Next Level University

The Productivity Lie We ALL Want To Believe (2093)

• Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

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Can you really build your dream life from a beach chair? In this refreshingly honest episode, Kevin and Alan challenge the fantasy of the “laptop lifestyle” and share why true productivity happens in unglamorous places like a dark office with good Wi-Fi. They unpack the hidden cost of distractions, the responsibility behind entrepreneurship, and the mindset required to reach your goals. If you’re serious about success, this episode will help you cut through the noise and focus on what actually works.

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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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.

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

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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:
(2:55) The real cost of distraction
(4:03) Why productivity actually matters
(6:23) Dream chasers work differently
(10:59) Next Level Dreamliner: The planner, agenda, journal, and habit tracker to rule them all. Get a copy: https://a.co/d/9fPpxEt
(13:39) What you don’t see online
(16:11) The productivity rule
(20:06) Outro

Send a text to Kevin and Alan!

Kevin Palmieri:

I did four hours of work at a coffee shop recently and I probably only got like two and a half hours of work actually done. But if I took a picture and I said hashtag laptop lifestyle here I am as an entrepreneur, I own my own business you would think I was crushing it, when in reality, I get way more work done in this dark office than I've gotten done anywhere else in the world.

Alan Lazaros:

If I want to sell you 12 oranges, I have to go pick 12 oranges. Oh yeah, oh yeah, I have to produce the oranges before I can get paid. Productivity is important.

Kevin Palmieri:

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:

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.

Alan Lazaros:

Self-improvement in your pocket, every day, from anywhere, completely free.

Kevin Palmieri:

Welcome to Next Level University from anywhere, completely free. Welcome to Next Level University, Next Level Nation. Today for episode number 2093, we're talking about oranges. The productivity lie. We all want to believe that was an L.

Alan Lazaros:

We've been doing cold opens for like three or four months. That was the first one where I am genuinely embarrassed when you hit me with the.

Kevin Palmieri:

Oh yeah, that's how I know. You know that we're off to a rough start. Okay, I worked at a coffee shop. Power was out in the complex, they were doing some shit, couldn't work from home. I'm not going to hotspot it Like that's a cool. What are we doing here? I'm not gonna hot spot it. Let me go to a cafe. Cool, really nice cafe downtown, beautiful, free wi-fi, great food, good coffee, massive place chargers everywhere or outlets everywhere. Cool. So I go and I am.

Kevin Palmieri:

I do feel like I am somebody who, when I'm in public, I don't really get distracted easily. I had my headphones in. I was facing the window, everybody was to my back, so there was nobody in front of me. I wasn't near the counter. I don't really get distracted easily. I had my headphones in, I was facing the window, everybody was to my back, so there was nobody in front of me. I wasn't near the counter, like I was in the back room and, all things considered, I do feel like I crushed it and I got a lot done, but it just felt so limiting. It just felt so limiting to me, ended up packing up, finishing up, going out to the car and on the way to the car, I recorded a video that said I know we want to believe that we can be as productive in public or like at a coffee shop or at the beach or at the pool.

Kevin Palmieri:

That is not real. No, it's not. You imagine me soaking my ass in the pool and I got my laptop on the side and I'm working like what are we doing here? There's? You're not gonna get anything done. No way, no way.

Kevin Palmieri:

So and I think that's the productivity lie that we all want to believe is yes, I have the privilege of working from anywhere in the world. Yes, I also have the responsibility to know that many of those places are not nearly as gonna a nearly high quality enough work. And it might. The productivity is not going to be there and the distraction is going to be over the top, can I? So this summer is rough for me because there's like a decent amount of travel more than usual. We go to vermont every year, so we're going to vermont and then I have a bachelor party. Will my laptop be coming with me? Yes, of course. Will I be as productive as I am in the office? Definitely not nice. The the bare minimum is bring my laptop and get as much work as I can get done humanly possible, but it's not going to be the same as it is here, can't be. Can you explain?

Alan Lazaros:

again. Why does it matter so much for you to be productive? Because I think that that's the thing. I'll get fired if I'm not. No, well, yeah, but seriously, let's break this down. Because a lot of people are thinking well, why can't you just go on vacation?

Kevin Palmieri:

probably five emails, and probably let's put it this way If I didn't batch my WhatsApp for three days, I would have 150 messages for sure.

Alan Lazaros:

I have to do it every day. Why? Because other people are thinking well, why? Why does your life suck so much? So why do you do that?

