Next Level University

#1794 - Keep The Main Thing The Main Thing

Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

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0:00 | 30:04

Are you struggling to stay focused in a world full of distractions? In this episode, Kevin and Alan share their insights on why focusing on the main thing is crucial and avoid spreading yourself too thin. They discuss the balance between short-term needs and long-term dreams, offering practical advice on maintaining consistency and staying on track, even when distractions arise. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a creative, or anyone striving for success, this episode will help you sharpen your focus and make meaningful progress toward your goals.

Links mentioned:
Next Level Nation - https://www.facebook.com/groups/459320958216700
Alan’s Coaching: Alan@nextleveluniverse.com

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NLU is not just a podcast; it’s a gateway to a wealth of resources designed to help you achieve your goals and dreams. From our Next Level Dreamliner to our Group Coaching, we offer a variety of tools and communities to support your personal development journey.

For more information, please check out our website at the link below. 👇

Website 💻  http://www.nextleveluniverse.com

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Email 💬
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Alan@nextleveluniverse.com

LinkedIn ✍
Kevin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-palmieri-5b7736160/
Alan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanlazarosllc/

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Show notes:
(2:10) Dabbling in too many ventures and the importance of focus
(5:39) The Two Trains Concept
(9:52) Short-term profitability and long-term sustainability
(12:40) Self-improvement as a foundation
(15:51) Next Level Dreamliner: The planner, agenda, journal, and habit tracker to rule them all. Get a copy: https://a.co/d/f1FWAQ
(19:27) Real-l

Send a text to Kevin and Alan!

🎙️ Hosted by Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

Next Level University is a top-ranked daily podcast for dream chasers and self-improvement lovers. With over 2,100 episodes, we help you level up in life, love, health, and wealth one day at a time. Subscribe for real, honest, no-fluff growth every single day.

Speaker 1

Next Level Nation. Welcome back to another episode of Next Level University, where we help you level up your life, your love, your health and your wealth. Today, for episode number 1,794, keep the main thing, the main thing. There is a subset of humans that I have had the pleasure and the privilege to work with that oftentimes I'm sad about working with, and the reason is I'll get a message from someone and they'll say hey, kev, I have this new idea and I'm guilty of this too, so you can throw me under the bus when you get to go.

Speaker 1

I do this too, but it's usually, it's always in podcasting. It's just not always the most valuable use of time, you'll know. You know, but somebody will reach out to me and say, hey, I had this really good idea. This is how I'm going to, this is how I'm going to do the business, this is how I'm going to grow my podcast, this is how I'm going to coach people. This is this is what I'm going to do.

Speaker 1

What are your thoughts on that? And I don't want to burst their bubble and I don't want to seem like a negative person. I don't want to seem like I don't believe in them and I don't want to take wind out of their sails. But I might say something along the lines of we're doing a lot of dabbling. We always have these ideas that we think are the next thing, but if you try six different things a year, you're only trying each thing for two months. That's not enough time. We've got to stay focused on one thing. So, yes, we do a lot of stuff at NLU, but for seven years we have stayed focused on podcasting.

Speaker 2

And a lot of the other stuff we've tried actually, in hindsight, has been a mistake.

Dabbling in too many ventures and the importance of focus

Speaker 1

Yes, it's been detrimental Because it takes away from the main thing. It takes away from the main thing. So if you are looking at my life, I podcast seven times, eight times a week for NLU. I podcast another eight times on other shows, so that's 16 podcast episodes. All the people I coach are on podcasting. When I speak, it's usually on podcasting, so almost everything I do is on that focus. It's that focused thing. That's the main thing. For me, the main thing is podcasting and I want to be the podcast guy. So it makes sense. I was talking to a potential client recently who is a book publisher and everything she does is around books Everything Book publisher or ghostwriter, publisher and ghostwriter they have like a business.

Speaker 2

Is this the client that I sent over? No Different. Oh okay, she's also a ghostwriter.

