October 30, 2025 • 43 mins
Get ready for an incredibly powerful conversation with Nicky Billou, a man whose life story is a testament to the transformative power of freedom and courage.
This episode of Thrive After 45™ is a deep dive into how he went from literally having a Molotov cocktail thrown into his living room in Iran as a child to becoming a two-time New York Times bestselling author and what he calls a "millionaire maker."
Nicky's journey as an immigrant, combined with personal trials like divorce, fueled his drive to help entrepreneurs break free from limitation and chase their vision.
He saw the vibrant freedom in his new home, Canada, and dedicated his life to helping those at the forefront of free enterprise: the entrepreneurs.
His vision is to create a billion multimillionaires by 2040 to build a global constituency for freedom. Seriously, how amazing is that?
What Nicky does better than almost anyone is act as a professional encourager and believer in people. We talk about the one thing that can make or break an entrepreneur - self-belief - and why having that one person in your corner makes all the difference.
We also get into some real-life talk about dealing with external opinions and fears that try to hold you back.../even from the people you love.
Nicky shares an awesome personal example of pushing back on well-meaning but limiting advice to pursue his dream of a professional bodybuilding card at 58.
His advice is clear: don't let anyone steal your damn dream away.
To wrap up, Nicky tells an unforgettable story about a client who signed up for his program after being kicked out of her own company. You’ll hear how his support didn't just transform her business...it literally saved her family. It's an emotional, stunning moment that shows why the work he does goes far beyond just business coaching.
If you're an entrepreneur who feels stuck, a woman in midlife with a burning idea, or just someone who needs a shot of pure, unadulterated belief, this episode will fire you up and remind you of your own capacity to rise.
You can learn more about Nicky's work and connect with him here:
http://www.ecircleacademy.com/appointment
Thank you for spending time with me today on the Thrive After 45™ podcast! If this episode spoke to you, be sure to hit that follow button so you never miss one.
And if you loved it, I’d be so grateful if you left a review - it helps more amazing women like you find this show!
Your journey doesn’t stop here - let’s keep the conversation going! Connect with me at denisedrinkwalter.com, and follow @thethriveafter45podcast for daily insp, tips, and support.
Remember, midlife isn’t the end - it’s just the beginning of a new, exciting chapter! Keep thriving, keep shining, and I’ll see you next time!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello, and welcome to today'sepisode of Thrive After 45.
I'm Denise Drink, heartwhisperer, midlife mirror and
mentor.
And every week I am honored toshare energy and space with
inspiring guests whose storiesreflect so many possibilities of
thriving beyond 45.
(00:21):
Together we'll uncover thewhispers of the heart, the power
of midlife transformation, andthe wisdom that fuels expansion.
What if the power to impactmillions began with the courage
to start?
Over such an honor and aprivilege to welcome Nikki
Ballou, whose story is aspowerful as the impact he's
(00:46):
created in the world.
Nikki's journey began as animmigrant, navigating the
challenges of building a newlife, and continued through the
personal trials of divorceexperiences that shaped his
drive resilience and mission tohelp others.
Break free from limitation.
Over the last 20 years, Nikkihas become a two-time New York
(01:10):
Times bestselling author, a truemillionaire maker, and a trusted
guide for entrepreneurs who feelstuck in growing their
businesses.
His work has touched the livesof over 4 million people
worldwide, helping them stepinto possibility prosperity.
(01:31):
Purpose.
This conversation isn't justabout business growth.
It's about courage, reinvention,and what it actually takes to
rise no matter what life placesin your path.
Nikki, welcome to Thrive after45.
Denise, it's an honor to behere.
Thanks for having me on theshow.
(01:51):
Absolutely.
Let's dig right in.
We need to know and understandyour challenges brought you to
the new country, rebuilding lifeafter divorce.
What's that backstory that youcan share with us, and how has
it even begun to shape the workthat you are doing today?
(02:13):
Great question.
So, as you said, I'm originallyan immigrant from the Middle
East.
I'm a Christian from Iran.
When I was 11 years old, theIslamic Revolution took place in
Iran and there were literallyDenise gun battles going on in
the streets near my home.
Now my mom and dad were, um,freaking out, and then one day
(02:33):
that freakout went up by afactor of a hundred Uhhuh.
So all of a sudden there was a.
Crashing sound through ourliving room window.
Something was thrown through itand it landed next to my feet.
And I'm looking at it and Idon't know what the heck it is,
but my father, he instantly knewwhat it was.
(02:55):
It was a bottle with a burningwick in it full of liquid, a
moto of cocktail.
Dad grabbed the thing and pulledout the burning wick so it
wouldn't explode.
'cause if it had you and Iwouldn't be talking right now.
And, um.
That's when him and mom said,that's it.
We're outta here.
And they made a plan to take meand my two brothers out of our
(03:18):
home in Iran.
And initially we went to Athens,Greece.
That took two years to make thathappen.
And then another two years weleft Athens, Greece to come to
Toronto, Canada, where I nowlive now at that time, maybe you
can relate.
I'm a kid, I've got friends,I've got a home I love.
I didn't wanna leave any ofthat.
(03:38):
Yeah, yeah.
Right.
But as time went on, I startedto see the nobility of my mom
and dad's sacrifice because theyleft behind everyone and
everything.
They knew for a chance at abetter life for me and my two
brothers.
I'm, I'm going through lifebeing exposed to, um, a whole
(04:00):
new way of living in Canada thanin Iran.
And Iran under the Shah was arelatively free place, but Iran,
under the Mullahs was not at alla free place.
It was a dark place, you know,um, girls, for example.
And women were being forced tocover up.
Yeah.
Which they'd never had tobefore.
Dancing was banned, music wasbanned.
(04:23):
Um.
Most movies were banned.
And then we come to Canada andthere's an openness, there's a
freedom, there's a joy, there'sa vibrancy, there's a life.
And I started to see that insideevery human breast beats the
living heart of freedom.
Every man, every woman on thisplanet yearns to breathe free,
(04:43):
to chart their own course, tomarch to the tune of their own
drummer.
And that's what had me go.
Okay.
I'm all about this.
Like my, my, my, um, avatar isfreedom, freedom Capitalism, a
society where you can go andchoose where you're gonna go and
(05:07):
what you're gonna do, and.
It was very, very important forme to help the people that were
the biggest beneficiaries ofthis freedom.
And then the also, in manycases, the ones who understood
it the best, the entrepreneurs,because if you're an
entrepreneur, you gotta be free.
You gotta be free to think, yougotta be free to express
yourself.
You gotta be free to engage inenterprise, free enterprise.
(05:30):
You gotta be free to chart acourse and right.
My mom and dad, dad especially,they were entrepreneurs.
Mm-hmm.
And I wanted to honor them and Iwanted to help the people that
were the folks at the forefrontof freedom.
And my mission, my vision hasbecome, and that's a crazy
(05:51):
vision that I want the world tohave.
A billion multimillionaires.
Wow.
A billion multimillionaires by2040.
This will create the biggestconstituency for freedom that
the world has ever seen.
It will destroy the forces ofdarkness that want to crush us
and our dreams, and they don'tmind burning our beautiful world
(06:12):
to the ground as long as theycan rule over the ashes.
Mm-hmm.
And those are the people that Iconsider the enemy, the the
people that spread evilideologies and evil ideas, and
don't want us to be free.
So what you're speaking of is sorich.
Not just monetarily, but rich insoul because you're talking
(06:34):
about freedom that many of uswho have not had those
experiences that you have had,don't really understand.
What freedom is because we don'thave that opposite side of the
coin.
How do you supportentrepreneurs?
(06:55):
I love that you do that work,because I love that you're
seeing, those are the peoplethat are already in that freedom
mindset.
That's their goal, but how doyou take them from wanting that
freedom but not seeing it?
Well.
(07:16):
You know, it's an interestingquestion.
Um, I think that the averageentrepreneur wants to be free.
That's one of the reasonsthey're an entrepreneur.
They've got this vision thatthey're gonna create a business
that's going to give themfinancial freedom so that they
can do wonderful things fortheir family and wonderful
things for the people they loveand wonderful things for
(07:38):
themselves.
And.
I speak to that because thatyearning in everyone's soul is
there and it's powerful.
Hmm.
Like if I'm speaking to aclient, a lot of our clients
are, are, you know, coaches andconsultants, right?
Here's what, here's what I'venoticed.
(07:58):
Almost all of them have anincredible skillset, like they
can do the thing that they dothat helps people really, really
well.
So whether they're right.
A mindset coach, a health coach,a relationship coach, a business
coach, what have you, they'reawesome at that, right?
Where they fall short is theirself-belief.
(08:24):
So, and my father used to saythis to me, said, son, every
human being on the planet hasdays where their self-belief
wobbles.
Me, you everybody.
And the difference between thosewhose self-belief recovers and
those whose self-belief stayswobbly is that there's someone
(08:44):
in the ear of the person whoseself-belief recovers saying to
them, Hey, I see you.
Hey, I feel you.
You are awesome and I know whoyou really are and I believe in
(09:05):
you.
