Focus On Talents: Finding Purpose & Self-Improvement - Kevin Palmieri's Journey to Next Level Success

🎙️ Welcome to another episode of Pathways with Amber Stitt! In this episode we have an incredibly inspiring conversation lined up with Kevin Palmieri, the founder and co-host of the Next Level University podcast. 

🌍 Kevin takes us through his fascinating journey from starting a podcast in 2017 to now producing 57 different shows with a global reach. 

🛏️ We'll dive into his personal battles, including facing suicidal ideations, and how he pivoted from a high-paying job that left him unfulfilled to becoming a successful entrepreneur. 

🤝 Kevin shares his insights on the importance of community, the challenges and rewards of consistency, and the significance of understanding one's core values and aspirations. 

💡 Whether you're a podcaster, an entrepreneur, or someone looking for motivation to pursue your dreams, this episode is packed with valuable advice and real-life lessons. 

🎧 Tune in and let's take action today!

Join us as we explore key topics including:

✨ The power of community and the importance of surrounding yourself with the right people.

✨ The role of consistency and showing up every day, even during tough times.

✨ The process of self-discovery and aligning your core values with your aspirations.

✨ Overcoming limiting beliefs and insecurities to realize your full potential.

✨ Tips and advice for aspiring podcasters looking to make their mark.

📽️ To watch this podcast: https://youtu.be/zQYiW9QtfaM

🔗 Resources & Links:

To learn more about Kevin Palmieri please visit:

📲 Website: www.NextLevelUniverse.com

📲 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/neverquitkid

📲 Podcast: https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/next-level-university-podcast

To learn more about Amber Stitt please visit:

📲 Website: www.AmberStitt.com

📲 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amber-stitt-acp-chfc%C2%AE-cltc%C2%AE-clu%C2%AE-gallup%C2%AE-1b186821/

📲 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amberstitt_

If you enjoyed this episode, please give it a thumbs up, leave a comment, and don't forget to subscribe to our channel for more enlightening conversations! 💬👍🔔

#Podcasting #SelfImprovement #KevinPalmieri #AmberStitt #NextLevelUniversity #PathwaysWithAmberStitt #Community #Consistency #PersonalDevelopment #Entrepreneurship #FindYourPurpose #FocusOnTalents

Transcript

Amber Stitt [00:00:00]:
Hello and welcome to Pathways. I am your host, Amber Stitt, and today we welcome Kevin Palmieri to the show today. Welcome, Kevin.

Kevin Palmieri [00:00:08]:
Thank you so very much for having me. If our conversation behind the scenes was any suggestion, I assume the conversation in front of the scenes will be wonderful as well.

Amber Stitt [00:00:16]:
Well, now they're going to want to know what we were talking about. Should we tell them?

Kevin Palmieri [00:00:20]:
Just life and decisions and all that stuff.

Amber Stitt [00:00:22]:
Well, what I was saying is I like the very straightforward, direct way of how you storytell and help people. You let people know if maybe something needs to stop, maybe something should be fixed or...I feel like, as I've watched your podcast, that you meet people where they're at and give reasonable advice, up to a certain point. We were talking about logic versus emotion, but I think you look at both sides and you figure that out with the person that you're helping, consistently. So I know that you do some consulting, and then you guys have a pretty popular podcast, so congrats on that.

Kevin Palmieri [00:00:55]:
Thank you.

Amber Stitt [00:00:56]:
You are founder and co host of the Next Level University podcast, but you also...is it coaching/consulting that you also do? You help people through...?

Kevin Palmieri [00:01:05]:
Yeah, it's elevated a lot. I started a podcast in 2017. Cause I wanted to have cool conversations with cool people. That was it. That was about as far as I had planned out with the mental mapping side of things. Then I ended up having suicidal ideations. Cause I was just so miserable at my job and the way my life was going, it just...I was not excited for what was gonna happen.

Kevin Palmieri [00:01:26]:
Left my full time job in 2018, and then I began the journey of being a very broke entrepreneur, trying to figure out how to do this.

Amber Stitt [00:01:34]:
Yeah.

