166 | Triple your business through thought leadership and service mentality, practical tips from Nicky Billou, a successful entrepreneur, best selling author and a sought after coach

You know that developing a strong network is important to your personal and business growth, and you know that establishing yourself as a thought leader in your field can help you do that as well as achieve other business growth goal,

BUT - you are not sure how to do that, and it sounds like a lot of work you do not have time for.

Therefore - you need someone who can explain why it is critical to invest in these topics, and how to do so in an effective way,

Nicky Billou, Is a successful entrepreneur a best-selling author and a sought-after coach, who is helping business leaders drive growth through service mentality, authority building, and effective networking.

In this fascinating and highly practical episode we are going to cover:
💥 Be good at sales & marketing through understanding relationships
💥 How to develop a service mentality that will drive sales
💥 How to network effectively,
💥 How to seamlessly transition from value-providing to sales
and much more...

Want to learn more about Nicky and the services he provides.
Connect with Nicky on Linkedin
Check out the e-circle academy

Hi, It's Isar the host of the Business Growth Accelerator Podcast
I am passionate about growing businesses and helping CEOs, business leaders, and entrepreneurs become more successful. I am also passionate about relationship building, community creation for businesses, and value creation through content.
I would love it if you connect with me on LinkedIn. Drop me a DM, and LMK you listened to the podcast, what you think and what topics you would like me to cover 🙏

Transcript

Nicky Billou: 0:00

The first thing that I realized about entrepreneurship when I got into the field was that most business owners that are starting out especially, but even those that have been into it for some time, they really don't understand business.

Isar Meitis: 0:13

Hello and welcome to the Business Growth Accelerator. This is Isar Meitis your host, and the person you're listening to is Nicki Belu. Nicky is an amazing coach. He has coached hundreds of people into success in multiple different companies, in different positions. He has also written multiple business books as well as coaching books. And in this episode, we're going to talk about how to become an authority figure in your niche, in your industry. What are the benefits and the steps you need to take in order to get there and grow your business faster? Hello and welcome to the Business Growth Accelerator. This is Isar Matis, your host, and I am truly, truly excited today. And the reason I'm truly excited today, if you've been listening to this show, you know, there's several different things I'm very passionate about. One of them is growing businesses. Another is the importance of relationships and having a network. And the third is the benefits of having thought leadership as part of the way to grow your business and developing that around you and the business you belong to, or the community you belong to, and so on. And I believe that it's critical aspect. So having thought leadership around you and around the topics you're on expert on, as well as having a network are two of maybe the strongest currencies in the business world today. And yet there's a lot of business leaders who do. Care enough about these two topics and do not invest time in them. And I think it's for one of two reasons. Reason number one, they don't understand the huge benefits. These two things bring. Reason number two, they do understand the benefits and they're aware of them, but they don't even know how to do that. So it sounds really complicated and they don't know how to get started. So they neglect these two things, which I believe are really important and hence I'm really excited about. Our guest today. Nicki Belu is going to cover and talk about these topics, and Nicki is the CEO and president of the E Co Academy, where he helps business leaders grow their. Businesses, and he has been in this world being a champion for entrepreneurs and business leaders for over 15 years in various hats, all of them as coaching and helping people through that journey. He also wrote eight books on relevant topics. Three that I'm gonna mention because they're relevant to the topics we're gonna talk about is Finish Line Leadership, which talks about how to develop leadership in your role as a business leader, thought leadership journey, and the power of connecting, serving your service, your network. So again, he's an expert on these topics, and he's not just talking the talk or writing books. He helped multiple businesses grow, leveraging these things. So without further ado, I wanna welcome Nicky to the show. Nicky, welcome to the Business Growth Accelerator.

Nicky Billou: 4:14

Sorry. It's an honor to be here, brother. Thanks for having me on the.

Isar Meitis: 4:17

So since we got to know each other like a couple of weeks ago, we had so many amazing conversations. I am really, really happy that we get to do this. I, I'm gonna apologize to people who are listening to this. I have a little bit of a cold, so, but lucky I'm not gonna speak a lot, so it's mostly gonna be Nicki, but I apologize in advance for my, for my stuffy voice, Nicki, before we dive into the topics themselves and understand their importance and understand how to implement them to grow businesses and to grow our personal goals. When did you find out, like when in your career you had that understanding that thought leadership and that networking is critical to personal in business growth?

