Transcript
Speaker: From a dream a microphone and a voice to share A journey of purpose started with a prayer Stories of courage, of vision, of grace Entrepreneurs changing lives in every place From every continent, every walk of life We've heard of triumph, we've heard of strife
Speaker: What is mindset, right? So is it, it's your attitude? every see It's your beliefs? It's your philosophy about life? I'll give you an example. So some people think life is supposed to be easy and every time it's not, something's wrong.
Speaker: I think that's a terrible mindset. I think life is supposed to be challenging. And despite that, we can make it meaningful when we grow through those challenges. See, one of them is much more empowering long term. The other one is like, poor me, poor me, poor me.
Speaker: Why me, why me, why me? And honestly, some people are victims. I totally understand. I had a very challenging childhood. Not the most challenging in the world, but more challenging than anyone I knew in my, you know, life.
Speaker: And so touching the attitude that things are supposed to go well and when they don't, something's wrong with you or something's wrong with the world or something's wrong with the government. I think that's a terrible mindset. I think you're in trouble with that mindset. I think you're going to be mediocre with that mindset.
Speaker: I think a more empowering alternative. is the mindset of life is supposed to be difficult and when it's difficult it's an opportunity to improve and get smarter and stronger that's a much more empowering mindset so it's your attitude your philosophy and your belief in yourself and also your belief about the world your world view And so how do you work on your mindset? I've started running a mile a day every day for 69 days.
Speaker: I have all my numbers written over here. 69 days. i But it's called Miles for Mindset. I'm not just running for my body. I'm running for my mind. as just to so We have a team member named Brandon, and he did this for like 1,200 straight.
Speaker: And he inspired me and I started doing it because we did a 10 pound and 10 week challenge. we do it every year and I was behind. so i was like, I got to run a mile a day now in addition to my workouts. And so I started doing miles for mindset and and they'll basically you run a mile a day.
Speaker: Sometimes it's fast, sometimes it's average, sometimes it's slow, but you run, meaning you're you're not walking. It's an actual jog or run. And the the only requirement is that you have to be listening to something inspirational, motivational, or educational.
Speaker: And so this morning I was listening to some Kobe Bryant mindset stuff. And to every guest that's how I keep my mindset strong is when I'm on a run, I'm by myself. I was in the woods in this one.
Speaker: And I'm just grounding my thought process in... what I think is who I really am. the fu And in so what does that mean?
Speaker: I'm extremely goal-oriented. My main focus in life is reaching my full potential. My my one word potential. Like I believe and potential define, I define it myself is the a deep belief in what human beings are capable of.
Speaker: and And my whole world is built around that. I mean, that's why I coach. I believe in people. I don't believe in everyone. I learned that the hard way, but I believe in people in general. And there's certain people I won't coach. But ultimately, that's how I get my mindset strong is I have a daily habit.
Speaker: of running a mile a day while listening to something inspirational, motivational, educational. And I pivot. I have all these different videos that I go to and they're all around seven to 10 minutes.
Speaker: But that's how I keep my mindset strong. and And honestly, if you don't keep your mindset strong, you will just stray. I mean, one of the things that's really hard, when I had a thriving social life, you lose yourself. It's another mile it's very easy to lose yourself because...
Speaker: Everybody's got opinions and people are talking about all this stuff that is very trivial. thank you lo And it's very hard to stay aligned with your potential. Because the truth is most people don't care. Right? Most people just want to have fun or whatever.
Speaker: You're at a barbecue and most people's focus is not on reaching their full potential. So if if you want a captain and guide your own life, you're going to have to protect your mind. Hello, and welcome to another exciting episode of the Entrepreneur's Speaks Podcast.
Speaker: I'm your host, Kofi Animedu. Alan, welcome to the Entrepreneur's Speaks Podcast. First of all, thank you for having me. I do not take it lightly to be here.
Speaker: Sure, sure, sure, sure, sure. The first century is extremely noisy. So the fact that anyone is listening, I do not take lightly. Thank you for the listeners. Thank you. Thank you for being here. And i won't waste anyone's time.
Speaker: All right, we're all not wasting anyone's time. So Alan, your story is one of resilience, transformation, and purpose. From experiencing personal loss at a very young age to surviving a near-fatal car accident at 26, that completely changed your outlook on life.
Speaker: Your journey reflects deep introspection and intentional growth. Today, as a founder and CEO Next Level Investor, you have built a globally recognized platform focused on helping people elevate their lives in health, wealth, and love. I love that. with ova With over 2,400 podcast episodes, wow, that's a lot of episodes, millions of listeners worldwide, and thousands of hours of coaching and mentoring experience, it is an honor and a privilege to have you on our show today. So welcome once again, Alan.
Speaker: Yeah, thank you for that intro. Thank you for having me. And I joke with my business partner. I tell him he is a podcaster who tolerates coaching. I am a coach who tolerates podcasting. It's a joke.
Speaker: But I like the one-to-one stuff. So I can, you mentioned the 7,000 hours of coaching. I have 7,152 hours of one-on-one coaching with people all over the world. And I actually have a client after this.
Speaker: the fact that that's what I'm doing with all different industries, all different backgrounds, all different cultures, all different countries, you see common patterns of success. So I'm a business coach, but I did mindset coaching, p performance coaching. I did fitness coaching for a long time. Now I do business coaching. I have 35 one-on-one clients right now.
