Next Level Living: Alan Lazaros' Blueprint for Personal and Professional Growth

Freddy D: 00:02:25

At just 2 years old, today's guest, Alan Lazaros experienced an unimaginable loss when his father tragically passed away in a car accident. Fast Forward to age 26. Alan found himself in his own near fatal car crash. A pivotal moment that made him question everything.

Who he was, the choices he was making, and what truly mattered in life.

Feeling lost, filled with pain, regret and confusion, Alan discovered that external success means nothing unless it's aligned with who you genuinely are and who you aspire to become. His relentless search for answers led him to a transformational discovery. Holistic self improvement.

Immersing himself in podcasts, courses, TED talks and books, he embarked on a profound journey of self discovery and growth. This journey didn't just transform Alan's life.

It empowered him with the courage to walk away from an unfulfilling career and embrace a meaningful calling wholeheartedly.

Today, Alan proudly leads a Global team of 17 as the founder and CEO of Next Level University, a global top 100 self improvement podcast impacting lives across more than 175 countries. As a coach, trainer and podcaster, Alan believes in a heart driven, yet no nonsense approach to achieving true success.

One that combines external accomplishments with deep internal fulfillment. Please join me in welcoming Alan Lazaros, Founder and CEO of Next Level University.

Freddy D: 00:04:01

Welcome Alan. From Next Level University to the Business.

Alan Lazaros: 00:04:05

Superfans podcast, First and foremost, gratitude. I like to sandwich every aligned thing I do in gratitude, so thank you for having me. I don't take it lightly.

I started listening to podcasts about 10 years ago and they really helped me reevaluate my life and reconstruct my life in a really positive direction after a tough car accident I had.

So the fact that we're in anyone's ear right now, or anyone is watching us, I think that's a big deal because we are influencing them, hopefully in a positive way. So I don't take that lightly. Thank you for having me.

Freddy D: 00:04:34

We're excited to have you. So give us the backstory of where did Next Level University come from and what's it all about.

Alan Lazaros: 00:04:44

So, Next Level University, Next level U is pun intended. I'm Alan, version 3.6.

ware, more well developed. In: 2007

The iPhone, I think 14.

In comparison, that very first revolutionary breakthrough would be just hot garbage compared to this because they've iterated and improved it thousands and thousands of times. Firmware, hardware, software. And I think the same thing is true for us.

We can all look back at 10 years ago and realize that we didn't know anything in comparison to what we know now. And if you do look back 10 years ago and you don't feel that way, that should be alarming in my opinion, because you're not learning much.

Next level, pun intended, is essentially a podcast where it's 1% improvement in your pocket for anywhere on the planet. Completely free. We do an episode every day. But where did it start?

I worked in industrial automation as a computer engineer and an mba and I saw basically this trend that kind of freaked me out a little. Statistically speaking, you can research this. The less educated population tends to have more children and tends to have them younger.

And the more educated population, higher education, masters, PhDs, they tend to wait longer to have children. And when they do have children, they tend to have much fewer statistically.

So the less educated population is increasing at a more exponential rate than the more educated population. Now here's the problem. I'm a big technology guy, always have been, computer engineer, and I worked in industrial automation.

My territory for a company called Cognex was Vermont, Connecticut and western Massachusetts.

And I would go into these manufacturing facilities, think of a famous ice cream company, and I would see people checking the cartons to make sure the carton was sound, the print was good and quality assurance. I would sell machine vision equipment that would take pictures of it down a line and make sure it's optimal. I'd make a big paycheck.

My company, Cognex, would do very well. Industrial automation isn't going away.

And I'd see these pictures on the walls of 70s, 80s, 90s, and all these factory workers, particularly 78, 70s and 80s, and now it's one floor manager and all robotics.

And I'm sitting there going, okay, so the people who need, I mean all of us know you go into a grocery store, there's self checkout and that's never going away. It's going to get exponentially increasing because, you know, self checkout doesn't get sick, health insurance, all this stuff.

So automation is extremely lucrative for companies to automate jobs. And that makes sense. And I'm not against that because in some ways the consumers benefit from that. We all get more production for less money.

I get it. Here's the deal though. The engineers, the people who are very skilled workers, very educated, do very well.

I went to One of the best technology colleges in the world.