And maybe those words aren'tspoken, but the energy behind
those words is conveyed andconveyed powerfully.
And so those people, you know,you, you've probably seen
speeches at the Academy Awardsor athletes getting into the
Hall of Fame or winning a goldmedal, and they all tell you, my
(09:27):
mentor.
My father, my sister, my, mymother, there's someone there
who really believed in them andmade them believe in themselves.
That little spark of belief theygave them turned into a roaring
fire and they were off into theraces.
So people often ask me, they go,Luc, so Nick, man, tell me your
skillset.
Like, what are the things youdo?
(09:48):
And look, I got mad skills.
Okay.
I'm.
Amazing.
It's showing people how to geton podcasts and turn that into
an opportunity to buildrelationships, get lead sales
and clients.
I do thought leadership andpersonal branding, and there may
be two to three people on theplanet at my level at that, and
I show people how to sell fromthe heart, but sell right.
(10:09):
Beautifully at that.
I'm, I'm incredible at all thatstuff and many, many other
things, but there's lots ofpeople who can at least claim
they have some, some or more ofthose skills, but not one of
them.
Incredibly claim what I claim.
Because what I claim is I'mNapoleon Ballou's son and I see
(10:29):
you and I believe in you.
And I'm a professionalencourager of and believer in
people.
And most people don't even knowthat that's a thing.
But it's a thing.
And trust me, it's not only athing, it's the thing that has
allowed me to be successful inbusiness.
I have not spent a ton of moneyon, on ads.
I mean, I've tried some ads inthe past.
Mm-hmm.
How I got my clients.
Is I help people.
(10:50):
I put myself out there and, andI vibrate at a certain level
that God decides that myvibration's high enough that he
sends those people my way.
Right, right, right.
Yeah.
Relationships.
How does the relationship thatyou have with yourself impact
(11:10):
your relationship with others?
So, that's a good question.
I've had lots of people like myfather, you know, my mother, my
mentors and coaches, and certainteachers believe in me and that
has had me believe in myself,you know, not in an egotistical
(11:31):
look at me, beat my chest kindof away, or look at me
peacocking with nice clothes andbrands and all of that stuff.
Yeah.
But in a, I know I am.
Yeah.
And I'm a rockstar.
I'm a rockstar.
And I say this with like no ego,I'm a rockstar.
People are lucky.
People that come across my pathare lucky because they get a
(11:51):
really, really awesome dude intheir corner to help them get to
the next level and mm-hmm.
The overwhelming majority of thepeople I work with end up
believing themselves more,making a lot more money, um, and
having, having the faith to goout there and get a lot more
done than before they met me.
Nice, nice.
(12:12):
So the 4 million people that'scontinuing to grow.
Yeah, I go on a lot of podcasts.
I've been on over 820 shows inthe last three and a half years
as a guest.
Mm-hmm.
And I speak on a bunch of stagesas well.
(12:32):
I'm sure you do.
And I'm sure what happens is therooms shift completely.
They do when, when you enter andthat drop of belief.
I'm smiling as you're speakingbecause as an educator, that's
the one thing that I never lostsight of.
(12:54):
It only takes one person to makea difference in another person's
life.
That's all it does, and, and younever know when that interaction
is going to happen.
You be your full self and youare there to support the people
If you come from theheart-centered approach like
yourself, Nikki, who believes inpeople because you know what's
(13:17):
possible.
Everything shifts for everybodythat you come in contact with,
and we all have that capacity todo so, but we lose it.
Because we don't realize howimportant that really is.
That's my 2 cents on that piece,and that's what makes you so
empowering because you haven'tlost your belief, and I am so
(13:39):
grateful that you've had thosepeople in your life who've
shared that with you in multipleways over the years because
you've hit hardships.
I have, right?
Huge.
Huge.
Yeah.
Hundred percent.
Everybody has honestly, ofcourse, if anybody who doesn't
go through some seriousadversity, it's the nature of
(14:01):
being a human being, of course.
And what, what happens with thatis we get to choose what are we
doing with that information.
And thank heavens you've takenit and move the needle not only
for yourself, but see thecapacity in those around you and
beyond, and know the world is abetter place because of it.
How do you have such a bigvision?
(14:24):
2040.
I was in a program with, uh,Patrick Beda, the, the, um, the,
the famous podcaster.
And in this program he said, yougotta have a big vision.
You gotta cast it all the time.
And I just, that just hit me.
It's like God gave it to me.
I don't, I don't think I came upwith that myself.
(14:44):
Yeah.
You know?
Um, and it comes one person at atime.
Hmm.
Like one of our clients today.
Her name's Shannon Coulter,right?
She's got a huge vision.
So she's a mom.
And, um, when she married her,her husband, he had kids from a
(15:08):
previous marriage that were acertain age and he was off at
work and the kids were therewith her.
And, um, she said, okay, gooutside and play.
And they, they, they, theycouldn't.
Fathom what that meant.
'cause they were used to phonesand screens and she had to go
teach these kids how toliterally go outside and play.
(15:30):
And so her mission has become towean children and even adults
off of screens.
She says, look, you're not gonnabe technology free.
That's not realistic, but mm-hmmYou are on tech 75% of the time.
Let's make you be on tech only25% of the time.
Her big enemy is our screens,our addiction to screens and
(15:55):
ignorance of parents.
You know what I mean?
There's an ignorance out thereof what this is doing to
children's brains and even to toadults.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right.
There's a laziness.
Some parents are just being lazyand this is like a digital
babysitter for them.
Yeah.
Like screw that.
Yeah, like screw that.
And anyways, she had never.
(16:19):
Done a business before she came.
Yeah.
As to what should I do?
Hmm.
She said, go start a pilotprogram.
And she said, uh, should I giveit away for free?
And we said, no.
Charge some money for it.
Mm-hmm.
So I don't think she's charginga lot of money for it, like a
hundred or 200 bucks a person.
But she filled her pilot programwith like 25 people.
Lty split.
(16:39):
Yeah.
Right.
And she's got another pilotprogram and now she's gonna have
a coaching program.
And she just finished her pilotprogram and she said there's
people there that have, thathave, have reduced their screen
time by three and a half to fivehours a day.
That's amazing.
Right.
And that's, that's like.
She's not making a ton of moneyfrom this right now.
(17:01):
I mean, you know, her, her, herfamily, her husband is extremely
successful.
She doesn't need the money, butmm-hmm.
Um, still the fact that it's abusiness and she's making money,
this was huge for her.
Right.
We had this other woman who cameto us and she manages, um, uh, a
med spa, her own, she owns a medspa, and now she, she has this
Med Spa academy teaching peoplehow to do med spas, you know,
(17:23):
like Botox and all that jazz.
Mm-hmm.
Anyways.
It took us a while to help herget everything sorted out from a
messaging point of view, but in32 days she made 1,000,050
thousand in sales.
Wow.
Right.
And yeah.
Well first of all, she's good.
(17:44):
Secondly, she had us helping herbelieve in herself.
And thirdly, she's in action andwe make sure people are in
action.
Right, right.
Yeah.
Uh, it's great to have all theideas, but if you do nothing
with it.
It just sits right.
It doesn't become a reality.
So what you do in supporting thepeople that you support, in the
(18:04):
ways that you support them,allow them to take that passion,
that vision, that possibility,and move it into action probably
far beyond what they could everbelieve, even though their heart
and soul is in it.
Yeah.
Love it.
Thank you.
I love it.
(18:25):
If you are listening to this andyou're thinking, well, I have an
idea and I don't, nobody thinksit's a good idea.
What do people do with that?
Because they do have good ideas.
Like my listeners have lots ofincredible thoughts and ideas.
This is a turning point for alot of women in their lives,
like children are leaving thenest, whatever's going on in
their world, they're thinking.
(18:47):
Ah, that's a crazy idea.
What do you do?
What do you suggest people dowhen they have this really good
idea that they want to, butnobody thinks it's a good idea,
but they know in their heart itis.
Well, I think you've got to, um,run with it.
Mm-hmm.
Because.
(19:09):
Let's be honest.
People that love you, many, manyoften, many times they mean
well.
Yeah.
But their own fears get in theway.
They try to hold you back.
Love that.
Yeah.
And you can't let that happen.
Yeah.
If, if you got something on yourheart, you gotta listen to
yourself ahead of listening toany outside voices.
Mm-hmm.
Denise, like look, um, I'm 58years old.
(19:34):
Mm-hmm.
And when I was 55, um.
I, um, I came to a point in mylife where like I just was not
happy with my physicalcondition, my, my, my fitness
level.
Yeah, I was overweight.
Um, I not happy, not happy withhow I looked, not happy with how
(19:56):
I felt, right?
Yeah.
I hired someone to get me ingood condition and it worked.
I dropped 58 pounds.
I ended up doing a bodybuildingcompetition a year later, and
I'm actually continuing on thatpath.
Go for my bodybuildingprofessional card.
Nice.
The IFPB Pro card.
Yeah.
Now I have someone who I reallylike and, and respect in many
(20:18):
ways.
Yep.
Come to me during this pointand, you know, I'd hired her to
do some, some, uh, energy workfor me to unravel something or
not.
