Discussion: Alan Lazaros, Next Level University

[00:00:11] Speaker A: What's worthwhile? It's a question we all need to answer for ourselves. [00:00:15] Speaker B: I'm Ramsay Zimmerman. [00:00:17] Speaker A: As for me, it's building mind, body and spirit wellness. Let's ponder the big questions together as we seek peace of mind, vitality of body, and joy of spirit. [00:00:37] Speaker C: If you want big goals, you have to show up regardless of whether you feel like it. You don't have to do that with everything. [00:00:43] Speaker D: No one can do that with everything. [00:00:45] Speaker C: So the grit piece is unbelievably important and wildly undervalued by some people. And so that's if you want to be consistent. So if you want to be successful, you have to be consistent. [00:00:58] Speaker D: The tortoise always beats the hair. [00:00:59] Speaker C: Eventually, if you want to be consistent. [00:01:02] Speaker D: You have to have those five things. [00:01:03] Speaker C: Self, belief, humility, sustainability, adaptability, and grit. [00:01:07] Speaker D: And grit is the one that most. [00:01:09] Speaker C: People don't have, statistically speaking. So you have to push yourself to. [00:01:14] Speaker D: Where you're beyond your current capabilities, but. [00:01:16] Speaker C: Not so much that you snap at the end of the day. It's the hard times that make you. [00:01:22] Speaker D: Stronger as long as you stay in the growth zone. [00:01:25] Speaker C: And so when I'm in the anxiety. [00:01:26] Speaker D: Zone for too long and I'm redlining. [00:01:28] Speaker C: It for too long, I have to. [00:01:30] Speaker D: Go back to the pit Stop and redo the tires and redesign my life. [00:01:34] Speaker C: And reprioritize and re essentialize. [00:01:40] Speaker E: Hey there, It's Ramsey here. [00:01:43] Speaker B: That was Alan Lazarus. [00:01:45] Speaker E: Alan is one of the co founders of Next Level University. He is a business coach, a daily podcast creator, and a singularly stunning individual. Allen embraces his identity as an engineer, and as such, he designs and troubleshoots his own life and behaviors as well as those of his clients. I don't know if I've ever met or spoken to anyone with a level of drive and focus and discipline that Allen embodies. In fact, he may not have either. Allen knows that he is exemplary and he has the personal courage to proclaim it. He also considers it an act of service to point his own stunning work ethic and intelligence towards the benefits of his clients. To drive their own self improvement and thereby make the world a better place through everyone's greater success. For me, I struggle with staying motivated and on task. There are plenty of times where I don't feel like I can accomplish much of anything. Allen's message to me and others like me, push through and do it anyway. I found this to be a sobering, challenging and necessary discussion. See what you think. Here we go. [00:02:50] Speaker B: Hey Alan, how are you doing today? [00:02:53] Speaker C: I am as we talked about sufficiently overwhelmed. But two challenges in business, one is not enough demand, the other one is too much demand to handle. I'm grateful for the second one because I remember in the beginning when there. [00:03:08] Speaker D: Was no demand. [00:03:11] Speaker B: Sufficiently overwhelmed. Oh man, I'm gonna have to dig into that phrase. I love that one. But before we, before we do that, I just want to introduce you just a little bit to the audience. You are a life and business coach, you're one of the co founders of Next Level University. And I really wanted to talk to you about priorities because, you know, this podcast is what's worthwhile and that's really asking like what's important. And then, you know, sometimes I think people have trouble or they struggle or they want to keep track and of what is important and continue to do those high priority things. But I know I have trouble doing that sometimes. So we'd love it to dig into that quite a bit. But why don't we start with what is next level university? [00:04:07] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:04:08] Speaker D: So next level University. [00:04:09] Speaker C: Next level you, pun intended. It's a place where you go to holistically reach your potential. And so it's 1% improvement. The tagline quote unquote is 1% improvement in your pocket from anywhere on the planet, every single day, completely free. [00:04:25] Speaker D: Level up your life, love, health and wealth. [00:04:26] Speaker C: So it's holistic self improvement in your pocket. [00:04:29] Speaker D: And it's really the podcast that I. [00:04:30] Speaker C: Would have wanted as a kid because when I reflect on my childhood, I started doing a lot of therapy in my 30s and I'm, I'm going to be 36 actually next week. But I've been sort of re watching the movie in my own life and Next Level University is the, the resource. Kevin and I both grew up without dad, so he didn't meet his dad. [00:04:50] Speaker D: Until he was 27. [00:04:51] Speaker C: My father passed away when I was 2. And so we both kind of grew up without male role models, really. And that's a whole story in of itself. But ultimately to be the male role model in the in your pocket that we never had when we were kids to reach your true potential. And so Next level, you, pun intended, that is the ultimate through line of the company. [00:05:13] Speaker B: I see. So you lost your dad at an early age. Tell me more about that. And also tell me about the circumstances around which you really kind of reevaluated your priorities in your life and you sort of, you know, changed your idea of what was worthwhile. [00:05:34] Speaker C: Yeah, so the, I mentioned this to you in the pre call that we did together. The worthwhile piece I resonate so deeply with that. I have a book behind me called. [00:05:44] Speaker D: Essentialism by Gregory McKeon. [00:05:46] Speaker C: And what you were referring to is I used to spread myself too thin and I'm an engineer. I need to give that disclaimer. Kev, my business partner is definitely not an engineer or a numbers thinker. The truth is I'm just going to be very direct and objective and I think in numbers and statistics and mathematics. And I want to give that disclaimer because while I think it's really valuable, I also think it can come off wrong if people don't know. So at the end of the day, the reason I say all that is I prior to 26, everything's a formula for me. And I the formula is you have three resources on earth. You have time, you have effort and you have money. And where you put those resources, AKA the persons, places, things and ideas. [00:06:32] Speaker D: So you invest time, effort and money. [00:06:34] Speaker C: Into persons, places, things and ideas and that ultimately determines the quality of your life. [00:06:41] Speaker D: And so the question became, okay, well. [00:06:42] Speaker C: What, what is it that determines where you put your time, effort and money? And if you really boil that back down, it's where you put your attention. So I don't take it lightly to be here. [00:06:53] Speaker D: If