July 16, 2025 • 37 mins
In this episode we a joined by Alan Lazaros, a podcaster, computer engineer, coach and CEO of Next Level University to discuss the importance of systems in achieving success. Alan shares his personal journey from overcoming childhood adversity and family loss to finding his calling after a life-changing car accident. We discuss the significance of tracking habits, reverse engineering goals, and embracing tough love to build a successful and fulfilling life. Whether it's fitness, career, or personal growth, Alan's insights provide practical tools and encouragement for viewers to create systems that lead to the life they desire.
Thank you for listening and for adding new dimensions to your definitions. Keep growing, keep exploring, and keep defining life on your terms.
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Sanika is a storyteller, communicator, and creator passionate about exploring self-discovery, culture, and the power of words. With a background in technology and marketing communications; she has built a platform dedicated to authentic conversations that inspire growth, challenge perspectives, and amplify voices.
As the host of How Do You Divine?, she invites listeners to redefine meaning, embrace transformation, and navigate life—one word at a time. Her mission? To create space for reflection, empowerment, and deeper connections through storytelling.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sanika (01:14):
Welcome to this episode of How Do You Divine, and today
we are speaking to Alan Lazarethand we are going to explore the
word system.
Alan, thank you so much forbeing here.
Alan (01:26):
Thank you for having me.
I started listening to podcasts10 years ago and they really
helped me reorchestrate my lifein a much more positive
direction.
So now I'm a podcaster who getsto help people with that, and
I'm super pumped.
So thank you so much.
I do not take it lightly.
I will not waste a second ofanyone's time.
I.
Sanika (01:42):
I love that.
I love the, the amount ofintentionality in everything
that you do.
So I just first wanted to giveyou your flowers there and in
many of our discussions, I lovethe way your brain thinks it's
very different.
Right.
Um, I feel like I've had so manyleft brain people on the
podcast, but why I wanted totalk to you about systems today
(02:03):
is I think your definition ofwhat a good system and what a
system is have evolved over yourjourney.
Right.
Just as.
Human being, so let's just givethe audience a little early days
of who is Alan?
Who is Alan as a child?
Who is Alan as the engineer?
Who is Alan as the.
Alan (02:22):
Who is Alan as the child?
Hmm.
Uh, okay.
So I will try to condense 36years into three minutes.
Which is very hard to do.
I I guarantee you, it'll be morethan three minutes, but, so my
story in a nutshell, as brief asI can give it, one of the
interesting things about my lifenow is I kind of look a little
(02:45):
bit like a silver spooner, likesomeone who is born on third
base and I, I playfully joke, Icouldn't even see the ballpark.
Sanika (02:53):
Aw.
Alan (02:54):
Yeah.
So.
Do you have an explicit show, bythe way?
I wanna be
Sanika (02:59):
Yes.
Yes, we do.
Alan (03:00):
Okay.
So you can't even see thefucking ballpark.
Um, again, I won't overdo it,but I think it's important to
emphasize.
So, 36 years old now.
Very, very grateful to be whereI am today, but I started off in
a, a really small town, born andraised in Massachusetts, small
minded town.
I playfully refer to it as theBoulevard of Broken Dreams.
(03:23):
Yeah, not great.
Not great.
When I was two years old, mybirth father passed away when he
was 28.
This is 1991 in a car.
Suddenly I had a stepfathernamed Steve Lazarus from age
three to 14, so I took his lastname around age seven.
Sanika (03:40):
Yeah.
Alan (03:41):
My real name is Alan McCorkle.
John McCorkle was my father.
It was Jim, Joe, John Jane,Joan, Jeanette, six Jays big
Irish Catholic family,
Sanika (03:50):
Yeah.
Alan (03:51):
and.
From three to 14, I had astepfather named Steve.
He worked for Agfa, A GFA.
They did hospital computersduring the.com era from
basically 1992 all the way to2003, he left my family in 2003,
took his entire extended familywith him.
(04:11):
To this day, I've never seen orspoken to a single one of them
since.
Sanika (04:15):
Wow.
Alan (04:16):
Yeah, and we weren't associating much with the
McCarcos anymore because we weretrying to be the Lazarus.
My mom and stepdad did not getalong.
That's a polite way to put it.
Holy crap.
Holy crap.
And uh, it's funny now the timewasn't, but from the outside
looking in, we looked like therich family because we did very
well in the nineties.
Most people did.
(04:36):
In the US us is the largesteconomy by far.
Uh, and in the.com bubble, itwas very much economic boom
times.
So we had.
A yacht.
We had a BMW.
We had snowmobiles.
We had boats and ski trips.
It was a whole thing.
So from the outside in, itlooked like we were wealthy from
the inside out.
Not good.
Not good.
Sister moves out.
(04:57):
Same year my stepdad leaves.
Same year my mom gets in a fightwith my Aunt Sandy, her sister.
We get ostracized from her sideof the family.
To this day, I've only seen orspoken to two people from my
mother's side.
So by the time I'm 14 years old,I kind of lost three full
families.
Sanika (05:15):
Wow.
Alan (05:16):
We reassociate a bit with the McCool and it, but it was
never really
Sanika (05:20):
The same.
Alan (05:21):
Yeah, it was never the same.
That's the truth.
And for them it was like seeinga ghost.
'cause I looked just like my dadI guess.
But anyways, um, I had twotrauma responses to that.
There's four trauma responses.
There's fight, flight, freeze,and Fawn.
I'm sure you're aware of allthose.
I think we talked about it.
Fawn is appease.
So I became this, I thinkGoodwill hunting's kind of a
(05:42):
good metaphor for my life.
We, I became this sort of socialcoward who just didn't wanna
lose anybody.
And so hang on to friends andfamily.
I'll be whatever you chameleon,be whatever you need.
Uh, don't challenge anyone,just, just stay.
But, but behind the scenes whenno one was watching, it was
fight.
It was aim higher, work harder,get smarter, aim higher, work
(06:04):
harder, get smarter, aim higher,work harder, get smarter.
Prove myself because I'm worthy.
Sanika (06:11):
of the things.
Alan (06:12):
Yeah.
The things, so I achieved, I gotthe Presence Award.
It's behind me, signed by GeorgeW.
Bush, straight A's through allof high school because when my
stepdad left, we went from boatsand ski trips to now I get free
lunch at school'cause our incomeis so low.
My mom trades in her BMW for alittle Honda Civic.
How are we gonna keep the housein the family?
No generational wealth, no trustfund, no Dad, we're in some
(06:32):
trouble here.
My dream college was WPI, wisherPolytechnic Institute.
It was$50,000 a year and this isback then.
So I went from my hope I get into, even if I do get in, I can't
go.
Sanika (06:43):
Yeah, who's gonna pay for that?
Alan (06:44):
Got all the scholarships and financial aid, got all the
awards, my many awards, straightA's through all of high school,
going to co.
So I did the traditional path.
I promise it to be threeminutes.
It's gonna be more than that,but.
Huh?
Kindergarten, preschool.
Preschool, kindergarten,elementary school, middle
school, high school, college,corporate.
I did that traditional path andI crushed it in corporate.
(07:07):
So I was used to being broke inhigh school and college when my
stepdad laughed.
So once I got to corporate, itwas like, whoa.
Computer engineer with amaster's in business.
I went from 65 a year to 85 ayear, 85 to 1 0 5, 1 0 5 to 1
25, 1 25 to 180 grand a year inmy early twenties.
Paid off 84 grand worth of debtin a single year,$150,000 in a
Vanguard account.
(07:28):
Just picking stocks, techcompanies, all these different
tech companies.
And then I get in my caraccident,
Sanika (07:33):
Mm.
Alan (07:34):
I'm 26, head on collision.
My fault, my little cousin, oneof the two people that came back
from my mom's side, my littlecousin, Dan and I were in the
car.
Volkswagen Passat saved my lifetotally.
So.
I bought that car in five grandcash and we hit a lift kitted
pickup truck.
My fault crossed the doubleyellows.
Not a fender bender.
(07:54):
Definitely a hefty accident, butthat was 10 years ago and that,
fortunately, none of us werephysically, permanently damaged.
We were okay.
Definitely rattled, but okay.
Both airbags deployed.
Frame stayed.
That is.
Some people have a job, somepeople have a career, some
people have a calling.
That's when I found my calling.
That's when I found personaldevelopment, personal growth,
(08:15):
self-improvement, mental health.
That's when I started focusingon fulfillment more than just
external success.
That was 10 years ago, and Idialed personal development up
to 11, and I just, every singleday since have been working on
myself physically, mentally,emotionally, and spiritually.