Yep.
And she decided, she wanted totell me that I should stop
lifting weights so hard that Iwas.
Too old for it and it was, I wasin a stage in my life and she
(20:42):
just started like coming at meand I just said, yo, that's not
happening.
And I didn't hire you to give methis information.
Right.
I hired you to do the work forme.
And back off.
Yeah.
Okay.
Back the hell off because thisis what I want to do.
Yeah.
You don't get a say, you get asay in what you wanna do.
(21:06):
I get a say in what I wanna do.
That's what freedom is.
Right?
Perfect.
And, and, um, like I said, thisis someone I respect that hired
to do specific work for me.
And in the past there would'vebeen a time, oh, you know, I
wouldn't have said anything.
And I'm like, yeah, boss's off.
Boss's off.
(21:27):
Yeah.
Like, this feels right for me.
Training like this, getting ingood condition.
It's very important for me to be58 and be physically like I'm
38.
Like strong, tough.
Yep.
You know, capable.
And right when, when I leavethis earth, whatever that age
that is, you know, and yearsago, I, uh, I had someone say,
(21:51):
you're gonna live till you're inyour mid nineties, 96, let's say
that that happens.
I'm not gonna be some fraildude.
I'm gonna be mm-hmm.
Muscular, strong person and.
Right now, lifting weights onits own is gonna get it done,
but I'm looking into folks thatare doing things like
testosterone replacement therapyand things like that.
(22:12):
Mm-hmm.
And a hundred percent I'll, ifthat's what it will take for me
to keep my condition right.
I'll do it.
I'll do whatever I gotta do, youknow, in, in.
You know, uh, consistent withremaining healthy, I'm not gonna
take drugs, of course, likethat.
But Absolutely.
That's important to me.
Yeah.
And I don't need anybody else'sopinion on whether that should
(22:35):
be important to me or not.
It's, it just is.
Yeah.
And I recommend that someonelistening to this, don't let
anybody steal your dream away.
Exactly.
Gonna steal your damn dreamaway.
You, you don't wanna go throughlife and then come out of it on
one side and go, oh my God, Ireally wanted to do this and I
didn't.
(22:55):
You know?
Yeah.
And like growing up, one of mydreams was to be a writer and to
like sell millions of copies ofmy books.
And I've written a bunch ofbooks.
I haven't sold millions ofcopies of my books, not even
close.
Mm-hmm.
That's still part of my dream.
And I'm gonna tell you.
I'm gonna at some point put alot of effort into just that.
(23:19):
Right now, not the time, but theold days was you get a publisher
and hope lightning strikesToday, it's a little different.
Right.
Um, you, you learn about how tomarket and sell and Yeah.
I'm, I'm good with that.
And I can write, I've written 11books.
I'll write more.
Right.
Let's roll.
Yeah.
There's a couple of things thatyou said that I think are really
(23:41):
important.
The key one is.
That is if you have a dream, ifyou have a desire, if you have a
passion and you share it withwhoever and, and they water it
down or watch out, it's theirfear.
That's not your passion.
Don't mix the two.
(24:01):
Right.
I love what you're sharingspecifically about the person
you hired and your story isfantastic'cause it's a very
concrete example of, Nope, Iknow what I want.
This is going to happen.
It doesn't mean tomorrow, but itwill be happening.
Your book Dream of SellingMillions is still on the table.
(24:22):
It hasn't disappeared.
It needs to change in terms ofwhen, but it's not disappearing.
So Nikki is doing exactly whatthis this podcast is about.
Make sure you do something foryou by you because of you, and
it's in your soul.
(24:42):
Tap into that and find peoplelike Nikki who can be in your
ear as your believer.
He's got you.
'cause he knows what's possible.
Thank you.
Is there anything you would loveto share with our listeners as
(25:03):
we wrap up today's conversation?
Nikki?
You know, there's a, there's astory that I, um, from time to
time share to end podcast guestappearances.
And it's a, it's a good story.
Lemme share it with you.
Um, back in, um, God, 2018, so awhile ago.
(25:29):
Um.
I had been, uh, connected andintroduced to a very, uh,
special, um, individual.
This woman was, um, the countrydirector for Canada for one of
the world's oldest and largest,uh, personal development firms.
You know, there's a lot ofreally big globally renowned
(25:49):
personal development firms thathave been around since like the
sixties and seventies.
This was one of them.
Yeah.
So, um.
When I met her, um, she had, um,she had been, um, like I said,
the country director for thisfirm for Canada, and she had
(26:12):
decided she needed help.
So she brought a fellow on boardwho was a Canadian, um, fellow
who had had some notoriety inpersonal development in Canada.
And he had done the program thatshe ran and said that it had
transformed his life.
And so she brought him on board.
She thought it would be a goodwin-win.
(26:33):
And for a while it was likethey, they did great things, but
after about a year, theirvisions for the future started
to diverge and, um.
There's a board of directorsinvolved and they sided with him
and they kicked her outta thecompany.
Right.
And, um, kinda like Steve Jobsin the eighties when he brought
(26:55):
John Scully on board, if youremember that story.
Mm-hmm.
Right?
Mm-hmm.
And people go, your company,board of directors kicks you
out.
It totally can happen.
Right.
It.
Sure.
More common than you think,right?
Mm-hmm.
So this woman, super wonderful,charismatic, high energy, big
heart.
She is like bereft for about 18months.
(27:18):
And then she gets connected tome through some mutual friends,
acquaintances.
Mm-hmm.
And I see that I could help her.
And so I, I say, yeah, come,come to our program and anyways.
She really took to it and we,um, decided to sign up with us
(27:39):
for a year and, um, we sat down,we helped her figure out her
ideal client.
We helped her figure out hermessage, and we helped her have
a plan of putting herself outthere to get clients.
Mm-hmm.
And she did really well.
In her first month she did$10,000 in sales.
Right.
And this is in 2018, sospectacular.
(28:00):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Back in month she did more.
She did 12,000.
And then in her third month shewent up to 18,000.
So she's like on her own.
And in her fourth month though,she just went super nova.
She did$62,200.
Like whoa.
And I'll tell you why that'sgermane in a moment.
So she's from Ottawa, I'm fromToronto.
(28:23):
Yep.
Five hour drive.
Um, my oldest son at the timewas 12.
He's 19 now.
Mm-hmm.
He played soccer until recently.
He played pretty high levelsoccer, but back then he was a
12-year-old man.
They had a tournament in Ottawa,so we drove to Ottawa for the
tournament and I'm calling heron our way there'cause she had a
son his age.
(28:44):
And I said, Hey, um, Julie, I'mgonna call her Julie.
I said, we'll come to Ottawasoccer tournament.
Would you like to bring yourson?
Watch us play?
She says, yeah, I'll come toyour last game.
So that's what they did.
And anyways, it was great.
We won the tournament, which wassuper fantastic.
And um.
(29:05):
Then we, um, you know, we hadlunch with her and her son and
we drove back to Toronto.
She drove back to her, to herhouse with her son.
A few weeks later in Toronto, wehad one of our quarterly branded
thought leader immersionworkshops.
This is a highly curated highticket experience.
Mm-hmm.
And, um, she was in there.
Right.
'cause she's part of ourcommunity.
And Sure.
(29:26):
We came to this, um.
Point And Denise, I'm, I'm, I'm,I'm kind of, you know, you've
been around, you, you know whathappens at these meetings?
There's an enrollmentopportunity for something else.
Of course.
Yeah.
So we had our enrollmentopportunity and it's for a year
long program.
Mm-hmm.
40,000 US dollars.
Okay.
So, um, high ticket, right?
(29:47):
Sure.
Absolutely high ticket.
Um, but the way that I sell is,I don't usually do most of the.
Selling myself, I kind of likesay, Hey, so it's time.
Yeah.
We want you to join thecommunity.
Let's hear from a few of ourexisting members, like Right,
Denise.
It's a quite, quite, quite aclever thing to do, right?
(30:08):
Because third party validation,all that.
And normally I pick on like twoto three, maybe four people to
tell their stories.
And I kind of, you know, I kindof, um, normally, um.
Uh, you know, prep them byasking them questions.
Sure.
Tell us a story, blah, blah.
So it's not like just a ramble.
It's like, right.
(30:29):
What was it like before you camehere?
Right.
What'd you get outta being here?
The, you know, what are theresults you've gotten and would
you recommend the people in theroom to join us?
Like, it's, it's, it's, it's asetup.
It's, it's a beautiful setup,but it's a setup.
Well, this time I did what Iusually do, which this is
anybody like to share andnormally people put up their
hands.
But today, Julie didn't wait toput up her hand.
(30:52):
She.
Bounded on stage and ran rightat me.
I mean, nearly knocked me on mybutt.
So she's ran right at me and youknow, she's tiny and I'm not
tiny.
So, yeah, that's why I didn'tfall down.
But like, it was like a, like afootball run, tackle, tackle.
You like, okay, I guess youwanna go.
So.
(31:13):
Recede into the background andshe's sitting in the front and,
um, not standing in the front.
And I am standing behind her,remember right?
She's tiny and short.
