How Kevin Palmieri Built a Million-Dollar Self-Improvement Podcast

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We could have faced the fear together instead of you thinking, I think you suck because you're nervous.

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I'm always nervous.

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You're fine.

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You should just tell me.

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We can do it.

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We can do it together.

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Vulnerability around the right people is the best possible thing you can do.

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Welcome to The Wayfinder Show with Luis Hernandez, where guests discuss the why and how of making changes that led them down a more authentic path or allow them to level up in some area of their life.

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Our goal is to dig deep and provide not only knowledge, but actionable advice to help you get from where you are to where you want to be.

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Come join us and find the way to your dream life.

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Welcome back to the Wayfinder show.

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I'm your host, Luis Hernandez.

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I'm trying to build a great, podcast.

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And now we're at a point where I think we're stabilized.

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We've done over a hundred episodes, been about a year and a half.

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And, to level up, I always talk about surrounding yourself with people who are just doing it better than you.

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So today, we got somebody who's already doing it at a really high level and his name is Mr.

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Kevin Palmieri.

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Kevin is the founder and host of Next Level University.

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It's a top, a global top 100 self improvement podcast with over 1, 800 episodes and reaching over a million people.

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In more than 170 countries, after a brush with suicide in his younger years, he decided to go all in on his dreams of being a full time podcaster and entrepreneur.

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he believes in a heart driven, but no BS approach to holistic self improvement and teaching others how to get to the next level of their lives.

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Kevin, welcome to the Wayfinder show.

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Louis, thank you so very much for having me.

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We had a wonderful dialogue behind the scenes.

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you're a good human.

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So I'm excited to chat and see where our conversation takes us today.

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Yeah, thank you.

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Yeah, so you like I say you're pretty much already doing everything I want to do when I grow up this is a real privilege for me So tell me all your secrets.

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No, really if we could just start off with you I've heard quite a bit about you already But you know if you can just share with our listeners who haven't heard of you a little bit about your origin story Yeah, I was raised by my mom and my grandmother I didn't know my dad, I didn't meet my dad until I was 27.

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And definitely grew up lower middle class, talked often about how we were gonna pay rent.

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So that's something that has stuck with me to this day, and that's one of the things I'm always trying to uncondition.

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I didn't really feel smart, I never thought I was gonna be smart.

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So after high school I decided that college just wasn't for me.

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The route for me, it just didn't, I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life.

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And I didn't really want to pace somebody thousands of dollars a year to help me find out, So I stayed back when all my friends went away to college and I pumped gas at a local gas station.

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And then I left that job and I was a personal trainer and I was a truck driver, forklift operator.

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I cleaned bathrooms and floors at a hospital.

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I did many, many, many things.

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I always thought that if I just made a lot of money, that would fix all my problems.

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That was always my thing.

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Let me find a job that pays me really well and my life will get drastically easier.

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So eventually, I landed a job in an industry called weatherization.

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So it was our job to go into buildings and make them more energy efficient.

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So we'd work in attics, we'd work on roofs, we'd work in the basement, whatever it was, windows, doors, that type of stuff.

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And I essentially went from making 15 an hour in construction to anywhere from 60 to 120 an hour doing this job.

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So in my mind, Louie, I've accomplished the thing.

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I made it.

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I never thought I was going to be successful.

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Most people never thought I was going to be successful.

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And here I am making really good money.

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So if you were to look at me when I was 25, you would see a young man who had a really good job.

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I was getting ready to compete in a bodybuilding show, so I was quite literally in the best shape of my life, out of anybody I knew.

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My girlfriend at the time was a model.

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I had a sports car, I had everything you could ever want.

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But internally, I was very miserable.

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And I was depressed, and I was anxious, and I was insecure, and I was uncertain of the future, and I just was not a confident human being.

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Girlfriend left me, because I was a shell of myself, and it was very hard to pour into somebody else's dreams when I could barely pour into my own.

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When she left, I convinced myself that I just hadn't made enough money yet.

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That's the issue is, I made good money, but I haven't made good enough money.

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So then I spent the next year grinding my face off trying to make as much money as humanly possible.

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And I made the most money I'd ever made.

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I opened my final pay stub.

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And I realized that I spent this entire year chasing this fake dream, this thing that I thought was a promise that really wasn't a promise.

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And I spent a lot of my life living unconsciously.

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The opposite of unconscious is hyperconscious.

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So in 2017, I started a podcast called the hyperconscious podcast, and that is where all of this began next year.

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I'm still doing my job because I have to find a way to pay the bills.

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As you know, in the beginning, Louie, there's not a line out the door of people saying you've got a great idea.

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Let me give you a boatload of money so you can podcast for a living.

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Unfortunately, it ended up getting to the point where I sat on the edge of a bed debating suicide because I was so miserable and I love this podcasting thing and I really wanted to do it for a living, but I didn't think I could.

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And I thought I was going to be stuck at this job forever.

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And.

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I was afraid to start over and lose my reputation and look like a loser.

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But then in 2018, I ended up leaving my job and I've been doing this full time since 2018.

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Yeah, that's amazing.

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So I think that's the dream.

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When I first started the podcast, I had a partner and I wasn't too sure where it would go.

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We both were, we said we'd give it a year and we gave it a year.

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And he bought a business and went on to do that.

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And I realized I love doing this more than anything else.

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I have a successful business already.

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But the more I do this, the more I realize this is what I want to do full time, You wonder sometimes, right?

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Like, is it worthwhile?

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Is it, you know, is my really providing value?

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Am I going to get anything out of it?

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Is this just a big waste of time?

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How did, how did you deal with that?

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I'm very blessed because my business partner is the most confident human being on the planet.

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There is no self doubt in this man.

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So, he said, Kev, we will be successful.

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It's just a matter of how long it will take.

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You cannot add meaningful value into somebody's life for as long as we will and not achieve some level of success.

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So, I've had belief injected into me that I didn't necessarily have myself.

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I never thought I'd be complimented on my speaking ability or my podcasting ability or my coaching ability or my business acumen or my sales acumen.

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That was never a part of this.

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I did always have a deep belief that if I could survive long enough to make this something, it would be worth it.

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That was always something I had.

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If I, to your point, I love this so much that if I could find a way to make a sustainable life doing it, I'd be the most fulfilled person on the planet.

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So.

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It was really just probably to a detriment and probably to a destructive amount getting outside of my comfort zone, living outside of my comfort zone, and then trying to learn all of the stuff that I didn't know yet that I needed to know in order to succeed.

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That was really the big piece for me.

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I'm not a natural entrepreneur.

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I didn't know anything about business sales people.

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I didn't really know anything about that.

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So it was really filling in the gaps that I needed to fill in.

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I've had a coach since the very beginning because my business partner is a genius and a really good coach.

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So I'm blessed that I've had somebody in my corner since the beginning who has been coaching me on my weaknesses in the places I need to grow since 2017 essentially.

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Yeah, how did you meet your partner?

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I think his name is Alan.

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Is it?

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Yeah.

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Yeah, we went to middle school together and we played spin the bottle with the popular girls in middle school in his basement So we were very good friends.

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And then in high school He was getting the president's award and on a roll and super smart I was a jock going to the captains of the baseball team didn't really care about school So we didn't really get along in high school, then we didn't talk for years after that.

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And then a few years after he graduated college, we reconnected, he was actually the first guest on my podcast.

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And then from there, we just started hanging out and talking about life and talking about philosophy.

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And then when I left my job, we partnered up, we said, look, we're going to, we might as well do this together.

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We both love it.

