0:02

Welcome to From Chaos to Peace with Conny, where we explore how clutter and chaos has a way bigger effect on our life, business and finances than we think, and how a few minutes a day can keep the chaos away.

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I hope you enjoy and subscribe.

0:25

Well, hello, my friend. Welcome to the podcast.

0:29

I am Conny Graf, your host. Thank you so much for allowing me back into your ears Today.

0:36

I welcome Nicky Billou as a guest.

0:39

Nicky is a top thought leader in the areas of entrepreneurship, branding and sales.

0:45

He has made over 500 media appearances, written 8 books and he is the host of the number one podcast, the Thought Leader Revolution.

0:55

He is here to share his insights on entrepreneurship and success, thought leadership and selling and marketing with all of us.

1:05

I love how passionate he is about helping people and in this great conversation we talk about what the difference is between a thought leader and an expert, why you want to be a thought leader, what he means when he says he wants to serve the coalition of the willing.

1:25

How do we become a recognized thought leader?

1:28

Do we need to write a book? What the most business owners neglect to do, how leaders are readers, and the book he has read earlier this year that he recommends and his favorite book of all time.

1:41

And at the end he talks about his mission 40 and his no-church rule.

1:47

I am glad you are here for this awesome conversation with Nicky Ballou.

1:50

What further do let's jump in?

1:53

Welcome, Nicky.

2:01

I am very excited to have you on the podcast.

2:03

How are today?

2:05

I am so blessed and grateful. Thank you so much for having me on the show.

2:08

Very excited to be here with you.

2:10

Well, I am very excited to be here with you too, because I think I am the blessed one.

2:15

So let's tell the audience where in the world are you located?

2:21

And then I always ask to tell us one detail or one thing about you that has nothing to do with what we are talking afterwards and that might surprise people.

2:32

I live in Toronto and that is kind of where I am coming to you from, and one thing that very few people in the business world know is that I actually love to collect things.

2:45

I collect a lot of books. I have a library of over 4000 books.

2:49

I also collect knives.

2:52

I am a knife nut and I have well over 110 knives in my collection.

2:57

So there you go.

2:58

Wow, knives yeah, I never had anybody that collects knives.

3:02

Books, yeah, I can see that in the background.

3:05

For those of you that are on the video, you see his book wall in the back 4000 books is impressive.

3:12

So we talk about I want to talk with you about thought leadership or authority and everything, and later we come to the books, because I think there is somebody and I don't know who said it, but leaders are readers, right.

3:31

So probably the books have helped you, but you help people to be sought after, recognize authority, and you have a podcast called Thought Leader Revolution.

3:44

So let's start here what is a thought leader and why would we want to care?

3:52

That's a really good question. So a thought leader is actually best understood if you draw a distinction between an expert and a thought leader.

4:02

So an expert is someone who knows something right They've got expertise but experts are a dime a dozen.

4:09

There's a lot of people who know things, but a thought leader is someone who's known for knowing something.

4:16

Thought leaders are rare and valuable.

4:18

Another way to put it is an expert is like a cover band, while a thought leader plays original music.

4:25

Oh, I love that one. That's a good analogy.

4:28

Yeah, thank you, wow.

4:31

And so what do thought leaders do for us?

4:35

Let's say what do you take your example, what do thought leaders do for experts?

4:40

Are they the idol or the hero that they look up to?

4:44

Or what would you say, are you doing for experts and other regular people?

4:54

Well, that's a good question too, and I'll tell you for me, thought leaders are the people who really push the human race forward.

5:02

They're the ones who have visions and dreams.

5:06

They maybe some people call them crazy, but they absolutely reject that thought of being called and labeled as crazy.

5:17

And they're the ones who go out there with their dream, with their vision, and they move the human race forward with what they do.

5:25

And a thought leader, commercially speaking, is somebody who's thought deeply enough about an issue and has brought that to the table for the people that care about that issue, for the people that need to care about it because they're going through some pain.