Speaker 1

I kind of knew that. But no different person, different person, okay, but everything that this person does is involved with books in some way shape or form. All of the conversations she has are with people that are in the book industry, just like 99% of the conversations I have are with podcasters. Alan, 99% of his conversations are with business owners, because the main thing is the main thing and when you're focused on something another really good example of this. So, taryn, I do the dishes, I'm kitchen man. Taryn does the grocery shopping in our household and usually when she would say, hey, what do you need for food, I would say I don't know. Ground turkey, ground chicken, ground beef, get some veggies. I have rice. We're good For breakfast. Maybe I'd have this. For lunch, maybe I'd have this.

Speaker 1

Now that I'm dieting and doing the bodybuilding thing, it's literally always on the top of my mind I need ground beef and veggies. It's always. I'm just way more focused on making sure that that doesn't get forgotten. I'm always. I'm just more focused on that. The main thing for fitness right now is dieting. That's the main thing. I gotta keep the main thing, the main thing, and everything else will get better because of it. So I'm not saying it's not cool to experiment. I'm not saying it's not good to have variety, but if you're jumping ship every two months from one thing to another thing, to another thing, to another thing, to another thing, it's gonna be really hard for you to make any meaningful progress because you're not keeping the main thing, the main thing. So you got to find the main thing and stay there.

Speaker 2

We did an episode not long ago about this idea of the two trains, and it's a business concept that I, I guess, created, where one train is short-term profitability and the other train is long-term profitability. So I had someone reach out recently and say how did you make it through the tough times when you weren't making any money in podcasting? And I said we, there's three approaches that you can take. You can take the number one approach to life, where you take the beaten path and you work for a established business and an established brand, for a guaranteed paycheck, and there's no shame in that. I seriously, if that's the road you're taking, I, I there are certain things about that that I actually have become jealous of genuinely, and I understand and honestly I do think that that's really practical and I think it takes humility to do that and I respect and admire it way more than I ever have. Number two is do what Kevin and I did, which is just go all in on your passion and your purpose and hopefully learn how to make a profit.

The Two Trains Concept

Speaker 2

That road is very dangerous, very reckless, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very difficult and potentially wildly detrimental to, I would say, most people. But if you want to go that road, give it a shot. You'll never have what if, because you'll know that you went all in and you won't have what if, and that's the only benefit I can really think of. Okay, number two, number two, and so the road number one is usually not that fulfilling, okay, long-term, but it's super, gives you a lot of certainty, short-term, okay. So the beaten path, the common path, the guaranteed paycheck that is usually not super fulfilling long-term, but short-term gives you certainty and then maybe your quality of life can be super fulfilling. The second one is usually very fulfilling, but deeply challenging and has very little certainty, particularly short-term. And the second one if you can survive. And that's a big if, because 94% of businesses fail over a 10-year period. That means if, out of 100 people that start podcasts, there's only six standing 10 years later, and honestly, it's even lower than that because this is business, not podcasting. In podcasting, the stats are way lower than that, for sure. Okay, so out of 100 people that start a business, only six are still alive in a 10-year period, and that doesn't mean they're crushing it, it just means they're alive. Okay, and again, don't quote me on those stats, because I think they've changed a little bit, but at the end of the day, it's not high, not a high percentage. I don't know if the percentage has gone up or down, but it's not changed much and I understand why.

Speaker 2

Number three is the hybrid. I actually think that's what most people should consider, and the hybrid is I'm going to do Uber Eats on the side, I'm going to do DoorDash, I'm going to get this part-time job at Longhorn One of my clients worked at Longhorn, so that's what it made me think of and I'm going to try to start a podcast in tandem. And so the two trains is one train needs to pay the bills, it has to pay the bills. The short-term train has to be immediate money that pays the money pays the bills. And the second one is the long-term brand and business, and that's the one that's NLU. So NLU, the podcast itself, is the long-term brand and business that eventually will pay massive payback for us being consistent, for us getting better at speaking, for us meeting people all over the world, for us blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The short-term profitable activities. We produce other podcasts and I coach business owners, you coach podcasters. Okay, so, even within NLU, we're still running the two-train model.

