Your Podcast Has One Constraint Right Now. Most Founders Never Look For It

SPEAKER_01 0:00

50 years, one dollar becomes 84 million. How much do you think it is if you take weekends off? Brother, it is 191 times less.

SPEAKER_00 0:07

What is the most surprising business outcome that has come of your podcast? And can you walk me through how it came to be? Alan Lazarus, co-founder of Next Level University. He and his co-host turned a daily podcast into a top-drink show in a coaching business with a full team and paying clients. We're getting into how he made that podcast actually drive the business.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Knowledge is not power, expertise is not power, awareness is not power, behavior changes. Anyone can teach you how to lose weight. It is not rocket science. Almost no one, however, can get you to actually do it. Prep, rep, reflect perfect. You have to reflect and go, where did I suck? Constraints are the reason you're not successful.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

So, Alan, when did the podcast stop being just a show and something that actually started helping your business?

SPEAKER_01 0:59

I think so. We started our show nine years ago in March, March of 2017. It was always a business from the get in my mind. Because, and and Kev would tell you differently, my business partner and co-host Kevin Palmeri, next level university podcast. He, I think he was doing it for passion. And we have this little framework we created called Passion Purpose Profit. Passion is you really love podcasting. Purpose is you podcast to help others. Profit is you actually make money doing it. And we did it in that order. So we used to say character over everything. So the podcast was a vehicle for us to become the best version of ourselves and help others do the same. That was the passion part. And then the purpose was helping people, impact. And then we eventually got to the point where we both needed money, we needed revenue to keep doing it, particularly because we did this thing called an ex uh time audit. And we were in the studio and we looked at 168 hours per week that we each had, and we realized that we have basically no time left over. And that's when we started a team. So the necessity, basically, when our time in was past the point where we could continue, we needed to generate revenue to hire a team. And that's when we hired a team, and now we have 25 team members.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

It came out of necessity. You started with passion with the purpose of helping others, and then when did the profit in come in exactly? You got to a point where you needed the team, but what point was there like okay, this is working for us?

SPEAKER_01 2:35

So I actually have all the numbers that I can kind of pull up here. Let me see. Our yearly. So the f 2017 we made no money, no revenue. 2018 we made 13 grand. 2019 we made 33 grand. I'm rounding up to the nearest thousand. Yeah. 2020, we made 83. 2021, 135, 2022, 273. 2023, 325, 2024, 362, 2025, our biggest year was last year, 452. And this year we're shooting for 41% growth, which is 637,000. So the reason I tell you that is in and we we do a group coaching program called the Next Level Podcast Accelerator. Tonight I have a connection session with 10 podcasters. All of them start for passion, but usually also for purpose. Some people start a podcast for profit first as an extension of their business for lead gen. The majority of podcasters that I work with start for passion and purpose first and then try to figure out how to make a profit. The thing that I would say is you you need all three, and you usually suck at one of them. How can you suck at passion? Maybe you're not that mastery driven. So I use mastery impact and profitability as my three criteria in my business coaching. Mastery is I'm better at communicating. Some people aren't good at podcasting. If you're not top 10% at effective communication, you can't be compelling and tell a story and be engaging and articulate your points well, it's gonna be very hard for you to stand out as a podcaster. Like I have an ex-client of mine who I said, you should not be a podcaster. I'm not trying to be unkind. You're just not a strong communicator at all. And you're competing with people who this is natural for. I have another client in the past, her name is Gabby. She is so good. She's she got a standing ovation from her first speech. She should be a podcaster. She still doesn't have one, so I'm gonna have to message her and DM her on that. But there are certain people who suck at the passion part because they're not effective. Certain people who do not focus on helping others enough. I asked you the promise for your listeners. You said it's for founders, people who want to build a business with podcasting. So I asked that on purpose because I'm not here for me, I'm not here for you. Whoever's listening should be getting value. And then the third one is profitability. If you do one and two well, the third one will come. However, you have to actually lead gen. Lead gen is creating warm leads of people interested in your product or service. And the product or service has to be built on what we call the next level P. So you have to have the right person with the right problem in the right amount of pain for the right price with the right promise. So I promise you, you will be the most dialed-in version of yourself if you work with me. Here's the price, here's how I do it. I work with 39 people currently. People don't buy things unless they have a need that's not met. And a lot of times people that are podcasters do it for passion and purpose and they don't really know business. And then some people are business owners and they do it just to make money, and that actually can be a losing game, too, because people can tell.