WPI actually just spoke there last night and they're going to do very well because the 21st century, everyone needs engineers and there aren't enough of us, especially computer engineers. Those people do exponentially better statistically and you can research this than the people who need to be the gross.

Freddy D: 00:07:53

I used to be an engineer a long time ago. Drafting boards, I mean really back, back in the day.

If you remember the: 1982

So I understand exactly what you're talking about because they would have guys that would have to hold the world gun on a gimbal that would in turn spot weld the body panels appropriately. That's all done via robotics today. Drafting used to be done on drafting boards, papers and everything else.

Now I got involved in computer aided design when it first started as an applications guy that revolutionized the design aspect, speeded up everything and same thing with the software development. I was involved in all that.

So what you're saying is absolutely right on the money because education was paramount to be able to jump into those areas and exponentially evolve with how technology changed. Just like you mentioned with your iPhone.

Alan Lazaros: 00:08:59

Well, exactly the thing that I liken it to. I try to always because I, I'm a computer engineer and I know this comes off as pretentious, but I grew up with tech and I've always been a techie.

People aren't really worried about this as much as they need to be walking, talking robots are coming. It's never going to stop. Right. Self driving car, my Tesla drives itself. I have to supervise it.

But it's just unbelievable what this technology can do. But what about the 8 million truck drivers in this country that are not overnight but within a couple of years going to not have a job. Right.

So at the end of the day, the graph exponentially is increasing of less educated population based on more kids younger and the amount of jobs available to those people is exponentially decreasing.

So Next level University was built on this concept of instead of me working in industrial automation like I did and making a lot of money taking away jobs, I decided to reinvent myself and build a company that helps people create jobs. We level up yourself, level up your podcast, level up your business.

At this point I work with 22 business owners and then I coach eight people on the teams.

We're working with a lot of people all over the world that are inventing their own jobs and really helping people retool and so self improvement, I think skill acquisition, this kind of stuff needs to be a focal point. His name's Derek. He volunteered for one of our charities. He's a friend of mine. And he said, I don't even have a laptop.

And he was almost bragging about it. And I thought all I calculated in my mind, and this is nothing against Derek, because I love Derek. Derek's a wonderful person.

Is like, you're screwed if you don't have computer skills, you are in trouble, like, sir.

Freddy D: 00:10:33

Especially in today's world because it's changing exponentially. When I was in the software industry back in the 80s when it really started, we would have a software update once a year, maybe twice a year.

Now it's every day now it's every day. They push out a little patch every day. You just got your head around it.

And if you don't have the sense of adaptability, all of a sudden you go, wait a minute, this whole interface changed. What happened? I can't find. Where's that command? It's so rapid today that you have to be engaged into the technology today.

Alan Lazaros: 00:11:09

Yeah, my car updates every day, My phone updates regularly. Laptops. If you're not focused on improving yourself, doggy years. Everyone knows that concept, right? Two years for a dog equate to.

To seven years of a human life or whatever. I think there's technology years if your phone is four years old, it's actually way more than that. I was speaking at a college last night.

Wpi Wishu Polytechnic Institute. It's like a mini mit and this is where I went to school. I walk into the innovation and entrepreneurship building and this is my old stomping grounds.

So it was really fascinating. I brought my girlfriend, future wife, and it was really cool to be back there.

I'm talking to these kids and there's one 30 year old in a room and the rest are all 18, 19, 20. As I was speaking, the speech was engineering a fulfilling life metrics mindset and meaning. I broke it all down, I engineered it great.

I kept saying back in my day, and I'm 36, so this is the first time I've been saying things like that. You remember the times when you started catching yourself saying that? Later that night, I was talking to my girlfriend on the way home.

I was like, you would have thought I was 80 years old talking to those kids. And I said, wait a minute, I might be only 16 years older than some of you, but those 16 years, how what are those in technology years?

Because they were talking about YouTube and all this stuff I was like, back when I was your age, we didn't even have any of that. I'm only 36. But those 16 years, we made more progress in technology in those 16 years than the previous 160 years. And you can research this.

This is called the law.

Freddy D: 00:12:46

It's exponential.

And going back to what you were saying earlier about education and learning, I used to work in a gas station for a little while back when we actually had people pumping gas. So I'm really dating myself, but my.