Speaker 2

What's the point of all this? For anyone out there who, I guess, just make sure, whatever you're doing in your career, make sure the primary focus stays the short-term profitability, because the short-term profitability is feeding whatever that long-term dream is and I know that we talked earlier Kev about is our listener still dream chasers? Who's our listener? Are they business owners? Are they trying to get a little bit better? They're into self-improvement. We know that. They're into success. We know that they're into success. We know that they want to be more fulfilled. We know that they struggle with self-belief and self-worth and humility. Potentially, we know that At the end of the day, even if you're not struggling with those things, we can still help you get a little better each day. So there are people who want to get a little better each day toward their goals and dreams.

Short-term profitability and long-term sustainability

Speaker 2

I think that becomes what is your primary focus? Is your primary focus and this is what Kevin and I have felt guilty of fell victim to for lack of a better phrasing, our fault. We are very, very, very, very, very, very good at keeping NLU the primary focus and we always have been, and I'm very proud of that and I take nothing from that. What we've been guilty of doing is not having short-term profitability stay the primary focus, particularly when we have big months. And so the primary focus for you and I in our career health, wealth, life and love. This is the problem with being holistic. That's why most people aren't holistic. That makes sense. I can give a lot of examples of people who are in the fitness industry. They're unbelievable bodybuilders, but everything else gets kind of neglected, and so our primary focus needs to stay short-term profitability, which pays for the long-term impact, and that's our recipe. But we all have a primary and secondary focus and our question for the listeners is what is your primary focus?

Speaker 2

Right now and it's seasonal it can change a little bit so Kevin and I 10-pound and 10-week challenge fitness became a higher priority and then that made other things take a hit. I know that I got a little scarce. I essentially lost 11.4 pounds in nine weeks and I was definitely at the tail end, being like I'm putting 50 calls out a week while dieting. This is affecting my relationship with emilia. I feel bad, I'm scarce. She needs more attention and she needs to be a priority. She needs to feel taken care of. She feels loved she. She knows that she's loved, it's it's. Does she feel cared for? There's a big difference between being cared about and being cared for. Being cared about, she knows I love her. That's not a problem, that's not a question. She has 100 certainty of that. But does she feel cared for on the day-to-day basis? Or is she just constantly having to pick up the pieces of my ridiculous ambitions? And so, at the end of the day, everyone has to deal with this short-term profitability, long-term sustainability and primary focus versus secondary focus.

Speaker 1

Well, and then there's a lot of depths that go into it because, realistically, one of the main focuses for us forever has been self-improvement. That's beneath all of this.

Speaker 2

I don't mean to interrupt you. I I that's been hard for me to give up like one of the hardest parts about. And again, I'm still into self-improvement. It's not like I'm not working on my own self-improvement, but I was on therapy last week and I realized in the call when we were reflecting on my recent challenges, I'm not putting myself improvement first anymore.

Speaker 1

I've missed. I've had days. This year is, I think, the first year since I started tracking where I haven't learned every day for 30 minutes. Isn't that wild? It feels bad. Yeah, it feels bad.

Self-improvement as a foundation

Speaker 2

Yeah, it's almost like how do we put ourselves first while serving, yeah, at such a great level. I think that's the. I mean that's a good point. It makes it. It's not a coincidence that you and I both feel that way. I used to, every single day, first thing in the morning, I would always do my morning routine and I would do my morning mindset workout and I haven't missed still but I would have a routine instead of fitting it in at the end of the day, which is what I've been doing. It used to be wake up, take care of Alan day, which is what I've been doing. It used to be wake up, take care of Alan, make sure I'm doing my own self-improvement, reading my own book, whatever it is, and then go serve. It used to be remember the thirds First. Third is for me. Second, third is for service. Third, third is for fitness, food and family. Lately it's been first, third is for service. Second, third is for service. Third is for service.

Speaker 1

Second, third is for service. Third, third is for survival. I understand, I understand well. So from six to ten is self, but not really it's like, yeah, no, it's, it's mostly service. Yeah, that's, that's a leak in the boat for sure yeah, we gotta flip. Like you said it's a season, yeah, it's. It's a season in the boat, for sure, yeah, but like you said it's a season, yeah it's a season, it's a season. There were seasons where I could literally sit for three hours and listen to a book. It's not that season right now.

