From High-Flying to High-Fulfillment: Kevin Palmieri's Podcasting Odyssey

Speaker 1: 0:11

Hey everyone, welcome back to the Emotional man Weekly Podcast. I am really excited to have Kevin Pomeri on the show today. He is the founder, host and CFO of the Next Level University Podcast, which is both a podcast and a company. He also has a lot of coaching For any of you out there who want to start podcasts or improve your podcasts. He is the man. He's also happily married and a two-time cat dad, their name's being Fudge and Ace. I think he even has a picture of them that he can pull up and show us there they are there they are Welcome to the show.

Speaker 2: 0:47

Kevin Joseph, thank you so very much for having me. I appreciate it. I'm excited. I love the energy, I love the mission. I'm ready to jam with you, my friend, all right, thank you Talk to me about Next Level University.

Speaker 1: 0:59

I know from when we first started talking this wasn't being a podcast coach or a podcast company. It wasn't initially what you had set out to do. Talk to me about how this developed and why you got into it in the first place.

Speaker 2: 1:15

Yeah, I had no idea for most of my life what I wanted to do. I happened upon podcasting, speaking, coaching, being an entrepreneur that was never the plan for me. I never had plans to do any of that when I was younger. I was in high school and I knew I didn't want to go to college. I had no idea what I wanted to do, but I knew I don't think going to college and spending thousands of dollars a year to try to figure out what I wanted to do is it for me.

Speaker 2: 1:43

I started working a bunch of different odd jobs. I was gas station attendant, personal trainer, truck driver, forklift operator. I went to the fire academy. I did many different things. I tried to figure it out. I wanted to be a professional fighter.

Speaker 2: 1:56

At one point there was a lot of things going on. If you fast forward to seeing me in my mid-20s, I had landed a job in an industry called weatherization. We would go into large state or government-owned buildings and it was our job to make them more energy efficient. I was making anywhere from $60 to $120 an hour because we were working for the state, so I was getting paid by the state. Awesome, no college degree I'm in. I'm going to accept that.

Speaker 2: 2:23

If you were to look at me when I was 25, you would see a man who was in the best shape of his life. I just won a bodybuilding show. My girlfriend was a model. I had a sports car. I had a high-paying job, new apartment. I had all the measures of success, but I was very insecure. Internally, I was not well. My mental health was struggling. I was just uncertain. It's probably the best way to put it. I was a shadow of a man.

Speaker 2: 2:50

At that point, my partner ended up leaving me because I was holding her back subconsciously from chasing her dreams. When she left, that began the spiral of just finding out that rock bottom is not as low as you can go. Rock bottom also has a basement. I dealt with suicidal ideations and I ended up starting a podcast and then leaving my job to go all in on podcasting, fell in love with it. I just fell in love with helping people. I fell in love with having deep, vulnerable conversations that a lot of other people weren't willing to have, because I truly believed it would help. I really did. I did this for the impact more than anything. That was in 2018. In 2018, I left my job and I began being a full-time podcaster trying to figure out how to make money, how to turn this into a business. That really is. That was it. I was hooked. I love helping, I love serving. From there, it was okay how do we turn this into a business and actually make this sustainable and create revenue and all that stuff?

Speaker 1: 3:52

There's several things I want to unpack here. First off, you talk about you had all these measures of success. You have this great physical body, you have this girlfriend, you have this good-paying job. Why do you think you're? You called yourself a shadow of a man when that you were subconsciously holding your girlfriend back from her goals. Unpack why you decided. Why was it you felt that way?

Speaker 2: 4:21

Two things. I had put so much emphasis on external results, fix internal voids. I had spent so much time saying if I get jacked, everything else will probably just work itself out. That's not the case. Okay, if I have a beautiful partner, everything else is going to be fine. No, make a lot of money, have a nice car. What I always liken it to is there is a door in front of you and you try all these different keys. Eventually you get to the end where you say this definitely has to be the key. It didn't end up being the key. That, for me, was having all of those things together.

