The $600K Shift: From Overworked Consultant to Purpose-Driven Powerhouse with Nicky Billou

Freddy D: 00:02:24

Hey super fans. Superstar Freddie D. Here.

In this episode 118, we're joined by Nikki Belew, self proclaimed world's greatest podcast guest and a true powerhouse in a world of entrepreneurship and thought leadership.

With over 770 guest experiences, 11 published books, including two New York Times bestsellers and two top ranking podcasts, Nikki brings unstoppable energy and real world expertise to every conversation.

He's the founder of E Circle Academy where he helps coaches, consultants and service based business entrepreneurs scale to seven and nine figures by becoming trusted thought leaders. He is also a former 58 pound weight loss success story, a business strategist and a guide for leaders looking to make a bigger impact.

A proud Christian immigrant from the Middle East, Nikki values freedom, faith and the power of human connection. He believes business isn't a numbers game, it's a people's game and he's here to help you win it.

Get ready for an episode packed with energy, heart and high impact strategies. Let's dive in. Welcome Nikki to the Business Superfans podcast show. So great to have you here today. Looking forward to our conversation.

Let's start back at the beginning. What's the backstory? What led you to what you're doing today with the coaches you're working with?

Nicky Billou: 00:04:02

That's a great question, Freddie. First of all, thanks for having me on the show. It's an honor to be here. Let me tell you my backstory.

I'm originally an immigrant from the Middle East. I'm a Christian from Iran. When I was 11 years old, the Islamic revolution took place in Iran and there were gun battles in the streets.

My mom and dad took a look around and said, this is not a place to raise a Christian family. So they sat down, they made a plan and eventually they got us out of Iran and eventually they settled us. Where I now live in Toronto, Canada.

Now at the time I was a kid, right, I didn't want to leave my home. I didn't want to leave my friends. But as time went on, I could see the awesome nobility of my parents sacrifice. Think about it.

They left behind everyone and everything they knew for the chance at a better life. My two brothers and I started to appreciate the incredible gift that they had given us. They took us from a legacy of tyranny to a legacy of freedom.

I believe, Freddie. Inside every human breast beats the living heart of freedom.

Every man, every woman on this planet yearns to be free, to chart their own course, to march to the tune of their own drummer. And if you're an entrepreneur, freedom is everything to you.

Without freedom, you don't have free expression, you don't have free thought to be able to conceive of the vision that you have for your business. And without that, there's no free enterprise. And without free enterprise, you got to lick a tyrant's boot just to get some crumbs to live.

I know a lot of entrepreneurs in Canada and the United States and in Western Europe that go, nikki, I don't want to get into all that political stuff. I'm not into politics. And like, I understand that used to be me. But whether you're into politics or not, politics is into you.

You need to support those that support the free enterprise system. You need to be a champion for freedom, you need to speak for freedom.

Because if you don't, the voices of tyranny, the voices of oppression are going to get the upper hand and take all that away from us. And I do what I do because I want to strengthen the entrepreneur. I believe entrepreneurs are society's great heroes, right?

Because they've got a vision, they've got a dream. And by going after that vision, by going after that dream, they move the human race forward.

Nicky Billou: 00:06:42

Absolutely.

Nicky Billou: 00:06:43

People, they love what they do, they're great at what they do. They got expertise of what they do. But there's two things that are holding them that, number one, they're a little scared.

Their self belief sometimes wobbles, right? They're like, do I have what it takes? Imposter syndrome and all of that.

And secondly, business skills like selling and marketing, that's not their thing. They're a little nervous about selling.

They don't want to be seen as one of those pushy salespeople reeking of commission breath when they walk in the room. And I gotta tell you, me, I come from a business family. My father is the greatest man I've ever known. He was an entrepreneur.

He, he understood business and that's what he taught me. He taught me how to sell, he taught me how to market. But he taught me how to be a human being first.

And he said to me, son, life is about people, son, business is about people. And I went, dad, but what are you talking about people? It's about money. I thought you got to have money to do business.

He said, no, son, you do have to have money to do business, but you have to have people before you need money to do business. What's business? It's solving problems for people, for a profit. You solve acute problems for amazing people at an awesome prophet.

And that is the Awe inspiring purpose of business. And he said to me, son, every man, every woman on this planet needs someone to love them, someone to believe in them.

That man sitting in front of you, he's someone's son, he's someone's father, he's someone's brother, someone's husband, He's a hero to somebody, maybe someone just like you. Let him down in life, let him down in business. It's your job to restore his faith in humanity.

It's your job to show him that goodness and beauty and love still exist in this world. And it's your job to help him win. Whether he's your customer, whether he's paying you or not, that's your job. This is what led me to do what I do.

I'm my father's son. I got a lot of skills. I've written lots of books, two of them New York Times bestsellers. My podcast is globally renowned.

I've been a guest on over 750 shows. They call me the world's greatest podcast guest.

