The Fundamentals And The Fun To Dos (1898)

In today’s episode, Kevin and Alan discuss the critical difference between focusing on fundamentals and relying on supplements in life, fitness, business, and relationships. They explain why consistent effort on foundational practices like sleep, hydration, nutrition, and training builds a strong base for success, while supplements can only enhance, not replace, these essentials. With relatable examples and humor, they challenge the allure of shortcuts and emphasize the value of authenticity, consistency, and genuine community over superficial tactics.

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

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Show notes:
(3:01) What are fundamentals Vs. Supplements?
(4:42) Pyramid of fitness and foundational habits
(10:23) Authenticity in building a real community
(11:26) Next Level Dreamliner: the planner, agenda, journal, and habit tracker to rule them all. Get a copy: https://a.co/d/9fPpxEt
(17:53) What one thing could change everything?
(18:31) Avoiding shortcuts and focusing on consistent fundamentals
(19:54) Outro

🎙️ 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.

Transcript

Kevin Palmieri 0:00

I know a lot of people who think that's the fundamental. The fundamental is I just need a lot of followers. No, you need a community. You don't need a lot of followers, you need a community of people. I'd rather you have 500 real people who are in the community than 500,000 fake people. That's not going to work.

Alan Lazaros 0:17

It's almost like everything has a result. Okay, what's the result you want? What is the fundamental that's necessary to get that result? In the form of a skill? So consistency is a skill, and once I have that skill, what are the supplements that will help me get there faster?

Kevin Palmieri 0:35

Welcome to Next Level University. I'm your host, kevin Palmieri, and I'm your co-host, alan Lazarus. At NLU, we believe in a heart-driven but no BS approach to holistic self-improvement for dream chasers.

Alan Lazaros 0:49

Our goal with every episode is to help you level up your life love health and wealth.

Kevin Palmieri 0:55

We bring you a new episode every single day, on topics like confidence, self-belief, self-worth, self-awareness, relationships, boundaries, consistency, habits and defining your own unique version of success Self-improvement in your pocket, every day, from anywhere, completely free.

Kevin Palmieri 1:18

Welcome to Next Level University, next Level Nation. Welcome back to another episode of Next Level Nation the title. I want to make it a little nice, a little sexy, you know. So I did a video recently and I'm not crapping on the cold plunge. I don't want to make this an episode about beating up the cold plunge, okay. So I just want to put that out there.

Kevin Palmieri 1:53

But I did a piece of social media content recently where I talked about hey, is the reason you're not a bajillionaire yet because you're not cold plunging every day? Most likely not. And my thought in this video was the cold plunge represents attributes, it represents behaviors, it represents skill sets, it represents personality types. It's not the fact that you're jumping into cold water every day that's making you successful. It's not necessarily your morning routine. Does the fact that I do yoga in the morning help me be a better podcaster? Yes and no. Is the fact that I learn every day the reason I am becoming more successful? No, it's a piece of it, but if I just learned every day and then did nothing with it, I would be someone who's really good at bar trivia. I believe that was Malcolm Gladwell Blink. Thank you very much. Rack up another point. Awesome, here we go. So that was my thought in today's episode.

What are fundamentals Vs. Supplements?

Kevin Palmieri 3:00

There's a big difference between a primary thing and something that's supplemental. You can do mobility every day for the rest of your life, but if you don't go to the gym after, you're not going to get stronger necessarily. If you can get eight hours of sleep every day for the rest of your life and I'm not saying that's not something primary but there's other things that you have to do for your health as well, and I think it's very easy to lose sight of the stuff that is the most valuable. I tell clients this all the time. I say you have to do. You have to do the 80%. So 80% of the time you have to do the stuff that you know works, the tried and true fundamentals. 20% of the time you can experiment and try different stuff, try out different titles, try out different titles, try out different camera angles, try out different content, try out different guests. But 80% of the time you've got to do the stuff that you know works. That's the primary. The supplemental stuff is the stuff that you do on the side.

Kevin Palmieri 3:58

Creatine is a supplement and many people in the fitness space use it and it is one of the most widely studied supplements of all time. Number one it's cheap and affordable. And number two, it's been around for a long time. It's a really good supplement. But if you can take creatine till the cows come home and if you don't do anything after, it's not really going to matter. You're not going to notice that much of a difference. So I thought it would be cool to do an episode like this, because we often talk about the unsexy fundamentals. We say they're unsexy because they're not necessarily fun to do, but some of the stuff that's the most fun to do is also the stuff that doesn't really have that much of an effect in the long run.

Alan Lazaros 4:42

I have a pyramid of fitness. I know it right off the top of my head. You want me to do it In the long run. I have a pyramid of fitness.

