You Need To Decide How YOU Want To Be Successful (2360)

Fast wins create long regrets. In today’s episode, Kevin and Alan challenge the idea that success is just about results. Opportunity rarely shows you the full cost up front. Shortcuts feel smart in the moment. Compromise can even look responsible. But over time, those small decisions shape your character more than your bank account. This episode takes a hard look at integrity, standards, and the discipline required to build success you can actually stand behind.

If you care about leadership, personal growth, and long-term fulfillment, this conversation will sharpen how you define winning and what you refuse to trade for it. Chase whatever level you want. Just make sure you recognize the person in the mirror when you get there.

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Learn more about:
Track the Work. Earn the Results. To know more about the "Next Level Fitness Accountability Group," reach out.

• Kevin: https://www.instagram.com/neverquitkid/
• Alan: https://www.instagram.com/alazaros88/

Book Alan’s Business Breakthrough Session. Your first 30-minute coaching call is FREE. Learn how to prioritize success and let your quality of life become the byproduct. - https://calendly.com/alanlazaros/30-minute-breakthrough-session

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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, check out our website and socials using the links below. 👇

Website: http://www.nextleveluniverse.com

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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:
(2:29) The five levels of success
(4:27) Winning with integrity is harder
(8:41) Alignment over business gains
(10:10) Making yesterday proud
(12:07) Shortcuts and self-respect
(15:09) How character slowly drifts
(21:41) Success with integrity vs. just success
(23:47) Becoming unhoodwinkable
(27:47) Why saying no protects you
(31:02) Be less naive, be more aware
(34:29) 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.

Transcript

Kevin Palmieri

(0:00) I had a very intense conversation with a client the other day, and I talked about how I essentially didn't care about having mentors. (0:09) And I said, look, I know that's not the right way. (0:11) I know that's not the best way.(0:13) That's kind of how I'd choose to be successful if it was up to me.

Alan Lazaros

(0:19) On one hand, you have, what do I have to do to be successful? (0:23) Then you have the next hand, which is, okay, here's what I have to do to be successful, and here's what I'm willing to do.

Kevin Palmieri

(0:29) Welcome to Next Level University. (0:32) I'm your host, Kevin Palmieri. (0:34) And I'm your co-host, Alan Lazarus.(0:37) At NLU, we believe in a heart-driven but no BS approach to holistic self-improvement for dream chasers.

Alan Lazaros

(0:43) Our goal with every episode is to help you level up your life, love, health, and wealth.

Kevin Palmieri

(0:50) 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

(1:06) Self-improvement in your pocket, every day, from anywhere, completely free. (1:12) Welcome to Next Level University.

Kevin Palmieri

(1:18) Next Level Nation, today for episode number 2,360, you need to decide how you want to be successful. (1:25) You and I have been having some real talks behind the scenes about our past and about how we intend to have the level of impact and success that we desire, and I don't know, it's been a heavy realization that I think more people than I ever realized have sold out to get to where they are. (1:45) And the allure of getting there faster, it doesn't surprise me why people do it.(1:55) But if you don't decide, you out there, the world is going to decide for you. (2:01) And there is going to be an abundance of opportunities to take the shortcut. (2:06) But I'm telling you, when you take the shortcut, you have to give a piece of yourself that you can never get back.(2:11) And I don't know, I think a lot of people are doing that. (2:14) I think a lot of people are doing that, and I don't want to do it. (2:16) I'd rather it take longer.(2:19) I would rather be less successful and not sell out than be more successful and sell out. (2:25) Yeah, agreed.

