Kickoff Sessions

Hosted by Darren Lee

BusinessInterviews guests

Website RSS feed

Episodes

350

Latest episode

Oct 2026

Language

EN-GB

About the show

Weekly podcast episodes with the sharpest minds in the world to help you live a richer & more fulfilling life. Previous guests include Luke Belmar, Justin Waller, Sahil Bloom, Gad Saad, Peter Schiff, Stirling Cooper, Jack Hopkins, Sadia Khan, Matt Gray, Daniel Priestley, Richard Cooper, Justin Welsh, Arlin Moore and more.

Listen to episodes

60 recent

October 13, 2026Episode 3431 hr 0 min

#343 Charlie Johnson - The Coach Who Built a $30M Business on Paid Ads

Watch this next: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvkldfWDCuM "Businesses make money when they make the first sale, but where businesses make a lot of money is where they make the second and third sale." Charlie Johnson took his business from $10M to $30M in revenue in about two and a half years, mostly on paid traffic. He runs two big fitness offers and a software business, Lead Wizard. At the start of this year he fired his media buyer and took the ads back himself, and in the last couple of months automating with AI has cut $30K in payroll. I wanted to know how he actually runs the machine. His answer: protect the pixel, even if it means turning off your most profitable ads. Reset tired ad sets every five to seven days. Stop polishing a VSL when only 7% of people press play. And fix the offer and the sales team before you crank traffic, because a VSL funnel only works if someone can close. If you've taken a follower funnel as far as it goes and you're weighing up paid ads, this is the conversation. Apply to Work with Voics: https://events.voics.co/coaches Join Aura: https://aurasales.io 0:00 Intro 1:32 From $10M to $30M on paid traffic 3:05 Getting clients to buy a second time 6:28 Going broader than fitness 9:20 How to sell high ticket on paid ads 11:33 Join Aura 13:11 Why he fired his media buyer 14:54 The AI that runs his ad account 17:42 Why you still need to know every skill 20:52 VSL funnel vs free course funnel 23:06 Nobody watches your VSL 25:15 Why he turned off his most profitable ads 28:34 Why cheap ad agencies fail 30:10 Hire brains, not bodies 31:21 Why overbooked closers stop closing 32:56 Where the money actually goes 36:29 Getting AI to learn every role in the team 37:49 What AI can't replace in a sales manager 40:52 The curse of capability 44:20 Why the middle of the coaching market is dying 47:34 The smartest move he made in 2026 50:04 What Acquisition.com taught him 53:59 Why a VSL fails if you can't close 56:59 Webinars vs VSLs 59:43 Final takeaways Support the show

October 6, 2026Episode 3421 hr 12 min

#342 Josh Lyons - The $100K/Month Closer Who Sells Without a Script

Watch this next: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvkldfWDCuM "My mentor gave me four of his calls, the recordings, and I listened to them 500 times over the course of the first six months." Josh Lyons never learned sales from a script. No course, no manual, no book of questions. He's since taken four other closers to $100K a month in commissions the same way, two of them brand new to high-ticket sales, and three of his closers did $4.3M a month in cash collected on a single offer. I wanted to know why great reps still plateau. His answer: past a certain point it stops being a skill problem. Who you are shows up on every call, and most closers are being trained on the wrong layer. If you're good on calls and can't work out why you're not great yet, or you're an owner who can't find closers worth keeping, this is the conversation. Apply to Work with Voics: https://events.voics.co/coaches Join Aura: https://app.aura-app.ai/sign-up 0:00 Intro 1:11 Why sales starts with who you are 2:45 Why reps avoid the inner work 5:13 When prospects get defensive 6:48 Holding the line on truth 8:50 Truth vs falsehood on a sales call 12:16 Join Aura 13:53 The call review that changed everything 18:44 Do you need a script to start? 22:31 Why the best closers leave the market 24:17 Five closers at $100K a month, no script 27:29 The unicorn closer trifecta 29:16 What makes an offer worth closing 30:34 Why paying 3% gets you average closers 32:40 $4.3M a month with three closers 34:26 Price vs call volume 39:04 Money vs lifestyle: make it a conscious choice 42:33 Stress vs being out of alignment 46:38 How to actually find a mentor 50:30 "Girls like me don't date guys like you" 53:42 State, frequency and the pre-call checklist 59:36 What's on his pre-call checklist 1:04:03 Why closers check out after a few years 1:07:30 Stretch experiences: private jets and a $78M mansion 1:10:49 Final takeaways Support the show