There's a lot of things that are interesting, but the thing that I'm most proud of is I'm Napoleon Billow's son and I believe in people.

Freddy D: 00:08:55

through Checkpoint Charlie in: 1978

So a buddy of mine and I, we flew into Germany, rented a German car to go into East Germany and American passport and then into Poland, full on Communism back then.

I want to word it as an experience that made me really realize that the freedoms that people take for granted and that is something that people really need to understanding that it can disappear pretty quickly if you don't pay attention to what's going on. I completely appreciate what you said because I've seen it.

My aunt and my cousin got up at 4 o' clock in the morning to go stand in line so they could get some food because my dad was over, I was there. And more importantly, I had a guest with me, a buddy of mine, and they wanted to make a good impression.

And what we got was potatoes, some kielbasa and some bread and that was it.

Nicky Billou: 00:10:13

Yeah, that's life in a tyrannical country.

And here in Canada, in the United States, unfortunately, some people have forgotten those lessons of history and they're calling them socialists and they're trying to destroy the beautiful free market system that has created all this healthy, beautiful, gorgeous abundance for us. There's idiots that say, hey, let's leave 75% of oil and gas in the ground. Are you out of your mind?

Without oil and gas, 90% of humanity will be dead in six months. Six months. 90% of every human being on the planet. Energy makes the world go around.

Energy allows us to live, to breathe, to have food, to have water, to have all the things that make our lives the incredible, amazing experiences that they are. The average pauper in the United States today lives better than the kings of antiquity. Think about this.

This is all because of the free enterprise and free market system. And I got to tell you, for me, I speak about this all the time.

o speak about this is back in: 2022

ed to conquer England back in: 1066

No sir, I talk about politics. My politics, my belief in freedom is infused in my business. And if you don't believe in freedom the way I believe, I won't do business with you.

I'll have nothing to do with the people that believe in socialism and communism and wokeism. Those people are the enemies of humanity as far as I'm concerned.

Freddy D: 00:12:24

Well, let's get get into a little bit about what it is E Circle Academy is all about.

Because I read that you were helping entrepreneurs like you mentioned really level up their game and get themselves out of their own way so that they can make some serious contributions to the people that they're working with and make some revenue at the same time.

Nicky Billou: 00:12:45

Couple.

Freddy D: 00:12:45

So how did that get started?

Nicky Billou: 00:12:46

Let me tell you a couple of stories because I think stories express powerful points.

Freddy D: 00:12:51

Sure.

Nicky Billou: 00:12:52

So I had a client approach me about seven years ago. His name was Carl Kramer. At the time he was 57 years old. Now Carl was an incredible man.

He used to be an executive vice president for a large manufacturing concern in the province of Ontario where I live and he did really well. He made about $350,000 a year, and he was really good at it, but he burned himself out. He was working 60 hours a week, and so he quit.

He decided to go become an executive business coach. And he loved it, and it was great. His working hours got cut down about 30 hours a week. He was a lot happier.

There's only one thing he didn't like about it. His income took a big haircut. From 350,000 a year to 70,000 a year. That's a big haircut. He heard about me through.

He was a member of a group called BNI. I don't know if you're familiar with BNI.

Freddy D: 00:13:50

Yeah, I know Dr. Ivan Meis.

Nicky Billou: 00:13:51

He's a personal friend of mine as well. So, okay, there you go. We got some mutual friends. Ivan's a friend. He's actually been on my podcast, I think three times.

And he's actually spoken for E Circle three times as well. So he's really a good dude. So this fellow was a member of a BNI group here in Toronto.

And the members of that group was a personal trainer who was in his late 20s who was making money hand over fist. His name was Dan. He was one of our clients and is looking at Dan. And Dan's a nice man, okay? He's a good man.

He's the kind of dude that you'd want to date your daughter. You just go, sweetheart, stop dating those losers. Go on a date with Dan. I think you'll be happy. I'll be happy. He was that kind of dude.

But Dan was, as a personal trainer, making seven figures a year because of the work we did with him. Carl was watching this guy and going, listen, I've got two university degrees. I graduated near the top of my class.

They made me executive vice president. I'm making 70 grand a year. Dan's making a million dollars a year. What's wrong with this picture? So he goes to Dan, how you doing it? I don't get it.

He said, no offense. I go to Dan. You're on. No offense. You're not the sharpest tool in the shed. You're a great guy and all, but how you doing? And laughed.

And he said, listen, I got this coach named Nikki Ballou. He's got this program. It's called East Circle Academy. You should give him a call. So Carl calls me and goes, hey, Dan told me about you.

I'm in this BNI group, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I sat with him and I said, okay, tell me all about what's going on with you. And he said, well, I love what I do. I'm an executive business coach.

Here's my backstory. All I want to do is I don't want to work a lot harder, but I want to make the same kind of money I used to make. Do you think you can help me do that?