Alan Lazaros

(2:26) Of course. (2:27) Let me set the stage here. (2:29) So next level university, these are the levels.(2:35) We're going to pretend this is a game for a second. (2:37) The game of life. (2:38) The game of success, better frame.(2:41) Level one is I'm humble, and I know I want to be successful, but I'm not successful yet. (2:52) And I need to go figure out how to be successful. (2:54) That's level one.(2:56) All right. (2:56) Level two is I gain some level of success. (3:00) I am now above average in success, quote unquote.(3:04) And what the world perceives as success, I am above average. (3:10) That's level two. (3:10) Okay.(3:11) Level three is, all right, now I'm winning. (3:14) I'm very successful, very successful, statistically speaking, in the way the world perceives success. (3:23) Nice home, nice car, whatever it is.(3:25) Okay. (3:27) Level four is I'm going to decide now what success looks like for me, now that I thought what I thought would make me happy didn't, or what I thought would make me fulfilled didn't. (3:42) So level four is I'm not going to play their game.(3:46) I'm not going to play someone else's game anymore. (3:50) So for me, when I left corporate, that would be an example. (3:52) You starting this podcast, the same example.(3:54) We're going to play our own game now. (3:56) Well, level four is a new level one. (3:59) Agreed.(3:59) You start over. (4:00) Yeah, you start over. (4:01) You don't start fully over, but you do start over in status and perception.(4:05) Yeah. (4:06) In the social world, you start over. (4:08) In the real world, you have all the skills and awareness from before, right?(4:13) Level five is not only am I going to win at my game because I'm so clear on what success means to me, but I'm also going to do it with integrity where I'm not going to lie, steal, cheat, anything outside of alignment with my values and with morality and ethics too. (4:38) It's not, some of these are universal values. (4:43) That's the hardest game to win.(4:45) And I've told you this before, be the change you wish to see in the world is the game that I'm trying to win. (4:54) When I wake up in the morning, when I go to bed at night, am I the change that I wish to see in the world? (5:00) If I'm upset that you're not recycling while I'm not recycling, that's on me.(5:05) Like I will not do that. (5:07) I don't get, for me, this is my own personal code of ethics. (5:10) I don't get to be mad at Kevin for something unless I'm doing it too or not doing it.(5:16) So if I see you litter and I'm littering, I can't be mad at you. (5:20) Okay? (5:22) So be the change you wish to see in the world.(5:24) What does that mean to you? (5:26) And if you pick whatever industry you want, boom, boom, boom, boom, I started this with what you'll never learn in school, but desperately need to know. (5:34) Alan Lazarus LLC, 11 years ago, I wanted to bring inspiration, motivation, education to the world.(5:39) I wanted to bring personal development, self improvement, and personal growth to the world. (5:43) I couldn't understand why I was a straight A student and I never learned about habits and vulnerability and courage and humility and character and goal setting and productivity and peak performance and the economy and all these different things. (5:58) Finance, fitness, I can keep going.(6:00) Health, wealth, love. (6:01) I couldn't understand it. (6:02) It's like, what?(6:05) There's like this whole critical breadth of knowledge that is absolutely critical. (6:12) I mean, just cannot be successful without it. (6:15) And we were just like, nope, fuck it.(6:17) Let's just not teach this at all. (6:18) I couldn't understand. (6:20) It made no sense to me.(6:22) So be the change I wish to see in the world. (6:24) The change I wish to see in the world is someone reaching their full potential. (6:29) So how dare I ask others to do that if I'm not doing that myself?(6:32) Well, okay. (6:33) So that's a really hard game to win. (6:34) I've told Kev we're selling kale outside a candy store.(6:37) What I mean by that is this podcast is going to be boring compared to some dopaminergic like crap, like just some of these YouTube channels are just throwing shit at. (6:46) It's a whole thing. (6:47) Some of them are comically bad in my opinion, with how outrageous they are with just constantly getting your attention and regetting your attention and the skits and all that stuff.(6:57) Some of them are funny, but for the most part, I think it's just mental candy, honestly. (7:01) And so be the change you wish to see in the world. (7:04) I cannot, Alan Lazarus, do something that I do not believe is what's best for me, others, and the world.(7:12) And as my awareness raises, I become more aware of the implications of all my decision making and how they ripple outward. (7:22) And the more aware you become, the harder the game gets. (7:25) Let me rephrase.(7:27) The more aware you become of your impact on others in the world, the harder it is to stay in integrity. (7:35) Emily asked me the other night, she said, is there a company you know of that is a win all around? (7:41) A win for the owners, a win for the earth, a win for the consumers, a win for the world, a win for the team, a win, all around win.(7:50) And I said, yes, I know a couple. (7:52) I named a couple. (7:53) I'll keep them anonymous here.(7:54) But very few, very few companies don't have an L somewhere in there. (8:00) Right? (8:01) Good for the owners, good for the team, good for the consumers, bad for the earth.(8:04) How many companies are in that category? (8:06) Many. (8:07) Right?(8:07) And so I'm trying to make NLU not have anyone take the L, including the earth. (8:15) Are we perfect? (8:16) No.(8:16) But I'm going for perfect knowing I'll never get there. (8:19) My point is, it's going to be way harder for us to win now because of my fucking morals. (8:26) I have morals too.

Kevin Palmieri

(8:28) I know.

Alan Lazaros

(8:28) You know what I mean though. (8:29) My point is, is like, how many things could we do to be more successful that we can't do because one of us is like, can't do it? (8:38) It's hard.(8:39) It's hard.

