Are You Prepping Or Procrastinating? (2225)

Perfection waits. Success ships early. In this high-energy episode, Kevin and Alan pull back the curtain on how “getting ready” can secretly kill your growth. From building broken apps to facing public failure, they show how real progress starts when you stop hiding behind perfection. This isn’t about reckless action, it’s about learning faster, moving smarter, and embracing the messy middle where success is born. Stop rehearsing your dreams. Press play and build them.

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Show notes:
(2:36) The “zero to one” rule for real growth
(6:00) Alan’s four-step success framework
(7:40) Why private failures don’t count
(9:41) Fear of judgment and public feedback
(12:40) Netflix Vs. Amazon: Focus beats distraction
(14:26) 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

• 2:36 The “zero to one” rule for real growth
• 6:00 Alan’s four-step success framework
• 7:40 Why private failures don’t count
• 9:41 Fear of judgment and public feedback
• 12:40 Netflix Vs. Amazon: Focus beats distraction
• 14:26 Outro

Transcript

Kevin Palmieri

(0:00) I had a conversation with somebody the other day, and they were talking about how I'm building this behind the scenes, and I have this system, and I have this set up, and I wanted to say, hey, at some point, you just have to fucking start, because I wonder if we are just over-preparing and procrastinating, but it feels like we're making progress.

Alan Lazaros

(0:18) Well, on one end, you're preparing, preparing, preparing. (0:21) On the other end, you're a mess, and you don't prepare for anything, and the truth and the optimal is in the middle. (0:27) Welcome to Next Level University.(0:30) I'm your host, Kevin Palmieri.

Kevin Palmieri

(0:32) And I'm your co-host, Alan Lazarus. (0:35) At NLU, we believe in a heart-driven, but no-BS approach to holistic self-improvement for dream chasers.

Alan Lazaros

(0:41) Our goal with every episode is to help you level up your life, love, health, and wealth.

Kevin Palmieri

(0:48) 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

(1:04) Self-improvement, in your pocket, every day, from anywhere, completely free. (1:10) Welcome to Next Level University.

Kevin Palmieri

(1:16) Next Level Nation today for episode number 2,225. (1:19) We're having a conversation around this. (1:21) Are you over-prepping from a place of procrastination?(1:25) Do you feel like you're actually making progress when you're not? (1:29) I want your take on this, because I am somebody who... (1:34) I think I do a lot of prep in certain situations.(1:38) Like, if I'm going to be out and I'm going to be looking people in the face and presenting something, I try to over-prep. (1:46) But behind the scenes, I say yes to shit, and then I try to figure it out later. (1:49) You remember the time you didn't prep?(1:51) Yeah, it was terrible. (1:52) Yeah, I had the children doing push-ups. (1:54) Not good.(1:55) Not good. (1:56) Great story now, but at the time, it was terrible. (1:59) What is your perspective as somebody who...(2:03) I feel like you're really good at intuitively prepping, but it's not like you wait. (2:11) Like, we have an app that is an app, and it's kind of a piece of shit. (2:18) And...(2:19) We had 110 users, baby. (2:20) We had 110 users, and we launched it, and it was just like, yeah, it'll get better. (2:24) It'll get better.(2:25) It'll get better. (2:25) I know some people on the other end would just wait five years. (2:29) They're like, oh, it's not ready yet.(2:29) It's not ready yet. (2:30) It's not... (2:31) Where is the bright spot in this quick episode?

Alan Lazaros

(2:36) I think it's you... (2:38) You got to go from zero to one as quick as possible. (2:42) When they started Netflix, Mark Randolph and...(2:47) Reed Hastings. (2:48) Nice job. (2:49) I know shit, too.(2:50) Nice job. (2:51) Nice job. (2:52) So, they immediately shipped the DVD to themselves through the mail.

Kevin Palmieri

(2:59) Let me ask you a question. (3:00) Who do you think people are going to remember? (3:01) Are they going to remember my name or yours?(3:03) Am I going to be Reed Hastings or the other guy?

