Next Level University

The Illusion Of Progress And How It’s Hurting You (2089)

• Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

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In this powerful episode of Next Level University, hosts Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros unpack the illusion of progress, revealing how “productive procrastination” can keep you stuck. They share personal stories, practical tools, and honest insights on how to stop chasing motion and start building real momentum. Learn how to tell the difference between meaningful work and comfort tasks, and how to align your habits with what truly matters.

🔗 Find out more:
Big goals don’t happen by accident. Next Level Dreamliner helps you plan, track, and follow through. Grab your copy 👉  https://a.co/d/9fPpxEt
Free 30-minute Business Breakthrough Session with Alan -
https://calendly.com/alanlazaros/30-minute-free-breakthrough-session?month=2025-04
Next Level Blog - https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/next-level-blog-2/

Episode reference:
Alan’s First YouTube Video: (How to Choose Your Top 5 Heroes! - Real Life Superheroes) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GBpe9Ks5vA

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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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We love connecting with you guys! Reach out on Instagram, Facebook, or via email. We’re here to support you in your personal and professional development journey.

Instagram 📷
Kevin: https://www.instagram.com/neverquitkid/
Alan: https://www.instagram.com/alazaros88/

Facebook ✍
Alan: https://www.facebook.com/alan.lazaros
Kevin: https://www.facebook.com/kevin.palmieri.90/

Email 💬
Kevin@nextleveluniverse.com
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:
(2:35) The trap of productive procrastination
(4:46) Starting fast Vs. Building to last
(9:12) Why consistency beats intensity
(11:22) Time leaks: The hidden cost of scrolling
(15:33) Real progress feels uncomfortable
(16:44) Next Level Dreamliner: The planner, agenda, journal, and habit tracker to rule them all. Get a copy: https://a.co/d/9fPpxEt
(18:49) Fear, ego, and taking the first step
(23:53) Urgent Vs. Important Vs. Significant
(30:22) Outro

Send a text to Kevin and Alan!

Kevin Palmieri:

My mother once said to me Kev direction is far more important than speed, because there are a lot of people going nowhere fast and, looking back, I think I fell into that trap on more than one occasion. I think there's a lot of people out there right now who are manufacturing progress instead of actually making it.

Alan Lazaros:

I always think that trajectory matters more than current results, and I've said this before, I'll say it again your future is eventually going to be the present, so I think you have to design it in advance and make sure that you're really making meaningful progress in the real world.

Kevin Palmieri:

Welcome to Next Level University. I'm your host, kevin Palmieri, and.

Alan Lazaros:

I'm your co-host, Alan Lazarus.

Kevin Palmieri:

At NLU, we believe in a heart-driven but no BS approach to holistic self-improvement for dream chasers.

Alan Lazaros:

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

Kevin Palmieri:

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.

Alan Lazaros:

Welcome to.

Kevin Palmieri:

Next Level University, next Level Nation. Today, for episode number 2089, coming up on 2100, the illusion of progress. And how it's hurting you, how you doing buddy, good, good it's been a lot it has been a long day and I'm tired as shit how many many hours you been up, my friend.

Kevin Palmieri:

This is my. I'm on my. I got up at 6 am Eastern, 7.38 pm, so we're running on 13 hours and 40 minutes with a 67 sleep score Not optimal and I also tend to thrive in these situations, so it's really not that big of a deal all things considered. Okay, we were talking before we decided on this episode and we were talking about how oftentimes we have encountered people who I'm going to coin the phrase are productively procrastinating, and what I mean by that is they're procrastinating the big goal by trying to get the illusion of making progress through like very, very small ancillary goals but that never really lead up to the actual goal. Is that a fair statement? You would say yeah.

Alan Lazaros:

One good example of this is someone who is deeply fearful of launching a podcast, and I've been there, and so they are getting the name and the logo right. They're setting up the mailer mailing list first. The website got it, when in reality it's okay. You're fearful, you're fearful of judgment or you're fearful of being on camera. I remember the first time I started my YouTube channel, way back I almost I have an unlisted video that I should put in the show notes for everybody.

