The Synergy of Professional Success and Personal Development with Nicky Billou

Tim Melanson: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to today’s episode of the work at home rock star podcast.

Excited for today’s episode. We’re talking to a business owner of East Circle Academy. And what he does is he helps people to add six to eight figures to their business income. Sounds good to me. Uh, we’re rocking out today with Nikki Balu. Hey, Nikki, ready to rock?

Nicky Billou: Hey, Tim. Glad to be here. Blessed and grateful.

Tim Melanson: Awesome. So we always start off here in a good note. So tell me a story of success in your

Nicky Billou: business that we can be inspired by. Oh, wow. That’s fantastic. Okay. So Tim, a few years back, uh, in my hometown of Toronto, I was introduced to a man. He was an older man at the time. His name’s Carl Kramer.

Unfortunately, he’s passed away from cancer since then, but he was 57 years old. When we met, he had been an executive vice president at a large manufacturing concern in Ontario, but he was burnt out. Didn’t want to do it anymore and wanted to strike out in a brave new world of business coaching. And he loved it, except for [00:01:00] one thing, it’s income fell 80%.

You didn’t love that part. Didn’t love that part at all, but he knew he was in a B and I don’t know if you’re familiar with B and I business. I am. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, the founder, um, Ivan Meisner, he’s a, he’s a buddy of mine. He’s good, man. So he met one of our clients in his BNR and this client of ours was a personal fitness trainer who had, uh, when Carl initially met him was broker than broke.

And then all of a sudden was making a million dollars a year as a personal fitness trainer. And as you know, fitness trainers all make a million dollars a year, right? Not so. And this young man, um, you know, God bless him. He’s a good man, but he’s not the sharpest tool in the shed. And I’ve told him this to his face, so I’m not telling you anything that I haven’t told him.

And Carl was very sharp dude and said, how the hell are you making so much money, man? And he said, well, I got this coach. You know, I go, Oh yeah. Who’s your coach? He said, his name is Nikki Bella. He [00:02:00] says, can you give me his number? He says, yeah, I’ll give you his number. So he gave me, gave this dude my number and I got a call from Carl.

And Carl said, hi, Nikki, um, my name’s Carl Kramer. I’m a friend of Dan Misker’s and, uh, I, I’ve, I’ve heard about all the good work you’ve done for Dan. And I’m wondering if you and I could talk absolutely what I can talk. So anyways, he said he met with us and he decided to start working with us. And we have a number of programs we offer people.

This one program is called the branded thought leader immersion workshop. It’s a three day intensive, immersive workshop. Where we show people how to really dial in their message so they can be seen as a thought leader as an authority in their space, develop IP, you know, go after clients in a powerful way.

Uh, own their values to charge what they’re worth because most people under charge. Anyways, long story short, it’s called coming with us. He’s seen all this. He’s like, Oh my God, I love it. I’ll sign up for your year long program. You sign up for a year long mastermind, big investment, right? [00:03:00] So he goes, okay, Nikki.

What’s the first thing I need to do? And I said, Carl, well, from what you’re telling me, your business coach, who do you help? And he’s like, well, I, I can help anybody with any business problem. I’m like, that’s the first reason you’re failing. You’re trying to be all things to all people. It took us a while, but we helped him narrow his focus.

And there was a bunch of false starts. So I don’t want you to think this happened in a single conversation and a call. Cause it didn’t, it took a while, but we finally narrowed him down to, he was really excited about helping people grow. Cause that’s what he was good at from his career. Like, you know, as an executive vice president, he was a dude who’d help them grow their businesses.

And he wanted to work with lawyers, solo practitioner, law firms, a million dollars in revenue under 2 million in his pitch was I’ll triple your income in three years or less. Good pitch, right? Triple your income in three years plus. You’re making a million dollars a year, you’ll make three million, right?[00:04:00]

Anyways, we helped him get his focus to lawyers. We helped him get his focus to growth rather than I could solve any business problem for anybody. We helped him own his value because he was massively undercharging. He made 350, 000 a year as an executive vice president when he left. He was making maybe 60, 70, 000 a year as a business coach within six months, we had him up to 500, 000.

He got so excited for a while. He was on a run rate for a million two, but then he told us, I don’t want to work that hard. I’m going to jump back down to 500, 000 a year. That’s, that’s, that’s a good amount of money for me. And I can work only 15, 20 hours a week. And that’s how long I want to work. So that was, that was a powerful success story.

