Thought Leadership, Self Value and Entrepreneur Success with Nicky Billou

In this episode of 'A Magical Life,' host Magic Barclay is joined by Nicky Bilou, a bestselling author and renowned entrepreneur. Nicky shares his journey from immigrating from Iran to becoming a successful business advisor in Canada. With his father's inspiring legacy as an entrepreneur and philanthropist, Nicky emphasizes the importance of daily disciplines, the mindset of success, and the dedication required to excel in both health and business. He also discusses how authentic service and owning one's value are crucial for personal and professional growth. Nicky provides actionable tips for improving health, creating wealth, and handling life's challenges with resilience and resourcefulness. Tune in for an enlightening discussion on achieving holistic success.

Find Nicky's podcast at The Thought Leader Revolution Podcast or apply for a free conversation at Schedule an Appointment — eCircle Academy.

Transcript

Nicky Billou: 0:01

very simply, you know, if you want to have better health. You want to have the mindset of success and the mindset of success First of all means that you gotta have daily disciplines around health.

Magic Barclay: 0:54

Welcome back to A Magical Life. I'm your host, Magic Barclay. And today, Nicky Bilou, the millionaire maker, joins us. He is the number one international bestselling author of eight books, including Finish Line Thinking, How to Think, and How to Live. And win like a champion, the thought leaders journey, a fable of life, the power of connecting, how to activate profitable relationships by serving your network with Kai Bjorn and how to create a million. Dollar a year income, the priceless guide for insurance agents, professional salespeople, and anyone with a big dream with Perry Wong. He has read over 4, 000 books in genres from biography, history, fictional literature, self help, and more. Health and fitness, poetry, business, sales, spirituality, and religion. Nikki is an in demand and highly inspirational speaker to corporate audiences, such as RBC, Lululemon, Royal LePage, and Torstar Media. He is an advisor and confidant to some of the most successful and dynamic entrepreneurs in Canada. And he is the co founder of ecircleacademy. com, where he runs a year long mastermind and educational program working with coaches, consultants, corporate trainers, clinic owners, realtors, mortgage brokers, and other service based entrepreneurs, positioning them as authorities in their niche. Nicky's absolutely fabulous, but I just want to hear from him. Welcome.

Nicky Billou: 2:36

Thank you for having me on the show. It's a pleasure to be here.

Magic Barclay: 2:39

It's an absolute pleasure to have you here. My goodness, you've done so much and you've been in touch with some of the biggest thought leaders of the world. before we get on to our standard questions, I want to ask you, how did you get to where you are? Because some of the names and some of the things that you've done, uh, you know, really right up there.