And now I have a company thathelps people reach their
(08:35):
potential through.
Becoming healthier, wealthier,and more in love.
And so who is Alan?
Uh, someone who had tremendousadversity, more than I can
possibly describe on thismedium.
And who had dealt with a lot ofabandonment and loss and somehow
overcame that and decided tobecome more through it.
(08:57):
Not always alcohol, drugs, likeI had some struggles too, but I
definitely always aimed higher,worked harder and got smarter
and it.
It's unbelievable how good mylife is now.
Like it's, it's unreal comparedto where I started and so I'm
very grateful and yeah, sothat's, I guess, the best answer
I can give.
Sanika (09:16):
I know and I love that answer.
'cause it, it didn't need to bethree minutes.
It was, it was all, each minutewas spent very substantially,
which is more important.
And every, when he was goingthrough that story, I started
thinking of what was Alanthinking at those times?
Right?
I feel like we all have copingmechanisms and we all have ways
of like kind of moving throughthe day.
(09:36):
Right.
But I always feel like ashumans, we have systems, we have
patterns, we have things thatkeep us.
Sitting up tall or even leaningover and, and failing ourselves.
Alan (09:48):
Yeah.
Sanika (09:48):
So you said 10 years ago you readjusted that system.
You said, you know, I'm makingmoney.
I did the things, I went throughadversity.
You know, look at me now.
But then even with all of thesethings you said, no, I still
need, I need to elevate thesethings won't make me who I am.
Right.
So tell me a little bit aboutyour daily system.
(10:11):
Post pre-accident,post-accident.
Alan (10:15):
So pre-accident, it was all metrics and corporate and
career.
I, I always was super careeroriented.
I always had big goals anddreams, and I think a lot of
people mirrored that.
So I lived in this echo chamberof thinking everyone did.
And now in hindsight it's veryclear they were just talking.
Um, I don't want to be mean, butit, statistically speaking, most
people just don't achieve theirgoals and dreams.
(10:37):
They just don't.
And that makes me sad, which iswhy that's what I do for a
living now.
But after the accident, Istarted these, I have these
little black notebooks in thecorner of my office over here,
and I started tracking habits,and people always ask me what's
the best habit I.
I think it's tracking habits andevery one of my clients, I have
(10:59):
20 people I coach currently.
One is four times a week, two orthree times a week, and then
it's biweekly, weekly and acouple monthly.
They're all different businessowners from all over the world.
Different backgrounds, differentcultures, different ethnicities,
different industries.
It's been tremendous and it'sbeen 10 years basically.
I, I always say I've beenmentoring for 10 years, coaching
for eight.
Basically, I started gettingpaid
Sanika (11:18):
Yeah.
Alan (11:19):
and.
The one thing that is in commonwith all of them is that they
all track metrics and habits,and I started tracking metrics
and habits.
And so when you say system, Iwanna give a visual for
everybody.
So picture a square, uh,rectangle, rectangle, not a
(11:40):
square.
And in the upper left is theinput.
This is the what you say, think,do, feel and believe.
To make this simple, Icomplexify everything to make
this simple.
It's what you do.
So let's say you do exercisetoday.
Okay?
That's due.
That's the input.
The output is you're going toburn calories, you're gonna feel
better, you're gonna haveneurochemistry, then you down
(12:03):
here.
So upper left is due.
Upper right is output.
So input, output, then it'smeasure, and then adjust.
So we have a 10 pound and 10week challenge going on right
now.
We have 41 days left.
We have a fitness group with 43people in it, little community,
the next level fitnessaccountability group.
And so we essentially, what youdo impacts it's, it's cause and
(12:27):
effect.
I don't think a lot of peopleunderstand cause of an effect
and probabilities andstatistical outcomes.
It's all math based.
Every reaction has an equal andopposite reactions.
Another way to say this, but forme, everything's reverse
engineerable.
There's.
Sanika (12:42):
'cause you're such an engineer, but like, you know
what I mean?
Such an engineer, the way yousay that.
But like when you said, I don'tthink a lot of people want to
achieve their goals andaspirations.
I actually believe the opposite.
I think a lot of people do wannaachieve their goals and
Alan (12:56):
No, they want to, but they don't end up doing it.
Sanika (12:58):
They don't end up doing it because of the, if you ask
me, it's the systems.
It's because in order for you toactually achieve your goals and
aspirations, you have to be realwith yourself first.
Alan (13:12):
Agreed.
Sanika (13:13):
Like you have to say like something as simple as
fitness, right?
Because I think when we look atthe physicality of things, to me
that's like so easy.
It's so easy to buy a niceshirt, so easy to do your hair,
so easy to like really.
with the, the on outward things,right?
But it's like, are you reallygoing to walk every day?
(13:33):
Are you going to drink water?
Are you like, are, that to me iswhen a system is truly
evaluated.
When you say, what am I doingevery day towards my goal?
Am I doing anything today thatfuture me will be excited about
or happy about?
Alan (13:50):
That's, I always joke with Kev, my business partner,'cause
he doesn't think in engineeringterms as much as I do.
said, you can't say I want tobuild a million dollar company
and then go to the beach.
And he's like, people do thatall the time.
And it's like, yeah, but that'slike me saying, Hey, I wanna
build a, I wanna build thisiPhone I'm on.
If you're on YouTube, I wannabuild this phone.
(14:12):
And then you just like gogardening.
They have nothing to do witheach other.
Every, everything.
And again, I'm, I'm very intensewith this.
Sanika (14:23):
Yeah.
Alan (14:24):
You, if you have an outcome that you want to create
in your future, and by the way,your future self matters more
than your present self, I knowthat that's not popular.
Let me explain why pretty soonyour future self is gonna be
your present self.
And by the way, I am a byproductof the future.
I'm trying to create.
Sanika (14:42):
Mm.
Alan (14:44):
The only reason this episode's even reasonably good
is'cause I've done 10,766 othersnow of coaching, training, and
podcasting.
I wanna make this clear.
It's not all podcasts, but 10years ago, I started tracking
the number of coaching sessions,training slash speeches and
podcasts that I was doing.
I've tracked them for 10 years.
I just surpassed 10,000 hours,probably like.
(15:06):
Earlier this year, 10,766 as oftwo days ago, I still have to
update it.
That's, that's the only reasonwhy I'm a strong communicator.
I wasn't born a strongcommunicator.
Sanika (15:18):
Yeah.
Alan (15:19):
What we do and don't do impacts us.
And what we do and don't do isimpact it on our, based on our
goals.
If you didn't have any goals andI didn't have any goals, neither
one of us would've met.
Sanika (15:30):
Very true, but I also feel like making space, right?
Making space to be well.
'cause like we both have livedthrough a lot of adversity.
And in order for you to even beable to identify a goal or who I
can be, you first need to seewellness.
And just feel like that'sattainable to you.
Like I can touch wellness so
Alan (15:49):
isn't wellness a goal?
Sanika (15:51):
Fair.
Yeah, you're right.
You.
Alan (15:54):
Well, a human being, yeah.
Well, eating dinner tonight is agoal.
We just don't see it that way.
Human beings are goal orientedcreatures, and we have the
ability to project.
So dolphins, primates, andhumans have prefrontal cortexes
that we can project into thefuture and go, okay, I'm gonna,
I'm gonna optimize for a future.
Reality that I cannot experienceyet.
(16:17):
And it, whether it's youthinking about making dinner
tonight or it's me building amillion dollar company, it's the
same biological process.
And, and I explained this onetime to, uh, one of my clients,
his name's Brandon.
I said, brother, how certain areyou from zero to 10 that you can
go and get Subway for dinnertonight?
And he said 10.
I said, your brain just did acalculation.
(16:38):
I have a credit card.
I know Subway is open.
I know they make sandwiches.
I know my car works.
I know it's 10 minutes away.
I know I can go and get asandwich.
I know.
I know how to chew.
I know I know how to digest.
I know that I love Subway.
I said, okay.
What are the zero to 10?
How certain are you?
You can do that in the nextthree minutes.
He said, zero.
(16:58):
I said, see what if it's theexact same process, but you just
can't do it in three minutes?
And I said this to him, and Ihope this lands different for
people.
What if when I say I'm gonnabuild a multimillion dollar
business, it's the exact samelevel of certainty.
I can't do it tomorrow, justlike I can't get Subway in three
minutes.
But it's the exact same reverseengineered pro process.
(17:20):
And I always tell people thescience of achievement, I wish
it did, but it doesn't.