Alan Lazaros: 00:13:02

Business partner did, too. So I see you. He's only 35, so you're good.

Freddy D: 00:13:08

There's a guy that I'm still friends with that changed the trajectory of my life. He turned me on to reading motivational books. Dale Carnegie stuff, Multitude of other books.

Alan Lazaros: 00:13:22

Stephen Covey.

Freddy D: 00:13:24

Stephen Covey was. This was. Yeah, no, this was the old guard. I still have the pamphlet in my locker.

I'm not gonna get it right now, but there was about seven, eight books that I read. The Magic of Believing, Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill, all those guys. And that opened up my eyes into possibilities. I'm a super fan of that guy.

We're still friends 40, 50 years later. Just saw him last January. Had I not had that person.

And I'm really edifying you here and what you're doing, because that person opened my eyes up to possibilities through education. And that's what you're doing with Next Level Up University.

Alan Lazaros: 00:14:08

Yeah. Thank you so much. I told the kids yesterday because there's only, I think, probably 13 of them or so.

It was a little entrepreneurship club, so you would have felt at home there. It was. I said, you guys are the weirdos, right? You're in an entrepreneurship club. This is voluntary. You don't have to do this for credits.

I said, no one is going to come save you. Your future is only going to be as bright as you make it. You guys are all smart. You all have a math modality of thinking. You're all engineers.

You're at one of the best engineering colleges on planet Earth. You have advantages. But if you don't have drive and if you don't level up every day like the technology, you're not going to be able to succeed.

It makes me very sad to see people who could do great kind of rest on complacency when the world is going to evolve faster than you do and you're going to feel stuck as hell. Some people have a job, some people have a career, some people have a calling.

When you figure out what you're passionate about and you learn how to retool so that you can help other people with that and then do it for a profit. I didn't learn anything about finance till my master's program. Right. We. We didn't learn enough.

ly my second company. Back in: 2012

I mean it. I don't want to come off as like this arrogant, pretentious. You need to do this.

If you are not learning daily, retooling your skills and getting clarity on who you are and what you want to do in this world, you're in trouble. In the past, when technology wasn't amplifying so quickly, you could go to work, come home, you know, you still be able to buy a house.

You can read all the economics you want. You can look at all this. Like in the 90s, everybody could get a home.

Everybody but most people, and my generation is in a lot of trouble if they didn't retool, because the people who did retool are making exponentially more money. I happened to be one of them.

I'm very grateful because I came from absolutely nothing, but I just see people not concerned, and that's what's concerning.

Freddy D: 00:16:15

Totally makes sense. I've seen the transition from where things were and how quickly things have changed. Like we said, exponential.

But it's even becoming more prevalent today because of the dynamics that are going around globally. And so now you have to look at things realistically on a global scale.

You can't think just in your own backyard anymore because the playing field is the globe.

Alan Lazaros: 00:16:44

Yeah. And 5.85 billion human beings are on the Internet. I have exactly 17 people, and I haven't even met half of them in person.

I've met them all virtually. There's some I haven't met virtually. I've talked to them on WhatsApp. That is fairly new. I have a fully virtual company, and that's a fairly new idea.

Last night's speaking event, I really enjoyed it because it was the first in person thing I did since March of the year before.

Freddy D: 00:17:13

I've got somebody helping me with my YouTube channel. He's out of country.

Alan Lazaros: 00:17:17

Yeah, exactly.

Freddy D: 00:17:18

And the guy's Cracker Jack. Just very sharp.

So let's make a turn here, Alan, and let's talk about, you know, give me a story of how next level transformed somebody and what was the outcome.

Alan Lazaros: 00:17:33

Of that next level transformed somebody? Well, the first transformation was Kevin and I were business partners at. He's probably the best example. I met Kevin. So Kevin and I were.

This is actually fascinating and hindsight's 20 20, so at the time you don't really know. So Kevin and I were friends in middle school. We grew up in the same small town. We both grew up without fathers.

in a car accident. This is in: 1991

My real last name is actually McCorkle. My birth father is John McCorkle. It was Jim, Joe, John, Jane, Joan, Jeanette.

Big Irish Catholic family, six kids, all J and Steve Lazarus was my father, my stepfather. And my stepfather left at 14, took his entire extended family with him. I haven't seen or spoken to any of them since.