Kevin Palmieri [00:01:34]:
So in the very beginning it was, we're a self-improvement podcast. We talk about self-improvement. Our audience probably would like to work with us in some capacity. That was the lowest hanging fruit to making money. And then from there, we've done group coaching, and we have a podcast production company, and a social media team now. And it's grown a lot, but at the end of the day, it is serving the clients needs, whatever they are, to the best of our abilities.

Amber Stitt [00:01:59]:
Okay. The first thing I noticed with podcasts, and you might have some stats on this, because you're really in this, you are pre-Covid. A lot of COVID people started their own podcasts or online other pivots during COVID. So you were before that time. What I didn't know is you were working somewhere else and had already started this and then there was a moment where you had to change some things up because of some personal battles like you were talking about. And so this is already established. So you were right before the surge. And I know that there was a big push for podcasts, and then people had to go back to work and some of them gave up.

Amber Stitt [00:02:32]:
And I know that you can help people continue on their vision for that if that's something that's important to them, or your team helps with that, right?

Kevin Palmieri [00:02:39]:
Yeah, I don't know the exact stat. I went to a podcast conference right after Covid, and people had assumed that the podcast industry was dying. And the reason they had that assumption is because things were so multiplied during COVID that the growth rate, year-to-year, was thrown off, and people just didn't understand that. So, yeah, people had more time. They had time to finally do the thing that they were pushing off, to finally do the thing that they were super passionate about. And we, yeah, we started in 2017. The YouTube thing wasn't as big.

Kevin Palmieri [00:03:10]:
The AI wasn't a thing. So we've had to grow and evolve and learn everything as we've gotten to this point. And we've done most things the hard way, and now we have the opportunity to do a lot of things the easy way with help of the things that are accessible to us. And, yeah, right now, we produce I think, 57 podcasts. So that is the majority of where my time goes at this point.

Amber Stitt [00:03:31]:
Now, is that where your current podcast has downloads all over the globe? Are your clients all over the globe as well?

Kevin Palmieri [00:03:38]:
Yeah. We have clients that are listened to in 100 plus countries. One client lives in Japan, Canada, east coast, west coast, all over the place. So we have really just tried to say, "Okay, what is the ball that has created the most momentum for us that we can never let slow down?" And that is the podcast for us. And we were talking about this in the preamble. We do an episode every day, and that is the thing that we will just never miss. That's it. We will just never miss that, because that is the 10 out of 10 important piece.

Kevin Palmieri [00:04:04]:
There are other things that we started, and we said, "This isn't as important as we thought," or, "This is even more valuable than we realized." So, yeah, at the end of the day, I am a podcaster at heart. I am working with podcasters. I get to do this eight times a week, at least, and I don't know how I got here. Amber, honestly, a lot of times I have to pinch myself because it's very...

Amber Stitt [00:04:24]:
That's awesome.

Kevin Palmieri [00:04:25]:
Yes.

Amber Stitt [00:04:25]:
Was there anything that was a catalyst in 2017, 2018 that just took this up to the, "I'm doing this more full time than ever." What was that?

Kevin Palmieri [00:04:34]:
I made six figures in 2017 at my job, and I had the assumption, as I think many of us have experienced, unfortunately, that more money was going to create less problems and more money was going to fix the internal stuff that I'd been pushing down for so long. After I opened my final pay stub and looked at the number, and I didn't get that flood of emotions, and there was no rainbows and there was no butterflies, and there was none of that good stuff I was expecting. I realized that for most of my life, and especially that year, I had lived unconsciously. I don't know why I'm doing what I'm doing. Just going through the motions, really. The opposite of unconscious is hyper-conscious. So that, for me was, "I'm going to start a podcast called the Hyper-Conscious podcast, where I help people change the way they think, change the way they act, and change the way they live."

Kevin Palmieri [00:05:25]:
So that was the very beginning. So I started the show. I fell in love with it. I now hate my job. I don't want to do it anymore. I'm over it. I've reached the pinnacle, quote, unquote. And just for context, Amber, my job required a lot of travel.

Kevin Palmieri [00:05:38]:
So the year that I made the most money, I spent ten months living in hotels.