Speaker: So everything that I say is going to be based on my experience tangibly with different types of people, really helping them achieve their goals and dreams. Because I've realized over the years, I'm 37 now, I started this 11 years ago, I'm not really, i don't want to say I'm not good at other things, I'm good at a lot of stuff. But but the one thing that I'm really, really, really focused on is one-on-one coaching and helping people reach their full potential, particularly when it comes to goals, dreams, and success. So I'm not going to talk about cooking or or or anything else. I'm just going to talk about success and goals and that kind of thing. So you talk to entrepreneurs.
Speaker: I coach 35 early entrepreneurs, a couple of them later, some early. And so let's just focus on what you think is best. I leave it to you to get out of my brain what's best for your listeners. All right. But for me, it's also about getting to hear what you do best.
Speaker: And also the journey. i always say that we are all on a journey, a journey of continuous improvement, a journey where we can pick lessons from. So our conversation today is going to be about your journey, the lessons you've picked up on this journey, lessons that somebody listening,
Speaker: who is thinking of going on a similar journey like you've gone on, will be able to pick something useful and apply it in his or her life. So let's start off with the beginning.
Speaker: i always say it's always good to start from the beginning. You mentioned earlier on that you've been doing this for quite some time now. But how did this all start? What really inspired or moved you to start what you're doing now?
Speaker: So the first thing to understand there is, I think we all have natural inclinations. And in hindsight, I've rewatched the movie of my life. I'm 37 now. I was born in 1988 in Massachusetts in the US.
Speaker: And I was born into a really tough thing. So my birth father was John McCorkle and he died when I was two. And he was part of a big family. So it was Jim, Joe, John, Jane, Joan, Jeanette, six J's, six kids, and my birth father, John.
Speaker: So he, my mom was 31. He was 28, two children. I had an older sister who was six while I was three. And so I didn't really know my father well. And he died suddenly in a car accident, like really out of nowhere.
Speaker: So that was very tragic for my family. And then I had a stepfather named Steve Lazarus from age three to 14. So this is like 1992 to the early two thousand my birth father died in
Speaker: And I playfully refer to that part of my life as boats and BS. And the reason why is because it was the ninety s The dot-com bubble was upon us. And my stepfather worked for a company called AGFA, A-G-F-A. They did hospital computers during the dot-com era. So they did they did very well And the US economy was booming tremendously then. And so I playfully call it boats and BS, ski trips, Xbox, Dreamcasts, Christmas presents, ski trips.
Speaker: We had a yacht. We did from the outside looking in, it looked like things were really good. Snowmobiles, motorcycles, cars. My mom drove a BMW, that kind of thing. From the inside out, though, my mom and stepdad did not get along, and that's a polite way to put it. So from the inside out, things were not good.
Speaker: Eventually, my stepdad left, and he took 90% of the income with him. This is the second thing that sort of shaped me. So the first one was my birth father dying. The second thing that shaped me was this. So my stepdad leaves, takes 90% of the income with him. So we go from boats and ski trips. So he got the yacht in the apartment building. We got the house and the dog.
Speaker: And no trust fund, no generational wealth, no dad. I'm 14 years old. And it's kind of like, how do we keep the house and the family? My mom trades in our BMW for little Honda Civic. I get free lunch at school now because our income is so low.
Speaker: How am I going to go to college? that My dream college was WPI, Worcester Polytechnic Institute. It's like a mini MIT in Massachusetts. And it's an engineering school. And it was $50,000 a year. And this is back then.
Speaker: So I go from, i hope I get in to even if I do get in, I can't go. So I get straight A's through all of high school. And so i I had sort of two trauma responses from this experience because the part I haven't told you about yet is when my stepdad left, he took his entire extended family with him. And I've never seen her spoken to a single one of them since.
Speaker: Same year, my mom gets in a fight with my aunt Sandy, her sister, and we get ostracized from her side of the family. And then we don't really associate much with the McCorkles anymore because we're trying to be the Lazaruses. So I kind of lost three families by the time I'm 14.
Speaker: Same year, my sister moves out as well. So it's just me and my mom in that house kind of by ourselves. And the two trauma responses I had, so there's fight, flight, freeze, and fawn. And this is only in hindsight. I didn't know this at the time.
Speaker: So there's the social world and the real world. It was fun in the social world. Don't lose any more friends and family. Don't lose any more friends and family. Don't lose any more friends and family. Appease, appease, appease. Be a chameleon. Fit in, fit in, fit in.
Speaker: That was the social world, the trauma response. Behind the scenes, though, it was fight. It was aim higher, work harder, get smarter. It was aim higher, work harder, get smarter. Aim higher, work harder, get smarter. Aim higher, work harder, get smarter. So I got straight A's through all of high school.
Speaker: I got what's called the President's Award signed by George W. Bush. It's actually behind me. And it means you get straight A's 95 or above GPA for all of high school, 16 report cards straight.
Speaker: I apply to WPI. I get in I graduate with high distinction. i get my computer engineering degree, master's in business. So I did the traditional path in the U.S. when I was young is preschool, kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, high school, college, corporate.
Speaker: And I did that. and I did that very well. And so in my early 20s, I became a global one percenter. I tech company, tech company, tech company. I had I paid off 84 grand worth of college debt in a single year.
Speaker: i ah had $150,000 in a Vanguard account of all different stocks. And i I learned how to grow up not needing much because after my stepdad left, we were broke. So...