5:44

So, in my world, the people I seek to serve are good human beings who are in business and want to make a difference, want to be of service, want to grow their business, want to be somebody who's you know when they go to their grave they go.

6:01

This was somebody.

6:04

This was someone who made a difference. This was someone that was worth knowing, and what I want to do for them is I want to make their life easier, I want to make it easier for them to be known.

6:15

I want to make it easier for them to make money.

6:17

I want it to be easier for them to make the difference they were born to make.

6:22

So that's what's important to me. If you're listening here going okay, I'm in business, why should I care to be a thought leader?

6:28

Well, three reasons.

6:30

One is you'll definitely have a way bigger impact as a thought leader than not.

6:35

Way bigger impact on a lot more people.

6:37

You'll definitely make way higher income.

6:41

Your income will be wonderful income and not mediocre income as a thought leader.

6:44

And you'll be free. You'll be free to pursue the life that you choose, and you know the great quote from the Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson that we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and they're endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights.

7:05

Among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

7:09

We all want a life, we all want liberty and we all want to pursue happiness.

7:14

Yeah, it just isn't happening for everybody yet, right?

7:19

So that's the problem.

7:22

You said that thought leaders are often looked at crazy, but I think they only are looked at as crazy in the time they're living, right.

7:30

When we look back, we usually don't look at them at crazy anymore.

7:35

Those are, like you said, are the ones that bring humanity and humankind forward.

7:41

Now, the other thing that I'm wondering when you were talking is you said as a thought leader, we can have a bigger impact, and when we're at the end of our life, we can look back and say, oh yeah, okay, I made a difference.

7:56

Say to somebody like that, who is actually maybe wanting to make a difference, wanting to be a thought leader, but has its doubts, or has its doubts that this is really what they're here for.

8:11

Well, you know, a few years ago there was an event which was not a nice event.

8:20

There was a war in the Middle East, in Iraq, and there was an invasion of Iraq.

8:26

There was a phrase that came out of it that I quite liked, even though, looking back on it, maybe it wasn't the greatest thing that happened to have a war and have all those people die.

8:36

But the phrase was the coalition of the willing, that we were going to go into that situation with the coalition of the willing.

8:46

That's how I look at my job.

8:49

I'm not looking to persuade people. I'm not looking to show people that they have to do things my way.

8:55

If they don't believe that, that's not a problem.

8:58

They got to choose, everyone's got to choose their own path.

9:01

I'm looking for the coalition of the willing. I'm looking for the people who already, the moment I say this, it clicks, they go.

9:10

Yeah, that's me, I'm a thought leader, or I want to be a thought leader.

9:14

Somebody who's not there, that's fine, nothing wrong with that.

9:20

Everyone isn't a fit for what you want to do.

9:24

In fact, I say this to people in business that good messaging needs to repel as much as attract.

9:35

Yeah, I agree, you actually brought up Iran, and that's a beautiful segue to what I wanted to ask you, because you're Iranian, assyrian also, but now you live in Canada.

9:46

I had Manush Agrawal on the podcast recently and he's from rural India.

9:52

I asked him what his difficult situation while he was growing up helped him to become a thought leader, because he's an thought leader in AI artificial intelligence.

10:05

I'm asking you now, growing up, where you grew up, the way you grew up, how has that helped you become the man you are now and the thought leader you are?

10:20

That's a wonderful question. I love that you asked it.

10:22

I'm originally, as you said, an immigrant from the Middle East, a Christian from Iran.

10:28

When I was 11 years old, the Islamic revolution took place in Iran.

10:32

My late father, god rest his soul.

10:36

He could see the writing on the wall that this was not going to be a place to raise a Christian family.

10:41

Dad made a plan and he got us out of Iran.

10:47

It took a while. It was impossible to do it right away.

10:50

After a few years, we settled where I now live, in Toronto.

10:55

When I was 11, when this whole process got started, I didn't want to leave my home.

11:01

I didn't want to leave my friends. I was mad, dad, why are you taking me away from everything I've ever known?

11:07

When I look back, it was the most incredible gift my father could have given to me, to my whole family.