Kevin Palmieri:

nice and we have a fairly large team and I am responsible to make sure that every client who I am working with, who is paying me their hard-earned money, is getting exactly what they signed up for, and there's nobody else that has the same level of responsibility I do, because that's not their job, it's my job to make sure that it gets done.

Alan Lazaros:

Kevin runs Next Level Podcast Solutions and we have 70 clients and if we don't service the clients, the company doesn't make money.

Alan Lazaros:

You go to business, right, and then you can't pay the team, and then you can't pay yourself, and then you can't generate revenue, and then you can't grow the company and then you can't serve as the clients. And I think that one of the things that I'm trying to make is absolutely clear as possible is I do feel like I can. I'll talk about productivity with people because it's one of my favorite topics in the entire world. I'm obsessed. I love productivity, but I can always hear people's thoughts like why what you're just going to do more so you can do more, so you can do more, so you can do more. Yeah, but you don't understand the lifestyle Kevin and I enjoy is a byproduct of our current levels of productivity. You can't grow a company without productivity.

Alan Lazaros:

Imagine people at Apple being like nah, I don't really want to build the iPhone this year, let's just skip this year. That would never work. Android would leaps and bounds dominate them, and I wonder if that's like it's just an important way to think. I guess I don't want to. Well, I just from any high horse, I just think it's important as a dream chaser you're, you're again.

Kevin Palmieri:

I think that's like the thing is you're gonna have to do things differently than maybe people around you who don't have dreams.

Alan Lazaros:

Yeah.

Kevin Palmieri:

And oftentimes it's not going to be understood, and I think that's why it's like again I talked about this in the previous episode about boundaries but you, or preparation, maybe preparation. I'm already thinking. I'm going to a bachelor party. I'm already thinking of like when am I going to be able to work? There's going to be alcohol. There's not gonna be alcohol in the morning, though I'll just get up before everybody else and I'll work. I'm going to have to work. I can't just take five days off.

Kevin Palmieri:

When I went to Scotland, I worked every day. Not, I didn't work 12 hours a day, but I would get up at six. Taryn would sleep in a little bit because we're on vacation, so why not? And I'd work for two or three hours. I'd make sure nothing was burning down, and it's that's what has to happen. It's not now. Again, I'm not saying you have to do that, but that's what I have to do, based on where we are and where we want to get to, and I think that's just a heavy reality. I'm. It would be a disempowering belief to think I can go to the beach and I'll just work on my phone and I'll get as much done. Not a fucking chance.

Alan Lazaros:

No way.

Kevin Palmieri:

Not a chance. My the reason I came home early is because my fucking mouse died and I didn't have any batteries. I can't use my trackpad. Are you kidding me? There's no way. I'm like a fish out of water.

Alan Lazaros:

I used to watch you use your trackpad instead of mouse and I used to say that to you.

Kevin Palmieri:

I used to say that, well, it's all I had, dude, the first laptop I ever got, the first laptop I ever got was to edit video. No, the one before that was the first laptop I ever got. I didn't have a laptop before that. That's wild. I had a tablet to watch porn on it's like why I bought it.

Alan Lazaros:

It's bigger than my phone, I'm sure I'm gonna.

Kevin Palmieri:

I'm not gonna lie about it.

Alan Lazaros:

It's bigger than my phone there was a, a person that you and I know that uh said they don't have a laptop. I don't want to be unkind to anybody, but I do want to. I said to kevin buying the scenes. I said that's not good and this it isn't a priority.

Alan Lazaros:

It's not like this person couldn't buy one if they saved up yeah, yeah, if you don't have a laptop, I'll just, I'll get on the soapbox here for a second. I'm a computer engineer. I built my first computer at 12. The 21st century. Like, if you don't have a laptop, you're not maximizing your career. I'm helping a lot of people build their careers. This person that I helped earlier to try to get another job, I'm like I guarantee you I can get you a job for $70,000 a year, guaranteed, of course. I can Absolutely Send me your resume, send me your cover letter.

Alan Lazaros:

I'm going to give everyone out there listening I know this isn't the point of the episode everyone out there listening. Every business owner on planet earth needs better people. Every business owner on planet earth needs more productive people. Every business owner on planet earth needs more effective, intelligent, diligent, prudent people. So if you are reliable and consistent and have skilled, have developed skills, and you have computer skills and you know how to do that, and you have creative skills and you can think intelligent and you can show up on time, and every company on the in the world needs human beings that are reliable and capable and skilled. So if you are, I just I just that's a whole little side tangent there. But this whole laptop lifestyle.