Kevin Palmieri 4:47

The bottom is the. I know it right off the top of my head. You want me to do it? Yes, sir, it's sleep hydration nutrition, mobility, sleep hydration nutrition. I don't know it. I've lied. I've lied to you Live, on air. This is the most fun I've had a. I've lied to you Live on air.

Alan Lazaros 5:05

This is the most fun I've had a lot of fun lately Sleep hydration, nutrition, mobility, breath work supplementation.

Kevin Palmieri 5:12

You missed one, the one you love most Performance enhancing drugs. Is that the one? What do I love the most? Training, training, yeah, you got to train. You got to train. Training, oh, training, yeah, you got to train.

Alan Lazaros 5:24

You got to train. It's primary, not supplemental. Yeah, that's the primary one you missed. So the cool thing about a pyramid is the higher you want to climb, the wider the foundation needs to be, which is to the point of this episode. Yes, and it's in order of most importance Sleep, hydration, nutrition, training. Hydration, nutrition, training, mobility, breath work supplementation. So if you are breathing right and taking creatine, you will not get the physique of your dreams.

Kevin Palmieri 5:55

You'll get more than if you just took creatine, though that's the thing.

Alan Lazaros 6:00

Agreed Right, so it's in order of most importance, meaning sleep is the foundation. It's the best for your brain and for your body and for muscle growth. Hydration is critical. If you don't stay hydrated, you will. We all can picture I was with someone recently yeah, kevin's hydrating. You'll never catch me without something to hydrate with. Usually, you'll never catch me without my water bottle. That's a huge cred hit right there, because my water bottle is downstairs. Today has been an S show, but anyways. So sleep, hydration, nutrition, training, mobility in order of most importance. I don't know how long you can go without sleep. I gotta look that up. It's gotta be like without any REM sleep. I think you can last like a day and a half or something.

Kevin Palmieri 6:44

No, no, no, no, no. I think somebody just broke the record. I think it was like 126 hours.

Alan Lazaros 6:49

Jeez, how long can you go without water? Ooh, I don't know.

Kevin Palmieri 6:53

I'm not the guy, you're supposed to be the guy.

Alan Lazaros 6:55

My computer just went wow, it's turning on, but anyways. So we're going to hydrating well, eating the right food and training. You are 90% of the way there. The last 10% is mobility, breath, work and supplementation. Now, if you do the first four sleep, hydration, nutrition and training but you don't do mobility as you get older and older and older, mobility becomes the most important thing. So here's my point fundamental and supplementative supplementary. Okay, the fundamental is sleep, hydration, nutrition and training. The supplements to do those better would be mobility, breathwork and supplementation. The problem is the whole industry is focusing on supplementation Because that's what makes money. So on this podcast we talk about consistency and commitment and self-awareness and mindset and self-belief and self-worth. Those are primary. The supplement, supplementative stuff is well, this is what you should post on Instagram and you should do story and feed and maybe you should try Instagram threads and you should. And unfortunately, when I coach certain people who maybe don't focus on fundamentals as much, they are asking for the supplements. They're not asking for the fundamentals.

Kevin Palmieri 8:18

It's really hard to win with just supplements. The supplements can take you from a nine and a half to a 10, but they're not going to take you from a zero to a nine and a half Exactly, and that's the. That's the hard thing. But that's usually the stuff that's really sexy. That's usually the stuff that looks best on camera or sounds best wherever it is. But you have to have the fundamentals down. We were talking I deleted the episodes because we're recording this ahead. It's a whole thing. We usually don't record episodes this far ahead, but we did an episode where we were talking about the skill set. We were talking about how it was.

Kevin Palmieri 8:56

The growth is the harder road and you should be proud of yourself for doing it. The hard part about somebody teaching you something is oftentimes they're only telling you the supplemental stuff. They're not telling you the fundamentals that sometimes are just not obvious to them, where it would be very easy for me to say, well, yeah, you just podcast for 1,900 episodes and eventually you'll get to a different place. But there's so many things under the iceberg of podcasting that we've done to get to where we are today. Same thing you can exercise for 15 years, but if you're not doing it correctly, it doesn't matter, it's not if you're only doing the supplemental stuff, it's not going to bring you the results that you want so I think there's.

Kevin Palmieri 9:40

There's something about the fundamentals become a skill set and then the supplemental stuff is the. It's like the Mario Kart booster Yep, that's. I think that's the difference, a great example of this, and I would never aspire to this and I don't suggest it. But if you start, you're a dream chaser and you think to yourself okay, I really need a social media following here if I'm going to be successful. The supplemental way to do that is to go buy a bunch of followers and you're going to be successful. The supplemental way to do that is to go buy a bunch of followers and you're going to be in trouble and you're not going to succeed because they're not real and nobody's going to buy anything from you. Yeah, the fundamental way is to build a real, authentic community.

Alan Lazaros 10:23

Well, the fundamental underneath that is posting consistently copywriting, learning what's adding value? Adding value.