October 1, 202633 min

How Much It Actually Costs To Build A SaaS In 2026

Watch this next: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvkldfWDCuM "Anyone can build a tool. Not anyone can build a company." Darren Lee opens the spreadsheet on his software company and reads a full year of costs line by line. No revenue, no MRR, just where $565,000 actually went: $280K on engineers, $71K on ads, $100K on sales commissions, $50K on events, all self-funded, no VC. He splits it into building the thing and selling the thing, shows why 95% of the build is people, why the founder has to run his own ads, and the three things he would do differently if he started again. Apply to Work with Voics: https://events.voics.co/coaches Join Aura: https://app.aura-app.ai/sign-up 0:00 Intro 0:57 What Aura does 2:14 Self-funded, no VC 4:08 Why B2B SaaS costs keep rising 6:09 Build it vs sell it 6:56 $280K on engineering 10:04 Sponsor: Aura 11:41 Anyone can build a tool 14:20 The product nobody maintains 15:55 The $14K that runs everything 17:12 $71K on paid ads 21:17 Why the founder runs the ads 22:40 Turning sales calls into ads 24:12 $50K on events 26:30 Where the money actually goes 29:16 No outside help 30:20 Document the build 31:00 Pick bigger partners 31:40 The $565K total 32:40 Final takeaways Support the show

September 27, 202649 min

The Complete High Ticket Sales Call Framework (2026)

Full Framework: https://events.voics.co/selling-at-scale I've sold over a quarter of a million dollars on a single sales call, and I've done it more than once. Not because I'm a natural closer. Because the call was won before it started. This is the full system we use to sell high ticket offers at scale, end to end: the application form, the three days before the call, the call itself gate by gate, the price, and the objections. It's the same process we teach inside Voics and the same process our clients use to go from six figures to eight. Grab the document and fill it in as you watch. Apply to Work with Voics: https://events.voics.co/coaches Join Aura: https://app.aura-app.ai/sign-up 0:00 Selling high ticket at scale 2:07 Gap selling: current state to future state 3:15 Why most people are bad at sales 4:45 The quality of your questions 5:35 Stop talking, let them arrive at the answer 6:35 The sale lives in the gap 7:47 How to structure a 60 minute call 8:57 The two mistakes on every call I review 10:28 Collect tokens, then spend them 11:44 Build a series of yeses 12:43 Open vs closed questions 13:45 Where sales calls actually break 15:25 Go upstream: your application form 19:18 Qualifying non-business offers 20:34 Stop calling it a free strategy call 21:40 Hot, warm and cold leads 22:22 What leads should watch before the call 24:19 Two touches a day, three days out 25:08 Why 90% of unconfirmed calls don't show 26:00 The call: setting the frame 28:07 Finding the pain 32:16 Information gap vs implementation gap 32:43 Symptoms vs the core problem 34:32 The cost of inaction 36:00 Financial qualification and the decision maker 38:33 After the pitch: deploy what you collected 41:04 Show them the process to get started 43:20 The temperature check 44:24 How to deliver the price 47:06 Isolate the objection 48:11 Every objection is a money objection 49:13 Deposit, start, or walk away Support the show