Kevin Palmieri

(8:41) I, that's the thing. (8:44) And like, I'll be, I'll be, I don't, I won't say specifics. (8:47) I will keep it anonymous, but we have made decisions that were terrible for business, but really good for alignment.(8:56) Yeah. (8:57) And I think as we've gotten deeper into this, and again, this is not me like, well, we're the best. (9:04) We're amazing.(9:04) We're perfect. (9:04) I'm not saying that. (9:05) I just wish I knew this sooner.(9:07) I wish I knew sooner that when you, when you collaborate in a certain way, expectations are a certain way. (9:16) And I did not understand that. (9:17) I didn't.(9:18) You scratch my back. (9:19) I'll scratch your back. (9:20) Yes.(9:21) Yeah. (9:22) Except then it's this whole other thing. (9:25) And then it's like, well, how high can you jump?(9:27) Well, how high can you jump? (9:29) How often will you jump when I ask you to jump? (9:31) Will you jump in that direction?(9:33) And it just gets, it gets really weird. (9:35) What I will say though, what I will say is I do not regret any of the things that we did that were more aligned with like the internal side. (9:48) Yeah.(9:49) Are they giant business L's? (9:51) Of course we would be way more successful if we just kept doing certain things that, but it got to the point where we had conversations and said, I can't fucking, I can't, I'm not gonna be able to sleep at night if we keep doing this. (10:04) Like I can't do this.(10:05) I don't, this isn't a hundred percent. (10:07) This isn't what I want to do. (10:08) I'm going to regret this.(10:10) What I, what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to make yesterday's version of Kevin proud today. (10:16) That's what I'm doing.

Alan Lazaros

(10:18) So I'm doing the opposite. (10:20) I'm trying to make tomorrow's version of Alan proud today. (10:23) Perfect.(10:24) It's a great mix.

Kevin Palmieri

(10:24) Well, I think in my mind, dude, it's really easy to say, oh, I would never, I would never work with this type of person until that type of person starts knocking on your door and says, Hey, I had $10,000 a month. (10:36) Are you, are you interested in helping? (10:38) You don't, it's easy to say until it happens.(10:42) So I want tomorrow's version of Kevin to do the thing that yesterday's version of Kevin said he would do if he was given the opportunity to do it. (10:50) That's how I, that's how my mind works. (10:53) And again, I fuck up all the time at everything I do repeatedly.

Alan Lazaros

(10:57) So I'm not, so real quick, um, you're telling me that you're, okay, this makes sense. (11:06) So Kevin at 30 had a certain idea of his character and didn't, it intended not to sell out to get success, right? (11:16) So you're trying to stay in alignment with that idea.

Kevin Palmieri

(11:19) Even when ideas present themselves that are potentially good for business or the bank account that I don't want to, I always told you, I want to be, we've all met somebody who had nice things and was an asshole and then made you say like, Oh, people that have nice things are assholes. (11:36) I've said this since the very, very beginning. (11:38) I want to have a really nice car.(11:39) I want to go to the drive through and get something. (11:41) And I want to be the nicest person they encounter all day. (11:43) That is my goal.(11:44) That's always my goal. (11:45) I want that easy to say when you're riding your bike through the drive through, right? (11:52) It's easy to say that until then, you know, maybe you get to the place where it's like, I think a lot of people just forget who they said they would be when they get to a certain place or maybe they never even set the standard.(12:04) That's the point.

Alan Lazaros

(12:05) Maybe they're like, well, everyone else is doing it.

Kevin Palmieri

(12:06) So that's the point of this episode. (12:07) You have to be very honest with yourself and look, if you decide you're willing to take shortcuts, that's on you. (12:12) You have to sleep with that.(12:13) I don't have to sleep with that. (12:14) You have to sleep with that.

Alan Lazaros

(12:15) I don't think fulfillment can come from going out of alignment. (12:20) I don't either, but bundles of cash can.

Kevin Palmieri

(12:25) What? (12:26) Bundles of cash can. (12:28) Can what?(12:29) Come from going out of alignment.

Alan Lazaros

(12:31) Oh, for the ideals. (12:31) A hundred percent. (12:32) So many ideals.(12:34) What are your principles? (12:35) What are your ideals? (12:37) What are you fighting for?(12:38) What do you stand for? (12:39) I love that. (12:39) I love that conversation.(12:41) Like, what do you stand for? (12:42) Be the change you wish to see in the world. (12:43) Are you upset about some injustice and doing nothing about it?(12:50) I see that all the time, brother. (12:53) People talking about, well, I, and I'm guilty of this at times, but I try not to be. (12:58) Most of the things that I'm upset about in the world, I'm like actively working on, not only in myself, but with my work, our work, the company.(13:07) So, and I think that that's what a mission is. (13:09) You look at the world and you go, wow, that's pretty terrible. (13:14) And then you see a brighter world of what could be, and then you get to work.(13:21) Some companies are supposed, I think companies are supposed to be built on some ideal.