Kevin Palmieri 10:30

Yeah, all of that stuff copywriting, learning, what's compelling, adding value yeah, all of that stuff. Then you do that and then you start to grow and then your business grows a little bit. 10 years down the line you want to buy some followers. You could do that and it would be different. I'm not saying to do that, but it would be supplemental. It's like well, I already have 40,000 followers, I'm going to buy 5,000 followers, Instead of saying I have zero followers and I'm going to buy 5,000 followers, instead of saying I have zero followers and I'm going to buy 40,000 followers. It's two very, very different lives. Again, I don't suggest you do that either of those, because it's cheating and it's not going to bring you anything. But I know a lot of people who think that's the fundamental. The fundamental is I just need a lot of followers. No, you need a community. You don't need a lot of followers, you need a community of people. I'd rather you have 500 real people who are in the community than 500,000 fake people.

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

Alan Lazaros 11:17

That's not going to work Well. The community is the result you're looking for. The fundamentals are what build it, and then there's supplements. Hello, hello, hello. Nlu listener. Thank you, as always, for listening to Next Level University. Real quick. I just want to jump in and let you know about the Next Level Dreamliner.

Alan Lazaros 11:38

This is a journal that I use every single day. Achieve your dreams 90 days at a time. It breaks down your dreams into goals, milestones and daily habits. We hope you enjoy it. The link will be in the show notes.

Alan Lazaros 11:51

So community, let's say you want to build a community. I have a client who's trying to build a community. The fundamental underneath building a community is adding value to people in a specific core value that they self-identify as having, and then consistently adding value in a private group, private Facebook group, whatever it is. It's almost like everything has a result. Okay, what's the result you want? What is the fundamental that's necessary to get that result in the form of a skill? So consistency is a skill, and once I have that skill, what are the supplements that will help me get there faster? So I looked this up and I know we've only got a couple minutes here. But the first one is how long can you survive without sleep? Apparently, the exact amount of time a person can survive without sleep is unknown, but the longest recorded period is 264 hours or just over 11 days.

Alan Lazaros 12:45

So they went 11 days without sleep, my goodness. So in this metaphor of primary and supplemental, it should be hydration. That's first, because you can only live. As a general rule of thumb, a person can survive without water for about three days, okay, so the most important on the pyramid is water, not sleep. Second would be sleep. Third, you can live to set up to 70 days without food. According to google, 43 to 70 depending on your weight when you start, obviously. And then I did. How long can you live without exercise? Yes, it is possible to have a full life expectancy without regular exercise, but your quality of life is going to be terrible, so that's why it's in that order is. I actually thought I was wrong about this, but I thought sleep was the most important Sleep, hydration, nutrition, training, mobility, breathwork and supplementation Hydration you can only survive without for three days. So that's a good way to think of things in general. I don't know if other people think in pyramids. Maybe that's a me thing.

Kevin Palmieri 13:44

No, you are the pyramid guy.

Alan Lazaros 13:46

I'm the pyramid guy. Yep, you want a great relationship. What are the fundamentals that are required for that? What's the bottom of the pyramid? I think it's trust. You think it's effective communication. Same thing and they're very similar.

Alan Lazaros 14:00

I mean if I don't effectively communicate with you, okay. Well, what's underneath that? Humility, courage and vulnerability. So if I had to pick a pyramid of relationships, it would be the most important would be humility, second would be courage. Be the most important would be humility. Second would be courage. Third would be vulnerability. Fourth would be effective communication. Fifth would be aligned goals. Nlu is constantly creating the formula of what creates outcomes.

Alan Lazaros 14:25

I can't think of anyone who doesn't want to be wildly in love. I can't think of anyone who doesn't want to have a great body. I can't think of anyone who doesn't want to be wildly in love. I can't think of anyone who doesn't want to have a great body. I can't think of anyone who doesn't want to live in a dream home. I can't think of anyone who doesn't want to have enough more money at the end of the month to a surplus of abundance. There's no one who doesn't want to be healthier, wealthier, more in love. There isn't. That's not real. I don't care what anyone says. There's no one on planet earth. No matter how healthy, wealthier and love you are, there's always more that you could be. Do give you and I.

Alan Lazaros 14:56

We make more money than we ever have, but we're we're never going to get to a point where it's like, oh, we're good, we're going to try to grow forever. Now we have more we can give away. Now we can donate more for Next Level Hope Foundation. Now we can hire more team members. Now we can bring more community members in. And it all comes down to the simple fundamentals that you have to really really narrow in on, and then you can also use some supplements. So, for example, for this podcast, spotify just started allowing video on Spotify. We're not going to shift everything we're doing to to that just because it came out. Uh, my favorite example this is clubhouse. Clubhouse, I knew, was going to burn hot and then burn out, and everyone and their mother for lack of better phrasing was jumping to clubhouse and I told emilia, I told you, I said I don't, I'm not going to change what we're doing, we're not going to make that a fundamental right that could be supplemental.