I talked to him on Facebook messenger a little bit, but haven't seen him. He took all the income with him too. Not all of it, but most of it.

rom boats and ski trips early: 2000

So when I said I started from nothing, that's what I mean is 14. It was kind of all ripped out from under me, so to speak. It's a whole story.

But basically became the man of the house at 14 and had to figure out what to do because I don't have any generational wealth or safety net. My mom was a lunch lady and I had to figure out how to succeed. Kevin and I grew up in very, very humble beginnings as well.

And so much in fact, that I can't share most of it. But that's for him to share. He didn't go to college. No one in his extended family ended up going to college.

He was the gas station attendant at 22, thinking he had no future type of thing. And so we were friends in middle school, very close friends, pretty close friends.

And then in high school, he didn't like me and I didn't like that he didn't like me. He was the insecure one. I was kind of the arrogant super achiever. And we didn't get along. We both had our quarter life crisis in our mid-20s.

He had suicidal ideation not long after I had A car accident at 26, where I reevaluated my whole life because my dad died in a car when he was 28. And physically I was okay. But this was the second chance my dad never got. Kev is the best example of what can happen when you transform your life.

He wouldn't mind me sharing this. He. He shares this openly. He says, I was screwed. I didn't know technology. I didn't have a bright future. I didn't have a safety net.

I didn't have a dad. I didn't go to college. I wasn't naturally gifted, although in bodybuilding, he definitely was gifted. But he said I was screwed.

And we just started retooling. We started tracking habits and. And he. I was kind of his mentor. He says this, too.

We were peers and co hosts and we started a business together, but really I was more of his mentor. He taught me a lot about myself and how different I am. He just wasn't very conscientious.

If you look up conscientiousness, there's a personality test called Hexaco, and it tests you on 26 facets of your personality. And I think it's the most scientific of all the different personality tests. But conscientiousness is diligence, prudence, perfectionism.

You mentioned being thorough, hard work, all that stuff. And some people just aren't very conscientious. They aren't well kept. They, they, they're lazy. And that's just true. He was very much in that bucket.

So he had to really work on being more conscientious and more put together and more organized and more methodical and scientific and structured and strategy. A lot of people are uncomfortable around me because I operate like a robot and I think in math, modality of thinking.

And I'm an engineer, so I reverse engineer everything. Kev, though, was not that way. He was going to lose. He was born into scarcity and he was going to have a life of scarcity.

And he has transformed himself. That dude knows more about business than most of the business owners I know. And he came from such humble beginnings. It's.

You know what he does have, though? He has a ton of grit because he was given nothing, literally. And he has work ethic up wazoo. And that, to me is more important.

He's humble enough to ask to stay in my corner, to work really hard and try to earn his way to success.

And I feel like in our country in particular, but again, globally, a lot of people have this entitlement thing where they just Think they deserve stuff where I came from, everything within reason, being ripped out from under me. I learned real quick. If it's going to be, it's up to me.

Freddy D: 00:21:55

I can, I can relate. I can relate because I was living on my own at 17.

Alan Lazaros: 00:22:00

That'll do it.

Freddy D: 00:22:00

So I was paying rent.

Alan Lazaros: 00:22:02

Yeah, that'll do it.

Freddy D: 00:22:03

I was living and still going to high school. I didn't drop out. I lived on my own for a little while. I lived in a auto repair shop for a couple weeks.

So I can appreciate where you're coming from and the story that you're sharing, because I've gone down that road.

Alan Lazaros: 00:22:20

Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:22:21

I ended up being in charge of global sales and traveling to over 30 countries. What you're talking about is very relevant for those that believe in themselves. And that's really where it begins.

We could go on and on hours on, on this, that transforming your life is you have to take the first step and you're going to get knocked back several times. Because life, there's nothing that will hit you harder than life itself.

It'll knock you down and you got to get back up and keep punching, as Sylvester Stallone says, and keep going forward. Great stuff.

Alan Lazaros: 00:22:59

Thank you. People say work smart, not hard.

And I actually think that's irrational because most of us don't work smart until after we beat our head against the wall. I meet people all the time in the social media world, right. And I want to start a business. Cause I want more free time. I want to be financially free.