SPEAKER_00 5:47

That was pretty fleshed out. Thank you for that. You're welcome. Why podcasting at all to begin with? Like, there's things people can do for the business that's easier, less of their face. Like you had that one person who had a standing ovation, right? Like, why get into podcasting? Why choose that?

SPEAKER_01 6:09

So the reason I chose it is because I was a speaker. Eleven years ago, I got in a tough car accident, and my birth father died in the car when I was two. And when I was 26, I got in a car accident, and this was sort of the second chance my dad never got. And I found personal growth, self-improvement, and personal development, and I fell in love. So I started a company called Alan Lazarus LLC, What You'll Never Learn in School but Desperately Need to Know. And I just wanted to bring personal development to the masses. And now I realize how naive that idea was. However, back then I wanted to be an inspirational, motivational, and educational speaker. And good luck getting speeches at high schools and colleges with that tagline. What you'll never learn in school but desperately need to know. Please hire me to speak and come tell your students what they're not learning here, basically. So, so I did actually, I was fairly successful. I got a lot of speeches, different things, but I realized somewhere along the lines, I can't perfect my craft. I have these things called the 25 impact points of effective communication. I can't practice speaking unless I have a speech. So I spoke at two Toastmasters two weeks ago. That's great. I appreciate it. But a podcast is an opportunity to practice your craft every single day if you want to. So that's why I started because I wanted a I didn't want permission to give a speech. I didn't want permission to practice my craft. I didn't want permission to speak into someone's life. So Kevin and I started the hyperconscious podcast back then. It's now a next level university. But so that's why I started. Why my my client Gabby, why should she start a podcast? Number one, she's really good at speaking. She's really, really effective at communication. She gave us a testimonial for our group coaching program. It's still on our website. And I said, How many takes did that take? And she said, one. And I said, I knew it. It was so good. It was so good. Most people are awful at speaking, they don't practice it. No one else speaks as well as Steve Jobs on their first shot. She should do it because she's excellent at it. Number two, reason she should do it. She wants to help people. She's in real estate. She's also very passionate about self-improvement, personal growth, and personal development. And I think she could easily merge real estate and personal growth, and she would be able to generate more leads for her real estate career. So there's a that's specific to Gabby, but for all the founders out there, like why should you start a podcast? I don't think everyone should. I think you should if you have really good work ethic, if you want a unique way to connect with more people, and then after helping them and adding value and building trust, then you could generate more revenue. I think money should not be first, but it shouldn't be tenth. One of our early mentors, his name's Evan Carmichael, he's the top 10 guy on YouTube. He said money should never be first, but it definitely shouldn't be tenth. In the beginning, we weren't focused on money at all. It was add value, add value, add value, perfect your craft, perfect your craft, perfect your craft. Don't worry about money, it'll come. That was dumb. Don't do that. It should be, it should be master your craft. It should be impact others and build trust, and then make money. But it should be in that order. It's one, two, three, it can't be three, two, one. I mean, it can be, but but most likely, from what I've seen, people can see through that. So our listeners, for example, I have a free book club I've been doing for six years. And two years ago, I realized all my clients are here. And I was like, is that because my clients come to book club, or is that because book clubbers become clients? And I realized it was both. I was like, oh, interesting. So, so the the 21st century economy is built on free value. People don't know you like you're a trust you. You and I just met.

SPEAKER_00 9:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

And and and over time you can build trust. And when you build trust, you can, if you have the right person, the right product, the right price, you can sell products and services. So that's what we do at NLU. And so if you want to start a podcast, make sure you're in it for the right reasons. Make sure you don't think it's going to be an easy, get rich, quick thing. If you think podcasting is going to be anything other than a massive amount of hard work with very little success, you're probably setting yourself up for failure. However, a lot of people who start successful podcasts are already famous when they start. We have a we produce 90 podcasts. One of our early productions, uh, her name was Tori Aleto, and she was a top five show in the first two weeks of production. She's not doing it anymore, unfortunately. Um, and Tori, it's like you really should, but again, how how can I tell her how to live, right? But she was so successful on Instagram 13 years prior to that, building a really, really, really strong Instagram following. And she would do webinars where she would make $20,000. She was excellent. She also did uh licensed and marriage therapy for years, uh decade, decade plus. So yeah, drop the show, top, top 10 in on relationships globally. That's not normal. That's that's because she built up so much momentum prior to that, and people were eager to hear from her. So if you have a huge audience already, then you can start a podcast and be very successful. If you if you don't, you're gonna have to build slowly over time and be okay with you know five listens and then 10 and then 15. And I mean, we only had a thousand and fifty-four listens the entire first year. That's 52 episodes. That's total. Now we get more than that in a day.