And I said, I don't know. I think so. Let's find out. So we decided to work together anyways within the first kind of couple of sessions we had together.

I work, by the way, with my better half, Teresa. She's a former coach for Tony Robbins. She did over 12,000 hours of coaching with him.

She's also a three time Guinness World Record holder for running 12 hours on a treadmill. Greatest distance on a treadmill. Wow. She's, she's. I call her the girly David Goggins. Right.

Because she's all feminine and girly, but she likes to do these extreme races like Goggins does. Teresa and I do a lot of work with Carl and he comes to our group sessions and he comes to our events that we do for clients.

And one of the first questions I asked him, I said, carl, so tell me, who's your ideal client? And he said, nikki, I don't have an ideal client. I can work with anybody to solve any business problem.

I'm an executive vice president, don't you know? And I said, carl, that's your first problem. He said, why? I said, you're trying to be all things to all people. That's not going to work. Not at all.

No, sir. He said, what should I do? I said, we're going to take you through an exercise. So here's what we did. We took him through this exercise.

Okay, this exercise is pretty wild. It's called the Ideal Client exercise. So I'm actually going to see if I can find it over here and show it to you if I can.

He said, what's the ideal client exercise? I said, okay, the first thing I want you to do. So I'll period 77. All right, very good. Very close.

First thing I want you to do is I want you to make a list. I'm trying to make three lists. You said three lists and we have three lists. So can you see this, Freddie?

Freddy D: 00:17:17

Yep.

Nicky Billou: 00:17:18

So I did a draw this Venn diagram here. Like I drew it for him. I said, I want you to make a list of the clients you got the best results for.

Then I want you to make a list of all the clients you enjoyed working the Most for. So, right, these are the clients that you really love. And then I want you to make a list of the clients who were the easiest to do business with.

Right? Paid you in full upfront, no fuss, no muss, no, you know what I mean? Gave you lots of referrals and how to make these lists. And I said, okay, great.

Next thing I want you to do is I want you to call the names that were on all three lists. He said, oh, it's pretty clever. It's a pretty good idea. So I said, what do they all have in common? They were almost all men. So that was number one.

They were almost all at least 45 years old. That was number two. And the majority, although not all, were attorneys, lawyers, but they weren't like partners in a firm.

They were solopreneur lawyers. Like, no partners at all. And they were all successful. They made half a million to about a million million, two a year each.

Now, what they all had in common is they wanted to double, triple, five fold the size of their practice. You know what I mean? They want to make a lot more money, man. These were driven dudes, right?

So once Carl figured all that out, the next thing we had to look out for him was his pricing model. So he was pricing based on what he thought he could get away with, because competition, you don't want to charge too much and lose business.

And I went to him, I said, carl, so you're telling me you're going to double, triple, quadruple people's businesses? Tenfold people's businesses, which he'd done. But you're going to charge like a little sheep scared, right?

And he's like, well, when you put it that way. I said, no, you can't charge like that crap. You need to charge based on the value, the lifetime value of the solution you're offering people.

So if you help Lawyer X go from a half a million a year to a million a year, that's just doubling their income. He'd done way better than that. What was the benefit to the client? He said, half a million a year over five years. What's that benefit?

$2.5 million extra over five years. I go, okay, that's the value of what you offered. And you want to charge how much? Thousand dollars a month. I'm like, no, no, no.

I said, your minimum fee is 25,000. You get paid up front, in full. That's how it goes. And then there's bonus fee structures based on hitting certain targets.

He was freaking out when I told him this at first, okay, Freddie, like I'm talking. He was, no one's getting panace. What are you talking about? I go, carl, the only reason you believe this.

And your listener ought to write this down, okay, the only reason you believe this is either you have no faith in yourself and your solution, which we got to help you fix, right? Or your solution sucks. So which is it? He said, okay, my solution doesn't suck. I said, all right, so you don't have faith in your solution.

You don't think it's good enough. He goes, I guess that must be it. So we worked with him to build that internal belief. So, Freddy, you got to understand that took a while.

Didn't happen overnight. It.

Freddy D: 00:20:37

Cuz you got to learn sales skills if that's something you've never done.

Nicky Billou: 00:20:39

No, he. He knew how to sell. He just didn't believe in himself. He'd never been an entrepreneur. He didn't think people would pay it for him. But. Yeah. Huh.

Freddy D: 00:20:46

Interesting.

Nicky Billou: 00:20:46

Yeah. No, he knew how to sell. The selling wasn't a problem. He'd been like a vice president of sales. So it wasn't a problem selling.

The problem was believing it was worth it. He could sell $1,000 a month programs, right? But he got seven. Seven clients, and that was it. That was as high as it went.

When he raised his fee to $25,000 upfront in full, he got two of those a month, six months in a row. To a month. Six months in a row. Think about complete.

Freddy D: 00:21:12

Changed his whole dynamics.

