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What You Need To Know About The AI Holiday Photos… (2291)

• Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

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Are you making decisions based on your standards, or are you unconsciously following the crowd?

In this episode, Kevin and Alan examine how trend-driven behavior quietly undermines self-improvement, personal development, and long-term consistency. Using real coaching experience and patterns observed across thousands of conversations, they explain why decision-making rooted in external validation weakens self-trust and identity. This conversation breaks down the psychological cost of bandwagon thinking, the difference between perception and reality, and why accuracy matters more than certainty when building a disciplined life.

If you care about sustainable success, clear thinking, and becoming someone who follows principles instead of popularity, this episode will recalibrate how you approach decisions, habits, and personal growth.

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Show notes:
(2:57) Perception Vs. Reality and self-trust
(4:18) Ordinary behavior cannot create extraordinary results
(7:01) Impressionability and loss of self-leadership
(10:09) Goals must outweigh external influence
(14:09) Insecurity, significance, and false fulfillment
(17:01) Certainty Vs. Accuracy in decision-making
(21:20) Why reality determines long-term fulfillment
(23:16) The inner work required to reach the real next level
(25:16) Outro

Send a text to Kevin and Alan!

🎙️ 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.

Kevin Palmieri

(0:00) If you are on social media at all, especially Facebook, and it is holiday season and you're in a part of the world, you are seeing a lot of AI pictures of people sitting under trees in Christmas pajamas. (0:12) Today we're going to talk about that and how potentially damaging that is for you.

Alan Lazaros

(0:16) Success is the focus on this podcast which needs you tethered to accurate thinking and reality. (0:26) That's what we're going to talk about today.

Kevin Palmieri

(0:27) Welcome to Next Level University. (0:30) I'm your host, Kevin Palmieri. (0:32) And I'm your co-host, Alan Lazarus.(0:35) At NLU, we believe in a heart-driven but no BS approach to holistic self-improvement for dream chasers.

Alan Lazaros

(0:41) Our goal with every episode is to help you level up your life, love, health, and wealth.

Kevin Palmieri

(0:48) 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

(1:04) Self-improvement, in your pocket, every day, from anywhere, completely free.

Kevin Palmieri

(1:10) Welcome to Next Level University. (1:16) Next Level Nation today for episode number 2,291, what you need to know about the AI holiday photos. (1:23) I will say Alan and I are uh opposite of the bandwagon to a detriment.(1:30) It's almost like if somebody, if there is a trend, we usually run in the opposite direction. (1:36) And I feel like that's something you've always done. (1:38) I think I've been pretty, pretty anti-trend for as long as I can remember.(1:45) Never, I've never once bought anything from Hollister. (1:47) Everybody in high school did. (1:48) I was like, fuck that.(1:49) I can't, I'm not gonna do that because everybody else is doing it. (1:52) I have bought Hollister, sir. (1:54) Well, it's okay.(1:55) I mean, yeah, but you wanted to be a Hollister model. (1:57) You gotta wear the stuff to get there. (1:59) Abercrombie.(1:59) My deep, my sincere apologies. (2:02) My sincere, I know Hollister is not quite as fancy as Abercrombie was. (2:06) My apologies for knocking you down and wrong.(2:08) I really don't care. (2:09) I know, I'm teasing. (2:10) But we were, we were talking about this today.(2:12) We were talking about how there's just so many of these pictures going around. (2:17) And there was the high school yearbook ones a couple of months ago. (2:23) And this all started, I think this all started with like Facetune a couple of years ago.(2:27) It was a whole thing, but here, this is the interesting thing. (2:29) And this is, this is my perspective. (2:30) I'll kick to Alan.(2:31) Then we'll kind of go back and forth. (2:34) There's no way something like this that is dependent on you sharing it. (2:40) If that is the point of these things is to get shared.(2:42) That's how it works. (2:43) That's why they're doing it is going to make you look worse. (2:47) So a lot of these people that are putting it up don't look anything like the final form of the AI version.(2:57) My perspective on this is if you're doing it. (3:01) So I think Alan's a little bit more hardcore on this than I am, but if you're doing it because you think it's fun and everybody else is doing it and you want to keep up with the Joneses, that's one conversation. (3:10) If you do it and then you leave it as your profile picture for like a year, I feel like that is probably wildly detrimental because with all the love in the world, that is not what you really look like.(3:24) And this is the example I used with Alan. (3:26) I, and again, it's, it's a little harsh of an example. (3:29) It's not apples to apples, but that's like putting five, $1 bills in your wallet and then putting a hundred monopoly, $500 bills in your wallet and then going out.(3:38) It's not, it's not real. (3:40) You can't do anything with that. (3:41) It might make your wallet feel heavy and thick, but it's not real.(3:44) It's not based in reality. (3:45) It's not actually utility. (3:47) And I think this is kind of similar to that.