11:14

Look, it's from a legacy of tyranny to a legacy of freedom.

11:18

Inside every human heart beats the living heart of freedom.

11:24

Let freedom live.

11:26

Let freedom live. Let freedom live and let freedom give my dad.

11:33

He was the greatest single human being I've ever known.

11:40

If you knew him, Conny, and you were looking for work, dad would sit you in his office.

11:46

He'd pick up the phone, he'd make calls, he'd browbeat people until they gave you a job and then he'd say Conny, I got your job, you're going to be working here, start tomorrow.

11:57

Here's the pay, go get them. And if you were trying to start a business, dad would sit with you, he'd help you put together a business and he would say to you okay, this is a business, this is great.

12:10

He would give you advice, he would give you access to people who had capital.

12:14

He would even maybe find you there your first couple of funds.

12:17

And if you knew him, you were trying to buy a car or a house and you didn't quite have enough money.

12:23

My father would loan you the balance and he would never pay back.

12:30

And I go, wait a minute. What, who, what?

12:33

Who does that? Well, the late, great Napoleon Ballou for one.

12:38

And you might go, but why?

12:41

Well, first of all, he was a devout Christian.

12:43

He believed that he was blessed by God Almighty and that it was his duty as a Christian to share those things with a fellow man and woman.

12:52

But secondly, he did it because he could.

12:56

He was successful, he was rich and I wanted to be like my father.

13:02

I wanted to be, that my dad used to tell me when I was a kid son, life isn't about money, it's about people.

13:08

I said what do you mean? I said even business, son, it's not about money, it's about people.

13:13

I go come on business my money. He said no, son, that person in front of you, that's someone's mother, that's someone's daughter, that's someone's wife, that's someone's sister.

13:23

She's a hero to somebody, and maybe someone like you ripped her off and she doesn't trust people anymore.

13:31

It's your job to restore her faith in humanity.

13:35

It's your job to be a good human being.

13:37

And I tell you, even today, there are people who knew my dad, who from time to time come across me and go are you Napoleon Belou's son?

13:49

And then, when I say yes, they tell me a story.

13:53

And the story, invariably, is how my father did something unbelievably kind and generous and made a massive difference in their lives.

14:03

And for me, I wanted to be an entrepreneur, because my vision of an entrepreneur was a man like my father.

14:10

You know, what I mean A man who cared, a man who believed.

14:13

And I believe every human being needs someone to believe in them, to love them, to care about them, because for some people they've never had that.

14:21

And just having someone believe in you, Conny, can make the difference between you having a tragic existence and a magical existence.

14:29

You hear from people in sport and in all kinds of things.

14:33

When they go up and they get the award, they talk about that one person who believed in them when nobody else did, who showed them they had something in them, who saw something in them and that woke it up in them.

14:44

That's my superpower.

14:48

It's, look, I'm a great writer.

14:50

I'm a great communicator. I help people get paid.

14:53

I have phenomenal programs.

14:56

I'm an incredible coach. These are all things that you know I have skills in.

15:00

My real superpower is how much I love and believe in and stand with my fellow man.

15:08

That's beautiful and to have a dad like this is really beautiful too.

15:12

Mine unfortunately left the earth early, but I agree with you.

15:19

I had in my very young years in business, people that believed in me and were challenging me and that can propel you forward.

15:28

So would you say your dad was a thought leader and it was your North Star, where you wanted to end up in.

15:37

Or did you have another person in your life that made an equal or I don't want to say bigger, but, because family is always the biggest, but in business maybe made a bigger impression on you or as a coach and a thought leader?

15:56

My father made the biggest impression of anyone I've ever known.

15:59

There've been other people that have made great contributions to my journey.

16:03

My current business coach is Mark von Neusser.

16:08

He's incredible. He's made incredible contributions to me and continues to do so.

16:12

But, dad, my father's son, most of them are about it Beautiful.

16:19

So and when? Now let's ask different does every thought leader need a book?

16:25

Or, having written a book Because I know you wrote more than one, but one that comes to my mind is the finish line thinking so, do you think, as a thought leader, we need a book?