What really made it happen for Carl. Is he was hungry. He wanted it. He took the coaching and we brought something good to him, but I just want to share this one thing with you. Um, I think what we really do for [00:05:00] everybody better than almost anybody is believe in people. Because I believe every human being needs someone to believe in them, someone to look him in the eye and say, I see you, I see your greatness.

And yeah, I know at this moment, maybe you’re wobbling in your own belief in yourself, but I believe in you and I’m going to provide that spark of belief until your own spark catches and turns into a roaring inferno of belief. And when we did that for Carl, he was good. He never ever again doubted himself.

His income was permanently at a half a million dollars a year plus, and life became wonderful for Carl. Unfortunately, he passed away. He got cancer. So it wasn’t a long period of time that he got to enjoy that. And that makes us sad, but I’m really grateful that we were able to sit down. With this man, for the time that we were able to sit down with him and make a positive difference in his life.

And he was a good man. And we believe that in him and that belief helped him get to the next level in his life. And [00:06:00] I think everybody needs that. So if you ask me what makes Nikki blue special, what makes my team special? I’m not that special, but I love people. And I believe in them and I pour into them and I don’t give up on them.

Wow.

Tim Melanson: That is a really, really great story. Wow. And I, I agree with you too. Most people are undercharging and um, and one of the other things that you said that I think is really powerful is that he, he actually stepped back from that monetary goal and focused a little bit more on a, on a lifestyle goal, which is totally valid, right?

I mean, why are we working ourselves to the bone? You know, you, you said that he ended up passing not long after. I mean, imagine if he had just worked himself to the bone right till the end. You know, this way he got a chance to kind of step back a little bit and enjoy his life.

Nicky Billou: He did. He did. God bless him.

He’s a great man. So, the next thing

Tim Melanson: we normally talk about is the bad notes. We kind of went through a little bit of one there. Um, but I’m wondering Maybe more on the business side of it, you know, are there any,

Nicky Billou: you know, sometimes [00:07:00] things don’t go as planned, right? And there

Tim Melanson: are things that, uh, that don’t pan out the way that you want it to, maybe some plans that fall through, maybe some real mistakes that you make.

Is there something that you’ve made on your business journey that didn’t turn out well, and how do we avoid it or

Nicky Billou: recover from it? You know, that’s a fantastic question. The flip side of believing in people is believing in the wrong people. There’s people out there that you shouldn’t work with. You know, the biggest trick the devil played on humanity was to convince them that he didn’t exist because evil exists in the world.

Bad people exist in the world. I mean, we live in Canada, you and I, which is the greatest, safest. Country on earth, but we live in a bit of a bubble. We don’t see the evil that’s out there in the world. And even here, there’s people that don’t always have the greatest intentions and we get on clients. And I, I took on a client, uh, who was introduced to me by somebody and I wanted to be helpful.

And I always try to look for the good in people. I’m [00:08:00] not, and I don’t try. I look for the good in people and I find it and there is good in everyone, but there’s also some people Some nastiness in some people. And I work with my beautiful better half. Her name is Teresa. She is the light of my life. And she’s so amazing.

She’s a three time Guinness world record holder for running 12 hours on a treadmill. She was a coach for Anthony Robbins for eight years. She’s done over 12, 000 hours of coaching. So her 10, 000 hours. Plus 2000. She’s a rockstar. Incredible. I signed this person on and Teresa usually does a welcome call with them and onboarding and call.

And she saw it. Didn’t she? She had a call with this person. And then I said, how’d it go with so and so and I’m not going to mention the individual’s name. And she just was really quiet. She’s saying, I said, no, go on, tell me what she said. She was so rude to me. She was so nasty. And I’m like, what? She told me the whole story of what happened.

And she was. Rude and nasty and not nice. And so I called this person up and I said, Hey, I just talked to Teresa and she said that you spoke this way to her. Is this true? [00:09:00] And she at first tried to obfuscate why and deny. And, but I just, I barreled in and I said, is this true? Did you say this? He says, well, you know, I said, Teresa is my wife to be.

You insult her. You insult me. And she is my partner in this business. And if she’s not happy with you, you don’t get to stay. And I said, I’m going to refund your money. And I refunded her 10, 000 on the spot. And I said, I wish you well, it was a salutary and powerful lesson. And it’s one that I didn’t immediately learn even then, but I have learned it now.

There’s some people that are selfish that’ll, that’ll try and suck you dry. They don’t care. They just want what they want for themselves. These are nasty people and you shouldn’t work with them. And uh, I know that sometimes maybe you feel like you need the money and I get that. [00:10:00] I’ve been there and I’ve made that decision, but honestly, you’re better off in the long run to avoid those people because you will get money and so much more from good people that you ought to be working with.