That is not why you start a business. I haven't taken a full day off in 10 years. I'm not kidding. And I, I said that to a woman named Deborah once on a podcast.

She said, oh my God, Alan, that's so bad for you. I said, no, Deborah, that's bad for you. Some days it's 15 hour days, some.

Freddy D: 00:23:30

Days it's Richard Branson says it best. And that is that work and life are really all in one. So what you're doing is you're just living. That's it.

And there's no, oh, I've got 40 hours or 60 hours. No, I was living those 40 or 60 hours. It just happened to be doing something that's making me money at the end of the day. That's it.

Let's continue that aspect. You work with business owners and you do some business coaching. What are some of the things that business owners should do to really look at?

As we talked about, continually staying current, where things are evolving? What are some of the Things that they can do to keep themselves up to date technologically and socially.

Alan Lazaros: 00:24:20

The most important thing for every business owner to learn is a deeper layer of Pareto principle. So most business owners have heard of 20% of your effort creates 80% of the results, assuming you actually have the objective chosen in advance.

I'm a big math guy, and when I was a kid, I wanted to be a math teacher. I literally used to say, can't be a math teacher, they don't make enough money. And now I joke, I say I teach math to business owners because I do.

It's if you know the Pareto principle, you can find the 20% of things that matter, but you can go deeper.

You can take 20% of 20% and that's 4%, and then you can take 20% of 4%, which is 0.8%, and then you can take 20 percent of that, which is 0.16%, and you can take 20% of that, which is 0.04%. If you break down the math, it's a 1 to 4 ratio. So 20% of effort creates 80% of the reward. That's a 1 to 4 ratio.

One input gives you four times the output if you do it right. And this is, there's a lot of stipulations on this, like you have to have a clear objective. So muscle building.

The 20% is eating in a surplus of calories, particularly with a lot of protein. And make sure you weight train all right. And, and so as soon as you change the objective, the whole equation changes.

For any business owner, you've got to learn what really matters. It's the little things that really matter for business owners that they neglect. So, for example, your headshot, it matters a lot.

That's one thing you can do that's actually fairly cheap if you get a decent photographer. And, and it matters a lot. So you gotta find the little leverage points that matter a lot, and you gotta focus your time and effort on those.

And that's really what I think. Success in business. What business am I in? What is it that I'm providing?

Because over the years I was a fitness coach, mindset coach, a life coach, a peak performance coach, a business consultant, and then a business coach. Over the years, coaching was the through line. Mentoring for 10 years, coaching for eight. Coming up on my 10,000 hours, which is wild.

But you realize, what is it that I'm doing? Why is it that I'm able to get these people results? And why can't they get results on their own?

One thing that's been alarming for me, and this is kind of scary to share, is a lot of people who leave my coaching end up doing a lot less than I thought they would. I'm really doing the reverse engineering for them a lot. They'll tell me their goals, priorities, metrics, habits, skills, and identity work.

Once you have the goals, priorities, metrics, habits and skills in alignment with what you want, it's pretty much identity work, which is, why aren't you doing it? And then you got to go into the story you tell yourself about yourself. Some people who are lazy think they're hardworking.

Some people who are hardworking are actually wicked lazy. If you think you're hardworking, you're probably lazy. If you think you're lazy, you're probably hardworking.

I have one person I'm thinking of Christina. She's on my team, chief operations officer. She doesn't think she's hardworking at all. One of the most hard working people I've ever met.

But if she thinks she's hard working, she won't work on being more hardworking. So, Pareto, what is the tiny 0.04% essentials? That's what I call them, the 0.04% essentials that give you one input.

If you do the math 1/4 times 1/4 times 1/4times 1/4, it's one input for 10, 24 times the output. And people always say, if you could put a dollar in and get $1,024 back, how often would you play? Now here's the problem. I think that's dumb.

Let me explain. You put a dollar in, you get punched in the face for 10 years, then you get a thousand bucks back. It's not right away.

This is a compounded effect over time.

Freddy D: 00:27:41

Success, the overnight success took 15.7 years to happen.

Alan Lazaros: 00:27:46

Technically, it took. If you look at the stats for self made millionaires, self made billionaires with a B, there's a book called the Self Made Billionaire Effect.