Kevin Palmieri

(13:27) I think they start that way, but then eventually you got people that are, you got shareholders saying, hey, look, I know, I know the factory is next to a Lake. (13:38) What are your thoughts about just dumping everything into the Lake? (13:42) What are your thoughts?(13:44) And then, and then people are like, well, no, no, there's, there's ducks and there's fish. (13:48) Listen, the shareholders will leave if they don't make a certain amount of money, dump the shit in the Lake and then figure it out later. (13:56) And then the next thing, you know, it's like, you know, we probably shouldn't be burning these tires next to the school, but like, we got to get rid of the fucking tires.(14:05) So let's do it. (14:06) And then next thing, you know, you're fucking the world up and, and then people forgot what it was in the first place.

Alan Lazaros

(14:13) I am fascinated by your explanation of the world. (14:16) That you're telling me that ain't it? (14:18) No, no, no, it is.(14:20) That's a massive piece of it. (14:21) If people see me laughing, I'm not laughing at the atrocities he's talking about. (14:25) I think I'm laughing at your verbalization of them.(14:28) That's how I imagine it. (14:29) Yeah. (14:30) You, someone, someone, listen, I know, I doubt it's like that, but that's what I know.

Kevin Palmieri

(14:36) But it is like that.

Alan Lazaros

(14:37) No, no. (14:37) I meant the demeanor that you have. (14:39) Oh yeah.(14:40) It probably isn't. (14:41) It probably isn't. (14:41) But like do better though.

Kevin Palmieri

(14:43) Agreed. (14:44) Again. (14:45) And easy for me to say it's that it's, I think it's always that balance of, look, if I was the CEO of a billion dollar company, number one, I could never possibly be because I number one, I'm too soft to get there.(14:57) And two, I don't, I don't know. (14:59) I don't, that ain't for me, but I think that's what happens is, you know how we talked about you slowly drift away from habits. (15:09) I think you slowly drift away from character too.(15:11) If you don't keep a very, very, very close eye on and if you don't have people in your life who care about that, if you have people in your life who care more about success than character, you're fucked.

Alan Lazaros

(15:21) You're, you're in trouble. (15:23) Yeah. (15:23) I was on a relationship talks coaching session on Saturday, two days ago.(15:28) And we were talking about the love languages and one of the love languages is money. (15:35) And I was, I was talking, we were teaching the love languages to this couple. (15:39) Shout out to you.(15:39) I know you're listening. (15:41) And I gave an example like for Amelia, 10 out of 10 is adventures in nature, 10 out of 10. (15:47) Like that is the most important thing.(15:49) Hands down. (15:49) If that's done, everything else is going to be fine. (15:52) Playfully.(15:52) There's a couple others and one that she doesn't care about. (15:55) And I had to think, I was like, money, I can come downstairs and say, I made 14 grand today. (16:02) And she doesn't give a fuck to the point where it's like, no, no, no.(16:06) But, but like, and she does obviously she, but she doesn't care. (16:11) That's not what it is for her. (16:12) Now.(16:13) I do want to make this as clear as possible. (16:16) Amelia understands you have to generate revenue to grow the mission and to live a great life. (16:20) Like she isn't, she isn't anti money.(16:23) She, she's very good with money as a matter of fact, but she doesn't care about that in our relationship. (16:29) It's not a love language. (16:31) It's like a yes, good, do better.(16:37) We have to keep doing that. (16:38) We have to grow our companies, but it's not going to like, Oh my God, I can't believe you made so much money today. (16:43) Like, I love you so much more.(16:44) There isn't that at all with her. (16:46) My point is if she ever saw me litter or like something like that, it would be, it would be like, it would break her brain because here's the truth. (16:56) And I know this sounds so pretentious.(16:58) I don't even know if I care anymore. (16:59) I've never seen Amelia do a negative thing for the world. (17:03) I've never witnessed this woman do something that was out of integrity.(17:06) It's unbelievable. (17:08) She like won't do anything that isn't good for the world and others. (17:12) She like we, and again, there's simple things like this.(17:15) What's the best version of you going to do? (17:18) We go for walks. (17:20) Okay.(17:21) There's litter right there. (17:23) And we literally have more recycling than any of our neighbors because we are picking up everyone's fucking trash. (17:32) It's just who we are.(17:34) We can't walk by it. (17:35) We fucking can't walk by it. (17:36) We can't.(17:38) And that's the way it is. (17:40) I, I just can't, I don't want to do something that is negative for the world. (17:48) I just don't.

Kevin Palmieri

(17:49) Isn't it fucked up how like, and again, I'm not nearly as like, I do do good things, but I'm not to that degree, very honestly. (17:57) Like I, I, I do, I don't litter cause I'm not an ass hat. (18:01) I don't know if you're out there and you litter, like you need to fucking take a look in the mirror and figure your life out.(18:05) Cause that's a very strange thing to do. (18:07) Great word. (18:08) What an entitled thing to do.(18:09) It's like, ah, there's a dumpster. (18:10) No, I'm going to drop it right here upon the grass. (18:13) What are we doing?(18:14) What are we doing here? (18:15) What are we even doing here? (18:16) It blows my mind.