anyone's watching or listening to this. [00:06:56] Speaker C: We are literally influencing you in hopefully a more constructive, positive direction. And so if you point your mind, for lack of better phrasing, at lewd, crude, fear based stuff, you're going to be less inspired and go off the. [00:07:14] Speaker D: Rails for lack of better phrasing. And then five, 10, 15 years later. [00:07:17] Speaker C: Your life is not what you wanted. And so everything is by design. And so but before 26, I invested my time, effort and money really poorly. And that's just my truth. Wrong persons, places, things and ideas. [00:07:30] Speaker D: I drank too much and too often. [00:07:32] Speaker C: I had high school friends and college friends and corporate friends. And I made a lot of money. [00:07:36] Speaker D: In corporate and I did very well. [00:07:38] Speaker C: Academically, but I was really not taking my health seriously. I have physical, mental, emotional and spiritual is the four facets of the human condition. [00:07:49] Speaker D: And I was not physically well. [00:07:51] Speaker C: I was very cognitively well. I was very, very bright. And that'll be, you know, hopefully clear emotional intelligence, though I didn't work on enough. And then spiritually I wasn't super connected. [00:08:02] Speaker D: And so for me I was all. [00:08:03] Speaker C: Cognitive, you know, science, technology, engineering, mathematics, business and finance. But I wasn't holistic. And so now I build a company and my mission underneath holistic potential, reaching your holistic potential. And if you crunch the numbers of this, if you do, if your top. [00:08:22] Speaker D: 1%, 1 out of 100 in health, top 1% in wealth, and top 1%. [00:08:27] Speaker C: In love, that's one in a million right there, mathematically. [00:08:32] Speaker D: And so it's very difficult to be really good holistically. I had mentors that are multimillionaires. One billionaire, and I saw their life. [00:08:38] Speaker C: And I was like, ooh, I don't know. [00:08:41] Speaker D: Okay, very wealthy. I had one mentor said, alan, you. [00:08:44] Speaker C: Feel really good at the beach. I feel really good at the bank. [00:08:46] Speaker D: I was a fitness coach at the. [00:08:48] Speaker C: Time, fitness model, fitness competitor. And the truth is he was 30 pounds overweight. [00:08:53] Speaker D: He had been divorced. [00:08:54] Speaker C: So I just, I didn't want to end up really successful in one narrow area. I wanted to be holistically well and. [00:09:01] Speaker D: Holistically successful and most importantly, internally fulfilled. [00:09:04] Speaker C: And so I got in this car accident at 26. [00:09:07] Speaker D: My father passed away in a car. [00:09:09] Speaker C: Accident when he was 28. And when I was 26, I. [00:09:12] Speaker D: It was not a fender bender. [00:09:13] Speaker C: This was a head on collision. This was a bad car accident. [00:09:16] Speaker D: Now, fortunately, I was in a very safe car. [00:09:18] Speaker C: Thank you, Volkswagen Passat. [00:09:20] Speaker D: And we were physically okay. [00:09:22] Speaker C: Seriously, that car totally saved my life. I used to call it the tank. And so physically we were okay. I, we were definitely rattled, my little cousin and I. But that was the second chance my dad never got. [00:09:35] Speaker D: And that was my quarter life existential. [00:09:37] Speaker C: Crisis that really woke me up and got me to realize that I was. [00:09:40] Speaker D: Not doing things that were worthwhile. I was doing a lot of nonsense that was not worthwhile. And that's just the truth. And I was filled with regret. [00:09:47] Speaker C: And so after that, I got very. [00:09:50] Speaker D: Very clear on not only why I'm. [00:09:52] Speaker C: Here, my passion, my purpose, my company, but that's when all this sort of started really is. [00:10:00] Speaker D: I started learning very young. Science, technology, engineering, mathematics, business and finance. [00:10:05] Speaker C: I always adored that. But it wasn't until after 26 when I started going inside. [00:10:09] Speaker B: And what did you do that was different? Once you had that realization, what did you start doing that was fundamentally different than what you had been doing before? [00:10:18] Speaker D: The short answer is self improvement. [00:10:21] Speaker C: I just, I was always very achievement oriented. Goals and dreams were my jam. I love talking about goals and dreams and somehow I make every conversation into that. Even when I was a kid, I just couldn't. Not very future oriented, very esoteric, very weird statistically. But I also had this sort of goodwill hunting, abandonment issues of don't lose anybody. So I would just kind of chameleon My way into making sure none of my friendships left me or family left me. Because in a way, I kind of lost three families by the time I was 14. There's a whole story behind that. But ultimately I had this goals and dreams orientation. Then after the car accident, it became. [00:11:00] Speaker D: Okay, instead of achieving goals and dreams. [00:11:02] Speaker C: At the expense of inside, I'm going to focus on the inside and then have my goals and dreams be a byproduct of that. [00:11:09] Speaker D: And so that's the real shift that happened. [00:11:11] Speaker C: And obviously it's both right. [00:11:12] Speaker D: You have to focus on external results as well as internal fulfillment. And it's very hard to actually do both of those. [00:11:18] Speaker B: So at next level, you. How do you help your clients and students to do that? [00:11:26] Speaker C: Well, some people come to me. So I'm a business coach now. I did. I started mentoring 10 years ago. For the first two years it was free, and then I started charging it, actually becoming a real coach eight years ago. And I did, you know, fitness coaching. [00:11:42] Speaker D: I did mindset coaching. [00:11:43] Speaker C: I did life coaching for a very short time. [00:11:46] Speaker D: I did peak performance coaching for a while. [00:11:49] Speaker C: And then I eventually did business consulting. [00:11:51] Speaker D: Which was more implementation. [00:11:52] Speaker C: And then I eventually landed on business coach. And so Now I have 27 individuals on my roster that I'm currently coaching from all over the world. I actually just got off with one of them. She's a model in Dubai. But no matter who you are, all walks of life, some people come to me and they are already externally successful. [00:12:11] Speaker D: But that external success is not aligned. [00:12:14] Speaker C: With who they are anymore, who they aspire to be. And that was me pre 26 as well. [00:12:20] Speaker D: Some people come to me and they're super aligned, they're fulfilled, they love their life, but they're not very successful externally. [00:12:27] Speaker C: They're not winning in the economy. And then some people come to me, and I had a client named Yvette. She's not with me right now, but. [00:12:34] Speaker D: She came to me. [00:12:35] Speaker C: She's already a multimillionaire. She's already super successful. She already adores what she does. She. She