Speaker 2

It's just not. It's not that season, the good old days.

Speaker 1

And I told Alan I've been trying to learn more about podcasting. I know a lot because of my experience, but I want to see what else is out there in terms of content and see what other content I can learn from. That way I can pass that on. So I'm learning more about podcasting and business and speaking and sales than I am about ego and that Luckily, we have a lot of conversations about that. So we're always learning from one another through conversation, through clients, whatever that. So that's always there. But if you were to say, because this is the interesting thing, people would say oh yeah, podcasting was it right? No, self-improvement was it? This podcast would not exist without self-improvement. It would have died long ago because we wouldn't have the self-improvement set point to continue maintaining it.

Speaker 2

Yeah, that's fascinating, and you mentioned how you're learning a ton about podcasting. All the books I'm reading right now are business books. Make sense, jim collins, he, he wrote a bunch. I have them all actually right over here. They are the flywheel good to great, great by choice. How the mighty fall all these different books. They're all very, very deep, intricate business books based on decades of research of companies, and I wonder if we have kept the main thing, the main thing, because self-improvement is the main thing. I think we've ebbed and flowed, I do doubt it Right now.

Speaker 1

Is the podcast getting as much focus as it once did? No, but it's getting way more focus than it did at other times, as long as it's getting enough focus to make sure that things aren't going off the rails, because in theory, hopefully, we can accomplish more in less time.

Speaker 2

We definitely can Right, that's the ultimate goal, but it doesn't work like that for everything, Whereas at the beginning it took all of us to do that.

Next Level Dreamliner: The planner, agenda, journal, and habit tracker to rule them all. Get a copy:

Speaker 1

Yeah, but it doesn't work like that for everything. Amazing. You can fit a real deep conversation with your partner in five minutes. If they value quality time, that ain't it. That ain't enough. You can't collapse time in certain things. You know how people say time is a man-made construct. Is that real? Yeah, is that real Because I saw a piece of content. One of our mentors used to say that all the time and Alan and I would joke about it behind the scenes, mostly because I don't understand it. I don't know what it means, but there's only so much time, so that's my belief. There's only 24 hours in a day.

Speaker 2

Well, this goes back to Kevin and I have this longstanding fun argument about if you had a plane that could travel faster than the time zones change, you could travel back in time. No, you can't.

Speaker 1

There we go.

Speaker 2

That's the scientific truth of it. But if, if, time travel was possible, that's not the way to do it, damn, how do? How do I make that land so, regardless of going back down that? I get reached out to by team members and clients and they think that's hilarious when we go down that road because kev yeah, no.

Speaker 1

Let me ask you this question don't you age differently in space?

Speaker 2

yes, all right. He says dismissively yes no, I'm kidding.

Speaker 1

I, we don't, we don't have to. I'm totally kidding.

Speaker 2

Okay, I'm totally kidding the reason why is gravity and the equation of that. So Earth. You can't age differently on Earth, Essentially, but you can space. We're gonna have to have a. I'm gonna need you to watch Interstellar and study it.

Speaker 1

What about Mars? Have you gotten to that place in your thinking yet? How would I age?

Speaker 2

on Mars.

Speaker 1

I watch this YouTube channel. It's called Falling Into Whatever Planet it Is. You want to talk about trippy? You pop an edible, put it up on the big screen and watch Falling Into Saturn. Oh, my goodness, gracious, wild, wild stuff. Yeah no, that's completely off the rails, not at all connected to what we were talking about today. It's hard. Here's the truth. It's really hard to keep the main thing, the main thing, because your main thing is almost nobody else's main thing and they have their own main thing that they want to fit you into. Not a bad thing, I'm not saying it's a bad thing. Taryn and I have already been talking about this. We have four weddings next year. Oh no, back to back to back to back weekends.

Speaker 2

Whoa and.