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I feel like I'm gonna be way more successful if I have someone like him in my corner.

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I don't really know why he partnered up with me.

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I didn't, I don't think I had that much value to add at the time, but I'm grateful it worked the way it did.

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So yeah, we grew up in the same town and we knew each other for a long time.

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And then as we became young men, things kind of started to align with each other.

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and core beliefs and core aspirations.

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Oh, that's interesting.

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was he already a successful business person when you started to put the podcast together?

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He was definitely more successful than I was.

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He went to, Worcester Polytech Institute.

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So he has a degree in electrical and computer engineering.

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And a master's in business.

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So he knew a lot about business, but he was kind of doing the influencer fitness coach, fitness model route.

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And it looked like a really cool life.

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So it was something that made sense to me.

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I was like, that looks really cool.

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I'd like to be a part of that in some capacity.

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Yeah, I know exactly where that school is.

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So, you know, right?

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So I'm wondering were you all when you were going all in in a podcast?

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Was it did he decide to do the same thing or did he keep the other job no, no, he had a very similar path where he was making really good money and In a very successful sales role and he ended up leaving a couple years or a year before I left my job And then he was just kind of making content learning growing investing in himself And when I left I knew we were going to partner up.

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That was already kind of the discussion We had already podcasted together.

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We were hanging out a lot.

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We were working out a lot So he had already left his job a year or two before I did which is one of the reasons I left mine because I saw somebody who did it and it was like, all right, he left a really lucrative career.

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I'm going to do the same thing.

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At least he has experience in that.

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Yeah.

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So initially I imagine though you, the podcast wasn't making any money, right?

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No, no, no, no.

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So when did you get it, did you decide, Hey, I'd, I'd had, we'd have to make this much and then I'd quit.

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Or did you guys just go all in, save some, Yeah, I, after I had, so in 2017 or early 2018, that's when I had the suicidal ideation at my job and my job was a big reason behind it.

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It was just stressful and I was traveling all over the place and I just was trading in all of my certainty and my freedom that I wanted to be on the road all the time.

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So when I left, it was, we are going all in on this.

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And this is going to be our thing.

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And we're going to work as long as it takes to make this successful.

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So there was no plan B.

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I saved up, I think I had like 10, 000 in the bank.

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And then I had access to like 30, 000 in credit cards.

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So I had like a 40, 000 runway.

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He had some money in the bank.

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But not as much as we needed.

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So we didn't make money for the first like 2 years.

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And it got, it got dark over the first couple years.

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Wow.

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so what did you do to turn it around and actually start monetizing?

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you just, you know, Joe Rogan discovered you and you signed on with him and that's it, right?

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And he gave us millions of dollars and that was it.

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That was the end of the story.

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I had burnt through all of my savings.

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I was 000 in credit card debt.

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And I went to Alan and I said, dude, I need to start making money.

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I can't sustain this.

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And he said, well, what you should do is you should start coaching for free.

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And I said, I don't know if you understood what I said.

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I need to start making money, dollars, any dollars.

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And he said, well, we have a self improvement podcast.

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Our audience is obviously into self improvement.

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You've studied self improvement more than anybody in the audience.

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Why don't you start coaching our audience on self improvement?

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But since you don't have any experience and you don't have any credibility you could do it for free just to get So I reached out to five people who I knew listened to the podcast and I just messaged them and just said, Louis, I know you listen to the podcast.

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It's obvious to me that you're into growth because you listen to a podcast about growth.

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I'm thinking of doing coaching.

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I've never done it before.

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I will coach you for free for, I think it was eight weeks, every week, no strings attached.

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You don't have to give me any money.

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You don't have to sign up with me at the end, but I want to see what it's about.

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Are you interested?

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And everybody said, yes, all five people said yes.

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So then I went on to coach them for the next couple of months.

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And then at the end, everybody said they wanted to keep going.

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So I got five clients.

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They were all paying me 50 a call.

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And that's where I started.

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I started with five clients who paid me 50 a call.

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And to me, that was life changing money.

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I mean, 250 bucks a week, I'm making a thousand dollars a year.

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Sorry.

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A thousand dollars a month doing podcasting.

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Interesting.

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So it all started there.

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And then from there we had different, you know, more clients and prices changed and more opportunities.

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But yeah, it took us probably two years before we started making any, any money at all.

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And then, I mean, we've made it, it's a million dollar business now, but the majority of that has come in the last like three years and the first four years were very slow for sure.

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Wow.

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so now you're offering coaching, you're offering retreats.

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Yeah, you get sponsorships as well.

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No, we've never we'll never take a dollar from sponsors.

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That's just not our it's not our business model Every dollar we've ever made has been pouring into the life of someone in some way.

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Sure.

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So One on one coaching group coaching.

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We have courses.

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They're all free right now.

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we have any paid courses up We have an app that's in beta.

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We have a journal called the next level dreamliner Now we produce podcasts.

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We do social media for like a dozen clients.

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So it's grown and evolved as we've grown and evolved as a business.

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But I think like right now we're probably serving, I don't know, probably like a hundred people on a monthly basis for clients.

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Excellent.

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So with all of the different services, first of all, how big is your team now?

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We have a 22 person team as of today.

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Okay.

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And with all of the different services you're providing, I'm assuming they all stem off of the podcast.

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So podcasting isn't all you do anymore.

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What, what is your favorite part of what you do?

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No, podcasting is pretty much all I, I mean, I coach, but I coach on podcasting.

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I have another podcast about podcasts.

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So I am podcasting like 15 to 20 times per week.

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I'm coaching, whatever it may be, like five to ten times a week, depending.

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Podcasting, bar none, is my favorite thing to do.

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I absolutely love it.

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It's my favorite.

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That's why I do so many episodes.

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I love it.

00:15:42.855 --> 00:15:45.424
So, yeah, that's still my favorite part of this whole thing.

00:15:46.004 --> 00:15:46.445
I see.

00:15:46.514 --> 00:15:51.254
Okay, so the retreats and all the other things, you, you're not involved with that so much?

00:15:51.475 --> 00:15:52.414
I'm involved.

00:15:52.414 --> 00:15:53.514
They're just not my favorite.

00:15:54.085 --> 00:15:54.365
Got it.

00:15:54.384 --> 00:15:59.945
Yeah, Alan's, Alan is far more of a coach and a trainer than I am.

00:16:00.044 --> 00:16:00.124
I see.

00:16:00.424 --> 00:16:04.835
I am far more of a podcaster and a speaker now than Alan is.

00:16:05.184 --> 00:16:09.445
So a lot of that stuff is Alan really wanted to do it.

00:16:09.445 --> 00:16:13.634
And it's, it's the best way for us to monetize and build the business so we can help more people.

00:16:13.924 --> 00:16:14.215
Yeah.

00:16:14.235 --> 00:16:14.904
Just coaching.

00:16:14.914 --> 00:16:16.375
Isn't my favorite thing.

00:16:17.669 --> 00:16:25.059
Podcasting is my favorite thing, but unless I wanted to do the ad sponsorship route, then I'm never really gonna podcast and make money.

00:16:25.059 --> 00:16:27.320
There's always gonna have to be some sort of value add after.

00:16:27.960 --> 00:16:28.429
Gotcha.

00:16:28.559 --> 00:16:28.960
Okay.

00:16:29.759 --> 00:16:32.580
so you've now done over 1, 800 episodes, right?

00:16:32.620 --> 00:16:34.220
I took a quick look before.

00:16:34.220 --> 00:16:36.720
Is it, you know, like 1, 806 or something like that?

00:16:36.720 --> 00:16:37.279
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:16:37.340 --> 00:16:37.980
On that show.