For us right now, what we do, what we’ve learned from this is. If we’re not feeling 1000 percent great about the people, we’re done with them. It’s that simple. Yeah, that is

Tim Melanson: super powerful. Uh, I mean, I think that what you said there about needing the money to, especially when you’re getting started, man, it is very difficult to refund somebody.

But, I mean, like you said, I mean, that, that could have been, well, it would have, it would have been bad. I mean, if that’s how it started, imagine how it would have progressed right through time. And, you know, I’ve noticed that even if, even if they’re not, you know, nasty, nasty people, if there’s like

Nicky Billou: this

Tim Melanson: gut feeling that it’s, it’s just weird, then I think in the best case scenario, they’re going to [00:11:00] scope creep you, they’re going to try to, you know, get your time, you know, take more of your free time than, than they paid for.

There’s lots of things that they could do that’s not necessarily nasty, but it is. You know, it does seem to be that, you know, it’s not just me, my experience, but there’s been many of the guests on the podcast as well, that every time that they talk about a partner or some sort of client that things went really bad, they always say, I had a good feeling.

Isn’t that interesting, right? That we always have

Nicky Billou: that gut feeling. Yeah. If you’re a good person, you should look for the good in people, but that doesn’t mean everybody gets to come into your world and into your circle.

Tim Melanson: Right on. Okay. So let’s talk a little bit about practicing and getting good at what you do, honing your craft.

What are the, what are the things that you do to stay, to stay sharp?

Nicky Billou: You know, that’s a really great question as well. I think everybody needs to understand [00:12:00] that this is not a one and done game. Right. Life is not a one and done game. My father was the greatest man I’ve ever known. He would always say to me, son, life is about people.

He said, even business is about people, not money. I’m like, dad, what are you talking about? Business of course is about money. You need money to do business. I go, yeah. He said, yeah. Yeah. But without people, there’s no need for money. You solve problems for people, then you make a profit. That’s how business works.

That’s the purpose of business. Imagine a Venn diagram, problems, people profit, and where all three intersect is the purpose of business. And in order to really, really hone your craft, you got to really hone opening your heart. A lot of people think business, man, no, no, no, you got to put that shit aside. No, man.

Yeah. No, you lead from that shit, from your heart. Practice opening your heart, being good, being a kind [00:13:00] human being. And honestly, it’s not hard if you’re naturally wired that way anyways, but just do it in business. Say hello to somebody, you know, try to make their day easier, whether or not they end up giving you money, who cares?

It’s the number one thing. The number two thing is look after yourself. You need to look after yourself. I think the science is settled that taking care of yourself is critical to having a great life and a great business. When you are healthy, energetic, vibrant, strong, your business will thrive. So honing your craft means honing your body.

Do you exercise daily? Do you, do you read books that are good and positive and touch you at a soul level? Do you listen to music? You’re a musician. I’m sure you appreciate this. I think every human being should have some songs that move them, move them to their core that they listen to again and again and again and again, that they get [00:14:00] up with two in the morning and they, they move their body to and they lip sync to, or they just sing out loud to that is part of honing your craft.

You know, and then on a day in, day out basis, and this, we teach this inside thought leadership, man, create new, useful intellectual property. They call it content these days, but content could be crap. I’m talking about intellectual property, things that actually move your space forward. You’re in the world of bands.

If you sat down right now and I made you spent two hours and said, Tim, could you write down a hundred things that you know to be true and give me like complete sentences with good grammar and punctuation, a hundred statements. You do it. And once you read them, you’d go, shit, this is good. This is everybody should know this.

And then you’d go. Most people have no clue about this. And then [00:15:00] I’d tell you, Tim, you know, you got these hundreds of statements. Whoops. Oh man, Tim. I did this again. I, I, I kicked the, uh, I kicked right out of the plug. So hold on a second. Put it back on. All right, here we go. I’d say, okay, Tim, now’s the time to expand on these statements, turn them into, you know, full fledged IP snapshots.

So I’d have you go expand on the statements. I’d have you give me some case studies. I’d have you give me a literature review. I’d have you give me like a, a visual model, a diagram, a metaphor. I’d have you ask a bunch of questions around each of those IP snapshots. And then all of a sudden, brother, you do 20 of those, brother.

You’ve got yourself a licensable program, a licensable program. So practicing developing your IP is good. Read every fricking day, man. Read. Books. Don’t just watch damn videos. Read. Books. So I read in a [00:16:00] whole variety of genres. There’s people. No, no, no. You should only read self help books. Bullshit. Bullshit.

