In this paradoxical episode, Alan Lazaros, Founder and CEO of Next Level University, shares how he uses his technical expertise and challenging life experiences to help leaders reach the next level!
You will discover:
– How you can be unfulfilled even if you’re successful
– How you can become successful even if you’re already fulfilled
– The single reason most people don’t reach their goals
Episode Transcript
Scott Ritzheimer
Hello Hello and welcome. Welcome once again to the secrets of the high demand coach podcast and I’m here with yet another high demand coach. Just an amazing guy that couple of minutes we’ve had a chance to talk. I know you’re in for a great episode who’s with me here today, but the one and only Alan Lazaros. Now, Alan, his mission is to assist others in shaping and fulfilling lives, unlocking their unique potential and constructing businesses that resonate with them on their own terms. He possesses a potent blend of technical proficiency and business savvy specializing in peak performance productivity, organizational design, and individual team and business optimization. He founded next level University leading a team that believes in heart driven approach to holistic self improvement for Dream chasers, he has conducted numerous trainings around the world and has enthusiastically completed 1000s of one on one coaching sessions with his clients. And he’s here with us today. Alan, welcome to the show. So excited to have you here.
Alan Lazaros
Thank you what a high energy intro. I’m going to match the energy Let’s rock and roll.
Scott Ritzheimer
All right, let’s do it. Oh, so heart behind the show: I want to introduce folks to great coaches, one of the things that I found is that great coaches really have a reason for why they do what they do. So if you could rewind the tape for us a little bit, what were you doing before getting into coaching and how did it lead you to where you are today?
Alan Lazaros
All right, so because we have a short form episode, I’ll try to be as brief as I can. But I’ve got a short version of my story, mid version, a long version, I’ll try to give the like short to mid version. So when I was two years old, definitely born into adversity. father passed away when I was two. My mom was the stay at home mom, he was the breadwinner. had an older sister, she was six at the time I was two my father was 28 Mom was 31. So when my father passed away, my mom didn’t really know what she was going to do. She ended up getting with my stepfather. My real last name is actually McCorkle. My birth father’s name is John McCorkle. And it was a big Irish Catholic family. Jim Joe, John Jane, Joe, Jeanette six kids all with J. And so now when my stepfather came into the picture, though, I took his last name Lazaros, we kind of didn’t talk a lot to my birth, Father side of the family, stepfather leaves when I’m 14 years old, he leaves. When he leaves, he takes 90% of the income with him and I go from like, pretty upper middle class doing well I call it boats and BS that that phase of my life we had, you know, a Ducati, we had motorcycles, snowmobiles, ski trips, we had a yacht, that kind of thing. So he got the yacht and the apartment building, we got the house and the dog. That same time my sister moves out that that same time, not only did my stepdad take his entire extended family with him, and not only do I not see my birth father side of the family, but my mom and her sister getting a big fight, we get ostracized from her side of the family too. And my sister moves out. Didn’t know any of this until my 30s brother started doing therapy work and stuff. But I’m I’m 14 years old, I’ve kind of lost three families. Wow. So fortunately, my birth father side really took us back with open arms. And they all looked at me like they were seeing a ghost because I look just like my dad type of thing. Go from like pretty upper middle class, late 90s, early 2000s. Everybody doing really well. So basically, stepdad leaves. I don’t even know how I’m gonna go to college. Again, short version here. I go to college. First, I get straight A’s in high school to get as much scale scholarships and financial aid as I possibly can. So I went from like, well off with my stepdad around to basically free lunch at school shopping at thrift stores. No money broke all through college, bootstrapping my way through computer engineering, I went to a college called Worcester Polytechnic Institute. It’s called WPI. It’s like a mini MIT and the Worcester area, Massachusetts, and stayed for my MBA. I had three two paths in life ever since I was a little kid. And now I realize how weird this is. Even though back then I didn’t know it was weird. So my two paths as here is this is to share. I decided I wanted to be a lawyer, politician president. Or I wanted to be engineer, MBA, CEO of a tech company, like my hero, Steve Jobs. Those are my two paths. And the adversity that I went through, I didn’t realize this again until my 30s. But I had a trauma response that’s very unique. My trauma response was aim higher, work harder, gets smarter. And I was an achiever, and I was improvement oriented, but I wasn’t fulfilled. And again, I know you’ve heard a lot about stuff like that, probably on podcasts and things like that. So I was very much achieving at the expense of fulfillment. So I do well in corporate after my MBA, job hop Aton I robots and SATA technologies tako safety products, simplex Grinnell eventually end up at a company called Cognex. I had an interview at SpaceX for a time I was one of those just you Engineering MBA achievers who just everything seems to win success wise, but inside wasn’t fulfilled at all. Fast forward, I get in my own car accident, again, short version up in New Hampshire. And up on the wrong side of the road dark winter night. What I thought