Alan Lazaros:

It's atrociously bad, it's my very first I will put it yeah, I'll put a. I'm pretty sure I still have it on my YouTube, my personal one. I'll put a link in the show notes to my very first ever speaking in front of a camera YouTube video. I look like a small prepubescent child trying to talk about what's called real life superheroes, which is people who lean into their uniqueness and help others. So I thought the concept was really cool and the opening was fire.

Kevin Palmieri:

I remember the opening Flying. Yeah, I remember that.

Alan Lazaros:

Flying through the air baby, the star rising in the sky Very metaphorical and I was really bad, not strong, not a strong speaker, but I do think it's important to see where I started, because I was so scared to post that. Understandable, because it was fucking hot garbage, but that's. If I didn't post that, would I be where I am today? And the answer is no, okay, how do we.

Kevin Palmieri:

If you're seeing somebody do that, I don't think this is something. I do a ton. I've definitely had this in the past, but for me it's like I want to feel like I'm actually making meaningful progress. So I don't necessarily want to putz around with stuff that I don't want to feel like I'm making progress. I want to actually make progress. I don't want to feel like I am, I need to actually do it, okay wait, wait.

Alan Lazaros:

Why? Because I do agree, we've joked in the past. Kevin is the best in the game at getting something new started. The dude cannot scale a fucking thing. Yeah, I set the fire and walk away. You're no. No, well, hold up, you'll keep putting wood on that thing oh yeah, keep putting wood on that thing every day, you'll you'll walk out, you'll put a little wood on and then you'll leave, but the fire will never get bigger. Yeah, it'll stay the fucking exact same for years, actually forever, forever great at starting it.

Kevin Palmieri:

The eternal flame yeah great, same size.

Alan Lazaros:

Yeah, same size yeah, can't scale it can't scale it. But I would say this is a superpower for you. We always joke like you'll have a book done before me. I have 20 blogs, 20 chapters. I just I know that it's going to happen, just like business growth university. You started podcast growth university. You started podcast growth university first. You tend to go into battle. You get things started really fast and you keep them going really well. You don't do a great job at scaling them but I think that, that makes sense.

Kevin Palmieri:

I hear. So here's why because I essentially won't start something until I know I can finish it, and I know that might seem like it's a detriment, I don't know. It's worked for me when. So I was writing a book about podcasting. We're going to have a podcast book. It was like, cool, I'm going to do it. And then Alan's like all right, so you probably write like in between calls and stuff. I said no, I need, I need a day blocked every week. It like in between calls and stuff. I said, no, I need, I need a day blocked every week. It's the only way I'll do it. That's the way. That is just the way I'm wired. I need I need to know that I have an entire block to do it and if you give me 15 of those blocks, I will write that entire thing and then we're onto the next thing. I'm not doing it at all now Zero.

Alan Lazaros:

None, I'm not writing at all and I will not write again. I'm interesting in that too, and I hope our listeners are taking which one you are more.

Alan Lazaros:

For me. I blogged every day for I think more than a year. I was doing my big five to thrive. I don't know if it was a year, I genuinely don't remember the number, but I did my big five to thrive and one of them was right for 20 minutes and some nights I was nodding off at 11 o'clock with my laptop in bed. It was terrible idea, but I got 20 blogs done. We have a next level blog. The link will be in the show notes and they're really good. I again I wouldn't say that lightly. These are valuable frameworks that I spent fucking hours on and it's I was gonna eventually create it into a book. I need to do something daily and get a streak going.

Alan Lazaros:

You need to just knock it out of the park with a full day and you and I have learned how to lean into our sort of superpower with that I had a client reach out so I've been doing some video editing on stuff.

Kevin Palmieri:

That's like quick turnaround, just because we have a lot going on and we have a lot of amazing clients, which I'm unbelievably grateful for and the team is amazing. But sometimes somebody will message me and say, hey, can you do this, like today? Yeah, some days, some days I can. Somebody messaged me and said, hey, we have like a fairly big ask. We need a bunch of clips from all these videos. You got to find them and download them. And here's the transcript. And I was like, yeah, I can do that, I download them. And here's a transcript. And I was like, yeah, I can do that. And they said can you have it done by the end of the week? And I was like I'll have it to you tomorrow. Yeah, of course I can. It's Monday, I'll have it to you Tuesday. I hammered it out, but I had the entire day to just do stuff like that. Did we get paid for that?

Alan Lazaros:

Yes, Okay, nice.