Alan Lazaros

(18:18) And I'm sure make everyone else's life worse when I was six or seven or young or a teenager.

Kevin Palmieri

(18:23) I'm sure. (18:23) I know I did dumb stuff, but the further somebody swings in the unvirtuous direction, the further somebody has to swing in the virtuous direction to even it out for lack of better phrasing, you know? (18:36) What do you mean?(18:37) Like if there's somebody out there that is, that lacks virtue enough to litter, there's gotta be somebody on the opposite end that has an abundance of virtue that will actually pick it up.

Alan Lazaros

(18:47) It's been hard for me to realize it's hard to win. (18:50) Like are the, is the virtue winning, right? (18:53) And, and progress over time does actually show that virtue is winning.(18:58) Um, if you study the statistics of like health care and how do you study, how do you, what are you, what's the, what's the measure? (19:06) Average quality of life, average, um, life expectancy has gone up. (19:11) Like statistically globally, pretty much, I mean, average starvation, like human, human progress has been progressing up with some serious dips.(19:21) Like the trend line is up, um, in all life measures. (19:26) So quality of sleep globally, there's 8 billion people on planet earth. (19:30) So quality of sleep, quality of food, quality of, now there's a few things going down.(19:35) Mental health is going down because of social media and all that. (19:39) Uh, air pollution going down, sea levels increasing, right?

Kevin Palmieri

(19:44) You mean air pollution's going up?

Alan Lazaros

(19:46) Yeah. (19:46) Yeah. (19:46) Sorry.(19:46) Yeah. (19:46) Yeah. (19:47) Going in the wrong direction.(19:48) Right. (19:48) Yeah. (19:49) Air pollution is going up, sea levels going up.(19:51) So I think the earth is paying the price of our ignorance more than humans. (19:58) It's almost like human progress. (20:00) And I know this is getting a little existential, but human progress is definitely up.(20:05) So let's take a pharmaceutical company. (20:07) A lot of people like to shit on pharmaceutical companies. (20:09) I understand why I do pros and cons like, uh, pharmaceutical companies make a lot of money off other people's illnesses.(20:20) However, they also save lives, literally. (20:24) So how do you, right? (20:28) So, so the, the idea is not to be perfect.(20:30) The idea is to mitigate the downside. (20:33) And when you have a publicly traded pharmaceutical company, Emilia worked for one, it was called Alkermes, no problem saying that out loud. (20:41) And I studied the company upside down and sideways trying to help her in her career.(20:45) And it's now that I've said a name, I need to be careful about what I say. (20:51) But at the end of the day, let's just say pharmaceutical companies in general are, is everything they do going to be virtuous and everyone they hire going to be virtuous. (21:01) And it's not a one or a zero.(21:03) It's not Kevin is a virtuous man or not. (21:04) It's he is on the higher end of virtue compared to other men. (21:08) For sure.(21:09) I'm certain of that. (21:10) And here's the other piece. (21:15) You might think that if you live in a, in a town where everyone litters and you don't, you might think that you're like great.(21:24) You're like a great person. (21:25) When in reality, you're actually doing the neutral thing that isn't actually helping anyone. (21:31) You're just being a reasonable person.(21:33) So it's all relative. (21:34) So I'm with you though. (21:36) The hardest part of this life, in my honest opinion, is not just being successful.(21:41) I actually being successful is, is fairly straightforward. (21:45) Being successful with integrity and virtue in alignment with what's best for you, others in the world. (21:51) Now that is a challenge upon a challenge upon a challenge.(21:56) That is an everyday fight that you have to wake up in the morning, go to bed at night, thinking about it, dreaming about it, contemplating it. (22:03) I don't want to just be successful. (22:06) We generate a lot of revenue.(22:07) Congratulations. (22:08) Awesome. (22:08) I'm more proud of how we generate the revenue.(22:11) It's not the 14 grand the other day that I came down, I made 14 grand today. (22:15) We made 14 grand today. (22:16) It's not that it's how we made it.(22:19) Because you can sell, you can make 14 grand selling cigarettes, or you can make 14 grand helping others, educating others. (22:27) This podcast has a very low carbon footprint. (22:31) There's not a lot of detriments to the world for us to produce this other than the data centers.(22:35) But no one's thinking about that. (22:40) I'm thinking about that. (22:41) Same.(22:42) And so what's the most good you can do in the world and, and make sure it's good for you too.