If you look at the stats, the majority of them, they don't become a billionaire until their 50s, 60s and 70s. There are no young billionaires unless they inherited it. Generational wealth is very much a thing.

Freddy D: 00:28:06

So with Next Level University, you've got to have some super fans that you've created from the listeners of your podcast show as well as the ones that take your online courses or the mentoring that you provide. So share a story of how you've helped a business owner transform their business and create super fans out of that.

Alan Lazaros: 00:28:27

So the super fans thing We. We do. We have some die hards. I've had a book club for the last four years. We do monthly meetups every month.

We have certain people that end up being clients. One example would be a woman named Bonnie. She's been to book club. Out of 208 book clubs, she's probably been to 175 of them, which is awesome.

She and this whole group of friends are into next level university. They come to the meetups. Emilia and I have another podcast called the Conscious Couples Podcast. And we coach relationships.

We've been doing that for four years. That's been fascinating. Coaching couples has been transformative, right, because you get the male and female perspective. It's been unbelievable.

Bonnie's a good example. She's a client of mine as well. And here's the cool thing, too.

Freddy D: 00:29:10

What was the outcome?

Alan Lazaros: 00:29:11

Clarity on what she wants to do. So she's running for city council. She's been dancing for 32 years. She's a dancer and very connected in the community.

But she never realized self awareness, one of the reasons people don't achieve their goals. Only 4% of people have written goals and only 8% of them achieve them. The point is, most people don't achieve their goals and dreams, unfortunately.

I think one of the reasons why is because of low self awareness. Bonnie is someone who's not all in on any one thing. She loves learning. She's very eclectic. She dances and crafts and loves talking to people.

She loves book club. But she doesn't go all in on any one thing. And what I've found is in order to achieve really big results, you have to hone.

And the more you hone in on your thing, the bigger the impact is that you can have. Taylor Swift's a good example, right? It's singing, songwriting and guitar. If you take away those four things, she's immediately not Taylor Swift.

And so you gotta figure out those leverage points. We already talked about that for Bonnie. She loves doing a lot of things. She's doing judo, got her black belt, all this stuff. So self awareness.

What my coaching has done is help her realize if my only thing I'm all in on is not going all in on anything, I might as well be in politics. She wants to have a positive impact. She loves learning and she loves people. And she believes in people and wants to make systemic change.

Now she's running for city council and she's perfect for it because she's not only got the biggest heart, but she loves people and believes in systemic change. So that's A good example of a pivot. I think most people fail in life because they don't own all of who they are, myself included.

I remember when Kevin and I first got together, I was trying to be like him because he was very likable and relatable, and he was trying to be like me. Conscientious, robotic, and metrics, habits and skills. Eventually we were like, we need you to be you and me to be me. He was the cfo.

We almost went out of business. The reason why is because I didn't want to do it. But I'm the numbers guy. So we have a new rule at the company.

Whenever there's numbers, I should be in charge of it, and whenever it's people, he should be in charge of it, because I don't understand people as well as he does, and he doesn't understand numbers nearly as well as I do. So you gotta own all of who you are. And I think that's what I've helped Bonnie with more than anything, is just own who she is.

You're not gonna be like me because you're not like me. You're not gonna be fulfilled being like me. I work six days a week, from 11 to 7, even Saturday. I haven't taken a full day off in 10 years.

Bonnie doesn't want to do that. So Bonnie has to own that she's never gonna have results like me.

But she also has to own that even if she did have results like me, she wouldn't be happy. She wouldn't be fulfilled. And I think that's a good example of a super fan who has leaned into more of who she is. And that's all I want for anybody.

I don't want you to be like me. I want you to own your uniqueness and be the best version of that.

Freddy D: 00:31:50

Okay, good story.

Alan Lazaros: 00:31:52

Thank you.

Freddy D: 00:31:53

Because you've helped Bonnie identify who she wants to be and narrow it down, because, you know, Jack of all trades, master of none. So what you guys have done is helped her find an area where she feels that she can contribute the most, excel, empower people.

And so now, not only have you turned her into a super fan, but you positioned her to help the community and create super fans on a community scale, which is transformative. A multitude of different aspects.

Alan Lazaros: 00:32:28

Well, this is the leading leaders thing. Bonnie is a leader. She has a lot of influence. She's in Kamloops in Canada. She's involved in so many groups and so much community service.