was a Mack truck in front of me, had that moment of this is it. That’s the end. Fortunately, it wasn’t a Mack truck, it was a lifted pickup truck. I’m driving a 2004 Volkswagen pissant that I bought for five grand cash. And it’s a German engineered steel trap of a car, I used to call it the tank, that car saved my life 100% Now at this time, I’m in corporate working for a company called Cognex. I’m an outside sales engineer making almost $200,000 a year. So I went from broke to like 1% global earner within, you know, a three or four year period after college. So I am successful, but I’m, I’m not fulfilled. After the car accident. I’m 26 at the time, I’ve got 150 grand in investment account, tech companies, stocks, all that stuff, a lot of Cognex too. And I have no kids, I have no mortgage, I have no expenses, and I just have tons of money. Again, lots of success, corporate friends, high school friends, college friends. And I’m spread super thin, I’m everything for everyone. And then I get my car accident. And my father died at 28 in a car accident. I’ve seen pictures of his car, my car didn’t look very different. So for me, this was like my ultimate Wake Up Call of Holy crap. I feel like I have it all together in terms of achievement. But I don’t know if I ever really explored my trauma. I don’t know if I ever really explored who I am. I don’t know if I’m I know I’m not fulfilled. And I’m filled with regret. I drank too much. And too often I didn’t take my health and fitness seriously, I was super, super intelligent, but not very well rounded. And again, so the best way I can describe it short, a short short form is I was successful without fulfillment. I was achievement at the expense of core values and character. And then I flipped the script completely. That was the second chance my dad never got. And so I ever since then, that was nine years ago, I joke I say I’m hoping to hit puberty at 36. Because I’m 35 now. And so now I flipped the script. And I went all in on self improvement. I went all in on inner fulfillment. And I went all the way past broke. And so I’ve been successful and unfulfilled. And I’ve also been fulfilled as hell, and completely unsuccessful, which as an entrepreneur, early entrepreneurs can relate usually. And now nine years later, we’ve got a big company, 21 person team, and we’re growing very, very well. And again, it’s challenging every day, but at least it’s fulfilling work.
Scott Ritzheimer
That’s awesome. So what would you say that is some of the most important work that you and your team do today?
Alan Lazaros
I think the first thing is just helping inspire people to read a bigger, better, brighter future. i As cliche as this might sound. A lot of people don’t really have dreams. And I think living the dream and pursuing your dreams are the same thing. I think that most of us, I think there’s two camps in the world. This is my my perspective. And again, I’ve coached so many people all over the world, all different backgrounds, all different industries. At this point, I just surpassed my 5001 on one coaching session. They’re all an hour long. So this is like deep coaching, I almost always go over the hour, because tears slide as a whole thing. So I’m not just talking. But what you realize is the same patterns. I see these professionally developed people. They’re super professionally developed, they’ve got the great resume. They are articulate, they know how to write, they’re good at math and science. They understand technology. And they win in the economy. Okay, but there’s another camp. And in this camp, I have one mentor who takes better care of his Porsche than his own family. That’s the that’s the type of person who is very successful. A lot of my computer engineering friends that I went to college with are all very successful, all of them in the economy. But their marriages aren’t necessarily great. And they’re not necessarily fit and healthy and fulfilled. And I understand because I was headed that way too. But there’s this other camp, this other category of people that are holistic, art driven, wonderful human beings, who are emotionally mature, emotionally connected, they’ve healed their trauma, they have a therapist, and they are such wonderful human beings but they don’t win in the economy. And you’ve got these like, emotionally immature, traumatize not connected to their emotions, successful entrepreneurs over here. Not always but sometimes. And then you’ve got these heart driven people that don’t ever win in the economy. Yeah, the point of next level University, in my opinion, is to bridge that I think in the 21st century, we need To become ambidextrous, and I’m just as guilty as anyone else, because I was professionally developed to a tee, super intellectual, super intelligent, but I wasn’t well rounded. I wasn’t heart driven, I wasn’t connected to my emotions, I didn’t have a therapist, and I didn’t heal my trauma. And so that’s kind of the two camps. And I, my job is to hopefully merge them.
Scott Ritzheimer
I love that is so powerful. Yeah, there’s a whole bunch of places I could go with that. But I want to bring us to something I saw all over the place when I was researching for you guys, this idea of the next level, right? And one of the things that I found in coaching, particularly with founders, entrepreneurs is everyone wants to get to the next level. But when our price a little bit very, very few people know what their next level actually is. Right? And, and in fact, most of the time, what I see is folks saying I want more of the current level, right? I want to be more effective in the current level, they want it to be better and not have to work as hard. And there’s just there’s a cloudiness around that. How do you guys help folks really identify what the next level is and navigate the path to it?
