April 4, 2025 • 25 mins
Today’s conversation with Nicky Billou explores the transformative power of thought leadership. Understand what it means to be a thought leader and why embracing this mindset is crucial for solopreneurs aiming to 10X their impact. Get ready for practical tips and inspiring stories that will redefine your approach to business.
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https://brainworkframework.podbean.com/
Connect with Nicky Billou:
Company Website: www.ecircleacademy.com/appointment
Company Website: www.ecircleacademy.com/TLJbook
Connect with Chris Troka:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-troka-3a093058/
Website: https://focused-biz.com/
Website: https://christroka.com/ #brainwork #framework #business #entrepreneurship #NLSE #MentalResilience
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I got into entrepreneurship becauseof my father and my father was the
kind of man who'd always tell me, son,remember that man sitting in front of
you, that someone's son, that someone'sbrother, that someone's husband, that
someone's father, that's a hero tosomebody, maybe someone just like
you disappointed him in business.
It's your job to restoretheir faith in humanity.
And remember life is aboutpeople, not money, not numbers.
(00:22):
Business is even about people,not money, not numbers.
And when I was a kid, Iwouldn't get that right.
Cause I'm going without money.
You can't do business.
But as I grew older.
I understood what he meant.
What he meant was that all businesses issolving problems for people for a profit.
And if you really want to be the kind ofbusinessman who's going to have longevity,
you need to be all about solvingproblems for the people for a profit.
(00:45):
You're listening to BrainworkFramework, a business and marketing
podcast brought to you by focused-biz.
com.
Welcome back to anotherepisode of Brainwork Framework.
With us today is the founder ofE Circle Academy, Nicky Bilou.
He helps solopreneurs 10X theirincome, impact, and influence.
So excited to have him on.
Nicky, how are you doing today?
Thanks for joining us.
Chris, it's an honor to be here, man.
(01:06):
Thanks for having me on the show.
Absolutely.
So excited to chat with you.
We always like to ask our guests, tellus about your entrepreneurial journey.
What were you doing before andhow did that kind of lead you
into what you're doing today?
That's a fantastic question.
I'm actually originally animmigrant from the Middle East.
I'm a Christian from Iran.
When I was 11 years old the Islamicrevolution took place in Iran.
My late father, God rest his soul,he could see the writing on the wall.
(01:28):
This wasn't going to be a placeto raise a Christian family.
So he and my mom, they got together,they talked, they made a plan and
it took them a while but eventuallythey got my brothers and I out
of Iran and they settled us whereI now live in Toronto, Canada.
At the time I was a kid, Ididn't want to leave my home.
I didn't want to leave my friendsbut in retrospect, it was the single
(01:48):
greatest thing mom and dad could havedone for me and my two brothers because
they took us from a legacy of tyrannyto a legacy of freedom and Chris, I
believe, this is very important forentrepreneurs, that inside every human
breast beats a living heart of freedom.
Every man, every woman on thisplanet wants to march to the
tune of their own drummer.
They want to chart their own course andif you're an entrepreneur, freedom really
(02:10):
needs to matter to you because withoutfreedom, you don't have free expression,
you don't have free enterprise andwithout those things, you can't have a
powerful, heroic, entrepreneurial journey.
Right?
So to me, every entrepreneur needsto care about what they do but they
also need to care about an environmentof freedom to allow them to do that.
Now, my dad was an entrepreneur.
(02:30):
He's the greatest man I've ever known.
So, if you knew my dad, you'd lovea man because he was the kind of guy
that if you were looking for work,he'd sit you down in his office, he'd
call all his entrepreneur buddiestill one of them gave you a job.
If you were trying to start a business,he'd sit you down in his office, he'd
listen carefully to you, he'd give youhis best advice, he'd give you access to
people who could give you capital, getyour clients and you'd be on your way.
(02:54):
And if you were one of his friends andyou were trying to buy a car or a house
and the bank wouldn't quite give youenough money, he'd talk you up with a
loan that he'd never let you pay back.
And all kinds of people, when I tell themthis story, they go, Nikki, come on, man.
What are you talking about?
Who does that?
Nobody does that and you knowwhat I have to say to them?
Well, actually, at least one person I knowdid that, the late great Napoleon Ballou.
And then people would say to me,what are you talking about, man?
(03:16):
Why would he do that?
What would be in it for him?
And here's my answer.
Well, He was a devout Christian.
He believed that his immortalsoul was in it for him.
It was his duty as a Christian to sharehis blessings with other people and
secondly, this is equally important.
He did it because hecould, he was successful.
He was rich.
I wanted to be like my dad.
I got into entrepreneurship becauseof my father and my father was the
(03:38):
kind of man who'd always tell me, son.
Remember that man sitting in frontof you, that's someone's son,
that's someone's brother, that'ssomeone's husband, that's someone's
father, that's a hero to somebody.
And maybe someone just like youdisappointed him in business.
It's your job to restoretheir faith in humanity.
And remember, life is aboutpeople, not money, not numbers.
(03:58):
Business is even about people,not money, not numbers.
And when I was a kid, Iwouldn't get that, right?
Because I'm going withoutmoney, you can't do business.
But as I grew older, Iunderstood what he meant.
What he meant was that, all businessesis solving problems for people for profit
and if you really want to be the kind ofbusinessman who's going to have longevity,
you need to be all about solvingproblems for the people for a profit.
(04:21):
And I became an entrepreneur tohonor my father and the legacy
that he gave me because I believeentrepreneurs are society's greatest
heroes and so many entrepreneurs,Chris, so many entrepreneurs are good
people but they don't necessarilyhave great business skills.
They're not great at sales or marketing.
And me, I come from a business background.
(04:44):
I was good at sales and marketing andI really love helping people who are
good human beings but maybe sales makesthem nervous or maybe sales is like
something that they think to themselves,Oh my God, I don't want to be seen
as that dude with commission breath.
And I help him reframe that.
Reframe selling to serving.
Chris, no one wants to be sold.
(05:04):
You don't want to be sold.
I don't want to be sold but don't youlove being served by a caring human being?
Just teaching people how to do that.
Brother, I've helped tons ofpeople double, triple, quadruple
the size of their business.