And, and you know, I'm, at thetime I was 200 pounds plus.
Um, and, um, I'm standing behindher giving her the spotlight,
(31:35):
but she.
Doesn't talk.
In fact, she's just kinda likestaring and looking.
And after about 30 seconds ofthis, I'm like, what's going on?
What's going on?
And then I heard, uh, I, I sawher shoulders go up and then I
heard a soft.
Yeah.
I'm like, oh, she's crying crap.
So, Denise, you're a woman.
(31:56):
I'm a man.
Let me explain what happens to aman.
When a woman starts, Laurenstarts crying.
Why around him.
And he has no idea why.
Why, right?
The first thought in my head is,and this must be from my mother.
Maybe, I don't know.
I must've done something wrong.
What did I do wrong?
(32:17):
Right?
Like, that's the first thought.
And um.
Um, I'm like, oh crap.
This is, this is, this is gonnabe a disastrous, what?
It's going through my head.
Right.
Um, but my girlfriend Theresa,who works with me, um, you know,
being a very intuitive woman ofcourse, came up with a box of
tissues and, uh, yep.
(32:38):
Handed them to Julie, and Juliegratefully accepted them.
And then she motions me over tocome stand with her and she's
still sobbing, still crying.
And I'm, I'm looking cool, butI'm not feeling cool.
Yeah, exactly.
I'm looking cool.
I'm not feeling cool.
Um, and she, in between her subsays, Nikki, when you and your
little son came to Ottawa Mm.
(32:59):
And to visit with me and mylittle son, um, my little son
being 12 and Piper like all12-year-old boys, go, mommy,
mommy, where are we gonna go?
Where are we going?
Where are we going?
I'm like, I gotta shut this kidup.
Someone say, oh sweetheart,we're gonna go see Nikki Ballou
and his son.
And then she said, that seemedmagically a work.
(33:20):
'cause the kid shut up rightaway and she's like, to the
point where, you know, he's inthe backseat, she's starting to
get worried, son, everything.
Okay.
She goes, yeah, yeah.
She says, mommy.
And he, she said his voice gotreally soft and, and like, like.
You know, like a littlevulnerable little child.
Mm-hmm.
And said, mommy, are we gonnameet the man who saved our
(33:43):
family?
Mm.
And so, so Denise, you may havegotten from me.
I'm a very old school masculineman.
I do not cry in public.
Okay.
I am not a softie.
Right.
In that respect, on that day,you would not know that.
'cause I started to b my eyesout, like, yeah, I'm just
(34:04):
crying.
She's crying and we are huggingand everyone in the room's like,
oh.
And, and I'm like, and then shestarts, she keeps talking, she
pulls away from me and she'slike still holding onto me.
You know that semi a hug whereyou're kind of like halfway and
she says, Nikki, you didn't knowthis.
But all those months ago when Icame to see you, um, um.
(34:31):
Things weren't going well forus.
And I kind of had a sense, but Iobviously didn't know all the
details and she hadn't sharedthem right.
She said, um, we hadn't made, Ihadn't made any money in 18
months and my husband's anartist.
I'm the breadwinner in thefamily.
Right.
He was like a polygrapher.
Yeah.
So I think he made like 50, 60grand a year, but that was not
what they needed.
Right.
(34:53):
Yeah.
And she hadn't made money in 18months and um, they were
fighting like cats and dogs infront of the kids.
So this.
Husband of hers, still a pretty,you know, like you wouldn't
know.
He's an artist to look at him.
He's like a Right.
Okay.
Big strapping athlete.
Yeah, dude.
But an artist, right?
(35:13):
Yeah.
And they're fighting in front oftheir children, like yelling and
screaming.
Three little boys under the ageof 12, and the boys are freaking
out.
She said, because they'rethinking, oh my god, mom and dad
are gonna break up.
Right?
Totally.
And, and she's thinking, oh myGod, are we gonna break up?
Um, but she said, but you cameinto our lives and you helped
(35:36):
me.
You helped me make money, and wepaid off the bank and we stopped
fighting.
She said, you literally savedour family.
Right.
Thank you.
Now, um, we hugged.
She stepped off the stage.
Now, like I told you, Denise,Denise, I normally have 2, 3, 4
(35:56):
people.
Of course.
Yeah.
I made an executive decision.
Yeah.
Not a good idea today.
And that was the only person whowas gonna share there.
It's, we're done.
You can understand that, right?
You can understand why I wouldmake that executive decision in
that moment.
Yeah.
Because following that would beimpossible.
Yeah.
No, impossible.
(36:16):
Like it would, it would becounterproductive.
So, oh, sh of course.
So what we did is we handed out,um, I think it was like, uh,
eight, um, registration forms.
It was eight people in the roomthat were new and Yeah.
Prospects for the right.
So normally some people areimmediately Yes.
(36:37):
And they start signing up,right?
Yeah.
Some people are immediately ano, and they're, thank you, but
No thank you.
Right.
And some people are, let's talk,right.
Think about it.
Yep.
Think about it.
Whatever.
Think not even.
They're like, they're, they'relike wrestling with it, and I'm,
I'm sitting there with'emhelping, right?
This is the first, last and onlytime it went this way that I'm
about to share with you.
(36:58):
All eight people immediatelysigned, filled their forms,
signed credit cards on them, andhanded them it all eight.
It's never happened before.
Never happened since I've had.
A hundred percent enrollmentresults before, but I had to sit
down and talk to people.
But this time that didn'thappen.
And two of the people had saidto me prior, because like I told
(37:22):
you, you know what happens atthese events?
They know what happens at theseevents.
Yeah.
So they'd come to me at a break.
They said, Nikki, listen, youare terrific.
We love your event.
This is great, but we just wantyou to know, we, we know
something's coming and we justwant you to know we're not gonna
partake.
Right?
Mm-hmm.
You just don't want you to beupset.
I be upset.
I mean, it's whatever you wannado, right?
(37:43):
Yeah.
They were the first two to signup, the first two to sign up.
They handed in the, the onefellow who had like an energy
about him, like a kineticalmost, you know what I mean?
Like not Oh yeah.
A nice energy, but a kinetic,like mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Walks to me and he just, he, helike slaps the thing into my
hand and like, and he goes.
(38:06):
Son of a bitch.
He said, I told you I wasn'tgonna sign up for your damn
opportunity.
Mm-hmm.
I said, yes, you did.
So why did you So I threw itright back at him.
Right, of course.
And he was like, he was a littlejolted by it.
And he said, okay, so here's thetruth.
I need help.
(38:27):
I've just been burned too manytimes by too many people who are
full of shit.
Mm-hmm.
And that's how he said it.
Full of shit.
Yep.
Yep.
And, um, he said, listening tothat woman, and I'm sorry, I'm
getting a little emotional evensaying this, listening to that
woman, I kind of thought maybethis guy ain't full of shit.
(38:49):
Yeah.
That's what he said.
That's all he said.
Yeah.
And he said, yeah, lookingforward to it.
Mm-hmm.
And then he walked away.
Mm-hmm.
And, um, a, um.
Here's, here's, here's what Igotta tell you.
I I, I have this big vision thatI told you about a billion
multimillionaires, and I believethat helps families, strengthens
families.
(39:09):
I'm, I'm, I'm a family man.
I believe in all that.
I believe it's, um, I believeit's, it's what God intends
because there's dark evil forcesout there that want to keep us
all enslaved.
And capitalism is their enemy.
And, and they, they may say, oh,we're all for the workers.
No, you're not.
You want, you want the workersto be your damn slaves and.
(39:30):
And, um, I also think thesecharlatan types who go take
people's money and don't deliverfor them at all, just like take
their money and don't even liketalk to someone.
It's like insane.
They are the enemy too, as faras I'm concerned.
And I'm, I'm like, God, forwhatever reason, God's made me a
guy who wants to help people.
Mm-hmm.
And you know, there's.
(39:51):
You know, I'll, I'll be candid,not everyone that I've worked
with has always gotten pristineresults, but the majority of
people that I've worked withhave gotten pristine results.
Right.
Um, I'd even say theoverwhelming majority of the
people that I've worked withhave gotten pristine results.
There've been some who haven't.
Mm-hmm.
And you know, the, the truth isusually those folks don't wanna
(40:14):
do the work, and that's thetruth.
Right.
Don't wanna do the work.
They're ready to sign up andthen they, they back off, they
quit.
And, um, yep.
I'm always here, always ready totake'em back.
Right.
Um, but in my experience, ifsomeone comes in, they're ready
to do the work.
Our brand of helping people,which is to be very hands on,
(40:35):
very much with, um mm-hmm.
Really works.
Yeah.
That, that part really, really,really works.
Right.
And on that day, here's what Igot.
I got that.
Um.
God wants me to help a certainkind of person, and my job is to
show up every day and say, hereI am, God.
(40:57):
Send me.
Right.
Use me.
Right.
Right.
Yeah.
I I think the biggest piece ofall of that is exactly.
Who you are at the center andthe core.
The reason why all of thathappened the way it did is
because you're about connecting.
You're a people person first,and those who are people, people
(41:23):
know it, feel it, love it.