It doesn't care about yourfeelings.
The science of achievement doesnot care about your feelings.
I know.
It doesn't care.
Sanika (17:35):
I wanted to
Alan (17:36):
I know.
So do I.
So do I.
Sanika (17:39):
I wanted to,
Alan (17:40):
Yeah.
It's all reverse engineerable.
You can do it.
It's just gonna suck.
And that's the truth.
And you have to embrace that,um, because everything you want
is on the other side ofsomething that sucks.
Sanika (17:54):
yikes.
The hard, and that's anotherthing, right?
The hard truth of of it, allright?
I think we all know that to acertain extent, but.
It's the how, right?
And that's why I talk aboutsystems.
It's okay.
I know it's gonna be hard,right?
Let's go from building amultimillion dollar business to
(18:15):
losing 10 pounds.
Ugh.
I know it's gonna be hard.
I know it's gonna be difficult.
And then you kind of like, Ithink naturally we stop at the
how.
Well then how do I do that?
And I think if you take a stepback, and I always say take a
step outside of myself.
'cause that's how I like look atthe chess board, take a step
outside of myself and say, howdo I get from point A to point
(18:37):
B?
And not even knowing forcertainty what point B is.
But I know right now, point A isnot gonna get me to my goal.
Alan (18:45):
Mm-hmm.
Sanika (18:45):
I know that in order for me to get to my goal, I need to
be moving closer and closertowards what I believe goal B
is, right?
And for 10 pounds, that'sfitness.
What you eat, you know, it'skind of like out there in the
ecosystem.
You know what you need to bedoing.
Building a.
Alan (19:02):
it's Eat less exercise.
More
Sanika (19:04):
Yes.
You know what I mean?
It's, it's out there.
It's more simple in terms of howto build that system.
We're building multimilliondollar businesses in different
industries and doing somethingthat you don't necessarily see
specifically out in the world,but you know, it needs to be
there.
You know, it needs to exist.
It's just like, hmm, what systemdo I put in place to keep moving
(19:25):
towards my vision,
Alan (19:27):
Yeah,
Sanika (19:28):
how do I build that system?
Alan (19:29):
the reverse engineering is a skill and I, I think that it,
it's hard for me to,'cause Kevsaid he is, he said, uh, Emelia
and I recently, we were in a, inthe gym and it was Emelia is my,
my beautiful girlfriend, futurewife, and we.
We were in the gym and it waswildly crowded.
And I, whenever I getfrustrated, I actually think
frustration is a byproduct of anobstacle in the way of a goal or
(19:54):
a core value.
So I was really frustrated and,and so was she.
And again, it's all good.
I'm, I'm grateful people areworking out.
It's just a tiny gym and it's,it's too many people.
And I was like, okay, Alan,instead of just complaining,
what are you gonna do about it?
And I was like, all right, I'mgonna let this motivate me to
get a home gym.
And I calculated it in my headimmediately.
(20:14):
I said, okay, we're gonna moveto somewhere down south, most
likely North Carolina.
I know the square footage we'llneed.
I know the amount of land wewant.
I know how amount of capital.
I know my amount of capital.
I know how much we both earn.
I know the square footage.
I know how long it's gonna take.
I know how much a gym is gonnabe.
I know how much the equipmentwill be.
I know how much the mortgagewill be.
The insurance will be, and Kevslike, dude, that's why you talk
(20:37):
with so much certainty andpeople think you're arrogant.
Because I'm mathematicallycalculating it.
Sanika (20:43):
Standing in the front of the gym, slightly frustrated,
wondering, will there be anymachines you've just calculated
the next six months and how wecan never have this problem
Alan (20:52):
Yeah, so a year and a half.
Year and a half.
Year and a half, yeah.
Year and a half.
And
Sanika (20:56):
You've locked down the time period.
Alan (20:58):
locked down the time perspective and the target and,
and ultimately that's what Kevsays.
He says That's why people thinkyou're arrogant,
Sanika (21:04):
No.
Alan (21:04):
because you speak with so much certainty, but.
I speak with certainty'causeI've calculated it.
You're not gonna be surprisedwhen you eat dinner tonight.
Just like, I'm not gonna besurprised when we have a home
gym.
I'm not gonna be surprised atall.
It's not gonna be like, oh myGod, I can't believe we did
this.
It's gonna be, I started thisprocess a year and a half ago.
I'm realizing that now.
(21:26):
I'm realizing that now.
Like genuinely when I was a kid,I didn't understand.
Like I decided to get straightA's and then I just went and did
it.
Like
Sanika (21:34):
That's not normal.
Alan (21:35):
know that's what he said too.
Sanika (21:37):
That's not, and it's, and I really think it's that
engineered mind of yours, right?
It's that because I joke thatmost things in life is as simple
as one plus one equals to.
That's my running joke becauseoften we add complexities where
it doesn't need to be in aneffort to keep people either out
(21:59):
of the conversation or toconfuse them, right?
That's the two ways to kind ofget what you want, when what you
want is not good, um, is to addcomplexity or confusion to the
topic.
So I always break it down to oneplus one equals two, and I.
You think is actually pie equalssquare.
Alan (22:21):
Well, and I appreciate that.
The, the, the, the truth is,it's complexity is the enemy of
execution, and this is theduality of life, right.
I.
Life is complex and it is basedon simple fundamental laws of
the universe.
So a good example of that wouldbe every action has an equal and
(22:44):
opposite reaction.
So you look both ways before youcross the street, because
otherwise it's physics, car,human mass, acceleration.
Sanika (22:54):
I know when you say it like that, it seems very simple,
but we also have to, that's whyI'm always champion championing
the feelings component of it.
Right.
Because when we look at it, I, Ialways say like, if we run a
horse's race.
Many, many, many people wouldget so much further, right?
Because you, as you know, horsesrun with blinders on, they can
(23:16):
only see straight ahead.
But as human beings, we can'trun like horses unless we train
our minds and emotions to putblinders on to be able to run
that way.
Alan (23:29):
And then every now and then take'em off and look around
and then put'em back on.
And then put'em back on.
Yeah.
Sanika (23:34):
But in order for us to do that, I think we have to
create systems, right?
And in order for us to build upto that place, that goal, that
thing we wanna achieve, assimple as getting dinner on the
table tonight to building amultimillion dollar business, is
looking at the systems and thepatterns and the habits that we
have, and then saying toourselves.
(23:56):
Emotions aside, which is hard.
I'm gonna, it's hard.
It's hard for me, right?
Putting emotions aside andsaying, what habit do I need to
establish today before the sunsets to achieve that goal, even
if it's small thing.
Alan (24:15):
And then be consistent with it and then improve it
along the way.
And everyone is more capablethan they realize.
I I, if you improve by 0.1%every day for 10 years, that's
one 10th of 1%.
Any one can improve by one 10thof 1%.
I've improved by one 10th of 1%even just in this podcast
(24:35):
episode, just trying to practicespeaking and different ways to
articulate things.
In 10 years, you can put adollar in a financial calculator
and and grow it by 0.1% everyday for 10 years, and you end up
38 times.
You have$38.
So 38 times smarter, 38 timesbetter, 38 times more wealthy.
If you do it for 50 years, it's84 million.
(24:57):
If you take weekends off, it'sonly 439,000.
Sanika (25:03):
I
Alan (25:03):
I know
Sanika (25:04):
Like in my mind, have you ever seen the meme of the
guy that's like, and you see allthe like calculations that go on
around.
That's what I feel like
Alan (25:15):
Kev always says he is like, this stuff doesn't land,
man.
Sanika (25:18):
presented with a problem.
I feel like you immediatelybecome that meme that's like.
Like you walk into the grocerystore and you're like, ah, I'm
gonna get my favorite yogurt,and they don't have it
immediately.
Pie times square.
If I move to the next,
Alan (25:32):
I love it.
You had I do.
So when I walk into, I alwaysjoke, I can't go into a Panera
bread without seeing theirprofit and loss statement.
You definitely invest in Panera,by the way.
But anyway, so, uh, it's themath thing.
Emelia says it.
She said math and memory.
You have a really good ma.
She has a 3.92 GPA fromProvidence College.
When I first met her, I waslike, nice that, that means
(25:54):
something, right Numbers.
In my opinion, and again, we'll,we'll, I'll get off the soapbox
here in a second, but mostpeople think linearly in the
21st century.
Everything's exponentials.
Google was in a garage 30 yearsago,
Sanika (26:13):
Whoa.
Alan (26:14):
so you can't flourish in today's world without thinking
exponentially.