And they're often to the racist.
That's beautiful.
And I think it's important that youhave this mission where it's people
overprofit, carrying on that legacy.
It's so important when we see thesemega corporations who continue to
(05:27):
remove services and features andincrease their prices and lay off
people while continuing a stock buyback.
It's like, wow, where arethe true business leaders?
Where are the people whoare going to lead us?
The people who have more compassionand here you are, thankfully, there
are real nice business owners outthere that exists, so we appreciate
you just having that as a serviceand it's true, nobody likes to be
(05:49):
sold, but they do love to be served.
So in what way can we communicateand craft that messaging to mess
to resonate with that audience.
So that way they understand they're notbeing sold but instead being served.
Throughout your journey, whatis your tactic for working
with a lot of your clients?
What strategies do you implement for themthat kind of get them out of that rut?
(06:09):
Well, that's a great question.
One of the things that a lot offolks that are solopreneurs don't
really understand is that they needto embrace their inner salesman.
Okay.
You've got to be somebody who'sgoing to go out there and sell.
And this is real talk cause fartoo many people, I had a call with
(06:31):
a guy today and he's a great guy.
He says, I hate sales.
When I see a salesman come in and Iwalk away and I go and yet you want
to get into business and you want tomake a million dollars a year and you
hate sales and he said, yeah, I get it.
Ironic right?
And I said, yeah, ironicis one way to put it.
It's also detrimental to yourability to be successful.
If you look at sales as beinga bad thing then you're going
(06:53):
to push sales away from you.
You're going to be part of what I callthe sales prevention department but
instead, if you look at sales as an actof deep love and an act of deep service,
you're going to pull sales towards you.
So let me tell you a little story,Chris, if I may, I had a client
who was personal fitness trainer.
Okay.
Really good guy but he didn't do so hot.
He made like three to 5, 000 a month.
His name was Cal Calum Shawand when he came to work with
(07:16):
us, he was struggling, man.
He was barely staying afloat and Iasked him, what do you want to do?
And he said, I just want to make enoughmoney so I don't struggle every month.
I said, okay, so what's the problem?
He said, I just don't know how to sell.
I don't like selling.
Selling's not my favorite thingin the world to do and when
we started working together, Icould see Callum was a good guy.
(07:37):
I believed in Callum and my father used totell me, you need to believe in people.
Everyone needs someone to believe in them.
You know what I mean?
There are days when your own selfbelief isn't the best, so you need
someone to believe in you, right?
And as a result of this, I justpoured my belief into him and I
really helped him think about thepeople that he was going to work
(07:59):
with as people that he was serving.
People he was serving out of suffering.
We got clear on who his ideal client was.
He was working with relativelynew dads, new dads with dad bods.
So Calum started working with theseguys and brother within 90 days, he
went from making three grand on a badmonth, five grand on a good month.
(08:21):
Brother, he did 29, 000 a monthwithin 90 days, 29, 000 a month.
And this is just from comingfrom a servant's heart, wanting
to make a difference for peopleand embracing his inner salesman.
But we had to reframe it for him.
We called it his inner servant right?
And that allowed him to growhis business dramatically.
(08:43):
And today I worked withCallum for two years.
He ended up starting his own gym andnow it's a multidisciplinary gym with
a chiropractic office and whatnot.
And they pull in 90, a hundredgrand a month and I had a lot
to do with teaching this man howto be a successful businessman.
And I'm very proud of that fact.
That's fantastic.
(09:04):
I appreciate that story becauseI think it really connects with
those who are struggling, theyare kind of blocked by themselves.
They're in their own head.
It's the mindset isn't right.
Something needs to give them directionand clarity and then here you come
to kind of give them that boost theconfidence to say, this is just a
reframing of how we're looking at sales.
And I think sales can be intimidating.
(09:25):
Marketing can be intimidating.
Business can be intimidating but themore that we connect with other mentors
entrepreneurs to see what they're doing,what's being successful and reframe
it into a way of how can we serve?
How are we giving value?
How are we solving problems?
We're going to realize that.
Hey, this is something thatthe world needs to hear about.
I'm excited to share it with the worldand we're not going to be so hesitant.
(09:47):
I think I do see a lot of resistingsales, they'll get someone in
the door and they're talkingthem out of the sale, right?
And I'm sure you've helped verysimilar people and that's something
that people need to recognize isthat mindset mindset shift, the
clarity, giving them some confidence.
Cause like you said, there's days whereour own self confidence just isn't enough.
We need others to kind ofpush us and move us forward.
(10:08):
So that's incredibly important throughoutthe 20 years that you've been in business,
helping people, helping solopreneurs.
If there's someone who's out therethat's looking to get started,
find out more information.
Is there usually a resource you try todirect them to either internal or do
you recommend a book YouTube series?
Well, there's a book.
(10:28):
I've written 11 books, but there's oneof my books that is specifically for
the type of person you're talking aboutwho's not in business for themselves yet.
It's called The Thought Leader'sJourney and it looks like this, okay?
In this book is a fable, right?
Kind of like the monk who sold his Ferrarior the greatest salesman in the world.
(10:49):
Tells the story of a young mannamed Paulo, who works in a big
corporation but his dream is togo and start his own business.
This is a fabulous book that will giveyou a blueprint on how to get started.
You can go buy this on Amazon.
You can also get a Kindle copy of itfor free by going to ecircleacademy.
com forward slash TLJ book that'sfor Thought Leader's Journey book.
(11:14):
So it's ecircleacademy.
com forward slash TLJ book and youcan get yourself a free Kindle copy.
But if you like hard copybooks, which I do, then go on
Amazon and buy yourself a copy.
That's fantastic.
And we'll also have that linkavailable down in the description
and shown out so everyone can getconnected with that wonderful offer
for the book and kind of get thatclarity for what they're looking for.
(11:35):
Being in business for 20 years, I'm sureyou've seen shifts in marketing and sales
yet a lot of the principles kind of staythe same which is why A lot of these
Dale Carnegie books are still popular.
A lot of business practices staythe same but there's a shift.
Changes happen and especiallywithin marketing and sales.