Alan Lazaros
Well, two types of people come to me, there’s the people who are professionally developed and successful, but deeply unfulfilled. And them, I need to help them realign their business with what actually fulfills them, meaning, purpose, passion, that kind of thing. And then there’s the other type that is super aligned, and they love their life. And they’re pretty fulfilled, but they not they’re not that successful. Same deal. So so it depends. I have to help the lefties become ready, I have to help the ladies become lefty. And so if you I always joke I say if you want to coach, you probably need a therapist. That was me. I had dozens of coaches and mentors, but no therapist. I didn’t get a therapist till my 30s I say guys can’t even ask for directions, you think we’re gonna get a therapist. It’s a funny joke. But it’s sad. It’s actually very sad, because it’s so important. But if you want a therapist, you actually need a coach. Right. And so so the next level thing, the next level for someone like one of my clients, her name is Yvette. She already has a business that she adores, she loves her life, she’s fulfilled, she’s connected, she’s alive, she you can tell she looks good. Energetically, not like physically. But she I mean, physically, she looks good, too. But energetically, she’s aligned. Yeah. And she just wants to scale she wants her life to become an amplified version of what it already is. She wants to get more and more and more percentage what fulfills her but also more and more and more income and revenue so that she can eliminate automate and delegate and procrastinate the things that don’t actually fulfill her. And I think that’s the journey of life, right? You have to do the hard stuff in the beginning. You do everything yourself in the beginning. And then you eliminate automate delegate and procrastinate the things that are not fulfilling to you that don’t make the most money. So how do you find your thing that makes the most money and you adore it? For me that is when I want coaching. Kevin and I my business partner, Kevin, he loves podcasting. It’s his 10 out of 10. Think adores it now it isn’t adored every day. So be careful with that. But he adores, okay, he’s a podcast coach. He tolerates quote, coaching, loves podcasting. I tolerate podcasting, love coaching. And so we’ve sort of flip flop. And so I have this framework called want love, hate. Very simple. What you want is a better body, better business, better lifestyle. What You Love is maybe podcasting. But what you hate is audio editing. Everything has something you hate that you have to do in order to get what you want and love. Yeah. And early entrepreneurs really learn that the hard way. It’s like, you don’t want to be broke. But you do want to start your own thing. And I always joke I say, Coca Cola or Sam’s cola. Everyone’s gonna buy Coca Cola, because no one knows who the hell Sam is. Okay, and Sam is Sam Walton, by the way, the founder of Walmart, but the point is, is that you don’t have a brand when you start. So you have to build one through hard work ethic where you’re not being paid a lot. And so to answer your question, everyone’s next level is a little bit unique, but it’s either amplifying what already is fulfilling, or it’s making a shift, going back to zero going back to being a beginner to rebuild something authentic, that actually fulfills you here.
Scott Ritzheimer
Why do you think, man and you hit on a huge point there and I don’t want to gloss over it because I think it’s really important that going back to a beginner Why do you think it’s so important to go back to that beginner mode when you’re trying to make that rebalancing left to right or right to left shift.
Alan Lazaros
The hardest part in the game in my opinion, so my car accident, gave me all the humble pie at once. Because when you’re a computer engineer with an MBA making that much money, you have status, people, you have money, you have status you it’s hard to go back to being a broke loser for lack of better phrasing, and I say that tongue in cheek but I also am serious. This is like a real thing. People have a real The hard time going back to a beginner. I remember I gave a speech once. And it was such a unique experience because there was 300 kids, three different assemblies. So 900 Kids in one day, we we gave a speech on growth mindset, and perseverance, to three sets of assemblies, all in one day back to back to back. The first one was middle schoolers. The next one was freshman and sophomore, high school. And the next one was junior and senior. My speech I thought got better. But their reaction to it blew my mind. The middle schoolers were still open minded. They were like, Oh, what’s this growth mindset thing. This is really cool. their egos hadn’t developed yet. Then the sophomores and juniors, sophomores and freshmen, it was like a little more closed minded, a little more making fun of it. The juniors and seniors made fun of us so much, you could tell they were too staticy to take us seriously. Truth be told the juniors and seniors just weren’t humble. And trust me, they’re gonna get that entitlement smacked right out of them. The moment you get married, the moment you have kids, the moment you have a dream and try for it and hope that your parents, you know, Don’t lash out when you don’t do what they think you should do. Like life is gonna smack you so hard when you are arrogant. And so for me, I struggled with overconfidence, and life smacked me down. Most people struggle with self doubt. And then they overcorrect with an ego. But the point is, is that the reason people struggle to achieve their dreams, in my opinion, is they don’t have the humility to start small. If you’re brand new to the gym, don’t go to a gym that has all elite athletes. But you got to go start at like a small little hometown gym and just start small. And eventually you’ll end up a potentially an elite athlete. But if you’re too status driven to really be seen as a beginner, you’re in so much trouble.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah. So Alan, there’s a question I like to ask all my guests. And it’s this what is the biggest secret you wish wasn’t a secret at all? What’s that one thing you wish everybody watching or listening today knew?