September 19, 2026Episode 34146 min

#341 Bogdan Micov - The Mind Architect: Why Great Closers Freeze On Easy Calls

Watch this next: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvkldfWDCuM "Pushing through is driving the car with a handbrake on." Bogdan Micov rebuilds the psychology underneath high-ticket closers. In this episode he doesn't tell war stories — he draws the whole model on paper and shows why every sales trainer you've ever hired has been working on the wrong step. We map conditioning, state, behaviour and results. He explains why your best rep hits $35K and crashes straight back to $20K. And he makes the case that you don't need more confidence, you need less fear. Apply to Work with Voics: https://events.voics.co/coaches Join Aura: https://app.aura-app.ai/sign-up 0:00 Intro 2:58 Subtraction, not addition 4:57 The four-step chain 7:19 Why reps don't send the outbound 9:24 Sponsor: Aura 11:00 What emotion actually is 12:59 The rep who quit over one question 14:30 95% of you is unconscious 15:55 When money isn't your real value 19:01 The six needs behind every behaviour 23:00 The question running your life 24:08 Why Darren wants an exit 30:20 The $20K set point 35:55 Process over content 37:06 How fast can you actually change 39:36 Avoiding it vs clearing it 41:28 Delete the emotion, install the belief 45:20 Final takeaways Support the show

August 31, 2026Episode 34059 min

#340 Temple Naylor - The Ultimate Guide To Closing High-Ticket Clients (Full Breakdown)

Watch this next: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvkldfWDCuM "I've never read a single sales book. Never." Temple Naylor sold Cole Gordon's $24K offer and ran a portfolio of 65 client accounts, most of them doing $100K to $300K a month. He coaches 63 business owners now. He's 28, he grew up in a mobile home, and he dropped out of high school and taught himself to code because there was nothing else within walking distance. I wanted to know what actually separates good closers from great ones. His answer isn't a technique. He thinks most people plateau because they keep buying sales training long after the thing holding them back stopped being sales. If you're already decent on calls and can't work out what sits between you and great, this is the conversation. Apply to Work with Voics: https://events.voics.co/coaches Join Aura: https://app.aura-app.ai/sign-up 0:00 Intro 1:20 Why sales skill has a ceiling 4:30 People buy coaches, not coaching 6:53 Diagnosing one problem, not nine 7:33 The one thing frame 10:36 Join Aura 12:12 How to pitch end to end 13:00 The four pillars, and weaving in and out 16:11 The questions that lose deals 18:58 From a mobile home to teaching himself to code 25:09 How he actually got good: brutality 26:51 The cold call he recorded at 19 30:22 Scripts, coachability and sounding human 36:07 Why $300K a month is still a B2C buyer 39:59 Front end vs back end offers 40:44 The renewal data that changed his mind 47:09 The sunk cost pitch 50:46 Payment plans and meeting people where they are 53:16 How he runs a back end pitch 56:05 The blindside 59:09 Nobody actually has objections Support the show

August 20, 2026Episode 33949 min

#339 Christian Schuette - The Actual Systems to Scale a Business in 2026

Watch this next: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvkldfWDCuM “You’re solving the right problem — but in the wrong order.” Christian Schütte advises 7 and 8-figure founders, including Will Brown. In this episode he doesn’t get interviewed — he runs a live advisory session on me and finds the constraint I’d been ignoring for months. We map every role I play. He pressure-tests my $30M exit until it falls apart. And he explains why most founders are busy every day while the number never moves. Apply to Work with Voics: https://events.voics.co/coaches Join Aura: https://app.aura-app.ai/sign-up 0:00 Intro 1:04 The hardest parts of business 2:20 Identity and your roles 7:00 Why bad feedback hurts 8:57 Sponsor: Aura 10:34 Why not every client makes it 21:49 Advisory vs coaching 25:33 Direction instead of goals 26:44 Why Darren wants an exit 34:58 Finding the real constraint 38:01 Getting honest with yourself 39:30 The Golden Hour 44:48 Closing open loops 47:46 Document the journey Support the show