Being in business for 20years, what are some of those
shifts that you have noticed?
(11:56):
Or are you just all referralbased with a lot of your clients?
Or what's been the most effectivestrategy for getting yourself
out there and then getting leadsinto the door and nurturing them.
You know, that's a really good question.
Honestly, most effective lead generationstrategy today, 2024 leading into 2025
(12:17):
for solopreneurs is podcast guesting,being a guest on other people's shows.
I've been a guest on 670 shows.
I've been able to generate a couplehundred solid leads from that and
I've generated 425, 000 plus in sales.
I teach how to do this.
(12:38):
I have a workshop calledget booked and get paid.
I also wrote a book by the same title.
It's called get booked and get paidand basically the story of how this
came about was almost three yearsago because of the scamdemic a part
of my business went kaput about 500,000 in expected income disappeared.
(12:58):
And I was freaking out.
So I called my business coach Markvon Muser and I said to him, Mark,
let me turn this around, man.
What do you got?
And he thought for a minute,he said, I have an idea.
I said, okay, what's the idea?
He said, why don't we get you to bea guest on other people's podcasts?
But not for brand awareness butto get lead sales and clients.
(13:19):
And I said, I'm willing to try anything.
So how do we do that?
And Chris's answer was the greatestanswer I've ever heard in my life.
He said, and I quote, I have no freakingidea but we'll figure it out together.
Story of our lives.
We're kind of like we got todo something but what do we do?
We have to figure it.
Yeah.
So I went on a hundred shows and Igot no leads, no sales, no clients
(13:40):
but I did a whole lot of debriefs withMark and I finally figured it out.
Oh my God.
And when I figured it outon show 101, I got a lead.
I got a sale.
I got a client and then thewhole system crystallized for us.
All the reps we put in me going onall those shows allowed me to discover
what worked and what didn't work.
And here's the truth goingon a show as a guest.
(14:02):
You've got to have a triple intention.
I call it the triple threat intention.
Intention one is inspire the audience.
The audience is givingyou their attention.
It's your job to inspire them, right?
People are hurting.
They're looking for inspiring voices.
Secondly, make the host look good.
The host is spending time, energy,money putting out a podcast.
You gotta make the host look good.
(14:22):
Thirdly, Build a businessrelationship with the host.
The host is a businessman,a businesswoman.
Think about it.
This is old school gone high tech.
You build relationships with people.
This is high tech networking.
This is building the nolike and trust factor.
I don't know about you, Chris,but I do business with people.
I know like and trust both in termsof buying from them and selling to
(14:43):
them and nothing over the last two anda half years has been more effective
in generating no like and trust.
Then being a guest on all thesepodcasts that I've been a guest on.
It has been a brilliant strategy thatI've come up with and obviously there's
more to it than you just go on theshow and you get to meet the host.
(15:04):
You've got to make sure you do a goodenough job that you've got credibility
with that host and that host is interestedin potentially collaborating with you,
maybe you need to buy from that host.
Maybe they need to buy from you but allof that becomes possible when you come on
the show, you do a good job, you inspirethe audience, you make the host look
good and you build a relationship withthe host and you're off into the races.
(15:26):
Nobody's teaching this except for me.
Nobody's teaching you how to do this.
I go into great detail in mybook, Get Booked and Get Paid,
which is available on Amazon.
And I have a phenomenal workshop forfolks who need more help than the book.
To sit down, have a strategy to getbooked on shows and by the way, platforms
like Podmatch are perfect for that.
That's how you and I gotconnected but it's not enough
(15:48):
just to get booked on shows.
You need to do a good enough job so youcan get paid as a result of being on shows
and that's the secret sauce that I have.
And that's what you got to getthe book for in order to learn it.
I love it and I appreciate you beingupfront and transparent about the
strategy, what was working, whatdidn't work and how you brought it
all together because most peoplewould say, yeah, podcasting works
great but they would never go intomore detail but you actually gave 3
(16:11):
criteria that people need to follow.
You need to inspire andeducate, kind of this trifecta
effect which is really smart.
This has been a great way forpodcasting in order to get one on one
conversations with other business owners.
We get their expertise.
We get to have a great conversation andthen from that, a business relationship
can form but you have to continueto nurture and build off of that.
(16:31):
You can't kind of many people geta new brand strategy or something
and then it just sits there, theydon't actually work towards it.
So it's something that you needto constantly focus on and I
love the strategy with using thatpodcast being a guest on shows
to build that trust with people.
Cause that's kind of that first battle andthen when you were focused in that 101st
episode, that is where the sale startedto take place and just take off for you.
(16:55):
When you work with a lot of solopreneursdo you have a strategy on kind of a
surefire way that is going to 10 X?
What they have going on, whether it'stwo, three, four times their business.
Is it usually one thing or is it acombination of a few things that you
need to work on and improve in order toincrease those conversions throughout the
entire buyer's journey and sales funnel?
(17:15):
It's a combination of a number of things.
Okay.
So, like I said, the first thing thatI mentioned We got to help these people
embrace their inner salesman, right?
Cause that's the number one reason they'refailing is because they hate sales.
So we got to get them to stop hatingsales, stop being scared of sales.
Once we've done that, that alone canhelp them three, four or five fold
their business but secondly, theyreally need to narrow their niche.
(17:39):
They need to narrow their focus.
So many people in business, ifyou ask them what they do, they
go, I can do anything for anybody.
I'm like, are you kidding me?
So I had a client, right?
She's a functional medicine doc.
And when I met her, she was doing well.
She did six figures a yearbut she wanted to do better.
She wanted to do seven figures a year andshe wanted to do it to honor her father.
(18:01):
Her father had been a successfulentrepreneur and he was dying
of brain cancer, geoblastoma.
She wanted to honor his legacy.
Six months later, he died.
which was very sad.
This young lady came to usand she said, Please help me.
I need to do this.
It's very important.
I want my dad.
(18:21):
I want him to be smiling down on me fromheaven and I want him to be proud of me.
And I said, Of course, we'll help you.
And then I asked her, So who do you help?
And she says, Well, look, I'ma functional medicine doctor.
I can help anybody withany health problem.
And I said to her, Thisis your problem, Dr Vicky.