wakes up fulfilled every day, even though it's hard work and she just wants to amplify it and. Because when you're externally successful and internally fulfilled, that's a mountain that gets higher as you climb it. And so that's where I'm grateful to be now at 36, is we're already pretty successful externally and I'm very fulfilled internally. However, you can keep upping the ante on that, and that's hopefully where everyone wants to get when you want your. [00:13:03] Speaker D: Future to be an amplified version of what it already is now you know. [00:13:06] Speaker C: You are both externally successful and internally fulfilled. [00:13:09] Speaker D: And that's very hard to sustain now the rent is due every day, so. [00:13:12] Speaker C: You know you're not done. But ultimately that's how I help is. [00:13:16] Speaker D: Goals, metrics, habits, skills and identity. [00:13:20] Speaker C: And so I was on with Nikita earlier, the model I told you about, and we were literally aligning. Here's your goals, here's the metrics and. [00:13:27] Speaker D: Habits you have to track to get there, here's the skills you have to go work on developing. And then the identity work is all courage. [00:13:33] Speaker C: That's all the humility, courage, vulnerability. What are you afraid of? Where are you held back? What is your conditioning? Limiting beliefs and all that kind of stuff. [00:13:44] Speaker D: But that's the internal stuff. [00:13:45] Speaker C: So that's really what I'm doing now at this stage. [00:13:49] Speaker D: And it really does come down to that. [00:13:51] Speaker C: However, I could do a day long seminar on each of those probably. [00:13:56] Speaker B: Well, you, you mentioned and you talked about how you're an engineer. And that's funny because I identify as, I think of myself as a builder and I think being a builder and an engineer is fairly similar. It's more funny because my first two years in college, I was in engineering school, but definitely did not finish as an engineer. Moved out of that and you know, did environmental science. You know, I wonder sometimes about exactly sort of how and why I didn't become or make it really as an engineer. But I definitely have fully embraced this notion of a builder. I think it might have something to do with precision. I don't have quite the level of precision that you're describing as an engineer. But what are your thoughts around sort of the differences between a builder and an engineer? And also just how, you know, talk more about how someone's identity is important in terms of how and what they'll be successful at. [00:15:06] Speaker C: Yeah. So builder versus engineer identity and labels. I wrote an article way back called the Power of Labels and Self Labels. Labels especially because as I said, I. [00:15:18] Speaker D: Drank too much and too often pre 26. [00:15:19] Speaker C: And I remember I traded in the label of alcoholic for bodybuilder. And that's when I really big difference. [00:15:27] Speaker D: Right. [00:15:27] Speaker C: So bodybuilders don't drink typically, not always, but typically because worst thing you can. [00:15:32] Speaker D: Do for bodybuilding is alcohol essentially. [00:15:34] Speaker C: So what I did is I replaced. [00:15:35] Speaker D: A bad habit with a good one. [00:15:36] Speaker C: I replaced a bad identity with a good identity. [00:15:39] Speaker D: And all of us can do that at any time. But ultimately, builder versus engineer from My. [00:15:43] Speaker C: Perspective and everyone has their own perception of each label is a builder is. And I consider myself a builder too. I would say, you know, my childhood was just running amok. My teens were experimentation and massive pain and failure, particularly socially. My 20s were learning the world and learning myself. And then my 30s are building. I just build. [00:16:10] Speaker D: I mean, I remember when I turned. [00:16:11] Speaker C: 30, I just decided, you know what? I'm never going to do something again that doesn't build towards something bigger. And I just made that declaration and I always said my career wouldn't even start really until my 50s. But I've been building a brand and. [00:16:25] Speaker D: A business and all that stuff. [00:16:26] Speaker C: And that's also very weird. I know that that's weird. Okay. I've always been a very long term thinker. But anyways, so when I was a kid it was lawyer, politician, president, or it was engineer, mba, CEO. Like my hero at the time, Steve Jobs used to argue who's smarter, Steve. [00:16:41] Speaker D: Jobs or Bill Gates. I built my first computer at 12. [00:16:43] Speaker C: And I now realize all this is really weird. At the time I didn't think anything of it. But anyways, so why am I saying all that? [00:16:51] Speaker D: Builder versus engineer. [00:16:52] Speaker C: I think engineer is more design. So I don't do anything superfluous. And I know that this is weird and I'm making this okay if other people aren't like this, right? There's the scientist and the artists and it's all good. But I don't ever listen to music just to listen to music. I listen to the music that creates the state that I want. [00:17:10] Speaker D: So in the gym I listen to more aggressive hardcore music. And then at night I listen to. [00:17:14] Speaker C: Peaceful piano or something that gets me winding down. So for me, I don't do anything. [00:17:19] Speaker D: Without reverse engineering the finish line in advance. [00:17:22] Speaker C: And. And I'm very outcome focused, which by the way, pre 26 got me in a lot of trouble because I had outcomes to get straight A's in high school. [00:17:30] Speaker D: But the way I went about that could be, oh, if I have to cheat on the vocab test, will I do that? [00:17:35] Speaker C: So it was sort of at the expense of my core values. [00:17:37] Speaker D: And so some people are very core value present oriented. How they show up in the present is what matters. And they're more process driven. [00:17:44] Speaker C: Other people are more results driven. [00:17:45] Speaker D: Very few people are both. [00:17:47] Speaker C: And that's the what I said at. [00:17:48] Speaker D: The beginning, which is external achievement is mostly results driven. And internal fulfillment is usually the process. [00:17:54] Speaker C: And the core values, past, present, future, that kind of thing. [00:17:58] Speaker D: So learn from the Past, enjoy the present, build in the present toward a. [00:18:01] Speaker C: Bigger, better, brighter future. Very few people get that right. Usually it's worry about the past in like pleasure centered in the present, and then screw the future, it might not be there. Fomo, which is just a terrible mindset, honestly. So builder, I think, is someone who makes sure that what they're doing compounds towards something bigger and better and brighter. An engineer is something. [00:18:23] Speaker D: Someone who designs their entire future in. [00:18:25] Speaker C: Advance and then basically decides what the next block is to do that. [00:18:30] Speaker D: And so I'm a builder and an engineer. [00:18:31] Speaker C: The reason I say engineer