Alan Lazaros

(3:49) Yeah. (3:49) Well, it's not that much different from renting a Ferrari and then selling a course on how to earn money.

Kevin Palmieri

(3:55) Fair.

Alan Lazaros

(3:55) It's not that different than that. (3:57) And we're going to do an episode tomorrow about principles and core values. (4:06) And I just think we should talk about the downside of doing these things.(4:13) I think there's a couple downsides. (4:14) Let's just start at the top of the thinking. (4:18) What is the downside of jumping on a bandwagon right out of the gate?(4:22) I can say this. (4:24) If you want to be extraordinary, you're not going to be able to only do ordinary things. (4:30) Extraordinary by definition is not ordinary.(4:33) So if you want to be extraordinary, you have to, you have to pull yourself outside of the average bell curve. (4:41) And can we talk about that for a minute? (4:45) Like when I say you cannot be extraordinary and do ordinary things, what comes up for you?

Kevin Palmieri

(4:51) For me, it's all, it's always a spectrum for me.

Alan Lazaros

(4:54) It's always a spectrum of, it doesn't mean you can't do any ordinary things.

Kevin Palmieri

(4:57) It just means you can't do the majority of things. (5:01) Yeah.

Alan Lazaros

(5:01) And I think bandwagons are very ordinary.

Kevin Palmieri

(5:04) I agree. (5:05) I, but I think, I think we'll really be able to tie it when we do talk about principles tomorrow because it's like, okay, well, is this your first time ever doing this? (5:14) Like, did you not do the other AI ones and this is your first time doing it?(5:17) Okay. (5:18) Well, is that also indicative of the fact that you're doing a lot of other bandwagon behaviors? (5:22) Okay.(5:22) What does that mean for the longterm? (5:24) Let's talk about bandwagons.

Alan Lazaros

(5:26) Why is that bad? (5:27) The first one that comes up is what I said, which is usually ordinary is the easy road by definition. (5:36) Yeah.(5:38) It, he and I, we went to the big Y yesterday. (5:40) They have a charger next to him. (5:42) She used to work at the big Y way back in high school.(5:44) So big wise, a new place in town and we needed a charge. (5:50) I was like, well, let's go in. (5:53) And we ended up picking up some food.(5:54) We will not use plastic bags. (5:57) So I'm carrying everything out. (5:59) She starts like putting stuff in my pockets.(6:01) I'm like, yo, they're going to think we're stealing. (6:02) You know, let's, let's cool it with that. (6:05) But, and I'm in also in a black hoodie.(6:07) Cause I basically went to the movies to see avatar three yesterday and Emily and I dress, uh, very specifically when we go out and I know it sounds pretentious as hell, but like we want to be in and out quick. (6:22) Focus. (6:23) I don't, I'm not really trying to people often.(6:25) Um, but I did it next to the whole foundation. (6:28) I think I want to make that clear at the next level of hope foundation. (6:31) I was there to people.(6:32) Yes. (6:32) I want to people, I want to talk to people.

Kevin Palmieri

(6:34) I want to interact people hard, but we get people hard, hard next level.

Alan Lazaros

(6:37) And then for the, for that, we weren't trying to do that. (6:40) So anyways, my point of this is it's the harder road to not use plastic bags. (6:48) That is the harder road.(6:49) You have to bring your own bags and pretty much everything we do is harder. (6:56) And again, we're going to talk about this in the principles episode, but this is very quickly going to become a principles episode, I think.