Speaker: When I had all this money coming in, I didn't like I just invested it all because I don't need much. I drove a 2004 Volkswagen Passat that I bought five grand cash. Like my rent was 500 bucks. And so I just invested all my money, which is fortunate.
Speaker: Then I'm working for a company called Cognix at this point. I i had job hopped a bit. I grew in corporate very quickly. Inside sales engineering, then outside sales engineering, right?
Speaker: My territory was Western Massachusetts, Vermont, and Connecticut for a company called Cognex. They sell industrial automation equipment into manufacturing facilities all across the world. Big customers like Covidian or Kimberly Clark or GE, Ben & Jerry's, all kinds of stuff, Frito-Lay.
Speaker: And so... I'm sort of this young guy who makes a ton of money, who grew up with very little, who now has more than enough. And I was high school friends, college friends, corporate friends. I partied too much and too often. It's kind of lost.
Speaker: yeah At this point, I get in a car accident. I'm 26 years old. I get in a car accident. This is sort of, so my fault, head-on collision, not a fender bender. Both cars were totaled.
Speaker: ah This was very, I'm very, very lucky to have lived through this. No one was killed, which is fortunate because it would have been my fault. But this is the second chance my dad never got. And this was my wake-up call. This was my existential quarter-life crisis. This is when I realized there's that quote, some people have a job, some people have a career, and some people have a calling.
Speaker: The truth is, i had a career. I had a very successful career. But I wasn't fulfilled internally. I wasn't fulfilled internally. And so now what? This is a second chance my dad never got.
Speaker: This is when I found self-improvement, personal growth, and personal development. This is when I now use this with all my clients. There's three areas we all have to master if we want to be successful.
Speaker: And it's a Venn diagram with three circles. It's personal development, which is understanding yourself. Social development, which is understanding others and how to build trust and relationships. And then professional development, resume, cover letter, LinkedIn, bu but but but skills, sales, branding, all this stuff.
Speaker: And the truth is, having coached 7,152 times, nobody's good at all three. We all have a really good one.
Speaker: We all have a really bad one and we all have a decent one. And so for me, the really bad one was personal development. I didn't look inward. I didn't face my past. Like all the stuff I told you about my stepdad and all that stuff, I didn't even talk about until I was, you know, post 26. So now I'm 37. This was 11 years ago, this car accident.
Speaker: And now I've dedicated my life, it's actually written in my background, to reach my own unique potential and help others do the same. That's my whole life now. And now we have a 24-person team. We produce 86 podcasts.
Speaker: I have 145 paying clients, and and we're doing very well, and I'm very grateful. And I coach 35 business owners, so that's awesome. But it's all the same thing, which is
Speaker: How do you aim high, set clear specific goals that are in alignment with your core values? And then how do you develop personally, professionally, and socially in alignment with that so that you can reach your full potential and help the world in some unique way?
Speaker: And that's what I do with everybody that I coach. And and that's actually why I'm here too, is to Really encourage everyone to, I think a lot of people are lazy. I think a lot of people are entitled. I think a lot of people are arrogant. I've been guilty of that too.
Speaker: And pre-26, I wasn't putting it all on the court. I had a career, not a calling. And my biggest regret, had I died that day, would have been, i didn't do all I could with all I had. And I think very few people are.
Speaker: And that's hopefully what lands for everybody is, yeah, that's my story, but very few people are going to, like, go get at the end of their life and look back and think they did all they could with all they had.
Speaker: And back then, if, you know, that mortality moment, I couldn't look myself in the mirror and said, I did all I could. Now I can. Now I can. I actually haven't taken a day off in 11 years. And a lot of people think that's insane.
Speaker: The truth is i get a little better every day. I work a little harder every day. I try to get a little smarter and a little stronger every day. And the goal is to, I think the goal in life is to do all you can with all you have. And and that's my paradigm now. And so I'm trying to help other people reach their full potential too.
Speaker: Okay. so So, Alan, you've given us a very good overview of how the journey has been right from the start up until now. But I believe for this conversation, i would like us to break things down a bit and go into a bit more details.
Speaker: So let's still go back. You talked about aiming high and working smart. You also talked about the fact that Personal development is so key to you.
Speaker: And for now, it's a calling. So I want us to go to that personal development bit. So how do you roll out your personal development activities? Reading about you, I came across Next Level University.
Speaker: Nice. If that is it, tell us about it. Why that, how does it work? and And what inspired you to set that up? So 11 years ago, after that car accident, I started a little company called Alan Lazarus LLC. What you'll never learn in school, but desperately need to know was the tagline.
Speaker: yeah Because I was very educated, right? Master's program, computer engineer. I was extreme. The formal education for me as a straight A student, top of my class, that that whole thing. Like my formal education was very, very, very good.
Speaker: But personal development was non-existent in my formal education. Fitness, character, courage, humility, vulnerability, virtue, goal setting, timelines, time management, productivity, effectiveness, Pareto principle, all this stuff...
Speaker: That is absolutely critical. What you desperately need to know, but maybe aren't learning in school is is quite alarming. And it's not that the information is not out there. The information is out there. Self-efficacy, for example, is is a psychological term for self-belief.
Speaker: The most important thing a human being can build, in my opinion, having done this for 11 years, is self-efficacy. Internal self-efficacy. It's also known as self-belief.
Speaker: The psychological term is self-efficacy. And you can build it. But no one told us about self-belief or self-worth or self-acceptance or self-respect and how to build them. So personal development is physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. It's about you.
