Level Up in 2025: Systems, Truth, and Venture Building

TL;DR

To achieve massive goals in 2025, build a consistent daily system, avoid catastrophic risks, and surround yourself with a truth-seeking group that holds you accountable. The key is steady output, not burnout. #VentureStep #Entrepreneurship #GoalSetting

INTRODUCTION

As the year turns, it's natural to reflect on lessons learned and set ambitious goals for the future. It’s a time for honest assessment and strategic planning, looking at what worked, what didn't, and how to build a stronger foundation for the year ahead. This process isn't just about setting resolutions; it's about architecting the systems and mindset required to achieve them.

In this solo episode, Venture Step host Dalton Anderson pulls back the curtain on his personal and professional roadmap for 2025. He outlines his strategic thinking behind a potential move to New York City, his plans to scale the Venture Step podcast with more guests and higher production quality, and the exciting relaunch of his e-commerce company, Vibition, with a brand-new product.

This conversation goes beyond simple goal-setting, diving deep into the core principles that drive sustainable success. Dalton shares powerful lessons on the importance of creating a "steady hum" of output versus succumbing to burnout, the critical distinction between friends and "truth-seeking groups," and how ancient Stoic wisdom can provide a framework for navigating the inevitable challenges of entrepreneurship.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Build a system for a "steady hum" of output; avoid the burnout cycle of extreme highs and lows by focusing on consistent, daily execution.
• Your physical location matters; surrounding yourself with exceptional, ambitious people in cities like New York can accelerate your growth.
• Establish "truth-seeking groups" of trusted peers who provide honest, critical feedback, but recognize they are distinct from your broader social circles.
• Assume good intentions in others; most people aren't malicious, they just lack the full context of how their actions affect you.
• Your mind is the only space you truly control, so focus on regulating your reactions and perceptions rather than trying to control external events.

FULL CONVERSATION

Dalton: Welcome to VentureStep podcast where we discuss entrepreneurship, industry trends, and the occasional book review. ¹Like many podcasts you listen to this time of year, they typically have an episode on lessons learned, reflections, and important things to bring into the next year. ²We're no different here. ³This episode is going to touch on the future and what we want to do. ⁴We'll be talking about a potential move to New York City, the evolution of VentureStep, and Vibition, an e-commerce company that I used to run, and some lessons learned over the past year. ⁵⁵⁵⁵

Why New York City Is The Next Step

Dalton: New York City is a potential place for me to interact consistently with exceptional individuals. ⁶A running coach would say, if you want to run fast, you've got to run with fast people. ⁷If you want to get better, you've got to interact with better people. ⁸To consistently interact with people that are multitudes above you in capabilities, you have to go where people are concentrated. ⁹And that would be a place like San Francisco or New York City in America. ¹⁰

If you want to run fast, you got to run with fast people.

Dalton: These places are known to have people who dream big, have exceptional talent, and where even the best feel like they are imposters. ¹¹ That's what I want. I want to learn and see the positive and negative attributes of these people. ¹²I want to take what I want and discard what I don't want in myself that I can see externally. ¹³And there are some things that you just can't take out; it comes with the ride. ¹⁴So if you want to be exceptional, you're going to have certain personality traits you pick up, which is fine, but you need to recognize that those things come for the ride and monitor how they affect your personal life. ¹⁵

The Trap of Over-Competition in Daily Life

Dalton: A good example is when I was playing video games with my friends, I would just take it too seriously. ¹⁶I would want to do an analysis of what happened, what was the breakdown in communication, or what we could have done better. ¹⁷So next time we win every game. ¹⁸And that's fine if people want that kind of retrospective analysis, but sometimes we're just trying to play Xbox. ¹⁹There are times where they want to be competitive and those conversations are welcomed. ²⁰But then there are other times where we're just trying to relax, decompress, and socialize. ²¹It doesn't need to be a life and death situation. ²² Not every game has got to be this tooth-and-nail, crazed winning mentality. Just relax. ²³

Naval Ravikant on Why Your Twenties Location Matters

Dalton: The reason New York City or San Francisco was on my mind is there was a quote I read from Naval Ravikant. ²⁴He's a legendary angel founder, an early investor in Uber, Airbnb, all sorts of places. ²⁵He was an early employee at Twitter and at Google and is very insightful and someone that I look up to. ²⁶Not only was he successful, but he's also balanced and believes in stoicism and philosophy. ²⁷

Dalton: There's a quote where he's giving advice to people in their twenties, and he points out that where you live in your twenties is one of your most important decisions. ²⁸If you want to accomplish what I'm trying to do, you need to find a place where the dreamers are and interact with those people and see what they're seeing. ²⁹I believe that potentially is New York City, but I will do an Airbnb and see how I like it. ³⁰If I do move, I'll move to Manhattan. ³¹

What Truly Defines a City?