We have more listens in a daythan we did the entire first
year.
Sanika (26:26):
of your podcast
Alan (26:28):
And that, that's the compound effect.
Sanika (26:30):
yeah.
Alan (26:30):
but, but we also have 2100 and
Sanika (26:33):
So for me, I'm always like, I agree with you.
I don't disagree with you atall.
But I also am very much aware ofthe wide range when it comes to
capabilities.
Right.
I'm not gonna call it intellector
Alan (26:45):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
For sure.
Sanika (26:47):
so how do you move from very small?
Very, I'm not sure very, how doI compound?
What does that even mean?
How do you, how do you take stepone a?
Right.
Alan (27:00):
Yeah.
Nice, nice.
That's good stuff.
One A, that's what Kevin wouldask me.
He is like, dude, bring thisdown to Earth one A is start
tracking a habit.
And it has to be a positivehabit.
So I'll give you an example.
I quit drinking six years agoand I replaced it with exercise.
(27:20):
So I replaced alcohol withexercise.
Sanika (27:24):
does one replace alcohol with exercise?
Usually when people wanna drink,just.
I me a glass of wine.
It's usually at the end Burpees.
Alan (27:43):
I know, and this is why everyone is very Spock like.
I decided I wanted to be afitness model, fitness
competitor and fitness coach,and I wanted to be the grad
greatest natural aesthetic men'sphysique fitness model in the
world.
And I, and I did that and I.
I won a fitness show and I wason my way, and then I pivoted.
So I didn't do that, but I, Iwon, um, a full several fitness
(28:06):
shows, actually, one that I won.
The other one's I came in fourthand fifth.
But the point is, and I was, Idid 43 photo shoots as a model.
That was a dream of mine fitnessmodel.
But anyways, so, uh, the reasonwhy I replaced alcohol with
fitness is'cause I knew once Iset a new goal.
As long as I care about the goalmore than alcohol, that, that
(28:27):
way I could replace mykryptonite.
So fitness, the worst thing youcan do for fitness is alcohol.
One of the worst.
Not the worst, but one of theworst.
So I figured, okay, well if Ilearn how to, if I set a goal in
fitness and I care more aboutfitness, I'll, I'll have to care
less about alcohol.
So I just mimed myself and, andso
Sanika (28:46):
Karate kid very seriously.
Like
Alan (28:49):
what did you say?
Sanika (28:50):
I said, you took Karate Kid very seriously, like.
Alan (28:53):
Of course.
Well, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So yeah, of course.
I know, I know what you mean.
At the end of the day, uh, all Iwould ask everyone to do is look
at replace one terrible habit.
We all have terrible habits likeeverybody
Sanika (29:09):
but I see, I like, see, this is where I love how we are
like, like peanut butter andjelly in a way.
Yin and yang, right where youare, like, look at the bad habit
where I'm just like, look at thegood habit.
That's one thing I liked aboutatomic habits, right?
It it was very.
Honest about human beings havinggood and bad habits, right?
(29:31):
And also leaned into our naturalinstincts to hug and console our
good habits.
Said stack it.
Alan (29:42):
Nice.
Sanika (29:42):
Stack it in a way.
That replaces a bad habit versuslet's look at the bad habit.
'cause I think that's hard to doas human beings.
And I think we have to be honestabout that.
Like the, it's hard for us tolook at our bad habits and go,
you see that glass of wine?
You had one too many.
Alan (30:02):
Well, it's hard.
It's hard, but it's alsoimportant to look at it and go,
I have bad habits, and youaccept that, and then you, and
then you can work on that.
Sanika (30:10):
But I think an easier route, not an easy, well, I'm
not gonna lie, it is an easyroute, a more
Alan (30:16):
replace a bad habit with a good one.
That's all I would ask anyone todo.
Replace one bad habit with agood one.
It doesn't have to be your,
Sanika (30:22):
give me a route, right?
To identify a bad habit without,I don't wanna say self-harm
because that just seems reallyharsh without.
Hurt.
I want people to be well at alltimes.
So how?
Alan (30:38):
yeah.
That's not real.
That's not real.
Uh, yeah.
Yeah.
No, there is no, yeah.
Pain is part of the process and,and there is no, there is no be
well all the time.
The there sacrifice andsuffering and challenge and
adversity are parts of life,and, and no one's
Sanika (30:57):
Wellness does not mean that it is absent of pain or
sacrifice.
Wellness means that inherentlyyou are good.
Like there has to be afoundation of
Alan (31:09):
You're talking about emotionally versus I think
physical pain.
So if you do a hard workout,it's gonna be physically
painful.
That doesn't mean you're unwell.
Sanika (31:16):
yes.
But I also feel like if youidentify hard habits or bad
habits that you have that.
That direct route can beemotionally harmful.
Alan (31:30):
It can be, well, I would say a bad habit is anything
that's destructive and a goodhabit is anything that's
constructive.
And I think that it all dependson the person, though.
Like you, you're not
Sanika (31:43):
That's why I love, I feel like the best way to create
a system, right, is identifyinggoals.
'cause that to me, elevates youout of your everyday life.
Alan (31:53):
agreed, and then you, and then you create a system that
constructs you towards yourgoal.
And then, and as a matter offact, without goals, you don't
even know what is or isn't a badhabit.
You.
I'll give you an example.
If I'm trying to bulk and buildmuscle, eating more is a good
habit.
If I'm trying to cut and lose 10pounds in 10 weeks, eating more
is not a good habit.
That is a destructive habit.
(32:15):
So it, it all depends on thegoals, but, but if someone's
wandering around without anygoals, you don't know whether
you're winning or losing at yourown game.
You're basically just aimless.
Sanika (32:23):
first identifying goals.
Right.
But I also feel like noteveryone feels like they're
deserving of a goal.
Right?
I,
Alan (32:30):
that's where you need to start then be for
Sanika (32:33):
so that's where I am very like, and you know this,
like I'm very open to people.
Across wherever you are in yourlife and on your journey, right?
So I think it's easy for us.
Like I always say, I can speakto the successful entrepreneur
who's like, let's get to thenext level.
Let's level up.
I made multi-millions.
I'm trying to go trillion.
(32:53):
I'm trying to go global, right?
That's a different conversation.
But we also have to be able tospeak to the person that's like,
I don't like the life I havetoday, and I don't know how to
build the life I love tomorrow.
Alan (33:04):
Right.
Well, I always say this, if youaren't, if you have any mental
health challenges, I'm probablynot the best coach for you
because I'm very big on toughlove.
Obviously I'm pretty hardcoreand, and I always liken it to an
NFL coach versus a peeweefootball coach.
You know those peewee footballcoaches that take it too
seriously?
They're screaming at the kids.
(33:24):
Listen, when you're in the NFL,I gotta, I gotta yell at Tom
Brady.
It is what it is.
Get your shit together, sir.
And, and it all depends on thelevel and, and I remember I had
a client once who said, I wantyou to be as hard on me as you
are on yourself.
And I told Amelia that and shesaid she would die.
And the.
Sanika (33:42):
Said that.
Alan (33:43):
Reverse it and she didn't she, I still coach her.
She said, I didn't know what Iwas saying, but there's a
construction zone for all of us.
When I was seven, I couldn'thandle this much truth.
But when you're 17, maybe alittle more when you're 27, a
little more, 37, a little morelike we all have to grow up a
little.
And the truth of the matter is,is.
Sanika (34:03):
We're in a society that's very much like coddle me.
Alan (34:06):
That's what I'm saying, and, and you can't always coddle
like there is some level of truetough love.
And I'm not saying toxicmasculinity, I'm not saying
that.
What I am saying is you can'ttry to be.
Avoiding the hard truths.
There's inconvenient truths,there's uncomfortable truths,
there's life is challenginginherently, and, and you have to
(34:28):
be equipped to actually facethat head on.
And so, but I'm grateful thatyou and I yin and yanged this
because I know that you're morefeminine.
I'm more masculine.
It is what it is.
That's nothing wrong with that.
And I think we provided a goodepisode that said, I do gotta
jump.
I gotta jump.
Sanika (34:41):
No, this has been a really great conversation and I
wanna call this this like alittle fireside chat because
we're gonna have Alan backbecause I think his brain and
systems need to be articulatedin a more deeper thought
conversation.
So thank you so much forwatching this episode of How Do
You Divine Systems with Alan.
Alan (35:00):
Thank you so much.
Sanika (35:01):
Thank you.
Alan (35:02):
This was awesome.
Sanika (35:03):
awesome.