Nicky Billou: 3:05

Thank you. Great question. I'm actually originally an immigrant to Canada from the Middle East. I'm a Christian from Iran. When I was a young boy, the Islamic revolution took place in Iran, and my late father, God rest his soul, he could see the writing on the wall that things were about to change and not for the better. And this wasn't going to be a great place for him to raise his family anymore. So what he decided to do was make a plan and get us out of Iran. And it took him a while to do all that. But eventually we settled where I now live in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. And at the time, you know, when we left, I was 13 and I was leaving all my friends. So I wasn't thrilled. I was actually quite sad. And unhappy about it all. But looking back, you know, from the vantage point of an adult, my God, my father did such an incredible thing. He changed the trajectory of our families. Future and I'm very grateful to him. Dad was a man who was an entrepreneur He was an uplifter of people If he knew you and you were looking for work, he'd help you find a job If you were looking to start a business, he'd help you start a business He'd even bring you to people that could advise you get your capital whatever you needed And if you were looking to buy a car or a house or an apartment, he didn't quite have enough money Dad would top you up so you could buy that car that house that apartment And you might think to yourself, wait a minute, who does that? Well, the late great napoleon baloo for one and Why would he do that? Well, first of all, he did it because he was a christian. He was quite devout He believed he'd been blessed by god and it was his duty to share those blessings with others But secondly, he did it because he could he was successful. He was an entrepreneur And so I wanted to be like that. I wanted to be an uplifter of people and eventually I Got into entrepreneurship and I got into the helping professions. I was all about serving people helping them, First I was in the health and wellness space helping them become healthier fitter And then secondly, I was in the space of helping people win in business, you know, grow their business, make more money, and all of that. And the reason I got into that is because, you know, I saw my dad, I saw how hard he worked and I saw how hard a lot of entrepreneurs work. You know, they're, I think they're society's greatest heroes, all innovation, all jobs, really all forward progress comes because an entrepreneur has a dream. And to me, serving those people. is How I Serve Society. And so what I saw was a lot of entrepreneurs were really good at what they did. Really good, but they weren't necessarily so great at business. They didn't understand, you know, marketing and sales. They didn't understand how to hire and fire. They didn't understand how to read financial statements and use them to plan their business. Success and move it forward. They didn't understand things like exit strategies and they just didn't get it. So, you know, I did get it because I came from a business background and I studied business in school. So I started to help folks to really become good at not just what they did, but good at being a businessman or businesswoman. And I worked with a lot of business owners to help them add a million, 5 million, 10 million plus to their business. And then. I started to see there was a lot of people like me who were, you know, consultants, coaches, trainers, things like that. And they were good people. They wanted to make a difference. They had good skills, but again, they were not good at business. And so I started to like get together with these folks and really help them. Understand what it took to be successful, but marketing and sales in particular was difficult for folks like this to really understand. Right. So sales scared them. They're like, Oh my God, I don't want to be seen as salesy or pushy. I don't want to reek of commission breath. And I was like, okay, that's fine and dandy, but that attitude keeps you away from doing business with people you should be doing business with. And the problem is that way your business suffers, you don't grow, you don't make the money you should, and your potential client suffers. Cause they don't have a good person to help them solve their problem. And some charlatan marketer comes in, scoops that business up, but because they don't really care, cause they're a semi sociopathic personality. All they do is they take the money and they don't deliver anything. That's really where it's at. As far as those folks are concerned. And that really bothered me. So I decided I was going to help these folks. Okay. I was going to help them reframe selling to serving. Nobody wants to be sold, but everybody wants to be served by good, caring human being and just helping people rewire their thinking that way allowed me to help these folks, double, triple, quadruple their business. And that's really how I got the start of it. You know, my dad used to say life is about people. It's not about money. It's not about business. It's not about numbers. It's about people. He said, even business isn't about money or numbers. It's about people all business is about solving problems for people for profit PPP solving acute problems for awesome people and amazing profit That's all it is. And as long as you keep your focus on that, you'll be successful. And for me, that's what I've always focused on is how to be of service, how to help, and, you know, people are people, they want you to help them if you can. And I was fortunate to be able to help some really great people. And then through them, I was able to meet other great people. And that's really how it worked. I'm somebody who loves connecting with people, loves being of service. Those people I've been of service to, they've loved having someone like me help them, and they're very happy to connect me with people. That's the long and the short of it.

Magic Barclay: 8:52

I love that. That is so good that you had such a great role model. And I want to explore that more, but first I want to get onto our standard three questions. And I ask all of my guests, the same questions. Everyone gives me such an array of answers. It's quite exciting waiting for what's going to be said. So here comes number one, and that is. What can your expertise do to accelerate health, not just physical, but also emotional and spiritual, because I know the listeners are probably thinking, well, this guy, what's he got to do with health if he's all about supporting entrepreneurs?

Nicky Billou: 9:31

Well, I used to be a top health and fitness coach, and I worked with a lot of people to help them get healthy and fit. I work with Olympic champions. I work with, you know, regular folks, business people, and to me, the mindset of success can accelerate health, very simply, you know, if you want to have better health. You want to have the mindset of success and the mindset of success First of all means that you gotta have daily disciplines around health. So that is one thing that I teach and I teach very Uh strongly in my best selling book finish line thinking how to think you're one like a champion Just have a daily discipline around exercise and have a daily discipline around eating according to a plan so that's been something that has been very useful for me and for the people that i've been of service to

Magic Barclay: 10:19

I love that. And, you know, it comes from the, you cannot pour from an empty cup. You can't be successful in business or in society, or even in your family, if you're not looking after yourself.