End of the day, the business isthe part that you do well, but I
think there's something waybigger that you do even better,
and that's about the connection.
That's about giving and seeingyour purpose as being what in
(41:43):
your words, God has given to youand you go out and do that every
day.
So thank you for doing and beingyou in all aspects, because the
world benefits as a result.
So thank you.
Thank you, Denise.
Thanks for having me on theshow.
It's been a lot of fun.
Absolutely.
It's my pleasure.
In the show notes we have howto, um, find Nikki in eci.
(42:09):
We'll have all of that in theshow notes, so make sure that
you, how many podcasts did yousay you've done?
Oh my gosh.
Crazy amount.
You keep doing them over, over820 in Yeah, I was like May,
2022.
Yeah, so.
You're sending out what needs tobe heard, and you can find
(42:30):
Nikki, um, in the, like I say inthe show notes, make sure you
reach out if this is resonatingat all.
Thank you, Nikki, for being herewith us today and sharing your
stories, your gifts, and givingus a little bit of insight
behind the scenes.
Thanks.
(42:53):
What has activated in you claimyour Sovereignty Me Academy
expands you.
Hello, and welcome to today'sepisode of Thrive After 45.
I'm Denise Drink, heartwhisperer, midlife mirror and
mentor.
And every week I am honored toshare energy and space with
inspiring guests whose storiesreflect so many possibilities of
thriving beyond 45.
(00:21):
Together we'll uncover thewhispers of the heart, the power
of midlife transformation, andthe wisdom that fuels expansion.
What if the power to impactmillions began with the courage
to start?
Over such an honor and aprivilege to welcome Nikki
Ballou, whose story is aspowerful as the impact he's
(00:46):
created in the world.
Nikki's journey began as animmigrant, navigating the
challenges of building a newlife, and continued through the
personal trials of divorceexperiences that shaped his
drive resilience and mission tohelp others.
Break free from limitation.
Over the last 20 years, Nikkihas become a two-time New York
(01:10):
Times bestselling author, a truemillionaire maker, and a trusted
guide for entrepreneurs who feelstuck in growing their
businesses.
His work has touched the livesof over 4 million people
worldwide, helping them stepinto possibility prosperity.
(01:31):
Purpose.
This conversation isn't justabout business growth.
It's about courage, reinvention,and what it actually takes to
rise no matter what life placesin your path.
Nikki, welcome to Thrive after45.
Denise, it's an honor to behere.
Thanks for having me on theshow.
(01:51):
Absolutely.
Let's dig right in.
We need to know and understandyour challenges brought you to
the new country, rebuilding lifeafter divorce.
What's that backstory that youcan share with us, and how has
it even begun to shape the workthat you are doing today?
(02:13):
Great question.
So, as you said, I'm originallyan immigrant from the Middle
East.
I'm a Christian from Iran.
When I was 11 years old, theIslamic Revolution took place in
Iran and there were literallyDenise gun battles going on in
the streets near my home.
Now my mom and dad were, um,freaking out, and then one day
(02:33):
that freakout went up by afactor of a hundred Uhhuh.
So all of a sudden there was a.
Crashing sound through ourliving room window.
Something was thrown through itand it landed next to my feet.
And I'm looking at it and Idon't know what the heck it is,
but my father, he instantly knewwhat it was.
(02:55):
It was a bottle with a burningwick in it full of liquid, a
moto of cocktail.
Dad grabbed the thing and pulledout the burning wick so it
wouldn't explode.
'cause if it had you and Iwouldn't be talking right now.
And, um.
That's when him and mom said,that's it.
We're outta here.
And they made a plan to take meand my two brothers out of our
(03:18):
home in Iran.
And initially we went to Athens,Greece.
That took two years to make thathappen.
And then another two years weleft Athens, Greece to come to
Toronto, Canada, where I nowlive now at that time, maybe you
can relate.
I'm a kid, I've got friends,I've got a home I love.
I didn't wanna leave any ofthat.
(03:38):
Yeah, yeah.
Right.
But as time went on, I startedto see the nobility of my mom
and dad's sacrifice because theyleft behind everyone and
everything.
They knew for a chance at abetter life for me and my two
brothers.
I'm, I'm going through lifebeing exposed to, um, a whole
(04:00):
new way of living in Canada thanin Iran.
And Iran under the Shah was arelatively free place, but Iran,
under the Mullahs was not at alla free place.
It was a dark place, you know,um, girls, for example.
And women were being forced tocover up.
Yeah.
Which they'd never had tobefore.
Dancing was banned, music wasbanned.
(04:23):
Um.
Most movies were banned.
And then we come to Canada andthere's an openness, there's a
freedom, there's a joy, there'sa vibrancy, there's a life.
And I started to see that insideevery human breast beats the
living heart of freedom.
Every man, every woman on thisplanet yearns to breathe free,
(04:43):
to chart their own course, tomarch to the tune of their own
drummer.
And that's what had me go.
Okay.
I'm all about this.
Like my, my, my, um, avatar isfreedom, freedom Capitalism, a
society where you can go andchoose where you're gonna go and
(05:07):
what you're gonna do, and.
It was very, very important forme to help the people that were
the biggest beneficiaries ofthis freedom.
And then the also, in manycases, the ones who understood
it the best, the entrepreneurs,because if you're an
entrepreneur, you gotta be free.
You gotta be free to think, yougotta be free to express
yourself.
You gotta be free to engage inenterprise, free enterprise.
(05:30):
You gotta be free to chart acourse and right.
My mom and dad, dad especially,they were entrepreneurs.
Mm-hmm.
And I wanted to honor them and Iwanted to help the people that
were the folks at the forefrontof freedom.
And my mission, my vision hasbecome, and that's a crazy
(05:51):
vision that I want the world tohave.
A billion multimillionaires.
Wow.
A billion multimillionaires by2040.
This will create the biggestconstituency for freedom that
the world has ever seen.
It will destroy the forces ofdarkness that want to crush us
and our dreams, and they don'tmind burning our beautiful world
(06:12):
to the ground as long as theycan rule over the ashes.
Mm-hmm.
And those are the people that Iconsider the enemy, the the
people that spread evilideologies and evil ideas, and
don't want us to be free.
So what you're speaking of is sorich.
Not just monetarily, but rich insoul because you're talking
(06:34):
about freedom that many of uswho have not had those
experiences that you have had,don't really understand.
What freedom is because we don'thave that opposite side of the
coin.
How do you supportentrepreneurs?
(06:55):
I love that you do that work,because I love that you're
seeing, those are the peoplethat are already in that freedom
mindset.
That's their goal, but how doyou take them from wanting that
freedom but not seeing it?
Well.
(07:16):
You know, it's an interestingquestion.
Um, I think that the averageentrepreneur wants to be free.
That's one of the reasonsthey're an entrepreneur.
They've got this vision thatthey're gonna create a business
that's going to give themfinancial freedom so that they
can do wonderful things fortheir family and wonderful
things for the people they loveand wonderful things for
(07:38):
themselves.
And.
I speak to that because thatyearning in everyone's soul is
there and it's powerful.
Hmm.
Like if I'm speaking to aclient, a lot of our clients
are, are, you know, coaches andconsultants, right?
Here's what, here's what I'venoticed.
(07:58):
Almost all of them have anincredible skillset, like they
can do the thing that they dothat helps people really, really
well.
So whether they're right.
A mindset coach, a health coach,a relationship coach, a business
coach, what have you, they'reawesome at that, right?
Where they fall short is theirself-belief.
(08:24):
So, and my father used to saythis to me, said, son, every
human being on the planet hasdays where their self-belief
wobbles.
Me, you everybody.
And the difference between thosewhose self-belief recovers and
those whose self-belief stayswobbly is that there's someone
(08:44):
in the ear of the person whoseself-belief recovers saying to
them, Hey, I see you.
Hey, I feel you.
You are awesome and I know whoyou really are and I believe in
(09:05):
you.
And maybe those words aren'tspoken, but the energy behind
those words is conveyed andconveyed powerfully.
And so those people, you know,you, you've probably seen
speeches at the Academy Awardsor athletes getting into the
Hall of Fame or winning a goldmedal, and they all tell you, my
(09:27):
mentor.
My father, my sister, my, mymother, there's someone there
who really believed in them andmade them believe in themselves.
That little spark of belief theygave them turned into a roaring
fire and they were off into theraces.
So people often ask me, they go,Luc, so Nick, man, tell me your
skillset.
Like, what are the things youdo?
(09:48):
And look, I got mad skills.
Okay.
I'm.
Amazing.
It's showing people how to geton podcasts and turn that into
an opportunity to buildrelationships, get lead sales
and clients.
I do thought leadership andpersonal branding, and there may
be two to three people on theplanet at my level at that, and
I show people how to sell fromthe heart, but sell right.
(10:09):
Beautifully at that.
I'm, I'm incredible at all thatstuff and many, many other
things, but there's lots ofpeople who can at least claim
they have some, some or more ofthose skills, but not one of
them.
Incredibly claim what I claim.
Because what I claim is I'mNapoleon Ballou's son and I see
(10:29):
you and I believe in you.