more than builder is because it gives me permission to be entirely mathematical. Because ultimately that's the difference is I had some friends in college that actually did go from engineer to environmental science. [00:18:44] Speaker D: And usually not always, it's because they. [00:18:46] Speaker C: Couldn'T hang in some of the more advanced mathematical courses. [00:18:51] Speaker D: And some of those courses are alarmingly difficult, honestly. So engineering is very difficult. [00:18:55] Speaker C: I think it's the hardest. Yeah. Brutal, Genuinely brutal. I mean, if you've never taken signal analysis, you. I mean these tests, you could ask five questions and I'd be there for an hour and a half trying to do it. [00:19:07] Speaker D: I mean, some of this stuff is really, man. [00:19:10] Speaker B: Once we started using imaginary numbers in electrical science, I had to, you know, buy a fancier calculator just so that I could do those equations on the calculator. [00:19:19] Speaker C: It is engineering. Call engineering school. I graduated with high distinction. I'm very grateful. But I remember my very first engineering. [00:19:27] Speaker D: Course I actually failed. And I was the math and science. [00:19:30] Speaker C: Award guy in, you know, eighth in my class and all that. So it was very alarming for my identity, but I stuck it out. I surrounded myself with geniuses and I just made sure, you know, we studied as much as possible and also partied a lot. But ultimately engineering school was one of the hardest things I've ever done. Still to this day. [00:19:52] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I think that's right on. And it, uh, not being able to do the math was definitely for me a big part of it. Like it got beyond my ability to even conceptualize the math once we were doing triple integrals and quadratic equations and all that good stuff. So I managed to, I managed to pass my classes well enough to switch into the environmental science program. But I feel like the, the foundations that I got from engineering school made me a good builder. And often I over engineer like everything that I design because I don't have that level of precision right. So I make it quite a bit stronger than it probably needs to. Be. And that gets me along. I also tend to build things intuitively and sort of not put in all of the time to sort of work everything out in advance. And usually that works out well for me because usually I have good intuition about it. But I also. Man, do you ever get tired? Like the way that you describe that, it's like, you know, I want to have that kind of drive and that kind of focus, but there are days when I just can't do it. Like my brain hurts, like, I'm done. What do you, what do you do on days when you've, you've maxed out, but you still have stuff on your schedule that you were supposed to accomplish? [00:21:35] Speaker C: Yeah. So we have this thing called the consistency star, because I gotta stop saying, ah, so many filler words. We have this thing called the consistency star. So you were unbelievably kind enough to come to one of our meetups. We do meetups. [00:21:53] Speaker B: My pleasure. [00:21:54] Speaker D: Thank you. [00:21:55] Speaker C: It was so cool to see you there. I was like, oh, yeah, that's right. [00:21:57] Speaker D: Nice. You really do your research on your guests. You came to an event, a live. [00:22:01] Speaker C: Event that we host. So we do monthly meetups every month we've been doing it allows me to. [00:22:04] Speaker B: Sneak into things that I'm not missing necessarily supposed to be at. So keep going. [00:22:09] Speaker D: It was great. [00:22:10] Speaker C: So our 36th one is next month. [00:22:12] Speaker D: So we will have been doing these for three years. And the reason I'm mentioning that is we did one on what we call the consistency star. And the consistency star was built to. [00:22:21] Speaker C: Try to help people in our community be more consistent because we have a. [00:22:24] Speaker D: Lot of amazing, wonderful, heart driven feminine energies in our community. [00:22:27] Speaker C: And the feminine energy tends to struggle with structure and consistency. And on the, on the consistency star. [00:22:34] Speaker D: I can just give it to you if you want to become a consistency. [00:22:36] Speaker C: Star, that's sort of the metaphor. So the first one is humility. [00:22:42] Speaker D: You have to have the humility to start small. [00:22:46] Speaker C: The second one is self belief. I actually reversed those. The first one is self belief. So you have to believe in something or someone before you start. Then you have to have the humility to start small. Inward humility, not necessarily external, because I know everyone's thinking, well, you don't exactly have humility, Alan. Okay. [00:23:01] Speaker D: Third one is sustainability. [00:23:03] Speaker C: You have to make it sustainable. [00:23:05] Speaker D: And the fourth one is adaptability. You have to be able to adapt. [00:23:09] Speaker C: So I'll give an example. Emilia and I, we started exercising every day back March 1st of 2022, and I wanted to beat my old best and I used to. I started not talking about this for a while because it started to get too excess, excessive. And then I. I'm going to have. [00:23:24] Speaker D: The courage to bring it back. [00:23:25] Speaker C: But I wanted to beat my old best. My old best was four months. So I said, I want to. I want to exercise every single day. I've always wanted to do it. Let's see if I can beat my old best. [00:23:33] Speaker B: She was like, every single day for four months? [00:23:36] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And she said, I'm in. So we did it. We got past that. [00:23:41] Speaker D: And I said, now what? [00:23:42] Speaker C: She said, let's go for a year. Did a year. We drive in after the gym, and I turned to her, I said, we did it. [00:23:47] Speaker D: She said, what? [00:23:48] Speaker C: I said, we just crossed the year mark. And she said. I said, now what? [00:23:53] Speaker D: She said, let's do this for the. [00:23:54] Speaker C: Rest of her life. And I had a mini panic attack, genuinely. And then I was like, okay. I said, listen, I don't say I'm going to do something and then not do it. It's big for me. Are we actually going to do this or are you just kind of saying that? She said, no, I've always wanted to do it. I was like, we are out of our minds. Okay? So we decided to do it. [00:24:12] Speaker D: So we started with a half an hour. That's sustainable. If it was three hours, there's no freaking way. [00:24:17] Speaker C: I could barely do the half hour. Okay? So that was March 1st of 2022 when we started. So it's over two and a half years ago. Uh, usually I. We're actually coming up on a thousand days. [00:24:28] Speaker D: I would usually have to ask Siri. [00:24:29] Speaker C: To figure out what it's at. But March 1, 2022 to now, I think we're at 9, 90 something. And. But the point is, is we never could do it if it wasn't a. [00:24:39] Speaker D: Lot of self belief. [00:24:40] Speaker C: Emilia and I believe in