Speaker: You versus you. And it's about understanding and having clarity of like... What makes you unique? A good metaphor, I think. I researched this. Canine is the species of dog.
Speaker: What we know as dog. Canine. And there's anywhere from 300 to 500 recognized breeds. I have a Pomeranian Chihuahua, for example. Homo sapien is the same as canine in terms of species.
Speaker: But there's so many different breeds of human. There's not one. There's what? You really think there's 500 types of dogs and only one type of human? The truth is we're all different. Some of us are Pomeranian Chihuahuas.
Speaker: Some of us are Great Danes. Some of us are Dalmatians, right? That's okay. But the truth is you have to find what's called product market fit or or service market fit in business. Your success in life is predicated on how well you learn about yourself and find where you fit into the economy. Right.
Speaker: So like Michael Jordan, how much would he be paid to play basketball 200 years ago? The answer is $0 because there was no market for basketball. So right place, right time, right talent, right work ethic. And I think that all of us need to learn where we fit and and realize what makes us where we're uniquely gifted and try to find a way to add value to the world in that thing. And if you look at all the most successful people in the world...
Speaker: Usually they found product market fit or self-market fit is what I call it. Self-market fit earlier in life and then went all in on it. Michael Phelps, for example, with swimming. Okay, that that's a really good example of someone who found their passion really young at 13 and then decided to go all in on it to an extreme extent to the point where he had mental health issues. But still, like if you want to be successful, you you can ah a Pomeranian Chihuahua should not be racing against the fastest dogs in the world.
Speaker: Right? we We all have uniqueness and we need to identify that. So personal development is getting to know what makes you different. We all have common things, right? We all need to eat. We all need shelter. We all need love and belonging.
Speaker: But other than that, we're all ridiculously different. And I think that we fail to study the differences because we crave belonging so much.
Speaker: all right. So thank you. Thank you very much. I still think there's a lot we can pick from what you just said. We talked about knowing yourself and and I think it's it's so creative. It says, man, know thyself.
Speaker: So you should know yourself. But you also talked about the fact that most of us have self-doubt kind of on this journey.
Speaker: But I want to find out from you, many of us struggle with self-doubt and also uncertainty. But how do we stay committed during certain periods? Because human as we are, we try to be as positive as possible. But as we move on, sometimes limiting beliefs, self-doubts, etc. set in. So how do we stay committed throughout and overcome some of these things?
Speaker: So this is the the scary question that that always comes up. um There are some people who don't doubt themselves. And for people who do don doubt themselves, that can be very triggering.
Speaker: And you probably think I'm lying. oh The truth of the matter is, is that I don't think self-doubt was ever something that I struggled with a ton when it came to external achievement. I did struggle with it in relationships.
Speaker: A ton. So from all the coaching I've done, I realized that all of us, like I mentioned, struggle in one of those three worlds. Personal development, social development, or professional development. For me, social development was the hardest.
Speaker: Personal development I neglected. Okay, because i was I didn't face my trauma from my past. However, social development was the one that did not come naturally at all. It still doesn't.
Speaker: I don't fit in easily anywhere. The only place I fit in is when people have massive goals and dreams, like peak performers, that kind of thing. But here's the thing. When I was younger, I used to pretend to fit in.
Speaker: so So you either inflate to try to belong or you deflate to try to belong. So someone like a Michael Jordan, if you ask, like, you know, do you struggle with self-doubt? I think he probably thinks he does.
Speaker: But if he was really honest with you, he would probably say, no, I never really doubted my abilities long term. And so the the hard answer is everyone out there I've found knows someone who kind of wins at everything.
Speaker: Those people have very high self-efficacy and they don't struggle with self-doubt that much. And the only reason I know that is because my business partner, Kevin, has helped me understand how little self-doubt I actually have. Because the people, we i didn't know that I didn't have it because everyone else acts like they they don't either.
Speaker: So in the social world, most people act confident when they're not. so And I always say, why would someone with level 10 confidence have level two goals? Yeah. And the and right. Exactly. It's not real. it's It's you either inflate and pretend or you deflate and pretend. So I overrode my need for belonging to answer you when I said I didn't have self-doubt.
Speaker: Because in the in the social world, that's like, you don't go there, right? You have to pretend, yeah, no, I struggle and it's really hard. and No, the truth of the matter is, is like, yeah, of course life is hard, but I don't doubt my abilities that much, especially in the long term.
Speaker: And for anyone who that's triggering for, that means you have a lot of insecurity and a lot of doubt, and that's okay. Most people do. Most people do. So most likely if that's you, you have low self-efficacy.
Speaker: And the reason why is because self-belief is in the subconscious and unconscious. It's not in the conscious mind. So there's three sort of main sections of the brain. There's the prefrontal cortex, which is the conscious you. And then there's the mammalian brain, which is like your emotions and beliefs. And then there's the so the unconscious, which is the crocodile brain, which is your central nervous system, peripheral nervous system, heart rate, you know, all that.
Speaker: Hypothalamus. And the point that I'm making is that self-belief is not conscious. So I know people who think they believe in themselves a lot. They definitely don't.
Speaker: And then I have some people who think they don't believe in themselves and they definitely do. Deep down. So it all depends on the record you have playing. And some self-belief is predicated on self-effectiveness. So if you said, Alan, I need you to become the strongest man on earth, I would say not a chance. That's not in the cards for me.
Speaker: Not a chance. Some of these guys are seven foot two, 400 pounds. Like i'm I'm a skinny, lanky, like I work really hard to get even this physique. So I don't entertain things that are not possible for me.