Kevin Palmieri

(7:01) Well, to answer the question, I think it's because if you are somebody who feels the need to jump on bandwagons, it most likely it could be connected to the fact that you don't want to be different and you don't want to be judged. (7:13) And you're, you don't want to stand out. (7:14) You want to stand out by standing in.(7:17) And there's not a lot of that when it comes to you, again, depends on what level you want to get to. (7:23) But if you want to get from the level that you're at to the next level, there most likely is something unique that you're going to have to do that maybe, maybe you haven't done yet. (7:32) I think that's a, that's a big piece of it.(7:33) So to me, it's more, is this behavior connected to other behaviors? (7:37) What else are you doing to fit in when you go out and you say, you're not going to drink with your friends and they say, Hey, have a drink. (7:46) Do you have a drink?(7:46) Because it, it makes you fit in. (7:49) I think that it's like, is this in connection with you setting a goal and, and achieving a goal because of the behaviors that go with it?

Alan Lazaros

(7:58) You know, what else came up for me too? (8:01) If you see something going on in the world and it very strongly affects you to the point where you also feel the urge to do it, that also means you're what's called very impressionable. (8:12) And if you're very impressionable, that's very dangerous because that means that you are more influenced by what other people are doing than by your own goals.(8:21) So if we're talking just about success, if I were to, I don't know, line up a hundred people in a room and try to bet on who would be most successful, I would pick the person who is the impressionable or I'd pick the person who's the most impressionable with the right guidance. (8:37) I have one client who's extremely impressionable and I told her, I know you're listening. (8:41) I said, you are so impressionable.(8:44) You have to be very fucking careful with who you spend time with because you become so quickly who you're around. (8:51) She happens to have the best coaches in the world. (8:53) She's coached by, oh God, now I have to, she's coached by Amy, I'm sorry, Emilia and I.(9:00) And I do believe that Emilia and I are some of the best coaches in the world.

Kevin Palmieri

(9:03) As you should. (9:04) I just fell into that. (9:05) I believe this is the best success podcast in the world.

Alan Lazaros

(9:07) If it wasn't, I wouldn't do it. (9:08) Well, I just kind of fell into that, but I do believe that's true and I have to be courageous and say that. (9:13) My point is I've noticed since Emilia and I coaching her, she's just on another fucking level, like to a drastic extent, but she was in a relationship in the past and she went off the rails like you wouldn't believe.(9:26) And so if you are very impressionable, there's something, there's a positive and negative to that. (9:31) And I think that if the world is doing something, and I'm going to use this as a metaphor. (9:38) When COVID happened, I went into Target and this was right when people started to really freak out.(9:44) Everybody was buying toilet paper. (9:46) You remember this, right? (9:47) Okay.(9:47) I ran into my ex that day and she, I had no clue what was going on. (9:53) I don't watch the news. (9:54) I'm in doing my thing.(9:56) And she's like, well, you're healthy. (9:57) You'll be fine. (9:58) And I was like, what do you mean?(10:00) And she's like, Alan, there's like a global pandemic going on right now. (10:03) And I was like, is that why everybody's doing this? (10:05) Is that what's going on right now?(10:07) And this is my point. (10:09) I don't want this to come off wrong, but I also need to say it. (10:14) My behavior is not super influenced by what's going on externally.(10:20) My behavior is extremely influenced by my goals. (10:23) So when COVID happened, you, me and Mark, one of the people we used to mastermind with, sat down and we redesigned our life. (10:34) And he had a private gym.(10:35) His name was Mark Metry. (10:37) We had him at Top Notch Live, one of the events we co-hosted as a speaker.

Kevin Palmieri

(10:40) And he had a podcast called Humans 2.0. He's been on the podcast several times, three times, four times back in the day. (10:48) He was on the podcast.

Alan Lazaros

(10:49) Yeah. (10:50) And me, you and Mark, Mark was kind of losing his mind a little bit with COVID. (10:56) Understandable.(10:56) I underestimated how big this was. (10:58) I did. (10:59) But I think a lot of people are buying toilet paper.(11:02) My point is, did you just start buying toilet paper because everybody started buying toilet paper or did you actually think it through? (11:10) And I think that that's the conversation I want to have right now, which is, are you just posting this AI thing unconsciously without thinking about why you're doing it? (11:20) Because in the hyperconscious days, change the way you think, change the way you act, change the way you live.(11:24) You have to think about your thinking if you want to be successful in this world. (11:29) And if you're just on autopilot, just doing shit because other people do it. (11:33) I didn't go see Avatar 3 because it's the biggest movie right now.(11:36) I didn't. (11:38) I will never do that. (11:40) I went and saw Avatar 3 because I adored Avatar 1 and 2.(11:46) I cannot, and you know this because you work with me for the last coming up on nine years, I cannot do something only because someone else did it. (11:53) I can only do something when it's the result of my own conclusion. (11:56) Jim Rohn has an amazing quote.(11:57) He says, make sure everything you do is the result of your own conclusion. (12:00) Don't be a fucking follower. (12:03) Be a leader.(12:04) And the truth is, yes, be a student. (12:08) Yes, learn. (12:09) I read books, but I'm not going to do what the book says unless I think it's more optimal than what I'm already doing.(12:14) And I'm going to take in what it says and then I'm going to let it percolate and make my own decision. (12:19) I believe so deeply in free will, freedom of choice. (12:22) That's why I have trouble sometimes telling you what to do because it's like, brother, you do what you want to do, but I will tell you the consequences of not doing X, Y, or Z.(12:31) Yeah, it's, I don't know.