00:16:37.980 --> 00:16:40.940
And then I have 113 on my other podcast.

00:16:40.950 --> 00:16:44.389
And then I've been on like 875 other episodes.

00:16:44.389 --> 00:16:47.029
So like 2, 900 ish total episodes.

00:16:47.379 --> 00:16:47.840
Wow.

00:16:47.940 --> 00:16:48.320
Okay.

00:16:48.620 --> 00:16:51.120
So first of all, what's the other podcast?

00:16:51.159 --> 00:16:52.000
I wasn't aware of that one.

00:16:52.200 --> 00:16:58.500
Yeah, no, it's, It's called podcast growth university and it's how to grow, scale, and monetize a podcast ultimately.

00:16:58.830 --> 00:16:59.240
Oh neat.

00:16:59.240 --> 00:16:59.789
I'll look for that.

00:16:59.870 --> 00:17:00.179
Okay.

00:17:00.179 --> 00:17:00.250
Yeah.

00:17:00.250 --> 00:17:00.580
It's a good one.

00:17:00.970 --> 00:17:03.860
So, you, you mentioned being on another podcast.

00:17:04.009 --> 00:17:08.869
I'm assuming you did some of that to also help grow your, bring awareness to your podcast, right?

00:17:09.210 --> 00:17:09.509
Yeah.

00:17:09.609 --> 00:17:11.190
That's one of the best ways to do it.

00:17:11.259 --> 00:17:20.190
It's, it's, and we've always thought to ourselves, one of our goals is to get as good As humanly possible at podcasting.

00:17:20.190 --> 00:17:21.500
So what's the best way to do that?

00:17:21.500 --> 00:17:31.640
It's just to do more episodes than anybody else Yeah, so that was kind of always part of the strategy is if I want to get really good at something I should just go do it more than anybody else a hundred percent.

00:17:31.849 --> 00:17:34.529
Absolutely So what let's start with I don't know.

00:17:34.529 --> 00:17:41.085
Give me like five lessons that you that you've gotten from Doing 1800 episodes.

00:17:42.315 --> 00:17:45.464
Number one, from day to day, progress is invisible.

00:17:45.964 --> 00:17:47.904
From year to year, it's impossible to miss.

00:17:47.914 --> 00:17:53.154
I, I could do 10 episodes today, and I am no better today than I was yesterday.

00:17:54.045 --> 00:18:01.984
But if I go back and look at episode 1 versus episode 100 versus episode 500 versus episode 1500, it is a drastic difference.

00:18:02.734 --> 00:18:06.835
So I think most people just don't do something long enough to actually see the growth.

00:18:07.654 --> 00:18:14.359
Because it just takes more time than I think a lot of us or care to admit, that's one.

00:18:15.109 --> 00:18:34.480
One of the other big ones that I've had is, when we started getting guests on, I remember the guest would tell us their story, and I'd say, what an amazing, incredible, traumatic, overwhelming, tragic story.

00:18:35.049 --> 00:18:37.119
We'll probably never hear another one like that again.

00:18:37.539 --> 00:18:42.150
Until next week when we interviewed a guest, and it was like, oh my goodness, they have a very similar arc.

00:18:42.464 --> 00:18:43.714
Of the way their life has happened.

00:18:43.724 --> 00:18:44.194
My goodness.

00:18:44.484 --> 00:18:46.144
Well, maybe it's just two in a row.

00:18:46.684 --> 00:18:52.914
And eventually, it gets to the point where your adversity can be your advantage if you know how to leverage it that way.

00:18:53.714 --> 00:19:00.525
And that has been a really impactful lesson for me because for a long time I thought my adversity was my disadvantage.

00:19:01.795 --> 00:19:10.244
I cannot tell you what creates the momentum in the positive direction versus adversity becoming further trauma and tragedy.

00:19:10.244 --> 00:19:10.944
I don't know yet.

00:19:11.174 --> 00:19:12.765
I haven't, I haven't gotten that far in life.

00:19:12.765 --> 00:19:13.595
I haven't figured that out.

00:19:13.835 --> 00:19:15.984
But that's something that really jumped off the page.

00:19:17.914 --> 00:19:25.555
the other thing is if you, it's really hard to be yourself.

00:19:26.224 --> 00:19:28.744
Being yourself is a really, really challenging thing to do.

00:19:29.430 --> 00:19:46.490
But I think that's really what's going to resonate with people the most for a long time I tried to be very smart when I wasn't and I tried to be like Alan when I wasn't and I tried to be Serious when I wasn't the more I've leaned into just I'm me.

00:19:46.519 --> 00:19:47.660
I'm the funny guy.

00:19:47.869 --> 00:19:54.569
I like making jokes I don't really take life too seriously That's when I feel like we've connected with the audience The incident, a deeper level.

00:19:55.019 --> 00:20:00.599
So authenticity and being yourself, there's nothing that can really replicate that.

00:20:00.940 --> 00:20:02.309
There's nothing that can make up for that.

00:20:02.599 --> 00:20:04.200
That that's a big lesson.

00:20:04.750 --> 00:20:05.369
What else?

00:20:05.369 --> 00:20:07.220
A lot can change in a couple of years.

00:20:08.220 --> 00:20:22.869
I think that we assume that, maybe either we overestimate how much can change in a year or we underestimate it, but what I'm dealing with this year is drastically different than the problems I had a year ago in so many ways.

00:20:24.335 --> 00:20:27.365
But I didn't expect it to change as much as it has.

00:20:27.464 --> 00:20:32.765
So, so much can change in so little time if you're willing to put in the effort and you're doing the right stuff.

00:20:33.825 --> 00:20:44.054
And then I would say the last thing is probably, I much prefer the overwhelm of abundance to the overwhelm of scarcity.

00:20:44.964 --> 00:20:50.095
Right now, there is a lot going on, and I am very overwhelmed with all the stuff going on.

00:20:51.214 --> 00:20:57.184
Five years ago, six years ago, seven years ago, I would have wished for the problems that I have now.

00:20:58.065 --> 00:21:06.380
So, it's really easy to say, When things work out, life is going to get easier.

00:21:07.380 --> 00:21:13.009
A big lesson for me is my life has not gotten easier as we've grown and become quote unquote more successful.

00:21:13.200 --> 00:21:14.750
It's gotten way more challenging.

00:21:15.329 --> 00:21:19.170
Just the challenges have been more aligned and less scarce, hopefully.

00:21:19.329 --> 00:21:20.170
So yeah, I think that's five.

00:21:20.880 --> 00:21:21.410
So good.

00:21:21.410 --> 00:21:22.269
There's so much there.

00:21:22.569 --> 00:21:40.769
I'd love to elaborate on Your last point about the the underwhelm of you know You're you prefer the overwhelm of abundance versus the under wealth of scarcity well put by the way you know, there's been times in my 20s in early 30s, I was very successful had a lot of abundance, but I'd never recognized it, right?

00:21:40.769 --> 00:21:44.890
I got I was overwhelmed with all of the Everything that came with it.

00:21:44.890 --> 00:21:56.759
And I just thought life was not supposed to be so hard because I, I was, you know, grew up with so little resources and un and very underprivileged environment and, and I thought, all right, once I have it, life's supposed to get easier.

00:21:56.759 --> 00:21:58.375
And it never did It actually got harder.

00:21:58.404 --> 00:22:09.815
And now, you know, and we took a time where we kind of lost it all, and now I'm back and, and, you know, we, we have a little bit now again, and I realize it, it's a different journey now.