We're gonna do this again,
Alan (35:05):
Let's do it.
I would love to.
That was a good yin and yang wehad going
Sanika (35:08):
wasn't it?
Alan (35:08):
good.
Yeah.
It was engaging as hell.
It was
Sanika (35:10):
I know.
I know.
They're gonna be like, when ishe coming back?
Alan (35:12):
I hope so.
I hope so.
I'm like, I'm hardcore, but I, Ican't not be
Sanika (35:17):
No, but I love that though.
And I love the beauty of yourintensity.
Right?
And I.
Welcome to this episode of How Do You Divine, and today
we are speaking to Alan Lazarethand we are going to explore the
word system.
Alan, thank you so much forbeing here.
Alan (01:26):
Thank you for having me.
I started listening to podcasts10 years ago and they really
helped me reorchestrate my lifein a much more positive
direction.
So now I'm a podcaster who getsto help people with that, and
I'm super pumped.
So thank you so much.
I do not take it lightly.
I will not waste a second ofanyone's time.
I.
Sanika (01:42):
I love that.
I love the, the amount ofintentionality in everything
that you do.
So I just first wanted to giveyou your flowers there and in
many of our discussions, I lovethe way your brain thinks it's
very different.
Right.
Um, I feel like I've had so manyleft brain people on the
podcast, but why I wanted totalk to you about systems today
(02:03):
is I think your definition ofwhat a good system and what a
system is have evolved over yourjourney.
Right.
Just as.
Human being, so let's just givethe audience a little early days
of who is Alan?
Who is Alan as a child?
Who is Alan as the engineer?
Who is Alan as the.
Alan (02:22):
Who is Alan as the child?
Hmm.
Uh, okay.
So I will try to condense 36years into three minutes.
Which is very hard to do.
I I guarantee you, it'll be morethan three minutes, but, so my
story in a nutshell, as brief asI can give it, one of the
interesting things about my lifenow is I kind of look a little
(02:45):
bit like a silver spooner, likesomeone who is born on third
base and I, I playfully joke, Icouldn't even see the ballpark.
Sanika (02:53):
Aw.
Alan (02:54):
Yeah.
So.
Do you have an explicit show, bythe way?
I wanna be
Sanika (02:59):
Yes.
Yes, we do.
Alan (03:00):
Okay.
So you can't even see thefucking ballpark.
Um, again, I won't overdo it,but I think it's important to
emphasize.
So, 36 years old now.
Very, very grateful to be whereI am today, but I started off in
a, a really small town, born andraised in Massachusetts, small
minded town.
I playfully refer to it as theBoulevard of Broken Dreams.
(03:23):
Yeah, not great.
Not great.
When I was two years old, mybirth father passed away when he
was 28.
This is 1991 in a car.
Suddenly I had a stepfathernamed Steve Lazarus from age
three to 14, so I took his lastname around age seven.
Sanika (03:40):
Yeah.
Alan (03:41):
My real name is Alan McCorkle.
John McCorkle was my father.
It was Jim, Joe, John Jane,Joan, Jeanette, six Jays big
Irish Catholic family,
Sanika (03:50):
Yeah.
Alan (03:51):
and.
From three to 14, I had astepfather named Steve.
He worked for Agfa, A GFA.
They did hospital computersduring the.com era from
basically 1992 all the way to2003, he left my family in 2003,
took his entire extended familywith him.
(04:11):
To this day, I've never seen orspoken to a single one of them
since.
Sanika (04:15):
Wow.
Alan (04:16):
Yeah, and we weren't associating much with the
McCarcos anymore because we weretrying to be the Lazarus.
My mom and stepdad did not getalong.
That's a polite way to put it.
Holy crap.
Holy crap.
And uh, it's funny now the timewasn't, but from the outside
looking in, we looked like therich family because we did very
well in the nineties.
Most people did.
(04:36):
In the US us is the largesteconomy by far.
Uh, and in the.com bubble, itwas very much economic boom
times.
So we had.
A yacht.
We had a BMW.
We had snowmobiles.
We had boats and ski trips.
It was a whole thing.
So from the outside in, itlooked like we were wealthy from
the inside out.
Not good.
Not good.
Sister moves out.
(04:57):
Same year my stepdad leaves.
Same year my mom gets in a fightwith my Aunt Sandy, her sister.
We get ostracized from her sideof the family.
To this day, I've only seen orspoken to two people from my
mother's side.
So by the time I'm 14 years old,I kind of lost three full
families.
Sanika (05:15):
Wow.
Alan (05:16):
We reassociate a bit with the McCool and it, but it was
never really
Sanika (05:20):
The same.
Alan (05:21):
Yeah, it was never the same.
That's the truth.
And for them it was like seeinga ghost.
'cause I looked just like my dadI guess.
But anyways, um, I had twotrauma responses to that.
There's four trauma responses.
There's fight, flight, freeze,and Fawn.
I'm sure you're aware of allthose.
I think we talked about it.
Fawn is appease.
So I became this, I thinkGoodwill hunting's kind of a
(05:42):
good metaphor for my life.
We, I became this sort of socialcoward who just didn't wanna
lose anybody.
And so hang on to friends andfamily.
I'll be whatever you chameleon,be whatever you need.
Uh, don't challenge anyone,just, just stay.
But, but behind the scenes whenno one was watching, it was
fight.
It was aim higher, work harder,get smarter, aim higher, work
(06:04):
harder, get smarter, aim higher,work harder, get smarter.
Prove myself because I'm worthy.
Sanika (06:11):
of the things.
Alan (06:12):
Yeah.
The things, so I achieved, I gotthe Presence Award.
It's behind me, signed by GeorgeW.
Bush, straight A's through allof high school because when my
stepdad left, we went from boatsand ski trips to now I get free
lunch at school'cause our incomeis so low.
My mom trades in her BMW for alittle Honda Civic.
How are we gonna keep the housein the family?
No generational wealth, no trustfund, no Dad, we're in some
(06:32):
trouble here.
My dream college was WPI, wisherPolytechnic Institute.
It was$50,000 a year and this isback then.
So I went from my hope I get into, even if I do get in, I can't
go.
Sanika (06:43):
Yeah, who's gonna pay for that?
Alan (06:44):
Got all the scholarships and financial aid, got all the
awards, my many awards, straightA's through all of high school,
going to co.
So I did the traditional path.
I promise it to be threeminutes.
It's gonna be more than that,but.
Huh?
Kindergarten, preschool.
Preschool, kindergarten,elementary school, middle
school, high school, college,corporate.
I did that traditional path andI crushed it in corporate.
(07:07):
So I was used to being broke inhigh school and college when my
stepdad laughed.
So once I got to corporate, itwas like, whoa.
Computer engineer with amaster's in business.
I went from 65 a year to 85 ayear, 85 to 1 0 5, 1 0 5 to 1
25, 1 25 to 180 grand a year inmy early twenties.
Paid off 84 grand worth of debtin a single year,$150,000 in a
Vanguard account.
(07:28):
Just picking stocks, techcompanies, all these different
tech companies.
And then I get in my caraccident,
Sanika (07:33):
Mm.
Alan (07:34):
I'm 26, head on collision.
My fault, my little cousin, oneof the two people that came back
from my mom's side, my littlecousin, Dan and I were in the
car.
Volkswagen Passat saved my lifetotally.
So.
I bought that car in five grandcash and we hit a lift kitted
pickup truck.
My fault crossed the doubleyellows.
Not a fender bender.
(07:54):
Definitely a hefty accident, butthat was 10 years ago and that,
fortunately, none of us werephysically, permanently damaged.
We were okay.
Definitely rattled, but okay.
Both airbags deployed.
Frame stayed.
That is.
Some people have a job, somepeople have a career, some
people have a calling.
That's when I found my calling.
That's when I found personaldevelopment, personal growth,
(08:15):
self-improvement, mental health.
That's when I started focusingon fulfillment more than just
external success.
That was 10 years ago, and Idialed personal development up
to 11, and I just, every singleday since have been working on
myself physically, mentally,emotionally, and spiritually.
And now I have a company thathelps people reach their
(08:35):
potential through.
Becoming healthier, wealthier,and more in love.
And so who is Alan?
Uh, someone who had tremendousadversity, more than I can
possibly describe on thismedium.
And who had dealt with a lot ofabandonment and loss and somehow
overcame that and decided tobecome more through it.
(08:57):
Not always alcohol, drugs, likeI had some struggles too, but I
definitely always aimed higher,worked harder and got smarter
and it.