Your soul needs more than that. So I read fiction. I read novels. I read poetry. I think it’s important to do that. Anybody who doesn’t do that is missing out on a richness that their soul is craving. So read books. Okay. Read biographies. Good and the great. You know, I’m reading biographies. Of the three allied leaders in world war two right now, it’s called the allies, like, uh, Churchill, Stalin, and, uh, Roosevelt.

And wow, fascinating reading about Stalin is telling me so much about what’s going on in our own country of Canada right now. I’m going, Oh yeah, these guys are just hiding that they’re Bolshevik revolutionaries. I got it, man. That’s pretty wild. They’re doing the same thing. Those dudes did back in the day.

They lie. [00:17:00] They obfuscate all that jazz. I’m like, Oh man, this is. Brilliant. You read history. It’ll inform you of what’s going on in the world around you. So you can actually intelligently defend yourself and your rights and defend your country and what’s gone, you know, yesterday in Canada, thankfully, the federal court said that a federal court said.

That Justin Trudeau’s illegal, uh, actions, seizing the accounts of the supporters of the freedom uh, convoy were unconstitutional. I’m like, how the fuck, praise God, praise Jesus. That’s what we needed to see. And, but what’s informing me is I understand Justin Trudeau. Now, Justin Trudeau is a crypto. He just hit it from everybody really, really nicely.

And you learn these things when you read, read good fiction, man. I love thrillers. I love not historical novels, dude, that kind of stuff. It, it, it opens up your soul to learning, to [00:18:00] creativity. It’s so beautiful. That’s part of honing your. Now, if you’re a business, you better be enrolling in marketing every single day.

You better be creating marketing information. You better be having enrollment conversations with people. That’s how you do business. You need to be good at it. One on one. You need to be good at it. One to many. If you’re in business, that’s what you need to do. I’m all over that. Like last week I had, uh, our event, our three day branded thought leader immersion workshop.

You know, we had a bunch of people in there and we had some enrollments. It was fantastic. It was fantastic. The enrollments were about 80, 000 us dollars. You know, three day event, like you got to understand that everybody needs to create plans to, to be good at enrollment. And you’re not going to get good at enrollment.

If you start saying stupid stuff to yourself is like, well, I don’t like to sell. I’m sorry. Are you in business? If you’re in business, shut the fuck up and never say that [00:19:00] again. Cause selling is love. Selling is an act of love. Selling service, reframe the word from sales to service, but you have to sell.

You have to ask people to work with you. You have to say, would you like to get started? And you have to say Visa or MasterCard. You have to say these things and you have to practice saying them until it’s natural, easy, elegant. Now, does that mean you should be one of these? Pushy charlatans who just pushes his way into a self.

Hell no, no, never do that. You’re going to piss people off. You come at somebody like me, I’ll punch you in the mouth over that, right? Still got to get really good at figuring out who needs your help and asking them if they want to take you up on your help. That’s what I hone when I, when I’m having a conversation, podcast like this, man, I’ve done 600 guest appearances in the last 18 months, 600.

You figure I’m holding my craft. You figure I know how Oh, yeah. On a, on on, on a [00:20:00] podcast. Damn straight. I, dude, I call myself the world’s greatest podcast guest, and the reason I’m the world’s greatest podcast guest is because I go on so many shows and I practice and I think about what I said, oh, I could have done that differently.

Let me, let me switch this around. That’s what you gotta do, my

Tim Melanson: man.

Anik Malenfant: Hi. My name is Annick Maloff. I’m from Mastering Ascension, and I’ve been working with Tim Melanson and the Creative Crew Agency for a number of years now. Tim is my go to guy for all things technology, and his team have helped me to really create the platform that I need that represents my brand, my message, and connects me directly to my ideal clients.

What I particularly love about Tim is before he starts to dive into the technology, he always makes sure that he understands what your global view is, what your ultimate goals are. So then that way you’re not wasting a lot of time back and forth switching around technology or platforms. He creates something from the get go that is scalable, which is highly, highly beneficial [00:21:00] for any business.

What I’ve experienced from Tim and his team is they’re highly responsive. They are a wealth of information, and they’re going to offer you the tools that you need to really make the mark that you want to make in the world. So that’s my recommendation for Tim. He’s awesome. You’re going to love every minute.

You won’t regret

Nicky Billou: it. So,

Tim Melanson: uh, there was so much gold in there, I don’t even know where to start. A couple things that I pick out is the, uh, the song. The song is hilarious, because I remember when I was in high school, we used to have this pump up song, like when we would go to, uh, before our football games. It is amazing how that same song retitle is Welcome to the Jungle by Guns N Roses.