Alan Lazaros 15:46

Let's give it a shot, let's experiment, but don't make that the 80. And I've been big on this from the beginning and I don't know if that's just a weird engineering thinking. But uh, you can't focus on supplements and win, at least not long term. Well, you can't just focus on them?

Kevin Palmieri 16:01

yeah right, they can't. You can't build a pyramid with the base being supplements. Agreed, there's no way, because that's how you end up unsuccessful out of whatever it is. That's a recipe for disaster. But those usually are the sexy things. It's usually the. It's like you open the fridge and there's the unsexy fundamentals there right in the front and you push them to the side Like I don't know, get out of here. I would dig for the good stuff in the fridge and there's the unsexy fundamentals there right in the front and you push them to the side like I don't know, get out of here I would dig for the good stuff in the back.

Alan Lazaros 16:32

Yeah, where are the red velvet chocolate chip?

Kevin Palmieri 16:34

cookies, yeah, with milk, I think. I think that's a fundamental the cookies are a supplement the cookies are definitely they're definitely a supplement of cookies in general. Cookies and milk, big fan, yeah, you like your, you like your child snacks.

Alan Lazaros 16:49

You know it Dude red velvet Chips.

Kevin Palmieri 16:52

Ahoy oh yeah, huge fan.

Alan Lazaros 16:54

With Fairlife Skim Dude. Lots of protein In the milk. Very low calories in the milk. Tons of calories in the cookies. Of course Balances out it's great. I don't. Calories in the cookies, of course Balances out, it's great. I don't like milk and cookies. Really Big fan, depending on the cookies. Dunk them, come on, I like ice cream Come on. You want to talk about fundamentals, man?

Kevin Palmieri 17:17

Yeah, that is a fundamental, that's a fundamental way to a bulk, for sure, if you're trying to put on some weight that before the gym get the sugar in me. All right, anything you want to add. We got a minute here, so the next four or five episodes, so we're doing these back to back. We're hammering five episodes in a row today. As we record this, they're probably going to be 15 to 20 minutes each, because it's wild, alan's traveling, it's a whole, it's mayhem and the weeks have been crazy.

Alan Lazaros 17:53

Anything you want to add quickly before we get out of here for this episode. This is a question I've been asking myself a lot lately, asking book club earlier, asking clients what's the one thing that's that could change everything? The answer to that question is always a fundamental. What's the one thing that could change everything? You're never going to come up with creatine or instagram stories. It's what's the one thing that could change everything? Consistency. What's the one thing that could change everything? That relationship with that person who's a mentor. What's the one thing that could change everything? Getting a coach. What's the one thing that could change everything? It's always going to be a fundamental. So how focused are you on fundamentals versus supplements? Remember, social media is full of supplements.

Kevin Palmieri 18:31

Yes, oftentimes, if you have the opportunity to buy something, anytime it says blueprint. I think it's a supplement. Anytime somebody says this is my five-step blueprint, it's like I don't think it possibly could be. Nope, I don't think it possibly could be, but maybe that's a me thing, all right. Next Level Nation. If you're looking for a group where we talk about the fundamentals all the time, every day, seven days a week, next Level Nation is the place. It is a private Facebook group. We will have the link in the show notes below. What would you like to say? Good sir.

Alan Lazaros 19:03

If you're looking for the five-step blueprint to become a millionaire with little to no effort, guaranteed millionaire, multi-millionaire.

Kevin Palmieri 19:10

Guaranteed, of course yeah, obviously.

Alan Lazaros 19:13

No, I can't even. Uh, if you want to get a little bit better and have someone who is going to help you focus more on the fundamentals, please reach out.

Kevin Palmieri 19:22

You charge fifteen thousand dollars per call, right fifteen thousand yeah, about 15k.

Alan Lazaros 19:26

I don't get any out of bed as15,000. I don't get out of bed, as Kevin would say. I don't get out of bed for anything less than a Jibo. Less than a Jibo.

Kevin Palmieri 19:32

And we're obviously kidding when we say that, yeah, and then $15,000 recurring, after that $15,000 per call and the price is about to go up.

Alan Lazaros 19:49

It's going to go from $15,000 to $150. You now, yeah, you gotta get in now this offer ends upon the right.

Outro

Kevin Palmieri 19:53

Before you click. No, obviously we're kidding about all that. Okay, 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. Please reach out. Thanks for joining us for another episode of Next Level University. We love connecting with the Next Level family.

Alan Lazaros 20:11

We mean it when we say family. If you ever need anything, please reach out to us directly. Everything you need to get a hold of us is in the show notes Thank you.