Amber Stitt [00:05:42]:
Okay. And I thought, I remember hearing that in one of your interviews.

Kevin Palmieri [00:05:44]:
Yeah.

Amber Stitt [00:05:45]:
Or, you've shared that multiple times. And so there's just a glamorous thing. I'm traveling, going to write things off on the corporate card, or whatever it is, and dinners, but it can be very lonely and just...you're not comfortable, and at times you're not resting well, and it's just different vibe.

Kevin Palmieri [00:05:59]:
Well, and we weren't traveling well either. We were not staying in the Ritz Carlton. We were staying in not so nice places. Needles, blood on the floor, that type of stuff. It wasn't an ideal situation. I was homesick because I'd pack my bag on Sunday, and I'd be gone until Saturday morning, and that was my life. My mental health was taking a turn.

Kevin Palmieri [00:06:19]:
My physical health, to your point, was taking a turn. And that all culminated in me waking up one morning in a hotel room and just thinking to myself, if I was just to take my life, I would take my problems with me, and I would not have to deal with any of this crap. I ended up texting my friend, who is now my business partner. He gave me some very sage advice, "Kev, your awareness has changed a ton, which is amazing, but your environments have remained the same. I think it's time for you to change your environment." So that was the kick in the butt for me to say, "Okay, I now have someone who wants to go into business with me. He's a podcaster, he's a speaker, he's into self-improvement.

Kevin Palmieri [00:06:56]:
He's my best friend at this point." That gave me the safety and the permission to say, "All right, were going to take a chance on this." And having that, just that dark moment, that helplessness, that hopelessness, that was the last thing for me. There's really nowhere else to go from there other than the unfortunate decision that a lot of us unfortunately make.

Amber Stitt [00:07:14]:
We focus a lot on community. Its part of five steps that I like to focus on within the podcast. We wont go into them in full today. Really want to hang out with that community aspect. And to me, community, people might think of it like, "Well, I go to church or I have this one other thing I do with a group of people." But community, we're talking about a number of things. You have this friend group that wants to build business with you. You have podcasters all over the world, and there's a community there.

Amber Stitt [00:07:39]:
And then we have social and other things. Community can really be so amazing and helpful. It can mentor you or you can become that for somebody else. And there's just like this energy that comes from it. And can you speak to that a bit where you felt like at some point there was some limitations, limiting beliefs, but hanging around certain people help pull you out of that. It's kind of interesting sometimes where you're like...I've had someone even check me like about scaling a business and doing some leadership. "You can do this." I'm like, "No, I don't want to."

Amber Stitt [00:08:06]:
And they're like, "You're limiting." And I was like, "Oh," but how important is it to have solid people? They're not always going to be solid every day because they can have rough days, too. But it's so important to have a good community. Would you agree?

Kevin Palmieri [00:08:16]:
Yeah, 100% success is hard enough. Never mind if you're doing it with people who don't want to see you succeed and that happens, it's unfortunate. It's not always a negative thing. Some people are just afraid that you're going to outgrow them and leave them behind and they just want to hang on to you. And transparently, Amber, I've been that guy. I had a partner who was very ambitious. Long before I was capable of supporting it, I wanted to hold her back. She left me as she should have and she went and chased her dreams.

Kevin Palmieri [00:08:41]:
But I think a lot of us are looking for permission from the people around us, for them to say, "Look, go do you go do what it is that is going to fill you up. Don't worry about me. Yeah, we might spend less time together, but I genuinely want what's best for you," and the community that you really want to have is the type of people who want you to succeed regardless of them. I think that is the best community in the world. I want you to win because just because you win doesn't mean I have to lose. Doesn't take anything away from me. That is something that I am always aspiring to and that's who I'm aspiring to be. But that requires confidence and that requires certainty in yourself and that requires self belief.

Kevin Palmieri [00:09:20]:
So having the right people around you is going to create opportunities for you that you might not even feel like you're ready for yet. But if you believe those people and you trust those people and you feel safe around those people, you're going to do things that you may have never done before and therefore you're going to get results that you may have never gotten before. And then it becomes this perpetual cycle of growth. And I think that's self-improvement in a nutshell.