Nicky Billou: 10:32

Well said.

Magic Barclay: 10:33

Now, question number two, what are your top three tips to creating wealth, be it personal, financial, or emotional?

Nicky Billou: 10:43

Well, first and foremost, treat people the way you want to be treated. Remember, everyone's, you know, a human being, right? That's someone's mother, someone's sister, someone's daughter, someone's wife. That's someone's brother, someone's husband, someone's son, right? Uh, someone's father. That's a human being with hopes, dreams, aspirations, fears, and disappointments. And your job is to take all that in when you're of service to somebody. So you do that and you be of service to people. God will serve you and help make you rich. Secondly, you really, really need to stand out. You can't look like everyone else. You can't be in the sea of sameness. You got to be in the oasis of differentiation. And for me, that's super, super important. I had a client once, she was a naturopathic doctor. And, she was successful. She made six figures a year, but you know, she wanted to honor her father who was dying of brain cancer. And he was a successful entrepreneur and she was daddy's girl. And she really wanted to honor him by growing their business to seven figures. When we met her, she wanted to help everybody. She had that big of a heart, but you know, that doesn't really work. You need to like narrow your focus. So we helped her do that. And she narrowed her focus to wanting to help women, professional women over the age of 45 who were successful, but they felt, not beautiful, not sexy, not fit, not desirable. And she was like balderdash. You can be as beautiful, sexy, and desirable. It. 45 and 50 and 55 and 60 as you are at 25 and 30 and 35. So she created a program with our help. We helped her brand it. The name of the brand was Get Your Sexy Back. And boy did it work. And she doubled her income and doubled it again and doubled it again and got herself to a six, figure a month run rate, not just six figures a year. That was a beautiful thing. And the third thing is if you wanna be successful, you gotta own your value. You gotta own your value. You can't just be somebody who is gonna undercharge and undervalue yourself.'cause if you do that, you're never gonna be successful. So, you know, um, the same individual that I was telling you about, she was undercharging in a big way. We helped her really own her value and charge based on the value of the outcome she provided for people. And she's created programs for people and she, stopped undercharging. And that was a big part of her success. And there was a colleague of hers, who was a acupuncturist, same issue, great guy did great work, but undercharged, he had big name clients in Manhattan and he's still under charge. So we helped him seven fold his pricing and own it. And that helped him, you know, 20 fold his income was incredible. He went from making basically 15, 000 a month to making in the neighborhood of 175, 000 a month. On average. In fact, he made 1, 050, 000 in four months. He 20 folded his income. So those are my three big tips on how to create wealth.

Magic Barclay: 13:58

I love it. And our final standard question. Now, many people look at coaches and entrepreneurs and people of success and think, well, they've never had a problem in their life. So it's really around weight loss. Have you ever battled your weight? If so, how did you win that battle? And what can you offer the listeners around the weight loss journey and particularly around the stress factor involved?

Nicky Billou: 14:23

Look, I used to be a top trainer and I was in top shape, but when I got out of it every year, I batted a couple of pounds in weight, you know, and even now I'm not at my ideal weight as it were. I'm working on it as we speak. It's not that I have it figured out fully because I don't. But what I can tell you is I hired a coach. I'm working with that coach. That coach is telling me what to do and I'm following what they're telling me. And that's the key to success in any endeavor. If you're sucking at something and it's not working for you, find someone who knows what they're doing and take their coaching.

Magic Barclay: 14:57

I love that message. Now, back to your story, your father was a forward thinker, and it's something that you've applied in your life and are now helping others to do. That must've been quite an upheaval going from. A country where things looked very uncertain to a whole new setup and pretty much starting again. I know a lot of the listeners may be going through something or have been through something. And there's, you know, that portion of people that think, how do I start from scratch again? What would your tips there be?

