Consistency is JUST The Beginning (2162)

Consistency plants the seed, improvement helps it grow. In today’s episode, Kevin and Alan reveal why simply showing up isn’t enough. You also need sustainability and continuous improvement to create lasting growth. From business and health to relationships and daily habits, they share how to move beyond “just being consistent” and start building real momentum. If you’re ready to stop going through the motions and start improving with every step, this episode is for you.

Digital Asset:
The 5 M's of Next Level Motivation - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VtT5zhecmnt9tHawoNS4w7e3OkLnotNY/view

Free 30-minute Business Breakthrough Session with Alan -https://calendly.com/alanlazaros/30-minute-free-breakthrough-session?month=2025-04
Free 30-Minute Podcast Breakthrough Session with Kevin -https://calendly.com/kevinpalmieri/free-30-minute-podcast-breakthrough-session-with-kevin

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For more information, check out our website and socials using the links below. 👇

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Show notes:
(2:44) Applying continuous improvement to life
(5:02) How goals and devices affect relationships
(7:42) The three essentials
(9:38) Meet your people. Chase your dreams. Level up your life with Next Level Group Coaching. https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/group-coaching/
(12:34) Why mastery and growth must be intentional
(18:08) 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.

Chapters

• 2:44 Applying continuous improvement to life
• 5:02 How goals and devices affect relationships
• 7:42 The three essentials
• 9:38 Meet your people. Chase your dreams. Level up your life with Next Level Group Coaching.
• 12:34 Why mastery and growth must be intentional
• 18:08 Outro

Transcript

Kevin Palmieri

(0:00) Consistency is literally only one third of the equation. (0:04) It's a great part to have, but it is not enough.

Alan Lazaros

(0:08) Consistency is a great start. (0:10) It's the bottom of the pyramid, but if you're not improving along the way, you're basically gonna stay at the same level.

Kevin Palmieri

(0:16) Welcome to Next Level University. (0:19) I'm your host, Kevin Palmieri. (0:21) And I'm your co-host, Alan Lazarus.(0:24) At NLU, we believe in a heart-driven, but no BS approach to holistic self-improvement for dream chasers.

Alan Lazaros

(0:30) Our goal with every episode is to help you level up your life, love, health, and wealth.

Kevin Palmieri

(0:37) 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.

Alan Lazaros

(0:53) Self-improvement, in your pocket, every day, from anywhere, completely free. (0:59) Welcome to Next Level University.

Kevin Palmieri

(1:05) Next Level Nation, today for episode number 2,162, consistency is just the beginning. (1:12) I say this to podcasters all the time, consistency is not a strategy, it is a requirement. (1:17) And I think it's a great place to start, to Alan's point.(1:21) Alan just realized he was out of his liquid and he is now heartbroken. (1:25) And that was devastating for me to see in real time. (1:26) I apologize that you had to go through that.(1:29) The reason I wanted to do this episode is because there are some people like myself who are really good at running a system. (1:36) If you tell me what to do, I will do it. (1:40) And if you check in with me in two years, it'll be the same shit.(1:44) Almost no different. (1:46) That's something I'm working on and I'm trying to get better at that and I think I am improving. (1:50) But consistency is just doing the behavior enough times, it's not enough.(1:54) There has to be more than just consistency. (1:57) There has to be innovation. (1:59) There has to be understanding sustainability.(2:01) There has to be improving consistency. (2:04) There has to be audits to what the things you're doing are and are they actually helping. (2:09) So I wanted to do an episode on that.(2:11) Fire. (2:12) Yes.

Alan Lazaros

(2:12) I remember I worked for a company called Cognex way back in the day. (2:17) Their motto was work hard, play hard. (2:19) I used to say work hard, play harder.(2:21) Dumb. (2:23) We did have a blast there. (2:24) But there was a customer I had.(2:28) It was a very, very, very large food company. (2:31) And there was a continuous improvement manager that I kept meeting with because I was selling industrial automation equipment. (2:39) And it's his job to make every factory more efficient, more effective.(2:44) And I remember thinking, you have the best fucking job ever. (2:48) To this guy. (2:49) I said, wait, let me get this straight.(2:52) Your job is to travel around the world and just make everything better all the time? (2:58) He said, yep. (2:59) Now, two things I want to share.(3:00) One of them is going to be, don't take it the wrong way, but it's my truth. (3:04) The other one, number one, best job ever. (3:06) That's awesome.(3:07) You just spend your whole life looking for things to improve. (3:10) That sounds like my dream. (3:11) That's what I try to do.(3:13) Anyway, just don't get paid for it. (3:14) I do, but okay. (3:17) Number two, I remember thinking, why the fuck don't you do that with you?(3:21) This dude was mediocre as hell, as a person. (3:25) And he was one of those guys where it's like, your wife must be miserable. (3:28) You ever meet a guy where you, of course, and it's like, oh, I feel so bad for your wife.(3:36) And I remember thinking to myself, okay, Six Sigma, continuous improvement, commitment to Kainai, Kaizen. (3:44) There's so many principles in corporate. (3:46) How do you think Amazon gets things shipped so quickly?(3:48) They're improving to the millisecond at all times. (3:51) I worked at a company, they did jet engine turbines, and we were trying to measure things down to the micron so that planes don't crash.