Nicky Billou: 5:02

Well, that's a very good question, and it happened at different stages in my career. So, When I got into sales professionally when I was a director of sales, and then more so when I got into business for myself, it became obvious to me that relationships were everything to creating, you know, business, to creating transactions, to creating, an ongoing flow of revenue, right? So I'm someone who was always like people. I always wanted to have good connections with people. So it was good news for someone like me that that was the case. and the deeper I got into my, journey, the more clear it became to me that everything was about people. I'll tell you a little bit of a, of a backstory in a moment. My late father was an entrepreneur and he used to always come and tell me, son, business is about people, not about money. This is about people, not about money, not about numbers. He, he was a very proud man. He employed 60 plus people in this business and he would come and say to me, you know, son, we helped feed 60 families. Yeah. You know what I mean? And his father was a truck driver. they were dirt poor. So he raised himself up by the bootstraps. Dad was the kind of person who would uplift everybody around him. You know, if you, knew him and you were looking for a job, he'd find your job. If you were trying to start a business, he'd help you start the business, even if you were gonna compete with him. He didn't care about that at all. He just wanted to help people. He was excited when people would compete with him. They were friends. He said, good for you. Let's get it going, you know, and he also, if you worked for him and you were looking to buy a car or a house or an a. And you didn't have enough money, he would top you up so you could buy that car, that house, set a permit. That's the kind of man that he was. And people would go to him to solve problems for them all the time. That was who he was, you know? And I wanted to be like him. I wanted to be someone who would help people and help entrepreneurs. And the first thing that I realized about entrepreneurship when I got into the field was that most business owners that are starting out especially, but even those that have been into it for some time, they really don't understand business. They're good tradesmen. Like you were saying to me the other day, they're not good business owners. They don't understand finance, marketing, sales, hiring, firing. They don't understand any of that stuff. And they're just really good at doing something. And they say, okay, I should go into business for myself, you know? Michael Gerber talks about this in his book, the EMyth and the EMyth Revisited, right? Where people have an entrepreneurial seizure, they go into business because they think, okay, I can do this for myself. But they don't understand that now they're in a horrible situation where they own a job, not a business. Yeah. And so here's what a lot of folks that go into business, really, really miss. They miss how important it is to be good at sales and marketing and sales. And marketing really is about people relationships. That's all it is. Like if you think about it, it's about how to get along with people, how to give people, and understanding of how you can be of service to them. That's essentially what it is. And in particular, people are afraid to. sell They don't wanna come across as pushy or salesy or like a reek of commission breath. You know what I'm saying? Yep. And so they don't go after business. They legitimately should be going after and getting this hurts their business. This hurts their families. You know, it hurts those people they should have been going after because they don't have a good person helping them. They get some charlatan who will just, you know, get the business cuz they're good at selling. They couldn't care less whether they delivered or not. And when I saw this, you know, I grew up with a, an entrepreneurial father. You know, my whole family was about entrepreneurship and I never looked at sales as bad or wrong, anything like that. I looked at sales is awesome and sales is love to me. I only sell to people I love. I don't sell to people I don't like, forget it. Go away. Right? So I thought, can we reframe this for these folks? And the first thing was, We gotta take the word sales out of the way because that word just has so many negative connotations with it. Let's replace it with the word serve. No one likes to be sold Isar you, don't like to be sold. I don't like to be sold, but we love to buy. You kidding me? We love to buy. And if someone serves us, we wanna buy from them, you know? And that's the important thing. So helping a lot of business owners reframe sales to service, like truly reframe it from sales to service. That alone helped them double, triple, quadruple sanctuple their business just because that service mentality meant they weren't energetically holding themselves back from going after the business. And you. I also realize that relationships are key. They're everything, right? Like you and I, we've had a few conversations I've invited you to come to, a men's, group, that I run. And, you know, you're, you weren't able to make the last meeting, but the next one's in a couple weeks, I, you know, hopefully you'll be able to make that. I won't be there. You know, you, you and I have had some conversations about how you do what you do, which is, light years ahead of, how I'm doing something similar. And I was very grateful for what you shared with me about how you've, you've done that. And, we've had just personal conversations as human beings and as men. And that's what it takes to develop the types of relationships that result in wonderful levels of

Isar Meitis: 10:49

business. I, I love everything you're saying. I love the, the core story of where it comes from. As you know, I think a lot of people who feel this way or work this way or, or you know, Judge decisions this way is based on somebody they know, right? Somebody that was a role model for them, for you was your father, for me, was my father as well as my, previous boss. So I, I love that fact. And I think what you're saying, at the end of the day, it's about being a person that provides value to others. If you can provide value to others, which by definition means you understand their needs, because otherwise you're not providing value, you're selling, right? If you're selling, you're trying to give something you have to give. When you're serving, you understand the need that they have that you're trying to fulfill. And it's a very, very different mindset than I love. You touched on that point. I wanna take it to like the first step, and I really wanna start with that, really with, with the serving and the networking side of things. First of all, I wanna ask you from a business perspective, or you do even separate the business network and a personal network, like what does it mean to having a network around your business?