Nicky Billou: 15:37

You know, if you're looking to start from scratch again, honestly, you've got to understand one thing, right? In life. Success is predicated on having four powerful qualities. Number one, quality number one is you gotta be decisive. You gotta make a decision that you're looking for a particular result. You're not dabbling in it. You're not trying it out. You're not kicking the tire. You're in it to win it. Secondly, you gotta be committed. You gotta be willing to be a disaster before you're a master, because every master was once a disaster. You gotta go from sucking at it, to being bad at it, to being mediocre at it, to being good at it, to being great at it, to being iconic at it, to being the best that ever was. That is what commitment's all about. Thirdly, you gotta be coachable. You can't do it on your own. You need coaching. Anybody who tries to do things on their own is foolish when you don't have the skillset, get help. And then fourth and foremost, you've got to be resourceful. It's not going to work for you unless you're resourceful. Tony Robbins said, it doesn't matter what level of resources you have. What matters is how resourceful are you? How bad do you want change? And you've got to be wanting to have change bad enough that you're ready to act and do whatever it takes.

Magic Barclay: 16:57

Great. Now, Nikki, we've covered a fair bit. Now I'm opening the floor to you. What's something that you feel the listeners need to hear from you today?

Nicky Billou: 17:07

You know, I've got a story I want to share with you. It's a great story and it's a great wrap up story. So several years ago, five years ago, as a matter of fact, I was introduced to a woman who had been the country director for Canada for one of the world's largest and best personal development firms. She was very, very. Successful, but she wanted to take it to another level So she brought on a man to help her run the company who was she thought was very talented And at first she and this fellow really got along and things were great It's kind of like steve jobs and john scully with apple back in the 80s. But after a while their visions of the future diverged and They started to quarrel And the board of directors sided with him and kicked her out of the company just like steve jobs got kicked out of apple You You might ask yourself, well, how the heck do you get kicked out of your own company? It happens all the time. She was lost. She was bereft. She was uncertain of what to do next. Anyway, someone introduced her to us and we could see she was kindred spirit. We, we, we really liked her. We, we, we, we poured our love into her. We showed her how to get clear about what she wanted to do, about who her ideal client was, how to help them, how to charge. We really set her up and in her first month she made ten thousand dollars in her second month She made twelve thousand in her third month. She made eighteen thousand in her fourth month. She made sixty two thousand two hundred dollars It was amazing. And then she lives in Ottawa. I live in Toronto, five hour drive apart. My son, my oldest son is a soccer player and he had a tournament in her hometown. And so, you know, at that point in time, I called her up. She has a son, his age. And I said to her, Hey, how'd you, uh, and your son like to come get together with us, watch my son play and, you know, hang out for a bit. She said, yeah, that'd be great. So she came over, we watched them play the last game of the tourney. They won, which was great. And we all went out for lunch. Everybody had a good time and then we went back to Toronto and she and her son went home. Anyways, a few weeks later, we had one of our branded Thought Leader Immersion Workshops in Toronto. This is where we, um, basically teach our coaches and consultants how to add a zero to their annual income. while working 10 to 20 hours less a week. And the way that I do, um, our events is I spend just a very small amount of time, selling, right? Telling people about how they can continue to work with us. We have a year long program that we upsell people to. And the way I do it is I ask our members to share their experience. I don't pitch, right? So I said, who'd like to share their experience? And before I could say anything, she bounds up on stage and goes, meet me. I'm like, Oh, this awesome. She's eager. She comes on stage. She looks around and Oh boy, she starts to cry. And like any red blooded man faced with a crying woman, I panic. Why is she crying? What did I do wrong? So. I didn't say anything obviously and I kept the calm exterior and she starts to, to sniffle and sob and my, my fiance comes on stage gives her a couple of tissues so she can clean up and she says to me, Nikki, you didn't know this but when you and your little boy came to visit me and my little boy, my little son said, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, who are we going to go meet know how little boys get excited. And she says, Oh, sweetheart, we're going to meet Nikki Ballou and his son. All of a sudden, that little boy, that sweet kid became very silent, very quiet, very serious and said, Oh, mommy, are we going to go meet the man who saved our family? And I was like, wow, I started to cry. I don't ever cry in public, but I cried. We hugged. Everybody went, Oh, they just did a little clap. And then she said to me, Nikki, you didn't know this, but the bank was about to foreclose on our home. When I came to meet you all those months ago, and my husband and I, we were fighting every day, like cats and dogs in front of our three children. And it looked like we were going to break up and I was going to lose my precious family. She said, you literally helped us save our family. I hugged her again. She left the stage. I realized two things. One is that I had no idea. And you never know what someone was dealing with. And I asked God to give me the opportunity to serve more people like her. And the other thing that was incredible that happened was that we handed out the registration forms for a very high ticket, yearlong mastermind. And every single person in the room signed up. There was no hemming. There was no hauling. There was no, no, I'm not going to do it. There was just. We're in, why were they in? They were in because of an authentic story from an authentic woman and because a sweet little 12 year old boy just asked his mother a heartfelt but beautiful question that moved the hearts and souls of everyone sitting in that room.