Kevin Palmieri

(12:32) It's for me. (12:35) I think it depends on why you're doing it. (12:37) That's, that's what it always goes to, to me.(12:39) If, if, if somebody asked you and you said, well, I think it's fun. (12:42) It's like, okay, well, what's fun about it? (12:45) I don't really, it's not like an activity.(12:46) You're like putting a picture into a thing. (12:49) It's making a new picture and then you're posting it. (12:50) So it's not necessarily like an activity that you're investing in.(12:53) I would love to know the why under it. (12:55) Like, why are you doing it? (12:56) And if you were really, really honest with yourself.(13:00) Okay. (13:00) I'll be, I'll be extremely honest. (13:02) I'll be extremely vulnerable.(13:03) I told Alan, I might hire a coach to do my diet this year so I can do a photo shoot. (13:08) Many reasons, but one, I want to get lean enough to take really good pictures without my shirt on. (13:14) That's why now I will not edit them.(13:17) I will not Photoshop them. (13:19) I'm not interested. (13:20) I don't care.(13:20) If I don't look good enough to take the pictures, I won't take the fucking pictures. (13:23) That's on me. (13:24) That's not anybody else.(13:26) Why am I doing that though? (13:27) I'm doing that because that's extra necessity. (13:29) I'm doing that because I want to see if I can do it.(13:31) I'm doing that because we do a 10 pound in 10 week challenge every single year and I'm probably going to aim for a little bit more.

Alan Lazaros

(13:37) But in the past that would have been significance driven. (13:40) Significance can be one of the reasons, but it can't be the only reason.

Kevin Palmieri

(13:43) I think it is a little bit. (13:44) It still is a little bit significant.

Alan Lazaros

(13:46) Yeah, for sure. (13:47) And I appreciate the honesty there. (13:49) Everyone wants significance.(13:50) Everybody. (13:51) But the way you meet that need needs to be varied. (13:54) You can get significance from dressing really nice for your intimate partner and having them notice and call you handsome, or you can get it by posting an AI photo that looks nothing like you.(14:09) One of them is you getting better in the real world and it might help your actual real relationship. (14:14) And this is the real reason. (14:15) I don't want to come off like a dick.(14:17) I don't think you can be fulfilled unless it's in the real world.

Kevin Palmieri

(14:23) I don't know. (14:24) Go ahead. (14:25) I just don't.(14:26) I'm sorry to interrupt. (14:26) I just don't know how much. (14:28) I think that's our.(14:29) So this is one of those episodes where Alan and I agree, but I think we're on different parts of the spectrum. (14:34) I don't know how serious the thinking goes into the into this action. (14:41) You know what I mean?

Alan Lazaros

(14:42) Not much. (14:42) I think that's problem. (14:44) But I think no one's aware of the downside.(14:46) There's a lot of downsides to jumping on bandwagons that no one talks about. (14:51) What is the biggest one other than being impressionable? (14:54) Obviously, what the biggest one is, is the fact that you're not captaining your own life.(15:00) It's an indicator like think about remember when I talked about Dante? (15:04) Yeah. (15:06) Dante is 14.(15:07) Good kid. (15:09) But he his life will go in whatever direction his leaders help him with. (15:14) You and I were at the Next Level Hope Foundation.(15:16) The reason we do that is because we want to be male role models. (15:21) Kids are very impressionable. (15:23) I think adults are too.(15:24) They just are less honest about it.

Kevin Palmieri

(15:28) Yeah, that makes sense.