I remember it and it just, it just pumped this right up, right? I think I’m going to add that to my podcast questions because, you know, what’s your pop up song? If you don’t have one, like, then you should because, you know, it is something that really does, music can move you. It can either make you depressed.

It [00:22:00] can make you excited. And, you know, a lot of times, You know, I’ve read some articles about how athletes will have like this routine that they do to get them like, it’s whatever it is, it’s like, I’m going to stretch this wing and stretch this way. And then, and then they go into their events, right. And that, you know, it pairs them right for it.

Uh, and then another thing that you mentioned is about writing down things that you know are true. I think what happens is that people don’t realize that. What they know is something that someone else might not know. I know I’ve fallen in this trap before where I’m like, well, everybody knows that, you know, you know, this thing that you’ve experienced in a year and you’re like, Oh, everybody knows I’m not, that doesn’t even, I’m not even going to write that down, right?

Nobody knows that very few people. Well, anybody who might be ahead of you on the journey might know that. Remember, we’re looking at what, you know, the, the numbers get smaller and smaller as you go up that ladder, right? So there’s a lot of people down here that don’t know that yet. [00:23:00] So it does, it is worth it for you to write that down and put it out there,

Nicky Billou: right?

I’m telling you something, Tim, we teach this in the work that we do around fault leadership. And you need to understand that the thought leader methodology we teach is also being taught in Australia by some other folks. The, here is the track record of people who use this methodology. Okay. Um, 50 percent of them add a half a million plus to their income, 51 out of two of the remaining 50%.

Okay. Three out of five of those add a quarter million to their income. Think about this from what you know, and I’ve got news for you. Okay. Um, I have had billionaire clients when I was a fitness coach because they knew a lot about how to make a billion dollars. They knew nothing about how to be healthy and fit.

And I did. So I coached a lot of these dudes to victory. One of the things [00:24:00] I have a course I teach called get booked and get paid. It’s about how to be a podcast guest on a show and make money because I’ve been on so many shows. I’ve developed the world’s only methodology for how to go on a show and get paid, not get visibility, but get paid.

So I’ve taught this course to people. I’ve taught this course to people who are multi billionaires. Multi billionaires there. And they’re like, damn, thanks for teaching me. This, this was awesome because there’s stuff people don’t know. And Tim, I don’t know you very well. We just met today for the first time.

I get a good vibe from you. The, I also get the vibe from you is that you’re a thoughtful, intelligent man. And if you learned about thought leader methodology and you said, you know what, I want to have a million dollars in your business. In three years old as we could get you there. No joke. Right. Um,

Tim Melanson: when you decided, so at the beginning of your journey of these podcasts, you said 600 podcasts and you know, 18 months, whatever it is, was that a goal that you set for yourself that I’m going to get on 600 podcasts or did it just [00:25:00] sort of happen?

Nicky Billou: No, the goal that I had for myself candidly was that I was going to go be a guest on people’s podcasts and. Find a way to make money from that. That’s the goal that I had. Now I wanted to go on a show on people’s shows because I wanted to expand my reach. I wanted to meet a lot of great people. And that was all important.

There’s three reasons that I directly say that I want to go on a show. Reason number one is I want to inspire the people that are in the audience, because I think in the last few years, the world has been a really crappy place. And there’s a lot of people that need inspiring voices. God has given me a number of gifts.

One of them is I am one. High energy, inspiring man, people listen to me, damn that dude, man, Nicky Gilliam and that I listened to him. I’m pumped. So I got to come on, ready to perform, right? And I’m ready to perform. So secondly, You are the host. You’ve taken time, you’ve taken energy, you’ve spent money to produce a podcast.

It’s a big risk for you to bring a guest on [00:26:00] ’cause they could screw up your reputation in a minute. I take that very seriously. I want you at the end of this episode to go, that dude is the best guest I’ve ever had. Period. Full stop. End of story. Oh my God, I have to have him back. He was awesome. I want you to look good and feel good about our interaction.

And then for me, your business owner, I work with business owners. I get to build a relationship with you over this conversation. You and I are going to get to know each other. We’re going to get to like each other. We’re going to get to trust each other to a certain degree. I do business. I don’t know about you with people.

I know I like, and I trust right out of these conversations that I’ve had these 600 shows. I generated 357, 000 in some change in income in 18 months. Why? Because me and the overwhelming majority of the folks that I’ve met have all had a good feeling about connecting to each other through this. So I’ve had, I have 600, I’ve expanded my [00:27:00] network by six years.