So she goes, Okay, I said,Let's do an exercise.
So imagine a Venn diagram.
(18:43):
Circle one is clients yougot the best results for.
I said, Make a list of those circle two isclients you enjoyed working with the most.
Make a list of those and circle threeis clients who are the easiest to do
business with, easiest to transact with.
Make a list of those whichclients fell in all three circles.
That was her ideal client and it wasprofessional woman over the age of 45,
(19:04):
successful in their careers, marriedhappily with kids, great marriage,
great children, great home life.
Only one problem.
Maybe you've heard of this problem.
Women, at least I've heard this.
Don't know if it's a hundred percent true.
Don't like not feeling beautiful.
They love feeling beautiful and alot of these women over the age of 45
felt they weren't beautiful anymore.
(19:24):
Felt they were overweightand time had passed them by.
Now here's what Dr. Vicki said to me.
She said, Nikki.
Getting older is inevitable.
The number will go up everyyear but aging is optional.
You can look and feel just as goodin your 50s as you did in your
20s, 30s, and 40s and we calledour program Get Your Sexy Back.
(19:49):
Chris, she doubled herincome in her first year.
She doubled it again in hersecond year and she doubled it
again in her third year, justfrom narrowing her focus brother.
And she went from making sixfigures a year to making six
figures a month, bro, a month.
That's what we help people do, man.
We love on them.
We pour into them.
We believe in them and we get themto do smart things like embrace
(20:11):
selling, like get clear on who yourideal client is and focus on them.
Don't try to be all things to all people.
Those are very, very important.
I think it's important one to have someclarity and direction and focus for your
business on who you help but I thinkit helps you craft better messaging.
So it actually resonates with theintended audience, your ideal client
that you fit together with so much.
(20:32):
A lot of people can struggle with thatbut to hear the results, year after
year, increasing sales, when you start tonarrow down, I can attest to that as well.
When I started my DJ business, it waswe help everybody when I specialized
and we help wedding couples.
This was that kind offix into the next area.
Yes, a hundred percent.
You did the right thing.
(20:54):
Mm-hmm
. See people who are kinda struggling in that area.
Sometimes you need to focus down you torecraft your offer, understand who your
audience is and then test that out andsee what people respond to a lot of times
that self-confidence can take a hit.
People feel almost resentful towards thepeople that they might be serving and
trying to work with just because they'renot having a lot of success with it.
(21:16):
They might think about throwing in thetowel or they want to try something
new but here Nikki comes with thesuperhero to save the day and say,
well, hold on now, let me just takea look and see what's going on here.
And then somehow you kind of craft this.
This plan for them that suddenlyunlocks that lock that's been
holding them back for so long.
How do you approach each situation with aclient like that to to get these results?
(21:40):
I know you mentioned it's a littlebit different for each client but
do you kind of have a tried and truestrategy that's been effective for you?
Well, brother, there's only a handfulof problems that solopreneurs have when
it comes to scaling their business.
It's not like there are amyriad of problems, right?
So the biggest one is most ofthem are scared of selling.
They don't want to sell.
They magically want businessto somehow fall into their lap.
(22:03):
So once we disabuse them of thatnotion and we get them to embrace
selling, that solves 60 percentof the problems right there.
Secondly, too many of them arescared to narrow their focus.
They want to do all things for all peoplebecause they think otherwise they'll
miss out and they're wrong about that.
So we need to show them that thirdthing is a lot of people under charge.
(22:23):
They undervalue what they're doingand that's because they're afraid
that clients won't pay right orthey're afraid they're not worth it.
We got to help them with that and weshow them how to charge based on the
value of the solution that they offer.
I had a client of mine great guy.
I met him when he was 57 years old, sameage I am right now actually and he had
been an executive vice president and amanufacturing concerned but he burned
(22:46):
out because he worked 60 hours a week.
He didn't want to do that anymoreand he started executive coaching.
He loved it but he tookan 80 percent haircut.
So he went from 3.
50 a year to 70 a year, 6, 000 a month.
He came to me and he said,Nicky, can you help me?
All I want to do is replace theincome I used to have but I don't
want to work 60 hours a week anymore.
I looked at what he was chargingand that was the whole problem.
(23:07):
He delivered so much andhe charged so little.
So, I told him, look, half thisstuff isn't necessary, stop
doing it and 10 fold your price.
He freaked out, 10 fold my price.
No one's going to buy that.
Trust me, they will.
He didn't 10 fold his price,he 5 folded his price.
That alone helped him attract3, 4 times as many clients.
Within 6 months of workingwith us, he went from 6 grand
(23:30):
a month to 60 grand a month.
Think about that.
He was working 25- 30 hours a weekand eventually he dropped down
to 50 grand a month because hedidn't even want to work that hard.
So, for 25 hours a week, hewas making 50 grand a month.
Now, his name was Carl, and hepassed away from pancreatic cancer.
Well, I want to tell you something, man.
Sad that he died but he got to livethe last four years of his life
(23:52):
completely fulfilled because he madethe money that he wanted to make.
He was living the life that he wantedto live and he loved every minute of it.
And it's sad.
He died brother but I'd rather goto my grave knowing that I fulfilled
my mission and my destiny and goto my grave, still struggling.
Amen to that.
Absolutely.
And for those who are interested ingetting connected with Nikki here, where
(24:15):
is the best place for people to findyou online and get connected with you?
I'm on social media everywhere.
I'm the only Nikki blue on the planet.
So go on your favorite social mediaplatform and type in Nikki blue.
You'll find me.
But if you're a business owner and you'redealing with a business problem, you
want to solve and you're one of them.
So openers that could use somehelp, go to East circle academy.
com forward slash appointment.
Jump on my calendar.
(24:36):
Let's have a talk.
Excellent.
And we'll have that link available downin the show notes and description as well.
Nicky, we want to ask, you're kind oframping up closing out a great 2024 here.
What are you looking forwardto and most excited about?
What's on the agenda for 2025?
Well, my new book, GetBooked and Get Paid, and our
workshop, we're very excited.
We think we can dramatically ramp that up.
Next year.
And we're looking forwardto doing exactly that.