Speaker: But if you said, Alan, you need to be a successful business owner, I would say, yeah, of course. Absolutely. I got you. So it depends on the area too. And life gets really good and successful and fulfilling when you find what you're passionate about and what you're gifting is. And you merge that with what the world actually desires and values.
Speaker: So a good example of that would be Serena Williams with tennis. Okay. Her upbringing helped her. Her giftedness helped her. And the world valued it enough to be successful.
Speaker: Whereas, you know, there's certain things that aren't as valued as tennis. Okay. And so you have to merge who you are with what the world wants and what you actually are interested and passionate about. And that when you find that, that's that's a sweet spot. So for me, I didn't own this until my thirties, but like coaching is not only what I adore in terms of fulfillment, but But it's also extremely valuable, particularly for business owners.
Speaker: And I'm really good at it, like really good at it. And as a kid, I was always really coachy, which is not a good thing. People didn't like that. People didn't like me. but as So that that's the key. You got to figure out
Speaker: what you are uniquely suited to do in the world. And once you figure that out, you have to build a business around that. And yeah, so hopefully that answers your question. so so So in your experience, interacting with people, the people you coach and the other people you always come into contact with, why do you, in your your your understanding, why do you think so many high achievers, we have a lot of them around, still kind of feel empty despite having achieved, let's say, financial and professional success?
Speaker: ah Because they are not doing something that is deeply meaningful to them. So, for example, there are certain things that came very naturally to me. That's obvious. Awesome. Science, technology, engineering, mathematics, business, and finance.
Speaker: Engineering did come naturally to me. It's the way I think. But I wasn't fulfilled doing it. versus reverse engineering finish lines with one-on-one clients is meaningful.
Speaker: Whereas designing a circuit behind the scenes as an electrical and computer engineer was not meaningful for me. So I achieved a bunch of goals and was unfulfilled. I became a 1% earner in my early 20s when I was broke as a kid. And so I thought that would be fulfilling.
Speaker: and it And it wasn't. And the reason it wasn't is because it's not in alignment with my passion and my purpose. So the simplest formula is you turn your passion into purpose into profit. So if you're passionate about cooking, then you can cook for others, which is purpose.
Speaker: And then you can do it for a profit if you open a restaurant. I don't like cooking. I can't stand it. So it's not going to work. Like i can do it. I can be good at It doesn't mean I should. And so you have to find your passion do it for others for purpose, and then you have to make a profit doing it. And then you reinvest the profit into doing it even better and even more. So it's like master your craft, passion.
Speaker: That mastery is impact through purpose. Purpose is profitable, so people pay you for it. And then that money allows you to double down, triple down, quadruple down on your passion, your purpose. And it snowballs. So it's passion, purpose, profit, passion, purpose, profit, passion, purpose, profit.
Speaker: But if you find yourself achieving goals, that you're not that are not meaningful, most likely one of those three is out of alignment. Most people go for profit at the expense of passion and purpose, or they do their passion and purpose, but they don't make a profit. It's very hard to do all three.
Speaker: Because what the economy pays for is usually not meaningful work. The economy pays for the biggest pains in the butt. sort The economy pays for stuff no one wants to do.
Speaker: And so you got to find what other people is a pain in the butt that you actually love. And that is where the money is. Okay. So still on what you just talked about, you talked about fulfillment, passion, purpose, but it's fulfillment. Can it be equated to happiness?
Speaker: What is the difference between fulfillment and happiness? Fulfillment is a byproduct, whereas happiness is kind of like a... I think happiness is is something people confuse with pleasure. If I get this promotion, then I'll be happy. No, the truth is that you'll get you'll get some brain chemistry, but it's not really sustaining and it's not about who you are or your growth. So...
Speaker: i have this thing called the happiness framework. I think happiness, what we call happiness is actually three things. I think it's joy, which is being in the present moment, enjoying what you're doing. Which doesn't mean it's pleasurable. It could be really hard. I'm enjoying myself right now, but it's challenging.
Speaker: and And by challenging, I mean trying to get my brain on the onto this microphone. ah There's a lot going on up here that I don't know how to articulate. so So joy, happiness is like pleasure. Pleasure is the trap, I think.
Speaker: Pleasure is if I eat this donut, then I'll enjoy it. I'll be pleasure. I'll get pleasure. Which is just the bottomless pit. of vices, alcohol, pornography, drugs, all the quick fix, dopaminergic things that are awful for you long term, but feel really good in the short term.
Speaker: That's pleasure. It's a trap. The whole thing's a trap. That doesn't mean you can't have any pleasure in your life, but pleasure cannot be the goal. If pleasure is the goal, I wouldn't even be here.
Speaker: Right? Most of the most meaningful work in the world is awful. It's not meaningful. It's not pleasurable at all. The meaningful work that gets you to grow and contribute is not pleasurable.
Speaker: It's usually ridiculously hard. I went on a run earlier today. It wasn't pleasurable. I felt really good after. I was fulfilled after. So the third one's fulfillment. and Fulfillment comes from meaning. Progress toward meaningful goals for a meaningful purpose. That's fulfillment. Fulfillment is who you are, who you become, who you serve, and what you stand for.
Speaker: But pleasure is the trap. and And we all, I fell for it for sure. I mean, I, my mom and stepdad had a, what I refer to as a pleasure-centered paradigm. And and they they thought life was about having as much fun as possible. And we had a lot of fun, but a lot of it was reckless and not aligned.