16:36

Or how do we define ourselves as a thought leader?

16:43

Yeah, Well, listen to me.

16:47

You define yourself as a thought leader by the quality of the thinking that you do and the people that you help.

16:55

Is a book important?

16:58

Yes, it's not nearly as important as who you help and why you help them and how many people you've helped.

17:05

That really is the legacy of every human being, is the ripples in the pond, as it were, of human existence come from that?

17:18

So should you write a book If you've got something valuable to say?

17:23

A book is a wonderful tool. I think it's great.

17:25

But do you need to write a book in order to be a thought leader?

17:28

You don't need to. It's helpful, but you don't need to.

17:33

What you need to do is you need to care, you need to show up strong and you need to do whatever it takes to help the people that you know you were put here on this earth to help.

17:47

I was asking this question because sometimes it's hard to in today's noisy world to find the people that are looking for you.

17:57

It's hard for them to find you and it's hard, maybe, for you to find them so, other than maybe in your immediate environment.

18:05

So how would you then create to be compelling enough that your message spreads, enough to reach the people that you want to reach?

18:16

That's why I was asking about a book, because a book is like a podcast it may reach more people than you can when you're just talking with people around you.

18:27

Absolutely. A book can help with that, a podcast can help with that.

18:33

Being a guest on shows like this can help with that.

18:35

But most people neglect the most important place to start, which is the people they already know.

18:42

If you're in business, the first thing I have everybody do is go to the people they already know, and almost everybody is afraid to do that, and that fear holds them back.

18:57

But in my experience, not one coach I've worked with who's really taken this on has failed to make at least a quarter million dollars in sales in a year or less.

19:09

Not one coach.

19:11

And there have been people that I've known that have done this, that have made $10.5 million in three months from going into their own network.

19:23

Why would you think of anything else before you start to work with the people that already know and trust you as a human being?

19:35

Yeah, but let me ask you you just said most are afraid to do it, so why are we so afraid to start with our immediate network?

19:45

That's a great question and I'll tell you the answer.

19:48

Please.

19:49

In a way, every single human being wants to be liked, wants to be loved, and as a part of you, part of me, that wants approval.

19:57

You come into an interaction with a new person.

20:00

You want them to like you, you want the positive impression, you want them to feel good about you.

20:04

And there are some thoughts that immediately cause fear, which is oh, if I speak to someone in my own network, maybe they won't like me.

20:12

Now, this fear could be reasonable, it could be unreasonable, but it's real, it's there, and part of what I do to people is I help them reframe this.

20:24

Look, nobody wants to come across as a pushy salesman or pushy saleswoman.

20:29

You don't want to be seen that way.

20:31

I don't want to be seen that way. But I tell you what everybody loves to be served by a caring advocate.

20:38

Imagine that you were seen as an advocate an advocate and not a salesperson.

20:49

That's a whole different thing.

20:52

If you came and you approached people and you weren't thinking I'm going to sell them, I'm going to sell them.

20:58

They're going to buy from me and instead you're going to, I'm going to serve them, I'm going to help them, I'm going to solve the biggest problem that they say to me, that they have.

21:06

Because I know I'm the one to do it, that becomes a beautiful and simple thing, and why wouldn't you do that for the people you know and love?

21:13

first, yeah, and still it's.

21:17

I mean, I have this mental clutter. I call this mental clutter I have this mental clutter myself sometimes that it's easier to approach as stranger than somebody that you know right.

21:27

And so I love how you said you help them reframe it or you help us reframe it that it's not about selling or pushing something on them that they don't want.

21:38

It's more about serving. And I read on your website I believe that you studied ethical marketing and I was wondering what?

21:48

What does ethical marketing mean for you?

21:50

Because I I looked into it a bit and I couldn't really find a definition like a coherent definition that everybody agrees on.

22:03

So I'm starting to ask everybody what they think is ethical marketing.

22:07

I understand it's wanting to serve and not to sell.

22:12

That's probably the first thing, but how would you define it?