100 awesome business owners. Now, Tim, you can tell me how many people can say they’ve done that in 18 months.

Tim Melanson: Uh, not very many. And, and actually I’ve had quite a few people on the podcast that actually say that that’s their marketing strategy is to get on other people’s podcasts. And I haven’t had anybody have that many, right?

So, uh, you, you’re definitely taking it to another level. I’m wondering, uh, about, uh, about, like, Lurie, so now you’ve, you’ve mentioned Vox and you’ve mentioned lots of other things, but do you, do you actually hire coaches too? Like, do you have mentors that you look

Nicky Billou: to? Oh my God, do I ever. So let’s go, let’s go through Nike’s coaches.

So, um. I used to be a top fitness coach myself around 2011, 2012. I started to transition out of that world and I got into the world of being a, uh, a business coach and all author or speaker, writer and all that. So something transitioned in my mind. And I, because I wasn’t a fitness coach officially anymore, I [00:28:00] just took it easier with, you know, being strict on my diet and whatnot over a 11, 12 year period, bro, I gained.

Um, over 50 pounds. So I went from fit to fat last February, February 2nd, 2023, I took a look at myself in the mirror with my shirt off with my belly hanging over my, uh, my, uh, I belt disgusted and I made a decision. So the successful all have this in common. They make a decision that they’re going to share things.

Not it’d be nice. I’d like to know. I’m going to shift it. I made a decision and I also made a decision that I needed to hire a very good, effective coach because I was no longer a fitness coach. And part of what had had me gain all this weight is I kept lying to myself and saying, you know what to do.

You, you, you’ve been this top fitness coach for all these years. I’m like. Fuck you. You’re not a fitness coach no more. So I found hammer camera, hammer camera of hammer fitness. [00:29:00] And um, this dude has put thousands of people on stages. I saw pictures of people older than me. I was 55 at the time, fatter than me, who he put on bodybuilding stages, winning competitions.

So I called him and I said, hammer, I have two questions for you. One is, do you think you can help me? I’m 55. He goes, yeah, absolutely. And I said to his, how long do you think it’ll take? He said, well, the fastest it’s ever happened, uh, is, you know, for someone in your situation is about three months.

Normally it’s a six to nine months to a year process to lose that kind of weight. I said, that’s fine. I didn’t ask him what he charged for. I gave him my credit card and we got started. The price ended up being no, no big deal, but you understand decision and commitment, like decision and commitment. It was not about how much he was going to charge me.

I would have paid whatever he’d asked. I’m telling you straight up. I would have paid whatever he’d asked. I had a faith that he could do it. And that was important to me. In [00:30:00] six months, I lost 58 pounds. I went from 227 to 169. That’s the power of having a coach at 55, 56. I turned 56 in the process. How many 55, 56 year olds do you know who do that?

Not many, not many at all. And I’ll tell you something else. Hammer is a guy that I, I proclaim his virtues to everybody. I’ve had him on my podcast because he is one of the best in the world at what he does. And I, um, I tell everybody this, this dude brought me to where I am today. Now I’m a man who’s been married in the past and got divorced.

And so I’ve had a number of relationship coaches that I’ve worked with right now. I primarily work with a man named Steve Richmond of the relationship workout. The diggity. You know what I mean? I want to make sure my relationship with my lady is solid and strong and that I’m a good man in a relationship.

That’s very, very important to me. My coach [00:31:00] for my business is Mark von Muser of Soar and Roar. 111 Days to Greatness is a program he’s got on right now. Check it out. Go find Mark von Muser. M A R C V O N M U S S E R. This dude coaches me on my mindset, coaches me. He’s the fellow who helped me come up with Uh, you know, getting on shows and using them as a strategy to, to, to create a boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

So those are some incredible, powerful coaches. So why do I say, tell you about my coaches specifically? Well, these are good people. If you want to hire them, please go hire them. But I also am telling you this right now, that if you want to be successful, you need to have these four qualities. You need to be decisive.

You need to be committed, right? You need, you need to have a coach and a mentor. You need to invest in yourself. You’re the most important investment you can make. And the more you invest in yourself, the better and stronger you’re going to be. Robin Sharma said, if you ever want to double your income and given your [00:32:00] triple, your investment in personal and professional development, he was a fitness client of mine.

He’s absolutely right. And finally, you got to be resourceful. You’ve got to be resourceful. You’ve got to be someone who’s going to put the time, the energy and the money. Several years ago when my wife left me, I was blindsided. You know, blindsided, you know, she kicked me to the curb. I had to sleep on my mother’s couch.