It's unbelievable how good mylife is now.
Like it's, it's unreal comparedto where I started and so I'm
very grateful and yeah, sothat's, I guess, the best answer
I can give.
Sanika (09:16):
I know and I love that answer.
'cause it, it didn't need to bethree minutes.
It was, it was all, each minutewas spent very substantially,
which is more important.
And every, when he was goingthrough that story, I started
thinking of what was Alanthinking at those times?
Right?
I feel like we all have copingmechanisms and we all have ways
of like kind of moving throughthe day.
(09:36):
Right.
But I always feel like ashumans, we have systems, we have
patterns, we have things thatkeep us.
Sitting up tall or even leaningover and, and failing ourselves.
Alan (09:48):
Yeah.
Sanika (09:48):
So you said 10 years ago you readjusted that system.
You said, you know, I'm makingmoney.
I did the things, I went throughadversity.
You know, look at me now.
But then even with all of thesethings you said, no, I still
need, I need to elevate thesethings won't make me who I am.
Right.
So tell me a little bit aboutyour daily system.
(10:11):
Post pre-accident,post-accident.
Alan (10:15):
So pre-accident, it was all metrics and corporate and
career.
I, I always was super careeroriented.
I always had big goals anddreams, and I think a lot of
people mirrored that.
So I lived in this echo chamberof thinking everyone did.
And now in hindsight it's veryclear they were just talking.
Um, I don't want to be mean, butit, statistically speaking, most
people just don't achieve theirgoals and dreams.
(10:37):
They just don't.
And that makes me sad, which iswhy that's what I do for a
living now.
But after the accident, Istarted these, I have these
little black notebooks in thecorner of my office over here,
and I started tracking habits,and people always ask me what's
the best habit I.
I think it's tracking habits andevery one of my clients, I have
(10:59):
20 people I coach currently.
One is four times a week, two orthree times a week, and then
it's biweekly, weekly and acouple monthly.
They're all different businessowners from all over the world.
Different backgrounds, differentcultures, different ethnicities,
different industries.
It's been tremendous and it'sbeen 10 years basically.
I, I always say I've beenmentoring for 10 years, coaching
for eight.
Basically, I started gettingpaid
Sanika (11:18):
Yeah.
Alan (11:19):
and.
The one thing that is in commonwith all of them is that they
all track metrics and habits,and I started tracking metrics
and habits.
And so when you say system, Iwanna give a visual for
everybody.
So picture a square, uh,rectangle, rectangle, not a
(11:40):
square.
And in the upper left is theinput.
This is the what you say, think,do, feel and believe.
To make this simple, Icomplexify everything to make
this simple.
It's what you do.
So let's say you do exercisetoday.
Okay?
That's due.
That's the input.
The output is you're going toburn calories, you're gonna feel
better, you're gonna haveneurochemistry, then you down
(12:03):
here.
So upper left is due.
Upper right is output.
So input, output, then it'smeasure, and then adjust.
So we have a 10 pound and 10week challenge going on right
now.
We have 41 days left.
We have a fitness group with 43people in it, little community,
the next level fitnessaccountability group.
And so we essentially, what youdo impacts it's, it's cause and
(12:27):
effect.
I don't think a lot of peopleunderstand cause of an effect
and probabilities andstatistical outcomes.
It's all math based.
Every reaction has an equal andopposite reactions.
Another way to say this, but forme, everything's reverse
engineerable.
There's.
Sanika (12:42):
'cause you're such an engineer, but like, you know
what I mean?
Such an engineer, the way yousay that.
But like when you said, I don'tthink a lot of people want to
achieve their goals andaspirations.
I actually believe the opposite.
I think a lot of people do wannaachieve their goals and
Alan (12:56):
No, they want to, but they don't end up doing it.
Sanika (12:58):
They don't end up doing it because of the, if you ask
me, it's the systems.
It's because in order for you toactually achieve your goals and
aspirations, you have to be realwith yourself first.
Alan (13:12):
Agreed.
Sanika (13:13):
Like you have to say like something as simple as
fitness, right?
Because I think when we look atthe physicality of things, to me
that's like so easy.
It's so easy to buy a niceshirt, so easy to do your hair,
so easy to like really.
with the, the on outward things,right?
But it's like, are you reallygoing to walk every day?
(13:33):
Are you going to drink water?
Are you like, are, that to me iswhen a system is truly
evaluated.
When you say, what am I doingevery day towards my goal?
Am I doing anything today thatfuture me will be excited about
or happy about?
Alan (13:50):
That's, I always joke with Kev, my business partner,'cause
he doesn't think in engineeringterms as much as I do.
said, you can't say I want tobuild a million dollar company
and then go to the beach.
And he's like, people do thatall the time.
And it's like, yeah, but that'slike me saying, Hey, I wanna
build a, I wanna build thisiPhone I'm on.
If you're on YouTube, I wannabuild this phone.
(14:12):
And then you just like gogardening.
They have nothing to do witheach other.
Every, everything.
And again, I'm, I'm very intensewith this.
Sanika (14:23):
Yeah.
Alan (14:24):
You, if you have an outcome that you want to create
in your future, and by the way,your future self matters more
than your present self, I knowthat that's not popular.
Let me explain why pretty soonyour future self is gonna be
your present self.
And by the way, I am a byproductof the future.
I'm trying to create.
Sanika (14:42):
Mm.
Alan (14:44):
The only reason this episode's even reasonably good
is'cause I've done 10,766 othersnow of coaching, training, and
podcasting.
I wanna make this clear.
It's not all podcasts, but 10years ago, I started tracking
the number of coaching sessions,training slash speeches and
podcasts that I was doing.
I've tracked them for 10 years.
I just surpassed 10,000 hours,probably like.
(15:06):
Earlier this year, 10,766 as oftwo days ago, I still have to
update it.
That's, that's the only reasonwhy I'm a strong communicator.
I wasn't born a strongcommunicator.
Sanika (15:18):
Yeah.
Alan (15:19):
What we do and don't do impacts us.
And what we do and don't do isimpact it on our, based on our
goals.
If you didn't have any goals andI didn't have any goals, neither
one of us would've met.
Sanika (15:30):
Very true, but I also feel like making space, right?
Making space to be well.
'cause like we both have livedthrough a lot of adversity.
And in order for you to even beable to identify a goal or who I
can be, you first need to seewellness.
And just feel like that'sattainable to you.
Like I can touch wellness so
Alan (15:49):
isn't wellness a goal?
Sanika (15:51):
Fair.
Yeah, you're right.
You.
Alan (15:54):
Well, a human being, yeah.
Well, eating dinner tonight is agoal.
We just don't see it that way.
Human beings are goal orientedcreatures, and we have the
ability to project.
So dolphins, primates, andhumans have prefrontal cortexes
that we can project into thefuture and go, okay, I'm gonna,
I'm gonna optimize for a future.
Reality that I cannot experienceyet.
(16:17):
And it, whether it's youthinking about making dinner
tonight or it's me building amillion dollar company, it's the
same biological process.
And, and I explained this onetime to, uh, one of my clients,
his name's Brandon.
I said, brother, how certain areyou from zero to 10 that you can
go and get Subway for dinnertonight?
And he said 10.
I said, your brain just did acalculation.
(16:38):
I have a credit card.
I know Subway is open.
I know they make sandwiches.
I know my car works.
I know it's 10 minutes away.
I know I can go and get asandwich.
I know.
I know how to chew.
I know I know how to digest.
I know that I love Subway.
I said, okay.
What are the zero to 10?
How certain are you?
You can do that in the nextthree minutes.
He said, zero.
(16:58):
I said, see what if it's theexact same process, but you just
can't do it in three minutes?
And I said this to him, and Ihope this lands different for
people.
What if when I say I'm gonnabuild a multimillion dollar
business, it's the exact samelevel of certainty.
I can't do it tomorrow, justlike I can't get Subway in three
minutes.
But it's the exact same reverseengineered pro process.
(17:20):
And I always tell people thescience of achievement, I wish
it did, but it doesn't.
It doesn't care about yourfeelings.
The science of achievement doesnot care about your feelings.
I know.
It doesn't care.
Sanika (17:35):
I wanted to
Alan (17:36):
I know.
So do I.
So do I.
Sanika (17:39):
I wanted to,
Alan (17:40):
Yeah.
It's all reverse engineerable.
You can do it.
It's just gonna suck.
And that's the truth.
And you have to embrace that,um, because everything you want
is on the other side ofsomething that sucks.
Sanika (17:54):
yikes.
The hard, and that's anotherthing, right?