Nicky Billou: 00:21:14

So if you do the math, that's 50 grand a month, and that equals 600,000 a year. Remember he used to make 350,000 a year as an executive vice president.

Freddy D: 00:21:23

Right.

Nicky Billou: 00:21:24

He worked five hours less a week because of the way we told him to deliver his program. So he was working about 25 hours a week. 30 was like if he was really busy. And then Carl just said, I wonder if I could do a hundred thousand a month.

I said, I don't know. I think he could. So he did it. He was selling four of these a month. He did it for two months.

And then he realized that he was working a lot harder to sell for. He was like 45, 50 hours a week. And he said, I don't want to work that hard. I'll go back to two a month.

So Carl started making more money and working less, and he was completely fulfilled in what he did. His confidence in himself just went through the roof. Now, unfortunately, this story has a bittersweet ending.

And he died in the summer of: 2022

And there's people that come to me and go, oh, my God, that's terrible. And it is terrible.

Freddy D: 00:22:22

I'm gonna jump in here and say that not one. He had an incredible ride towards the end.

Second of all, he was your super fan because you transformed his life to where he was doing something he wanted to do, happy to do, but now he was doing it in a much more efficient way, much more rewarding way. And that's how you create super fans.

Nicky Billou: 00:22:47

I couldn't have said it better myself. At the end of the day, Carl Kramer went to meet his maker, having lived a life of fulfillment those last few years of his life.

And for me, I'm a businessman, I'm a capitalist, I believe in making money. But nothing gives me more joy than having helped a man or a woman meet their full potential in life.

Freddy D: 00:23:15

Because at the end, you're creating super fans.

You're creating super fans is really, at the end of the day, you're transforming people into super fans of what you do because you've transformed their life to where they can operate at their full potential. And when you're doing that, having been in sales for decades, the greatest reward is when you actually help a business.

When I was selling manufacturing technology for years, the greatest reward was seeing that business grow.

Nicky Billou: 00:23:47

Yes.

Freddy D: 00:23:47

And expand. And bought another building and then bought another building. They were my super fans. I didn't do prospecting.

They all know each other, and I was working in the tool and die industry. They all belong to groups and everything else. They would say, oh, man, you got to talk to Freddie over here. He'll hook you up with some cool stuff.

And the sales cycle was collapsed because of that. Because I was just order taking at the point, because I had somebody that basically said, you need to deal with this guy and he'll do good by you.

And people just call up and says, jack says, I need to get it. How much? How fast can you get it in here? That was it.

Nicky Billou: 00:24:27

Brilliantly, brilliantly put.

Freddy D: 00:24:28

So totally appreciate what you're doing. So let's talk a little bit more about what is the academy all about. You gave one example, and I have another saying.

That is to be terrific, you need to be specific. And if you're specific, you'll be terrific.

Nicky Billou: 00:24:42

That's a good saying. I like it to be terrific, you need to be specific. And if you're specific, you'll be terrific.

Freddy D: 00:24:47

And if you're specific.

Nicky Billou: 00:24:48

You'll be terrific. That's a good little stanza for a poem. I like it.

Freddy D: 00:24:53

They came up with that from being in BNI because people will go in there and they'd say, okay, I got a skin product, and anybody that's got skin is an ideal customer. I don't know anybody. And then if they go, oh, this is good for Rosacea. Oh, yeah, Aunt Lucille could use this stuff. Whole different conversation.

So you're absolutely spot on.

Nicky Billou: 00:25:13

So, you know what E Circle Academy primarily does is we work with folks who are coaches, consultants, speakers, authors. Basically, they make a living with their expertise, as it were.

And they usually either don't have a big team or maybe they got like an assistant or two or a marketing person working with them. They're making somewhere between 75,000 and half a million dollars a year in income, and they really want more. They want to do better.

They want to help more people. They want to make more money, more income.

And most important for them is they want to go to their maker just like Carl, having fulfilled their destiny, they want to have lived their purpose. That's really important for these folks. And what I've discovered is really, people need a few things.

Number one is success requires you to have someone to see your greatness when you're not seeing your own greatness. And Freddie, people in the coaching space really are seekers and helpers. But here's the truth.

And many of them may not like hearing this, but they'll recognize the truth of it is they have massive levels of imposter syndrome. Not about their love for people or ability to help people, but about their worthiness and business sense.

So we're really keen on helping people know that there's someone who gives a good gosh darn.

Like, my biggest pet peeve in life, in business, was these charlatan marketers, right, that would go in and scoop up business and they wouldn't care whether they delivered or not.

And the good person who really cared and wanted to deliver properly wouldn't get the business because they were too scared to go up and properly sell. They don't want to be seen as pushy.

So what I did, first of all in the mindset, work with people, is I said to them, stop looking at it as sales, okay? I love sales. You love sales. We're both sales guys. But for these people, that word has a pejorative meaning. So I said, look at it as service.

Reframe it. You got to reframe sales to service.