I’d made no money for a good long period of time. And a friend of mine took pity on me and bought me a ticket to a business conference because I’d made no money. Saw this guy deliver a speech, man. It spoke to me. I was inspired. I was excited. I walked up to him, introduced myself. I said, I think I need to hire you.

And he said, okay, what you need to know, it’s going to cost you 5, 000 minimum for five hours of my time. I, I require payment upfront. I give no guarantees. I offer no refunds. You still want to hire me? I’m like, Whoa, I said, I don’t have 5, 000, right? And he says, I’ll give you some free coaching. I said, free coaching, give it to me.

I love it. He said, it doesn’t matter how much money you have. I’m like, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa. Do you [00:33:00] 5, 000 of my dollar? What do you mean? It doesn’t matter how much money I have. Of course it matters. And he goes, listen, kind of matters. He said, dude. I’ve got 20 people lined up to work with me ahead of you.

I don’t need your lousy five grand. I’ve got 250 grand that’s coming my way. You need me. Like, okay. He’s right. He said, it doesn’t matter how much money you have. What matters is how bad do you want to change? Like what do you mean? He said, well. You’re sleeping on your mother’s couch. Your wife kicked you to the curb.

You haven’t seen your sons. You’re unable to take care of your family financially. How much longer do you want to put up with the state of affairs? A day, a week, a month, a year, a lifetime? Whoa, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Give me a couple of days. I’ll come back. I made an appointment to see him in two days. I called a couple of guys who had said neither yes nor no to me.

I was a fitness coach back then. And I said, look, guys, we need to talk. They’re like, okay. I said, look, um, here’s the deal. [00:34:00] You are both really overweight. And you’re going to have a heart attack or stroke, or you’re going to get diabetes if you don’t do something about it. Yes. Yeah. And me, um, I’m going through a divorce.

I haven’t seen my kids and I, I will not be allowed to see my kids if I can’t provide for them. So I need, I need, I need some business money, but yeah. So here’s the deal. I’m going to give you a deal of a lifetime, half price. They go, Oh, I’m great. I go, Oh, there is a cat. So you go and they said, well, what’s the cat?

I said, yes or no now. And the price expires at the end of this conversation. Yes or no. And they both said, yes, and they gave me 1, 000 each. So I had 2, 000. I want to see this guy happy as a clown, gave him the two grand. And he said, thank you. But I said, five,

Tim Melanson: where’s the other three? And

Nicky Billou: I was, I was deflated because man, I was so excited that I got to do.

Right. And I said, listen, um, how many, how many people have you had this discussion that you’ve had with me? What pieces? Well, well, you [00:35:00] know. 30 or 40 over the years, I go, okay, over the years, 30 or 40 ago, that, that seems like a high number. I said, besides me, did anyone ever come back to you with any money?

He said, no, you’re the first. I’m like, okay, well, if I’m the very first, that’s got to say something to you. He goes, yeah, yeah, it does. I said, take my money. Let’s sign a contract. And I promise you, I will. Pay you the balance within 30, 60 days, whatever the case may be. He agreed. He agreed. He was impressed that I can go to, um, the rest is history.

I made over a hundred thousand dollars in less than six months. Uh, and I paid him back early and I’m, I’m one of his all time great success stories that he talks about. So, um, I say this to you and to the folks listening here. Yes, you need coaches and mentors, but you have to make a decision that you want to change your situation because it is no longer acceptable for you to be stuck in this [00:36:00] hell.

You’ve got to commit to do whatever it takes. And that means you’ve got to be willing to be bad at what you’re doing until you get, you know, mediocre until you get decent and then good and then great. And then third is you will invest to what it takes in a coach or a mentor or program. And fourth, uh, is, um, whatever you got to do to win, you will do.

My friend, it was the story of success. Love it.

Tim Melanson: Perfect. Segway into your guest solo. So tell me what’s exciting in your business right now.

Nicky Billou: Well, we are doing something I’m super excited about called mission 40. So I have a vision where. A billion people on this planet become millionaires right now.

There’s 46 million millionaires in the world. My vision is for a billion millionaires. Why? Because I have a vision of freedom. I believe the world is one where everyone wants to be free and deserves to be free [00:37:00] inside. Every human breast beats the living heart of freedom and for people to be free. Yes.

They got to have freedom of expression and all that freedom of speech, but they also need financial freedom and a million dollars. There’s always been this, this beguiling number that so many people in business want to make their first million and then beyond. And so billion millionaires, but my goal is mission 40.