The hard truth of of it, allright?
I think we all know that to acertain extent, but.
It's the how, right?
And that's why I talk aboutsystems.
It's okay.
I know it's gonna be hard,right?
Let's go from building amultimillion dollar business to
(18:15):
losing 10 pounds.
Ugh.
I know it's gonna be hard.
I know it's gonna be difficult.
And then you kind of like, Ithink naturally we stop at the
how.
Well then how do I do that?
And I think if you take a stepback, and I always say take a
step outside of myself.
'cause that's how I like look atthe chess board, take a step
outside of myself and say, howdo I get from point A to point
(18:37):
B?
And not even knowing forcertainty what point B is.
But I know right now, point A isnot gonna get me to my goal.
Alan (18:45):
Mm-hmm.
Sanika (18:45):
I know that in order for me to get to my goal, I need to
be moving closer and closertowards what I believe goal B
is, right?
And for 10 pounds, that'sfitness.
What you eat, you know, it'skind of like out there in the
ecosystem.
You know what you need to bedoing.
Building a.
Alan (19:02):
it's Eat less exercise.
More
Sanika (19:04):
Yes.
You know what I mean?
It's, it's out there.
It's more simple in terms of howto build that system.
We're building multimilliondollar businesses in different
industries and doing somethingthat you don't necessarily see
specifically out in the world,but you know, it needs to be
there.
You know, it needs to exist.
It's just like, hmm, what systemdo I put in place to keep moving
(19:25):
towards my vision,
Alan (19:27):
Yeah,
Sanika (19:28):
how do I build that system?
Alan (19:29):
the reverse engineering is a skill and I, I think that it,
it's hard for me to,'cause Kevsaid he is, he said, uh, Emelia
and I recently, we were in a, inthe gym and it was Emelia is my,
my beautiful girlfriend, futurewife, and we.
We were in the gym and it waswildly crowded.
And I, whenever I getfrustrated, I actually think
frustration is a byproduct of anobstacle in the way of a goal or
(19:54):
a core value.
So I was really frustrated and,and so was she.
And again, it's all good.
I'm, I'm grateful people areworking out.
It's just a tiny gym and it's,it's too many people.
And I was like, okay, Alan,instead of just complaining,
what are you gonna do about it?
And I was like, all right, I'mgonna let this motivate me to
get a home gym.
And I calculated it in my headimmediately.
(20:14):
I said, okay, we're gonna moveto somewhere down south, most
likely North Carolina.
I know the square footage we'llneed.
I know the amount of land wewant.
I know how amount of capital.
I know my amount of capital.
I know how much we both earn.
I know the square footage.
I know how long it's gonna take.
I know how much a gym is gonnabe.
I know how much the equipmentwill be.
I know how much the mortgagewill be.
The insurance will be, and Kevslike, dude, that's why you talk
(20:37):
with so much certainty andpeople think you're arrogant.
Because I'm mathematicallycalculating it.
Sanika (20:43):
Standing in the front of the gym, slightly frustrated,
wondering, will there be anymachines you've just calculated
the next six months and how wecan never have this problem
Alan (20:52):
Yeah, so a year and a half.
Year and a half.
Year and a half, yeah.
Year and a half.
And
Sanika (20:56):
You've locked down the time period.
Alan (20:58):
locked down the time perspective and the target and,
and ultimately that's what Kevsays.
He says That's why people thinkyou're arrogant,
Sanika (21:04):
No.
Alan (21:04):
because you speak with so much certainty, but.
I speak with certainty'causeI've calculated it.
You're not gonna be surprisedwhen you eat dinner tonight.
Just like, I'm not gonna besurprised when we have a home
gym.
I'm not gonna be surprised atall.
It's not gonna be like, oh myGod, I can't believe we did
this.
It's gonna be, I started thisprocess a year and a half ago.
I'm realizing that now.
(21:26):
I'm realizing that now.
Like genuinely when I was a kid,I didn't understand.
Like I decided to get straightA's and then I just went and did
it.
Like
Sanika (21:34):
That's not normal.
Alan (21:35):
know that's what he said too.
Sanika (21:37):
That's not, and it's, and I really think it's that
engineered mind of yours, right?
It's that because I joke thatmost things in life is as simple
as one plus one equals to.
That's my running joke becauseoften we add complexities where
it doesn't need to be in aneffort to keep people either out
(21:59):
of the conversation or toconfuse them, right?
That's the two ways to kind ofget what you want, when what you
want is not good, um, is to addcomplexity or confusion to the
topic.
So I always break it down to oneplus one equals two, and I.
You think is actually pie equalssquare.
Alan (22:21):
Well, and I appreciate that.
The, the, the, the truth is,it's complexity is the enemy of
execution, and this is theduality of life, right.
I.
Life is complex and it is basedon simple fundamental laws of
the universe.
So a good example of that wouldbe every action has an equal and
(22:44):
opposite reaction.
So you look both ways before youcross the street, because
otherwise it's physics, car,human mass, acceleration.
Sanika (22:54):
I know when you say it like that, it seems very simple,
but we also have to, that's whyI'm always champion championing
the feelings component of it.
Right.
Because when we look at it, I, Ialways say like, if we run a
horse's race.
Many, many, many people wouldget so much further, right?
Because you, as you know, horsesrun with blinders on, they can
(23:16):
only see straight ahead.
But as human beings, we can'trun like horses unless we train
our minds and emotions to putblinders on to be able to run
that way.
Alan (23:29):
And then every now and then take'em off and look around
and then put'em back on.
And then put'em back on.
Yeah.
Sanika (23:34):
But in order for us to do that, I think we have to
create systems, right?
And in order for us to build upto that place, that goal, that
thing we wanna achieve, assimple as getting dinner on the
table tonight to building amultimillion dollar business, is
looking at the systems and thepatterns and the habits that we
have, and then saying toourselves.
(23:56):
Emotions aside, which is hard.
I'm gonna, it's hard.
It's hard for me, right?
Putting emotions aside andsaying, what habit do I need to
establish today before the sunsets to achieve that goal, even
if it's small thing.
Alan (24:15):
And then be consistent with it and then improve it
along the way.
And everyone is more capablethan they realize.
I I, if you improve by 0.1%every day for 10 years, that's
one 10th of 1%.
Any one can improve by one 10thof 1%.
I've improved by one 10th of 1%even just in this podcast
(24:35):
episode, just trying to practicespeaking and different ways to
articulate things.
In 10 years, you can put adollar in a financial calculator
and and grow it by 0.1% everyday for 10 years, and you end up
38 times.
You have$38.
So 38 times smarter, 38 timesbetter, 38 times more wealthy.
If you do it for 50 years, it's84 million.
(24:57):
If you take weekends off, it'sonly 439,000.
Sanika (25:03):
I
Alan (25:03):
I know
Sanika (25:04):
Like in my mind, have you ever seen the meme of the
guy that's like, and you see allthe like calculations that go on
around.
That's what I feel like
Alan (25:15):
Kev always says he is like, this stuff doesn't land,
man.
Sanika (25:18):
presented with a problem.
I feel like you immediatelybecome that meme that's like.
Like you walk into the grocerystore and you're like, ah, I'm
gonna get my favorite yogurt,and they don't have it
immediately.
Pie times square.
If I move to the next,
Alan (25:32):
I love it.
You had I do.
So when I walk into, I alwaysjoke, I can't go into a Panera
bread without seeing theirprofit and loss statement.
You definitely invest in Panera,by the way.
But anyway, so, uh, it's themath thing.
Emelia says it.
She said math and memory.
You have a really good ma.
She has a 3.92 GPA fromProvidence College.
When I first met her, I waslike, nice that, that means
(25:54):
something, right Numbers.
In my opinion, and again, we'll,we'll, I'll get off the soapbox
here in a second, but mostpeople think linearly in the
21st century.
Everything's exponentials.
Google was in a garage 30 yearsago,
Sanika (26:13):
Whoa.
Alan (26:14):
so you can't flourish in today's world without thinking
exponentially.
We have more listens in a daythan we did the entire first
year.
Sanika (26:26):
of your podcast
Alan (26:28):
And that, that's the compound effect.
Sanika (26:30):
yeah.
Alan (26:30):
but, but we also have 2100 and
Sanika (26:33):
So for me, I'm always like, I agree with you.
I don't disagree with you atall.
But I also am very much aware ofthe wide range when it comes to
capabilities.
Right.
I'm not gonna call it intellector
Alan (26:45):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
For sure.
Sanika (26:47):
so how do you move from very small?