Kevin Palmieri

(22:51) Two thoughts before we get out of here. (22:53) Okay. (22:54) Two thoughts.(22:54) One, I find it incredibly strange that on pharmaceutical commercials, they say, ask your doctor about my doctor is supposed to know more than I do. (23:03) So I don't go to the fucking mechanic and say, you ever heard of Bridgestone tires? (23:10) I want those, throw those, throw them shits on here.(23:12) That's what I want. (23:13) You tell me what's best, please. (23:15) You know more than I do.(23:16) It's always strange. (23:17) I'm going to walk into the doctor's office and say, Hey, give me this shit. (23:21) I saw a commercial.(23:22) They were dancing. (23:23) Happy as shit playing volleyball. (23:24) I need it.(23:25) This is what I need.

Alan Lazaros

(23:26) Kev, you know that that's all a fugazi. (23:30) That's why you don't like it.

Kevin Palmieri

(23:31) It's a whole thing.

Alan Lazaros

(23:32) It's a whole thing. (23:33) And here's the only way I think, and you know, I love talking about this stuff because this is dude, for our listeners, the more aware and educated you become, the less hoodwinkable you are. (23:47) For sure.(23:48) A hundred percent. (23:48) That is like, if we do nothing else with this show, I hope we make every one of you unhoodwinkable. (23:54) I said that in book club recently.(23:56) I said, listen, you guys might not like everything I say. (23:58) You definitely won't. (23:59) And I'm going to be pretty hardcore, but you will be unhoodwinkable humans.(24:05) Like you guys, I'm going to teach you. (24:06) I've been in a lot of places. (24:08) I'm coaching a lot of different walks of life, different industries.(24:11) I've been getting data on data, on data interviewed. (24:14) You name it. (24:15) I'm collecting.(24:17) I want to understand and master the game of life. (24:21) I want to understand it all. (24:22) And I have a lot of data at this point.(24:24) I'm 37 and I've been accumulating it every year, year over year. (24:28) And I can help you. (24:29) I mean, when you've been on both ends of the table, you can't get hoodwinked.(24:32) It's fair. (24:33) No, it's not on clearance. (24:35) No, that's what they planned on selling you it for.(24:38) When Amazon has the price up here and then a big X through it for you only this time, like none of that is real. (24:44) If you're not a business owner though, you'll fall for it. (24:47) Now you still might want to buy it.(24:48) I still buy it depending on what it is, right?

Kevin Palmieri

(24:51) Well, it's fine. (24:51) Why do you buy it?

Alan Lazaros

(24:52) Don't let them tell you it's actually on sale. (24:57) It's not. (24:58) Trust me.(24:59) They are tracking exactly what they cost, profit margin, and they mark it up, anchor you high and then sell it low. (25:06) But if you don't know the cognitive biases, you don't know that.

Kevin Palmieri

(25:09) Yeah. (25:09) Well, it's like a Black Friday. (25:11) They don't just decide, you know what?(25:14) It's been a hard year. (25:15) It's been a long, cold year. (25:16) I'm going to take care of you.(25:17) It's like, but you're probably trying to pad the balance sheet towards the end of the year. (25:20) Let's rid of some of the old stuff and give it away.

Alan Lazaros

(25:23) Still making money on it. (25:24) Extra inventory, you know?

Kevin Palmieri

(25:25) Still making money on it, for sure. (25:27) Last thing, last thing before we get out of here. (25:29) I will never forget.(25:30) I had a client, podcast client, and he came to me one day and he said, Hey man, I'm thinking about going with another service. (25:36) And I said, talk to me. (25:36) What's up?(25:37) He said, they do everything that you do, $29 a month. (25:40) And I said, brother, brother. (25:43) No, they don't.(25:43) Brother. (25:45) They don't. (25:46) 29.(25:47) They're no, they're doing it for a gym membership. (25:49) No, no. (25:51) We had some people leave.(25:52) Can you tell us what this client was getting? (25:55) What were they getting or what are they supposed to get? (25:56) What were they getting?(25:58) Nothing. (25:58) They thought they were going to get all this.

Alan Lazaros

(25:59) They were supposed to. (26:00) No, no, no. (26:00) For us.

Kevin Palmieri

(26:00) Oh, they were getting, oh, four episodes per month, audio editing, video editing, show notes, thumbnails, teaser clips, posting to social, no, posting to the platforms, coaching with me, all this stuff, everything. (26:13) We were producing their entire show. (26:14) 29 bucks a month, baby.(26:15) 29 bucks a month. (26:16) And I was like, dude, you are, no, I am certain of this. (26:20) I'm not, you can go test it.(26:23) If you're, if you're going to be happier with them, more power to you. (26:25) I'm telling you right now, that's fake. (26:28) I can show you the numbers on their social media.(26:31) They're paying for followers and they're saying they have a successful podcast. (26:34) I'm certain they don't. (26:35) I can see the data that you can't.(26:37) They went, they went, they gave it a shot and they came back and he said, yeah, man, that was bad. (26:41) It was real bad. (26:42) I know.(26:43) I know. (26:44) Yeah. (26:44) They might look way more successful than us, but there's no way the owner of that company goes to bed as fulfilled as I do.(26:51) No way. (26:52) Not, it's not humanly possible because they are lying and they know they're lying. (26:56) It's not like they think they're telling the truth.(26:58) They know, they know for certain they're lying. (27:01) It's all, if somebody is lying in one place, what is stopping them from lying everywhere else? (27:07) A hundred percent.