Speaker 2: 5:01

The reason I say I was a shadow of a man is because externally it looked like I was so put together, I had it all figured out and I was confident and I was capable and I was an achiever and I was ambitious, when in reality, I was afraid of my own shadow. Genuinely. I was not brave. I was not the external facade that I was putting on. My partner at the time was very much the opposite. Yes, she was beautiful, in very good shape and all that, but she was very confident, very self-assured and very ambitious.

Speaker 2: 5:34

One day she came to me and said I want to move from the East Coast. I want to go live in California. I had just landed this job a few years prior. I felt like I was making headway in my career and I gave her every excuse in the world why she should go. Most likely, gas prices are expensive. You probably won't find a job. What if you fail? What if I get left behind? Was really the underlining current of this whole thing, and she ended up leaving. That's when she left, which she should have At the time. I don't think I was that level headed to admit that, but yeah, I was so afraid of being left behind that I figured if I can just get her to stay, we'll stay together, even if she doesn't get the opportunity to chase the dreams that she so clearly desires.

Speaker 1: 6:22

She leaves. And then talk to me. What were you thinking about yourself? What were you thinking about the situation? You said this was the catalyst for the search for you. Why did you leave the job? How is it that you thought her leaving necessitate these other changes for you?

Speaker 2: 6:44

When she left, we had just moved in with each other six months prior. So when she left, my bills doubled. Work got very slow. If this all happened in the span of a month and my mental so full disclosure, the bodybuilding show took pieces of me. I will never get back.

Speaker 2: 7:06

I was so lean. I was starving myself to win the show. I, my hormones were all messed up. It was very unhealthy what I did.

Speaker 2: 7:14

So my mental health I was not in a good place. I was very scarce. I didn't leave the house very often. I yeah, I uncertainty. I couldn't do it. I needed to be at home on my couch as much as humanly possible. All of that happens.

Speaker 2: 7:29

And I remember I had another one of those moments where I said I just need money. I need to make as much money as possible, because money is the only way I'm going to climb out of this hole. So I said I'm going to grind my face off for the next year and I'm going to make as much money as humanly possible. I'm going to make all these problems go away. So I ended up getting a promotion at my job the beginning of that next year. Awesome, that's in alignment. But we picked up a lot of contracts that were out of state. So I lived in New Hampshire. I spent 10 months living on the road because all of our contracts were in New Jersey, and up and down the East coast of the United States. It was all in alignment, though, because I was making boatloads of money. Every week I'm cashing checks. Sometimes I didn't even have time to cash them, it didn't matter because I had so much money in the bank. So it was all good. So we got to the end of that year and I had my final pay stub in hand and I wanted to make $100,000. And I made $100,000 at 26, with no college degree.

Speaker 2: 8:28

But I had one of those moments where, again, it was that familiar feeling of all of this external success did not fix anything internally, and it was so hard to get that awareness. That's when I had a moment of. For most of my life, especially this year, I've lived unconsciously. I don't know why I'm doing what I'm doing. I have no idea why I desire the results I desire. The opposite of unconscious is hyperconscious. That's when I started a podcast called the Hyperconscious Podcast. That's where all started for me.

Speaker 2: 8:57

Almost overnight, I started to low with my job because I realized the result of me traveling and grinding my face off did not produce the internal result that I desired. So I fell in love with the podcast, as I'm falling out of love with my job. I start calling out, I start leaving the job sites early, showing up late. It just kept getting worse and worse and it's very hard to go to a job you don't like. It was even harder for me to pack a bag, drive six hours to another state and then live in a hotel for the week, just loathing my existence. But it got to the point, joseph, where I was in a hotel room in New Jersey, my alarm clock went off at 5.15 in the morning. I sat up, slid to the edge of the bed, I was lacing up my work boots, and the best way to explain it is that way. That day there was 10 televisions on in my head at the same time and every single one is on a different station, and one is saying you're stuck here forever.

Speaker 2: 9:50

People like you do not get jobs like this, nevermind leave them behind. If you do ever work up the courage to leave, what are your friends going to think? You make more money than any of your friends, right? There's a lot of significance there. What's your family going to think? I make more money than anybody in my family ever has, and what are we going to do with our job? We don't have a plan B. I never had a plan A, nevermind a plan B, and in that moment I thought to myself if I take my life, I'll take my problems with me. That was really the rock bottom basement. There's nowhere lower to go from here.