Kevin Palmieri:

We got paid and I don't know, I don't know, I don't know why, but for me I don't. I think I can make and again I'm not saying this is accurate, this could be delusional. I think I could make more progress in an eight hour span than you're going to make in two months of 20 minutes.

Alan Lazaros:

Yes and no. Yes In the short term progress sense, but not in the incremental improvement that fuck that noise I'm talking about.

Kevin Palmieri:

Let me get it done, baby yeah, and then I'll do it again.

Alan Lazaros:

If your goal is to be better at writing, then my way is more optimal. That's fair. And if you're going to be a writer and author forever, my way is more optimal. If you just want to knock out a book, your way is better.

Kevin Palmieri:

I tend to like to knock things out and then I'll learn a lot, and maybe that's not the process moving forward, but I. That's why. Honestly, I think there was a piece of me that liked when we used to record, like we used to try to record seven episodes on Monday. I just like to hammer them all out. Let me just sit down and suffer for eight hours and get all these done and then cool, I'm good for a week, don't have to worry about it until next monday.

Alan Lazaros:

Yeah, but that's not good, for we have a formula at next level university called prep. Yeah, it's not prep. Rep reflect perfect yeah prepare for the episode.

Alan Lazaros:

Do the rep fitness term rep. Do the episode reflect. Watch the episode, listen to it and then perfect, get better, go back to the drawing. What was good, what wasn't most important, win, most important, improvement. So you can't.

Alan Lazaros:

I used to say this in my speeches, my fitness speeches. I said this at next level live too. If we all went into a room tomorrow, a gym, together, and we worked out for nine hours straight, that would not actually change your physiques, your physiques would not transform. We would all be cooked and we would get something out of it for sure. However, if all of us took those same nine hours, I don't know why the fuck I chose nine, right, dumb pick 10, it's easier. Or eight anyways. If we took that same nine hours, I don't know why the fuck I chose nine, right, dumb, pick 10. It's easier, or eight. Anyways, if we took that same nine hours and we broke it into half hour increments and we exercise for 18 days straight, nine times two is 18, right? Nine times two is 18. You could build a new habit that could change your whole life, and that was kind of I don't know why I chose nine, why not?

Kevin Palmieri:

just choose 10. You choose weird. I remember you were like yeah, if you scroll on your phone for 50 minutes a day, you do that. That's that's 36 16 hour days. If you're, it's like well, I think it should be eight hour days, because most people work eight hour shifts and we're different on numbers. Hold on.

Alan Lazaros:

Yeah, it was five times a day for five minutes yes 25 minutes a day.

Alan Lazaros:

Yep sorry, you can crunch the numbers on this. If you go on Facebook or Instagram or TikTok for five minutes, five times a day, that's 25 minutes a day. That adds up over time. If you crunch the math, 25 times 365 divided by 60, that's the number of hours. Divide that by 16 hour days because you sleep eight unless you're kevin, I'm kidding that is actually a full 10 days straight. Imagine if you had a friend for 10 days straight was just scrolling. That's what we're all doing every single week. We just don't even know every single day.

Kevin Palmieri:

We just don't like the eight hours. Imagine you. Imagine you go to work and you do your eight hour shift and you come back and your roommate is just finishing up their daily scrolling. They do that for 20 days straight. All right, ready.

Alan Lazaros:

Yeah, five times five 25.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah.

Alan Lazaros:

Times 365. 9,125. Stay with me. 9,125 minutes, correct, yeah. Divide it by 60. 152 hours a year, yeah 152 hours. So if you go on Facebook five times a day for five minutes, you are investing 152 hours per year. If I divide that by eight hour shifts, that's 19 eight hour shifts.

Kevin Palmieri:

So that's essentially four. That's like a month.

Alan Lazaros:

Divide that, divide that by five. Five day weeks, that's four weeks of pay yeah, yeah.

Alan Lazaros:

So that's a, that's a month, that's four weeks every year of a full-time jobs pay that you're just spending mindlessly. It's wild, it is. And that's five times a day for five minutes. The average is way worse than that, for sure. Okay, sorry, can I real quick? Social media is fucking us up as a species. Oh, for sure, I've been studying evolutionary psychology a lot. The tech Is so far beyond what our minds are ready to handle. So if anyone Is out there, I'm not villainizing social media. Social media allows us to reach people all over the world. I'm grateful and be very careful, seriously, what you allow into your brain. Okay, go ahead.