00:22:09.815 --> 00:22:12.595
Like when you actually embrace, you know.

00:22:12.855 --> 00:22:13.454
All of that.

00:22:13.484 --> 00:22:13.845
Right?

00:22:14.025 --> 00:22:19.115
When you embrace the overwhelm, like you said, that you, you prefer it, it, it's so much better.

00:22:19.115 --> 00:22:22.984
You realize having, a certain amount of wealth isn't the destination.

00:22:23.035 --> 00:22:24.714
it's just a different journey.

00:22:25.015 --> 00:22:25.345
Right.

00:22:25.345 --> 00:22:25.910
And enjoy it.

00:22:25.910 --> 00:22:27.444
You go enjoy the process.

00:22:27.474 --> 00:22:27.954
That's right.

00:22:28.375 --> 00:22:33.884
I used to think when we first started this, I thought everybody should have massive goals.

00:22:35.174 --> 00:22:47.065
And I thought everybody should want to be wealthy, and I thought everybody should want to be in the best shape possible, and now I understand that it's all about progress, and progress is very personal.

00:22:47.244 --> 00:22:51.305
Progress is, is very personal, and the goal is important, yes.

00:22:52.085 --> 00:22:58.644
If you're not willing to put up with the process that it takes to accomplish the goal, The goal is kind of useless, right?

00:22:58.644 --> 00:23:05.625
I would much rather, I tell people all the time, because a lot of people will say, I won't want to do what you do and I'll say, that's fine.

00:23:05.934 --> 00:23:08.954
But do you want to do an episode when you're sick?

00:23:09.464 --> 00:23:13.194
Do you want to have to get up at seven o'clock in the morning to do a coaching call because you can't pay the bills?

00:23:13.194 --> 00:23:14.644
Like, is that the life that you want?

00:23:15.144 --> 00:23:17.184
Some of that has been my experience.

00:23:17.994 --> 00:23:20.035
We can't just look at the benefits of the results.

00:23:20.035 --> 00:23:22.295
We have to look at the detriments of the results.

00:23:22.660 --> 00:23:25.269
Also, or the maintainers of the results.

00:23:25.589 --> 00:23:25.789
Right.

00:23:25.789 --> 00:23:28.759
So now when I'm talking to someone, I like hearing about their goals.

00:23:28.769 --> 00:23:41.089
Of course, I'm always going to be inspired by goals, but it's my job as someone who has potentially existed within the reality they want to have to tell them that the process looks like this.

00:23:41.799 --> 00:23:43.380
Do you still want the goal?

00:23:43.460 --> 00:23:48.369
If the process requires you to do this, because it's, you know, It might not be aligned for you.

00:23:48.680 --> 00:23:51.420
The results of the goal usually are aligned.

00:23:51.599 --> 00:23:53.680
The process to accomplish the goal might not be.

00:23:53.730 --> 00:23:55.490
And that's where a lot of us get stuck.

00:23:55.500 --> 00:23:57.559
And I just want to be truthful about that always.

00:23:57.559 --> 00:24:00.529
Because that's what I would have wanted to hear in the beginning too.

00:24:00.924 --> 00:24:01.275
Yeah.

00:24:01.345 --> 00:24:01.815
Totally.

00:24:02.144 --> 00:24:15.434
You know, I mean, the way I make my living is in real estate and I'm, part of what I do is as a broker and a lot of people come to me because they want to get into real estate investing and they want to, and they come and just say, Hey, I want to do this, this and that.

00:24:15.434 --> 00:24:18.075
And oftentimes, Tim, do you know what that really means?

00:24:18.085 --> 00:24:19.634
Everybody thinks it's like free money.

00:24:19.654 --> 00:24:21.515
Like, you know, it's not, it's all work.

00:24:21.515 --> 00:24:29.285
So Hey, what's going to happen if somebody, you know, if, if a bank calls your loan or, or, you know, the proverbial toilet.

00:24:29.765 --> 00:24:34.765
clogs in the middle of the night or what, what have you, you know, like people don't think about all that.

00:24:34.785 --> 00:24:43.444
And I think, when you really start to think, are you okay with the pains that come with getting your, you know, what it is, are you really, truly okay with that?

00:24:43.704 --> 00:24:46.345
Then I think that's something you should pursue.

00:24:46.474 --> 00:24:46.894
Right.

00:24:48.255 --> 00:24:48.595
I agree.

00:24:48.605 --> 00:24:48.845
Yeah.

00:24:49.255 --> 00:24:51.204
But it's, most people don't say that.

00:24:51.634 --> 00:24:51.954
Right.

00:24:52.625 --> 00:24:58.713
Because even as like a podcast coach, a lot of people would say, Kev, you're, you know, Everybody would benefit from a podcast.

00:24:59.325 --> 00:25:09.904
To a degree, yeah, sure, but it's also, there's a lot of people that shouldn't start one because they're not going to be willing to do what it takes to accomplish it, and they're going to feel like failures, when in reality it just wasn't for them in the first place.

00:25:09.984 --> 00:25:10.320
That's right.

00:25:10.320 --> 00:25:10.755
And that's okay.

00:25:11.045 --> 00:25:11.644
That's totally fine.

00:25:13.384 --> 00:25:18.115
Yeah, what about so you, a lot of what you do is same as us, you, you interview badasses, right?

00:25:18.115 --> 00:25:22.805
And you extract a lot of knowledge from them and, and learn.

00:25:22.845 --> 00:25:23.855
Not anymore.

00:25:23.954 --> 00:25:24.125
Okay.

00:25:24.305 --> 00:25:26.134
So we don't, we don't interview anybody anymore.

00:25:26.184 --> 00:26:04.900
Okay, but we we did for the first however many years we we did interviews and we had some really big guests and some Really great guests and yeah, eventually it got to the point where It's when you're doing an hour interview with someone And you run out of things to talk about about their expertise and then you start talking about other stuff my fear was I didn't want the audience to think that they were as knowledgeable about everything as they were one thing And I didn't want to be the bad guy who would say, well, Louie, I know, you know, a ton about real estate, but like how much have you studied about fitness and nutrition and sleep and hydration?

00:26:04.900 --> 00:26:06.630
And I didn't want to be that.

00:26:06.630 --> 00:26:13.950
I didn't want to be the guy who I didn't want to be that So eventually it got to the point where we said, honestly, let's just do this our way.

00:26:14.289 --> 00:26:16.009
We can talk about our experiences.

00:26:16.009 --> 00:26:17.450
We can talk about what we've learned.

00:26:17.450 --> 00:26:24.960
We can talk about what we've vetted, and then we can just have a truthful conversation with ourselves in the audience based on what we actually believe works.

00:26:26.015 --> 00:26:27.994
And we'll, we don't go outside of that.

00:26:28.424 --> 00:26:31.244
I don't talk about, I don't talk about real estate.

00:26:31.244 --> 00:26:32.384
I don't know much about real estate.

00:26:33.035 --> 00:26:36.924
We talk about wealth and wealth creation, but to the degree that we understand it.

00:26:37.454 --> 00:26:43.565
And then eventually we were like, well, I've been financially successful, but my mental health was terrible.

00:26:43.575 --> 00:26:46.434
I've been very physically successful, but my relationships were garbage.

00:26:47.609 --> 00:26:54.940
We're going to do a well rounded, holistic approach to life, love, health, and wealth, knowing what we know and knowing what we've studied, ultimately.

00:26:56.190 --> 00:27:00.539
You know, it's funny you say that because it's kind of the season I'm in now that I feel like I'm going through, right?