And she's a big dancer. She's choreographing. Most of the dances in that city. I realized probably in my 30s, I started to learn that I'm not for the masses.

And it's weird because my mission was to try to bring self improvement to the masses. And I realized over time that I'm a very acquired taste. Most people are not a fan of me. I even use words that other people don't know.

So I forget what word you used earlier, but you used a word that no one knows. And I was thinking to myself, the more sophisticated your language is, the less the masses are going to take in your content.

Freddy D: 00:33:18

And.

Alan Lazaros: 00:33:18

But if you lead leaders, you can have that ripple effect. And so that's what I've really focused on now.

I try to find the people who have the biggest hearts, who have the most self belief internally, not blowhards. And I try to help them amplify who they are because that is how I'm reaching more people. I reach a lot of people.

I just don't reach a lot of people directly.

Freddy D: 00:33:39

What I'm after is impacting a lot of people in small steps.

If there's one transformative thing that they can do that puts a smile on somebody's face, gives out appreciation, recognizes somebody, those are the little things that become the big things. Because that's how you start creating super fans internally. You have to create super fans of your team.

That energy speaks to potential customers, existing customers, suppliers, distributors, and it's contagious. Positive energy is contagious just as negative energy is.

Alan Lazaros: 00:34:19

Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:34:20

The output of the two are completely different. Results you guys are doing with Next Level Up University is really helping people put energy back into their step.

That in turn carries on to whether it's personal relationships. Because you still have to recognize, appreciate, express gratitude to your partner in life as well as your business partners, your team.

If you've got a team of employees or contractors, whatever it is, there's still a team. Everybody else in the whole equation needs to be involved in the whole equation.

Alan Lazaros: 00:34:59

One thing that just came up for me while you were talking and this didn't come to me until last year because I would always hear these quotes growing up. And I've been very analytical my entire life. I'm sure that's clear. I think a lot of advice is garbage and some of it's great.

But I remember people would say things like, no one can achieve anything great alone. And I knew that was true. And one player can make a great team by setting the pace.

Freddy D: 00:35:26

Look at Michael Jordan.

Alan Lazaros: 00:35:27

That's exactly what I'm saying. Kobe Bryant, Michael, whatever it is, some people don't like him. I don't care. One player can make a great team.

So yes, no one can achieve anything great alone. That is true. And one player can make the difference.

I think that's super empowering because everyone can ask themselves the philosophical question, is it systemic or is it the individual? I think it's the responsibility of the individual. You have 50 trillion cells in your body. If one of them is cancer that can kill the whole body.

I just feel like no one's coming to save me. No one's coming to save you. It's our responsibility to lead by example and that will ripple outward. It does. I, I do this dreamliner. It's a journal.

Achieve your dreams in 90 days at a time. It's got gratitudes in there. You mentioned gratitude, all that kind of stuff.

I was so annoyed with some of the journals because some of them were too intense. It takes an hour to do it. And who has an hour every day for that?

So it's big enough where your brain says, yes, it's worth it, but it's small enough where you can do it in 10 minutes. So there's no excuse not to do it.

The reason I'm saying that is if you look at the sales of this thing, it's entirely predicated on when Kevin and I are using it. Because when we're not using it, we don't sell it. And by the way, we shouldn't. If I'm not using the journal, don't buy it.

Why would you listen to me if I'm not exercising, if I'm teaching you exercise and I'm not exercising, you need.

Freddy D: 00:36:51

To walk the walk and talk the talk.

Alan Lazaros: 00:36:53

I am alarmed because growing up I got a lot of advice from a lot of people who were talking and not walking. And I've reflected, I've done therapy. If you're not walking the walk, just shut up until you are.

And once you are, then you get permission to teach people. Because I think the world is full of people talking a lot more than it's who you are and what you are behind the scenes that matters.

And yes, I'm disappointed, particularly in the male role models I had growing up. And yes, I'm a little salty about it, but Kevin and I, you can look at our sales. It literally is predicated on when we're doing it.

As a matter of fact, when you do author copies on Amazon, sometimes it takes longer cuz they prioritize customers. And we for two weeks couldn't get Our new dreamliners, and we didn't talk about it at all. He wasn't doing it because he didn't have one.