Speaker 1

I am most likely going to be in at least one of them During those weekends. Their main thing, their main focus is that and I'm going to do my absolute best to make sure that well, for the time I'm there, that's going to be my main focus. But you've got to believe, for the month leading up to and the month after, I'm gonna have to double, triple, quadruple my main focus on the podcast, because it's not going to be there for those weekends. Now, luckily they're all local, I don't have to travel anywhere, so that's good, but I'm already planning for that you went and saw the hogwarts.

Speaker 2

I know we gotta go. You went and saw the hogwarts train, the one from harry potter movies. All right, that's what I always think of when I think of the main thing and the two trains. There's primary focus, secondary focus, and I think really what it's come down to is the primary focus. Underneath all this has been self-improvement. For the last seven years, the podcast has been the main train for self-improvement. For the last seven years, the podcast has been the main train for self-improvement. Okay, and then the profitable trains have fed that train to make sure it never loses momentum.

Speaker 2

And so I tracked the stats. So you, we had 1,000 listens a couple days ago. That's awesome. That's more than we got the entire first year. I think it was 1,057. I think we only, we only got 1054 the whole first year. So we got more listens in a single day than we did an entire year.

Real-life challenges in keeping the main thing, the main thing

Speaker 2

So does that mean you have to be perfect? Does that mean that every episode has to be perfect? Does that mean no, but it does mean that you and I can't lose our momentum. And there's a big difference between keep the momentum and gain momentum versus losing momentum. Losing momentum would be us missing episodes. Gaining momentum would be you and I sitting down, making sure the topics are on point, refiguring out who our listener is, you and I contemplating our identities. What are we passionate about? What do people need to hear? What do they want to hear? What is our responsibility? To make sure we're helping people in their lives. That's how you gain momentum. And then figuring out okay, tiktok, instagram, facebook, linkedin, how do we get more listeners? Those are all things.

Speaker 2

So, for everyone out there, what is your main train? What's the train that 5, 10, 15, 20 years from now is going to pay dividends forever? I have a client. I'll keep it anonymous. She started an investment account when she was 13, and she hasn't missed. Now she's.

Speaker 2

I don't know her age, so if you're listening, don't be offended. I genuinely don't know. I want to say maybe 30. The point is, she has hundreds of thousands of dollars, more than 100,000. I'll just leave it there and all I know is that's awesome, that's unbelievable, but you started when you were 13. And you just, and she'll be a millionaire, mathematically, statistically speaking, in the future, and she knows that. But she said this I can't touch the money. Exactly, you literally cannot touch that money at all. Because if you touch that money and start liquidating, like I did with all my assets back in the day, you lose momentum and the compound effect doesn't work anymore.

Momentums

Speaker 2

So everyone figure out what is the main thing for you. I know one person I'm thinking of. The main thing is mom. Everything else is secondary. That's okay. For me, the main thing is business. Everything else is secondary. Ceo is first. I even talked to Amelia about it. It when we have kids, ceo will probably still be first. I'm gonna be father, husband, but ceo will always be first. And she knows that and I told her this when we first got together and I think this shows a lot of self-awareness I said you will always be the most important person, but the mission will always be. And she said, don't worry, same. I'll never put another human being above you, but the mission will always be bigger than you because it's bigger than me. And again, that's very unique. But the point is is everyone has a main train that you can't lose momentum on and then the stuff around it has to feed it, kind of.

Speaker 1

It is a challenging thing to talk about. It sounds super simple, yeah, and it's also a challenging thing to talk about. It sounds super simple, yeah, and it's also a challenging thing in practice, because it seems very easy, but there's so many opportunities to get distracted. So many opportunities to get distracted.

Speaker 2

Last thing Okay, what do you think about all this? Because this isn't the way you used to think. And now, you do?

Speaker 1

What do I think?

Speaker 2

about it now.

Speaker 1

Yeah, sell it to old Kev. I'm going to sell it to him. Oh man, I don't know. There's always that.

Speaker 2

Because you used to jump from job to job.

Speaker 1

Well, I'd still probably be jumping from job to job if I wasn't doing this. I think, that was good. Maybe that was your main thing. My main thing was finding freedom and finding something that I love doing. I mean, that's why I did. All my jobs were pretty cool, all things considered. Being a forklift operator and truck driver was awesome.

