Kickoff Sessions

#258 I Discovered the Best Business to Start in 2025

• Darren Lee • Episode 258

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Join Voics Incubator for as little as $250 per week: http://voics.co/incubator


I’ve discovered the best business to start in 2025.

It’s not rug-pulling meme coins. It’s not the latest AI tool. It’s not dropshipping

It’s building a business around content.

Creators like Alex Hormozi, Steven Bartlett, and Ali Abdaal have built empires by doing one thing exceptionally well.

Owning their voice.
In 2025, attention isn’t enough. Algorithms change, going “Viral” isn’t a strategy—it’s a gamble, ads stop working the moment you stop paying.

The game is trust.

Podcasts, YouTube, and long-form content are your greatest points of leverage because they:
- Build deep, parasocial relationships
- Convert trust into long-term revenue
- Establish you as the authority in your niche

In this video, I break down:
- Why content businesses will dominate 2025
- How to start with no audience or budget
- The exact system I used to go from $10K in debt to running Voics

2025 is the year to stop chasing trends.

Own your voice. Build leverage.

My Socials:
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/darrenlee.ks
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/darren-lee1


(00:00) Why You Should Start a Business in 2025 
(03:01) The Biggest Challenges Entrepreneurs Face  
(05:36) Why Long-Form Content Works in 2025  
(11:44) My Podcasting Journey  
(13:02) How to Start Your Content Business Today  

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Speaker 0:

Starting an online business in 2025 isn't just a want anymore. It's a need. But most people don't even know where to begin, while the biggest creators in the world, like Alex Ramosi, stephen Bartlett and Ali Abdaal, have all been using content as the backbone of their entire ecosystem. They've understood the power of content and how content is able to feed their entire business. It can start out with a super small business and move all the way up to a large enterprise. So what's the one thing that all of these large creators have in common? They own their own platform. They have their own long form content, short form content, and all of this feeds into their products and services. This builds an insane amount of trust, authority and leverage for them to sell their products and services. Today, I'm going to show you exactly how you can do the same in 2025 and how this is the most slept on opportunity that most entrepreneurs and most creators are not even thinking about yet, while most people are stuck chasing trends, running around in circles going after the same thing. There's a more sustainable, profitable way to build an online business in 2025. I'm not here to show you the hack or the trick. I'm actually going to show you the exact opposite. I'm going to show you a more sustainable and profitable way for you to build a content business in 2025. And I'm going to give you the exact steps. And why this has worked so well is that it's taken me from minus 10k in debt as a young, dumb kid to a seven figure business annually that runs off of one clear system that you can actually use right away. This system has taken me years to build, and I've been in the content space for almost five years now, but I will show you over the next couple of minutes how you can do it right now and eliminate all of all of that pain and suffering that I had gone through in my own journey. See, the thing is, when I started in the content world, this was back in 2020. I was sitting in my room in Dublin, this small apartment, it was raining, miserable, like it always is in Ireland and I launched my podcast with a $60 microphone and a money back guarantee from Amazon. And the reason why I did that is because I genuinely felt I was going to return the equipment, because I just didn't know what I was doing. So I'm going to show you exactly how I was able to do that and how you can do that and eliminate all of the pain. Because through every single series of my podcast, I was able to make those small micro adjustments that add up to the business we have now. And the thing is, that same podcast, which took me out of debt, took me out of all the pain and misery of the job that I was working in, now pays seven figures a year and feeds every aspect of our business that same podcast. Nothing has changed, apart from a few different areas inside of the podcast. So this isn't theory. This is actual practice of how I was able to do it and showing you exactly how you will be able to do this today.

Speaker 0:

If you're like most people, you've tried all of the hacks and the tricks and the marketing. You've danced on TikTok like a turkey. You've ran ads on Instagram. You've done all the virtue signal on LinkedIn. You've tried it all and you've got maybe a tiny bit of success or maybe none at all. But the thing is you don't own any of this. None of this is yours. It's all rented land. You're going and trying new hacks, new tricks and, to be honest, it's absolutely exhausting. One quick algorithm update and you are totally wiped out because you're not based on your authority, you're not based on your skill level. You're based on what's working on these platforms, whether it's Mark Zuckerberg or some Twitter bro changes some algorithm. That is now your identity for the next six and 12 months, until everything changes again. So this mechanism is gonna show you completely how you can build an entire business, brand and authority based on you. The words that come out of your mouth truly do matter, and that is a difference by building a podcast which will enable you to build the business you want, the life that you want, and basically every conceivable metric will come from this. And the thing is, most people are not doing it at all and even if they are not at a high level and the biggest creators have really caught on to this People like Stephen Bartlett wasn't always the CEO. The Diary of the CEO became his entire brand and from there he's built many different companies. Same with Alex Ramosi he started out with his own podcast, just documenting his own journey as a gym owner, which kept building and building and has become a huge hub for young entrepreneurs, which feeds his entire organization and which has allowed himself tens of thousands, if not millions, of books.

Speaker 0:

At this point, and this component breaks down to trust because, unlike an ad, which, when you turn off, the business stops, the difference with this is the trust that's built, builds reciprocity. People see you for who you are and they understand do they like you or do they hate you, which is equally as important and they want to work with you and they have the ability the ability to go and work with you because you build a parasocial relationship. What a podcast enables you to do is to build equity with your prospect and be able to build this bond of trust with your prospect and be able to build this bond of trust. It only takes seven hours for an actual consumer to cross the chasm and to buy your product, your service book, a call, whatever the next step is in the journey. Think about that. Seven hours, seven hours of podcasts is maybe five, six podcasts that you enjoy recording. Seven hours of tweets is a lot of scrolling, seven hours of reels is a lot of brain dead content, whereas we can get to the goal faster and more elegantly and by operating in a true position of what we enjoy doing, of authority, with a podcast that is much more clean, succinct and almost easier to produce than your TikTok trends and this element of trust builds a high point of leverage over all other social media channels Within my journey.

Speaker 0:

When I started out, I was a young dumb kid. I had no experience, no background, I had no budget. But people respect people who are obsessed with things and, in a world of mediocrity, people love people who are obsessed with things and in a world of mediocrity, people love people who are genuinely obsessed. Since I just started my podcast, I had no audience, budget or anything. So, as a result, people were coming for the insights from the guests initially and and they stuck around for me. They came for the guest and then stayed for the host. And that's a very unique model because guests wanted to come onto my show, because I was asking them good questions, I was showing up, I was being kind and, as a result, people would listen and say, huh, there's something going on here. And even though I had no background, no experience, this slowly compounded so you might already be a business owner, you might already be an expert in your field and that, added with all of this social components of building trust and reciprocity and building relationships, puts it literally on steroids going forward, because if a young dumb kid can do it. I'm pretty sure someone who's experienced can do it, and the reality is. Within our company, voix, we have tens, if not hundreds, of case studies of exactly this happening. People with experience are people that are even beginners. They go from zero to hero as a result of building a brand and trust.

Speaker 0:

I was starting to attract clients and customers from my podcast when I didn't even have a business. People would hop on a podcast and learn more about me and ask me how I could help them. Initially, it started out with some very small areas and that's what actually became our media company today. It was my guests people who are prestigious, experienced, have respect in the game. They were asking me for advice on their stuff, which is a really crazy thing considering I never thought I'd get to that point when I had no experience to begin with. And it's not just about big guests. That's nothing to do with a podcast in many regards.

Speaker 0:

When you produce an amazing piece of content, this will actually work for you. Instead of you working for your podcast, your podcast actually works for you. After you record an episode, all of this content can be repurposed for your business to genuinely drive a ton of traffic to your offer, your product or your service. So one excellent piece of content can actually and truly become this mechanism for you to be able to build a brand on multiple platforms. These platforms, then, will pay you. As time goes on, you'll be able to position yourself as the authority, have this content running 24 7 and it works for you, versus you having to do every single piece of work in the actual chain of your business. This is how people like alex ramosi can produce so much content and stay ahead of the game. Once the quality is dialed in, the quantity can happen. So, instead of having to sit down and record 100 TikTok videos a week, one clear, succinct episode can guide your entire business forward. This can become the hub, the central point of your business that feeds into every other aspect and the reality is, unlike expensive ads or doing cold calls or building a sales team, this can actually be free.