(24:58):
That is exciting.
It sounds like it has a lot of greatinformation real advice practical tips,
something that people can actuallytake with them and get results from.
So definitely appreciate yousharing the tips and tricks with us.
All the advice.
So excited to stay connected hereand watch the future grow with you.
And Nikki, thank you so much.
Chris.
Thanks for having me on the show.
Of course.
I got into entrepreneurship becauseof my father and my father was the
kind of man who'd always tell me, son,remember that man sitting in front of
you, that someone's son, that someone'sbrother, that someone's husband, that
someone's father, that's a hero tosomebody, maybe someone just like
you disappointed him in business.
It's your job to restoretheir faith in humanity.
And remember life is aboutpeople, not money, not numbers.
(00:22):
Business is even about people,not money, not numbers.
And when I was a kid, Iwouldn't get that right.
Cause I'm going without money.
You can't do business.
But as I grew older.
I understood what he meant.
What he meant was that all businesses issolving problems for people for a profit.
And if you really want to be the kind ofbusinessman who's going to have longevity,
you need to be all about solvingproblems for the people for a profit.
(00:45):
You're listening to BrainworkFramework, a business and marketing
podcast brought to you by focused-biz.
com.
Welcome back to anotherepisode of Brainwork Framework.
With us today is the founder ofE Circle Academy, Nicky Bilou.
He helps solopreneurs 10X theirincome, impact, and influence.
So excited to have him on.
Nicky, how are you doing today?
Thanks for joining us.
Chris, it's an honor to be here, man.
(01:06):
Thanks for having me on the show.
Absolutely.
So excited to chat with you.
We always like to ask our guests, tellus about your entrepreneurial journey.
What were you doing before andhow did that kind of lead you
into what you're doing today?
That's a fantastic question.
I'm actually originally animmigrant from the Middle East.
I'm a Christian from Iran.
When I was 11 years old the Islamicrevolution took place in Iran.
My late father, God rest his soul,he could see the writing on the wall.
(01:28):
This wasn't going to be a placeto raise a Christian family.
So he and my mom, they got together,they talked, they made a plan and
it took them a while but eventuallythey got my brothers and I out
of Iran and they settled us whereI now live in Toronto, Canada.
At the time I was a kid, Ididn't want to leave my home.
I didn't want to leave my friendsbut in retrospect, it was the single
(01:48):
greatest thing mom and dad could havedone for me and my two brothers because
they took us from a legacy of tyrannyto a legacy of freedom and Chris, I
believe, this is very important forentrepreneurs, that inside every human
breast beats a living heart of freedom.
Every man, every woman on thisplanet wants to march to the
tune of their own drummer.
They want to chart their own course andif you're an entrepreneur, freedom really
(02:10):
needs to matter to you because withoutfreedom, you don't have free expression,
you don't have free enterprise andwithout those things, you can't have a
powerful, heroic, entrepreneurial journey.
Right?
So to me, every entrepreneur needsto care about what they do but they
also need to care about an environmentof freedom to allow them to do that.
Now, my dad was an entrepreneur.
(02:30):
He's the greatest man I've ever known.
So, if you knew my dad, you'd lovea man because he was the kind of guy
that if you were looking for work,he'd sit you down in his office, he'd
call all his entrepreneur buddiestill one of them gave you a job.
If you were trying to start a business,he'd sit you down in his office, he'd
listen carefully to you, he'd give youhis best advice, he'd give you access to
people who could give you capital, getyour clients and you'd be on your way.
(02:54):
And if you were one of his friends andyou were trying to buy a car or a house
and the bank wouldn't quite give youenough money, he'd talk you up with a
loan that he'd never let you pay back.
And all kinds of people, when I tell themthis story, they go, Nikki, come on, man.
What are you talking about?
Who does that?
Nobody does that and you knowwhat I have to say to them?
Well, actually, at least one person I knowdid that, the late great Napoleon Ballou.
And then people would say to me,what are you talking about, man?
(03:16):
Why would he do that?
What would be in it for him?
And here's my answer.
Well, He was a devout Christian.
He believed that his immortalsoul was in it for him.
It was his duty as a Christian to sharehis blessings with other people and
secondly, this is equally important.
He did it because hecould, he was successful.
He was rich.
I wanted to be like my dad.
I got into entrepreneurship becauseof my father and my father was the
(03:38):
kind of man who'd always tell me, son.
Remember that man sitting in frontof you, that's someone's son,
that's someone's brother, that'ssomeone's husband, that's someone's
father, that's a hero to somebody.
And maybe someone just like youdisappointed him in business.
It's your job to restoretheir faith in humanity.
And remember, life is aboutpeople, not money, not numbers.
(03:58):
Business is even about people,not money, not numbers.
And when I was a kid, Iwouldn't get that, right?
Because I'm going withoutmoney, you can't do business.
But as I grew older, Iunderstood what he meant.
What he meant was that, all businessesis solving problems for people for profit
and if you really want to be the kind ofbusinessman who's going to have longevity,
you need to be all about solvingproblems for the people for a profit.
(04:21):
And I became an entrepreneur tohonor my father and the legacy
that he gave me because I believeentrepreneurs are society's greatest
heroes and so many entrepreneurs,Chris, so many entrepreneurs are good
people but they don't necessarilyhave great business skills.
They're not great at sales or marketing.
And me, I come from a business background.
(04:44):
I was good at sales and marketing andI really love helping people who are
good human beings but maybe sales makesthem nervous or maybe sales is like
something that they think to themselves,Oh my God, I don't want to be seen
as that dude with commission breath.
And I help him reframe that.
Reframe selling to serving.
Chris, no one wants to be sold.
(05:04):
You don't want to be sold.
I don't want to be sold but don't youlove being served by a caring human being?
Just teaching people how to do that.
Brother, I've helped tons ofpeople double, triple, quadruple
the size of their business.
And they're often to the racist.
That's beautiful.
And I think it's important that youhave this mission where it's people
overprofit, carrying on that legacy.
It's so important when we see thesemega corporations who continue to
(05:27):
remove services and features andincrease their prices and lay off
people while continuing a stock buyback.
It's like, wow, where arethe true business leaders?