Speaker 2: 10:25

I'm very blessed because I have a great business partner who is just a friend at the time, and I reached out to him and explained what was going on and he said Kev, over the last few years, your awareness hyper conscious your awareness has changed a ton, but your environments have remained the same. I think it's time for you to change your environment. So, with that little bit of belief that he injected and also the permission to make a different decision three or four months later, that's when I ended up leaving my job. And then him and I partnered up and said okay, we're going to do this together. Self-improvement saved my life and if I had more of it when I was younger, I don't know if I ever would have gotten to the position I was in. He has a very similar background and that's when it was okay. We're going to be a self-improvement company and we're going to hopefully help people avoid some of the pains and pitfalls that we've experienced.

Speaker 1: 11:16

And during this time when you're out on the road, were you with your girlfriend? Were you still in relationship with your girlfriend?

Speaker 2: 11:21

Previously. Yeah, no, not for those 10 months where I grounded my face up. No, I was single as a person. Okay.

Speaker 1: 11:29

I'm going to unpack this transition for you. So you're in your hotel room. You had this voice inside of you saying it seems like you're not enough, I'm not enough. You're trying to find all the external reasons why you're enough and it's just not there. So you think, maybe if I take my life, then all these nagging doubts, this pain, this much pain will stop and you call your friend. He invites you to change your environment. Then you say self-improvement saved your life. So what happened in that window that went from looking externally for value versus finding value in yourself?

Speaker 2: 12:14

Yeah, I really started to understand that for most of my life I was just doing things because I thought they would create some sort of result, some sort of success, whatever it may be. The podcast was the first time I ever felt like I was doing something that really mattered. It was actually important. It wasn't about me. It wasn't about me being on camera or on mic. I didn't even want to be a speaker. I didn't really like the way I looked that much, believe it or not at the time. So it was the first time where I ever felt like I was doing something that truly mattered and was truly important, and that was a very new feeling for me. I had never really felt like I was valuable.

Speaker 2: 12:57

I grew up without a dad. I didn't know my dad. I didn't meet my dad until I was 27. That's where a lot of the not enoughness comes from. I Internalized that, as I wasn't good enough, so my dad left. Even though I was a baby, I didn't really. I was peeing and pooping myself like most babies do. That was out of control. I couldn't do anything about that. So the best answer I can give you is I started tracking habits and I started to get a little bit better every single day. I was so unintentional before I was just I would wake up and I didn't know why I was doing what I was doing. I didn't know what I was gonna do, I just did what I felt like. After I left, I started doing things that were good for me. So At this point, I've done at least 30 minutes of learning every single day for the last five years. I haven't missed a day. That's. It's such a pillar of who I've become, because you are what you consume and you become your habits. So that's the best answer I can give is I started doing things that would actually improve my life, not just make me feel good, not escape the pain, not escape the discomfort, not escape the fear Horing into myself, so I could actually get better and be more come, become more competent.

Speaker 2: 14:11

There was a time, joseph, where and this was very shortly after I left my job I had moved in with one of my best friends. He's he's a dream chaser, he's an entrepreneur. So we moved in together was awesome. And one day he was gone and I was walking around the kitchen and I was the brokest I had ever been. I Was the most single I had ever been. Nobody cared that we were podcasting. There was more people making fun of us than supporting us at that time. But I remember I had a moment where I was actually proud of myself and that's when it locked in of okay, yep, this is why we're doing this. I'm proud of the man I'm becoming, I'm proud of the work I've done to myself and I'm proud on the impact that we're having in the world. I'll be at a very small amount, but we are Trying to do something that I think is very. I Just think it's valuable and I think it's something that I I needed when I was younger and I just really want to be the person that I needed, and that's what it all locked in for me.

Speaker 2: 15:09

And then, from there was mostly just suffer through being a broke entrepreneur for the next three years. So when did you meet your wife? I met my wife in two. So here's this is an interesting thing I Actually met my wife a year or two after that breakup, but that stage in my life I was a bodybuilder again, I was doing another fitness show and I was Not very emotionally mature it's probably the best way to put it and I wasn't ready for someone like her.