Alan Lazaros

(15:28) And I think that if you jump on bandwagons, you're you're basically not going to achieve your dreams because everything you do and don't do. (15:35) If you set a goal for a bigger, better, brighter future, by definition, you have to reorient your life. (15:42) What you say, think, do, feel, and believe around that goal.(15:45) And then bandwagons are not going to be in alignment with that almost almost 99% of the time. (15:50) Sometimes they might be. (15:51) So for you and I clubhouse when clubhouse was really big for when was that like 2021 or something?(15:58) Yeah, probably 2020, 2021. (16:00) And I came to you. (16:01) I said, brother, this is a bandwagon.(16:02) We don't need to come beyond clubhouse, despite what everyone's fucking saying. (16:06) Same with the NFT phase and all that. (16:10) There are principles that last a lifetime.(16:13) And there are bandwagons that only last a month or three months or a year. (16:17) And the buying toilet paper at the beginning of COVID was a fad. (16:21) There was no utility underneath it.(16:23) I think that's probably it. (16:24) There's no utility. (16:25) Utility means this is a meaningful action toward meaningful progress, toward meaningful goals that actually is fulfilling to me, health, wealth, life and love.(16:34) Bandwagons are never going to be that. (16:36) Almost never. (16:37) I won't say never.

Kevin Palmieri

(16:38) What was the book Morgan Housel was about money? (16:43) Same as ever. (16:44) Same as ever.(16:45) No, yeah, not about money. (16:45) That one. (16:46) The quote, I'm telling you, the best quote I've ever heard in any book, bar none, not close.(16:51) And I've seen it used in so many. (16:53) It has so much overlap. (16:54) People are more interested in getting certainty than they are accuracy.(17:01) It's not a good idea. (17:02) I know. (17:03) A hundred percent.

Alan Lazaros

(17:04) Let's talk about that.

Kevin Palmieri

(17:05) I understand it's not a good idea, but in the moment when you are longing for certainty, it's very hard to think steps beyond that. (17:13) Can you go into why?

Alan Lazaros

(17:15) Well, then it's like, why does accuracy matter?

Kevin Palmieri

(17:19) Because you can't make effective choices. (17:20) Yeah. (17:21) Would you rather, would you rather be on a boat and see water coming up and say like, ah, my water bottle must've spilled.(17:30) No biggie. (17:31) And just keep sailing that thing into the middle of the ocean.

Alan Lazaros

(17:33) That's a good one. (17:34) Nice job.

Kevin Palmieri

(17:35) Would you rather know immediately? (17:36) Oh my God, there's a fucking hole in the boat. (17:39) That's going to be scary for sure.

Alan Lazaros

(17:41) That's a good one.

Kevin Palmieri

(17:42) But what's going to be scary or you're up 500 miles out there and you realize there's a hole, though, no matter what the hole in the boat is going to be there. (17:49) And the boat is going to fill up. (17:51) At least you know why it's happening.(17:53) So that you can plug it. (17:54) So you could plug it or you can learn the skills. (17:57) And so I think the overarching thing, and this is the hard thing because it doesn't, it might not seem as serious as it is.(18:04) If you, okay, vulnerable might sound egotistical. (18:10) Sit with me on it. (18:11) I don't want to use AI because I don't hate the way I look.(18:15) I have a rash on my face that's been there for like a year. (18:17) I got to get that shit figured out. (18:18) I think it's like eczema or something.(18:20) I don't know. (18:20) They gave me a cream for it. (18:21) Didn't work.(18:22) And I got busy. (18:23) I'm like, I don't have time to go to the dermatologist. (18:24) So I got to make an appointment.(18:26) But like, I don't, I don't want to see what I'd look like in AI. (18:32) You know, one of the reasons I don't, I was, I used to work with a kid and he's like, Hey man, you ever take an Adderall? (18:39) And I was like, nah, man, I don't need it.(18:41) He's like, you should take some today before work. (18:43) I said, what does it do? (18:44) He's like, it just makes you like a superhero.(18:46) And I was like, that sounds fucking terrible. (18:48) Like, why would I want to do that? (18:49) And then go back to real life.(18:50) I would get addicted to shit so fast. (18:52) I could be Superman. (18:54) I'm not going to go back to be Clark Kent.(18:55) That sounds terrible. (18:56) I think this stuff is the same stuff. (18:59) I think this is, this is exactly the same stuff.