Very, I'm not sure very, how doI compound?
What does that even mean?
How do you, how do you take stepone a?
Right.
Alan (27:00):
Yeah.
Nice, nice.
That's good stuff.
One A, that's what Kevin wouldask me.
He is like, dude, bring thisdown to Earth one A is start
tracking a habit.
And it has to be a positivehabit.
So I'll give you an example.
I quit drinking six years agoand I replaced it with exercise.
(27:20):
So I replaced alcohol withexercise.
Sanika (27:24):
does one replace alcohol with exercise?
Usually when people wanna drink,just.
I me a glass of wine.
It's usually at the end Burpees.
Alan (27:43):
I know, and this is why everyone is very Spock like.
I decided I wanted to be afitness model, fitness
competitor and fitness coach,and I wanted to be the grad
greatest natural aesthetic men'sphysique fitness model in the
world.
And I, and I did that and I.
I won a fitness show and I wason my way, and then I pivoted.
So I didn't do that, but I, Iwon, um, a full several fitness
(28:06):
shows, actually, one that I won.
The other one's I came in fourthand fifth.
But the point is, and I was, Idid 43 photo shoots as a model.
That was a dream of mine fitnessmodel.
But anyways, so, uh, the reasonwhy I replaced alcohol with
fitness is'cause I knew once Iset a new goal.
As long as I care about the goalmore than alcohol, that, that
(28:27):
way I could replace mykryptonite.
So fitness, the worst thing youcan do for fitness is alcohol.
One of the worst.
Not the worst, but one of theworst.
So I figured, okay, well if Ilearn how to, if I set a goal in
fitness and I care more aboutfitness, I'll, I'll have to care
less about alcohol.
So I just mimed myself and, andso
Sanika (28:46):
Karate kid very seriously.
Like
Alan (28:49):
what did you say?
Sanika (28:50):
I said, you took Karate Kid very seriously, like.
Alan (28:53):
Of course.
Well, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So yeah, of course.
I know, I know what you mean.
At the end of the day, uh, all Iwould ask everyone to do is look
at replace one terrible habit.
We all have terrible habits likeeverybody
Sanika (29:09):
but I see, I like, see, this is where I love how we are
like, like peanut butter andjelly in a way.
Yin and yang, right where youare, like, look at the bad habit
where I'm just like, look at thegood habit.
That's one thing I liked aboutatomic habits, right?
It it was very.
Honest about human beings havinggood and bad habits, right?
(29:31):
And also leaned into our naturalinstincts to hug and console our
good habits.
Said stack it.
Alan (29:42):
Nice.
Sanika (29:42):
Stack it in a way.
That replaces a bad habit versuslet's look at the bad habit.
'cause I think that's hard to doas human beings.
And I think we have to be honestabout that.
Like the, it's hard for us tolook at our bad habits and go,
you see that glass of wine?
You had one too many.
Alan (30:02):
Well, it's hard.
It's hard, but it's alsoimportant to look at it and go,
I have bad habits, and youaccept that, and then you, and
then you can work on that.
Sanika (30:10):
But I think an easier route, not an easy, well, I'm
not gonna lie, it is an easyroute, a more
Alan (30:16):
replace a bad habit with a good one.
That's all I would ask anyone todo.
Replace one bad habit with agood one.
It doesn't have to be your,
Sanika (30:22):
give me a route, right?
To identify a bad habit without,I don't wanna say self-harm
because that just seems reallyharsh without.
Hurt.
I want people to be well at alltimes.
So how?
Alan (30:38):
yeah.
That's not real.
That's not real.
Uh, yeah.
Yeah.
No, there is no, yeah.
Pain is part of the process and,and there is no, there is no be
well all the time.
The there sacrifice andsuffering and challenge and
adversity are parts of life,and, and no one's
Sanika (30:57):
Wellness does not mean that it is absent of pain or
sacrifice.
Wellness means that inherentlyyou are good.
Like there has to be afoundation of
Alan (31:09):
You're talking about emotionally versus I think
physical pain.
So if you do a hard workout,it's gonna be physically
painful.
That doesn't mean you're unwell.
Sanika (31:16):
yes.
But I also feel like if youidentify hard habits or bad
habits that you have that.
That direct route can beemotionally harmful.
Alan (31:30):
It can be, well, I would say a bad habit is anything
that's destructive and a goodhabit is anything that's
constructive.
And I think that it all dependson the person, though.
Like you, you're not
Sanika (31:43):
That's why I love, I feel like the best way to create
a system, right, is identifyinggoals.
'cause that to me, elevates youout of your everyday life.
Alan (31:53):
agreed, and then you, and then you create a system that
constructs you towards yourgoal.
And then, and as a matter offact, without goals, you don't
even know what is or isn't a badhabit.
You.
I'll give you an example.
If I'm trying to bulk and buildmuscle, eating more is a good
habit.
If I'm trying to cut and lose 10pounds in 10 weeks, eating more
is not a good habit.
That is a destructive habit.
(32:15):
So it, it all depends on thegoals, but, but if someone's
wandering around without anygoals, you don't know whether
you're winning or losing at yourown game.
You're basically just aimless.
Sanika (32:23):
first identifying goals.
Right.
But I also feel like noteveryone feels like they're
deserving of a goal.
Right?
I,
Alan (32:30):
that's where you need to start then be for
Sanika (32:33):
so that's where I am very like, and you know this,
like I'm very open to people.
Across wherever you are in yourlife and on your journey, right?
So I think it's easy for us.
Like I always say, I can speakto the successful entrepreneur
who's like, let's get to thenext level.
Let's level up.
I made multi-millions.
I'm trying to go trillion.
(32:53):
I'm trying to go global, right?
That's a different conversation.
But we also have to be able tospeak to the person that's like,
I don't like the life I havetoday, and I don't know how to
build the life I love tomorrow.
Alan (33:04):
Right.
Well, I always say this, if youaren't, if you have any mental
health challenges, I'm probablynot the best coach for you
because I'm very big on toughlove.
Obviously I'm pretty hardcoreand, and I always liken it to an
NFL coach versus a peeweefootball coach.
You know those peewee footballcoaches that take it too
seriously?
They're screaming at the kids.
(33:24):
Listen, when you're in the NFL,I gotta, I gotta yell at Tom
Brady.
It is what it is.
Get your shit together, sir.
And, and it all depends on thelevel and, and I remember I had
a client once who said, I wantyou to be as hard on me as you
are on yourself.
And I told Amelia that and shesaid she would die.
And the.
Sanika (33:42):
Said that.
Alan (33:43):
Reverse it and she didn't she, I still coach her.
She said, I didn't know what Iwas saying, but there's a
construction zone for all of us.
When I was seven, I couldn'thandle this much truth.
But when you're 17, maybe alittle more when you're 27, a
little more, 37, a little morelike we all have to grow up a
little.
And the truth of the matter is,is.
Sanika (34:03):
We're in a society that's very much like coddle me.
Alan (34:06):
That's what I'm saying, and, and you can't always coddle
like there is some level of truetough love.
And I'm not saying toxicmasculinity, I'm not saying
that.
What I am saying is you can'ttry to be.
Avoiding the hard truths.
There's inconvenient truths,there's uncomfortable truths,
there's life is challenginginherently, and, and you have to
(34:28):
be equipped to actually facethat head on.
And so, but I'm grateful thatyou and I yin and yanged this
because I know that you're morefeminine.
I'm more masculine.
It is what it is.
That's nothing wrong with that.
And I think we provided a goodepisode that said, I do gotta
jump.
I gotta jump.
Sanika (34:41):
No, this has been a really great conversation and I
wanna call this this like alittle fireside chat because
we're gonna have Alan backbecause I think his brain and
systems need to be articulatedin a more deeper thought
conversation.
So thank you so much forwatching this episode of How Do
You Divine Systems with Alan.
Alan (35:00):
Thank you so much.
Sanika (35:01):
Thank you.
Alan (35:02):
This was awesome.
Sanika (35:03):
awesome.
We're gonna do this again,
Alan (35:05):
Let's do it.
I would love to.
That was a good yin and yang wehad going
Sanika (35:08):
wasn't it?
Alan (35:08):
good.
Yeah.
It was engaging as hell.
It was
Sanika (35:10):
I know.
I know.
They're gonna be like, when ishe coming back?
Alan (35:12):
I hope so.
I hope so.
I'm like, I'm hardcore, but I, Ican't not be
Sanika (35:17):
No, but I love that though.
And I love the beauty of yourintensity.
Right?
And I.
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