Speaker 2: 15:46

She is very mature and she's very inclusive and very intelligent. It's just a very character driven human and I just was. I was intimidated, I was not ready for that. So we dated for a few months and then I ended up saying and I was very honest I said honestly I don't know what I want. I'm not sure if I want a relationship right now. I'm trying to figure myself out, I'm trying to figure my life out. I'm traveling all over the place. I don't know. I don't know what to do. So we ended up not being together and then in 2019, I Was very single.

Speaker 2: 16:21

I was not having any success because I didn't feel like anybody understood me. I'm a full-time entrepreneur who's trying to change the world. It's not a very sexy. I'm broke. I live with my best friend. I'm 30,000 dollars in credit card debt and I was having a conversation with two of my friends and I said I don't know, I don't, maybe there's gonna be a bachelor. I don't know, I don't know if this is ever gonna happen for me. I don't feel like anybody understands me. And I said but I know who would Taryn would. I know she would. She always did. She understood me before I understood myself. She knew me before I was this and they said you should really reach out. So I reached back out to her in 2019 and she thought we were meeting his friends. We weren't. I was. I reached out because I was gonna marry her. That was the plan and Ended up getting married last August, so a year and a month ago.

Speaker 1: 17:08

Oh, congratulations I appreciate it, I appreciate. So Talk to me three years as an entrepreneur trying to figure the podcasting world out what ended up being the successful business model for you in?

Speaker 2: 17:24

The very beginning. So in the very beginning we didn't focus on money at all. Right, so the first year two years when I say we worked on our character we just started working on our characters because we realized our audience is primarily female and I was very much a bodybuilding bro who thought he was gonna be Joe Rogan. So I was unconditioning a lot of ego and, just, yeah, negativity. I didn't know. I didn't really know who I was yet. So the first couple of years it was just all right. We're gonna have hard conversations behind the scenes about what we need to get rid of if we're really gonna be the type of men we desire to be. Then I went to Alan one day and said hey, man, I need to start making some money. I'm very broke. I've been fronting a lot of the business on credit cards. I don't know what to do. And he said you should really start coaching for free. And I said I don't know if you misheard me but I need to make some money.

Speaker 2: 18:13

The money is not in free. And he said, kev, you've never coached and you need to prove to yourself that you're capable of doing it. If you get free clients, it'll give you that proof. I was like, all right, fair enough. So I reached out to five people who I knew listened to the podcast and I said, hey, I'm doing some beta testing for coaching. I'll coach you for free for two months. Is that something you'd be interested in? And all the five people said yes and I was like, oh, that's cool, interesting. So then I coached all those people for two months and at the end I said I can't do this for free. What do you think of 50 bucks a week? And everybody said yes and I was like, okay, interesting, maybe I'm good at this, I don't know.

Speaker 2: 18:50

That was the very beginning where we understood okay, we talk about self-improvement on the podcast. There's going to be a subset of humans who want more value and are willing to exchange funds. That was a big thing in the beginning. And then, just out of nowhere, I was getting a massage for some reason. I shouldn't have been, because I was so broke, but probably better use of my funds.

Speaker 2: 19:11

But I walked out of the massage and one of our mentors messaged me and he said hey, I have someone who wants to start a podcast. You should produce it for him. And I was like I don't know what you're talking about. I don't even know what you mean, and we were probably 300 episodes in at this point. You can tell there's a lot of imposter syndrome self-doubt that I deal with. And he said no, he wants you to do everything audio editing, video editing all this stuff that you do for you. He wants you to do it for him. And I was like, okay, we'll see what happens. I ended up meeting this gentleman at his office. He was the CEO of a financial firm Talk about in over your head and he asked what do you guys do and how much does it cost and all this stuff? And first meeting didn't really go anywhere. He was interested but I didn't know what the hell I was doing.

Speaker 1: 19:55

Yeah, I'm not a sales guy. I don't know what I'm doing.

Speaker 2: 19:57

No, and I like dressed up with the best nice clothes I had from when I was in high school, probably. I didn't know, I wasn't ready for this. So you reach us back out. I go and see him again. I go and see him at his office again A better conversation. And I go again one more time and the third time he invites me up into his office and he said, all right, how much is it for what I want? And I was like, it's $2,500 a month and he's cash check, venmo, what do you want? And I was like, whatever man, I'm ready to write a post that know, for all I care. And we shook hands and then I got in the elevator and I texted my now wife and I said, babe, we did it. And that was the first. That was one of, really one of the first times. It was like, oh, this could really be something.