SPEAKER_00 11:33

A lot of different threads to chew on there. When walk me through how exactly your podcast sits in like your funnel, how it leads from listener to client.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

So we have 13 departments, uh, and all of them are designed to add value and build trust. So let me show you this. So so I don't want to overuse the funnel thing because I think it's really it's not click funnels or any of that.

SPEAKER_00 12:01

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 12:02

A business model is what I call it, and it happens to be in the shape of a funnel. So if you picture the world, there's 8.3 billion people on Earth, there's six billion plus on the internet now, and it's increasing exponentially with Starlink. So you have a market of six billion people, okay? But you have a lot more competition than ever because everyone and their mother can start a podcast, right? So so the top of the business model is social media. That's when you dip your toe into who we are and what we're about. And and the top is is inclusive, the bottom is exclusive. And this isn't true for just our business, this is all businesses. So the way I see it is 100 people come into the mall, 30 of them come into your store, uh, you know, 10 of them buy something, uh, three of them come back next week, one of them works there. That's that's the metaphor. And social media is the mall, your store is the podcast, uh, whatever product and service you have is what you sell in the store, and then and then someone who works there would be like a team member. And so the 13 departments, I'm not going to go through all of them, but essentially the top is social media and the bottom is coaching with me. And there's a lot of other layers in between. And there's a dotted line in this business model where it's called a paywall. So, for example, social media, the podcast, our fitness accountability group, master classes I do in book club are all free. Then there's a paywall, and we have what's called a peak performance planner. And then, and then we have group coaching programs, we have all kinds of stuff. And then we have podcast production services, we have web services, all this stuff. I also do peak performance coaching, business coaching, fitness coaching, finance coaching, this kind of stuff. At the end of the day, each layer is designed to number one add value and number two, uh, invite them to the next layer to go deeper. The deeper you go in the business model, the higher the value, but the lower the volume of people. So on social media, you'll get a little bit of value, but not a ton. My one-on-one coaching. So my social media, let's let's say my coach social media touches 30,000 people. I think I have 28,000 followers or something like that. 30,000 people. Of those 30,000 people, I only work with 39 one-on-one, but the price is way higher. So the top is 30,000 people for free for very low amounts of value. The bottom is 39 people for a much higher price. And and that's how every podcast and every business should be set up in the 21st century internet economy.

SPEAKER_00 14:25

You excuse me, my mind is drawing up like. No worries. I had something. I had a question. I swear, I had a question. So your podcast is would you see your podcast, would you say your podcast is top of the funnel, the business model, or is it middle of it? Like, are you doing marketing in other ways, or is this just a supporting asset, or is this the main thing?