Alan Lazaros

(3:06) Who do you think they remember more? (3:08) This guy right here. (3:09) No, no, I meant...(3:10) Oh. (3:11) Reed Hastings or Mark Randolph? (3:13) Probably Mark Randolph.(3:15) I think Reed. (3:16) He's got a more unique name. (3:20) Mark Reed.(3:21) The fact that that matters. (3:22) It does. (3:23) It shouldn't.(3:24) Shout out to both of them. (3:25) Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Steve Jobs, Wozniak. (3:28) You can keep going.(3:30) I think they'll remember both. (3:31) Jeff and Jeff. (3:33) You know it.(3:33) So, the original question, though. (3:37) I think you have to go from zero to one as soon as humanly possible by shipping yourself a DVD in the mail to see if it's feasible. (3:46) Because basically what you do is your ideas need to meet reality as soon as possible.(3:50) Everybody has ideas. (3:51) You come to me with ideas that I think are stupid as shit. (3:54) Sometimes.(3:55) And you always preface it, Kev, behind the scenes. (3:57) He always does this. (3:58) This might be the dumbest idea I've ever heard.(4:01) Or I might be a genius. (4:02) I got a good response to this yesterday. (4:04) I was surprised.(4:05) I was like, okay, open. (4:07) He's open. (4:08) I actually closed that.(4:09) Oh, it's closed. (4:10) So, just so you know, it's closed. (4:12) It was an idea.(4:13) But it is funny. (4:14) No, but ideas are a dime a dozen. (4:16) Like, ideas are not it.(4:18) That isn't it.

Kevin Palmieri

(4:18) And what does it mean to go from zero to one?

Alan Lazaros

(4:20) That's a business term that a lot of people might not know. (4:23) You gotta get a client or a customer. (4:27) You gotta get a client or a customer.(4:29) It's called MVP. (4:30) Minimum Viable Product. (4:32) That's why the app was a piece of crap.(4:34) Quote unquote. (4:35) It's, I mean, it's usable. (4:37) Yeah, yeah.(4:38) And we got people using it. (4:39) Well, I just mean to our standards, right? (4:41) Yeah, exactly.(4:42) And even when you say a piece of crap compared to what, right? (4:44) There are only a couple other habit-tracking apps. (4:47) I think there's actually quite a few.(4:49) Probably a dozen.

Kevin Palmieri

(4:50) Yeah, well, the reason I brought it up is Taryn asked me. (4:54) She's like, what's the name of the app? (4:54) And I said, no, no, no, no, not right now.(4:57) Because she wanted to use it. (4:59) And I was like, no, no, no, not right now. (5:00) Optimal is the name of the app.

Alan Lazaros

(5:01) Yeah, well, that is the name.

Kevin Palmieri

(5:02) You can't download it right now. (5:03) Well, that's what I said is, she said, well, it's, I mean, I'll still use it. (5:07) And I said, well, I don't even think you can.(5:08) Also, by the way, this is a table behind the... (5:11) We got charged $400 the other day from the company. (5:14) So I don't know if we're...(5:15) Yeah, yeah, quick four.

Alan Lazaros

(5:17) Four.

Kevin Palmieri

(5:18) Yeah, and not even the other day. (5:20) This was a minute ago. (5:22) So just FYI.(5:24) And the only reason I'm saying that is because I will forget if I don't tell you now. (5:28) Yeah. (5:29) Oh, that's so...(5:29) CEO is supposed to be going through the, you know, kind of going through the... (5:32) Yeah, the CFO, first of all. (5:34) Expenses, well, CEO, CFO.(5:35) I mean, you're, you know, jack of all trades, master of many. (5:38) That sucks. (5:39) Yeah.

Alan Lazaros

(5:39) Who told me that shit in the middle of an episode?

Kevin Palmieri

(5:41) I think it was Three Hunch.

Alan Lazaros

(5:42) So just something to note. (5:44) Oh, that's brutal. (5:45) Okay, so sorry about that.(5:48) Yeah, thank you. (5:52) I actually think that once... (5:55) So this is my framework for doing anything successful.(6:00) If you came to me and said, I want to succeed at X, I would say, okay. (6:03) Number one is stop the wrong trains. (6:05) Meaning stop doing things that do not contribute to that X, to that thing.(6:12) Number two is start the right trains. (6:14) Meaning set up a system of goals, metrics, and habits that the metrics and habits keep you on the rails, which is what the app is for, by the way. (6:29) And then the next one would be improve the right trains.(6:32) Meaning all the metrics and habits that you're doing daily that keep you on the rails, you now have to improve at each of those things. (6:40) And that's when your most important skill comes in and that kind of thing. (6:42) And then the last one is never to lose momentum, which is the app got better and better and better and better and better.(6:49) And the only reason we stopped it is because we had too many trains going simultaneously. (6:53) We had 24 departments and there was too many resources going to too many places. (7:01) We were...(7:03) think of like a disco ball rather than a magnifying glass. (7:09) Excuse me? (7:10) A disco ball rather than a magnifying glass.(7:12) Why? (7:13) What do you... (7:13) why?(7:14) Your light is scattered everywhere. (7:16) Oh. (7:16) Instead of focused and burning.(7:20) Interesting.