Alan Lazaros

(19:01) Adderall is a hell of a drug.

Kevin Palmieri

(19:03) I'm going to go, I'm going to filter and put on fake abs and then it'll go on the internet. (19:08) But every time I look in the mirror, I'm not going to see that. (19:09) Like that is devastating.(19:11) I feel like, I feel like that would crush me. (19:14) That, that is, that is my perspective on this. (19:16) I think you are doing potentially invisible damage to yourself that you might not even know you're doing, but it feels like you're not when people like it.

Alan Lazaros

(19:26) It's a short-term W for a long-term internal. (19:29) It's a short-term external W for a long-term internal L. (19:35) When that bubble bursts, you're going to have to realize you've aged eventually.(19:40) And the other piece of this too, whether it's plastic surgery or AI or whatever, it's like you can only band-aid things for so long before they come. (19:48) I would rather you just take care of the root cause of the problem. (19:51) I was not aging well a few years ago and I told you about it.(19:55) And again, I'm not, I don't mean I'm aging horribly. (19:58) I just worse than I expected and I was really stressed. (20:01) So I had to get my shit together, start sleeping better, taking care of myself better.(20:05) And I do, I feel much better now. (20:07) Now I'm not perfect by any means, but I want to show this last piece. (20:10) We'll move on.(20:11) You reminded me of this at the Next Level Hope Foundation when we took a photo. (20:14) You were in your tippy toes. (20:15) You were joking.(20:17) Dude, I kid you not. (20:18) I was on a call with a client and she's like, no, Alex Hormozy is pretty tall. (20:26) And I was like, no, he's not.(20:28) She's like, he's like six feet, right? (20:31) Or, and again, I know you're listening. (20:33) Maybe, maybe she said 5'10 or 5'11 or something like that.(20:36) I was like, no chance. (20:38) She's like, I'm looking at a picture of him with Lewis Howes right now. (20:41) Isn't Lewis Howes like 6'2 or 6'1 or something?(20:43) She zooms in on the photo. (20:45) He's on his tippy toes. (20:46) Hormozy?(20:47) Yeah.

Kevin Palmieri

(20:48) I think Hormozy's 5'8. (20:49) I think he's 5'8.

Alan Lazaros

(20:50) Yeah, yeah. (20:50) Not that tall.

Kevin Palmieri

(20:51) Jacked. (20:52) Yeah, for sure. (20:52) I had a client who met him, literally met him.(20:59) And I was like, what'd you think? (21:00) He's like, he's a lot smaller in person. (21:02) Yeah, that's exactly what he said.(21:03) And I was like, he's super interesting. (21:04) He's super. (21:05) No, I think he meant, he meant shorter.

Alan Lazaros

(21:06) Yeah, yeah.

Kevin Palmieri

(21:07) And again, I'm a short king. (21:09) I'm not talking shit. (21:10) Look, you meet me in person.

Alan Lazaros

(21:11) I'm a lot shorter than you think too.

Kevin Palmieri

(21:13) I know, I know, I know.

Alan Lazaros

(21:14) Hormozy was on his tippy toes. (21:17) At the end of the day, perception versus reality. (21:20) Reality has to matter more than perception.(21:24) Your wife needs to know your real goddamn height. (21:27) It doesn't actually matter. (21:29) I want this to land if nothing else lands.(21:33) You can only be fulfilled by reality. (21:35) Perception can't do it. (21:37) How many really famous, rich, wealthy people have killed themselves because they're, and I know there's mental health challenges.(21:43) I'm not saying any of that. (21:45) What I am saying is I promise you reality has to matter more. (21:49) What you think of yourself, what you know is true about you has to be the priority.

Kevin Palmieri

(21:53) I'll say this and we'll get out of here. (21:55) According to Google, again, nobody knows the actual number, but Alex Hormozy, for those who don't know, he's like a very big business coach, entrepreneur, business owner. (22:04) Net worth of 120 million to 220 million.(22:06) So he's got a lot of money. (22:08) He has access to a lot of money. (22:09) Very famous, very successful.(22:12) Many, many people know him. (22:13) I'm speculating because I don't know the man, but imagine if he is insecure about his height as one of the most successful business owners on the face of the planet, one of the most successful social media people on the face of the planet, millions of followers on social media, millions of subscribers on his YouTube channel, some of the best-selling business books ever written. (22:34) If he's still insecure, the AI photo is not going to help you in the long run.(22:38) Again, that is speculation.