Speaker: And I think if you want to live a meaningful life, you have to delay pleasure for something more. And that means you're going to have to do really hard things. And I think The 21st century has made that a lot harder because there's so many ways to get your needs met, short-term pleasure, so quickly. When I was a little kid, the internet was brand new.
Speaker: you know Now you can shop from your home and get something in three hours delivered, depending on where you're from, right? I know you're in Ghana. But like, it's very scary to see how easy it is to meet your short-term needs now.
Speaker: When that's never going to make you have a meaningful life. And it's certainly not going to challenge you to grow and delay gratification and build yourself into someone of substance and value. I gave a speech once at a high school.
Speaker: We went in for career day and it was about podcasting. And at the end of the speech, it was like an hour and a half speech. A girl in the back, she was like 14. She said, what do you think about what's going on with Kim and Kanye?
Speaker: Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. And I said, I don't think about what's going on with Kim and Kanye. and And you shouldn't either. um And again, she's 14, so it is what it is. But the truth is, she's in trouble if she doesn't shift that.
Speaker: Like your circle of concern needs to be more, ah more constructive than that. That's a destructive circle of concern. If you're more worried about Kim and Kanye than you are your own life and your own grades and your own future and your own goals, you're in so much trouble. You're 14, so you don't know that yet. But when you're 28, 35, 45, you need to get it together. And I didn't have the courage to tell her this. If I could go back, I would have. I would have said, honestly, I don't think about Kim and Kanye.
Speaker: I spend a lot of time making sure I protect my mind from nonsense. And you should too. Okay. so so So it brings me to this thing that just came to mind. Yes, I just said came to mind. And my question is also going to be about mindset. So so so one key point is our mindset.
Speaker: How do we work on our mindset? you You just talked about something. The person's focus is something else, which may not be giving her any utility or any importance.
Speaker: How important is mindset and how do we work on it? I mean...
Speaker: What is mindset, right? So is it, it's your attitude? It's your beliefs? It's your philosophy about life? I'll give you an example. So some people think life is supposed to be easy and every time it's not, something's wrong.
Speaker: I think that's a terrible mindset. I think life is supposed to be challenging And despite that, we can make it meaningful when we grow through those challenges. See, one of them is much more empowering long term. The other one is like, poor me, poor me, poor me. Why me, why me, why me? And honestly, some people are victims. I totally understand. I had a very challenging childhood. Not the most challenging in the world, but more challenging than anyone I knew in my you know life. And and so The attitude that things are supposed to go well and when they don't, something's wrong with you or something's wrong with the world or something's wrong with the government. I think that's a terrible mindset. I think you're in trouble with that mindset. I think you're going to be mediocre with that mindset.
Speaker: I think a more empowering alternative... is the mindset of life is supposed to be difficult. And when it's difficult, it's an opportunity to improve and get smarter and stronger. That's a much more empowering mindset. So it's your attitude, your philosophy, and your belief in yourself. And also your belief about the world, your worldview.
Speaker: And so how do you work on your mindset? I've started running a mile a day every day for 69 days. I have all my numbers written over here. 69 days. i But it's called miles for mindset.
Speaker: I'm not just running for my body. I'm running for my mind. We have a team member named Brandon and he did this for like 1200 days straight. And he inspired me and I started doing it because we did a 10 pound and 10 week challenge. We do it every year and I was behind.
Speaker: So i was like, I got to run a mile a day now in addition to my workouts. And so I started doing miles for mindset. And and basically you run a mile a day. Sometimes it's fast. Sometimes it's average. Sometimes it's slow, but you run, meaning you're you're not walking. It's an actual jog or run. And the the only requirement is that you have to be listening to something inspirational, motivational, or educational.
Speaker: And so this morning I was listening to some Kobe Bryant mindset stuff. And that's how I keep my mindset strong is when I'm on a run, I'm by myself. I was in the woods in this one.
Speaker: And I'm just grounding my thought process in... what I think is who I really am. And in so what does that mean?
Speaker: I'm extremely goal-oriented. My main focus in life is reaching my full potential. My my one word is potential. Like I believe and potential define, I define it myself is a deep belief in what human beings are capable of.
Speaker: and And my whole world is built around that. I mean, that's why I coach. I believe in people. I don't believe in everyone. I learned that the hard way, but I believe in people in general. And there's certain people I won't coach. But ultimately, that's how I get my mindset strong is I have a daily habit of running a mile a day while listening to something inspirational, motivational, educational.
Speaker: And I pivot. I have all these different videos that I go to and they're all around seven to 10 minutes. But that's how I keep my mindset strong. and And honestly, if you don't keep your mindset strong, you will just stray.
Speaker: I mean, one of the things that's really hard when I had a thriving social life, you lose yourself. It's very easy to lose yourself because everybody's got opinions and people are talking about all this stuff that is very trivial.
Speaker: And it's very hard to stay aligned with your potential because the truth is most people don't care, right? Most people just want to have fun or whatever.
Speaker: You're at a barbecue and most people's focus is not on reaching their full potential. So if if you want to captain and guide your own life, you're going to have to protect your mind. Because people say, you know, mind, body, heart, and soul, and I'm all with it.
Speaker: The brain, you got to protect the brain. The brain is who you really are. You can lop off my arm. I'm still Alan. You can't take away my brain. And the brain gets better. Functional, structural, and chemical changes. Neuroplasticity.