Kevin Palmieri

(7:21) Or maybe an ant. (7:24) I'm not saying you should. (7:26) Yeah.(7:27) Every... (7:27) I think like every kid has that. (7:29) It's like I'm the master of the world.(7:32) Let me see. (7:33) Here's my thought. (7:34) This is my thought process.(7:38) Private failures aren't really feedback. (7:41) So here's... (7:42) this is the thing.(7:44) Let's say you're behind the scenes. (7:46) It's like, well, I've been working on my first 15 podcast episodes. (7:49) Got them all scripted out.(7:51) Love that. (7:52) Love that for you. (7:52) That's awesome.(7:53) And number two is essentially useless because you haven't dropped number one yet. (7:58) You don't know what feedback you're going to feel or you're going to get. (8:01) That's like writing 15 movies after you.(8:03) And then just like I have 15 movies written, but I don't know how to direct yet. (8:07) Well, that doesn't matter. (8:09) Agreed.(8:09) So I think...

Alan Lazaros

(8:11) Theory versus practice is what this is.

Kevin Palmieri

(8:12) Theory versus practice. (8:13) And I think you're selling yourself short if you are on the end of just constantly... (8:19) When I say over prep, I mean prepping to the point where you don't launch something.(8:24) You're selling yourself short because you're not getting feedback that becomes the cheat codes to make the thing better. (8:29) And then by the time you're ready to launch the thing, you have evolved so much as a human being that you're embarrassed about it. (8:36) We have a client, a podcast client.(8:40) Recorded 52 episodes. (8:42) Said, I want to record 52 episodes before I launch. (8:44) Awesome.(8:46) Now they look back at the beginning episodes and they're like, I'm kind of embarrassed to launch it. (8:50) Well, that's what happens when we wait because we evolve as people. (8:54) So that's the other piece of it too.(8:56) You can think of one or two we wouldn't have launched. (8:58) We started now. (9:00) Did you see what I tagged you in last night?(9:03) It was a blooper. (9:05) I can't wait for you to see it. (9:07) Alan and I used to, when we had guests on, we would do separate intros and it was a blooper reel.(9:14) And so you messed up and we cut the audio and we were trying to re-record the end of the audio. (9:21) And you said, thoughts are things. (9:25) And then you were supposed to do a new recording and you pause.(9:28) You're like, and thoughts become things. (9:30) And you and I were fucking dying in the blooper reel. (9:32) When you see it, you'll get it.(9:33) I could not not share it last night.

Alan Lazaros

(9:35) I love it. (9:38) Which end of this are you on? (9:41) Are you on the end where you just don't prep anything and you just do, do, do, do, do, but there's no direction?(9:48) Or do you have a great direction, but you haven't shot the arrow? (9:53) I think the majority of people fail long-term because they're fearful short-term of judgment. (10:01) I agree.(10:01) That is like a thing. (10:03) It's a big thing.

Kevin Palmieri

(10:04) Yeah.

Alan Lazaros

(10:04) And there's the only way to get over judgment is to get judged. (10:08) I really wish that we could, there's no way we can do this, but every listener, viewer, imagine Instagram when it first started. (10:17) Going from where it is now to the very first Instagram, it would be such hot garbage.(10:24) It would be terrible, like alarmingly bad. (10:27) Watch a movie from, I, I watched a preview from a movie in 2004 that I was considering watching. (10:33) I honestly forget the name of the movie.(10:35) That's how fucking terrible the preview was, but it's bad how bad movies were. (10:40) Like the CGI is terrible in some of these movies. (10:44) I Am Legend is a really successful movie.(10:47) That CGI computer generated imaging is fucking atrocious. (10:50) It's so bad. (10:51) Have you ever seen it?(10:53) Long, long time. (10:54) No, no. (10:54) I have a long time ago.(10:55) Yeah. (10:55) A long time ago. (10:56) The movie's still good, but the CGI is brutal.

Kevin Palmieri

(10:59) Might as well be a fucking video game. (11:01) Why are the previews on Amazon Prime so bad? (11:05) You know, you like watch a preview.(11:07) Tara and I look and, and it's like, I can't, I don't even know what I'm looking at here. (11:11) I feel like I'm watching scrambled porn on my TV from 1997. (11:16) Like, what are we doing here?(11:17) And then you, then when you start the movie, it looks like garbage and then it like speeds up. (11:22) Yeah, because of bandwidth.

Alan Lazaros

(11:23) You can't figure that out. (11:24) No, no. (11:26) You know what I mean?(11:27) The, yeah, you guys don't have enough bandwidth. (11:30) Do you not have hardwire on your TV? (11:32) My, my internet is absolute fire.(11:35) I agree, but that's what it is.