Alan Lazaros

(22:40) And he might actually be successful because of those insecurities, because he's running from them.

Kevin Palmieri

(22:44) Well, going back to the little self-worth.

Alan Lazaros

(22:45) Tom Cruise still wears lifts in his shoes. (22:50) Just understand that you're not alone in this. (22:53) Everyone has insecurities.(22:54) What I'm telling you is if you want to be fulfilled in real life, running from your insecurities is not going to be the answer. (23:01) It's not the answer. (23:02) You have to face them.(23:04) I was on a therapy session earlier. (23:05) Like, you have to face head-on your insecurities. (23:09) I know that that's hard.(23:10) I know that that sucks. (23:11) But it's unbelievable what can happen when you do.

Kevin Palmieri

(23:14) It's necessary. (23:16) And there really is no other... (23:17) If you really, really, really, really want to get to the next level, the real next level, not the fake fucking social media next level, you got to do the inner shit.(23:23) This is the inner stuff. (23:25) This is the inner stuff. (23:26) But it's hidden behind external stuff that makes you look successful, but you don't feel successful.(23:32) You don't feel good about yourself, but everybody thinks you feel good about yourself. (23:34) That was you, man. (23:35) Yeah, no, definitely.(23:36) Big time. (23:36) That's what you did.

Alan Lazaros

(23:37) That's why I think you're the guy. (23:38) But I was jacked in real life, though. (23:40) No, no, no.(23:42) I was jacked in... (23:43) I was miserable. (23:44) Those were all real results.(23:45) Yeah. (23:46) But you were running from your insecurities and you weren't confident and you felt like Clark Kent in real life. (23:51) And for sure, you know, so I think that it's just a good metaphor because I remember you used to say this.(23:56) You used to say, you got to stare your insecurities in the face. (23:59) I feel like you've done a lot of that, honestly. (24:01) And I think you're actually fulfilled now.(24:03) Whereas before, it felt like you had to like contort what you do and don't do based on what you're going to feel insecure about. (24:11) Now you just go into every room and be like, okay, I'm going to be short.

Kevin Palmieri

(24:16) And yes, as a metaphor, obviously. (24:18) No, I mean, no, that's real. (24:19) It's not even a metaphor.(24:20) It's factual. (24:21) Yeah. (24:21) When we take pictures, I'm like, all right, so tall people in the back, I'll line up, I'll get in the back.(24:26) I'll wait for you guys to figure this out. (24:27) It's always my go-to. (24:28) But that's the thing, right?(24:29) Like I'm insecure about it. (24:30) So I just call it out. (24:31) It's the old Eminem eight mile thing.(24:32) Okay. (24:33) There's a masterclass Thursday, the first 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. (24:37) Quickly, what is it?

Alan Lazaros

(24:38) How to set and achieve your most important goals in 2026. (24:42) Do not leave 2026 to chance. (24:47) Success happens by design and by conscientiousness and by effort in one main direction.(24:55) Do not leave it to chance. (24:58) Make 2026 the best year of your life. (25:00) Starting with us.

Kevin Palmieri

(25:01) And if you want to be part of a Facebook group where there's no AI photos, Next Level Nation is the play. (25:06) You're not going to see Alan and I and AI in there. (25:08) I can assure you of that.(25:09) Something would have to go drastically wrong for that to happen. (25:13) And I cannot imagine that happens. (25:14) So we'll have the link in the show notes below for that.(25:16) As always, we love you. (25:17) We appreciate you. (25:18) Grateful for each and every one of you.(25:19) And if you are as committed as you say, you are to getting to the next level. (25:22) Make sure you tune in tomorrow because we will be here every single day to help you get there. (25:26) Keep leveling up to your true potential.

Alan Lazaros

(25:29) Next Level Nation.

Kevin Palmieri

(25:30) Thanks for joining us for another episode of Next Level University. (25:34) We love connecting with the Next Level family.

Alan Lazaros

(25:37) We mean it when we say family. (25:39) If you ever need anything, please reach out to us directly. (25:42) Everything you need to get ahold of us is in the show notes.

Kevin Palmieri

(25:46) Thank you again. (25:47) And we will talk to you tomorrow.

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Alan Lazaros

Host
Head Shot

Kevin Palmieri

Host