I still had my old one. He didn't talk about it at all. He kept saying, I can't wait to get my dreamliner. But that was it. He wasn't selling it. That's what I love about Kev.

I don't know where this comes from. Probably from disappointment from our childhood, but we can't talk about something unless we're doing it.

We didn't talk about building wealth until we started. When we were a broke podcast, we never talked about making money.

We talked about personal development, self awareness, mindset, self belief and self worth. I didn't become a business coach until I had a successful business. And again, successful is in quotes, right? But because there's relative.

Compared to Amazon, we're not successful at all. Compared to normal podcasters, we're 1% of 1%. It's all relative. But all my clients are climbing a similar metaphorical mountain that I'm ahead of.

I am ahead of all my clients. And that's what gives me the permission to guide them. Because I think there's a lot of people saying, go that way, but they've never been there.

And I think that's detrimental to anyone who's naive.

Freddy D: 00:38:34

Like, I was very good stuff, because makes me remember Don, which was his name. My life at a very young age and like I mentioned earlier, transformed it into an aspect of making me realize that there was possibilities.

And possibilities was a door that I had to walk through. And once I walk through, I'm really grateful for the things I've been able to do.

As I mentioned before, I was in the tech world when it began, so I've seen the beginning of the whole revolution. I've been able to travel around the world multiple times, visiting and working with multicultural people.

And I still have what I would call super fans from some of those relationships because we're still friends 20, 30 years later. These are people that I met in other countries that have actually, some of them have become like brothers in a sense.

So totally understand the message that you're talking about.

Alan Lazaros: 00:39:32

I'm so fascinated.

And again, I know we don't have time today, but I'm pulling back everything in me not to ask you what the 70s, 80s and 90s were like and how that's different than today.

Freddy D: 00:39:42

I'll share this with you. I'm one of the few people you'll meet that's actually gone through Checkpoint Charlie. Which is between the Berlin Wall, between East and West Berlin.

Alan Lazaros: 00:39:52

Whoa.

Freddy D: 00:39:53

I've gone through that. Leave it at that.

Alan Lazaros: 00:39:56

I'm fascinated by the changes in tech and in the world and the mindset and the belief system.

Freddy D: 00:40:01

We could talk for hours. We could talk for hours, my friend.

All right, so as we wrap up here, tell a little bit more about how can people find you and also what do you have for our audience?

Alan Lazaros: 00:40:13

Yes, so we have a website called NextLevelUniverse.com that encapsulates everything we do. Next Level Universe, pun intended. Our podcast is Next Level University Place. You learn how to reach your potential. Health, wealth, life and love.

Holistic self improvement in your pocket every day from anywhere on the planet. Completely free. The male role models we never had. That's Kevin and I's thing. It's actually a lot of female listeners as well.

So I don't just mean for males, but it's there for you. 1% improvement per day, you actually end up 37 times better at the end of the year if you crunch the numbers.

1% improvement per day is actually very hard to do in any given area, but if you're a beginner to self improvement, you can definitely do it because you're starting from a very small number. Right?

Mathematically, if you're humble and grateful and you have a sincere interest to reach external achievement and internal fulfillment and you want to earn your way to success and fulfillment, you're going to love me, you're going to love Kev, you're going to love nlu. We're the ultimate try hards. We don't believe in fake it till you make it. We don't believe in wanting maximum rewards for minimal effort.

That stuff's garbage. I never had the courage to say this until my mid-30s.

If you are entitled on any level, if you want big rewards for minimal effort and you aren't humble, do not reach out under any circumstances. It's going to be a waste of your time and it's going to be a waste of my time. I'm so done with that.

I spent the last 10 years realizing that until you're humble, there's no hope.

Freddy D: 00:41:40

Exactly correct. Exactly correct. It all begins right there. It's not about you. Nobody cares about you. It's about what you do for everybody else.

Alan Lazaros: 00:41:49

Exactly. And you're going to learn that one way or another. It might take you 30 years, it.

Freddy D: 00:41:53

Might take you 50, but that's the reality. Yeah. Al, it's been a pleasure having you on the podcast.

Great conversation, great insights for our listeners, and we definitely look forward to having you on the show down the road.

Alan Lazaros: 00:42:05

I would love to come back. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. It was an honor.

Freddy D: 00:42:09

Likewise.