If you look at it as service, you're serving this person, you're providing love for this person, then it won't bother you. And the problem with sales is a lot of these people, the focus is on them. I hope they like me. I hope they do business with me.

The focus should be on the potential customer. Right? God, thank you for bringing them to me.

And if it is your will that I be of service, if it is your will that this person is in my path because what they are faced with is what I'm good at solving, then let it be. That's your focus. Rather than I hope they like me, I hope they buy from me. People will feel it. People will feel it.

If your focus is on I hope they like me, believe me, they won't know what's wrong, but they'll feel something's wrong and they won't do business with you.

Freddy D: 00:28:13

I talk about that a lot because the energy comes across and it comes across in the telephone call. It comes across in the words you use in an email. You can't hide it.

And the other thing I want to re emphasize that you talk about is one of my quotes that I wrote in my book is people will crawl through broken glass for appreciation, recognition. And what you're doing with some of these coaches is you're recognizing them for the achievements that they're doing.

Because having a w it's not fun celebrating it by yourself. Because you don't celebrate it. You just go, okay, I got another deal.

It's much more fun to have other people get excited by you having a big sale or landing a big account or multitude different things. So I completely want to just re emphasize that for the listeners is like you're talking about if somebody's concerned about people liking them.

It's not about that. That's not the conversation. The conversation is how can you help that person achieve their goals? And that's your job.

Nicky Billou: 00:29:20

Yeah. So a lot of the folks who come in to see us need someone to believe in them, someone to love on them. And that is a big part of what we do.

es the way people do sales in: 2025

And sales in: 2025

And it also requires that you understand how to stay in control of the call, how to handle objections properly. Really important. And we teach people those skills in some of our programs. We've got a program that's a sales accountability program.

It's 12 weeks long, we call it 90k in 90 days. And that's a big part of what we do, is we help these folks.

And additionally we're really all about teaching people how to stand out, how to be seen as the go to authority, the thought leader in their space. And we've got a program about this. So I showed you this.

This is one of the modules we use in a 170 page kind of manual that this is what we take people through in a three day program on thought leadership where we take the progress. You make decades worth of progress in just three days. And it's incredible.

We show people how to use what is innately inside them and commercialize it. And then we have an ongoing year long mastermind and accountability program based on this that we take our coaches and consultants through.

And then I finally have a wonderful two day workshop on thought leadership in podcast guesting. Because a lot of people don't know how to go on a podcast and generate lead sales and clients. And I do. I'm a master at that.

I've been a guest on 750 shows. I've generated just under a half a million dollars in sales part time, two to five hours a week.

And I've taught tons of people how to do it, including shy people, including people whose English isn't their first language right, including people who don't know how to sell.

I've shown them how to go on a podcast, build a powerful personal brand as a result, build a powerful relationship with the host and while the audience and turn it into money. So those are the things each Circle Academy does. And there's a new thing we're doing right now.

We've teamed up with a Hollywood on camera acting coach to show business people how to deliver their content in Oscar worthy ways. So most people that are doing video content, they're just not that good at it, you know what I mean? It doesn't come across.

Freddy D: 00:32:04

Oh yeah, that's one of my challenges. I'll be transparent here. It's one of my challenges. I can talk with somebody like you via video, no problem.

But talking to yourself at the screen, well then that's a whole nother game.

Nicky Billou: 00:32:16

Then we should talk offline because we're going to be putting a course out. We just tested it out with 10 of our clients and they were wowed by it.

We're going to be putting a Course out in Toronto give you an excuse to fly to Toronto. It's pleasant here in the summer. Probably more pleasant than Arizona at 110 degrees in Arizona and only 78 degrees in Toronto.

Freddy D: 00:32:34

Well, started recording. I mentioned that I've been to Toronto many times.

Nicky Billou: 00:32:37

You have. It's a good time for you to come back for a visit. But that program, this guy will work with you to show you how it is that you're coming across.

And he's lovingly brutal with you. You know what I'm saying? Lovingly brutal with you. He's gonna listen. I'm a professional at this. I do this like I speak on stage, I'm on podcasts.

This is my jam, right? It's my superpower. And he got me up there and he said, you're pretty good. He's right. And that's how you get better.

And then all of our clients that were there, he did the same with them. And they came to me when the event was over and they love our events. We do a great job at our events.

They're powerful, they're amazing, they're intimate. Like we, we don't have like cast of thousands there, we're talking tens of people there, right?

That's the way we like to do between like 10, 12, 15, 20, 30, 40, 50 people. This way. Everyone gets very individualized attention from myself. But they said this was the most powerful thing they'd done. They want more of it.

And as I bring this up to people, everyone I'm talking to go, I'd be down for that. I'd want to do that. So we're putting something together. There's a one day plus a two day vip. And the one day everyone's going to learn from him.

He'll work with a few people on stage. The VIP is when you sign up to have one on one time with him.