ourselves a lot. We have the humility to start small, okay? Walking our dog counts, swimming counts, soccer counts, the track counts, hiking counts, weight. [00:24:52] Speaker D: Training counts, Everything counts, right? [00:24:54] Speaker C: So it has to be. And then the next one sustainable half hour, we went from 30 to 35 to 40. Now we're at 45, which is actually alarmingly difficult to sustain. But here's the one. And then adaptability, I mean, we've had to. I'm talking walks late at night in parking lots of hotels when we travel. [00:25:12] Speaker D: In the freezing cold. [00:25:13] Speaker C: I mean, it has been kind of terrible, to be honest. Okay. But we always did it. And we have each other, too. Fifth One grit. Emilia and I are at this place called the Chateau. We playfully call it the Chateau because this place is terrible. It was a hotel. We thought it was going to be nice. It was not. And it's 11:30 at night. We are snuggling. We're. We're by the fire. Dark winter. It's dark winter night. [00:25:39] Speaker D: We're up in New Hampshire, so it's. [00:25:40] Speaker C: Freezing, and I go, oh, we forgot to exercise. She said, let's go. We got our stuff on, we bundled up, and we're freezing in the parking lot. Walking hand in hand. I'm talking. It was like the longest 30 minutes ever. Now, why do I talk about that? [00:25:56] Speaker D: Grit is the fifth one. [00:25:59] Speaker C: And you said, do I ever get exhausted? To answer original question, do I ever get tired? All the time. Right now I feel pretty good because yesterday was a good R4 day. Rest, relaxation, recharge and rejuvenation. But, yeah, I get tired all the time. The truth is, it doesn't matter. And I don't know where I get my grit. It might be my atrocious childhood. I remember when I was a kid, I went to Point Sebago. It's this place in Maine, and they had all these competitions, basketball, football, sports. And my sister and I were competing who could get the most ribbons. And I did this mile run around the beach and I won. And my mom said, I don't get it. [00:26:43] Speaker D: How did you win? [00:26:44] Speaker C: You don't even run. And I said, I was just a kid. I just said, oh, I can suffer more than any of those kids. And I honestly believe that that's still the truth. And a lot of people say suffering is not good. I don't agree. [00:26:57] Speaker D: If you have big goals and dreams. [00:26:59] Speaker C: I mean, you're never going to hear an Olympic athlete say, oh, you know, I don't really like to suffer. So at the end of the day. [00:27:04] Speaker D: You need to suffer and you need to suffer by choice. And there's a part of your brain. [00:27:08] Speaker C: That actually gets bigger. [00:27:10] Speaker D: They did this research. It's called the amcc. [00:27:12] Speaker C: You can look this up where when. [00:27:14] Speaker D: You do things you don't want to. [00:27:16] Speaker C: Do, especially when you don't feel like doing them, when you're down and out. [00:27:19] Speaker D: AKA train your best, when you're at. [00:27:21] Speaker C: Your worst, it actually grows a part of your brain. And so I used to think as. [00:27:26] Speaker D: A kid, everyone else was soft. [00:27:28] Speaker C: What I realize now is I'm really hard, for lack of better phrasing. And I don't mean hard in the. [00:27:33] Speaker D: David Goggins Toxic masculine sense. [00:27:35] Speaker C: I mean, you really do. [00:27:37] Speaker D: If you want big goals, you have to show up regardless of whether you feel like it. [00:27:42] Speaker C: And you don't have to do that with everything. [00:27:46] Speaker D: No one can do that with everything. [00:27:47] Speaker C: So the grit piece is unbelievably important and wildly undervalued by some people. And so that's if you want to be consistent. So if you want to be successful, you have to be consistent. [00:28:00] Speaker D: The tortoise always beats the hare. [00:28:02] Speaker C: Eventually, if you want to be consistent. [00:28:04] Speaker D: You have to have those five things. [00:28:06] Speaker C: Self, belief, humility, sustainability, adaptability, and grit. [00:28:10] Speaker D: And grit is the one that most people don't have, statistically speaking. [00:28:14] Speaker C: Again, I'm an engineer, please don't villainize me for this. But the truth is a lot of people are very lazy and very soft. [00:28:20] Speaker D: And they're incapable of doing things they don't feel like. [00:28:23] Speaker C: Particularly now more than ever when you know, where we have two day shipping and everything comes quickly. [00:28:29] Speaker D: Right? [00:28:30] Speaker C: Immediate. [00:28:32] Speaker B: Yeah, no, it's. I think that maybe in days gone by, grit was more highly valued or universally valued as something that people would try to have. And then I think this idea that you should suffer and that you need to suffer in order to get stronger, that is a concept that maybe in the last five, 10, 20 years has really been minimized or discounted. But, you know, maybe it's making a comeback. You know, the idea that what doesn't kill you does make you stronger. And maybe we do need more of that and maybe we need, you know, less air conditioning and maybe we need more, you know, walking around in the cold rain or run through the cold rain in order to be able to be stronger. So yeah, no pushing through it, even when you don't want to. But then at what point does that become, you know, damaging? Because it, it does, it, it does have the danger to become damaging. Right. If you overdo it, definitely. [00:29:59] Speaker C: So you want to put yourself in a position where you stay in what's called the challenge skills sweet spot. There's a book called the Art of Impossible by a man named Steven Kotler. We interviewed him way back. And we have these three circles. You have the center zone is the comfort zone, and then you have the growth zone, and then you have the anxiety zone. And if you stay in the anxiety zone too long, it's, it can be destructive. And if you stay in the comfort zone too long, it's also destructive because you're not going to get any better. [00:30:28] Speaker D: Or stronger or smarter. [00:30:30] Speaker C: So you have to push yourself to. [00:30:32] Speaker D: Where you're beyond your current capabilities, but. [00:30:35] Speaker C: Not so much that you snap. And that's really the idea is. And that's my job as a coach. So I've been doing this for, you know, eight years, 10 years mentoring. But what's my some. [00:30:47] Speaker D: My client comes and they're crushing. [00:30:49] Speaker C: How? Catch me up. [00:30:50] Speaker D: That's the first question I was at. Catch me up. How was the last week? [00:30:52] Speaker C: Oh, boom, boom, boom. Awesome. [00:30:53] Speaker D: I can tell they're fulfilled. [00:30:54] Speaker C: I can tell they're happy, successful, they're feeling good. Guess what? Let's up the ante. You're playing on easy mode. [00:31:01] Speaker D: Let's rock and roll. [00:31:02] Speaker C: I'm not impressed. The moment they come, show up. Struggle bus. Okay, what do we need to eliminate? What do we have to get rid of? How do we