SPEAKER_01 14:49

Yeah, nice. So great question. For us, the podcast is the one thing that kind of feeds everything. And and what I used to say when I tried to explain this was all rivers lead to the podcast, and the podcast leads to all rivers. So, for example, uh, we had a next level hope foundation. We have a charity, it's called the Next Level Hope Foundation, and it's for boys, it started out with boys without fathers because Kevin and I both grew up without fathers, and then it it transformed into uh kids of single parents. We just had a Father's Day event this past Sunday. Yeah, it was it was it was awesome. But we've been doing this for years, and and my point is is on the podcast, we promoted that the GoFundMe. When I say all rivers lead to the podcast, and the podcast leads to all rivers, this is kind of how we set have it set up. So to answer your original question, the podcast falls at the top of the business model. However, everything feeds the podcast, and the podcast feeds everything, everything. This is called a marketing ecosystem. Okay, so so a couple examples of this would be Kevin and I were recording last night. He's in Missouri with a client on site, uh, and we're recording, and it's it dropped this morning. This morning, I have a masterclass on Thursday, which is tomorrow. This morning's episode promoted the masterclass. So essentially the podcast promotes whatever's next. Right. We have a group coaching program. Uh, group 23 is launching in like 20 days, 19 days. I, you know, messaged my team and said, hey, that's the next most important thing after the masterclass. So, so we try to find our people. I used to try to get listeners everywhere. I don't do that anymore. Now I say, if you don't resonate with me, you're not gonna like the show. If you want validation on any level, you're not gonna like the show. Like the show, I basically say if you don't have high humility, high work ethic, and a high improvement orientation, I think the 21st century has become wildly overvalidating. Like our show might as well be, hey, you're not winning because it's based on constraint theory. It's like you're not consistent enough. You're you're kind of lazy and you know it, you're not focused. Like next level university is next level you, pun intended. Here's where you're inadequate, but that's okay because you can get better. It's it's it's just get better every day, get better every day, get better every day. It can be exhausting. It's every single day we do an episode every day. So I don't really, I don't really promote it that much anymore. It's kind of like if you are sick and tired of like the overvalidating nonsense on the internet, you'll you'll be interested in our show. But it it is exhaust, I mean it's get better every single day. Every day. Um and and so yes, I bring listeners into the show, and then the show promotes the other stuff. And some of it's free and some of it's paid. So hopefully that answers your question. It's at the top of the business model, but it's also all throughout it. Because next level university is the name of the podcast, but it's also the name of the company. It's also the name of the brand. And and a good way to explain this is like every every company has a person, a brand, a company name, and a product. So Michael Jordan's a good example of this. Michael Jordan's the person, Nike's the company, Nike LL, well, Nike LLC is the company, Nike is the brand, and then Air Jordan's is the product. So people don't always connect this, but really you're not just buying shoes, you're buying an identity. You're buying uh uh you want you fit into a certain type of person. So if you like under armor, you like high utility clothing. I love under armor. I I have this gallon right here, and I'm not here to promote Under Armour, I'm not sponsored or anything. The the point is, is like every company now is kind of like its own identity. That's what a brand is. It's like your reputation in the marketplace. Uh oh, like techies, you know, you're either Apple or Microsoft or whatever. So, so at the end of the day, the podcast is not only the brand and the name of the company, but it's also the epicenter of the marketing ecosystem as well. So hopefully that answers your question.

SPEAKER_00 18:45

All rivers lead to the podcast, and the podcast leads to all rivers. And so you said a simple thing that you do is make sure the podcast is promoting the next big thing. And then also the next big thing is promoting the podcast. Is that essentially what you were getting at?

SPEAKER_01 19:03

Uh, well, so to give you this example, on Sunday, I gave a speech at the end of the Next Little Hope Foundation event. And I I in the speech, I talked about how next level university is about leading by example, and it's about becoming the male role models we never had because we grew up without fathers. On some level, that's also promoting the podcast. Because some of the parents there are like, well, why are you guys doing this? And it's like, well, we have a podcast. And so some people will listen and if they like it, they will stick around. If they don't, we're very community-based. So, so I think the future is human connection, belonging, and community. I think AI is automation, I think is there's certain things you should never automate. And I'm like a techie, I was a computer engineer. I'm not anti-technology by any means. But I think that when it comes to a podcast, there's a community that needs to be built on core values. And community and and branding is a is about core values, marketing is about core values. And so our core values is basically work on yourself every day. You are not entitled to anything, and the only way to reach your goals and dreams is to like improve every day. And so we sort of built a community around consistency and work ethic and humility and improvement orientation in fitness, finance, and family, and leading by example. The reason I'm telling you all of that is because the podcast leads to all rivers, the all rivers lead to the podcast, yes, but it's almost like we're directing that flow. So, me at the end of this, for example, I'm gonna say, honestly, if you resonate with me, you can check out my show. I don't necessarily recommend that if you have an aversion to getting better every day. Some people will check it out, some people won't. I don't really, that's not the primary reason I'm here. The reason I'm here is number one, master my craft and effectively communicate. Because I used to think I was a strong communicator, and then I realized I'm only a strong communicator to other engineers. Uh, number two is uh impact. And then number three is if someone is curious, they can check it out. But I used to be too focused on that. And now it's like, yo, I'm gonna, I'm gonna come, I'm gonna add value, I'm gonna be the change I wish to see in the world. And then if people are intrigued and want to go deeper, they can. And then if they do listen to the show, the show will direct them to the other things we have going on. But I I don't try to fit people in, I don't try to fit like a square peg in a round hole anymore. Now it's like if you're not a podcaster who's early on who wants to start grow scale and monetize, our group coaching program isn't for you. And if you want big rewards for minimal effort, our group probing is definitely not for you. Our group coaching program is definitely not for you. And so I I now have gotten better at like not being exclusive in the excluding others, but more just like, hey, not everybody's gonna like this movie. And that's okay. But if you think you might, you probably will. And and so you can directly. The flow of your own brand, your own business, and your own podcast, but it cannot be for everyone. It can't be. It can't be for everyone. Because if it's for everyone, it's for no one. And that's like the biggest mistake I see. And we made that mistake. Like in those early years, it was there was it was too inclusive. It was it was, you know, if you're into growth at all, or even think you are, you should come listen to our show. And it and it just doesn't work. It's not smart.