Where are the people whoare going to lead us?
The people who have more compassionand here you are, thankfully, there
are real nice business owners outthere that exists, so we appreciate
you just having that as a serviceand it's true, nobody likes to be
(05:49):
sold, but they do love to be served.
So in what way can we communicateand craft that messaging to mess
to resonate with that audience.
So that way they understand they're notbeing sold but instead being served.
Throughout your journey, whatis your tactic for working
with a lot of your clients?
What strategies do you implement for themthat kind of get them out of that rut?
(06:09):
Well, that's a great question.
One of the things that a lot offolks that are solopreneurs don't
really understand is that they needto embrace their inner salesman.
Okay.
You've got to be somebody who'sgoing to go out there and sell.
And this is real talk cause fartoo many people, I had a call with
(06:31):
a guy today and he's a great guy.
He says, I hate sales.
When I see a salesman come in and Iwalk away and I go and yet you want
to get into business and you want tomake a million dollars a year and you
hate sales and he said, yeah, I get it.
Ironic right?
And I said, yeah, ironicis one way to put it.
It's also detrimental to yourability to be successful.
If you look at sales as beinga bad thing then you're going
(06:53):
to push sales away from you.
You're going to be part of what I callthe sales prevention department but
instead, if you look at sales as an actof deep love and an act of deep service,
you're going to pull sales towards you.
So let me tell you a little story,Chris, if I may, I had a client
who was personal fitness trainer.
Okay.
Really good guy but he didn't do so hot.
He made like three to 5, 000 a month.
His name was Cal Calum Shawand when he came to work with
(07:16):
us, he was struggling, man.
He was barely staying afloat and Iasked him, what do you want to do?
And he said, I just want to make enoughmoney so I don't struggle every month.
I said, okay, so what's the problem?
He said, I just don't know how to sell.
I don't like selling.
Selling's not my favorite thingin the world to do and when
we started working together, Icould see Callum was a good guy.
(07:37):
I believed in Callum and my father used totell me, you need to believe in people.
Everyone needs someone to believe in them.
You know what I mean?
There are days when your own selfbelief isn't the best, so you need
someone to believe in you, right?
And as a result of this, I justpoured my belief into him and I
really helped him think about thepeople that he was going to work
(07:59):
with as people that he was serving.
People he was serving out of suffering.
We got clear on who his ideal client was.
He was working with relativelynew dads, new dads with dad bods.
So Calum started working with theseguys and brother within 90 days, he
went from making three grand on a badmonth, five grand on a good month.
(08:21):
Brother, he did 29, 000 a monthwithin 90 days, 29, 000 a month.
And this is just from comingfrom a servant's heart, wanting
to make a difference for peopleand embracing his inner salesman.
But we had to reframe it for him.
We called it his inner servant right?
And that allowed him to growhis business dramatically.
(08:43):
And today I worked withCallum for two years.
He ended up starting his own gym andnow it's a multidisciplinary gym with
a chiropractic office and whatnot.
And they pull in 90, a hundredgrand a month and I had a lot
to do with teaching this man howto be a successful businessman.
And I'm very proud of that fact.
That's fantastic.
(09:04):
I appreciate that story becauseI think it really connects with
those who are struggling, theyare kind of blocked by themselves.
They're in their own head.
It's the mindset isn't right.
Something needs to give them directionand clarity and then here you come
to kind of give them that boost theconfidence to say, this is just a
reframing of how we're looking at sales.
And I think sales can be intimidating.
(09:25):
Marketing can be intimidating.
Business can be intimidating but themore that we connect with other mentors
entrepreneurs to see what they're doing,what's being successful and reframe
it into a way of how can we serve?
How are we giving value?
How are we solving problems?
We're going to realize that.
Hey, this is something thatthe world needs to hear about.
I'm excited to share it with the worldand we're not going to be so hesitant.
(09:47):
I think I do see a lot of resistingsales, they'll get someone in
the door and they're talkingthem out of the sale, right?
And I'm sure you've helped verysimilar people and that's something
that people need to recognize isthat mindset mindset shift, the
clarity, giving them some confidence.
Cause like you said, there's days whereour own self confidence just isn't enough.
We need others to kind ofpush us and move us forward.
(10:08):
So that's incredibly important throughoutthe 20 years that you've been in business,
helping people, helping solopreneurs.
If there's someone who's out therethat's looking to get started,
find out more information.
Is there usually a resource you try todirect them to either internal or do
you recommend a book YouTube series?
Well, there's a book.
(10:28):
I've written 11 books, but there's oneof my books that is specifically for
the type of person you're talking aboutwho's not in business for themselves yet.
It's called The Thought Leader'sJourney and it looks like this, okay?
In this book is a fable, right?
Kind of like the monk who sold his Ferrarior the greatest salesman in the world.
(10:49):
Tells the story of a young mannamed Paulo, who works in a big
corporation but his dream is togo and start his own business.
This is a fabulous book that will giveyou a blueprint on how to get started.
You can go buy this on Amazon.
You can also get a Kindle copy of itfor free by going to ecircleacademy.
com forward slash TLJ book that'sfor Thought Leader's Journey book.
(11:14):
So it's ecircleacademy.
com forward slash TLJ book and youcan get yourself a free Kindle copy.
But if you like hard copybooks, which I do, then go on
Amazon and buy yourself a copy.
That's fantastic.
And we'll also have that linkavailable down in the description
and shown out so everyone can getconnected with that wonderful offer
for the book and kind of get thatclarity for what they're looking for.
(11:35):
Being in business for 20 years, I'm sureyou've seen shifts in marketing and sales
yet a lot of the principles kind of staythe same which is why A lot of these
Dale Carnegie books are still popular.
A lot of business practices staythe same but there's a shift.
Changes happen and especiallywithin marketing and sales.
Being in business for 20years, what are some of those
shifts that you have noticed?
(11:56):
Or are you just all referralbased with a lot of your clients?
Or what's been the most effectivestrategy for getting yourself
out there and then getting leadsinto the door and nurturing them.
You know, that's a really good question.
Honestly, most effective lead generationstrategy today, 2024 leading into 2025
(12:17):
for solopreneurs is podcast guesting,being a guest on other people's shows.