Kevin Palmieri

(3:57) I respect that.

Alan Lazaros

(3:59) Of course.

Kevin Palmieri

(3:59) I respect that.

Alan Lazaros

(4:00) And I remember thinking, why don't we apply these principles to our lives? (4:05) It's insane to me that you are the continuous improvement manager at a global conglomerate down to the micron millisecond, and then you're a fucking mess. (4:16) It makes no sense.(4:19) What's my point of this? (4:21) You can get better every single day for the rest of your life, and when you do, your life will, oh, it's unbelievable. (4:30) Emilia and I were on a relationship coaching session recently, and when we got off, we had a conversation about one of the things.(4:41) Let me rephrase. (4:41) We were on a podcast. (4:43) We did a coaching session right after this, so I got confused.(4:46) We were on a podcast. (4:46) Shout out to Michael Reed. (4:47) Thank you for interviewing us.(4:49) Two shout outs in a week. (4:51) That's big time. (4:52) I love that show, man.(4:54) Big time, same. (4:54) He asks great questions, awesome. (4:56) Huge fan of Mike.(4:57) Mike asked us right in the opening. (4:59) He said, what are you noticing with couples that you coach? (5:02) What's the trends right now?(5:03) 21st century, digital, distractions. (5:07) My answer was people are growing apart because they have goals in conflict and core values in conflict and beliefs in conflict, particularly with political shit. (5:16) Number two, Emilia said, honestly, what she's noticing is people are on their devices all the time, and when you're investing in the device and not in your relationship, the relationship's gonna suck.(5:33) You ever see a couple at dinner where they're both on their phone? (5:35) Of course. (5:36) That's a fucking terrible idea, and listen, I understand social media, online, virtual, I get it.(5:44) I'm a podcaster, so is Emilia, but when I'm with Emilia, I'm with Emilia, always. (5:50) We have no devices downstairs during quality time on purpose, and Emilia said this. (5:55) She said, if you're always investing in your device more than you are in yourself or in your relationship, your relationship's in trouble, and that's a fact, so seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, quarters, years, decades, every second can be invested back into yourself.(6:14) I always say build the self, build the family, build the business. (6:17) Build the self, build the family, build the business. (6:19) Build the self, build the family, build the business, and I remember you were coaching Emilia years ago, and you said, I don't try to get better every second of every day, and her jaw dropped.(6:27) Yeah, pretty much. (6:28) And she went and told me, and she couldn't understand why you wouldn't try to get better every day. (6:36) I like to R and R.(6:38) Right. (6:39) Now, the point that we're making in this episode, though, is you can't just be consistent. (6:45) You have to be consistent with the right things, and you have to improve those things every single time.(6:53) I hurt my knee earlier in the gym, but I said, Alan, you will not leave this fucking gym, no matter what, under any circumstances, not 0.1% better. (7:02) And I went and tried to do a couple things. (7:04) It's, ah, that's making me worse, that's making me worse, that's making me worse, okay.(7:07) So I found a workout that didn't affect my knee at all, because I'm not leaving this fucking gym unless I'm better.

Kevin Palmieri

(7:13) I remember I went on a podcast one time that had more episodes than us, and I was like, this is gonna be fucking awesome. (7:18) It's gonna be amazing. (7:18) It was not awesome.(7:19) It was not amazing.

Alan Lazaros

(7:20) I think I went on that show, too.

Kevin Palmieri

(7:21) You began with an S, last name? (7:22) I don't remember. (7:23) This was a long S, last name?(7:26) I genuinely don't know. (7:27) This was a long time, over a year ago. (7:30) But I remember thinking, oh my goodness, you just did the consistency part.(7:36) You just did the consistency. (7:38) I say this all the time. (7:39) I think there's three things.(7:40) Again, there's way more than three things. (7:42) Sustainability, so in order to start something, it must be sustainable. (7:44) You must be able to actually show up and do it for a meaningful amount of time.(7:48) Sustainability. (7:48) What's an example of something that's not sustainable? (7:51) Going to the gym for two hours a day to start.(7:54) Nice. (7:55) Especially if you're somebody who has never exercised, that is not gonna work. (7:58) There's no way.(7:58) There's no way. (7:59) I've been exercising a long time. (8:01) I couldn't go to the gym for two hours a day.(8:02) There's no way. (8:03) No chance. (8:03) So that.(8:04) Unless you want everything else to suck.