refocus? So when I said I'm sufficiently overwhelmed, I'm actually in the process right now of re essentializing myself, I redid our. We have a whiteboard downstairs. My girlfriend and I and I just wiped it clean. We talked about it yesterday because Yesterday was an R4 day. Rest, relaxation, rejuvenation and recharge. And I was struggling. [00:31:31] Speaker D: I had no caffeine. [00:31:33] Speaker C: I was withdrawing a little bit from it because I've been overdoing it a little. A bit lately. [00:31:38] Speaker D: I'm probably averaging 350 plus milligrams a. [00:31:41] Speaker C: Day, which I'm now lowering. I'm joining a deload phase. But ultimately I've been just redlining for weeks. Probably the last two months have been the most, the most I've ever put. [00:31:56] Speaker D: On the court in my career. [00:31:58] Speaker C: I've had some tough years. I've had some tough. My childhood was very, very not good. And there were some good parts. [00:32:08] Speaker D: For anyone from my childhood, it's. [00:32:09] Speaker C: There was some good parts. But ultimately, as far as career like self inflicted challenge, 2024 has been atrocious. It's been bad. It's been hard, really hard. And in. In comparison, 2021, 2022 and 2023 were just pretty good. [00:32:27] Speaker D: I mean, the fish were jumping in the boat, right? [00:32:29] Speaker C: So at the end of the day, it's the hard times that make you. [00:32:34] Speaker D: Stronger as long as you stay in the growth zone. [00:32:37] Speaker C: And so when I'm in the anxiety. [00:32:38] Speaker D: Zone for too long and I'm redlining. [00:32:40] Speaker C: It for too long, I have to. [00:32:42] Speaker D: Go back to the pit stop and redo the tires and redesign my life. [00:32:46] Speaker C: And reprioritize and re essentialize my life. And I just did that. [00:32:50] Speaker D: I just trimmed my rose bush for lack of better phrasing. [00:32:53] Speaker C: So that the buds can blossom, the remaining buds can blossom. [00:32:57] Speaker B: And what are the. What are the signals that someone is, you know, in the anxiety zone, and they're beyond the effective zone. [00:33:06] Speaker C: You. [00:33:07] Speaker D: You. You become forgetful. [00:33:09] Speaker C: So we have a wonderful fireplace in our condo, and when Emilia and I go to the gym, we don't like to leave it on for obvious reasons. And we went for a walk the other night last week, and both of. [00:33:22] Speaker D: Us had forgotten to turn off the. [00:33:23] Speaker C: Fireplace, which is very unlike us because. [00:33:26] Speaker D: We have our pets here, we don't. [00:33:27] Speaker C: Have children yet, but, I mean, we don't want to risk anything, right? So little things like that, you just start getting forgetful. You, you're less thoughtful, you're less present, you're more run down, more stressed. You. You feel like you can't focus as well. And ultimately, if that's the case, you gotta redial in on the, what I call the fitness pyramid. So it's seven things. I'll give them quick. I used to be a fitness coach, so I figure out the formula for things just because I need to know. And so it's a pyramid starting from the bottom. It's sleep, hydration, nutrition training, breath work, mobility, Mobility, breathwork, and supplementation. And most of the industry is focused on supplementation because that's what makes money. But getting good sleep is, by far, way more important than supplementation. So I got a 92 sleep score last night with this oura ring, and I'm. I feel a million times better. Whereas yesterday I got a 72 and I was not great and I felt rundown. And so I was like, okay, so I'm gonna take Sunday because I do Monday through Saturday from 10am to 6pm. [00:34:39] Speaker D: Front facing, podcasting, coaching, training. [00:34:42] Speaker C: And then every Sunday is. No, front facing is the rule, basically, because by then you just cannot. You don't want to talk to anyone. You just. You're. You're constantly pouring. And I feel like sometimes I'm helping other people with their lives more than I'm redesigning my own. And so Sunday is supposed to be, you know, not an off day. We still do back office work and, like, household stuff, house optimization, all that stuff. [00:35:04] Speaker D: And all this sounds exhausting. [00:35:05] Speaker C: I understand that. I really do understand that Emilia and I have very large goals. The higher your goals are, the higher your standards will have to be. The higher your standards are, the more you'll have to say no to all the persons, places, things and ideas outside of alignment with your goals. And so I always use Olympic athletes. [00:35:22] Speaker D: As an example, not everyone wants to. [00:35:24] Speaker C: Be an Olympic gold medalist, but you. [00:35:26] Speaker D: Better believe Michael Phelps talks about this. [00:35:28] Speaker C: Like he didn't have a childhood. He had, you know, swimming was his world. And yeah, he awesome now he's got more gold medals than anyone in history. [00:35:37] Speaker D: However, he had a lot of mental health challenges. [00:35:39] Speaker C: So you gotta, you gotta find a. [00:35:41] Speaker D: Way to figure out and design your. [00:35:43] Speaker C: Life the way that you want it and then constantly redesign, redesign, redesign based on whether you're in the comfort zone or the anxiety zone. And try to keep yourself in that. [00:35:53] Speaker B: Sort of growth zone even with the intentions to do all of that. Distractions are a thing. And man, do we have a lot of distractions in the world today. How do you recommend or help or coach your clients and others to avoid distractions like my or yourself even? But how do you recommend that people not get looped into something else with all the opportunities to do that? [00:36:30] Speaker C: So there's something called a circle of concern. [00:36:33] Speaker D: You have things that you are in control of, you have things that you can influence, and then you have things. [00:36:37] Speaker C: That you can't control or influence. And I'll use this as a playful example. So when the bigger your, the more self belief you have, the bigger your goals will be. The bigger your goals are, the more. [00:36:50] Speaker D: Discerning you're going to have to be and the more you're going to have. [00:36:52] Speaker C: To eliminate distractions and the harder it's going to be to coexist in other relationships, by the way. So for me, I don't struggle a. [00:36:59] Speaker D: Ton with competence and self belief and. [00:37:01] Speaker C: Grit and that kind of stuff. I mean, I'm working on them of. [00:37:04] Speaker D: Course, but like for me, relationships were. [00:37:06] Speaker C: Always the problem because no one understood me. My therapist, Carol, she says you're, you're never going to really fully belong because statistically you don't. So you're in the 0.05% of intelligence, you're in the 0.05% of, you know, goals. [00:37:21] Speaker D: And so just understand the more weird. [00:37:24] Speaker C: You are, statistically, the less normal you're. [00:37:27] Speaker D: Going to be and the less you're. [00:37:28] Speaker C: Going