Nicky Billou: 12:09

You know, that's a very good question. I never heard it put quite that way before, but it means that you have a constellation of relationships which you can pull upon to assist you in fulfilling your mission in that business. Those relationships are with potential customers, with potential vendors, with actual customers, with actual vendors, and with individuals who may be neither but are good people to help bring ideas to you, to help you, find out about opportunities. I think all of those are very, very valuable, right? Like, I'll give you an example for myself. I know a, a woman, she became a client of ours, did, did our, our three day workshop. She's a former ceo, Y P O member, grew a couple companies and she was a hired gun. and now she's become a coach. She doesn't want to be a hard charging CEO anymore. Right. And, you know, she's been a good resource. I've bounced some ideas off of her about how to think strategically, how to grow through strategic partnerships. It's been awesome. And she's been a, a, a customer and I've done the same for her. I've taught her some things and I've also showed her, how to go out and, and get sales because she's part of the Canadian corporate miu, which is, I, no, we don't wanna be pushy, we don't wanna be salesy. And I want to go to those folks and go, guys, you need to shift your mindset around this, your mindset around sales is ass and it's crushing your, your ability to grow as fast as you can. You may think you're doing good, but you're leaving probably 50% of the business on the table by having this mindset of, well, let's not push too much. Let's like, let's just try to like, give enough value and maybe they'll come to us. That's called hope for marketing. Of course, you gotta give value, but you need to be proactive when you're selling. You can't be reactive or passive like these people who just blog all day and hope someone's gonna, you know, notice the blog and go, okay, maybe, we'll, what is that? I do business, man. But candidly, I, I go on podcasts like yours. I build relationships with the host. I find out if the host and I have, an opportunity to work together either. That host can use me or I can use them, and I'm, I'm looking to figure that out in every host relationship I have. Every single one. It's not just, oh, we have a nice conversation, but then No, that's a lost opportunity. It's a lost opportunity, right? You and I had a conversation, I have an opportunity to potentially be of some service to you. You have an opportunity to potentially give some service to me. We're looking into it. That's how it should be with everybody. And if you're, if you're somebody who's going out there and networking and you go, well, I'm just networking. No, you're not just networking. You're networking. In order to establish the types of relationships that result in sales for your business, that's why you're networking. You're not networking because it's. fun I mean, it could be fun, don't get me wrong. But that's not why you're doing it, right? You're doing it to grow your business and your job has to be inside of networking to be giving value to people, to be of service to people. You know, I wrote this book, right? The Power of Connecting, How to Activate Profitable Relationships by Serving Your Network. Here's one thing I do inside that book, right? You and I could do it right now. So, I look to the people that are my best contacts. I call them my best connections trademarked, right? So if you're one of my best connections, then one of the things that I would want to do and will be doing with you at least once a year is giving you a call and saying, Hey, ISAR. I want you to know I really value our friendship and our connection And here's why I value it. know, you're a brilliant guy. You've opened my mind to a bunch of things. You know, you're someone who's part of my men's group, etc and I, I, I love everything about you, man. And I, I want to know more people like you. And my feeling is the best way to know more people like you as well. is through you, right? So, who do you know who's a great guy like you? business minded, business owner, positive, kind, helpful, and is all about meeting other great business owners. Understands that's how business grows. You know, someone like that you can introduce to me and then I'd shut up and ask you to think, look through your phone, look through your LinkedIn on the spot, not get back to me. That, that never works. And I would also say, by the way, I don't wanna just be a taker. I wanna be a giver. I've thought about someone who I think could be a good person for you to meet. So I mentioned to you this, this individual who's, a musician, and and a businessman. And, I'm gonna say, I, I believe you folks, ought, ought, ought to speak, ought to connect. I, I think, you know, as two folks in music, you could find that valuable and beneficial for both of you. So, boom, I make a connection. I receive a connection. That's what I do. What I'm gonna do today, like, we're doing this call, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna ask you to do that for me, and I'm gonna make that connection for you. It's gonna happen as soon as we're done. There's gonna be, I'm gonna get your cell phone and number, I'm gonna text the two of you and go, Dennis Smith. Yes. Meet Dennis. You're both successful businessmen who are also in bands think that you would really enjoy meeting each other. I think there's opportunities for you to be of service to each other. Take it from there, you know, and that happening. Could be good, could be good for you, could be good for him, and then you'll know some dude and you go, you know what? I know, I know Guy. Great. Introduce me to this guy. Awesome. Fantastic. That's how we move forward. And if folks are thinking about how they can keep nurturing and nourishing their best connections, that's a good thing, man. That's a good thing. You know what I'm saying?