Kevin Palmieri:

No, social media is weird, so there's a whole freaking thing.

Alan Lazaros:

Something popped up today. I was like oh my god, can you not Some girl talking in her car half naked? What the fuck are we doing? I was on one of my past clients' posts about a fitness streak and all of a sudden this and it was like are you fucking kidding?

Kevin Palmieri:

me the algorithm, the algorithm. That's what kevin has to say. I mean it. That's end of conversation. That's what people are looking at dude, I couldn't even believe it.

Alan Lazaros:

I was like is this even a real person?

Kevin Palmieri:

you dump that. You dump that shirt off. You and I dumped our shirts off. We do this podcast shirtless, topless. You know, whatever Algorithm's going to push a little bit more. That's a fact. Yeah, maybe you know, as we get leaner more and more, right now probably wouldn't be optimal results, more for you than me, maybe. I don't know, I'm sitting down, all right. How does somebody know whether or not they're actually making progress or they have convinced themselves they're making progress through creating an illusion of progress? I'm going to ask you a lot of questions.

Alan Lazaros:

I appreciate it. I didn't hear you and here's why I'm sorry Real quick. Do you remember when we were on stage?

Kevin Palmieri:

Wait, you didn't hear me because you were thinking of something else.

Alan Lazaros:

Yeah, two things came up for me. One the Living Legends shirt right there. Yeah, shout out to Marky. Marky, I don't know if you listen anymore. An old listener. Yeah, dude, I still have that shirt Comfiest shirt in the game. That's why I'm wearing it right now, so comfortable. Yeah, it's very Okay. What was the second thing? Do you remember when we were on stage at next level live this two years ago or three years ago, and you had one of the best pauses? Can you tell the story?

Kevin Palmieri:

I honestly I remember what I said. I don't remember the exact delivery of it.

Alan Lazaros:

It was something along the lines of okay, I'm going to ask Alan to do something, or I'm going to say something a little weird and weird and it was okay, real quick, take off your shirt, or something like that dude, the whole place started dying.

Kevin Palmieri:

I think you actually very rarely do you get embarrassed. I think you were a little in the in the moment because I held it and just looked at you take off your shirt well, you know what else it is too is.

Alan Lazaros:

I don't know if I was in reasonable shape then, but I think part part of that was the shining thing.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah, that's fair, because that was in 2022.

Alan Lazaros:

I think I was in reasonable shape back then.

Kevin Palmieri:

You and I have been in reasonable shape since 2019. It's been six years.

Alan Lazaros:

That's not true. I saw us in a photo. Facebook memories have been coming up Six years. There's one where you and I are sitting down. I was like, okay, okay.

Kevin Palmieri:

Decent, yeah, decent, decent, I'm going to ask the question again. I need you to listen this time. Are you ready? Okay, how does somebody know whether or not they're, whether they're making meaningful progress or they are creating the illusion of progress, to to uh coat their ego.

Alan Lazaros:

One of them makes you feel like you want to throw up after. One of them is very like no, exposed, you feel exposed, you're vulnerable, you feel emotionally, you feel exposed and vulnerable and it takes a lot of courage to do it. And then the vulnerability after is is everything okay, am I going to be okay? And then you wake up the next day and you go okay, and you do it again. And then you do it again and you do it again. We were on movie club last night Evolve Movie Club, If anyone wants, in dm me. It's fucking awesome. Essentially, it's just movies that move you and get you thinking. Do you watch the movie or do you just talk about the?

Alan Lazaros:

movie. Everyone watches the movie individually and then we come and immediately has a presentation, okay yeah, and there's quite. Everyone comes with questions. It's kind of like book club, but with movies it's basically what it was born off of. It's interesting she started a movie club, I started a book club. She loved books, I loved movies.