22:16

no-transcript. To be honest with you, that's not a phrase I use myself, but I mean in hearing it.

22:23

My approach to business is to come from the heart, come from love, come from believing in people, and if someone does that, I believe that's the most ethical thing you can do.

22:39

I agree, it's just sometimes I don't know, so we do have to.

22:43

I heard you say on a podcast too is like a lot of people don't sell themselves and they talk wimpy when it comes to making the offer.

22:56

And I think this comes because a lot of people are worried that they're becoming the stereotype of used car salesman right, and this is kind of like the one extreme of the equation.

23:10

The other extreme is when you're Like the wimpy one is one extreme and the used car salesman is the other extreme.

23:17

Right, and we want to find ourselves somewhere in between.

23:20

And maybe ethical is not the right word, but I'm still trying to declutter our fear that I'm not the only one and I have to overcome it every time to bother people or to wanting to sell them something that they don't want, or getting away from helping people.

23:43

But still, you want to sell your services, right, Because you want to make.

23:47

As you said, some people make 10 million.

23:49

But hold on, hold on. We're not in business to sell people things to try to force them to do something they don't want to do or shouldn't do or don't need.

24:02

Exactly that's disgusting.

24:04

Exactly I don't do that, nor what I want to be around anybody that does that.

24:10

I didn't say you do that. I didn't say you do that.

24:13

No, no no, I know you didn't, but that's what.

24:16

But at the same time, you also.

24:20

I don't want to be one of these people who puts all the focus on myself and is worried about what people are going to think just because I'm a businessman.

24:28

I'm a businessman. This is what I do. I have products and programs and services and I sell them.

24:33

It's business. You're a businesswoman.

24:36

That's what you do. You have products and programs and services and you sell them.

24:39

You sell them to people who can use them and benefit from them.

24:41

You don't sell them to people who don't need them. And the fact of the matter is that, if you're putting all the attention on you, what are they going to think of me?

24:50

Or they love me? Am I going to come across this way?

24:52

That's a mistake. You need to put all the attention on them.

24:55

You should be thinking about them. I wonder what they're dealing with.

25:00

Is this problem that they have something I can help them with?

25:03

And if the answer is yes, I'm going to help them.

25:05

I'm going to go out of my way to show them I can help them.

25:08

I'm going to take a stand for them to come and work with me.

25:10

That's a whole different thing than being somebody who's like trying to push yourself.

25:18

And I'll tell you this other thing that if a human being is in a sales conversation with me and they want to tell me, oh oh, you're pushing me, you're pressuring me, here's what I tell them I go.

25:32

Any pressure you feel is a result of you being on the edge of being confronted with the fact that the thing you want most in your life or in your business is in front of you and you have not taken the decisive steps to make it happen for yourself.

25:50

That's the only pressure you feel. There's no pressure here.

25:53

If you decide to go after your dream, great, let's get started and make it happen.

25:59

If you decide not to, I'm good.

26:02

Either way, let's get to a decision.

26:06

Let's get to a point where you make an honest to goodness decision that, yes, I'm going after my dream or no, I'm too scared, but that's my job.

26:16

In a call. And if you want to call that pressure, I would invite you to look at the fact that the pressure you feel is the pressure you've created for yourself, because you know your dream has not come alive and the clock's ticking.

26:30

You don't have all the time in the world to make it happen.

26:35

Yeah, I think this is a really good point that you're saying, because I remember when I moved from Switzerland to Canada or actually it started before that I took a sabbatical in Canada and people said to me, oh, I couldn't do this.

26:50

And they got sometimes really defensive, saying, oh, I couldn't do that, I couldn't do that Even though they wanted.

26:56

And I think this is a good point. When people become defensive, than it is because they're realizing they want it to, but something holds them up.

27:07

So that's basically what you're saying you want to be detached from whatever the outcome is, because it's not your.

27:16

You want to help, but it's not your decision whether they want to be helped or not.

27:24

So I agree, but you still hear it from so many people I don't want to be sales.