Speaker 2: 20:43

This could really turn into something where we can serve our community at a deep level. But we can also build multiple businesses about what we've had to do to get to where we are. That was when it really connected, because I had never yeah, when I was working my job, I had made that kind of money, but I never thought it was going to happen. With podcasting, yeah, that was the first podcast production client we ever got. That actually made me realize this could be a separate piece of the business and what point did you feel confident enough to marry your wife?

Speaker 2: 21:17

Most of the lack of confidence was financial. I didn't when I say I was so broke my car broke down and I couldn't afford to get it fixed and I would literally be driving to the podcast studio that I couldn't afford, that we purchased, rented. And when I say my car used to stall at red lights or stop signs, it would just shut off and sometimes it wouldn't start back up. My brakes were shot. I was driving to a car, driving to the studio in a car that I couldn't even get an inspection or registration done on because it wasn't going to pass. It was broken. I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to provide for her more than anything. And that still drives me. That's one of the reasons I work as hard as I do. I work very hard, but I want to take care of her and she's never asked for that. She doesn't desire that, but I desire that for her. That's important for me to give her that financial security.

Speaker 2: 22:09

It was that. It was when we started making a little bit more money, when I knew, okay, we can actually afford to do this and it's not going to be her paying for everything and me feeling terrible about it and feeling insecure. That's really when it landed. It never was about lack of skills as a partner. Never was that for me, because I have a firm belief that there's nobody on the planet who can treat her like I can I do. I have to have that belief. I work so hard on this right. But it more was the circumstantialness of we can't go anywhere to get married. I can't afford a $10,000 wedding. It was really that for me More financial and circumstantial than anything.

Speaker 1: 22:52

You mentioned something and I feel like a lot of entrepreneurs gosh, I bet every single one of them have felt. And that is the moment when you think about the car breaking down or you're driving down the street and you see a house and you just have this almost rushing briefe, the thought, like I don't have money for that, I don't. But you're thinking about your kid or your spouse, you want to provide for them and you're like I don't have the money for that and it's just. It can almost be crippling. Definitely no. Describe for you. That's it. That is an emotional weight. Describe for me what was your experience with, if you ever had those thoughts, what were the feelings that were associated with them and how did you move forward? How is it that you were able to bear the emotional burden of being broke, of not having money to move forward, to go into debt, to bear that risk? Talk to me, whoa. How did you manage that emotional weight and what got you through it In?

Speaker 2: 24:07

the very beginning. It started pretty quick. That was the unfortunate slash. Fortunate side of things is I got a pretty serious dose of reality pretty quickly. I didn't understand what being an entrepreneur was. I just didn't get it In the very beginning. I remember having the moments where I would think to myself I just have to find a way to get to the end of the week. I just need to make enough money to get to the end of the week. And then, okay, if I can do that three times after this week, I'll make enough money to get to the end of the month. All right, cool, let me do that. Let me do that, let me do that. That was the very beginning.

Speaker 2: 24:41

I've said this to my business partner before because I don't really think he understood. He's a natural entrepreneur. He doesn't care about money. He'd live under a bridge, he doesn't care. He doesn't care and he's not certainty driven at all. He's a visionary genius who doesn't care about the now. To a detriment, I'm very blessed, I'm very blessed, but I told him one time I said Alan, I don't think you understand.

Speaker 2: 25:05

The first two years took pieces of me. I will never get back. I was having panic attacks regularly. I had never had anxiety before. I thought I was going to die multiple times.

Speaker 2: 25:16

The amount of pure suffering that I endured over the first two, three years it was martyred. The level of sacrifice and struggle and pain and insecurity and imposter syndrome, it was brutal. I didn't have anything else. I traded everything else for this. I lost friends for this. I got laughed at for this. I didn't necessarily believe I was capable of doing what it was going to take.