Alan Lazaros:

You see someone by the pool dude. I again, I I know this is next level university, not ordinary university. That was always crap, oh for sure. I remember we had a mentor we lived with and I sat him down. I was his coach. I actually coached one of his people. He recommended me. Still, this is years and years and years ago. I've been coaching this guy for three years.

Alan Lazaros:

Shout out to you if you're listening, this is someone very successful at MassMutual and I coached this person in fitness at the time but fitness and life and productivity and stuff like that. And I sat him down. I said brother, you are one of the least productive people I've ever met. Like I lived with you. You. He's like what do you mean? I said you cannot sit at a desk for more than 20 minutes at a time. It is fucking alarming how hard it is for you to focus. It is fucking alarming how hard it is for you to focus days at a time. It breaks down your dreams into goals, milestones and daily habits. We hope you enjoy it.

Alan Lazaros:

The link will be in the show notes. Kevin and I get more done than you in a day than you've done all month. Like what are we doing? Who's mentoring who here? Right, and he sent me a video testimonial. He said I've been coached by Tony Robbins for $120,000 a year and no one had the courage to tell me what Alan told me.

Alan Lazaros:

I saw the way he lived and I was like dude, you're not going to be successful. You can't build a business running around going to the movies and I'm not trying to be unkind, I just care that much. I want to see people win and I just that laptop lifestyle. His lifestyle looks awesome and, by the way, a lot of the people crushing it they're in sales. They build relationships for a living. That's what he was doing, but he wanted to build a business. He used to be in sales. His all of his wiring was taking people to dinner. I remember some people's job is to take people to dinner and to take clients to dinner and to meet people and to talk Wine and dine when I used to be in sales brother, that was so hard for me.

Alan Lazaros:

I just wanted solitude. So bad because I just constantly had to meet people. I did Vermont, connecticut and Western Massachusetts that was my territory Frito-Lay and General Electric and all these companies, and my whole life just felt like I had to talk. You're in the car, you're on the phone and then you go to lunch and then you are doing this training and then you're talking to this customer and then you're manufacturing this manufacturing facility. I saw a lot of really cool manufacturing facilities, by the way, but, like dude, it was exhausting. I just wanted to go home and be alone.

Alan Lazaros:

I remember my girlfriend at the time. It was like I can't talk to you right now. Like I can't talk to you right now. I'm so sorry. I just I need to be alone. And obviously she was still with me. I was like can we just not talk for a little bit? I need some solitude here. And she was wonderful, genuinely. But that time I remember thinking to myself, like this fucking sucks, like I can't do this. I hate this, this sucks. My point of this, though, is that the lifestyles that you see of people traveling every time you see a beach photo. I want you to see them in the plane next to two people like sitting there for six hours hating their life. I love both ends of the coin, man. I don't want you to just see Kevin and I on these microphones. I want you to see how much our life is different behind the scenes too.

Kevin Palmieri:

It is on these microphones.

Alan Lazaros:

I want you to see how much our life is different behind the scenes too. You can't just see Emilia and I's wonderful new intro for the Conscious Couples podcast. You have to see all the times that our audio quality was crap or we had to drill the wall for the studio and hang the stuff. Whatever the point is is everything's a mess behind the scenes. All this marketing of laptop lifestyle dude never was real, never will be real. It looks cool but at the end of the day, what real productivity looks like is you alone in a dark office with a 52-inch, a couple screens, with a capable, effective laptop with a mouse, and that is. We have a new team member, not a new team member, a team member who just got a desk and got set up and all that she's going to be. Her productivity will 5x now that she has a desk. For sure it's so hard to go back.

Kevin Palmieri:

Tara and I went to Scotland for 14 days. We probably took 500 pictures, so those I can share those pictures on social media forever, but that doesn't. I'm home working now. I love sharing them because it was wonderful. It's a beautiful flashback and a reminder, but how?

Alan Lazaros:

much more productive. Are you sitting there versus the coffee shop? Versus Scotland?

Kevin Palmieri:

Let's just keep it real with that Assuming right here is 100% this is like max yeah.

Alan Lazaros:

Your office. If you don't have a home office, by the way, get one 21st century. Your future self will thank you.