SPEAKER_00 22:28

Okay. What it sounds like to me, and I think I'm getting it a little better now. All rivers lead to the podcast, all podcasts, all in and out, right? The the next bet the next big thing from the podcast is promoted from the podcast. But then those things, because people are maybe building connections and liking the values from those things, they then are like, okay, I want to see more. So they come to the podcast. And so that's what you were saying.

SPEAKER_01 22:56

Yeah, or they come to whatever layer of the business model is appropriate. So maybe they come to book club, or maybe they come to my masterclass. Or it it depends on what they need in their life right now. But remember, there's a theme and a through line to the whole business model. The whole theme and through line is get better every day through work ethic and leading by example towards your goals and dreams. It's we used to be a success podcast, we used to be a personal development podcast that also talked about success. Now we are a success podcast that also talks about personal development, and that's a distinct difference. Um, if you have big goals that you really want to achieve and you're struggling to stay focused, my podcast is for you. If you don't have big goals, you absolutely should not listen under any circumstance.

SPEAKER_00 23:43

Right. The secondary thing that you're really trying to drive home is that you need core values that are through the podcast and the business and disqualifiers in a way. Like because you don't want to serve everybody. You want to make it clear this is for this type of person. If you're not this type of person, this isn't for you. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 24:06

And I think that being clear on on who you don't getting clear on who you don't want to serve is as important, if not more important, than getting clear on who you do. I don't want to serve anyone who wants to work less. Like if you want big rewards for minimal effort, we are not ever going to resonate.

SPEAKER_00 24:26

What is the most surprising business outcome that has come of your podcast? And can you walk me through how it came to be?

SPEAKER_01 24:33

How it came to be was I had a podcast called Conversations Change Lives. I wanted to, it really started as I was in corporate and I realized that, you know, I I had two main career paths in my life. It was going to be lawyer, politician, president, or it was going to be engineer, MBA, CEO. And as an engineer, I realized that I made a decision without fully understanding what it would be like. So I was working for a company called Tyco Safety Products. It's now called Simplex Grinel. And I was designing circuits for an internship, summer internship during college. And I had the moment of, okay, I'm an engineer, but like this sucks. And this is not what I'm going to do with my life. And then I went back for my master's in business because back then, you know, 80% of Fortune 500 CEOs had their sort of engineering undergrad with an MBA combination. Not all of them do, but a good percentage. That's based on my research back then. This is back in 2008, 2009. So I'm sitting behind the desk going, okay, this is not it for me. And then later on I remembered after corporate thinking, like, I wonder how many kids are making a decision about their career without having any clue what it's actually like. And I remember thinking, what if I started a podcast where I interviewed a nurse and talked about what it's really like? What if I pulled back the curtain on the good and the bad? Because I had an ex, her name was Courtney, she went for nursing. And it was very different than what she thought it would be. So kids are making these college choices and these career choices. Excuse me, my alarm's going off. These college choices and these career choices without really knowing the behind the scenes of how tough this is gonna be. So why not talk to a nurse first before you make that choice, right? And so I was like, okay, conversations change lives, be a fly on the wall. I'm gonna interview nurses and police officers and firefighters and I'm gonna politicians. I'm gonna, I'm gonna interview everybody about what it's really like versus what they thought it would be like. Kevin was my first guest. He was a foreman at the time and he was uh big into fitness. He would had just done a bodybuilding competition. So we did an episode on fitness, mindset, and uh personal accountability. It was called Conversations Change Lives. And at the end, Kevin loved it so much he started his own podcast. He started the hyper-conscious podcast. Change the way you think, change the way you act, change the way you live. And I was his first guest. So we were both each other's first guest. Then we teamed up and we had the worst titled podcast of all time, which is the hyperconscious podcast Meets Conversations Change Lives Podcast. And we did that for 20 weeks. And then we went all in on hyperconscious, and then eventually we rebranded like four years into next level university. So that's how the podcast came to be. In terms of the first part of your question, I think I've forgotten what it is. The second part was what how did the podcast come to be? That's how the podcast came to be. What was the second part?

SPEAKER_00 27:19

Most surprising business outcome.