Speaker 2

What would you say to old Kev if you were coaching him in terms of primary and secondary focus?

Prioritize your focus

Speaker 1

I would say don't fall victims who going into the backyard and digging a hundred holes that are a foot deep. Just start by digging one hole and try to dig that thing as deep and as deep and as deep as you can, because you're never going to strike oil 100 feet down. You're not one foot down. You're never going to strike oil one foot down. So if you go go dig a hundred holes that are a foot deep, you're not going to strike oil one foot down. So if you go dig a hundred holes that are a foot deep, you're not going to strike anything and you're going to think you're messing up when in reality the strategy is just off.

Speaker 1

So go dig one hole, get some blisters at least on your hands from the shovel, and then maybe we can have a conversation about whether or not it's the right thing. But that's probably what I would say Now. I left my jobs because I hated them and I said screw this, I'm going to go find something else. And I did that long enough and eventually I got here. So I think it was the right thing. But yeah, some of my job was really cool. I enjoyed. You know how awesome it was for me to jump in a truck with just myself and the radio and drive all over the place all day. That was awesome. On summer days it was amazing. I'd go to like chipotle for lunch, eat outside, nobody there to watch me. It was amazing. But when it rained it sucked, and when it snowed it sucked and we had to load your truck at four in the morning it sucked. But there were some things about it that were really, really interesting. So I know we gotta jump real quick. No, we're supposed to jump.

Speaker 2

We're listening to a listening to, we're reading a book. I'm listening to it and reading it. Uh, I have both hard copy and the audio version. We're listening to a book, reading a book by morgan household called same as ever in book club. There's a quote in there that talks about how, if you like, if you enjoy even 50 of your work, you you should be super grateful. If even 50 of it you enjoy, you're on the way high end of enjoying your work. I thought that was really good perspective. I agree, if you can get to the point where half of your working hours are actually meaningful and fulfilling and enjoyable, you are in a very good place, and that's why I like to watch movies that give me. I actually got interviewed by someone who was in Rwanda His name's Moses, uh during the genocides in the nineties, and I was uber grateful after that conversation because it was holy crap and you told me that interview was going to be awesome.

Speaker 1

Moses is a good dude. Shout out to him. Yeah, that was great.

Speaker 2

But those resets are so important for me perspective. It just gives perspective of listen. We don't like every day and this is hard, but dude, I mean relatively speaking, this is this is great compared to some of the hardships people face. So I think it's really important to remember that.

Speaker 1

All right heavy one heavy turn a little bit here towards the end. But perspective gratitude it's very easy to lose sight of that stuff, so it's important to visit opportunities to find it when you can. Alright, if you're looking for a group of humans who are also into self-improvement, who are also into trying to keep the main thing, the main thing, and you find yourself being distracted, often on social media. Next time you're on social media Facebook specifically, search Next Level Nation, we'll also have the link in the show notes. It is our private Facebook group for the amazing community of Next Level Nations Nationers, whatever. We'd love to have you there.

Speaker 2

I think it shows tremendous humility, courage and vulnerability to be in a place where you're willing to hire a coach and I've seen so many people's lives transform tremendously over time with that humility, courage and vulnerability. So if you're scared, that's normal. If you feel like it's vulnerable to share your struggles, that's normal. Reach out this is what I do. I love it. Reach out this is what I do. I love it.

Speaker 2

Consistency, reliability, self-discipline, train tracks, habit tracking, keeping you accountable, making sure that you're on track toward meaningful progress, in alignment with what fulfills you most of the time keyword, most of the time key phrase, I should say and uh, it's my favorite work in the world, so I hope that you reach out. I will make you both my job and this is what I say to my clients. I say this all the time. I say my job is to help you be more successful and more fulfilled, in that order. Successful first, my new focus in coaching. It used to be for a little while it was the opposite Like help people be fulfilled, fulfilled, it's success first, and I will help you also align that with what is meaningful and fulfilling.

Speaker 1

As well. As always, we love you, we appreciate you, grateful for each and every one of you, and at nlu, we don't have fans, we have family. We will talk to you all tomorrow, talk to you soon.