Amber Stitt [00:09:41]:
Yeah. There's a group of females that I'm about two years now, we're all over the nation, but we're really close. And there's some things that we do, share business professionally, thought leadership that not many of our friends even understand. And one of them just won another award in this industry. And my other friend was like, "I'm jealous of her in a good way." I want more for her and I'll let her know, "Hey, I'm jealous you're on another stage. What the heck, you know?" But there's no competition against it. It's genuine, like, "You look good on stage.

Amber Stitt [00:10:10]:
Love that suit. And you went and did something else." And there's a bigger community of us that are just so supportive and I didn't always have that.

Kevin Palmieri [00:10:19]:
Yeah.

Amber Stitt [00:10:19]:
And I know we were talking about teams, too, and sometimes there's some interesting dynamics, but really trying to pour in and support others and give them positive feedback, they're going to be different than you, but celebrate people. It's interesting what that can do, and a lot of strategic partnerships can come from some of these great conversations, but truly reflecting on are you supporting others around you and really try harder to kind of let people know? It's interesting how it can be reciprocating when you have good core people around you.

Kevin Palmieri [00:10:50]:
Core values, core beliefs, and core aspirations. If you have those in alignment with the people around you, I would argue that you're going to be in a pretty good place. Whether it's partners, so my wife and I have very similar of those. My business partner and I, we're very similar there. The team, we're very similar there, the people around us. So yeah, core beliefs, core values, and core aspirations. If you can align all three of those, I would say you're going to be off to the races. But it's the opposite as well.

Kevin Palmieri [00:11:16]:
If you're somebody who values health and fitness and longevity, and the people around you don't, and they're making fun of you for having whatever it is you're doing, that's kind of a recipe for some sort of long-term resistance between the two of you. Just put it that way.

Amber Stitt [00:11:32]:
That happens all the time. And if you're taking it down to these core values, that's, I'll call it, agnostic. It's a framework, it's something that you can't be upset about. If personalities are different but your core values are aligned, you can kind of have that awareness between what is going to fill up the cup of somebody else, even, like the seven love languages...Whatever it is that you study, you can work through by training yourself to work on awareness of other people's personality types, or what makes them thrive. But if the core values aren't there, there's an issue and you can't ever really fix that.

Amber Stitt [00:12:02]:
If you believe in one thing and someone's opposite, there's probably not going to be a smooth relationship of any kind. And I know you talk about consistency and success, and I think that if you have that core framework and then you're really consistently true to that, whether it's just your beliefs or personal branding or how you show up, can you speak about that? Just how that's translated into your business being as consistent as possible? Because every day is not always roses, right?

Kevin Palmieri [00:12:28]:
No, unfortunately, not. I would say that is one of our unique skills and our unique talents. So my business partner and I both come from fitness bodybuilding backgrounds. It doesn't get much more concrete than you have to go to the gym consistently and do the things you want to do in order to get stronger and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We made a pact with one another in the very beginning that we would never miss an episode, no matter what. And the other beautiful thing about that is we started saying that publicly. So our audience and our community and the listeners of the podcast have heard that so many times that they expect us to be there. So we have so much necessity, so much accountability built-in, and now it is part of the identity of not just who I am as a human, but who we are as a brand. We all have that person that we follow.

Kevin Palmieri [00:13:15]:
Maybe it's on YouTube. And they're supposed to drop a new video every Tuesday. And if they start missing, you're going to go look somewhere else. You have to. The best example of this, Amber, my wife and I were away one weekend, and we were looking on Google Maps, or Yelp, or whatever it was, for a place to go eat. So we Uber downtown. We go to this restaurant, and it was closed.

Kevin Palmieri [00:13:35]:
I don't know what happened that day, but that restaurant was closed. We still needed to eat, so we went to another restaurant, unfortunately, and this is kind of the way it works, that restaurant lost two potential clients, maybe forever. I don't know if I'll ever go back there. I like the other restaurant. I'm probably just gonna go back to the other restaurant. So consistency for us is. It's a superpower to show up every day and make sure people understand,

Kevin Palmieri [00:13:58]:
"Look, if I'm gonna tell you, you can get a little bit better every day, the least I can do is show up every day to help you get there."