Speaker 2: 25:45

But the belief I always had, joseph, was if I can make it, it will be worth it. I always believed that. I never, ever doubted that once. I never doubted that. I did doubt if I could do it physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, for sure, but I never had a doubt that it would be worth it. That's what got me through. That's one of the things. The other thing is I have an amazing business partner. I do he's the best. I cry talking about him all the time. He's the best. That was big, having somebody that believed in me more than I believed in myself. Instrumental, couldn't have done it without him, wouldn't want to try, wouldn't be here today the way I am Absolutely not.

Speaker 2: 26:20

Then the third thing is and this is a heavy way too. I don't want to let the community down. This isn't about. It's not about me. It's about being a positive, balanced, masculine energy for the infinite amount of humans out there that need it. That's what it's about for me. I'm willing to suffer because I know it'll be worth it.

Speaker 2: 26:46

I know getting those messages. You're a podcaster. When you get those messages, somebody did hear that, wow. Or sharing that I had an addiction to porn. Somebody reached out oh, wow, okay, that that it's always been about that.

Speaker 2: 26:59

I never planned on making this a business. I never planned on being a million-dollar company. That was never why I started this. It's awesome, it's cool, doing all that stuff's really cool, but for me, it was always about the purpose of being the type of person I needed when I was at my lowest point. That is how I try to operate. This is my legacy.

Speaker 2: 27:19

Quote unquote is not what happens after I die. It's what happens when I leave the conversation, when I leave the text message. That's really all you have. If you're watching or listening to this, you most likely have never heard of me and you may never hear from me again. This is all I get. I get one shot. One shot to be me and hopefully impact in some way. That's really what got me through is number one you can't quit because I have never quit. Tattooed in my arm that's a built-in mechanism to not quit. That's part of it. Number two great business partner Never would have let me quit, ever. I'm glad we didn't. Number three I did believe more than anything that it would be worth it. If I just kept going, I would regret it horribly. If I went back to something else, I would regret it horribly. I could never imagine my life without this.

Speaker 1: 28:13

What's been the challenges? As you've been married for a year now, you're running a million dollar company. What challenges are you experiencing now, when you're doing this in relationship with a spouse?

Speaker 2: 28:26

Nothing. What someone else might not understand, I would say, is one there's a level of pressure and responsibility that, unless you're an entrepreneur, you're not really going to get balancing family life with fitness. So I exercise six times a week. We do seven episodes a week. I have another podcast where I do an episode a week and I'm on 10 other shows a week, and that's just that. That's not including coaching calls and business meetings. So, yeah, it really is the juggling act of oh, the business is growing a ton, I'm out of shape Damn lost again. Or I'm in really good shape. I haven't had a date night with my wife in two weeks Damn okay, we got to fix that. It is, it is.

Speaker 2: 29:12

I don't believe in balance. I don't think balance exists really. I think life is a never ending juggling act of the priorities that you value and then forget about, and it's just Marinsen repeat that. So that's been a big one Trying to be as hyperproductive as possible but also hyperpresent with my wife those don't usually line up very well, obviously and then having the opportunity to make sure that I'm doing the things that I don't necessarily think of on my own but are very important to her. So we're going to Belgium next week.

Speaker 2: 29:53

Something for me is challenging as a business owner. It scares the hell out of me, honestly, at times, but I know how much that fills her cup, so that's a big thing. For me, too is just making sure that I get my cup filled every day. I get to do this. I'm so grateful, I'm blessed. I also have a relationship that has different cup fillers, making sure that I'm doing my job as a partner and a spouse and the household and all that stuff as well. That's definitely a challenge. And the other thing, too, is my wife doesn't care about money. She doesn't care if I'm the most successful person. That's not what she loves about me, which I appreciate and I'm grateful for. But I do want to have a successful business and change the world and all that. So, yeah, that's part of it.

Speaker 1: 30:35

Yeah. So one of the questions we always like asking near the end of the show is measuring success as a family. For example, in our businesses we have KPIs, okrs ways to really measure whether or not we're winning at the game, and it can be so easy to get distracted, sucked in into winning the game growing the company, seeing the bottom line improve, getting this positive feedback where you're having impact on people. You're getting these text messages, and how is it that you can measure success in your family such that you get the signal when that glass ball is getting close to being dropped? When talking about the juggling act, there's rubber balls, there's glass balls. So what are the signals for you? Knowing that when you need to change course or course correct, or maybe focus a little more on one of those balls, you're juggling.