00:27:00.539 --> 00:27:06.859
We started, with an interview, I had a partner, we had an interview podcast every once in a while, we do our own together.

00:27:07.240 --> 00:27:09.269
Now it's, I'm on my own right now.

00:27:10.085 --> 00:27:13.795
And, now I have a lot of interviews, probably more than I can handle.

00:27:14.565 --> 00:27:16.755
originally I was like in love with the story, right?

00:27:16.755 --> 00:27:17.585
The human story.

00:27:17.585 --> 00:27:21.404
And I love in particular the overcoming some struggle story, right?

00:27:21.404 --> 00:27:26.684
Somebody who comes on here and gets very vulnerable and shares that and their learnings from it and overcomes it.

00:27:26.704 --> 00:27:28.345
That's kind of was my favorite.

00:27:28.345 --> 00:27:31.394
And then we got away from that guy into a lot of authors, right?

00:27:31.394 --> 00:27:32.934
Usually self help type authors.

00:27:32.934 --> 00:27:36.525
And now it's a lot of coaches, you know, and there's kind of a natural progression.

00:27:36.575 --> 00:27:41.835
What I'm realizing is, there's common denominators with all these guests, right?

00:27:41.944 --> 00:27:51.335
And I'm also realizing what I like more and maybe that I, I probably will start backing off on having many guests and, and doing more on my own as well.

00:27:51.795 --> 00:28:05.555
But I think first thing is when, when you did have them, were there certain guests you liked and, and were with the people you did have, did you notice, start to notice certain common denominators were just started to feel like the stories were the same over and over.

00:28:07.105 --> 00:28:12.444
I mean, most people had kind of the hero's journey of Yeah, they, they started somewhere.

00:28:13.134 --> 00:28:19.045
They accomplished something, they had a very large fall from grace, and now they're more successful, fulfilled, in a line that they've ever been.

00:28:19.095 --> 00:28:27.244
we would see that, but then, and again, this is not the majority of guests, this is a very finite, small amount.

00:28:27.555 --> 00:28:32.954
But we would see behind the scenes, and we'd learn about these people, and most of what they were talking about was not true.

00:28:34.305 --> 00:28:38.075
They weren't walking their walk, they weren't who they said they were on the podcast.

00:28:38.244 --> 00:28:41.404
So it became that, I just don't want to amplify.

00:28:42.125 --> 00:28:43.275
This person's message.

00:28:43.484 --> 00:28:48.785
I don't believe they're actually going to be able to help people at the degree that they say they're going to be able to help people.

00:28:49.194 --> 00:28:49.484
Yeah.

00:28:49.505 --> 00:28:57.845
So that became kind of one of the things, but all the guests had different expertises and everybody had different lanes that they were in.

00:28:57.845 --> 00:28:59.654
So that was always interesting, but.

00:29:00.305 --> 00:29:09.994
It's just, yeah, sometimes you get rubbed the wrong way when you have a really big guest on and behind the scenes, they're completely different than they were in front of the scenes.

00:29:09.994 --> 00:29:12.025
Is that really a message that you want to amplify?

00:29:12.394 --> 00:29:13.204
It wasn't for us.

00:29:13.204 --> 00:29:15.394
So that was a big reason that we stopped.

00:29:16.714 --> 00:29:17.204
Oh man.

00:29:17.204 --> 00:29:17.994
That's so interesting.

00:29:17.994 --> 00:29:25.095
You say that, especially because, um, I went through the season where like everybody around me was getting these coaches, right?

00:29:25.105 --> 00:29:26.904
Mindset life coach types.

00:29:27.355 --> 00:29:28.755
And I thought I needed one.

00:29:28.990 --> 00:29:29.289
Right?

00:29:29.289 --> 00:29:38.690
And we had a guy on the show and I hired him and then really quickly I started to peel back the onion and realize exactly what you're saying now.

00:29:39.049 --> 00:29:42.460
And it just changed for me and I started to try to get away from that.

00:29:42.470 --> 00:29:47.950
I do believe that there's internally, things that we already have the answers to and we just don't accept.

00:29:47.950 --> 00:29:50.609
We almost need a validation from somebody else to tell us that.

00:29:50.960 --> 00:29:55.740
And once we do that, that's when you really hit another stride, you know, would you agree with that or?

00:29:55.750 --> 00:29:55.769
Yeah.

00:29:56.970 --> 00:29:57.259
Yeah.

00:29:57.549 --> 00:30:00.519
I think that's a, I've had a lot of coaches, so I'm blessed.

00:30:00.630 --> 00:30:01.250
I'm blessed.

00:30:01.250 --> 00:30:15.234
I've had a lot of coaches, but I think finding an aligned coach, if I've learned anything, I've learned that more important than a coach having quote unquote all the answers is them understanding who you are.

00:30:15.555 --> 00:30:30.265
Yeah, because the way you coach one person should be drastically different than the way you coach somebody else And i've learned that by being coached from people who just didn't understand me as an emotionally driven person One of the worst pieces of advice I ever got was kev.

00:30:30.335 --> 00:30:31.964
Why don't you just believe in yourself more?

00:30:32.575 --> 00:30:36.414
Thank you I am trying I don't know how what are what what are the steps?

00:30:36.414 --> 00:30:37.154
What's the framework?

00:30:37.154 --> 00:30:37.845
What do I do?

00:30:38.105 --> 00:30:41.480
Yeah, but They never had to build belief because they already had it.

00:30:41.940 --> 00:30:47.430
So it's really hard to coach someone on something that you've had naturally, or you didn't realize you've got unconsciously or whatever.

00:30:47.799 --> 00:30:50.940
So I think a lot of the answers are there.

00:30:51.640 --> 00:30:51.970
I do.

00:30:51.970 --> 00:30:59.480
I think a lot of the answers are there and that's why self awareness is so important and digging and learning for yourself and unlearning super important.

00:31:00.269 --> 00:31:04.130
I am somebody who has benefit benefited tremendously from having amazing coaches.

00:31:05.279 --> 00:31:09.009
Maybe it's harder than ever to find a good coach because it's so easy to become a coach.

00:31:09.589 --> 00:31:12.609
Somebody called me out on a podcast one time, Louis, it was gentle.

00:31:12.609 --> 00:31:17.559
It wasn't bad, but they said, what do you think about the fact that most life coaches are failed psychologists?

00:31:18.180 --> 00:31:20.829
And I said, I mean, it's an interesting play.

00:31:20.829 --> 00:31:25.410
I'm not a life coach, so I'm not offended by that, but I'm sure there are some, right?

00:31:25.410 --> 00:31:31.480
Just like there are some high school baseball coaches that are failed major league baseball coaches.

00:31:31.490 --> 00:31:31.869
Sure.

00:31:31.940 --> 00:31:33.710
I mean, if you love doing it.

00:31:34.095 --> 00:31:38.555
You're going to find a way to do it, and you're going to try to find a way to make it sustainable, so I don't think there's Anything wrong with that?

00:31:38.555 --> 00:31:40.265
I don't think it's, it should be a negative thing.

00:31:41.295 --> 00:31:41.575
Yeah.

00:31:41.575 --> 00:31:45.724
I think that there's just like, there's a lot of bad podcasts out there.

00:31:46.075 --> 00:31:46.375
Yeah.

00:31:46.384 --> 00:31:47.944
It's not hard to start a podcast.

00:31:47.984 --> 00:31:52.765
You pay your 12 to buzzsprout or Spotify for podcasters, and you're kind of off to the races.

00:31:53.265 --> 00:31:56.285
I think it's just about honing in on what do you need from a coach?