Amber Stitt [00:14:03]:
Yeah. So, I mean, where'd you go eat?

Kevin Palmieri [00:14:07]:
I don't remember the name of it. It was a very similar restaurant. It was just different. But I think that's a great example of consistency.

Amber Stitt [00:14:12]:
I'm teasing you.

Kevin Palmieri [00:14:13]:
I know.

Amber Stitt [00:14:14]:
Okay, so if someone's going to have a successful podcast, do they need to drop daily?

Kevin Palmieri [00:14:18]:
No. I would never, ever recommend 99.999% of the population to do daily episodes.

Amber Stitt [00:14:26]:
And I think you're pretty honest when I've heard you share, "It's a rough week. We had to cancel some things because we had priority shift." And you obviously have this as a thing that's foundational.

Kevin Palmieri [00:14:36]:
Yeah, I'll be very transparent. I got a text right before this. My wife's grandmother passed away. I got the text two minutes before we sat down, and I'm supposed to be recording until 10:00 p.m. tonight. I have no idea what's gonna happen now.

Amber Stitt [00:14:52]:
Okay.

Kevin Palmieri [00:14:52]:
I'm not sure. I might be recording until midnight tomorrow.

Amber Stitt [00:14:56]:
Yeah.

Kevin Palmieri [00:14:56]:
I don't know. When you sign up to do something every single day, in a way, you have to put yourself second. Unfortunately, that's why I say it's not for everybody because I'm going to have to put myself second in order to get everything done that we need to get done. I'm privileged. I call it privileged pressure. I do not want any emotions about that. This is what I signed up for. But that's why I also advise,

Kevin Palmieri [00:15:21]:
one episode a week is great for most people and it's a great place to stay.

Amber Stitt [00:15:24]:
I've had people say to me, and I'll explain the busyness, or I'll set parameters and let people know expectations, "Look, I'm going to be recording. I'm not going to be checking my phone. I'm not going to be texting you back about this matter today." I'll tell my family that a lot. If we're organizing something that's just not priority, but the texts keep going. I have some people say, "You need to slow down a little bit. You need to...life goes so fast, and then you're going to get to this age and then you're going to..."

Amber Stitt [00:15:46]:
And I have to tell them kindly, "I've chosen these projects. These are important to me. I wouldn't wake up at 4:45, or whatever I do some days, to get some of these things done before my kid wakes up if I didn't want to." And it makes me want to wake up because it's something that you want and that you kind of love to do. So whatever it is for somebody, I think that's your point, is your privilege. Like, I chose this life and everyone on the team, spouse, etcetera, they understand. And it's just putting some boundaries out there, I suppose, for the other things that need to go on the later list. And sometimes things do.

Kevin Palmieri [00:16:21]:
You have to be very honest with the people around you. Because I've lost friends that just didn't understand and they felt like I was selfish. I've experienced that for sure. But even to the point of giving advice, one of the reasons I try to give advice the way I give advice is because I realize that most people don't want the level of goals I do. So they never should do the things that I do.

Amber Stitt [00:16:42]:
That's what I picked up from you. It wasn't like you're not going to be successful if you don't do things like me, but you can be here, but here's some other tips. And that's really what I appreciate, and I guess I can't articulate it fully, but where I was going with this is I recently worked with a panel of women at a conference, and I moderated, and everyone wants to know all the warm, fuzzy things. And then these girls were like, "No, if you want more membership and you want some growth and you want to innovate for the next generation, you need to talk about what's not working and make some changes." And it was like, "Let's get real." And here's what's not fun, and you find where you want to be, what you want to be a part of, and have that awareness there.

Kevin Palmieri [00:17:18]:
It's the truth. It's just giving the truth. I said that to my wife last night. I said, "You should never be an entrepreneur. I don't want that for you. You would be miserable. You would not do well. This is not for you.

Kevin Palmieri [00:17:28]:
This is not the type of person you want to be." This is my new thought. I don't know if it's harder wanting something and never getting there. Wanting something, getting there and then realizing it's not what you wanted in the first place. I'm trying to help people avoid that second thing where, I've met a lot of people who say, "I want to have a podcast like yours." I will give you the keys to the kingdom tomorrow, and you can test it out for a week and see if you like it.