Speaker: The brain gets better, not worse. If you use it. So imagine a supercomputer that gets better the more you use it. That's your brain. You got a brain and body has to be first. If you have a sound brain and body, and you protect it, and you invest in them, oh, you'll be a powerful human being. I mean, it's it's amazing what you can do.
Speaker: Okay. Now let's talk about the other things you do. Podcast, coaching. Let's talk about that. So Next Level University, is that your podcasting or your coaching? The the podcast is Next Level University. We say pun intended, Next Level U.
Speaker: okay Success and personal development in your pocket every single day from anywhere on the planet, completely free. We do an episode every day. Anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes every single day.
Speaker: And it's 0.1% improvement per day leads to 9% per quarter, which is 41% year over year, which means you double your income every two years. Not just your income, but you double your capabilities. The math works out that way. So 0.1% improvement every day. It compounds. It's wild.
Speaker: And that's what the whole show is built on. The coaching is kind of built on the same thing, but more deeply customized to you. So I have this sort of business model and anyone can use it who's listening. This is not unique to me. This is like, if you want to build a business around your passion, this is how you do it. You have one to scale, one to several, and one to one.
Speaker: So for me, one to scale is the podcast. An episode can get 20 listens or it can get 2,000 or 200,000. Okay? That's one to scale.
Speaker: That's what we're doing right now. This is one to scale. One to several is book club. Book club, and the next level book club, I've been doing it for six years now. It's invite only. And on Saturday at one, I'm inviting people.
Speaker: And it's going to be me and anywhere from five to 25 people. That's one to several where I'm facilitating a growth experience. We're reading a book called Peak by Anders Ericsson and Robert Poole.
Speaker: And it's about peak performance. It's a great book. And that's one to several. and And one to scale is the podcast, Next Level University, Next Level U, pun intended. And I invite people who listen to the podcast to book club.
Speaker: And then I invite people from book club to coach with me if they want. And so one to scale is free. One to several is free. We also have a one to several group coaching program that's paid.
Speaker: And then we also, ah I do one-on-one coaching. And my one-on-one coaching is not free. That is paid. Okay. and And so that little business model though, one to scale, one to several, one to one is excellent because the one to one is the micro, the one to scale is the macro.
Speaker: The micro is the individual. The macro is the globe. So there's 8.3 billion people on earth, 195 countries, 6 billion on the internet now because of Starlink.
Speaker: And that's increasing every year. ah and And you can reach a lot of them. And that's one to scale. Okay, one to several is you can get on Zoom in person or hybrid, or you can do fully virtual. I do fully virtual. And then one-on-one coaching or therapy or coaching.
Speaker: Whatever it is that you do. Okay. And so the one to scale brings people to the one to several, the one to several brings people to the one to one. The one to one is where you make money and invest in branding and marketing and you invest back in the snowball.
Speaker: So it's one to scale, one to several, one to one, and then you reinvest, reinvest, reinvest, and it snowballs. And let's say you make a hundred bucks, invest 80 of it back in the company to make 200. And then you you know invest 80% of it back in the company to make 400 and then 800 and then 1600 and then 3200 and then 6400. And it keeps going and it gets big fast, right? If you can scale and be consistent and be reliable, but if I could go back to me 11 years ago,
Speaker: Playfully, I'd punch myself right in the face. I'm kidding. But I would say stop trying to do everything well. Stop. You're trying to be everything for everyone. Stop. Do those three things and do them extraordinarily well every day.
Speaker: Every week, every month, every quarter, every year. And let them scale. Don't try to have 24 departments. Now we have 13. I had 24 departments and a 24 person team at one point. We went from, I sat down with my business partner, Kevin, and I said, dude, we're going to go out of business. And he said, why? I said, because we're overextended.
Speaker: Too many departments. We're trying to do too many things. We had an app. We had all kinds of stuff. And I said, okay, what are the departments we would go out of business without? And we only came up with eight.
Speaker: So we sliced all the departments. We went from 24 team members to 16. Now we're back to 24. This was years ago. And we you just have to constantly trim the rosebush. So that business model works really well.
Speaker: um And the one-on-one coaching is very deep and custom to the individual. The one-to-scale podcast is helpful for everyone, but it's much wider net and it's less customized.
Speaker: and Okay. So Alan, you've been on this journey for 11 years. And like any journey, we pick a lot of lessons. We pick a lot of lessons, never smooth sailing.
Speaker: Can you we spend some time with you sharing the key lessons you've picked up so far on this journey? Yeah, number one is people do not believe in themselves by default.
Speaker: Self-belief, self-efficacy, you can look this up, is built from the within, and it's mostly subconscious and unconscious. If you've ever seen the Pixar movies Inside Out, that's a really good reference for what it is to build identity and self-concept and self-belief and self-efficacy and self-worth. And there's a whole nother rabbit hole to go down, internal family systems, cognitive behavioral therapy, all these different modalities. But ultimately, people do not believe in themselves nearly as much as they think they do.
Speaker: And actions are the only way to, I always say, aim too high, you'll get humble pie. Aim too low, you won't grow. You got to find a sweet spot for you. You don't challenge a seven-year-old the same way you challenge a 17-year-old the same way you challenge a 27-year-old. I have some clients I have to be way harder on.
Speaker: And I have other clients that are very soft that I have to be a little more gentle with. But we all need the challenge skills sweet spot. The problem is we're all off because our self-awareness is low because we're all biased, right?