Kevin Palmieri:

At least get like a desk or something and a mouse. A desk and a mouse Great start, Great start, Right, Maybe you're. If you're in a studio, you live in a studio apartment. It's hard to have a freaking office. If I'm 100% here, I was probably like 60%, 65% at 65% at the cafe and then in Scotland, Jesus.

Alan Lazaros:

I'm talking day to day, cause in Scotland you worked every day but you probably got one 10th done. Yeah, and it was 10%.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah, every day it was a different almost every day. There was a couple of places we stayed for multiple days. One place didn't have wifi cause it was out in the middle of nowhere. It was a cabin. Hotspot worked okay, but not great. So, yeah, probably 10%, one-tenth as productive, and it's the 100% in the office that creates the opportunity to have the 10%. But then that's what people tell you they're doing. All the time I'm telling you they're not doing that, they're not doing it. Again, it's you against you, but it's also you against the people who are doing the same stuff as you. You're getting people are going to, they're going to be circling you. There's no way. There's no way, there's no there's no possibility.

Kevin Palmieri:

When I came home I was so happy I was like ah yes, I know, cool, cool, cool, but again not sexy. Not sexy if I would say it's, it's the, the supplement versus the main course. The main course is dark, dark, dark, office, strong, wi-fi, boom, boom. Everything's dialed in 90 of the time, 95 of the time. Honestly, five percent of the time I'm traveling this week, all right, let me, let me see what I can get done. Sure, but it's, you're never really going to build with that. You just can't. You can't build consistently with that.

Alan Lazaros:

Nice, what's your next level lesson before we get out of here, good sir, in business growth university I'm teaching branding, marketing, sales, client delivery and community Branding and marketing is just that Branding and marketing. Branding, marketing and sales. That is the laptop lifestyle stuff, that's the travel, that's the beach photos, that's the emilia and I. We were on a walk once and I I took a video and I posted it and it was just her and little tucker looking super cute and it was a beautiful nature day and it was just a wonderful.

Alan Lazaros:

This freaking ip iPhone Pro 16 Pro Max takes gorgeous cinematic videos and at the end of the walk, as soon as the camera was off, we went right back to our mastermind about what we're going to do for CCP and different house stuff and our businesses and I said isn't it interesting how five seconds of that 45 minute walk is the only thing anyone else will see? It is, that is everyone. That is marketing. That's okay. No one cares about our mastermind no one. That's not. That's not. If you want a mastermind, you come to this podcast. Real life is where real work is done and the other stuff is supplemental and real life is what pays for it, and I think that that's really important to understand, because you can have a magnificent life if you focus on real life more than the superfluous.

Kevin Palmieri:

Mine would be very similar. I would think of it kind of like the diet, the way you eat. 80% of the time you eat good food, clean food, healthy food, real food. 20% of the time you can kind of fuck off. The more dialed in or the bigger the goal, the more those numbers change. Nice, if you want way, way, way above average. Probably gonna be 95.5. Might be 99.1. Depending on what you're shooting for. That. I think that's a really, and I think that's everything. I think that's health, I think that's wealth, I think that's love, I think that is everything Same 80-20. 90-10. 95-5. 99-1.

Alan Lazaros:

That's up to you to decide. Only you can decide that, because you're the one who has to show up every day. But I think that's a really good way to look at it. We should create that framework. If you want level 10 results, you need 99.1. If you want level nine results you need what did you say? 95.5. Eight results you need. That's a good, that's group coaching stuff.

Kevin Palmieri:

We'll have to sit down and figure out what those numbers would actually be. That's group coaching stuff.

Alan Lazaros:

We'll have to sit down and figure out what those numbers would actually be. That's good stuff right there. 80-20 if you want like a 7. If you want a 7 in health, wealth and love, you could probably 80-20 that.

Kevin Palmieri:

I think that's fair.

Alan Lazaros:

You could probably do 20%. That's why I don't have a six pack. I don't eat well, I eat well probably 80% of the time and I fuck off about 20%. That's why I'm not as ripped as Kev 90, probably 90 it was.

Kevin Palmieri:

It was 95.5. Then I dropped probably 85.15. Now it's 95.5 again. It sucks, but it is what it is. I want the goal. Right, you want the goal. I want the goal. Going back to our previous thing, how seriously do you? Actually take them, I get abs, I'm back. I'm back alright cool 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.

Alan Lazaros:

Keep it Next Level, next Level Nation.

Kevin Palmieri:

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.

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Alan Lazaros

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Kevin Palmieri

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