And I'm a professionalencourager of and believer in
people.
And most people don't even knowthat that's a thing.
But it's a thing.
And trust me, it's not only athing, it's the thing that has
allowed me to be successful inbusiness.
I have not spent a ton of moneyon, on ads.
I mean, I've tried some ads inthe past.
Mm-hmm.
How I got my clients.
Is I help people.
(10:50):
I put myself out there and, andI vibrate at a certain level
that God decides that myvibration's high enough that he
sends those people my way.
Right, right, right.
Yeah.
Relationships.
How does the relationship thatyou have with yourself impact
(11:10):
your relationship with others?
So, that's a good question.
I've had lots of people like myfather, you know, my mother, my
mentors and coaches, and certainteachers believe in me and that
has had me believe in myself,you know, not in an egotistical
(11:31):
look at me, beat my chest kindof away, or look at me
peacocking with nice clothes andbrands and all of that stuff.
Yeah.
But in a, I know I am.
Yeah.
And I'm a rockstar.
I'm a rockstar.
And I say this with like no ego,I'm a rockstar.
People are lucky.
People that come across my pathare lucky because they get a
(11:51):
really, really awesome dude intheir corner to help them get to
the next level and mm-hmm.
The overwhelming majority of thepeople I work with end up
believing themselves more,making a lot more money, um, and
having, having the faith to goout there and get a lot more
done than before they met me.
Nice, nice.
(12:12):
So the 4 million people that'scontinuing to grow.
Yeah, I go on a lot of podcasts.
I've been on over 820 shows inthe last three and a half years
as a guest.
Mm-hmm.
And I speak on a bunch of stagesas well.
(12:32):
I'm sure you do.
And I'm sure what happens is therooms shift completely.
They do when, when you enter andthat drop of belief.
I'm smiling as you're speakingbecause as an educator, that's
the one thing that I never lostsight of.
(12:54):
It only takes one person to makea difference in another person's
life.
That's all it does, and, and younever know when that interaction
is going to happen.
You be your full self and youare there to support the people
If you come from theheart-centered approach like
yourself, Nikki, who believes inpeople because you know what's
(13:17):
possible.
Everything shifts for everybodythat you come in contact with,
and we all have that capacity todo so, but we lose it.
Because we don't realize howimportant that really is.
That's my 2 cents on that piece,and that's what makes you so
empowering because you haven'tlost your belief, and I am so
(13:39):
grateful that you've had thosepeople in your life who've
shared that with you in multipleways over the years because
you've hit hardships.
I have, right?
Huge.
Huge.
Yeah.
Hundred percent.
Everybody has honestly, ofcourse, if anybody who doesn't
go through some seriousadversity, it's the nature of
(14:01):
being a human being, of course.
And what, what happens with thatis we get to choose what are we
doing with that information.
And thank heavens you've takenit and move the needle not only
for yourself, but see thecapacity in those around you and
beyond, and know the world is abetter place because of it.
How do you have such a bigvision?
(14:24):
2040.
I was in a program with, uh,Patrick Beda, the, the, um, the,
the famous podcaster.
And in this program he said, yougotta have a big vision.
You gotta cast it all the time.
And I just, that just hit me.
It's like God gave it to me.
I don't, I don't think I came upwith that myself.
(14:44):
Yeah.
You know?
Um, and it comes one person at atime.
Hmm.
Like one of our clients today.
Her name's Shannon Coulter,right?
She's got a huge vision.
So she's a mom.
And, um, when she married her,her husband, he had kids from a
(15:08):
previous marriage that were acertain age and he was off at
work and the kids were therewith her.
And, um, she said, okay, gooutside and play.
And they, they, they, theycouldn't.
Fathom what that meant.
'cause they were used to phonesand screens and she had to go
teach these kids how toliterally go outside and play.
(15:30):
And so her mission has become towean children and even adults
off of screens.
She says, look, you're not gonnabe technology free.
That's not realistic, but mm-hmmYou are on tech 75% of the time.
Let's make you be on tech only25% of the time.
Her big enemy is our screens,our addiction to screens and
(15:55):
ignorance of parents.
You know what I mean?
There's an ignorance out thereof what this is doing to
children's brains and even to toadults.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right.
There's a laziness.
Some parents are just being lazyand this is like a digital
babysitter for them.
Yeah.
Like screw that.
Yeah, like screw that.
And anyways, she had never.
(16:19):
Done a business before she came.
Yeah.
As to what should I do?
Hmm.
She said, go start a pilotprogram.
And she said, uh, should I giveit away for free?
And we said, no.
Charge some money for it.
Mm-hmm.
So I don't think she's charginga lot of money for it, like a
hundred or 200 bucks a person.
But she filled her pilot programwith like 25 people.
Lty split.
(16:39):
Yeah.
Right.
And she's got another pilotprogram and now she's gonna have
a coaching program.
And she just finished her pilotprogram and she said there's
people there that have, thathave, have reduced their screen
time by three and a half to fivehours a day.
That's amazing.
Right.
And that's, that's like.
She's not making a ton of moneyfrom this right now.
(17:01):
I mean, you know, her, her, herfamily, her husband is extremely
successful.
She doesn't need the money, butmm-hmm.
Um, still the fact that it's abusiness and she's making money,
this was huge for her.
Right.
We had this other woman who cameto us and she manages, um, uh, a
med spa, her own, she owns a medspa, and now she, she has this
Med Spa academy teaching peoplehow to do med spas, you know,
(17:23):
like Botox and all that jazz.
Mm-hmm.
Anyways.
It took us a while to help herget everything sorted out from a
messaging point of view, but in32 days she made 1,000,050
thousand in sales.
Wow.
Right.
And yeah.
Well first of all, she's good.
(17:44):
Secondly, she had us helping herbelieve in herself.
And thirdly, she's in action andwe make sure people are in
action.
Right, right.
Yeah.
Uh, it's great to have all theideas, but if you do nothing
with it.
It just sits right.
It doesn't become a reality.
So what you do in supporting thepeople that you support, in the
(18:04):
ways that you support them,allow them to take that passion,
that vision, that possibility,and move it into action probably
far beyond what they could everbelieve, even though their heart
and soul is in it.
Yeah.
Love it.
Thank you.
I love it.
(18:25):
If you are listening to this andyou're thinking, well, I have an
idea and I don't, nobody thinksit's a good idea.
What do people do with that?
Because they do have good ideas.
Like my listeners have lots ofincredible thoughts and ideas.
This is a turning point for alot of women in their lives,
like children are leaving thenest, whatever's going on in
their world, they're thinking.
(18:47):
Ah, that's a crazy idea.
What do you do?
What do you suggest people dowhen they have this really good
idea that they want to, butnobody thinks it's a good idea,
but they know in their heart itis.
Well, I think you've got to, um,run with it.
Mm-hmm.
Because.
(19:09):
Let's be honest.
People that love you, many, manyoften, many times they mean
well.
Yeah.
But their own fears get in theway.
They try to hold you back.
Love that.
Yeah.
And you can't let that happen.
Yeah.
If, if you got something on yourheart, you gotta listen to
yourself ahead of listening toany outside voices.
Mm-hmm.
Denise, like look, um, I'm 58years old.
(19:34):
Mm-hmm.
And when I was 55, um.
I, um, I came to a point in mylife where like I just was not
happy with my physicalcondition, my, my, my fitness
level.
Yeah, I was overweight.
Um, I not happy, not happy withhow I looked, not happy with how
(19:56):
I felt, right?
Yeah.
I hired someone to get me ingood condition and it worked.
I dropped 58 pounds.
I ended up doing a bodybuildingcompetition a year later, and
I'm actually continuing on thatpath.
Go for my bodybuildingprofessional card.
Nice.
The IFPB Pro card.
Yeah.
Now I have someone who I reallylike and, and respect in many
(20:18):
ways.
Yep.
Come to me during this pointand, you know, I'd hired her to
do some, some, uh, energy workfor me to unravel something or
not.
Yep.
And she decided, she wanted totell me that I should stop
lifting weights so hard that Iwas.
Too old for it and it was, I wasin a stage in my life and she
(20:42):
just started like coming at meand I just said, yo, that's not
happening.
And I didn't hire you to give methis information.
Right.
I hired you to do the work forme.
And back off.
Yeah.
Okay.
Back the hell off because thisis what I want to do.
Yeah.
You don't get a say, you get asay in what you wanna do.
(21:06):
I get a say in what I wanna do.
That's what freedom is.
Right?
Perfect.
And, and, um, like I said, thisis someone I respect that hired
to do specific work for me.
And in the past there would'vebeen a time, oh, you know, I
wouldn't have said anything.
And I'm like, yeah, boss's off.
Boss's off.
(21:27):
Yeah.
Like, this feels right for me.
Training like this, getting ingood condition.
It's very important for me to be58 and be physically like I'm
38.
Like strong, tough.
Yep.
You know, capable.
And right when, when I leavethis earth, whatever that age
that is, you know, and yearsago, I, uh, I had someone say,
(21:51):
you're gonna live till you're inyour mid nineties, 96, let's say
that that happens.