27:28

You don't want to be sales. And that's, I think, why I wanted to touch on this, because we have all this head clutter, this mental clutter about why we can't go and sell our services right.

27:43

Bingo, bingo.

27:46

Let's move on. So now I want to hear about the 4000 books.

27:50

Niki, really Like how, how?

27:54

So I read a lot too, but definitely not 4000 books.

27:57

A? Were you always a bookworm already growing up?

28:02

Yeah, like me, me too.

28:04

I did reading when I was six years old and, honestly, I started tracking books in adulthood.

28:11

But when I was younger, I read even more some years.

28:14

But there is a.

28:18

There's an app called Goodreads Goodreadscom.

28:21

It allows you to track all the books you read.

28:24

Now, before that, I used a spreadsheet to track all the books that I read.

28:27

I've been using this since 2015.

28:31

And the lowest number of books I've read in a year since I did that has been 67, and the highest was 159 since 2015.

28:43

So this year I'm on track to do about 110, maybe 111 books.

28:48

Some of the books are really big, thick books.

28:52

Some of them are small books. I just read Ethan Hawke, the actor he wrote.

28:56

This book called Rules for a Night. It's short, it's a small book.

29:00

You know 180 pages and you know I'm also reading a couple of way bigger books.

29:10

You know the Bible and I'm reading Joe Dispens's Becoming Supernatural.

29:16

So these are, these are. These are bigger, weightier books.

29:19

I think books are great.

29:22

Yeah.

29:23

Anybody who's in the thought leadership game needs to be a reader.

29:27

You said earlier, readers are leaders and leaders are readers.

29:35

Yeah, I'm in a business book club called Thought Readers and we read a book together.

29:43

That's very clever. I'm going to write that down. That's awesome Thought Readers.

29:46

Yeah, it's Thought Readers by Lisa Larder.

29:49

Check it out it's.

29:51

We're reading very interesting books.

29:53

I wouldn't have read some of them if it wasn't for her.

29:57

So what is the one book that you read, let's say this year, that stood out to you specifically?

30:09

Well, early in the year I read it was by Edmai Lett the power of one more.

30:17

I was just looking at the exact title.

30:18

Oh yeah, I heard, I saw when he was launching it.

30:23

Yeah, I. There's a few really good exercises in it, so I was very, very pleased to read that book and I highly recommend it.

30:31

Okay, it's on my list.

30:36

My favorite book of all time is a fictional book, but it has powerful life lessons.

30:42

It's called Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, and anybody who's a reader should read Ayn Rand's works.

30:48

She's incredible.

30:49

Okay, I will write that down. I will go to the recording of our interview and write that down.

30:54

That's interesting. The other thing I wanted to ask you is so when you read that many books, how do you make sure you keep or you can use as a thought leader what you read?

31:10

I don't use a system for book reading.

31:13

I just read and I absorb the material.

31:15

To be honest with you, Sometimes if I like something I read, I'll write it in my journal, but I don't have a system for book reading.

31:21

I have a system for a lot of things, but not book reading.

31:23

To me that's a pleasure and I want to keep it that way.

31:27

In a way that surprises me, that you're not trying to retain anything that you're reading, because you said that thought leaders are readers.

31:34

But so how?

31:37

does your reading?

31:38

influence you and your.

31:40

You can clarify just a second.

31:42

How does your reading enrich and influence your coaching that you do in your business?

31:51

So I want to just be clear. That's not what I said.

31:54

I don't retain anything, I retain a lot.

31:56

I just don't have a system Writing down or having a system.

32:02

I don't have a system for capturing all the main thoughts from a book.

32:06

If I read something that I thought was really poignant and powerful, I write it in my journal.

32:10

But when I'm reading, I'm reading, I'm absorbed in the reading.

32:13

I'm not thinking, oh, my God, yeah, I need to capture this.

32:17

I'm thinking, wow, this is really cool, I want to learn it and that becomes a part of my DNA, because I read as much as I do about the things that interest me.

32:28

They all build and stack on one another and I can say this the fact that I'm as well read as I am has an absolute impact on me being able to pull lessons from what I read and bring it to the people that I'm working with.