Speaker 0:

You can start today with your phone, with a microphone just like I did with my terrible microphone and my laptop camera that basically didn't even work and just get moving. If you really wanna save on costs, you can just open up Zoom and just record off Zoom. The goal here is not to be perfect. Done is always better to be perfect. The idea is to put in the initial reps, get those initial reps, and I know exactly how that felt my first 10 episodes. I was so almost embarrassed about it that it nearly forced me to stop. But by staying in the arena I was able to make those micro adjustments.

Speaker 0:

And if you're thinking right now, oh, I don't want to get started, I feel quite overwhelmed, I don't want to put myself out there, you have to remember that by just starting, you were already 99% ahead of people. Most people are complaining, they're in their room, they're giving out about the news, they're gossiping and they're already falling behind. By putting yourself out there and just releasing that piece of content, you're already so far ahead of everybody else, because the reality is these people do not stick around in the game. You want to position yourself with top players and they're not going to be literally hating on you for putting out content. They're actually going to be encouraging you just like I am today that to get your name out there, to get your brand out there, to get your business moving forward. Content, and specifically a podcast, will give you the highest point of leverage for you to grow your brand.

Speaker 0:

Despite how difficult it was for me in the beginning, I was able to break through pretty quickly. In the context of how long it takes to grow a business, within 10 episodes I was feeling a little bit more comfortable. Within 20, 30 episodes I was finding my voice. By 50 episodes I was interviewing people that I, like, truly looked up to for many years of my life and that allowed me to really be calmed down in the process and almost break true. I was getting to my first thousand subs on YouTube. I was getting videos to a thousand, two thousand downloads. Things were starting to move upwards and I was getting positive feedback. So the real breakthrough was just staying in the game and being able to get to that point where I was making these micro adjustments.

Speaker 0:

The funny thing is I've actually had no background in production. I never took a cinema course, I never learned how to use the wires properly. I pretty much just hit record and I kind of saw what happened as a result. A lot of people, probably in the industry, probably didn't even like that. They probably were looking for my certificate, but I didn't have a certificate. I just had reps, and reps is actually what gives you the most amount of authority and credibility because you just did the work.

Speaker 0:

So you don't need to be an expert and I am 100%, not special 100% and the reality is I'm not actually an expert in production. I never did any course. I never went to university for production. I don't even know which wires to use. I literally, literally just hit record and because of that, I put in those reps that allowed me to improve. People in the industry probably don't even like that, probably wanting me to do some sort of four-year degree in this. All the equipment you see, all the lights you see, just comes from putting in that reps. And I'm not special. I had no idea about this. It doesn't even matter, because all of the tools you can use these days allows you to accelerate so fast, right, to move faster than you've ever thought before was even possible. So when I started in 2020, it is 10 times, 10 times easier to get moving, have high quality production, have an amazing podcast and get proper results for your show and for your business today.

Speaker 0:

So I know you guys want action and you want to be able to know exactly what to do next and it's quite simple To get going with your content business. You need to have a very specific niche. Think real deep. Instead of thinking business, think marketing Instead of thinking marketing, think SEO Instead of thinking SEO. Think SEO for real estate agents. Instead of thinking SEO for real estate agents, think of SEO for real estate agents in Connecticut. You want to go very, very detailed and once you have that dialed in, then think about the next process of recording two to three episodes with experts in your field, or solo episodes just like this and going very deep on solving your customer and listeners pain points.

Speaker 0:

Record these in silence, don't tell anyone about them. Record them initially and get a feel for it. Once that is complete, launch your first episode. Get the reps out there. If you don't want to tell your friends and family, don't Just release the episodes. Get them into the world and get some real feedback. The second you press publish. You will feel so much better.

Speaker 0:

I remember sitting on the edge of my bed in my apartment and I was trembling about the press launch because I was so afraid of what everyone would think about me that I was afraid of even doing it and I almost pulled out at the very last minute and by not pulling out, that was the best decision I ever made in my entire life. Remember, the biggest creators in the world that you follow religiously all started somewhere. They started with their first post, their first video, they got the reps out there and they got feedback from the market. That's all you got to do in the beginning. I've also broken down a free guide which goes into more detail on how you can use a podcast to generate more leads for your business, and you can follow the link down below to get that exact free guide. And remember you have to start first and edit second. Your voice is the ability for you to stand out in the market. Don't wait for the perfect time. Start today, and a year from now, your entire business and life could change.