I'm not gonna be some fraildude.
I'm gonna be mm-hmm.
Muscular, strong person and.
Right now, lifting weights onits own is gonna get it done,
but I'm looking into folks thatare doing things like
testosterone replacement therapyand things like that.
(22:12):
Mm-hmm.
And a hundred percent I'll, ifthat's what it will take for me
to keep my condition right.
I'll do it.
I'll do whatever I gotta do, youknow, in, in.
You know, uh, consistent withremaining healthy, I'm not gonna
take drugs, of course, likethat.
But Absolutely.
That's important to me.
Yeah.
And I don't need anybody else'sopinion on whether that should
(22:35):
be important to me or not.
It's, it just is.
Yeah.
And I recommend that someonelistening to this, don't let
anybody steal your dream away.
Exactly.
Gonna steal your damn dreamaway.
You, you don't wanna go throughlife and then come out of it on
one side and go, oh my God, Ireally wanted to do this and I
didn't.
(22:55):
You know?
Yeah.
And like growing up, one of mydreams was to be a writer and to
like sell millions of copies ofmy books.
And I've written a bunch ofbooks.
I haven't sold millions ofcopies of my books, not even
close.
Mm-hmm.
That's still part of my dream.
And I'm gonna tell you.
I'm gonna at some point put alot of effort into just that.
(23:19):
Right now, not the time, but theold days was you get a publisher
and hope lightning strikesToday, it's a little different.
Right.
Um, you, you learn about how tomarket and sell and Yeah.
I'm, I'm good with that.
And I can write, I've written 11books.
I'll write more.
Right.
Let's roll.
Yeah.
There's a couple of things thatyou said that I think are really
(23:41):
important.
The key one is.
That is if you have a dream, ifyou have a desire, if you have a
passion and you share it withwhoever and, and they water it
down or watch out, it's theirfear.
That's not your passion.
Don't mix the two.
(24:01):
Right.
I love what you're sharingspecifically about the person
you hired and your story isfantastic'cause it's a very
concrete example of, Nope, Iknow what I want.
This is going to happen.
It doesn't mean tomorrow, but itwill be happening.
Your book Dream of SellingMillions is still on the table.
(24:22):
It hasn't disappeared.
It needs to change in terms ofwhen, but it's not disappearing.
So Nikki is doing exactly whatthis this podcast is about.
Make sure you do something foryou by you because of you, and
it's in your soul.
(24:42):
Tap into that and find peoplelike Nikki who can be in your
ear as your believer.
He's got you.
'cause he knows what's possible.
Thank you.
Is there anything you would loveto share with our listeners as
(25:03):
we wrap up today's conversation?
Nikki?
You know, there's a, there's astory that I, um, from time to
time share to end podcast guestappearances.
And it's a, it's a good story.
Lemme share it with you.
Um, back in, um, God, 2018, so awhile ago.
(25:29):
Um.
I had been, uh, connected andintroduced to a very, uh,
special, um, individual.
This woman was, um, the countrydirector for Canada for one of
the world's oldest and largest,uh, personal development firms.
You know, there's a lot ofreally big globally renowned
(25:49):
personal development firms thathave been around since like the
sixties and seventies.
This was one of them.
Yeah.
So, um.
When I met her, um, she had, um,she had been, um, like I said,
the country director for thisfirm for Canada, and she had
(26:12):
decided she needed help.
So she brought a fellow on boardwho was a Canadian, um, fellow
who had had some notoriety inpersonal development in Canada.
And he had done the program thatshe ran and said that it had
transformed his life.
And so she brought him on board.
She thought it would be a goodwin-win.
(26:33):
And for a while it was likethey, they did great things, but
after about a year, theirvisions for the future started
to diverge and, um.
There's a board of directorsinvolved and they sided with him
and they kicked her outta thecompany.
Right.
And, um, kinda like Steve Jobsin the eighties when he brought
(26:55):
John Scully on board, if youremember that story.
Mm-hmm.
Right?
Mm-hmm.
And people go, your company,board of directors kicks you
out.
It totally can happen.
Right.
It.
Sure.
More common than you think,right?
Mm-hmm.
So this woman, super wonderful,charismatic, high energy, big
heart.
She is like bereft for about 18months.
(27:18):
And then she gets connected tome through some mutual friends,
acquaintances.
Mm-hmm.
And I see that I could help her.
And so I, I say, yeah, come,come to our program and anyways.
She really took to it and we,um, decided to sign up with us
(27:39):
for a year and, um, we sat down,we helped her figure out her
ideal client.
We helped her figure out hermessage, and we helped her have
a plan of putting herself outthere to get clients.
Mm-hmm.
And she did really well.
In her first month she did$10,000 in sales.
Right.
And this is in 2018, sospectacular.
(28:00):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Back in month she did more.
She did 12,000.
And then in her third month shewent up to 18,000.
So she's like on her own.
And in her fourth month though,she just went super nova.
She did$62,200.
Like whoa.
And I'll tell you why that'sgermane in a moment.
So she's from Ottawa, I'm fromToronto.
(28:23):
Yep.
Five hour drive.
Um, my oldest son at the timewas 12.
He's 19 now.
Mm-hmm.
He played soccer until recently.
He played pretty high levelsoccer, but back then he was a
12-year-old man.
They had a tournament in Ottawa,so we drove to Ottawa for the
tournament and I'm calling heron our way there'cause she had a
son his age.
(28:44):
And I said, Hey, um, Julie, I'mgonna call her Julie.
I said, we'll come to Ottawasoccer tournament.
Would you like to bring yourson?
Watch us play?
She says, yeah, I'll come toyour last game.
So that's what they did.
And anyways, it was great.
We won the tournament, which wassuper fantastic.
And um.
(29:05):
Then we, um, you know, we hadlunch with her and her son and
we drove back to Toronto.
She drove back to her, to herhouse with her son.
A few weeks later in Toronto, wehad one of our quarterly branded
thought leader immersionworkshops.
This is a highly curated highticket experience.
Mm-hmm.
And, um, she was in there.
Right.
'cause she's part of ourcommunity.
And Sure.
(29:26):
We came to this, um.
Point And Denise, I'm, I'm, I'm,I'm kind of, you know, you've
been around, you, you know whathappens at these meetings?
There's an enrollmentopportunity for something else.
Of course.
Yeah.
So we had our enrollmentopportunity and it's for a year
long program.
Mm-hmm.
40,000 US dollars.
Okay.
So, um, high ticket, right?
(29:47):
Sure.
Absolutely high ticket.
Um, but the way that I sell is,I don't usually do most of the.
Selling myself, I kind of likesay, Hey, so it's time.
Yeah.
We want you to join thecommunity.
Let's hear from a few of ourexisting members, like Right,
Denise.
It's a quite, quite, quite aclever thing to do, right?
(30:08):
Because third party validation,all that.
And normally I pick on like twoto three, maybe four people to
tell their stories.
And I kind of, you know, I kindof, um, normally, um.
Uh, you know, prep them byasking them questions.
Sure.
Tell us a story, blah, blah.
So it's not like just a ramble.
It's like, right.
(30:29):
What was it like before you camehere?
Right.
What'd you get outta being here?
The, you know, what are theresults you've gotten and would
you recommend the people in theroom to join us?
Like, it's, it's, it's, it's asetup.
It's, it's a beautiful setup,but it's a setup.
Well, this time I did what Iusually do, which this is
anybody like to share andnormally people put up their
hands.
But today, Julie didn't wait toput up her hand.
(30:52):
She.
Bounded on stage and ran rightat me.
I mean, nearly knocked me on mybutt.
So she's ran right at me and youknow, she's tiny and I'm not
tiny.
So, yeah, that's why I didn'tfall down.
But like, it was like a, like afootball run, tackle, tackle.
You like, okay, I guess youwanna go.
So.
(31:13):
Recede into the background andshe's sitting in the front and,
um, not standing in the front.
And I am standing behind her,remember right?
She's tiny and short.
And, and you know, I'm, at thetime I was 200 pounds plus.
Um, and, um, I'm standing behindher giving her the spotlight,
(31:35):
but she.
Doesn't talk.
In fact, she's just kinda likestaring and looking.
And after about 30 seconds ofthis, I'm like, what's going on?
What's going on?
And then I heard, uh, I, I sawher shoulders go up and then I
heard a soft.
Yeah.
I'm like, oh, she's crying crap.
So, Denise, you're a woman.
(31:56):
I'm a man.
Let me explain what happens to aman.
When a woman starts, Laurenstarts crying.
Why around him.
And he has no idea why.
Why, right?
The first thought in my head is,and this must be from my mother.
Maybe, I don't know.
I must've done something wrong.
What did I do wrong?
(32:17):
Right?
Like, that's the first thought.
And um.
Um, I'm like, oh crap.
This is, this is, this is gonnabe a disastrous, what?
It's going through my head.
Right.
Um, but my girlfriend Theresa,who works with me, um, you know,
being a very intuitive woman ofcourse, came up with a box of
tissues and, uh, yep.
(32:38):
Handed them to Julie, and Juliegratefully accepted them.