32:45

So reading is definitely there.

32:48

It's just for me, reading is a pleasure and I don't want to muck up the pleasure by sitting down going OK, no, no, no.

32:58

Reading is a pleasure and I want it to continue to be a pleasure.

33:01

Yeah, maybe I'm just too much of a nerd.

33:04

For me it's a pleasure too, but my brain is constantly connecting with what I read before and then I'm feeling the urge to kind of write that down.

33:15

Yeah, it was just a question.

33:20

Nobody has to have to. You've got to do what works for you?

33:23

Yeah, exactly, nobody has to have a service.

33:24

Yeah, yeah, you've got to do what works for you.

33:26

Yeah, exactly so. So back to your business and how you help people become an authority and the thought leader and actually achieve what they want to do.

33:34

Did you want to tell us a little bit? So where would people go and how would that look if they came to you and wanted your help?

33:42

No-transcript.

33:46

Well, you know, for me, the most important thing in working with someone is to make sure that we both we both feel good about it.

33:56

You know that we both feel good about each other and about our vision for what we want to do in our work.

34:03

So I'm looking for a human being that is a heart-driven human being that cares about people, that believes in people, that is not ego-driven, that is not about making themselves feel better by making other people feel worse.

34:17

You know, there are a lot of people in the industry, unfortunately, that don't fit my criteria for who I want to work with.

34:24

So I go to a lot of trouble to make sure that we do what we do with good people.

34:30

We have no jerk rule.

34:32

You know no jerk rule in our work, and we have this thing we're going for called Mission 40.

34:39

We're looking for 40 beautiful men and women and I'll read it for you because I wrote it down today as a matter of fact 40 great men and women looking to live life as best version of themselves.

34:49

40 great men and women looking to increase their impact, their income and freedom, and 40 great men and women looking for someone to believe in them, love them and help them win.

35:00

That's who we're looking for. And if someone is in business and they're like, hey, look, I'm a beautiful soul who's not where he or she wants to be, I'm not where I want to be.

35:14

I start with a conversation. Let's talk, tell me about it, tell me about what's working, what's not working, and I want to get to know you and I have a structure for that conversation.

35:23

So that conversation is very well structured. I want to get connected with the purpose.

35:28

I visualize the person and making sure that there's a beautiful fit in the connection.

35:32

Then I spend a few minutes getting connected with them.

35:34

You know, hey, finding something about them for us to connect with.

35:37

And then I get to the nitty gritty of what's not working.

35:41

Why is it that we're on this conversation together and I spend a good 20, 30 minutes going deep into that, and then, if I've done my job well, that individual in that 20, 30 minutes is going to go, wow, this is what's not working.

35:58

This is why my dream is not coming alive, and this is the impact on me.

36:04

This is the impact on other people. This is all the opportunities that I'm unable to take advantage of as a result of this.

36:11

So I'm done with that.

36:13

I want to have lived my best life.

36:17

I want the people I love to live their best life, and I want to take advantage of every amazing opportunity I can, and then at that point, I provide them with a solution, a roadmap from here to here.

36:29

And that roadmap involves one of our programs, and right now we have a beautiful program called 90K in 90 Days for the Mission 40 group, and it's about helping people add an extra $90,000 in the next 90 days to their income, over and above whatever they already have coming in.

36:46

And we'll talk about that, and if it's something that really resonates with them and they go, yeah, this is what I want, then we sign them up, we onboard them and we get them going.

37:00

They're going to be around a bunch of beautiful, heart-driven human beings, all of whom are part of the no-jerk rule, all of whom want to see everybody else win and not just themselves, all of whom love being around good human beings and love sharing their love for humanity with each other.

37:17

That's my vision, that's what I'm all about.

37:19

Beautiful. And why 40?

37:22

Is there a specific reason why 40?

37:28

You know, as an Iranian man, one of my favorite fables growing up was Alibaba and the 40 thieves, and that number is always stuck in my mind.