SPEAKER_01 27:22

The most surprising business outcome? I don't know if I have a good answer for that because nothing has been uh okay. I'm gonna try to say this without coming off wrong. Okay. We had a team member, and he had listened to 500 episodes of our podcast.

SPEAKER_00 27:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 27:40

500. He listened every day. He he he was a photographer. He came to one of our early events. We did events for nine years straight. Uh Your World Within Live and Top Notch Live, and then it was next level live for several years. We did it every year. We actually just stopped it this past year. Um, same as what we talked about off air of like, you gotta give up good to go for great. Same deal. Same deal. Double down, double down, double down. So, anyways, I come to Kev after after coaching this guy. I coached him and he'd listened to 500 episodes of our show, and he was like so grateful to be coached with by me. And I came to Kevin afterwards and I said, Kev, our podcast sucks. And he's like, What do you mean? And I said, Brother, this dude is completely lost. The hyper-conscious podcast changed the way you think, changed the way you act, changed the way you live. And he listened to 500 episodes and he's still so lost. There's the J.R.R. Tolkien quote of not all those who wander are lost. It's not true. Most people who wander are lost. And then they're romanticizing it. We've all been lost. I had a lost phase too, okay? And you would have thought I was happy because I was putting on a show. All right. Most people are lost, drifting around aimlessly, without goals and dreams, without direction, and that's just the reality statistically. Okay. I was trying to come not to come off mean, but at the end of the day, that is the truth. There, if you look around, the world is not filled with conscientious, respectful, goal-oriented leaders who are pumped about the future. Like that is that is not it, right? Particularly in my country, you know, there's a lot of people that are overweight and lost. Okay. Obesity crisis is a thing. If you've ever seen the movie WALL-E, it's supposed to be a warning for what's to come. Okay. And it is happening to some extent, and it is alarming. And I hope to be a part of the solution, not a part of the problem. Okay, so enough of that. The most surprising thing is how few people actually want to reach their full potential. That has been nothing short of absolutely devastatingly alarming. Now, that person listened to 500 episodes, but didn't really implement anything. That has been very surprising for me. I now believe that coaching, so, so knowledge is not power, expertise is not power, awareness is not power, behavior change is. Behavior change is. I say this. Anyone can teach you, we're about to do a 10 pound in 10 week challenge. We have 28 people, 29 people, 28 people signed up. I think it's 28. And it starts tomorrow, July 1st. It goes until September 8th. 70 days, 10 weeks, 10 pounds in 10 weeks, a 500 calorie deficit every day on average for 70 days equals 10 pounds. Some people are doing seven pounds, some people doing five, some people are gaining weight. It depends on what your goal is. All I need is a start weight and a goal weight. Done. I have a spreadsheet. Here's my point. Anyone can teach you how to lose weight. Anyone can teach you that. You can Google it, you can AI it, you can chat GPT it, you can clot it. It is not rocket science. Almost no one, however, can get you to actually do it. And even fewer people can get you to do it consistently. That to me is my main focus. That's why I got rid of my other podcasts. That's why I used to believe in podcasting as a medium way more than I do now. I still believe in it. I think it's a good dip your toe in. But if you really want results and you really want accountability and you really want to get off your A, you coach. Public accountability and having someone tracking peak performance tracking is what I do. I have 39 clients, priorities, metrics, habits, skills. We track and we stay on track. And I believe in behavior change maybe more than anyone, but I don't believe in knowledge and awareness and all that anymore. Yes, it's important for a step, but what really matters is can you change your behavior consistently over time? And that is way harder than like calories in versus calories out, right? It's not that hard to calculate that you need to eat less and exercise more. Done. Eat less and exercise more. Getting you to do it consistently now, that is the secret. And it's not a secret. It's just you need accountability and you need a great coach and you need friends and peers that hold you accountable, and you need you need people around you that have high standards. Like that's what I'm working on now. I don't, I know, I don't, I don't want to just talk into people's lives anymore. I really want actual behavior change.