Alan Lazaros

(8:05) Yeah, unless that's what you're dedicating your life to. (8:08) No relationship, no business, no career.

Kevin Palmieri

(8:09) No social life. (8:12) So sustainability, that's one. (8:14) Second one, consistency.(8:15) So after you find that you can do it in a sustainable manner, now we can do it consistently. (8:19) So we started sustainably, cool, we're good to go. (8:21) Now we're gonna do it, let's say, once a week.(8:24) That's the run rate that we're doing this behavior for. (8:27) Cool. (8:28) Third thing, improvement.(8:30) You gotta improve the consistency. (8:32) So we used to do most important win, most important improvement. (8:35) We haven't been doing it because we're overwhelmed, but after every episode, we would sit down.(8:39) We do it in our head. (8:40) It's a meta habit in our head.

Alan Lazaros

(8:42) It's fair, it's fair.

Kevin Palmieri

(8:42) But yeah, it's fair. (8:43) But we could do better, right? (8:44) We could do better.(8:45) Oh, definitely, absolutely. (8:46) Most important win. (8:48) Alan said, he's like, I feel like the podcast has been really entertaining and funny lately.(8:51) Awesome. (8:52) Most important improvement, I don't know off the top of my head. (8:56) Yes, you do.(8:57) My audio quality. (8:58) Well, yeah, but that's. (9:01) Audio quality in Alan's video.(9:03) Yeah. (9:04) Alan's setup in general, unfortunately. (9:08) Audio and video, that's it.(9:09) That's the whole shebang. (9:11) But we did that every single time. (9:14) What else?(9:16) I love the fact that we've been not arguing, debating, I love that. (9:20) Time, we wanna make sure we're fucking putting in the right amount of time to these episodes. (9:24) These 15 minute episodes are gonna be the death of me.(9:27) Talk about self-worth, that affects my self-worth so much. (9:32) Just that.

Alan Lazaros

(9:34) Just those. (9:34) There's a thousand more, but I do think it's important. (9:37) Yeah.

Kevin Palmieri

(9:39) Next Level Nation, what is happening? (9:42) If you've thought to yourself, I want to try coaching, but you don't really know where to start, group coaching would be a wonderful place for you. (9:49) That's really why we created it in the first place.(9:51) We start a new round every 90 days. (9:54) So if you're hearing this, go to the website, nextleveluniverse.com, and we have the landing page where you can actually hold your spot right now. (10:03) Even if there's a group going on right now, you can still lock your spot for the next one.(10:07) The biggest thing that we've seen is as we get closer and closer to the date, unfortunately, some people end up missing. (10:14) The group fills up and they can't do it. (10:16) And then they end up regretting that.(10:17) So please head over to the website. (10:19) The link will be in the show notes and we would love to see you there.

Alan Lazaros

(10:23) Continuous improvement is the iPhone 16 is, you know, a thousand times better than the first iPhone. (10:29) And the iPhone 17 will be even better. (10:31) It's the same thing with your life.

Kevin Palmieri

(10:32) That's the simplest version. (10:33) The simplest version is when you do something consistently, it's great, but you can do it better consistently. (10:38) And then you can do it better than that consistently.(10:40) And eventually, eventually you're doing it so, you're doing it so many times better than you were in the beginning. (10:48) But that, it has to be conscious. (10:49) It has to be intentional.(10:50) I remember I was getting 100% of my PPT for like months.

Alan Lazaros

(10:55) And then eventually- Four months, I'll never forget. (10:57) Four months straight.

Kevin Palmieri

(10:58) And I was like, I might never knock it 100% again. (11:01) And Alan said, you're not growing though. (11:03) Well, that phase, I think I needed it.(11:05) I needed to identify somebody who was consistent. (11:06) So I think it was helpful, but no, I didn't grow as much as I could have because I was focused on consistency, not improvement. (11:15) And I think that's a big piece.(11:18) Healthy discord, you and me. (11:19) Please, yeah.