Speaker: You are not not more successful because you don't believe enough in what you already believe. You are not successful because you have huge blind spots and errors in your thinking. Same. My goal is to think as accurately as possible of myself, others in the world. So that's number one.
Speaker: Number two, the lesson is habit tracking. It's the reason most people don't have goals. Only 4% of people have clear written goals. Only 8% of them ever achieve them. Latest research.
Speaker: The point I'm making is that's alarming. Why? Because people don't believe in themselves. Back to the first lesson. But you can't build self-belief if you don't have a goal. Aim. If you have level one self-belief, aim at a level two goal.
Speaker: Hit it and then self-assign it. And then aim at a level three goal. Hit it. Self-assign it. Then four. Hit it. Self-assign it. That's how you build yourself up from the inside out. So if you can't run, walk.
Speaker: If you can't walk, crawl. That kind of thing. Start small and build. Start small and build. Start small and build. And habit tracking will help you do that. All my clients, all my team members track metrics, habits. We do dreams, goals, metrics, habits, skills, and identity work. And all of them have to be in alignment. Otherwise, you're going to be a mess all right. And then the third thing would be self-worth, which is once you are amazing, a lot of people treat you poorly.
Speaker: This has been really weird. This sucks. 11 years ago, when I first got into improving myself and like really working on myself and trying to be better, it was alarming how poorly people treated me when I was trying to be a better person.
Speaker: It's almost like people liked me more when I was worse. And that can really mess with you. And I now realize rocks go up, compliments go down. And unfortunately, if you do start to surpass your peers, a lot of times they get threatened and they'll attack you.
Speaker: They'll throw rocks, they'll little digs, subtle digs, and you'll get bullied. and people You will lose your friends. like You can't achieve your dreams and keep all your friends. Unless you have really wonderful friends, which I didn't.
Speaker: so So that's the last piece would be self-worth, self-respect. like If you're used to people treating you poorly, you might not even notice when you're being disrespected. And that was something I had to learn later on, because once you do achieve a lot of your goals and dreams and overcome the naysayers and put in the extra hours and work really hard and build yourself up, you actually get treated worse by certain people and an ah to an alarming extent, actually.
Speaker: And you're like, well, I'm a better person. why Why? Like, I'm trying to help kids. Like, why why would people hate me? it's It's just messes with you. So you have to you have to overcome that and be willing to be unseen, unappreciated, misunderstood, and undervalued. And that, to me, is the hardest part. I mean, that's the hardest part. I think the self-belief comes easy, the goals and dreams and metrics and all that stuff comes easy. The social world is atrocious and people just treat you horribly, even when you're trying to change the world in a positive way. Like, you know, the people talk about the haters. It it really is bad. And if in the world of the insecure, the the the the one who believes in themselves is a threat, right? So you just threaten people and you don't mean to, but it's it's really hard to overcome like
Speaker: the feeling like you're alone and the feeling like there's something wrong with you. When in reality, it's like, people would be like, what, you're going to just grow every day? Like you will work on yourself every day. it's like, why are you attacking me?
Speaker: for working out consistently. Like, why don't you work out? You know people yeah are like, you work every day? Like, what's wrong with you? It's like, why don't you work ever, right? So it it can really mess with your mind when you're outnumbered. And the truth of the matter is, the more extraordinary you become, the more outnumbered you will be, statistically speaking. Yeah, Alan, we're just about wrapping up.
Speaker: But when people think about Alan years from now, right? What kind of impact or legacy would you hope to leave behind? I hope, my only hope is that persons, places, things, and ideas u leave, number one, I leave the world better than I found it.
Speaker: And I do believe... That if we all believed in ourselves and we all had meaningful goals that were good for ourselves, others in the world, I think the whole world would be a better place.
Speaker: So that's really my hope is to empower heart driven, wonderful human beings to to aim higher. towards something greater that's a win-win-win. Win for the world, win for them, win for others. And if we can all do that, the world gets a lot better. And unfortunately, there's a lot of bullies and disrespectful, arrogant, entitled, horrible people out there that like, don't be naive. There are horrible people. But that doesn't mean we can't fight back by being all we can be.
Speaker: So so we we're just a about wrapping up. But what advice would you give to someone listening to us now who feels successful on paper? but deeply unfulfilled inside.
Speaker: Yeah, you're you're you need to pick a new mountain that is meaningful not only to get to the top of, but the process is meaningful too. Not easy. Not easy.
Speaker: Meaningful. Don't climb... I always say climb meaningful mountains toward meaningful goals for a meaningful purpose, meaning not just for yourself. Working really hard toward goals that aren't fulfilling is is a waste of your true potential. I really appreciate it. This was an awesome conversation. Thank you to everyone who did listen. The 21st century is very noisy. I don't take that lightly. Thank you. And um yeah, thank you. Appreciate it.
Speaker: All right. So this has been another exciting episode of the Entrepreneurs Geeks Podcast. I'll come your way next time with another episode. interesting episode. I remain your host, Kofi Animedu.
Speaker: As always, do take good care of yourself and let's continue to keep hope alive. Cheers. please be sure to subscribe to the entrepreneur speaks podcast on all your favorite podcast channels and if you have any questions or feedback feel free to reach out to us on social media or in the comments section below
Speaker: From a dream, a microphone and a voice to share A journey of purpose started with a prayer Stories of courage, of vision, of grace Entrepreneurs changing lives in every place From every continent, every walk of life
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