to feel a sense of belonging until you find your people. And so you got to find people. [00:37:33] Speaker D: That have comparable self belief and comparable goals. And remember, most people are faking self belief. [00:37:38] Speaker C: Why would someone with level 10 confidence have level 2 goals? It's because they're faking it. [00:37:45] Speaker D: Right? [00:37:45] Speaker C: We all know someone like that. So in terms of distractions, we were at Thanksgiving last year, we hosted it with her family, my family and I shouldn't say, my family, my mother. Just my mom and her family. And they were talking about, oh, did you guys see the Thanksgiving Day Parade? And they were talking about Cher's hair. And I remember I told Emilia, I said, I can't. [00:38:09] Speaker D: I can't have a conversation about Cher's. [00:38:12] Speaker C: Hair, because in my head, and I'm not trying to be mean, I love her family, I love my mom. We're good. I cannot do that, whatever that is. Like, I can't put Cher's hair into my consideration set of what I'm going to think about. [00:38:26] Speaker D: There are problems in the world that. [00:38:28] Speaker C: Need to be solved. [00:38:29] Speaker D: And if you're putting focus on Cher's. [00:38:31] Speaker C: Hair, you are not contributing to your maximum potential. And the world needs you, and the world needs me. [00:38:38] Speaker D: And so as an engineer, it's very alarming for me to hear people talk for an hour and a half about Cher's hair. [00:38:42] Speaker C: And obviously it wasn't an hour and a half. It's probably 10 minutes. But for me, holiday, it felt like. [00:38:46] Speaker B: An hour and a half. [00:38:47] Speaker C: It felt like an hour and a half. Yeah. I just can't. It's. It's. It's. It's unintelligent. [00:38:52] Speaker D: It's an unintelligent use of resources, and that's just the facts. And again, everyone gets to choose for themselves. [00:38:58] Speaker C: But that's why I just kind of walk away. But ultimately, the point that I'm making is that was a distraction. [00:39:05] Speaker D: Cher's hair is a distraction. [00:39:07] Speaker C: It's a distraction from real work and helping real people in the real world. And even Cher doesn't probably care that much about her hair, so she's worried about her performances. And, you know, if Cher was concerned about other people's hair, she wouldn't be Cher. And that's the really. The important thing people need to understand. [00:39:25] Speaker D: Is you get what you focus on. [00:39:26] Speaker C: And. And most people don't focus on maybe, you know, the right core values. [00:39:31] Speaker D: And. [00:39:31] Speaker C: And again, I'm not going to be pretentious and. [00:39:34] Speaker D: And tell people what to focus on. [00:39:35] Speaker C: But what I will say is, if. [00:39:37] Speaker D: I didn't get in that car accident at 26 and really refocus on things. [00:39:41] Speaker C: That really matter and then consistently dial that in, I. I might be talking to know, I might be in too many rooms with people talking about Cher's hair. [00:39:50] Speaker B: Well, clearly you're not even tempted to be distracted by Cher's hair. You know, there's probably other things that you would be tempted to be distracted by. I guess those are the really kind of the insidious ones, the things that we are sort of tangentially interested in or that at a deeper or maybe at sort of a, you know, historical perspective, you know, from other times in our lives, things that maybe were important or, you know, encompassing. Those are the things, I think, that really distract us or I mean, you know, even, gosh, what happens when friends or family members are in the distraction category? You know, because if you're really hyper focused on achieving your goals, then there might be people or. Yeah, people in your life who would like to have more of your time, but then they get called a distraction. So what about the things that, you know, are either, you know, really enticing or the thing or the people that really want you to give them attention? [00:41:01] Speaker C: Yeah. So I had a close friend of mine at the time, his name was Nate, and he got married and he asked me to be his best man and, or in the groom, the party, the wedding party, I think it was best man actually, which I was very. [00:41:15] Speaker D: Honored and grateful for. And I remember I sent him. So he's from Newport beach, he's from here, but he moved across. [00:41:21] Speaker C: So I'm in Massachusetts, he's in California. And this was many years ago and this was when NLU Next level university was really starting to ramp up and we had a big team and again big, relatively speaking. I had never led a team of 20 plus people. [00:41:35] Speaker D: So for me, I was overwhelmed as. [00:41:36] Speaker C: Hell and I was still a young leader trying to learn how to lead. And he didn't fully understand and most people don't. And I, I understand why. You know, we had this, this graphic that I posted in 2023 of all the things we accomplished in 2023. And it, it was an exhausting list. And Kevin and I are committed. 10 out of 10, we're committed. And I think that if you're a business owner out there, you need to be the most committed. And I sent a long audio and I was very ashamed of this back then. [00:42:09] Speaker D: I'm not anymore. I actually think I need to do more of this. But I used to be such a social coward. [00:42:13] Speaker C: This was a really hard, you know, audio to send, which was, I can't. It was the middle of the week. He wanted me to go out there for the whole week and I said, brother. And I sent an audio saying, I got this, I got this, I got this, I got this, I got this, I got this, I got this. I, I'm sorry, I, I have to decline. I'm honored. [00:42:33] Speaker D: Thank you so much. [00:42:34] Speaker C: I really am. I just. [00:42:35] Speaker D: I just can't do it. [00:42:36] Speaker C: And that's just the truth of it. I'm not going to be able. And, you know, there was the bachelor. [00:42:41] Speaker D: Party, there was all this stuff, and. [00:42:42] Speaker C: Everyone who's ever been in a wedding, you know the deal. [00:42:45] Speaker D: And so I had to have the courage, the social courage to say no. [00:42:49] Speaker C: To something that was a. Maybe a 9 out of 10 to. [00:42:51] Speaker D: Make sure I focus on the 10 out of 10. And the hard truth is most people will villainize me for that. And he has. [00:42:58] Speaker C: He hasn't spoken to me since, and. [00:43:00] Speaker D: He might never speak to me again, to be completely honest. [00:43:02] Speaker C: And the truth is I have to. [00:43:04] Speaker D: Go into my spiritual calling and I. [00:43:06] Speaker C: Have to go into myself and say, I would, I have regretted it if I had neglected my priorities to go and do that. And the answer is I would have. The old me would have gone and then regretted it. [00:43:19] Speaker D: And that's the hard truth. [00:43:21] Speaker C: And that doesn't mean that I say no to everything. [00:43:23] Speaker D: It just means that I say no to the things that are not 10. [00:43:26] Speaker C: Out of 10 aligned. And