Kickoff Sessions

Darren Lee
  • 4.7 (3)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Weekly

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.

  1. Aug 31

    #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

  2. Aug 20

    #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

  3. Aug 14

    #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

  4. Aug 9

    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

  5. Aug 2

    #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

  6. Jul 25

    #336 James Galligan - The 22-Year-Old Playing A "Decade Game" While Everyone Chases Virality

    Join Aura today: https://app.aura-app.ai/sign-up Most people build a business anyone can copy. This 22-year-old built the opposite. James Galligan runs A Players Club, a European members club he's taken city to city across the continent, on a tour he openly expects to lose six figures on this year. On purpose. Because the trust it builds in person is something no funnel, no ad, and no competitor can replicate. We got into how he thinks: the "Rockefeller Move", the one needle-mover you make once a year that changes everything. Why he believes you don't find your differentiator, you accept it. How he used his own members as the "bridge" to scale across five European markets that each buy completely differently. The character he built at 17 to become who he wanted to be. And why he's playing a "decade game" while everyone else chases the next viral spike. We also broke down the sales-commission tweak most teams get wrong, why brand is really about durability, and what we're building together at A Players and Aura. If you're trying to build something that lasts, not something that peaks, start here. JAMES GALLIGAN A Players Club: https://www.theaplayersclub.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamesgalligann Youtube: @Jamesgalligann Work with Voics: https://events.voics.co/apex Support the show

  7. Jul 12

    Building a $30,000/mo Agency for a Client in 60 Minutes

    I sat down with one of our clients — a podcast agency owner stuck at £6K/month — and built the exact roadmap to scale her to £30K/month without working more hours. We cover the real reason done-for-you agencies hit a ceiling, how to build a hiring engine that never stops, why retainer + rev share changes everything, and the reoffer strategy that closes leads everyone else gives up on. If you run an agency, coaching business, or any service business, this is the playbook. ⏱ TIMESTAMPS 0:00 – The £6K → £30K goal 2:40 – Acquisition vs delivery: the only two things that matter 5:50 – Building a hiring engine (the JP Morgan lesson) 10:10 – Ramping new hires (why you must hire 45 days early) 11:57 – Maker vs manager: who to promote (and who not to) 15:40 – Retainer + rev share: the model that breaks linear growth 23:34 – Done-for-you vs done-with-you offers 30:50 – How to qualify consulting clients 32:45 – The referral outbound system (25% + 5% in perpetuity) 36:38 – The reoffer strategy (proximity, speed, duration, price) 41:50 – Opening up your ICP beyond referrals 44:20 – Market to the root cause, not the symptom 48:30 – The problem awareness loop 53:40 – Gap selling: current state vs future state 59:10 – Final principles Support the show

  8. Jul 2

    #335 8-Figure Roundtable - The Only Offer That Survives AI in 2026

    Watch This NEXT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvkldfWDCuM Apply to Work with Voics: http://events.voics.co/incubator Join Aura: https://www.aura-app.ai/ - Darren Lee - Adam Power - Usman Kayani - Oezkan Akkilic 0:00 Intro & Preview 0:57 Vetting Leads Before the Calendar 3:50 Replacing Ad Agencies With AI Agents 6:31 Why Done-For-You Offers Win in 2026 9:21 Mindset, Adaptation & Human Taste 12:33 AI Setters vs. Real Emotion 18:13 Multi-Agent Systems That Run the Business 22:45 GDPR, Security & AI Dialer Risks 26:03 Will the CRM Disappear? 29:24 How to Thrive With AI (Not Just Survive) 37:25 Resourcefulness & Final Thoughts Support the show

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4.7
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

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.

Information

  • Creator
    Darren Lee
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    345
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Kickoff Sessions
  • Show Website
    Kickoff Sessions

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