Kevin Palmieri [00:17:52]:
If you don't like it and you try to live your life the same way I do, even if you end up successful, you're going to be miserable. Going back to core beliefs, core values, and core aspirations. That's everything.

Amber Stitt [00:18:02]:
It's got to be custom built for the person.

Kevin Palmieri [00:18:04]:
100%. Yeah, it has to be.

Amber Stitt [00:18:06]:
Yeah. I work in insurance planning, and there's companies that will just say, "The software says this, so you need this because of the data." Well, what do you want in the future with things that haven't even happened yet that haven't been recorded? Based upon the software and the data, there's unprecedented times coming. So how do you want to have resilience in life? You need to know to the core why you are doing certain things. And if you don't know yet, I think some of the experiences are okay to go through them that then shine a light on it. And so you talked about self-awareness. Was there anything special, specifically that was super helpful to get you to this point that you integrated into your life? I know you talked about fitness. But is there anything else?

Kevin Palmieri [00:18:45]:
Yeah. I am a man who is wildly insecure, far less than ever. I'm very comfortable in myself now, but there were so many conversations where I would run up against someone who has confidence and I would immediately villainize them and I would say, "This person is bad because they're confident and they're sure of themselves and they have results." The truth of the matter is, I was just super insecure in who I was as a man. That was one of the hardest things ever to overcome because I had so many opportunities to villainize successful people, because we interviewed a lot of successful people. So that limiting belief of not being smart enough, not being good enough, that has been the hardest thing to overcome for me from a self-awareness standpoint.

Kevin Palmieri [00:19:30]:
Is this a Kevin issue, or is this a them issue? Let me sit with this and see what lands. That, humbly has been one of the hardest things for me.

Amber Stitt [00:19:38]:
And I'll joke about, I mean, we've met in a certain environment here, but I can be big energy, talk a lot, kind of, let's make things happen, strategic thinking always, so I can wear people out. And looking back, I had people that would, I guess the word villainize, but, even in high school, I had a lot of females that would...and if I walked confidently...I had lots of friends from all different friend groups. I was, I thought, nice to as many people as I...but in my group, there weren't always girls that were like that. They were the mean girls. That was around that time of "Dazed & Confused", and whatever else. I now know it's okay to have my big energy and just have the awareness. Maybe turn it off in certain environments. But if I'm here and I'm brought here for me to be me, let's not downplay it.

Amber Stitt [00:20:20]:
And if people are kind of rejecting, or acting off, maybe it's just a personality thing. Maybe they need to process and have more intellection first. So I've had some growth with that, with the Gallup StrengthsFinder, but not downplaying it, because usually it's someone else's issues. There's something else going on, but, still stand true to who you are.

Kevin Palmieri [00:20:38]:
Yeah.

Amber Stitt [00:20:38]:
And within your talents.

Kevin Palmieri [00:20:40]:
You're a walking, talking mirror, and everybody is going to see something different in the mirror. And unfortunately, some people will be triggered by it. But now I just try to have empathy, because I've been on the other side.

Amber Stitt [00:20:50]:
Yeah.

Kevin Palmieri [00:20:50]:
So I know what it's like to be there. So I often say and I joke, I don't know if 22 year-old Kevin would like 34 year-old Kevin. I think I'd probably look at him and say he's arrogant and he's this and this. I understand why he would think that.

Amber Stitt [00:21:04]:
Yeah.

Kevin Palmieri [00:21:05]:
And I have empathy for that because I've been there.

Amber Stitt [00:21:07]:
Well, but the vulnerability there is building connections with people because maybe everyone's gone through some passage, some different variation in their season.

Kevin Palmieri [00:21:16]:
Yeah.

Amber Stitt [00:21:17]:
And they can connect with you that way. And so that's where you probably have a lot of success, is sharing the truth behind the story. Would you tell your 22 year-old self something different if you're thinking about today? I mean, we've talked about that a little bit. Is there anything else? You're just like, "Man, if I would have known this." Because we have a lot of talented younger people coming into the world creating things, not waiting for college. I mean, there's so much going on that some of the older generation tease them and mock them and, "Oh, they're on their phones all the time." I'm like, "They're going to be changing a lot of things up." Yeah, I'm really excited for it.