Alan Lazaros:

It is strange but it's awesome. She comes to book club. I go to movie club Interesting 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:

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. We did Mufasa, which I think is actually the better of the two, which is really saying something, because I love the first one. In Movie Club, Emilia posed a question, popped it up on the screen what does it feel like when you are? What does it mean to be brave? What does it mean to be brave? I think the ego progress is yeah, I'm doing it, I'm getting this done. When you write a book, it's not writing. That's the hard part. It's fucking posting it. For me, anyways, For me, For some people it's actually writing. They think they're not a good writer or whatever. If I were to write a book and share my whole past, that would be really hard for me to share, Not hard to write. I can write about my childhood and how hard that was, Sharing it.

Kevin Palmieri:

Fuck that I'm gonna but it's the sharing it that I find more difficult. What about you? For me, it's the writing it. Share the shit out of it.

Alan Lazaros:

We're good. See, that makes sense. It's success versus failure, it's competence versus social courage.

Kevin Palmieri:

I won't write the book first. I'll write something much smaller and then I'll put that out there and then I have the first. So I've released I don't know how many raps like one-minute raps, longer raps on social media. The first one I released, I was terrified. I was like, oh my God, I am the fucking kid from my high school who thinks he's gonna be a rapper and everybody's gonna say that. Everybody's gonna think I'm the kid from the high school who thinks he's gonna be a rapper and never is.

Kevin Palmieri:

100, 100 that is what people probably thought 100, and then I started posting more and I got love and nobody not once has anybody ever hated on it. Not once makes no sense, not a single time. And if you, if you watch one of my raps and you hate on it, you send me a beat and you and I can battle it out. Bar for bar Son.

Alan Lazaros:

I have a client who said well, honestly, in a weird way, I've never really failed at anything. I was like listen, that means you have not fucking shot high enough. Are you kidding me? And the truth is now she's failing because she's really swinging for the fences.

Kevin Palmieri:

I did take a big L because we had Justin Freeman on. This is talk about a naive, just unaware, dumb ass thing to do. Justin Freeman, world class rapper like just a world class rapper.

Kevin Palmieri:

I still listen to him to this day. Nice, we had him on the podcast. I was feeling it. I sent him a message, something along the lines of like yeah, maybe one day we can hop on the podcast. I was feeling it. I sent him a message, something along the lines like yeah, maybe one day we can hop on a track together. No, nope, he doesn't want to hop on a track with you. He's a professional rapper professional, that's what he does like in the world and he's wrapped with some very kev kev. What are we doing?

Alan Lazaros:

no good for you for swinging your shot.

Kevin Palmieri:

I can't even look back at it. It's so fucking embarrassing. Oh my God, it hurts me to my core to even think about it.

Alan Lazaros:

That's what happens when you get a little strut in your step.

Kevin Palmieri:

Ah, too much, Too much strut in my step. Okay question Do you think procrastination can ever be a good thing?

Alan Lazaros:

Yeah, if it's dumb shit what about if it's good?

Kevin Palmieri:

if it's not dumb shit, then no, of course not.

Alan Lazaros:

I disagree, and here's why whoa oh, hold on, it can be a good thing if it's not the most important use of your time?

Kevin Palmieri:

yeah no, those are all that's.

Alan Lazaros:

I still disagree I'm not saying you're wrong.

Kevin Palmieri:

I'm not saying you're wrong.

Alan Lazaros:

I'm not saying you're wrong do you want to jump on a track yes, please, and then we'll, we can do a rap battle I don't know if you heard my reading of eminem's verses.

Kevin Palmieri:

I'm you're close yeah, legit, I could be in trouble. Apparently I can't read or rap. Saturday I had something that had to be done by monday. I just kept putting it off. Putting it off putting it off because it was like, yeah, I don't want to do it. I really want to do that right now and there is no measurable downside to me. So maybe, to your point, it wasn't the best use of my time. There's no, it doesn't matter if it's done wednesday or thursday or friday, it matters that it's done monday. There's no point in me doing it seven days ahead of time.

Alan Lazaros:

Well, we don't have a ton of time, but in the productivity realm there's urgent, important and significant, and I think this ties in well to what would you call it productive procrastination.

Kevin Palmieri:

Productive, yeah, productive procrastination. I'm going to coin that.

Alan Lazaros:

Nice. It's also called productive avoidance.

Kevin Palmieri:

So it exists already? Huh Shit, Somebody beat me to it.