We're going to help you get your brand identity sorted out because there's an exercise around creating that using brand archetypes that we created. It's an assessment type tool, disc profiles and things like that. This is the business brand voice profile, to put it another way.

And then we'll help you put together a script for a video. And then you're going to go and work with Chris Healy, who's the on camera coach.

And he's going to work with you to help you get it right and to be magical when you go and create this and what you've learned, you're going to be able to use ongoing. So that's the sort of thing that we do for people. It's amazing. It's awesome. I absolutely love it.

I get excited by working with people that are interested in learning and growing, man. Because I'm one of those guys. I want to learn, I want to grow. I just spoke at an event, but I sat in the audience too. This one dude sold from stage.

I learned something from him that I'm going to use next time that'll triple my sales. He was amazing. I'm looking at you. When he's done, I'm going, that was a masterclass. And he said, thanks. What part of it?

And I told him, I said, you told more stories and you had less content. I tell some stories, but it's heavily content driven my talk. I'm going to cut it in half. The content in half and add the stories and emphasize them.

Freddy D: 00:35:08

Stories is what stories is.

Nicky Billou: 00:35:10

What sells is what sells.

Freddy D: 00:35:11

And you bring up.

Nicky Billou: 00:35:12

Let me finish that talk. What I learned, because you want to hear the whole thing, then share your thing after that. So he goes, okay, yeah, that's good.

And then I said, here's the other thing you did. And Freddie, this was what was genius, okay? Like, I'm like, why didn't I not think of this? Because this guy did.

He brought on people and said, I'm doing this course. And it was at a no brainer price. It was like $37 for a three day course on how to sell on stage. Okay. It was a no brainer price.

He said, if you want to sign up, come up here, get a free book, and then you're going to go up here, someone's going to take a video of you. I want you to say why you want to do this course. There was a lineup of 10 people.

After the first 10 people said why they want to do the course, the lineup grew to 90 people. Dude, he sold 90 people by getting them to come up. And they sold everybody else. He didn't sell them, they did the selling for him.

I'm like, oh my God, Genius. I'm gonna do that next time. Freddy, high five me through the cloud, man, because that's.

Freddy D: 00:36:14

That is awesome.

I was at a Tony Robbins event actually in Utah in Salt Lake City, and Jerry Robert was talking about writing a book and said, First 100 people get the free class.

I was one of the first 100 people to get the class and I had to go back to Salt Lake City because it was done there and it was three day workshop and that positioned me to eventually write my own book. So I learned a lot. But the other thing I want to go back to is with the training that you were talking about, the getting somewhere in camera.

I used to be an engineer back in the late 70s and when I got in the computer industry, my first role was as an applications guy, which was installing software and training people how to use it. And then years later, the company was looking for salespeople and I got picked and I went through some very high end sales training for six months.

One of the things that they did was they actually videotaped us doing a presentation and then went through and played the video in front of all the other people that was in the class and everybody in a nice way pointed out things that you had done better and everything else. I still have the video. It's on the vhs. Don't have a VHS player, but I still have it.

Of my first actual official speaking gig as a presentation and I've done public speaking and stuff in the past. You just made me remember that whole process. So I just wanted to share that.

Nicky Billou: 00:37:37

That's awesome, man. That's awesome. Yeah. It's important for people to understand that can be yours at the highest level you've ever dreamed of.

But it can only be yours if there's three things, really four that you absolutely embrace. First, you have to make a decision. You got to be decisive and say, this is, I'm doing it, no turning back.

You're not a tire kicker, man, you're a buyer. You know what I'm saying? Number one, you got to decide, that's what you want. Secondly, you got to commit to the process.

You and I were talking right now about being great on camera. That's a part of the process, right? People that will look in the mirror and go, I'm not great on camera right now. I suck on camera.

I'm going to be amazing on camera. You got to commit to the process. You got to go, you know what? I'm a good coach, but I'm not a good coach. But business. I suck at the coach business.

I'm going to be a great coach. Business. So you got to commit. Because when you commit, you first have to admit you're not good.

Because that means over time, if you keep at it, you'll go from not being good to being average, to being good to being great to being the master. That's important. So commit, decide, commit. Secondly, thirdly, you got to hire coaches, man, and you got to be coachable.

a fitness trainer back in the: 2000

And the first thing that he said to me was, hey, Nikki, you're. You're doing some good things for me, but let me teach you something. I go, okay, teach me, man.

Robin, man, you're global thought leader, sure, teach me something. He said, you want to double your income this year? I want to double my income.

He said, triple your investment in personal and professional development. I go, what? He said, better coaches, paying more money.

Join better masterminds, paying more money, go to better conferences, paying more money, do better courses, pay more money. Read and buy the books. Buy the books and read the books. He said, if this year you spend 5,000, next year, spend 15,000 next year.

If this year you spent 10,000, next year you spent 30,000. And I said, I swallowed hard and I said, okay, Robin, I'm going to do it now. I was not doing that well in my business at that time. I was doing okay.