37:36

It's a powerful number, it's got some spiritual and historical resonance.

37:40

So maybe we'll change it at some point, but right now 40 sounds like a good number.

37:46

No, it sounds good and I was wondering, because I thought 40 is an interesting number must have a specific reason why.

37:52

Do you know why he had 40 back in that tale, or was there no specific reason why exactly 40?

38:04

There was no specific reason given, but it was a good enough size that everyone knew everyone else.

38:13

And it was also large enough that there was a wonderful way that everyone could complement each other's skills.

38:22

So today we had a call Before I came on with you.

38:27

I called for the 90K and 90 Days group and today there was eight of us on the call.

38:34

There was two or three people that were missing, so we want to grow it to 40.

38:37

But something came up and one of the people said I need this and I said, okay, well, who can help him with this?

38:43

And one fellow said, yeah, I can help him, I know exactly what to do.

38:45

So that happened. It wasn't even me doing it, and that's the best part.

38:49

It's when the community is able to serve themselves.

38:52

It's a beautiful thing.

38:54

Yeah, yeah, I agree that that is beautiful.

38:57

So where would you send people?

38:59

Where can they find you if they're now intrigued and interested and would want to learn more and maybe even hop on a call with you to see whether they're passing the no-jerk rule?

39:10

Yeah, I love it. So to find out more, man, you can go to any of my.

39:16

If you type in my name, Nicky Billou.

39:18

There's podcasts, there's my books, there's social media.

39:21

It all shows up. Just take your pick right.

39:24

But if you want to hop on a call, there's a specific link.

39:27

It's called eCircleAcademycom forward slash appointment.

39:31

That's my main business website.

39:34

We have a few websites, but eCircleAcademycom forward slash appointment.

39:38

That's how you book a call and let's take it from there.

39:41

Okay, wonderful. I will put that for sure in the show notes so that people can just scroll down and click that link and connect with you, Nicky, because I think they would greatly benefit from connecting with you and learning from you.

39:57

Before we wrap up, I always ask my guests you have any last words, or did I not ask something that you really feel in your heart that needs to be said or shared?

40:08

Anything, I didn't touch on any topic that you were hoping to talk about today.

40:17

You touched on everything important, but I do want to say this we are living in a very interesting time in human history.

40:25

The last few years, a lot's happened and a lot's continuing to happen in the world.

40:31

We had a pandemic and we had lockdowns and we've had inflation and election controversy, let's say, in more than one country.

40:45

We have now war in Europe and war in the Middle East and possibly war in East Asia.

40:54

This is unprecedented in our lifetime.

40:59

I think you would agree. Maybe you're listening to this and feeling uncertain, feeling I don't know how I'm going to get through life and make my dreams come true.

41:09

But maybe you're just thinking I don't know how I'm going to survive and thrive.

41:14

The reason I come on shows like yours is because there might be someone listening who's feeling that way, who just needs to hear a word that there are human beings that still love, still care, still believe, and that's going to turn it around for them.

41:27

I come on the show to tell you if that's you, then God bless you.

41:34

I love you. I've not met you, but I believe in you as a human being, a child of God, who has limited, fabulous potential.

41:42

If you need a conversation with a fellow human being, it doesn't just have to be by your business.

41:51

It could just be that you're not feeling good and you want a human being to affirm for you the goodness exists in the world.

41:57

Then jump on that call with me.

42:00

I'll have that call with you all day long. I don't get on phone calls with people just to do a transition.

42:05

I get on phone calls with people to build a beautiful connection.

42:09

That's how I went on every call.

42:11

I don't go on every call thinking I want to get a sale.

42:14

I don't even think about that at all. I know that the right opportunities will generate themselves and become clear.

42:23

I know God has given me enough that I'm able to show people who need my help that they need my help.

42:29

I also know that God puts some people in front of me that are never going to be my customer.

42:34

That's not only okay, that's good and right and proper.

42:38

They could just be a human being who needs a kind word and needs a bit of love.

42:42

That's what I want to say for the show.

42:45

That is very beautiful, Nicky, thank you.