Alan Lazaros

(27:07) That is my takeaway. (27:10) So you and me, before we get out of here, let's talk about if our goal was to make sure that our listeners became unhoodwinkable, like no one can take advantage of you again. (27:25) If that was our goal, knowing that we're never going to hit that goal, but we're going to try our best, what would you tell them?(27:30) One from each of us? (27:31) Because as two men who have been hoodwinked several times, yes, uh, many times more than I am proud of for sure. (27:39) What in the uh, but we're smarter now, way smarter now.(27:45) I get a simple one.

Kevin Palmieri

(27:47) Give it to me. (27:48) Yeah. (27:48) I would rather regret saying no than saying yes.(27:52) When it comes to most things I went, I canceled my Xfinity because we got a new, we moved it to the new, it was a whole thing and I knew this was going to happen. (28:01) Oh, I see. (28:04) Oh, okay.(28:04) Yeah. (28:04) That's interesting. (28:05) That's interesting right there.(28:06) I see that you're not signed up for our sales service. (28:11) No downside, completely free, whatever it is. (28:13) And we can get you signed up today.(28:15) It's like, I'm, I'm good. (28:16) Thank you. (28:18) Oh, why?(28:20) Why? (28:20) Why? (28:21) I already have a cell phone.(28:22) I already have a cell phone plan. (28:24) Well, who do you have it with Verizon? (28:26) It's probably pretty expensive.(28:27) Why don't let's do this. (28:29) Just give me your number and I'll have the business department. (28:31) I was like, no, I'm good.(28:33) I'm good. (28:34) No, thank you. (28:35) I'm telling you.(28:37) Oh, do you want us to do this, this, this, and this too? (28:40) Nope. (28:40) I will get back to you.(28:41) That say, no, I will get back to you. (28:43) I'm telling you, you will get taken advantage of less because in the moment they are relying on your lack of awareness. (28:49) When I went and bought my car, I had chat GPT up and before I answered a question, I'd said, give me a sec, let me consult my phone here.(28:58) And I would literally do whatever they'd asked me to do. (29:00) And then I'd figure out whether or not it made sense. (29:03) And I got the price down to exactly where I wanted it.(29:05) But if I didn't have that, I would have got raked over the coals for sure. (29:09) A hundred percent. (29:10) That's my no.

Alan Lazaros

(29:12) Let me do more research is my takeaway. (29:15) If you're a business owner or ever intend to be one, you have to find a win, win, win, win for you, win for others, win for the world. (29:24) It has to be a win, win, win.(29:26) Okay. (29:28) Uh, if I want to make someone unhoodwinkable, it's gotta be just be the most aware person in every room. (29:36) It's just gotta be an obsession with learning.(29:38) And, and the ironic part of that, the paradoxical part of that is you basically have to fail forward. (29:45) Everyone who's seven gets hoodwinked. (29:48) Everyone.(29:49) This isn't what I thought it would be. (29:52) Right. (29:53) The banjo minnow, you know, they must have starved those damn fish in that infomercial.

Kevin Palmieri

(29:58) If you're, if you're, if you're too young to know about the banjo minnow YouTube, the banjo minnow infomercial, you would be mind blown.

Alan Lazaros

(30:05) I would watch that thing. (30:06) And I'm, I live on a large pond, small Lake. (30:09) And I was like, this is the, this is the answer.

Kevin Palmieri

(30:12) I know. (30:12) This is it.

Alan Lazaros

(30:13) This is the answer. (30:14) Large mouth pass. (30:15) It looked, the fish tanks look just like my, my, uh, pond.(30:20) And look at it. (30:21) Move, look at it. (30:22) Move.(30:22) It looks just like a fish lifelike. (30:24) Yeah. (30:25) Lifelike large mouth bass.(30:27) I caught two fish on that thing and I tried it for years and you know what works even better? (30:32) A fucking rubber worm.

Kevin Palmieri

(30:33) Yeah. (30:34) Works great. (30:34) Straight up rubber.

Alan Lazaros

(30:36) Yeah. (30:37) Yeah. (30:38) A hundred percent, a hundred percent.(30:40) Um, the truth is, and I know you all know this, but I asked, uh, Emilio's dad's a business hunter. (30:46) We were at dinner last night and I said, what would you do differently if you could go back? (30:51) He said, be less naive.(30:53) That's it. (30:54) Just be less naive. (30:56) And I couldn't agree more.(30:57) Dude. (30:58) When I look back, you and I, I sent you something from eight years ago.