Amber Stitt [00:21:49]:
So if we could motivate the next generation, the 22 year-old, those out there, what would you say? Maybe from a lesson that you've learned.

Kevin Palmieri [00:21:57]:
I would probably say something along the lines of, what you just spoke to is just because there's other people who can't see it, does not mean it's not going to exist in 20 years. When I was growing up, if you played video games too often, you got made fun of. A lot of the people in my age range now make millions of dollars playing video games and have sponsorships and get flown all over the world and are very successful. So, yeah, if you believe in something and you really love it and you're really good at it, and it brings you joy, double, triple, quadruple down on that and work on your self-awareness. External success is not going to bring internal fulfillment. It just. It doesn't work that way, right? It doesn't.

Kevin Palmieri [00:22:35]:
So work on the external skills of accomplishment and achievement and all that stuff, but work on the internal stuff of self-love and self-awareness and self-belief and self-worth. Become as well rounded as you can in the internal and external world, even if you specialize in something.

Amber Stitt [00:22:51]:
Yeah, focusing on talents, that's my foundational step. And there was a couple times recently where I did some big projects. I was pretty excited and my family was just like, "Okay, whatever." They didn't read what I put together, and I was surprised, but I said, "It's kind of a bummer," but I got to this next level and I'm not so scared of this thing, and I want to do it again. And it was something I had to go through. But if you know what your purpose is there, and I talk about this a lot in other podcasts about just some of the older generation going through their retirement, or whatever that traditionally is, or was. If they don't know what their purpose was outside of their jobs, we really got to keep working on the awareness and communication skills because that's our competitive edge, and that's how we can build our communities out and figure out who we want to be around.

Kevin Palmieri [00:23:33]:
The stuff that you think about before you go to bed, you think about your purpose, you think about what you're supposed to be doing, how fulfilled you are. It's a different world and it's a different journey when you feel personally connected to the mission. I used to think it was all woo-woo. What do you mean purpose, and passion, and mission? It makes sense to me now, but I do understand why it didn't before. This is my favorite question for this, "If you had to do something, and you didn't have to worry about money, but you had to do something in the service of others, in the improvement of the world, in the improvement of the environment, for the betterment of humanity, what would it be?" I think that's a really good place to start.

Kevin Palmieri [00:24:11]:
But then we have to tie in the self-belief and self-worth because, Amber, I think a lot of people have an idea of what their purpose is. They get lost when it comes to connecting it to a vehicle that's viable.

Amber Stitt [00:24:21]:
Sure.

Kevin Palmieri [00:24:21]:
Right. The vehicle is the profitable, sustainable thing. The purpose is the thing inside that nobody else can see. If you can marry those two, then you're in a good spot.

Amber Stitt [00:24:29]:
Well, I think that's the perfect place to land for today. I will link up how to find you, but let's just have you share for those that are just listening. Where can people check you out? Keep following you.

Kevin Palmieri [00:24:39]:
I appreciate that very much. I always suggest the podcast, just search "Next Level University". You'll either like us, or you won't like us. We do a lot of content, so you'll know pretty quickly. And then questions, comments, concerns about anything, podcasting, whatever it may be. My handle on Instagram is "neverquitkid", and that is the platform that I'm most responsive on.

Amber Stitt [00:24:59]:
All right, I'll give you a follow here when we're done, my friend. Thank you so much. I'm so excited that you could come hang-out and I'll keep watching what you're up to and what you participate in. So really appreciate it.

Kevin Palmieri [00:25:09]:
I appreciate it.

Amber Stitt [00:25:10]:
See you soon.

Kevin Palmieri [00:25:11]:
Bye.

Amber Stitt [00:25:12]:
Thank you for joining us on this episode of Pathways. For more information about the podcast, books, articles, the blog, and so much more, please visit my website at: www.AmberStitt.com And remember, let's take action today! Thank you for listening!