

Alan Lazaros

(8:29) And it would be less than 5 billion. (8:31) No, but I wonder if that's something, what would you have said about that? (8:37) Because I think that's what people are trying to say.(8:39) 90% is just showing up. (8:40) Well, you have to get better. (8:41) You can't just direct a film.(8:43) Indiana Jones, I think was not great. (8:46) Like, have you seen them? (8:47) No.(8:48) They're, I mean, they're fun, but, and again, for some diehard Indiana Jones fans, I'm sorry. (8:54) Matt, I know you're listening. (8:55) One of my clients, not a fan, dude.(8:56) It wasn't great. (8:57) Not a fan. (8:58) What'd you think of Jaws?(8:59) You think Jaws was good? (9:00) For sure. (9:01) Yeah.(9:01) Jaws was great. (9:02) It's been a long time since I've seen it. (9:03) I've been going back to some old films.

Kevin Palmieri

(9:05) Gotta watch it again.

Alan Lazaros

(9:05) Some of them are brutal for me. (9:06) Yeah. (9:07) But my point is, what did you used to think when we first got together eight years ago, if you heard 80% of success is just showing up, what would you have thought?

Kevin Palmieri

(9:17) I would say that tracked pretty well for my quote unquote success, because most of the time I just showed up and got opportunities because of it. (9:26) So I would say that tracks. (9:27) If anything, now I'm alarmed when I think of the fact that 80% of somebody's success comes from one thing, because when you get really good at one thing, it creates opportunities for you to branch out and it doesn't have to be 80%, but I understand, but no, it made sense to me.(9:47) It made sense to me. (9:48) I think the fact that can't get left out is showing up is enough, but you have to show up and show up better as you go. (9:56) And if that's not a natural tendency, showing up is not enough.(10:00) I don't think showing up just, I am getting better at doing cardio better by maximizing my time, making sure I'm watching better content, whatever, right? (10:11) I'm getting better at exercise by maximizing my time, whatever. (10:15) Were you not before?(10:17) I was, but not to the degree I am today.

Alan Lazaros

(10:20) It's not drastically different. (10:21) It's just a little bit different. (10:22) This, this question will come off like I'm chopping Kevin down, but I'm not as someone who isn't naturally mastery driven.(10:29) What was it like before?

Kevin Palmieri

(10:34) I think I was just showing up. (10:37) I didn't, I don't think I consciously had something I was working on when you're in the gym.

Alan Lazaros

(10:42) This is what my mindset is. (10:44) And I know we've got to jump in four minutes, two minutes. (10:47) It's in my head.(10:49) I actually am thinking Alan, even if this workout sucks, you have to get 1% better. (10:56) Sometimes my mind even says 0.1% seriously. (10:59) Like you can't leave this gym without getting better.(11:02) You will not fucking leave this gym until you get better. (11:06) It has to be in something. (11:08) And you and I, Kevin, I have a big exercise streak going and he, he for, for weight training specifically and being potty comp and being jacked, that's not as optimal what I've been doing.(11:19) But cardiovascular wise, it's the compound effect is crazy. (11:23) I mean, I can, I could run a 5k just right now, like pretty well. (11:26) I probably could do 22 like just right now.(11:30) It's just because of the streak. (11:31) It's the compound effect. (11:32) It's not because I'm special.(11:33) And I got these draft legs. (11:34) My point for you is what are you thinking about in the gym? (11:36) Cause I will not leave that fucking gym no matter what, unless I am at least 0.1% better.

Kevin Palmieri

(11:44) Oh man. (11:45) I'm just thinking, get it done. (11:48) Yeah.(11:48) I don't, that's not a conscious thought for me. (11:50) Like I have to get better. (11:51) I don't, that's not a conscious thought.(11:53) Just get it done right now in this moment. (11:56) Yeah. (12:00) Get it done.(12:02) Get it done. (12:04) Stay on time. (12:04) Those are my two nights.

Alan Lazaros

(12:06) Yeah. (12:06) I don't have that second one lately. (12:08) One last thing.(12:09) So Kevin and I never once have, have presented the same thing in group coaching. (12:12) Never once. (12:14) And we've done, this is our 19th group.(12:15) 20th group is the link will be in the show notes. (12:18) Uh, next level podcast accelerator. (12:20) If you're a podcaster, we've never presented the same thing twice, even if it's just formatting.(12:26) What, what's your take on that? (12:28) This is not me trying to build myself up, but I want to, I want to hear your take on what it's like.

Kevin Palmieri

(12:32) It sucks because you're essentially always risking not doing it the best you've ever done it because you're doing something new for the very first time. (12:43) So it's essentially like you're practicing every time and you make mistakes every single time. (12:49) Like we made a mistake in the last one.(12:50) Some, the formatting of something was off. (12:52) You're like, Oh, there it is. (12:53) That's the, that's the one for this session.(12:56) So yeah, you have to get really good at making mistakes, but understand that the mistakes you're making are higher level mistakes and they also hurt you less in a weird, it's like this is our 19th group and we're going to make mistakes with every single thing we do. (13:11) But the mistakes we make are just either silly because we just overlook them or it just doesn't matter that much in the grand scheme of things because we've gotten way better.

Alan Lazaros

(13:20) When we go back to the previous slides from the previous group, it's a quarter. (13:24) So three months in between, it's crazy how much they change for sure. (13:28) It's been even year to year with next level live, how much we've grown is wild to think about.(13:33) So yeah, it's micro failure for macro success. (13:35) And I think that there's a article that I wrote on macro failure to micro success. (13:39) The link will be in the show notes.(13:40) I'll send it to the production team right after this.

Kevin Palmieri

(13:42) All right. (13:43) Check out the link. (13:44) Check out the article.(13:46) Next level nation, private Facebook group. (13:47) If you are a podcaster who's looking up to level up your podcast, we'll help you level yourself up, level your podcast up. (13:52) And then essentially if you want, turn your podcast into a business like we have had the pleasure, privilege and opportunity to do.(13:59) We'll have the link in the show notes for that. (14:00) As always, we love you. (14:01) We appreciate you.(14:02) Grateful for each and every one of you. (14:04) At NLU we don't have fans, we have family. (14:05) We'll talk to you all tomorrow.(14:06) Keep it next level. (14:07) Next level nation. (14:11) Thanks for joining us for another episode of Next Level University.(14:15) We love connecting with the next level family.

Alan Lazaros

(14:17) We mean it when we say family. (14:19) If you ever need anything, please reach out to us directly. (14:23) Everything you need to get a hold of us is in the show notes.(14:26) Thank you again.

Kevin Palmieri

(14:27) And we will talk to you tomorrow.