Alan Lazaros
Yeah, the one thing I wish everyone knew is how the unsexy answer is almost always the right one. It’s, it’s, there’s this thing called an optimal stopping problem. And people say like do the right thing. And I always thought that maybe this is my computer engineering modality of thinking but I always thought that was really dumb. Do the right thing. What does that even mean? It’s like that’s like saying, what’s the one right chess move? It’s it’s, how do you Aristotle said this? How do you do the right thing in the right way at the right time for the right reason with the right people in the right amount. That’s why life so hard. Who’s got that figured out? You put the nachos in for three minutes, they burn and they’re not good. You put them in for one minute, and then the cheese is melted, and they’re not good. The optimal stopping problem, the optimal answer is two minutes. But that’s what every decision in life. How do you make the optimal next business move? What is the optimal next level for you? So here’s the problem. We go through life. We trust people who are status driven, that don’t actually know real answers, and they stumbled upon their success a lot of times, by the way, and they don’t actually know how they did it a lot of the time, FYI, okay. And I’m talking in this industry, I’ve met some of the biggest players and some of them are like, I don’t really know. Behind the scenes, they say that but they act like they know everything. So here’s what you gotta do. You gotta you gotta realize that the unsexy book, the boring book is actually the most valuable, the boring YouTube channel and the boring podcast is actually the most accurate. This sensational extremism on either side of the spectrum is almost always inaccurate. Over here, people tell you work hard, grind, grind, grind, never rest over here, everything’s going to work out no matter what you do if you stay aligned and r&r. It’s like both of those are absolutely wrong. Some people work too hard and need more r&r. That’s me. Probably you. Okay? Other people are already lazy. The last thing they need is to be confirmed that laziness is going to get them success, which by the way, those very people used to grind in order to get to where they are. And so that’s what it is. My answer is the least sexy answer is almost always the most accurate.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, so powerful and so unbelievably true. This conversation could go on for probably another three hours, but for the sake of our audience in their commute, which is probably nearing its end, I wanted there folks listening who, you know, podcasts totally changed my life, but it wouldn’t have done anything if I didn’t take action on it. And and so folks that are listening to you, they want to take action on what you’ve talked about, how can they find more out about the work you do? Where can they get in touch with you?
Alan Lazaros
So I do business coaching. My business partner does podcast coaching some podcasts want to start a business some businesses want to start a podcast I think both are great to trains in tandem. If you want to get in touch with me you can go to nextleveluniverse.com spelled just like it sounds we also have a podcast with 1700 episodes called Next Level University. The person who has next level university . com is asking for way too much money. So we said you know what nextleveluniverse.com.
Scott Ritzheimer
Fantastic. Well head on over, we’ll put those in the show notes, as well as contact the special information for Alan, this team, head on over to the next level universe. Fantastic had a chance to check it out myself and I highly, highly recommend it. You will not regret it. Some great resources there and the powerful message so Alan, thank you so much for being on the show today. It was a privilege and honor having you for those of you watching you’re listening today. You know your time and attention me the world to us. I hope you got as much out of this conversation as I know I did. And I cannot wait to see you next time. Take care.
Alan Lazaros
It was an honor Scott. Thank you. Thank you.
Contact Alan Lazaros
Alan Lazaros’ mission is to assist others in shaping fulfilling lives, unlocking their unique potential, and constructing businesses that resonate with them on their own terms. He possesses a potent blend of technical proficiency and business savvy, specializing in Peak Performance, Productivity, Organizational Design, and Individual, Team, and Business Optimization. He founded Next Level University, leading a team that believes in a heart-driven approach to holistic self-improvement for dream chasers. He has conducted numerous trainings worldwide and has enthusiastically completed thousands of one-on-one coaching sessions with clients.
Want to learn more about Alan Lazaros’ work at Next Level University? Check out his website at https://www.nextleveluniverse.com or connect with him on LinkedIn, Instagram or Facebook
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