I've been a guest on 670 shows.
I've been able to generate a couplehundred solid leads from that and
I've generated 425, 000 plus in sales.
I teach how to do this.
(12:38):
I have a workshop calledget booked and get paid.
I also wrote a book by the same title.
It's called get booked and get paidand basically the story of how this
came about was almost three yearsago because of the scamdemic a part
of my business went kaput about 500,000 in expected income disappeared.
(12:58):
And I was freaking out.
So I called my business coach Markvon Muser and I said to him, Mark,
let me turn this around, man.
What do you got?
And he thought for a minute,he said, I have an idea.
I said, okay, what's the idea?
He said, why don't we get you to bea guest on other people's podcasts?
But not for brand awareness butto get lead sales and clients.
(13:19):
And I said, I'm willing to try anything.
So how do we do that?
And Chris's answer was the greatestanswer I've ever heard in my life.
He said, and I quote, I have no freakingidea but we'll figure it out together.
Story of our lives.
We're kind of like we got todo something but what do we do?
We have to figure it.
Yeah.
So I went on a hundred shows and Igot no leads, no sales, no clients
(13:40):
but I did a whole lot of debriefs withMark and I finally figured it out.
Oh my God.
And when I figured it outon show 101, I got a lead.
I got a sale.
I got a client and then thewhole system crystallized for us.
All the reps we put in me going onall those shows allowed me to discover
what worked and what didn't work.
And here's the truth goingon a show as a guest.
(14:02):
You've got to have a triple intention.
I call it the triple threat intention.
Intention one is inspire the audience.
The audience is givingyou their attention.
It's your job to inspire them, right?
People are hurting.
They're looking for inspiring voices.
Secondly, make the host look good.
The host is spending time, energy,money putting out a podcast.
You gotta make the host look good.
(14:22):
Thirdly, Build a businessrelationship with the host.
The host is a businessman,a businesswoman.
Think about it.
This is old school gone high tech.
You build relationships with people.
This is high tech networking.
This is building the nolike and trust factor.
I don't know about you, Chris,but I do business with people.
I know like and trust both in termsof buying from them and selling to
(14:43):
them and nothing over the last two anda half years has been more effective
in generating no like and trust.
Then being a guest on all thesepodcasts that I've been a guest on.
It has been a brilliant strategy thatI've come up with and obviously there's
more to it than you just go on theshow and you get to meet the host.
(15:04):
You've got to make sure you do a goodenough job that you've got credibility
with that host and that host is interestedin potentially collaborating with you,
maybe you need to buy from that host.
Maybe they need to buy from you but allof that becomes possible when you come on
the show, you do a good job, you inspirethe audience, you make the host look
good and you build a relationship withthe host and you're off into the races.
(15:26):
Nobody's teaching this except for me.
Nobody's teaching you how to do this.
I go into great detail in mybook, Get Booked and Get Paid,
which is available on Amazon.
And I have a phenomenal workshop forfolks who need more help than the book.
To sit down, have a strategy to getbooked on shows and by the way, platforms
like Podmatch are perfect for that.
That's how you and I gotconnected but it's not enough
(15:48):
just to get booked on shows.
You need to do a good enough job so youcan get paid as a result of being on shows
and that's the secret sauce that I have.
And that's what you got to getthe book for in order to learn it.
I love it and I appreciate you beingupfront and transparent about the
strategy, what was working, whatdidn't work and how you brought it
all together because most peoplewould say, yeah, podcasting works
great but they would never go intomore detail but you actually gave 3
(16:11):
criteria that people need to follow.
You need to inspire andeducate, kind of this trifecta
effect which is really smart.
This has been a great way forpodcasting in order to get one on one
conversations with other business owners.
We get their expertise.
We get to have a great conversation andthen from that, a business relationship
can form but you have to continueto nurture and build off of that.
(16:31):
You can't kind of many people geta new brand strategy or something
and then it just sits there, theydon't actually work towards it.
So it's something that you needto constantly focus on and I
love the strategy with using thatpodcast being a guest on shows
to build that trust with people.
Cause that's kind of that first battle andthen when you were focused in that 101st
episode, that is where the sale startedto take place and just take off for you.
(16:55):
When you work with a lot of solopreneursdo you have a strategy on kind of a
surefire way that is going to 10 X?
What they have going on, whether it'stwo, three, four times their business.
Is it usually one thing or is it acombination of a few things that you
need to work on and improve in order toincrease those conversions throughout the
entire buyer's journey and sales funnel?
(17:15):
It's a combination of a number of things.
Okay.
So, like I said, the first thing thatI mentioned We got to help these people
embrace their inner salesman, right?
Cause that's the number one reason they'refailing is because they hate sales.
So we got to get them to stop hatingsales, stop being scared of sales.
Once we've done that, that alone canhelp them three, four or five fold
their business but secondly, theyreally need to narrow their niche.
(17:39):
They need to narrow their focus.
So many people in business, ifyou ask them what they do, they
go, I can do anything for anybody.
I'm like, are you kidding me?
So I had a client, right?
She's a functional medicine doc.
And when I met her, she was doing well.
She did six figures a yearbut she wanted to do better.
She wanted to do seven figures a year andshe wanted to do it to honor her father.
(18:01):
Her father had been a successfulentrepreneur and he was dying
of brain cancer, geoblastoma.
She wanted to honor his legacy.
Six months later, he died.
which was very sad.
This young lady came to usand she said, Please help me.
I need to do this.
It's very important.
I want my dad.
(18:21):
I want him to be smiling down on me fromheaven and I want him to be proud of me.
And I said, Of course, we'll help you.
And then I asked her, So who do you help?
And she says, Well, look, I'ma functional medicine doctor.
I can help anybody withany health problem.
And I said to her, Thisis your problem, Dr Vicky.
So she goes, Okay, I said,Let's do an exercise.
So imagine a Venn diagram.
(18:43):
Circle one is clients yougot the best results for.
I said, Make a list of those circle two isclients you enjoyed working with the most.
Make a list of those and circle threeis clients who are the easiest to do
business with, easiest to transact with.
Make a list of those whichclients fell in all three circles.