SPEAKER_00 32:02

That makes a lot of sense. I see how that was the most surprising thing. Someone 500 episodes, no real behavior change, and you was like, okay, this isn't it. And you really put a fire under you on made you have to have a behavior change on how you approach this whole thing. 100%. That makes sense. I got just one or two more questions for you. I know we're going a little over time. You post you and your co-hosts post daily. What was the purpose behind the daily thing? Like that, like that, that's one of the more surprising things. You a lot of podcast episodes. How y'all even making that happen? Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:44

So if you say, so we we're coming up on 2,500 episodes. And if you say that to someone who's never podcasted, they think nothing of it. Like, oh, good, that's great. If you say it to a podcaster, they're like, What? Um, I believe in the compound effect, the snowball effect, the the consistent improvement over time, maybe more than anyone. I I I'm obsessed with it. I I think that very little is is possible in a day. Very little is impossible in a few decades. Uh there's very little you can accomplish in a day. I mean, I used to say that this in my speeches, I used to do be a fitness uh coach, fitness model, fitness competitor, and fitness speaker. And I used to say all of us in this room, 80 people in the room, can can go work out today for nine hours and it's gonna do nothing. It's gonna do nothing. Like it'll be hard, we'll feel good for us like afterwards, like we'll feel accomplished, but it might even be detrimental, actually. However, if you take those same nine hours and you split them into half hours and you work out for 18 days straight, you might create a new habit. And that new habit will change your entire life. Yeah. Again, that's why I do an episode a day, because anybody can do one thing one day. I don't believe in that at all. I I and I I'm a big math nerd and I'm a big engineer nerd, and and the math is clear. Anybody can do this. Don't do it in AI because it gets it wrong.

unknown 34:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 34:12

ChatGPT gets it wrong. I haven't done it anywhere else. You put a dollar on a financial calculator, look up financial calculator, Google financial calculator, put a dollar in and grow it for 50 years by 0.1% per day. 0.1% per day for 50 years. 365 times 50 comes to 18,300 days or something like that. It becomes 84 million dollars. Okay. Right. Now that's just money. Now think of health, wealth, and love. Think of think of getting better every day. Think of getting smarter every day. Think of behavior change every day. Think of podcasting every day. 0.1% per day for 50 years becomes 84 million dollars. $1 becomes 84 million. How much do you think it is if you take weekends off?

SPEAKER_00 34:54

Dramatically less.

SPEAKER_01 34:55

439,000.

SPEAKER_00 34:57

That was way more dramatic than I thought.

SPEAKER_01 35:00

Brother, it is 191 times less. I'm gonna get shirts at some point that it said 191x. And it's gonna be person A and person B, the tortoise and the hare, and it's gonna be the tortoise is 0.1% per day with without taking any days off, and the hair takes weekends off, and it's gonna be showing the 84 million versus the 439,000. The the truth of the matter is, Kevin and I are not that great. We just never miss. And we're never gonna miss. He's in Missouri on site with a client right now. Uh, it's a it's a someone who builds houses, he's doing social media. We have a social media company. And he and I tonight are recording two episodes at nine o'clock at night after we both worked full days. I'm not really interested in people who like want to four-hour work week hack their way to success. I think it's stupid. I think the 21st century has made it look like successful people can be successful without effort. If you look at social media, you're you're seeing the 90% of their life that's great, but it's not actually real. Like I had a client in the past who is very, very successful and semi-famous. And if you look at her social media, it looks like she has the best lifestyle of all time. But behind the scenes, all she does is work. So, so it's and and then on top of that, there's generational wealth. Like a lot of these people, I know someone with a Porsche who's 25, but she her parents pay for it, right? So it's not, it's not, none of it's real. None of it's real. At the end of the day, the only thing that really works is work. And until you get that through your head, you're gonna be in so much trouble, just like that client who listened to 500 episodes and is getting smarter, but not actually executing. And at the time, that that person was living with his mom, not successful at all. And and and again, I'm okay with it. I live with my mom at 1.2. That's not my point. My point is 0.1% behavior change per day, every day. And you can just absolutely crush it in life. But if you want to take weekends off, you want to focus on lifestyle, you want to not sacrifice and struggle, and you want to like enjoy every day, you're you're screwed. And and that's just the reality because AI can't lift the weights for you. AI can't have the courageous, vulnerable conversations with your partner for you, AI cannot do all the work for you. And here's the worst part if you don't use it, you lose it. If I'm even remotely a strong communicator right now, it's because I've been doing this thousands and thousands and thousands of times, right? And and people always ask me, they think I'm out of my mind. They're like, why do you want 50 clients? You have 39, this is nuts. Because I want to get better. Frequency, intensity, density, duration. I want to get better. I have 7,286 coaching sessions under my belt, and I'm not stopping anytime soon. I want to be the best on earth at behavior change, not only leading by example, because I won't say a word if I'm not leading by example, but I want to be able to help people change their real life, not their social media.