Alan Lazaros

(11:20) For me, I have to focus on consistency because I am naturally mastery driven. (11:28) I actually am wildly unfulfilled when I'm not working consciously. (11:34) It's called intentional practice.(11:36) So I have 11,127 coaching sessions, trainings, and podcasts. (11:41) And people hear that and it's like, okay, cool. (11:42) But why do I, I'm proud of that.(11:44) And the reason why is because I made sure I got a little better every single time. (11:49) It's very unfulfilling to do something and not do it well for me. (11:55) To me, I adore the process of getting better at things.(11:59) But that's natural for me. (12:01) That's how I'm wired. (12:03) We have the five Ms of motivation, mastery, movement.(12:06) So it's mastery slash status, movement slash freedom, mating slash romance, mission slash purpose, money slash. (12:15) Material slash possessions is what it originally was, but yeah, money slash materials. (12:19) And if you want the five Ms of motivation, we have a PDF.(12:23) The idea is simple. (12:24) If you wanna fire on all cylinders, you need to tap into all five. (12:28) We all have a couple really big ones.(12:30) Kev is more motivated by money than I am. (12:32) I'm more motivated by mastery. (12:34) Luckily we have both, because you need both to win in business.(12:37) So that's why business partners can be very good if you can be vulnerable and honest. (12:41) Now, my point of all this is I think consistency is the leverage point for me, because I already am so mastery driven. (12:49) For you, I think you have to focus more on actually the continuous improvement part.(12:53) I would say so. (12:54) Yeah. (12:55) So for the listeners, which one is easy for you and which one's the one you need to work on?

Kevin Palmieri

(13:00) Once I have my marching orders, I just kind of do them usually. (13:05) That has been interesting.

Alan Lazaros

(13:08) Has that changed at all? (13:11) Yes. (13:14) Yes.(13:15) Okay. (13:16) Call you out live? (13:17) Yeah, sure.(13:18) You will not improve your Instagram profile unless I call it out. (13:21) No. (13:22) Why?(13:23) Not focused on it. (13:24) I cannot send an email. (13:25) So when we hit 2200 episodes, I will not be able to send an email without my email signature changing.

Kevin Palmieri

(13:31) I don't know if I'm like that focused on... (13:36) It's like not on your radar. (13:37) Yeah, it's just not on my air.

Alan Lazaros

(13:38) Dude, your Instagram, it's like, dude. (13:40) It's fair. (13:41) Fucking A, man.

Kevin Palmieri

(13:42) It's fair.

Alan Lazaros

(13:43) But yet, that's really beneficial to... (13:47) Like imagine if I never pinged it. (13:49) What would it say?(13:52) 2000? (13:52) Would it say podcast coach? (13:54) Oh, that's been on there for a minute.(13:56) Yeah, that would say that. (13:58) But I'm the one who got you to change it back then. (14:01) Probably.(14:01) What would be the threshold?

Kevin Palmieri

(14:09) I don't think I'm really good at updating invisible momentum. (14:18) Probably the best way to put it. (14:21) My emails, I update my email pretty quickly.

Alan Lazaros

(14:24) Do you ever send the same email twice? (14:27) I always improve it. (14:28) I cannot ever not improve it.(14:31) Yes. (14:32) If I'm personally writing it. (14:34) If I'm personally writing it.

Kevin Palmieri

(14:35) I write all my emails from me, so yes.

Alan Lazaros

(14:38) So you do improve them every time?

Kevin Palmieri

(14:40) No, I have sent the same email many times. (14:43) Really?

Alan Lazaros

(14:44) Yep. (14:45) Yeah, that's a thing for me. (14:46) I can never do the same exact thing.(14:50) In group coaching, we did 19 groups, 12 sessions each. (14:53) Let me actually crunch the numbers on this because I'm curious. (14:57) 19 times 12.(14:58) 238. (15:00) 228. (15:00) Fuck.(15:01) So that's all good. (15:02) 228, close. (15:04) Not close enough.(15:04) 228. (15:06) True. (15:07) 228.(15:09) We've never presented the same thing twice. (15:12) Now, sometimes it was very similar. (15:14) Yeah.(15:15) Sometimes it was a 1% improvement. (15:16) Sometimes it was a 50% revamp. (15:19) Like your latest one, that was 30% at least.(15:22) Brand new. (15:22) It changed a lot, yeah. (15:23) And I did the eight fundamentals of finance last group.(15:28) Group 18. (15:29) I don't know. (15:30) Maybe I'll do that for group 19.(15:31) I'm not sure. (15:32) It'll depend on what I think they need most. (15:34) But I will never present the same thing twice.

Kevin Palmieri

(15:37) Well, the downside of that is you always feel like you're losing. (15:39) That's the interesting thing. (15:40) 24-7, 365.(15:41) Is you just treat it like it's just another, it's another, now again, I don't mean it this way, but it's another practice. (15:46) Because that's what it is.