Kevin Palmieri

(11:37) No, that ain't it.

Alan Lazaros

(11:37) You think it's your graphics card on your TV? (11:39) No, I think it's fucking Amazon. (11:41) I, why is Netflix great?(11:43) Yeah. (11:44) Yeah. (11:44) Everything's great.(11:45) Everything else, just the Amazon. (11:47) Netflix is ahead of everyone else.

Kevin Palmieri

(11:48) You watch the preview and it's literally like, I honestly, you guys are doing such a disservice to this movie. (11:54) I could never watch this based on the fucking trailer you just showed me and I can't understand what's going on.

Alan Lazaros

(11:58) So real quick, this is hilarious for me. (12:01) Amazon dude has, it's, is a disco ball, kinda. (12:06) You think Amazon Prime is their main concern?(12:08) Netflix only does one thing. (12:10) I know, but. (12:11) That's why they do it so well.(12:12) Disney does two things, amusement parks. (12:15) There's so much potential. (12:16) I know, I'm with you.(12:17) But Amazon has Whole Foods and they ship stuff and they have web services and they apparently want to do music and videos. (12:26) And I don't know, I think Bezos's approach is a little too much. (12:30) It's too much.(12:30) But hey, it is the most successful company. (12:33) Well, when we meet him at the Yacht Club, you can tell him that personally.

Kevin Palmieri

(12:36) What do you, what's the, what's the wrap up here? (12:37) So we gotta, we gotta record for the one.

Alan Lazaros

(12:40) I think that was the disco ball versus the magnifying glass. (12:42) Netflix is the magnifying glass. (12:43) I got you.

Kevin Palmieri

(12:44) Yeah, yeah.

Alan Lazaros

(12:44) For fuck's sake. (12:45) A hundred percent, I understand. (12:46) You have to start and you have to face the judgment, face the failure publicly as much as possible.(12:54) It doesn't, you don't have to like it. (12:56) You don't have to seek it. (12:58) You just have to deal with it because there's no other way.(13:00) And you can go back to any app, any phone, any laptop. (13:04) Like I wish I, we were talking about Kazaa and Napster and stuff last night. (13:08) Emilia and I, throwback.(13:10) We watched a LimeWire, my buddy Nick and I downloaded Lord of the Rings, the second movie on his little computer. (13:17) And we watched it. (13:18) It was a bad quality, but whatever.(13:20) It's all we can get, baby. (13:22) Must have taken three days to download. (13:23) Dude, exactly.(13:24) And I was just thinking to myself, even the monitor, I could picture it in my head, the monitors. (13:28) You remember how big the fucking monitors were before we had flat screens and LCDs and stuff? (13:32) Yeah.(13:33) So everything in the past is wildly worse than the now because we're constantly innovating, but the innovation process is so messy. (13:42) And you have to do that. (13:44) You have to do that.

Kevin Palmieri

(13:44) I would download a song. (13:46) So it'd take like three hours. (13:47) Then I'd open it.(13:48) It's like, this is not more than a feeling by Boston. (13:50) What the fuck?

Alan Lazaros

(13:51) I just wasted three hours.

Kevin Palmieri

(13:52) I've been waiting for this song the whole time. (13:54) Now I need to go to bed. (13:56) This is devastating.(13:57) All right. (13:57) Mine is you have a pattern. (13:58) Some people just launch it and it crashes and burns.(14:02) Some people have a nice balance and some people just wait way too long. (14:05) Identify yours and then work on it as always. (14:08) Okay.(14:08) If you want to work on your book club isms, you can't because this is dropping on Sunday, but next week, 1230 p.m. Eastern time. (14:17) They are reading Rationality by one Steven Pinker. (14:20) We are actually recording this right before a session.(14:23) And Next Level Nation, a group of amazing humans who are focused on getting to the next level. (14:26) As always, we love you. (14:27) We appreciate you.(14:28) Grateful for each and every one of you. (14:29) And at NLU, if you are super committed to getting to the next level, you should come back tomorrow because we will be here to help you get there.

Alan Lazaros

(14:37) Launch your shit. (14:38) Next Level Nation.

Kevin Palmieri

(14:40) Thanks for joining us for another episode of Next Level University. (14:44) We love connecting with the Next Level family.

Alan Lazaros

(14:47) We mean it when we say family. (14:49) If you ever need anything, please reach out to us directly. (14:52) Everything you need to get ahold of us is in the show notes.(14:55) Thank you again, and we will talk to you tomorrow.