00:31:56.285 --> 00:31:57.625
And then who do you resonate with the most?

00:31:57.940 --> 00:32:01.509
I'm curious as to what your self confidence journey looked like.

00:32:01.519 --> 00:32:10.740
You strike me as somebody with a lot of self confidence, but what were the strategies, in a good way, in a very good way, I appreciate that.

00:32:10.740 --> 00:32:11.829
I'm a good liar, Louis.

00:32:11.880 --> 00:32:13.029
I'm good at faking it.

00:32:13.480 --> 00:32:18.140
It mostly, it's because you're seeing me on the thing that I've done more than anything else.

00:32:18.309 --> 00:32:22.779
If I've done this almost 3, 000 times and I don't come off as somewhat confident.

00:32:23.029 --> 00:32:23.289
Yeah.

00:32:23.599 --> 00:32:25.119
I am messing up badly.

00:32:25.410 --> 00:32:29.329
I am still somebody who deals with self doubt on the day to day.

00:32:29.875 --> 00:32:37.515
Every day, where does that show up still just limiting beliefs limiting beliefs of i'm not good enough.

00:32:37.515 --> 00:32:41.545
I'm not smart enough Before I speak before I go on podcasts.

00:32:41.565 --> 00:32:43.974
I think one of the reasons I do so much research.

00:32:44.275 --> 00:32:50.244
I know that you uploaded a lot of your episodes to youtube yesterday I think or the day before so you're doing a push to get on youtube.

00:32:50.265 --> 00:32:50.595
Awesome.

00:32:50.595 --> 00:32:51.184
I love it.

00:32:51.325 --> 00:32:59.720
I listened to a little bit of the flow I think one of the reasons I do so much research is because i'm terrified to disappoint you I'm convinced of that.

00:33:00.029 --> 00:33:04.180
My deepest fear is disappointing men because my dad wasn't around.

00:33:04.490 --> 00:33:07.130
I think I internalized, I disappointed him, and then he left.

00:33:07.710 --> 00:33:28.960
So that's something that I'm able to use constructively, which is good, but for a long time it was very destructive and it was very hard to overcome that so I've just done a lot of stuff that scares me over the last seven years And now I'm just scared of less than I used to be I think there's this contrast where Most people are afraid of public speaking.

00:33:30.869 --> 00:33:58.750
This is where I feel the most confident Okay, jumping on a microphone with somebody I've never met before I have the utmost confidence that the conversation will most likely go well and I'll be able to add value But this is like This is a deep talk about awareness and that I mean that's my jam I that's what I live for I did a podcast today that was on sale And I had a moment before I was looking for excuses to cancel it What can I do to cancel this?

00:33:58.750 --> 00:33:59.750
Do I feel well?

00:33:59.990 --> 00:34:04.430
Is that a tickle in my throat that I feel I went and did it and it was awesome.

00:34:04.579 --> 00:34:07.150
It was amazing So that's how you build confidence.

00:34:07.440 --> 00:34:34.295
You find the thing that scares you you go do it and then you get proof that you could have done it the whole time And then you lock that in and when you do that long enough you have relevant and recent proof that disproves the emotional dysregulation that you have going on so really that that's all I I really did is I try to do Stuff that scared me I'd look and say oh it went better than I expected Next time I want to do it and it scares me, I just have to remember this time.

00:34:34.545 --> 00:34:35.675
Recent and relevant proof.

00:34:35.684 --> 00:34:39.155
Those are really the two big, the two big R's that have helped me the most.

00:34:40.835 --> 00:34:42.315
Recent and relevant proof.

00:34:42.474 --> 00:34:42.934
Wow.

00:34:42.985 --> 00:34:44.514
That is very profound.

00:34:44.755 --> 00:34:53.244
I remember as a kid, we had moved from Queens, New York to Central Falls, Rhode Island and Central Falls people don't know is actually a really rough town.

00:34:53.264 --> 00:34:59.760
And right away I encountered, you know, violence and everything in the town and I was scared.

00:34:59.789 --> 00:35:03.039
I was scared to go to school, I was scared to go outside the whole night, right?

00:35:03.039 --> 00:35:04.860
But I had to, you know, I had no choice.

00:35:04.860 --> 00:35:09.690
I was more scared of, you know, my mother beating my ass if I didn't go to school.

00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:21.639
So, anyhow, I remember every day gaining like consciously gaining more confidence by going, you know, everything being okay and then getting back home and it'd be like, Oh, it wasn't so bad.

00:35:21.639 --> 00:35:25.130
And then before you know it, you just have a real confidence.

00:35:25.130 --> 00:35:27.579
You have a swagger about yourself, on your walk to school.

00:35:27.579 --> 00:35:29.539
that was a really big thing.

00:35:29.539 --> 00:35:34.289
You just force yourself to do it, put yourself uncomfortably and you realize, Hey, it isn't that bad.

00:35:34.300 --> 00:35:37.199
we make up these stories in our head that it's going to be so bad.

00:35:37.619 --> 00:35:39.960
it's just about finding the right amount of fear.

00:35:40.539 --> 00:35:45.280
That's the thing that never resonated with me is when people would say if your goals don't scare you, they're not big enough.

00:35:45.500 --> 00:35:46.579
I'm scared of life.

00:35:46.710 --> 00:35:50.099
The last thing I need to be is scared of my goals and running in the opposite direction.

00:35:50.639 --> 00:35:52.269
I really think of it as like a ladder.

00:35:52.599 --> 00:35:55.159
What rung do you feel comfortable on?

00:35:55.389 --> 00:35:57.190
Okay, you feel comfortable on rung three?

00:35:57.230 --> 00:35:57.539
Cool.

00:35:57.849 --> 00:35:59.250
What is kind of a stretch?

00:35:59.539 --> 00:36:03.039
Okay, standing on rung five?

00:36:03.050 --> 00:36:03.469
Awesome.

00:36:03.739 --> 00:36:04.590
That's where we go.

00:36:04.599 --> 00:36:09.670
You don't have to go to the top of the ladder yet, because then eventually rung five becomes comfortable.

00:36:10.230 --> 00:36:13.599
And then we go to rung six, and then we go to rung seven, and then we go to rung eight.

00:36:15.130 --> 00:36:19.550
It's really hard to compress time when it comes to facing fears.

00:36:20.380 --> 00:36:29.550
I was having panic attacks at one point because I went way too far out of my comfort zone Too fast for too long and I just couldn't handle it.

00:36:29.559 --> 00:36:41.585
My body could not handle it I was on the floor thinking I was gonna die because I was having panic attacks too far too fast for too long I would much rather somebody Go from a level one confidence to a level 1.

00:36:41.585 --> 00:36:42.344
5 to a level 2 to a 2.

00:36:42.514 --> 00:36:47.175
5 because at least that's sustainable Yeah, it's going back to one of the quotes.

00:36:47.175 --> 00:36:54.534
We we said with one of the lessons It doesn't really feel like you're making progress because it happens so Slow right?

00:36:54.545 --> 00:37:10.650
It's just little by little by little and it's hard to measure it one of the best pieces of advice I could give on that in the very beginning When I started tracking habits, it was like learn every day exercise every day that type of stuff One of them was track the amount of fears that I faced.

00:37:11.289 --> 00:37:13.780
So I would do something consciously called fear chasing.

00:37:14.329 --> 00:37:16.119
What can I do today that scares me?

00:37:16.500 --> 00:37:17.630
Alright, I did this thing.

00:37:17.719 --> 00:37:18.769
Give myself a check mark.

00:37:19.360 --> 00:37:27.829
And when you do that long enough, you have so much proof that is against the emotional sabotage.