SPEAKER_00 38:05

That was awesome. Final question for you. Then we'll let you go because I know you're a busy dude. For founder podcasters listening right now, and their podcast isn't producing results. What's the behavioral change that you recommend they make going into the next episode that'll really make a difference?

SPEAKER_01 38:24

We call it the mastery formula prep, rep, reflect, perfect. I do this, I do this now mostly with coaching, but I used to do this with podcasting. I still kind of do. Prep, rep, reflect, perfect. So prep is prepare for the episode. Like I should have come into this more prepared than I did. That's my truth. It's been a long day. Excuse, excuse, excuse. Prepare. Prepare for the rep. So before your workout, put your knee sleeves on. Make sure you stretch. Make sure you have your hydrated. Make sure you take your pre-workout, whatever it is. Prep. Prep, prep, prep. Okay. Step one is prep. Step two is rep. Do the workout. Do the podcast. Do the coaching session. Do the the thing, whatever it is. Do the speech, do the whatever. Reflect. After the speech, I'll use Toastmasters as an example because I gave a Toastmasters speech two weeks ago. I prepared pretty heavily and then I did the rep and then I reflected on it. This is the part that's important. Reflect perfect. You have to reflect and go, where did I suck? This is the part I don't think people are doing. Like, where do you suck? I know it's mean. I know it's hard. I know it sucks. Like the thing that's the problem is if you want to constantly look at where you're great, you're not going to get better. It's so useless, in my opinion, to look at where I'm already great. You have gotten to where you are in life based on your current capabilities. And if you want to get better in order to get to the next level, there this is what I say. Last piece. You are not not more successful because you don't believe enough in what you already believe. You are not more successful because you have blind spots and inadequacies, despite what the internet wants to tell you about how you're already enough and you know, arrive and never strive and the four-hour work week. Like I the truth is, you are not good enough at podcasting yet. You're great up to now. Great. Awesome. Congratulations. Me too. I'm I'm relentless about finding where we suck. We have uh NLU team huddle every two weeks. It's on Thursdays now. And we go through where we suck in every department, every other week and every coaching session. It's constraint theory. You have a goal, and there's immediately a constraint, internal and external. So 10 pounds in 10 weeks is a good example. The internal constraint is I'm too cowardly to talk to Amelia about how I have to exercise even more. It's a joke. Uh, and the external constraint is my right knee hurts. Constraints are the reason you're not successful. Your podcast isn't produced well enough. You're saying um too many times. You're not a strong enough speaker, you're not compelling, you're not good looking, you're not, you don't have a good enough mic, your camera angle is terrible, your YouTube analytics suck. You there's a million reasons why you're not more successful. You have to identify them and rectify them over and over and over and over and over and over again. This iPhone is so much better than the first iPhone that came out in 2007, it's not even funny. What was once a revolutionary breakthrough now would be a piece of hot garbage if you compare it to this iPhone Pro Max 18 or 17 or whatever it is. The point is that your podcast will only be successful if you can compete with the other better successful podcasts. And you can't when you're up against the best in the world. 20% of podcasts get 80% of listens. And the only way to get in that 20% is to get better every single day. And that's actually very empowering. So it sounds mean to always look at where you're inadequate, but it's actually very empowering to realize like, holy crap, you really can do this. I'm hard on you because I believe in you. That's what I tell my clients. And I do. I believe that if you're willing to constantly look, prep, rep, reflect, perfect, at where you're currently inadequate and keep getting better every day, you will be more and more and more successful. That's that's that works. That works. There's no quick fix, no magic bullet, no secret sauce, no secret formula, no webinar that's gonna do it. Getting better every single day and more effective every single day in what matters most will always work.

SPEAKER_00 42:30

Preparation before actually do the rep, reflect on it, seeing what you suck, and continually making the behavioral adjustment to be better.

SPEAKER_01 42:40

Yep. Prep, rep, reflect, perfect. Now, you have to know you're never gonna be perfect. Right. So when I say perfect, it's just a play on words. Prep, rep, reflect, perfect. It it rhymes. You're never actually perfect.

unknown 42:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:54

All right. Well, this conversation has been awesome. I appreciate it, Alan. Thank you for being on the show.

SPEAKER_01 43:00

Thank you for having me. I've enjoyed it thoroughly. I really appreciate you having me. It's an honor, and uh yeah, that's it. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 43:08

This has been the Founder Podcast Lab. See you in the next episode.