Magic Barclay: 22:37

I love that. That's such a beautiful story. And you touched on something about being authentic. Before we wrap up, I just wanted to ask you this because you did mention when you were talking before about, you know, if you're not, Marketing to your clients, if you're not. I guess, giving them the correct service by charging correctly for your, your talents and your time, some charlatan will come along and take their money and disappoint them again. And there are so many inauthentic people out there, especially in the entrepreneurship. How do you suggest maybe the listeners, you know, are a business owner and entrepreneur, how do you suggest they, I guess, set themselves apart from the fakery and the charlatans?

Nicky Billou: 23:35

Well, I think we've been talking about that all session long, right? Care for people, show them you care, make it about them, not about you. Stand out in the marketplace. Don't try to sound like everybody else and come from the heart. Pour into people and make sure you value what you're selling. You don't undercharge, don't overcharge, but definitely don't ever charge. And lastly, make sure you've got coaches that'll tell you and leave you on the straight and narrow, be who you are. The right people will sense the truth of what you're saying. That's all you got to do.

Magic Barclay: 24:13

I love that and thank you for reiterating that, that's exactly what I wanted the listeners to hear. Now, Nicky, where can people find you?

Nicky Billou: 24:23

if you just want to check me out and kick a tire or two, go to anywhere on the internet and type in Nicky Ballou and I'll show up. Podcasts, social media, et cetera, Amazon. You can find all the books I've written, but if you're someone who is looking to make a real transformation in your life, in your business, and you want to have a serious conversation, then jump on a phone call with me, apply to get 45 minutes of my time for free. Cause otherwise I sell that time. And you can go to ecircleacademy. com forward slash appointment, click on the button, fill in the application, pick a time. And if your application is accepted, the time will be good and we'll meet. And if it's not, we'll cancel it.

Magic Barclay: 25:15

before we go, we love freebies, particularly blogs and things that people can, you know, really get their teeth into to set themselves up for success. So where can people find a freebie from Uniki?

Nicky Billou: 25:32

Honestly, my podcast has everything I teach on it for free. So if you go to thethoughtleaderrevolution. com or go to the Thought Leader Revolution on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, wherever you listen to a podcast, I'd start at episode one and listen to the first five or ten episodes. That's a great way to get started.

Magic Barclay: 25:53

Beautiful. Thank you so much for your time. I know it's very valuable and I'm honored to have had you on A Magical Life.

Nicky Billou: 26:01

My pleasure. God bless you. Thanks for having me on the show.

Magic Barclay: 26:04

Thank you. And listeners, thank you again for your time. I appreciate all the reviews, the downloads, everything. I know how valuable your days are as well. So listeners for now, go forth and create your magical life.