Kevin Palmieri

(31:01) Yeah.

Alan Lazaros

(31:02) Okay. (31:02) A photo of you and I eight years ago, a video as well. (31:05) We were, what's the difference between now and then we were, we're just less naive now.(31:12) Don't let, don't let people, I don't want to say be the smartest in every room because I want you to have mentors and coaches and guides and therapists. (31:26) I do, but you have to aspire to be. (31:30) That's what I would say.(31:31) That's what I'm going to end with is aspire to be. (31:33) I decided when I was young, I'm going to be as smart as possible. (31:35) I remember making that decision of like, I'm going to, I'm going to try to know everything.(31:41) And it's helped so much because now nobody can take advantage of us. (31:46) Last story. (31:49) I told you this story recently, the guy does the whole thing.(31:55) They do the little test drive. (31:57) It was a whole freaking thing. (31:59) And he's like, well, this, this, and I said, listen, brother, let me stop you right there.(32:03) We have someone else in our condo complex ready to buy this. (32:07) We've done our research. (32:09) Like I know what you're doing and I don't like it.(32:12) We run three businesses between the two of us. (32:14) Do you want the car or not? (32:16) Like, listen, I know what you're doing.(32:19) I've been in sales for years. (32:21) Okay. (32:22) Do you want the fucking car or not?(32:24) The flux capacitor seems old. (32:25) It's yeah. (32:26) The flux, the flux capacitor is a little squeaky.(32:29) Could be something. (32:30) I kid you not Kev. (32:31) They left, they drove away.(32:34) And I said, sweetheart, you're good. (32:35) They're going to, you're going to get a text within five minutes. (32:37) They texted us, they came back, they got it cash, cash only we're out.(32:42) Um, the point I'm making is you can't get hoodwinked when you're the smartest in the room, spend the rest of your life trying to be the smartest in the room. (32:48) They tried to hustle you. (32:50) They did it.(32:51) You can't, I know, I know what you're doing. (32:54) Please hold areas.

Kevin Palmieri

(32:56) Cool. (32:57) You're back. (32:58) All right.(32:58) Uh, you just said be the smartest in the room. (33:00) Say it again. (33:00) And then I'll, then I'll do the thing.(33:01) Okay.

Alan Lazaros

(33:09) You can't get hoodwinked when you're the smartest in the room. (33:13) Spend your life learning as much as possible to become the most aware and smartest in the room. (33:18) They tried to hustle you.

Kevin Palmieri

(33:20) That's the old, that's the old, we don't need it. (33:23) We're out of here. (33:24) Kick rocks.(33:25) Is that why you drove an hour and a half for this thing? (33:27) Yeah. (33:27) Right.(33:28) It's like, Oh, you don't need it. (33:28) Okay. (33:29) Well enjoy your ride back.(33:30) There's McDonald's up the road. (33:31) All right, cool. (33:32) Next level nation.(33:33) If you are looking for a group of amazing people that are into fitness and you can celebrate your fitness wins and your consistency and all that happy jazz, we have the next level fitness accountability group. (33:42) Reach out to Alan and or myself. (33:44) We'll let you in.(33:44) I already hit my 10 pound in 10 week goal. (33:47) I definitely dieted too fast for sure. (33:50) And I lost too much too quickly, but that's done and we're going to continue pushing to one 70 or one 65 and there might be a photo shoot in the near future.(33:57) We'll see. (33:58) I don't know how much I want to commit to, but we'll see.

Alan Lazaros

(34:01) Nice. (34:02) If you're out there and you feel like you're up against the world and you don't know how to be successful on your own terms and need someone in your corner to make sure you don't get hoodwinked. (34:11) I have coaching.(34:12) It is more affordable than you think. (34:13) You can start with once every four weeks. (34:15) I have monthly bi-weekly weekly clients.(34:19) I also have a couple people that are twice a week, three times a week, and one person is four times a week, but we start small and we build. (34:24) It is more affordable than you think. (34:26) Just reach out.(34:26) If it's aligned, we'll get you on the calendar.

Kevin Palmieri

(34:29) As always, we love you. (34:30) We appreciate you grateful for each and every one of you. (34:32) And if you are as committed as you say you are to getting to the next level, make sure you tune in tomorrow because we will be here every single day to help you get there.

Alan Lazaros

(34:39) Keep leveling up to reach your full potential. (34:41) Next level nation.

Kevin Palmieri

(34:43) Thanks for joining us for another episode of Next Level University. (34:47) We love connecting with the Next Level family.

Alan Lazaros

(34:50) We mean it when we say family. (34:52) If you ever need anything, please reach out to us directly. (34:55) Everything you need to get ahold of us is in the show notes.(34:59) Thank you again, and we will talk to you tomorrow.