Dalton: New York City would give me a better social life where I could play pickup volleyball anywhere or go play futsal on top of a building overlooking the skyline. ³²Where I live now, in Florida, it's a beautiful place, but it doesn't have any massive cities. ³³I would really only count cities where you don't necessarily need to have a car. ³⁴If you need a car to drive everywhere, is it really walkable and interactive? ³⁵Like if you went to Tokyo or Seoul, or Mexico City, you don't need a car. ³⁶If you're going to live in a city and pay for the expenses, then you should be able to operate independently without private motor. ³⁷Maybe my hypothesis is completely false, and I'm willing to admit that after I go trial New York City. ³⁸

It's okay to be wrong. Being wrong is one step closer to being right.

The Future of VentureStep: More Guests, Better Quality

Dalton: This is where we're going with VentureStep. ³⁹One thing that is important to acknowledge is my lack of guests on the show. ⁴⁰People have requested to come on the show, and I have just not scheduled things. ⁴¹It hasn't been a priority, and it's unacceptable. ⁴²I'm making a commitment to have a guest on the podcast once a month. ⁴³I am committing to 12 guests a year. ⁴⁴These people are normally very busy, and I myself am busy, so getting schedules put together takes work. ⁴⁵

Upgrading the Podcast Setup

Dalton: Another thing I would like to do is upgrade my setup. ⁴⁶I've got this atrocious camera angle where it's looking down on me from the ceiling, and it's just not a good look. ⁴⁷I'd rather it be eye level. ⁴⁸The lighting is harsh because there's a skylight right above me, and the camera is a webcam, not a legitimate camera. ⁴⁹Upgrading the setup is something I would like to do—the lighting, the camera, and the camera angle. ⁵⁰The first thing I want to do is upgrade the lighting, but lighting is expensive and space-dependent. ⁵¹It changes how the light interacts with the camera, which affects how I appear. ⁵²

Scaling VentureStep on YouTube and X

Dalton: Another thing I would like to learn is how to scale VentureStep on two platforms. ⁵³I have identified YouTube and X as places where it would be good to scale. ⁵⁴ That's not to say that the podcast isn't good to scale; I would like to scale the actual distribution of the podcast as well. ⁵⁵But as far as social media platforms, those are the two places I've identified where the users that would be interested in my content would live. ⁵⁶

Relaunching Vibition: The 2025 Product Launch

Dalton: The next thing I want to talk about is Vibition. ⁵⁷Vibition is an e-commerce company that I used to run with my partner, Lisa. ⁵⁸I feel finally that I've got a handle on VentureStep, and it's easier for me to create an episode. ⁵⁹I've improved the process, automated quite a few things, and what used to take 10-plus hours now takes maybe 30 minutes, excluding research. ⁶⁰I use a custom Google gym that I built that makes the podcast outline for me. ⁶¹Now that I've got a handle on VentureStep, I want to start adding more to my system, and that would include Vibition. ⁶²I will be launching a product in 2025, 100%. ⁶³

Dalton: This isn't some kind of drop shipping. ⁶⁴I am legitimately going to be designing a product with my partner and we are going to figure out what would be the best marketplace to offer this product, either on Amazon or Shopify and our own private brand, or Walmart. ⁶⁵We're finding the place, executing the plan, and putting something together that is profitable. ⁶⁶That's the goal. ⁶⁷When available, I will be sharing some of the progress—not the product, but what I'm doing and the things I'm working on to add a little flavor to the podcast. ⁶⁸

The Core Mission of VentureStep

Dalton: If you listen to the first episode, it discussed the purpose of VentureStep. ⁶⁹The purpose of VentureStep is to show you what it takes. ⁷⁰A lot of times history records the winners and the losers, but not the people in between. ⁷¹To become a doctor isn't an overnight process; it takes 10-plus years. ⁷²People just see, "She's a doctor, makes all this money, has a nice house," and their life is amazing. ⁷³But no one really discusses all of the work that was put in. ⁷⁴That's what VentureStep is supposed to be. ⁷⁵It's supposed to show you, the viewer, that you can accomplish your goals if you steadily work towards them, and what it takes, what you have to sacrifice, and what works and what doesn't. ⁷⁶

The purpose of Venture Step is to show you what it takes.

The Power of a System: Creating a "Steady Hum"

Dalton: A lesson learned is the power of a system. ⁷⁷Putting together a system where there aren't highs and lows. ⁷⁸There's no peaks, there's no troughs. ⁷⁹There's just a subtle hum. ⁸⁰A steady output of work. ⁸¹There is no burnout, no peak of inspiration, no trough of depression. ⁸²There's just a steady hum, and you just hum along. ⁸³That means putting together a system where you execute day in and day out. ⁸⁴

There's no peaks, there's no troughs. There's just a subtle hum. And that hum is a subtle output.