And then she motions me over tocome stand with her and she's
still sobbing, still crying.
And I'm, I'm looking cool, butI'm not feeling cool.
Yeah, exactly.
I'm looking cool.
I'm not feeling cool.
Um, and she, in between her subsays, Nikki, when you and your
little son came to Ottawa Mm.
(32:59):
And to visit with me and mylittle son, um, my little son
being 12 and Piper like all12-year-old boys, go, mommy,
mommy, where are we gonna go?
Where are we going?
Where are we going?
I'm like, I gotta shut this kidup.
Someone say, oh sweetheart,we're gonna go see Nikki Ballou
and his son.
And then she said, that seemedmagically a work.
(33:20):
'cause the kid shut up rightaway and she's like, to the
point where, you know, he's inthe backseat, she's starting to
get worried, son, everything.
Okay.
She goes, yeah, yeah.
She says, mommy.
And he, she said his voice gotreally soft and, and like, like.
You know, like a littlevulnerable little child.
Mm-hmm.
And said, mommy, are we gonnameet the man who saved our
(33:43):
family?
Mm.
And so, so Denise, you may havegotten from me.
I'm a very old school masculineman.
I do not cry in public.
Okay.
I am not a softie.
Right.
In that respect, on that day,you would not know that.
'cause I started to b my eyesout, like, yeah, I'm just
(34:04):
crying.
She's crying and we are huggingand everyone in the room's like,
oh.
And, and I'm like, and then shestarts, she keeps talking, she
pulls away from me and she'slike still holding onto me.
You know that semi a hug whereyou're kind of like halfway and
she says, Nikki, you didn't knowthis.
But all those months ago when Icame to see you, um, um.
(34:31):
Things weren't going well forus.
And I kind of had a sense, but Iobviously didn't know all the
details and she hadn't sharedthem right.
She said, um, we hadn't made, Ihadn't made any money in 18
months and my husband's anartist.
I'm the breadwinner in thefamily.
Right.
He was like a polygrapher.
Yeah.
So I think he made like 50, 60grand a year, but that was not
what they needed.
Right.
(34:53):
Yeah.
And she hadn't made money in 18months and um, they were
fighting like cats and dogs infront of the kids.
So this.
Husband of hers, still a pretty,you know, like you wouldn't
know.
He's an artist to look at him.
He's like a Right.
Okay.
Big strapping athlete.
Yeah, dude.
But an artist, right?
(35:13):
Yeah.
And they're fighting in front oftheir children, like yelling and
screaming.
Three little boys under the ageof 12, and the boys are freaking
out.
She said, because they'rethinking, oh my god, mom and dad
are gonna break up.
Right?
Totally.
And, and she's thinking, oh myGod, are we gonna break up?
Um, but she said, but you cameinto our lives and you helped
(35:36):
me.
You helped me make money, and wepaid off the bank and we stopped
fighting.
She said, you literally savedour family.
Right.
Thank you.
Now, um, we hugged.
She stepped off the stage.
Now, like I told you, Denise,Denise, I normally have 2, 3, 4
(35:56):
people.
Of course.
Yeah.
I made an executive decision.
Yeah.
Not a good idea today.
And that was the only person whowas gonna share there.
It's, we're done.
You can understand that, right?
You can understand why I wouldmake that executive decision in
that moment.
Yeah.
Because following that would beimpossible.
Yeah.
No, impossible.
(36:16):
Like it would, it would becounterproductive.
So, oh, sh of course.
So what we did is we handed out,um, I think it was like, uh,
eight, um, registration forms.
It was eight people in the roomthat were new and Yeah.
Prospects for the right.
So normally some people areimmediately Yes.
(36:37):
And they start signing up,right?
Yeah.
Some people are immediately ano, and they're, thank you, but
No thank you.
Right.
And some people are, let's talk,right.
Think about it.
Yep.
Think about it.
Whatever.
Think not even.
They're like, they're, they'relike wrestling with it, and I'm,
I'm sitting there with'emhelping, right?
This is the first, last and onlytime it went this way that I'm
about to share with you.
(36:58):
All eight people immediatelysigned, filled their forms,
signed credit cards on them, andhanded them it all eight.
It's never happened before.
Never happened since I've had.
A hundred percent enrollmentresults before, but I had to sit
down and talk to people.
But this time that didn'thappen.
And two of the people had saidto me prior, because like I told
(37:22):
you, you know what happens atthese events?
They know what happens at theseevents.
Yeah.
So they'd come to me at a break.
They said, Nikki, listen, youare terrific.
We love your event.
This is great, but we just wantyou to know, we, we know
something's coming and we justwant you to know we're not gonna
partake.
Right?
Mm-hmm.
You just don't want you to beupset.
I be upset.
I mean, it's whatever you wannado, right?
(37:43):
Yeah.
They were the first two to signup, the first two to sign up.
They handed in the, the onefellow who had like an energy
about him, like a kineticalmost, you know what I mean?
Like not Oh yeah.
A nice energy, but a kinetic,like mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Walks to me and he just, he, helike slaps the thing into my
hand and like, and he goes.
(38:06):
Son of a bitch.
He said, I told you I wasn'tgonna sign up for your damn
opportunity.
Mm-hmm.
I said, yes, you did.
So why did you So I threw itright back at him.
Right, of course.
And he was like, he was a littlejolted by it.
And he said, okay, so here's thetruth.
I need help.
(38:27):
I've just been burned too manytimes by too many people who are
full of shit.
Mm-hmm.
And that's how he said it.
Full of shit.
Yep.
Yep.
And, um, he said, listening tothat woman, and I'm sorry, I'm
getting a little emotional evensaying this, listening to that
woman, I kind of thought maybethis guy ain't full of shit.
(38:49):
Yeah.
That's what he said.
That's all he said.
Yeah.
And he said, yeah, lookingforward to it.
Mm-hmm.
And then he walked away.
Mm-hmm.
And, um, a, um.
Here's, here's, here's what Igotta tell you.
I I, I have this big vision thatI told you about a billion
multimillionaires, and I believethat helps families, strengthens
families.
(39:09):
I'm, I'm, I'm a family man.
I believe in all that.
I believe it's, um, I believeit's, it's what God intends
because there's dark evil forcesout there that want to keep us
all enslaved.
And capitalism is their enemy.
And, and they, they may say, oh,we're all for the workers.
No, you're not.
You want, you want the workersto be your damn slaves and.
(39:30):
And, um, I also think thesecharlatan types who go take
people's money and don't deliverfor them at all, just like take
their money and don't even liketalk to someone.
It's like insane.
They are the enemy too, as faras I'm concerned.
And I'm, I'm like, God, forwhatever reason, God's made me a
guy who wants to help people.
Mm-hmm.
And you know, there's.
(39:51):
You know, I'll, I'll be candid,not everyone that I've worked
with has always gotten pristineresults, but the majority of
people that I've worked withhave gotten pristine results.
Right.
Um, I'd even say theoverwhelming majority of the
people that I've worked withhave gotten pristine results.
There've been some who haven't.
Mm-hmm.
And you know, the, the truth isusually those folks don't wanna
(40:14):
do the work, and that's thetruth.
Right.
Don't wanna do the work.
They're ready to sign up andthen they, they back off, they
quit.
And, um, yep.
I'm always here, always ready totake'em back.
Right.
Um, but in my experience, ifsomeone comes in, they're ready
to do the work.
Our brand of helping people,which is to be very hands on,
(40:35):
very much with, um mm-hmm.
Really works.
Yeah.
That, that part really, really,really works.
Right.
And on that day, here's what Igot.
I got that.
Um.
God wants me to help a certainkind of person, and my job is to
show up every day and say, hereI am, God.
(40:57):
Send me.
Right.
Use me.
Right.
Right.
Yeah.
I I think the biggest piece ofall of that is exactly.
Who you are at the center andthe core.
The reason why all of thathappened the way it did is
because you're about connecting.
You're a people person first,and those who are people, people
(41:23):
know it, feel it, love it.
End of the day, the business isthe part that you do well, but I
think there's something waybigger that you do even better,
and that's about the connection.
That's about giving and seeingyour purpose as being what in
(41:43):
your words, God has given to youand you go out and do that every
day.
So thank you for doing and beingyou in all aspects, because the
world benefits as a result.
So thank you.
Thank you, Denise.
Thanks for having me on theshow.
It's been a lot of fun.
Absolutely.
It's my pleasure.
In the show notes we have howto, um, find Nikki in eci.
(42:09):
We'll have all of that in theshow notes, so make sure that
you, how many podcasts did yousay you've done?
Oh my gosh.
Crazy amount.
You keep doing them over, over820 in Yeah, I was like May,
2022.
Yeah, so.
You're sending out what needs tobe heard, and you can find
(42:30):
Nikki, um, in the, like I say inthe show notes, make sure you
reach out if this is resonatingat all.
Thank you, Nikki, for being herewith us today and sharing your
stories, your gifts, and givingus a little bit of insight
behind the scenes.
Thanks.
(42:53):
What has activated in you claimyour Sovereignty Me Academy
expands you.
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Stuff You Should Know
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.