You know what I'm saying? I'd had two kids. My wife wasn't working all of that. I tripled my investment in personal professional development. I over doubled my income.

So you got to do that. Coachability is super, super important. If people here are listening to this and they go, I don't want to invest money.

I want to do it as cheaply as possible, you're an idiot. You are not going to succeed. You're the most important asset in your business. You, by far the most important asset.

Every year, you should be working on making you better. Every year, you should be pouring more into yourself, more people.

Freddy D: 00:40:30

Look at a sports team. You've got coaches for every position and every nuance.

Nicky Billou: 00:40:35

Every nuance. You got guys who will show you how to run better. You got guys if you're a football team, you got guys who will show you how to evade getting tackled.

You got guys on the show, you want to get tackled.

Freddy D: 00:40:46

Every sports team has got coaches. That's the bottom line. It doesn't matter what the sport is. They all have coaches. And same thing with the most successful businesses.

The CEOs got a coach to at least brainstorm with. Because talking to yourself doesn't get too far.

Nicky Billou: 00:41:01

It doesn't get too far at all.

And then finally, man, you got to be resourceful because there's people that are going to sit here and go, okay, I'll do it, but I don't have any money. I don't know how am I going to make it work. So I'm going to tell you a story, right, about myself. This was over a dozen years ago.

My then wife, actually 16 years ago, seemingly out of the blue, decided she didn't want to be married to me anymore, right? I got kicked out of the house, sleeping on my mother's couch. Now, maybe I should have seen it coming, but I totally did not see it coming.

And my business spiraled. I was making no money sleeping on my mom's couch, relying on her charity basically to live. Couldn't see my kids, nothing.

I was feeling sorry for myself. A friend of mine took pity on me and he bought me a ticket to an important conference. Said, put on your suit, we're going.

I see this man, his name's Bill, he's delivering a speech, and man, it spoke to my soul. You ever been in the room and had a speech speak to your soul? That spoke to my soul.

Soon as the speech was over, I like elbowed people out of the way to be first in line to go shake the speaker's hands. And I said, hey, Bill, my name is Nikki Ballou. Let me tell you my story. And I did.

And then I looked at him and I said, okay, Bill, I think I should fire you. I was very nervous, right? He looks at me and I think he could tell what kind of state I was in.

He said, listen, that's cool, but you ought to know a couple things before you make that decision. He said, first of all, my minimum program is $5,000. I got programs from 5,000 to $50,000. That's the minimum.

It gets you five hours of one on one coaching time with me. I don't offer a guarantee and I don't promise you anything except that you'll get my best. And I require payment upfront and in full before we start.

And I'm like looking at him going in my brain, all I heard was $5,000, right? $5,000. I'm like, I'm broke, I'm sleeping on my mother's couch, $5,000, oh my God, $5,000 right now. That's a joke to me, right?

But back then it was like, my God, that was like all the money in the world. And I told him, I said, I don't have that kind of money.

I guess he took pity on me some more and he said, okay, listen, I tell you what, I'm just give you some free coaching right now just to help you out. I said, free coaching? Man, absolutely. Please give it to me. Anything. He said, it doesn't matter how much money you have, Nicky.

And so I interrupted him. I said, what do you mean, man? Right? That you just said you want $5,000. Like, really defensive, right? Come on.

Of course it matters how much money I have. And you looked at me. He said, nikki, look at that lineup. There's 20, 30 people lining up. They all want to work with me, and I got dozens of clients.

I said, I don't need your business, but you need me. Or at least you need someone like me. I said, okay. He's right. Keep going. So it doesn't matter how much money you have.

What matters is how bad do you want change. I'm like, huh? He said, listen, you just told me your wife has kicked you out of the house. You're sleeping on your mother's couch.

You haven't been able to see your sons in weeks. How much longer do you want to put up with this? A day? A week? A month? A year?

Every time period that he hit at me caused me to, like, clench inside more and more, and then a lifetime. And that's when I went, whoa. I said, bill, tell you what, let's make an appointment for me to come see in your office in a couple of days.

He said, okay. I was on fire with purpose for the first time in a long time.

I called a couple of men who I'd been talking to about coaching them in health and fitness, who had said, neither yes nor no. You know what I mean? You ever been with customers that say.

Freddy D: 00:45:07

Yes, we have the proverbial no decision.

Nicky Billou: 00:45:10

Yeah, no decision. Exactly. I call them up and they go, yeah, Nikki, what is it? And I said, I got good news and I got bad news.

They said, I guess you better give me the bad news first. Okay. The bad news is you're fat and you need to lose weight.

And now, because if you don't, you're going to have a significant health event in your future. Do you see this? And both men said reluctantly, yeah, I do see this. So I said, are you ready to do something about this?

I said, here comes the good news. The good news is that I'm broke and I need money to be allowed to see my sons by the court system.