00:37:28.289 --> 00:37:31.699
And then you can say, I faced 463 fears this year?

00:37:31.699 --> 00:37:32.829
Holy crap.

00:37:33.119 --> 00:37:34.630
Okay, what else am I capable of?

00:37:34.639 --> 00:37:36.539
I think it's a really good habit to instill.

00:37:37.454 --> 00:37:39.264
Oh, that is such a great exercise.

00:37:39.474 --> 00:37:40.815
I've never heard that one before.

00:37:41.114 --> 00:37:41.514
That's great.

00:37:41.514 --> 00:37:42.054
I've heard a lot of it.

00:37:42.054 --> 00:37:42.764
Very helpful.

00:37:43.275 --> 00:37:44.335
Yeah, it's very good.

00:37:44.954 --> 00:37:50.454
And anytime you track it, like you're saying in the journal, and you look back, it's like, wow, that's really good.

00:37:51.014 --> 00:37:51.485
I love it.

00:37:51.625 --> 00:37:51.914
Yeah.

00:37:52.054 --> 00:37:52.934
Well, think of it this.

00:37:53.275 --> 00:37:56.644
You introduce me and say, Kevin has 1800 episodes.

00:37:58.425 --> 00:38:02.474
Imagine if you introduced me and it was, Kevin has faced 5000 fears.

00:38:03.375 --> 00:38:05.625
Just imagine that, for you, if you're out there.

00:38:06.034 --> 00:38:11.954
The 1800 episodes is what people think is, it's like, oh that's awesome, he must be successful, he must know stuff.

00:38:12.454 --> 00:38:17.094
Imagine if you chased 1800 fears, imagine how confident you would be, if they were in the right place.

00:38:17.494 --> 00:38:18.755
Size at the right time.

00:38:19.164 --> 00:38:24.894
I mean anytime you're measuring something you're proving to yourself you're disproving eliminating beliefs.

00:38:25.164 --> 00:38:25.514
Hmm.

00:38:26.014 --> 00:38:26.514
I love that.

00:38:27.894 --> 00:38:31.445
Well kevin on that note, I think it's we can go on and on for this.

00:38:31.525 --> 00:38:35.804
this is really good stuff I'm happy to come back for a part two whenever you want louis good.

00:38:35.855 --> 00:38:37.045
I'm gonna take you up on that.

00:38:37.045 --> 00:38:43.695
if you don't mind, we're gonna switch over to our world famous, since you've been in over 170 countries now, this officially makes it world famous.

00:38:44.344 --> 00:38:45.925
Our Wayfinder 4.

00:38:46.005 --> 00:38:46.764
Are you ready, Kevin?

00:38:46.815 --> 00:38:47.844
I'm ready, Louis.

00:38:48.235 --> 00:38:48.784
All right.

00:38:49.239 --> 00:38:51.590
So, give us a hack that you use every day.

00:38:52.460 --> 00:38:53.190
Habit tracking.

00:38:53.469 --> 00:38:56.659
I track 25 or 26 habits every day.

00:38:57.099 --> 00:38:58.590
I don't get a hundred percent every day.

00:38:58.590 --> 00:39:05.030
I don't do them all every day, but if you want to focus on staying on track, track your habits, it is going to be a game changer.

00:39:05.679 --> 00:39:08.309
Do you use an app or you just keep it on a piece of paper?

00:39:08.320 --> 00:39:08.780
What do you do?

00:39:09.190 --> 00:39:16.860
We use Google sheets, but we are in the process of creating our own habit tracking app for us and the community.

00:39:16.860 --> 00:39:18.110
But right now we just keep it simple.

00:39:18.110 --> 00:39:18.590
Google sheets.

00:39:19.250 --> 00:39:19.590
Okay.

00:39:19.739 --> 00:39:20.190
I love it.

00:39:20.530 --> 00:39:22.230
did you get that from anywhere?

00:39:22.230 --> 00:39:23.090
My business partner.

00:39:23.380 --> 00:39:24.519
my, he's an engineer.

00:39:24.630 --> 00:39:26.489
So he's always reverse engineering.

00:39:26.500 --> 00:39:34.159
What are the things that I need to do in order to, so yes, as much as I'd like to take all of the credit, he gets all the credit for that cause that was his thing long before he met me.

00:39:34.739 --> 00:39:35.110
Okay.

00:39:35.869 --> 00:39:36.800
How about a favorite?

00:39:37.250 --> 00:39:38.869
Could be, you know, a favorite.

00:39:39.110 --> 00:39:44.260
Book, show, activity, podcast episodes.

00:39:44.739 --> 00:39:48.489
My favorite sport, mixed martial arts, UFC.

00:39:49.099 --> 00:39:53.179
if you're calling me on a Saturday night, I'm most likely not answering because I'm watching the fights.

00:39:53.530 --> 00:39:54.250
I love it.

00:39:54.400 --> 00:39:57.659
That's what I wanted to do for a living for a time in high school.

00:39:57.659 --> 00:39:58.889
So it's something I'm very connected to.

00:39:59.710 --> 00:40:00.130
Nice.

00:40:00.159 --> 00:40:00.960
do you train now?

00:40:02.500 --> 00:40:08.760
I was doing jujitsu and I've done Muay Thai and I've done wrestling in the past, but the schedule just got too hectic.

00:40:08.760 --> 00:40:10.869
So I canceled my jujitsu membership.

00:40:10.869 --> 00:40:15.639
I still kickbox on my own, so it's still something I practice, but not formally, I guess.

00:40:16.230 --> 00:40:16.590
Okay.

00:40:16.880 --> 00:40:22.940
It's amazing how far MMA has, you know, when I was a little boy, I mean, we, we loved watching it too.

00:40:22.940 --> 00:40:26.780
And it was only like, 10 or so fighters but now it's amazing.

00:40:26.780 --> 00:40:27.860
It's taking over the world.

00:40:27.940 --> 00:40:28.150
Yeah.

00:40:28.150 --> 00:40:28.409
Yeah.

00:40:28.809 --> 00:40:29.309
It's wild.

00:40:29.864 --> 00:40:33.164
so how about a piece of advice for your younger self?

00:40:35.744 --> 00:40:40.105
Man, one thing I would say to younger Kev is it's not your fault.

00:40:40.844 --> 00:40:45.614
I was very angry for most of my life because I think I internalized my dad leaving is my fault.

00:40:45.735 --> 00:40:46.744
Somehow, right?

00:40:46.755 --> 00:40:50.385
Just very emotional, highly illogical.

00:40:50.795 --> 00:40:52.335
But that's one thing I would tell him.

00:40:53.405 --> 00:41:12.164
And then if I could sit Kevin down and say, Kev, I know it doesn't seem super cool to talk about feelings and to talk about vulnerability and to talk about growth and evolution, but eventually you, if you do that, you will be very successful in life.

00:41:12.184 --> 00:41:15.755
I would have sat him down and just talked about how important it is to grow.

00:41:17.454 --> 00:41:29.505
Because a lot of my success has come from learning about me and growing and vulnerability and all that stuff It's really hard to sell someone on that, especially like a 16 year old Kevin, for sure.

00:41:29.775 --> 00:41:34.784
Right, boys, in particular, we're just so, we gotta be tough, we gotta put on this front, right?

00:41:35.014 --> 00:41:39.005
and then we spend the rest of our lives unraveling that and realizing that we shouldn't.

00:41:39.025 --> 00:41:42.135
The more vulnerable we are, the tougher we actually are, right?

00:41:42.155 --> 00:41:42.405
100%.