Speaker 2: 31:36

Yeah, I'm very blessed because there's a lot of feedback loops. So my wife and I we've been messing this up. We haven't been doing this as often as we used to, but we used to do these things every Sunday we do check-ins and it would just be what's one thing I did last week that you really enjoyed. What's one thing last week I did that you didn't enjoy. What's something you need more of for me, what's something you need less of? And then let's go through whether it's the five love languages or your cup pillars, and figure out how well are we doing at meeting each other's needs. You want to talk about proactive feedback. That's the way. That's the way to do it, and I think we've really matured to the level now where we can just say, hey, can I have a vulnerable share? Or I've been feeling some type of way, or do you mind if I share something with you, or I'm struggling with my feelings right now, but I'd like to talk. There's a lot of proactivity where we don't really wait until it gets to the point where stuff is going really wrong. I would say that's probably in the relationship, that's it. And then we're very consistent human beings, just in terms of business. So I track our finances every day and I'm looking at the numbers every day. So I get a lot of feedback on the daily basis of oh okay, we're 10% higher this quarter than we were last. Good, we're 10% lower. Why that I get a lot of that?

Speaker 2: 32:50

Success is a weird thing because it is. It's very personal. I'm coming to realize now more than ever and I used to think this was from ego but when it comes to health, wealth and love, I want to be the top two in any room I'm in. I really do Not because I have to be a billionaire, not because I have to have abs on the beach, but I think that's what success means to me. I don't feel successful when I'm not in shape. I feel ashamed, not because I'm not capable of it, it's because I haven't been put in the work. It's nobody else's fault if I'm not in shape. It's my fault. It's my responsibility. I wear that as a heavy weight.

Speaker 2: 33:32

I have the belief that I can have one of the best relationships on the planet. Why not? I'm willing to work that hard. My wife is too. I'm willing to believe we can have one of the most successful businesses on the planet. Why not. My business partner and I are willing to grind our faces off, and I can definitely be in really good shape not one of the best on the planet, because there's a lot of other people that are way better and way ahead but if you were to think of it, if you're one in 100 when it comes to your business acumen, you're one in 100 when it comes to the quality of your relationship, which is obviously subjective, and you're one in 100 when it comes to fitness, you're a pretty rare human being if you have all three of those. So, yeah, that's really what success means to me. It means really getting to the maximum level in health, wealth and love, because I think that's what, at the end of the day, we're all after anyway.

Speaker 1: 34:18

Thank you, kevin. Thank you for being willing to dive down deep into the vulnerable past and sharing your experiences, sharing your thoughts. Of course, if there's any podcasters that listen to this show, who do you try to serve in terms of because obviously you run a podcast university who is it that you're trying to reach and what's the best way they can learn more about you and get?

Speaker 2: 34:40

more of you. I appreciate it, I appreciate it.

Speaker 2: 34:43

Most of the people that we serve are self-improvement podcasts, so they're usually people who want to have a really big impact but they're not really sure how to do it and they're realizing oh, this podcast thing is not what it's cracked up to be. It's a little bit harder than I expected, so we've learned those lessons the hard way as well. Yeah, so it's usually business owners, entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, who want more impact and they just don't know how to do it. You can just go to nextleveluniversecom It'll have all my information, or you can shoot me an email if you want, kevinatnextlevelversecom Happy to offer anybody listening a free 30-minute call. It's not a sales call. I'll literally share with you what I've learned over 2000 plus episodes. I'd be happy to add value if I can.

Speaker 1: 35:23

Awesome, Great Everyone. This has been Kevin Palmieri, founder, host and CFO of the Next Little University podcast. Thank you so much for sharing about your journey and going through this. All of us go through these kind of vulnerable periods where we feel we lack value and are trying to find that fulfillment, so thank you for sharing your journey with us.

Speaker 2: 35:42

Of course I appreciate you making me feel safe. I love the work you're doing and I'm grateful I was able to do some with you.

Speaker 1: 35:48

Thank you so much, Kevin.

Speaker 2: 35:49

You're welcome.