How to Structure Your Day for Maximum Output

Dalton: What I learned from my dad was he would identify the previous day what he needed to do for the following day. ⁸⁵He would identify maybe three or four things. ⁸⁶As long as he would execute on those things, then he was good, and the rest of the day, he could just relax. ⁸⁷That's the same thing that I do. ⁸⁸I will identify points I need to execute on the previous day for the following day, and once I accomplish those things, my day is pretty much over. ⁸⁹It will greatly reduce the amount of perceived stress you have because not everything is important. ⁹⁰Just figure out what needs to get done for the next day and what you would be happy with, and don't overload yourself. ⁹¹This will allow you to have a steady hum to your output towards your goals. ⁹²If you haven't been working out that much, don't focus on a three-hour workout. ⁹³If you wanted to do 15 or 20 minutes, just get started. ⁹⁴

Getting started is getting 85% there.

Dalton: When I made the commitment to the VentureStep podcast, I committed to 10 minutes a week. ⁹⁵If you look at all the episodes I've been outputting, they are more than 10 minutes. ⁹⁶The average episode time is probably around 38 minutes. ⁹⁷

Avoid Catastrophic Events at All Costs

Dalton: Once you have a system, avoid catastrophic events. ⁹⁸Don't do stupid things and don't put yourself at elevated risk of bankruptcy, getting fired, or getting physically harmed. ⁹⁹If you have a steady output of effort over sporadic bursts and you avoid catastrophic events, I assure you that you will be successful. ¹⁰⁰

The Critical Role of Truth-Seeking Groups

Dalton: The truth-seeking groups piece is from Annie Duke and her book Thinking in Bets. ¹⁰¹Truth-seeking groups are important to hold yourself and others accountable. ¹⁰²It's a group with individuals who may have similar goals and will hold you accountable for what you're trying to do. ¹⁰³But the confusion is when you try to blur the lines between truth-seeking groups and friends. ¹⁰⁴Truth-seeking groups can also be your friend, but your friends are not all part of that group. ¹⁰⁵Confusing that will cause issues with your relationships. ¹⁰⁶Identifying the differences is important if you want to have consistent relationships. ¹⁰⁷

Stoic Wisdom: Your Mind Is Your Only True Space

Dalton: The next thing is from The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. ¹⁰⁸Your only personal space that you truly have is your mind. ¹⁰⁹That's it. ¹¹⁰The only space that's truly yours is the one in your head. ¹¹¹That controls how you reflect on your actions, how you might take situations, and how you might feel about them. ¹¹²Your mind is how you interact with the world and the only place that you have true ownership of. ¹¹³It is important to control your thoughts and your reactions, but still be expressive. ¹¹⁴It's not about hiding your emotions, it's about regulating them. ¹¹⁵

Your only personal space that you truly have is your mind. That's it.

Assume Good Intentions, Not Malice

Dalton: Also from The Daily Stoic and Meditations was the idea that not everyone is out for you. ¹¹⁶The world is a positive place; most of the negativity is elevated towards you and the positivity goes unseen. ¹¹⁷Many people just don't know the bigger picture. ¹¹⁸They don't have ill intentions; they're not being malicious, they just didn't realize that what they're doing affects you. ¹¹⁹

You're not the center of the universe. No one is trying to be nefarious towards you.

Dalton: Taking that approach of "maybe they didn't know" will greatly improve your personal and professional life. ^120120120120Avoid defensiveness and seek understanding. ¹²¹When you do that, you're assuming good intentions and trying to understand their perspective while giving them the perspective they may be missing. ¹²²You level-set with them, understand where they're coming from, and then you illustrate how those actions affect you. ¹²³Doing so, you can correct the behavior, and people will respect and remember that. ¹²⁴

Dalton: I hope in this episode, you felt that it was concise, valuable, and insightful. ¹²⁵And I hope that we keep growing together in the new year. ¹²⁶I'd love to hear what you have planned for 2025. ¹²⁷I really appreciate your support and viewership, and I can't wait for you to listen in next week. ¹²⁸

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• Naval Ravikant
• Uber
• Airbnb
• Twitter
• Google
• Vibition
• City Skylines 2
• Annie Duke
• Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke
• Ryan Holiday
• The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday
• Marcus Aurelius
• Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

INDEX OF CONCEPTS

Dalton Anderson, New York City, San Francisco, Naval Ravikant, Uber, Airbnb, Twitter, Google, stoicism, VentureStep, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcast, Vibition, Lisa, Google Gemini, Notion, City Skylines 2, Annie Duke, Thinking in Bets, truth-seeking groups, Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic, Marcus Aurelius, Meditations