That was her ideal client and it wasprofessional woman over the age of 45,
(19:04):
successful in their careers, marriedhappily with kids, great marriage,
great children, great home life.
Only one problem.
Maybe you've heard of this problem.
Women, at least I've heard this.
Don't know if it's a hundred percent true.
Don't like not feeling beautiful.
They love feeling beautiful and alot of these women over the age of 45
felt they weren't beautiful anymore.
(19:24):
Felt they were overweightand time had passed them by.
Now here's what Dr. Vicki said to me.
She said, Nikki.
Getting older is inevitable.
The number will go up everyyear but aging is optional.
You can look and feel just as goodin your 50s as you did in your
20s, 30s, and 40s and we calledour program Get Your Sexy Back.
(19:49):
Chris, she doubled herincome in her first year.
She doubled it again in hersecond year and she doubled it
again in her third year, justfrom narrowing her focus brother.
And she went from making sixfigures a year to making six
figures a month, bro, a month.
That's what we help people do, man.
We love on them.
We pour into them.
We believe in them and we get themto do smart things like embrace
(20:11):
selling, like get clear on who yourideal client is and focus on them.
Don't try to be all things to all people.
Those are very, very important.
I think it's important one to have someclarity and direction and focus for your
business on who you help but I thinkit helps you craft better messaging.
So it actually resonates with theintended audience, your ideal client
that you fit together with so much.
(20:32):
A lot of people can struggle with thatbut to hear the results, year after
year, increasing sales, when you start tonarrow down, I can attest to that as well.
When I started my DJ business, it waswe help everybody when I specialized
and we help wedding couples.
This was that kind offix into the next area.
Yes, a hundred percent.
You did the right thing.
(20:54):
Mm-hmm
. See people who are kinda struggling in that area.
Sometimes you need to focus down you torecraft your offer, understand who your
audience is and then test that out andsee what people respond to a lot of times
that self-confidence can take a hit.
People feel almost resentful towards thepeople that they might be serving and
trying to work with just because they'renot having a lot of success with it.
(21:16):
They might think about throwing in thetowel or they want to try something
new but here Nikki comes with thesuperhero to save the day and say,
well, hold on now, let me just takea look and see what's going on here.
And then somehow you kind of craft this.
This plan for them that suddenlyunlocks that lock that's been
holding them back for so long.
How do you approach each situation with aclient like that to to get these results?
(21:40):
I know you mentioned it's a littlebit different for each client but
do you kind of have a tried and truestrategy that's been effective for you?
Well, brother, there's only a handfulof problems that solopreneurs have when
it comes to scaling their business.
It's not like there are amyriad of problems, right?
So the biggest one is most ofthem are scared of selling.
They don't want to sell.
They magically want businessto somehow fall into their lap.
(22:03):
So once we disabuse them of thatnotion and we get them to embrace
selling, that solves 60 percentof the problems right there.
Secondly, too many of them arescared to narrow their focus.
They want to do all things for all peoplebecause they think otherwise they'll
miss out and they're wrong about that.
So we need to show them that thirdthing is a lot of people under charge.
(22:23):
They undervalue what they're doingand that's because they're afraid
that clients won't pay right orthey're afraid they're not worth it.
We got to help them with that and weshow them how to charge based on the
value of the solution that they offer.
I had a client of mine great guy.
I met him when he was 57 years old, sameage I am right now actually and he had
been an executive vice president and amanufacturing concerned but he burned
(22:46):
out because he worked 60 hours a week.
He didn't want to do that anymoreand he started executive coaching.
He loved it but he tookan 80 percent haircut.
So he went from 3.
50 a year to 70 a year, 6, 000 a month.
He came to me and he said,Nicky, can you help me?
All I want to do is replace theincome I used to have but I don't
want to work 60 hours a week anymore.
I looked at what he was chargingand that was the whole problem.
(23:07):
He delivered so much andhe charged so little.
So, I told him, look, half thisstuff isn't necessary, stop
doing it and 10 fold your price.
He freaked out, 10 fold my price.
No one's going to buy that.
Trust me, they will.
He didn't 10 fold his price,he 5 folded his price.
That alone helped him attract3, 4 times as many clients.
Within 6 months of workingwith us, he went from 6 grand
(23:30):
a month to 60 grand a month.
Think about that.
He was working 25- 30 hours a weekand eventually he dropped down
to 50 grand a month because hedidn't even want to work that hard.
So, for 25 hours a week, hewas making 50 grand a month.
Now, his name was Carl, and hepassed away from pancreatic cancer.
Well, I want to tell you something, man.
Sad that he died but he got to livethe last four years of his life
(23:52):
completely fulfilled because he madethe money that he wanted to make.
He was living the life that he wantedto live and he loved every minute of it.
And it's sad.
He died brother but I'd rather goto my grave knowing that I fulfilled
my mission and my destiny and goto my grave, still struggling.
Amen to that.
Absolutely.
And for those who are interested ingetting connected with Nikki here, where
(24:15):
is the best place for people to findyou online and get connected with you?
I'm on social media everywhere.
I'm the only Nikki blue on the planet.
So go on your favorite social mediaplatform and type in Nikki blue.
You'll find me.
But if you're a business owner and you'redealing with a business problem, you
want to solve and you're one of them.
So openers that could use somehelp, go to East circle academy.
com forward slash appointment.
Jump on my calendar.
(24:36):
Let's have a talk.
Excellent.
And we'll have that link available downin the show notes and description as well.
Nicky, we want to ask, you're kind oframping up closing out a great 2024 here.
What are you looking forwardto and most excited about?
What's on the agenda for 2025?
Well, my new book, GetBooked and Get Paid, and our
workshop, we're very excited.
We think we can dramatically ramp that up.
Next year.
And we're looking forwardto doing exactly that.
(24:58):
That is exciting.
It sounds like it has a lot of greatinformation real advice practical tips,
something that people can actuallytake with them and get results from.
So definitely appreciate yousharing the tips and tricks with us.
All the advice.
So excited to stay connected hereand watch the future grow with you.
And Nikki, thank you so much.
Chris.
Thanks for having me on the show.
Of course.
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!