So I'm going to give you the deal of a lifetime, half price. They go, okay. I said, but here's the catch. They said, what's the catch? I said, I need a yes or no now. Now. And if it's a yes, I need the money now.

And the offer ends at the end of this call. You'll never get this good an offer from me ever again. They both said, sure. They gave me $1,000 each. You gotta get.

This was the first money I'd made in a year. So I'm ecstatic. I'm jumping for joy. So I go see Bill. I got money. Energy's rocking. I'm like, bill, here you go.

at's great. You're short, not: 2000

But just for a moment, I looked at him, I said, bill, let me ask you, how many times have you told this story to people that you told me the other day? He said, over the years, 30 or 40. I go, wow, that's a lot. I said, besides me, who else ever came back to you with any money?

That was an inspired question. Because the answer was, you're the first.

Freddy D: 00:47:19

Nobody. You're the first.

Nicky Billou: 00:47:20

I said, I am the first. He said, the first. The very first. And I said, bill, take my money. Bring out a contract.

I'm going to sign it to say that I'll pay you the balance within 30, 60 days, whatever the case may be. Because Bill. And I looked him right in the eye with a lot of intensity and I said, I want change. Bill agreed.

I signed the contract, and within six months, I made six figures. Less than six months, filing a bit. And I.

Freddy D: 00:48:01

So you're a super fan of Bill.

Nicky Billou: 00:48:03

I paid him off early. Oh, yeah. Super fan of Bills. But I'll tell you this. When people come to me and they say to me, I don't have money, I'm this, I'm that.

I tell him this story and I ask him this question. Wherever you are in life or in business right now, how bad do you want change?

Because if the answer is not bad enough, then don't worry about it, you won't get it. But if the answer is I want change bad, you got a chance.

Freddy D: 00:48:41

Excellent advice. Excellent advice, Nikki. As we get close to the end here, how can people find you Nikki Ballou?

Nicky Billou: 00:48:50

My name is the only Nikki Ballou in the world. So if you go on any social media platform and you type in N I, C, K, Y, B, I, L, L, O, U, you found me.

However, if you are a leader or you aspire to be one, you should be a reader. Do you agree with this, Freddie? Leaders are readers. Leaders should read books.

Freddy D: 00:49:10

I have a whole closet full of books. And I always tell people that in a week's time, you can get 20 years of life experience.

Nicky Billou: 00:49:17

This is my office. So I've written 11 books, two New York Times bestsellers. If you're a reader, go on Amazon, type in Nikki Ballou, pick up a couple of my books, read.

It'll be good for you. And I'm, if I may say so, I'm a brilliant writer. I write in an engaging style and my content's great. It's going to give you value that you need.

And then finally, if you're like, I'm one of those guys who wants change bad than me, book time on my calendar@ecircleacademy.com appointment that'll get you a 45 minute free consultation with me, no strings attached. I'm not a slimy sales guy who's going to use that call to like, oh my God, pummel you and try to get you to do something you don't want to do.

But I will have an honest.

Freddy D: 00:50:09

That's a very generous offer about why.

Nicky Billou: 00:50:12

You want change bad and what stopped you from having it. Thank you very much. But that's what I'm offering you. Listener.

Freddy D: 00:50:19

That's a very nice offer. Very generous offer. We'll make sure that's in the show notes.

Nicky Billou: 00:50:23

Thank you.

Freddy D: 00:50:24

And Nikki, it's been a pleasure having you on the Business Superfans podcast. Great conversation, great insight.

Nicky Billou: 00:50:29

Thank you.

Freddy D: 00:50:30

And we definitely would like to have you on the show down the road.

Nicky Billou: 00:50:32

I'd love to come back.

Freddy D: 00:50:33

All right, thank you. Before we wrap, here's your quick debrief. Every conversation focuses on a single pillar of the superfans framework.

Nine road tested steps that turn a spark of possibility into unstoppable scalable prosperity. The nine pillars S start strategic positioning and purpose. You unite stakeholder synergy. P Propel magnetic messaging.

E Elevate every stakeholder experience R Rally referrals and reputation S Foster financial fitness. A automate for exponential leverage N Nurture lifetime loyalty S Scale and sustain prosperity. Each episode concludes with a superfans success spark.

A practical guest driven action distilled from today's conversation that you can implement within 24 hours. Follow the nine episode cycle. Apply every spark and you'll build a proven playbook for turning stakeholders into and to loyal superfans.

Accelerating referrals, reputation and revenue. So here's this episode's superfans success spark r Rally referrals and reputation. So here's a top insight.

That person sitting in front of you, they're somebody's hero. Maybe someone just like you. Let them down. It's your job to restore their faith. Nikki Ballou. So here's your action step to do in the next 24 hours.

Reach out to one past client you haven't spoken to in a while. No pitch, Just a message to remind them they matter and to ask how they're doing. That's how reputations are built.