Alan Lazaros:

It's when you're and everybody does this when you're avoiding something, you tend to do everything around it. You ever just start cleaning your house, never. Brother, quite literally never have I accidentally cleaned the house? Well, you do other stuff instead of clean. Is that fair?

Kevin Palmieri:

No.

Alan Lazaros:

Everyone avoids certain things. Everyone I've ever coached avoids that.

Kevin Palmieri:

So Sundays, when Tara and I agree that we're going to clean, I literally start cleaning before she even gets up, because I need to get it done immediately. If I am supposed to do something that is time-based, I do it immediately. If I don't have to have it done by a specific time, I push it off until that time is there. That's the way, almost essentially, I operate. I don't know if that's good or bad.

Alan Lazaros:

You are so lucky we've created structure for you, holy shit.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah for sure, but I operate really well with the right amount of necessity. What is the point of me doing it seven days ahead of schedule when I have time blocked off on Saturday and I'd rather go in knowing that's what I'm going to do.

Alan Lazaros:

This goes back to the goal of the goal, which is, if your goal is to maximize your potential or reach your potential, everything would have to shift with that. But urgent, important, significant, urgent means it's got a deadline, it has to be done now. Important means so what's a good example of that?

Kevin Palmieri:

Something that's urgent. I have another question after this.

Alan Lazaros:

Okay, right now we have to go in a minute and 15 seconds, so this is urgent.

Alan Lazaros:

This episode is dropping what Two days from now. So that this is urgent. This episode is dropping what two days from now. Two days from now, yeah, okay. So this is urgent because you and I don't have any slots. I don't have any slots tomorrow to do this within my window and I don't want to mess that up because otherwise I'm going to burn to the ground. Okay, so this is urgent.

Alan Lazaros:

It's also important. This is one of the most valuable uses of our time. So important. The podcast is important as hell, one of the most important things we do, if not the most important, and it's urgent because I don't have any slots tomorrow. It's also significant.

Alan Lazaros:

Significant means it pays dividends forever. I think about this all the time, and I don't know if you do, but I love the fact that we're impacting people all over the world while we sleep. Oh yeah, a oh yeah 100. I think about that all the time. I'm gonna walk with emilia and I'll turn to her and I'll go. Isn't it interesting how we're helping people? Right now on the conscious couples podcast, there's someone listening to our podcast and and getting value from us right now, while we're on this walk. This is the coolest shit ever. It is very strange, yeah, and they comment you see an email come through. It's like, fuck, yeah, we just on this walk, changed someone's life, potentially Like I. That means it's significant. It pays dividends forever. I wonder if other people and again we'll do an episode on productivity at some point. But urgent, important and significant. If it's 10 out of 10 urgent, 10 out of 10 important and 10 out of 10 significant, which is this episode, it's getting fucking done. If it's not, it's very hard for me to prioritize it.

Kevin Palmieri:

Same. So essentially the same thing. I just push that to the day before it's due and then it becomes 10, 10, 10. Awesome, cool. Last question, but I have a question. Oh, okay, quick 20 second answer, maybe how I have realized that I push things off until I realize I can go full depth and full distance.

Alan Lazaros:

What does that?

Kevin Palmieri:

even mean Full depth, like oh man, okay, for one of our clients, I'm building landing pages. I do a lot of weird shit on the side, just FYI, that you're not totally aware of. I'm building landing pages. I also sell shrimp out of a van. I sell shrimp out of weird shit on the side, just FYI, that you're not totally aware of. I'm building landing pages. I also sell shrimp out of a van I sell shrimp out of a van.

Kevin Palmieri:

I have email sequences going and they have funnels on their website that I'm building. It takes an hour to get into the flow of how to do this. This is not something you do for 15 minutes and then go back. You can't. There's no. How do you know when you have the proper time for the depth?

Alan Lazaros:

That's awareness, it's it's from experience. I mean, that happens all the time. Emilia and I have a rule. Well, I said this earlier. I said multiply it by 1.5. I had to email someone, so we were we're supposed to leave the gym an hour and a half before my whoever has the earliest first meeting. I had a podcast and I. We were in the car and we were 15 minutes behind and I said can you please email him on my phone and just say hey, I'm running 15 minutes behind because otherwise I'm going to basically not be able to shower. I still didn't, quite frankly, but I'm not going to be able to. I'm just going to have to rush. The workout's going to suck. I'm going to end up blowing my knee out trying to get this done and there's just an. So my rule with emilia is double the amount of time. Everything costs more and takes more time than her and I predict, because we're so optimistic, I don't think that's probably true for you, it's the.