August 14, 2026Episode 3381 hr 5 min

#338 Özkan Akkilic - The CEO Behind 75,000 Businesses: "You Are The Blocker"

Watch this next: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvkldfWDCuM Most coaches never scale. Not because their offer is bad — because they never stop being the product. Özkan Akkilic has a view of this that almost nobody has. He's the co-founder and CEO of Ablefy (formerly Elopage), the platform running over 75,000 online businesses — which means he can see, in real numbers, exactly who breaks through and who stalls. His estimate: only 20–30% ever make it to the next level. If you're stuck somewhere between $20K and $100K a month and working harder every month to stay there — this one's for you. Apply to Work with Voics: https://events.voics.co/coaches Join Aura: https://app.aura-app.ai/sign-up 0:00 Preview & Intro 2:53 Launch-Based Businesses Have An Expiry Date 6:47 The Niches Making Money Right Now 10:10 The Roadmap From Zero To £1M 11:27 Sponsor: Aura 13:03 The One-To-One Coaching Trap 17:19 The Decision To Go (One-Way Door) 20:01 You're Just An Overpaid Freelancer 24:38 Clarity, Vision, And Ozkan's 2013 Bet 31:54 Comfort Kills More Businesses Than Competition 37:03 What Clients Actually Need Most 42:19 Why Aura And Ablefy Partnered Up 48:53 The Sales Rep Commission Nightmare 1:01:19 Why Small Businesses Need Better Tools Than Big Ones Support the show

August 9, 202629 min

1 Year Building a Software Company (The Brutal Reality)

Watch This NEXT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvkldfWDCuM&pp=0gcJCR0AztywvtLA A year ago I moved from consulting into software. This is what actually happened — the numbers, the mistakes, and the things I'd do completely differently. No highlight reel. Six figures in ARR, pushing seven, with the goal of eight — and every expensive lesson it took to get here. Apply to work with Voics: https://events.voics.co/coaches 0:00 – The numbers and the goal 2:15 – Why build Aura at all 3:41 – Sales intelligence vs. a CRM 5:06 – Pre-sell before you build 7:48 – Public launch and the activation problem 10:10 – The engineering hires that changed everything 12:38 – Using Aura to grow Aura 15:22 – Acquisition lessons from painful pivots 18:03 – Learning paid ads the hard way 22:18 – Events and alliances as the edge 26:04 – Iterate fast and build to sell Support the show

August 2, 2026Episode 33750 min

#337 Cameron England - The 20 Year Old Making $700k/month With His AI Agency

Join Aura today: https://app.aura-app.ai/sign-up At 20, Cameron England built his agency entirely on paid ads. No organic, no posting. $50–100 a day in, clients at around $400, $1,000 up front and $1,000 every month after that. "I don't want to be right, I just want to make money." He started posting at 15 documenting a business he hadn't built yet, spent four years in the trenches running a marketing agency for medical clinics, and now runs a second business teaching agency owners the same path. This one is about the mechanics. Why he dropped cold outbound the moment he learned paid. Why organic is what Darren calls "business on easy mode" — and why Cameron thinks depending on either paid or organic alone is a mistake. What actually broke when he poured money into ads: fulfilment, hiring, all of it. If you're running an agency or a coaching business and you're stuck deciding instead of doing, this one's for you. 0:00 Why your pain tolerance sets your income ceiling 1:12 The popcorn effect — 5 years of nothing, then everything 4:04 Student vs expert: which one actually gets paid 7:19 Selling vapes at 14, shaving his head at 15 9:50 Join Aura 11:26 How he cracked paid ads and killed cold outbound 16:24 Why 90% of beginners stay stuck at $10K a month 22:18 Reputation over growth spurts 23:58 The offer he refused to scale 26:34 The cost of condensing 10 years into 3 35:41 Turning down $120K a year at 16 on a gut feeling 42:51 When Instagram shut him down 46:42 Leading by example CAMERON ENGLAND YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Cameron.England Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamcameronengland/ Support the show