00:41:42.655 --> 00:41:54.155
so that that's really good stuff And I suspect from this episode my wife listens to every single episode I know she's going to go back to that part where you talked About your fear of disappointing men.

00:41:54.375 --> 00:41:57.695
That was extremely vulnerable of you and yeah Thank you for doing that.

00:41:57.695 --> 00:41:58.465
I told you louis.

00:41:58.514 --> 00:42:02.440
Yeah, i'm here to add value And the only way to add value is to be, to be yourself.

00:42:02.469 --> 00:42:08.099
I'm, I'm telling you that's, if I've learned anything, I would rather just be honest.

00:42:08.389 --> 00:42:14.590
There's a piece of me, when you asked about the habit tracking, there's that little ego piece of me that doesn't want to tell you that Alan created it.

00:42:15.650 --> 00:42:18.289
There's that little piece of me that wants you to think that I did it.

00:42:18.409 --> 00:42:20.880
And I'm, I'm like the mastermind behind this whole thing.

00:42:20.880 --> 00:42:26.840
But I've done this long enough where it's, it's, I'm not going to be able to sleep if I, if I do that.

00:42:28.480 --> 00:42:28.989
I love that.

00:42:29.659 --> 00:42:34.380
so how, you know, and it didn't come off in any way either, like, I, I think we all go through that.

00:42:34.380 --> 00:42:39.000
We want to say it to us and I never thought any less of you when you said that, you know, at all.

00:42:39.679 --> 00:42:39.960
Yeah.

00:42:40.030 --> 00:42:41.159
And most people wouldn't.

00:42:41.369 --> 00:42:41.900
That's the thing.

00:42:41.900 --> 00:42:49.440
But we, we make it up in our, I went on a podcast yesterday with someone who, you know, They got to the end and they're like, dude, I was so nervous.

00:42:49.710 --> 00:42:51.630
And I was like, you should have just told me you were nervous.

00:42:51.630 --> 00:42:56.309
We could have faced the fear together instead of you thinking, I think you suck because you're nervous.

00:42:56.630 --> 00:42:57.519
I'm always nervous.

00:42:57.519 --> 00:42:57.929
You're fine.

00:42:57.929 --> 00:42:58.670
You should just tell me.

00:42:59.239 --> 00:42:59.829
We can do it.

00:43:00.039 --> 00:43:01.030
We can do it together.

00:43:01.039 --> 00:43:04.960
Vulnerability around the right people is the best possible thing you can do.

00:43:05.719 --> 00:43:06.570
Yeah, totally.

00:43:07.599 --> 00:43:10.070
So what about, I'll let you choose for our last one.

00:43:10.449 --> 00:43:19.425
Either a limiting belief, Or a big opportunity man, in terms of one I've gotten or overcome?

00:43:19.429 --> 00:43:20.144
Yeah, yeah.

00:43:20.144 --> 00:43:37.144
Either one you've overcome or you just see and you know how to overcome, or a big opportunity that you see out there right now or you're looking, you know, you're trying to capitalize on, I would probably go limiting belief just because that's usually what I talk about, the not smart enough thing.

00:43:38.639 --> 00:43:42.590
Is something I've been working really diligently on over the last seven years.

00:43:42.590 --> 00:43:51.269
And I actually had a mentor tell me recently, I gave a speech and a training to him, and it was in front of many successful people, and he said, Kev, you're too smart.

00:43:51.815 --> 00:44:04.965
you got to dumb it down the words you use the way you float you got to go a little bit more simple And it was like whoa This person who I look up to tremendously who I never thought i'd have the opportunity to speak next to is telling me i'm too smart Whoa?

00:44:05.085 --> 00:44:05.795
Interesting.

00:44:06.525 --> 00:44:14.329
So I guess that suggests that i've overcome that I think another piece to that is also the way we think of smart, right?

00:44:14.380 --> 00:44:17.409
We think of smart as like book smarts, right?

00:44:17.469 --> 00:44:21.059
and yeah, especially cause again, when we're kids, you know, that's how we get graded.

00:44:21.460 --> 00:44:21.760
But.

00:44:22.280 --> 00:44:31.500
I think as I've gotten older, I just realized like emotional intelligence is just such a greater, you know, a street smarts, you can, you can call it right.

00:44:31.500 --> 00:44:33.840
It's just such a greater level of intelligence.

00:44:34.280 --> 00:44:43.860
You know, there's so many people who are like, they got 150 plus IQs out there, but they don't really know what's in front of them or, get what you say.

00:44:43.869 --> 00:44:44.400
And Yeah.

00:44:44.400 --> 00:44:45.800
And, I just think that that is just.

00:44:46.114 --> 00:44:55.574
The way we think of smartness is, is something we need to redefine as a culture because, so, and you strike me as being really smart both ways.

00:44:55.644 --> 00:44:56.414
I appreciate it very much.

00:44:56.655 --> 00:44:57.014
Yeah.

00:44:57.284 --> 00:45:01.514
let's, let people know a little bit more about where they can find your podcast and, connect with you.

00:45:01.894 --> 00:45:06.335
Next level university is the podcast with 1808 episodes or whatever it is.

00:45:06.554 --> 00:45:08.715
That's on all the podcast platforms That's on youtube.

00:45:08.925 --> 00:45:18.364
And then if you're a podcaster out there and you're looking for free help on your podcast Podcast growth university is on all the podcast platforms and youtube as well hosted by me.

00:45:18.614 --> 00:45:23.894
And then if you ever have any questions, comments, concerns, whatever it may be, my email is Kevin at next level universe.

00:45:24.335 --> 00:45:25.795
com I do my own emails.

00:45:25.795 --> 00:45:28.815
So anything you need, I am just an email away.

00:45:29.934 --> 00:45:31.105
Well, thank you so much for that.

00:45:31.644 --> 00:45:31.864
Of course.

00:45:32.494 --> 00:45:33.644
Yeah, it's been great, man.

00:45:33.855 --> 00:45:35.985
I want to, first of all, thank you for all the research.

00:45:35.985 --> 00:45:40.304
You probably know more about me than I do, you know, and I'm kind of getting scared, so thank you for that.

00:45:40.304 --> 00:45:42.784
Thank you for being here, for sharing your wisdom.

00:45:43.264 --> 00:45:46.625
I want you to know that you are not a disappointment at all.

00:45:46.625 --> 00:45:53.724
You, it was a real treat to have you here, and I hope to have you back on, and, and, Hopefully foster a good long term relationship with you.

00:45:53.795 --> 00:45:54.684
I appreciate you.

00:45:54.684 --> 00:45:55.514
You're a great host.

00:45:55.525 --> 00:45:58.085
You seem like a very great man, at least from what I saw today.

00:45:58.085 --> 00:45:58.954
you're a wonderful human.

00:45:59.005 --> 00:46:00.074
I appreciate you having me on.

00:46:00.074 --> 00:46:02.445
I appreciate your time and keep doing what you're doing.

00:46:02.965 --> 00:46:03.264
Awesome.

00:46:03.264 --> 00:46:03.875
Thank you, Kevin.

00:46:04.275 --> 00:46:04.594
Of course.

00:46:10.324 --> 00:46:12.085
We hope you've enjoyed The Wayfinder Show.

00:46:12.235 --> 00:46:16.454
If you got value from this episode, please take a few seconds to leave us a 5 star rating and review.

00:46:16.744 --> 00:46:20.994
This will allow us to help more people find their way to live more authentic and exciting lives.

00:46:21.655 --> 00:46:22.954
We'll catch you on the next episode.