I want 40 amazing people that we work with who are making, you know, mid six to seven to eight figures a year. Right now we’re, we’re on track. We’ve got to, we got, uh, 10 people in our basic program, which is called 90 K in 90 days, where we help people add an extra 90 K in 90 days to their, to their income.

We’ve got two people that we’ve signed on for a year long program. So we’re, we’re, we’re on our way to having this mission 40 happen. We’re looking for 40 amazing heart [00:38:00] driven people and we want to help make their businesses go from tragic to magic. I love that. So

Tim Melanson: who would be the best fit, I guess, for, for, for working with you?

Where are they sitting right now? I’d Well,

Nicky Billou: one is they’re good people, good humans. They want to do good in the world. They, that matters to them way more than the money. Sure. They want to make money. Everybody wants to make money. But they want to make an impact. They want to help people. They want to make a difference.

There’s a difference. Maybe they were born to make, and they want to really make that difference. You know what I mean? So that’s really important to us. We’re looking for those. It’s going to be a good fit into the community of great, amazing people that we have right now. But what they do typically is there.

There are people who use their wits, their brains, their expertise to, to, to make money, to help people. So these tend to be folks that are coaches, that are consultants, that are experts. You know, they could be running programs, you know, those types of folks. So we [00:39:00] got, like in our current community right now, we have a relationship coach for men.

We’ve got a lady who does med spas has a med spa academy. We got a guy who does, uh, regenerative landscaping. So he helps farmers and he helps folks who want to set up their own, their host house. Uh, you know, we’ve got a lady who does some spiritual coaching, man. Uh, these are, these are the types of folks that we want to deal with.

So, and, and we want to, it’s, it’s. It’s better for us and them if they have an existing business, but I mean, we work with a brand new person shore, but it’s tougher and harder. We are looking for someone who’s been in business for a little bit and maybe they haven’t hit their goals that they want to.

They’re not working with this many people. They’re not making as much money. You know, maybe they wanted to work with 50 or a hundred people like that mission. I got mission 40 in our group. We say, what’s your mission? Who’s your mission? 10, 20 mission, a hundred mission, a thousand. What’s your mission? And what’s, [00:40:00] what’s the dollar number you want to hit?

People that we’re able to really make a great difference for are usually under a million. And honestly, people that are kind of between, um, I don’t know, 60 K and 300 K. We’re really good at helping those people double, triple, fourfold, fivefold, tenfold. Okay. Cool. So what does the

Tim Melanson: process look like? I’m like, what do they do?

How do they get

Nicky Billou: started with you? Um, so there’s a couple of ways. One is they can just jump on what I call a success call. It’s kind of like a discovery call and, uh, you go to my website. It’s called the circle academy. com and there’s a forward slash appointment or a button you click on and you jump on my calendar.

And we also actually have this, um, get booked and get paid two day workshop. Which shows you how to go on podcasts and get paid and that you might just want to like sign up for that because that’s right now we’re offering that we kept the price the same [00:41:00] 2k it’s a, it’s, you know, it’s a, it’s, it’s, it’s a relatively low ticket price.

So folks can. Jump on and do that. So one of those two, they either jump on a phone call with me or they go to the landing page for the program and that’s how they do it. And if they want to check me out further, you know, they go, okay, I’m not ready to spend yet. And, you know, go to Spotify, type in Nicky Baloo.

You can find my, my show. You can find all the shows that I’ve been on. You know, you want to go on, uh, on Amazon. I got a book, 10 books that I’ve written. That’s not quite free, but it’s low cost. You can go pick one or two that you want to buy and do that. So if you need to do that first, go do that first.

But if you’re ready to roll, if you’re one of those action takers, that’s like, okay, damn it now, I don’t want to check you out. I like the, I’ve already checked you out. You were on the show. Boom. And get on my calendar or go to the landing page for get booked and get paid. Beautiful. Love it. This has been a lot of fun, Nicky.

Same, Tim. Enjoyed myself tremendously. Thank you.

Tim Melanson: Right on. And [00:42:00] so it was East Circle Academy,

Nicky Billou: you said? East Circle Academy. Uh, not.

Tim Melanson: com.

Nicky Billou: com, I imagine.

Tim Melanson: Sorry. Right on. Right on. Thank you so much for rocking out with me today. It’s been a lot of fun, Nicky. Thank you, Tim. Awesome. And make sure you subscribe, rate, and comment.

We’ll see you next time on the work at home. Rockstar podcast.

Nicky Billou: Thanks for listening to learn how you can become a work at home rockstar or become a better one. Head on over to work at home rockstar. com today.