Alan Lazaros

(15:46) It's like coming out with the same iPhone two years in a row. (15:48) Like you're gonna go out of business if you do that. (15:51) It's fair.(15:52) It's fair. (15:53) Imagine if the BMW was like, nah, we don't really feel like improving our cars anymore. (15:56) We're done now.(15:58) Well, then Tesla's gonna win. (15:59) It already is, right? (16:02) We're gonna see.(16:04) Oh, it's not gonna be close. (16:05) Oh, we're gonna see.

Kevin Palmieri

(16:05) Mark my words. (16:07) Brother, look it up. (16:08) It's not even close.(16:09) It's gonna be. (16:10) It's gonna be.

Alan Lazaros

(16:11) I can feel it. (16:12) Maybe in just the car. (16:13) Maybe in just cars.

Kevin Palmieri

(16:14) Yeah, yeah, in cars. (16:14) Tesla has robots.

Alan Lazaros

(16:15) Yeah, you know, I'm saying in cars. (16:16) Oh, okay.

Kevin Palmieri

(16:17) Yeah, just cars. (16:17) I don't think BMW is making robots any time soon.

Alan Lazaros

(16:19) Yeah, no, they're not. (16:20) Right? (16:22) For someone who's not naturally mastery driven, give the goods.(16:25) Because I will be very direct. (16:27) If you're not improving, you are, your future's not gonna be great. (16:31) The whole world is improving.(16:33) Like, the iPhone's getting better, the computers are getting better, StreamYard's getting somewhat better. (16:37) Not really. (16:37) Everything gets better over time.

Kevin Palmieri

(16:39) You have to.

Alan Lazaros

(16:40) Like, go back and watch a movie from 20 years ago.

Kevin Palmieri

(16:41) You have to understand that almost everything you do is going. (16:46) It's like, you're gonna get better and every time you do something, it will be the best it's ever been. (16:51) But you're essentially playing with one hand tied behind your back because you have to improve it every time.(16:56) So you can't ever do, you can't ever play the hits. (17:00) That. (17:00) Yeah, yeah, yeah.(17:01) Like, oh, this is your best song? (17:03) Sucks for you, you can't play it. (17:04) And if you do play it, you gotta add a new verse for the first time.

Alan Lazaros

(17:07) Yeah, yeah, of course. (17:08) That. (17:08) But then eventually you end up unbelievable.(17:11) Yes. (17:12) Yes. (17:12) That's why I like Nefex the artist.(17:14) I think he's my favorite artist. (17:15) He just, that dude just puts it on the court, man. (17:18) He did like, I think he did a full year.(17:21) Don't quote me on this. (17:22) I think he did a song every day for like a year or something nuts. (17:25) That's wild.(17:25) And some of them are hits. (17:27) And some of them are fucking awesome. (17:28) And some of them are dog shit, honestly.(17:30) And that's okay, that's how it works. (17:32) That's exactly how it works, right?

Kevin Palmieri

(17:34) Tomorrow for episode number 2,163, NF, what's his name? (17:39) Nefex. (17:39) Nefex will be on.

Alan Lazaros

(17:40) Have you not listened at all?

Kevin Palmieri

(17:41) No, no. (17:43) It's not my cup of tea. (17:46) Fair.(17:47) It's not my cup of tea. (17:48) It's not dark enough.

Alan Lazaros

(17:50) Yeah, it's very positive, uplifting. (17:53) Give me some fucking pain, please. (17:54) One of the songs you'd like, tell me I fucking can't, there's a, but again, I'm not trying to fucking promote Nefex here.(18:01) What I am saying is music for purpose. (18:03) Music for purpose.

Kevin Palmieri

(18:04) He's gonna be on tomorrow. (18:05) We'll ask him all about, no, I'm kidding. (18:07) All right, we gotta go.(18:08) As always, we love you. (18:09) We appreciate you. (18:10) Grateful for each and every one of you.(18:11) And if you are as committed as you say you are to getting to the next level, make sure you tune in tomorrow because we're gonna be here every single freaking day to help you get there.

Alan Lazaros

(18:18) Keep reaching for your full potential. (18:21) Next level nation.

Kevin Palmieri

(18:24) Thanks for joining us for another episode of Next Level University. (18:28) We love connecting with the Next Level family.

Alan Lazaros

(18:30) We mean it when we say family. (18:32) If you ever need anything, please reach out to us directly. (18:36) Everything you need to get ahold of us is in the show notes.

Kevin Palmieri

(18:39) Thank you again, and we will talk to you tomorrow.