Kevin Palmieri:

I think it's the opposite. I thought it was gonna take me all day. It's took me like two hours.

Alan Lazaros:

I literally was like this is going to be a haul. I was thinking it's going to take two hours and it would take all day. Yeah, you and I, you and I are very we make a very good team. Yeah, assuming that we make a good team, but only because we work through all our shit.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Alan Lazaros:

Like there were several times where Kevin and I would butt heads. That doesn't happen that much anymore. No, it's pretty weird.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah, agreed, it's definitely a good thing.

Alan Lazaros:

It's almost like we worked out a lot of the kinks. I think eight years is a long time.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah, we would either hate each other or not work together anymore if it was going to go in any direction other than more aligned right. What was your question? Did you have a closing question? I want to make sure we get you off here. I know Alan has a certain bedtime he has to be in, he has to have his milk and his nighties on, so I'm going to get him there. I'm going to get my Living Legend shirt on.

Alan Lazaros:

No, I do actually have to go um, because I guess it's dinner with me. I can't cancel that again. No, it's date night with emilia. I'm excited. Okay, every night's fucking date night with emilia, which is the best. Okay, what was my question? I have no fucking clue. Okay, cool, I honestly don't remember. I think it was about how do you determine what is urgent, important and significant in your life I.

Kevin Palmieri:

Everything has deadlines. It doesn't have a deadline. I'm not doing it. I asked the client today. I said what's the deadline? They said there isn't one. Give me one. Give me one, just.

Alan Lazaros:

Make one up Just make one up, it doesn't even have to matter.

Kevin Palmieri:

If you say, hey, can you get this to me end of day? I will do my absolute best to get it to you end of day. Or say you can't or say I can't, usually I'll say yes and I'll figure it out. That's the goal always. If I absolutely know I can't, I'll say no, unfortunately we can't. If you come to me and say like, yeah, whenever that's going to get pushed on my list until you literally message me and that works really really. That's worked really really well.

Alan Lazaros:

Well, luckily we have each other other man, because that's not how you scale I don't know how to scale.

Kevin Palmieri:

We've determined that, you know.

Alan Lazaros:

We've determined that that is not necessarily not how you scale, but it is a superpower to get started. You are the best I've ever seen, and I don't say this lightly. When you get your mind set on starting something, you will jump right the fuck in. I'm obsessed and yeah, it's really. It's really something I remember when you were hey, I want to make the studio. You could not do anything but make that studio. Yeah, it's the way I'm At the detriment of many other For sure.

Kevin Palmieri:

I spent five hours trying to figure out how to buy a new car Like what's the?

Alan Lazaros:

Yeah.

Kevin Palmieri:

I couldn't get my mind off. It Couldn't do it. And then now it's done and I don't think about it at all. It's like, all right, cool, that's done, now it's, it's on to something else. So all right, cool, all right. Next level nation if you are trying to make sure you do not procrastinate the things that should not be procrastinated, you want to make a real progress. Next level dreamliner it's on amazon literally five minutes a day. If you are like alan, you like to write a lot, maybe 10, 10 minutes a day, but it's sustainable. It's a great place to start and it's a great place to live. You can do it every day and you can literally track it as one of your habits. We'll have the link in the show notes.

Alan Lazaros:

If you do not know what is most urgent, most important and most significant in order to reach your goals and dreams, I can help you reverse engineer the math of that. Reach out Everyone, every listener. I said this in Business Growth University as well. Every listener gets one free 30-minute session with me coaching to help you achieve your goals and dreams. If you've never done a free session with me, book it. It's free. The link will be in the show notes. Everybody gets one free session and I would love to meet you. Cool, all right, cool.

Kevin Palmieri:

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 Keep it Next Level Next. Level Nation. Thanks for joining us for another episode of Next Level University. We love connecting with the Next Level family.

Alan Lazaros:

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.

Kevin Palmieri:

Thank you again and we will talk to you tomorrow.

People on this episode

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Alan Lazaros

Host
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Kevin Palmieri

Host