so you have to give up. [00:43:28] Speaker D: Good to go for great. And that is a mathematical fact. [00:43:32] Speaker C: And here's the thing, I'm going to break this down. That appears selfish, but the truth is. [00:43:38] Speaker D: What if your goals are not selfish? [00:43:41] Speaker C: Next Level University is focused on helping people reach their potential and maximize their contribution. It's helping people retool for a bigger, better, brighter future. [00:43:52] Speaker D: Everything we do, you can research it. [00:43:54] Speaker C: You can look at nlu, you can look at what I do, you can look at what Kevin does, you can. [00:43:57] Speaker D: Look at the podcasts we produce. I work indirectly, directly with 61 podcasters, 27 business owners. [00:44:03] Speaker C: NLU, the team. [00:44:05] Speaker D: I'm indirectly, directly leading 114 people. [00:44:08] Speaker C: I calculated it recently. I think it's a little more than that now. [00:44:12] Speaker D: I'm trying to do as much good. [00:44:13] Speaker C: In the world as I possibly can. Yes, for a profit, but it's a. [00:44:17] Speaker D: It's a profit. [00:44:18] Speaker C: That's a win. Win, win, win, win, win, win. So a win for the community is a win for the company, is a. [00:44:24] Speaker D: Win for the team, is a win. [00:44:25] Speaker C: For the business owners, is a win for the world. [00:44:27] Speaker D: A lot of companies are maybe winning. [00:44:29] Speaker C: Profitably, but bad for people or bad. [00:44:31] Speaker D: For the environment or bad for whatever, right? [00:44:33] Speaker C: Cigarette companies are a great example of that. [00:44:35] Speaker D: A win for the company is not. [00:44:36] Speaker C: A win for humanity. [00:44:38] Speaker D: And that's just a fact, by the way. [00:44:40] Speaker C: So nlu, I believe, is solving a. [00:44:45] Speaker D: Problem in the world that is deeply important. Which is helping people focus on self improvement and reach their potential. Let us all sweep our own porch and the whole world will be clean, metaphorically. And so I have chosen to grow. [00:44:58] Speaker C: NLU at the expense of going to that wedding. [00:45:02] Speaker D: And while that appears selfish in the moment, I know that it's the most. [00:45:05] Speaker C: Selfless thing I can do, but no. [00:45:06] Speaker D: One will agree with me on that. So you have to understand that you have to become the villain sometimes in some people's lives if you're going to. [00:45:14] Speaker C: Actually be the reach your potential. [00:45:16] Speaker D: Olympic athletes have to say no to. [00:45:18] Speaker C: A lot of things. [00:45:19] Speaker D: The difference between an Olympic athlete and. [00:45:20] Speaker C: Me is that they have a better excuse, I guess, in other people's eyes. [00:45:26] Speaker B: How can people learn more? How can they find you? How can they reach out to next level universities? [00:45:33] Speaker C: So I started saying this recently because again, I'm not for everybody. And I get that. And I used to not get that. I used to hate that. But if you're humble and grateful and you have work ethic and grit and. [00:45:44] Speaker D: You want to earn your way to. [00:45:46] Speaker C: Both success and fulfillment, you're going to love us. [00:45:48] Speaker D: You can go to nextleveluniverse.com spelled just like it sounds. [00:45:51] Speaker C: You can go to next level university. We're on all the podcast platforms, we're on YouTube. You can reach out on Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn. And if you do, please just provide context because obviously, you know, we all get a lot of spam these days. If you are not humble, not grateful. [00:46:12] Speaker D: And you have any level of entitlement. [00:46:14] Speaker C: Where you want big rewards for minimal effort, you're going to hate me and you're going to hate everything we do at nlu. [00:46:19] Speaker D: And if you're looking for a quick. [00:46:21] Speaker C: Fix, you can go find it. You know, I'm sure there's plenty of people toting quick fixes out there that you can go to. [00:46:27] Speaker D: And the truth is I actually don't. [00:46:28] Speaker C: Want you to reach out if that's the case. But honestly, by this point, you've already. [00:46:32] Speaker D: Turned this off if that's the case. [00:46:33] Speaker C: So. [00:46:37] Speaker B: Well, Alan, for those of us still on either the recording or listening, thank you. I appreciate you taking the time. You know, as you described, you are, what, adequately overwhelmed or the phrase. And this has been great for me because it's really great for me to sort of see into your line of thinking and sort of how you look at success. And I hope that it is also valuable for those listening as well, because, you know, you are clearly an outlier. You know that you're an outlier. You're. You're, you know, at achievement levels that are very high. That's. That's where you categorize yourself. And so I think that it's value for people to either get a glimpse into your thinking or to be able to want to emulate it or to get there. And whatever the case, thanks for being here. Thanks for sharing your straight thoughts and definitely hope that you continue to achieve whatever it is that you're going to do next. I mean, I know you're not going to go take a nap. [00:48:13] Speaker C: I did. I did nap yesterday. But no. Thank you so much for having me. I. I want to sandwich everything I do in gratitude. And yeah, I am adequately overwhelmed, but I'm. I really don't take this lightly because I'm here. It's right here, written on my whiteboard. I know that this is my unique calling. Did it choose me or did I choose it? Maybe it's both. [00:48:32] Speaker D: But you are here to reach your own unique potential. [00:48:34] Speaker C: I underlined unique and help others do the same. [00:48:37] Speaker D: Everything else is secondary. [00:48:38] Speaker C: And so I know why I'm here. I know why I'm doing what I'm doing. And it took me a lot of. [00:48:43] Speaker D: Years, 30 years, to really get that level of clarity. And when you get clarity on who you are and what you want to achieve in this life, you will be fulfilled as a byproduct. And that's what the world needs more of, is more fulfilled human beings. [00:48:55] Speaker C: Because fulfilled people don't want to hurt people. They just want to see other people more fulfilled. And so there is a bigger, better, brighter future out there for anyone willing to take personal responsibility and willing to do the work. And there's resources like this. So I'm really grateful to be here. I really appreciate it and I don't take that lightly. So if you ever want to do it again, just say the word. [00:49:14] Speaker B: Fantastic. You bet. Thanks a lot. [00:49:17] Speaker A: Thank you for asking. What's worthwhile? Visit whatsworthwhile.net to learn more about me, Ramsey Zimmerman, and please provide your name and email. To become a supporter, I'm asking for prayer advice, feedback and connection. The what's Worthwhile podcast is on Spotify, Apple, Iheart and Amazon. You can also [email protected] thanks.