Isar Meitis: 18:21

Yeah. I, I wanna touch on a few really critical points that you said. First of all, I love that terminology used in the beginning. It's a constellation of relationships. That's your network. and it's. The beauty about that analogy is twofolds. When you think about constellations, one is there's various levels of circles. There's inner circle, there's middle circle, there's a far circle in the constellation, and you should treat them as such. And you said you have the best connections and you have okay connection. You have connections, you know, and they're, you know, it's nice to have, but, but they're not, strategic in, in any kind of way. The other thing that you touched is the mix of those people. If you just go after potential clients, you're hurting yourself because you're missing out on ideas, opportunities and other stuff. So you need to have in your network, clients, suppliers, just people that you know, brilliant business minds, just good friends, you know, all these things together can help you have a better understanding of whatever it is you are gonna try to understand later on. And another thing that you said that I really, really like is about feedback, right? They are your information source for many, many different things. Either actively because like you're saying they're gonna come to you with ideas and stuff that they know it's relevant to you. But also, and I love that as aspect of it as well, you have to be proactive for it to happen. You have to go out and ask for advice and introduce people and make connections cuz otherwise it's got slowly, slowly die down and your network's gonna network is not gonna be as valuable as it can be if you are proactive. The last thing that I'm gonna say, because I have a really important follow up question to everything that you said is there is a huge benefit in starting to introduce people you know to one another beyond what you mentioned and that's starting to build a community versus an audience. And these are two very, very different things. When. Speak on this podcast and somebody's listening. Most of the people I don't know, and I will never, ever meet. Sadly, I would love to meet all of them. Like, I wish I could do this in a room and see the people that are listening to this. So if you, if you are listening to this right now in your car or whatever, send me a LinkedIn message. I would love to know who you are. But once you start introducing people to one another and they know each other through you and they become a group, like you're saying, you have a men's group that now know each other and meet regularly and exchange value and help each other, it becomes a community. Meaning it's not a top down one person talking to everybody. It's everybody helping everybody. And that's a whole different level of magic. So literally amazing everything you said. I wanna ask you a follow up question that is very interesting that I know a lot of people are struggling with, and I know you have the answer. You said give value, connect with people, look for introductions. Give introductions. You also said you gotta find how to turn it into business. How do you make that transition? I think so many people are struggling with this. Like, he's a friend of mine, he's a good connection. How do you go from there to

Nicky Billou: 21:26

selling? Well, look, you've gotta ask questions to get to know what's going on, right? Like, for example, in our relationship, right? you shared with me a few things that were going on in your life, right? And obviously those are confidential things. but based on those, I instantly knew there were two ways I could potentially be of service to you. And my, belief around being of service to somebody is, well, if it's the right thing to do, of course it should happen. And if it's the right thing to do, you know, I have no compunctions about telling you, Isar, I think you, you should do this. I really think you should do this. This is why. And, you're gonna choose yes or you're gonna choose no. But I have no problems. Telling you the truth about that. I'm not gonna be thinking, oh my God, does he think I'm selling him? I'm like, the guy's in pain. I can help him. I'm an idiot if I don't offer to You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But if whatever it is you're dealing with is not what I do or what I have a skill set in, then I, I'm not going to go, okay, how can I make this, force this into a sale? No, no, that's gross for me and for you. Right? I would only have somebody who I really believe I can be of service to be someone I'm gonna have a sales conversation with. But if I can help them, then I'm absolutely gonna turn all my skill into having that conversation with them. You know, you're in a place right now, you told me you're, you're, you're looking at a few, a few things. One of the things that I know I can do for you and I, I'm gonna do it for you for free if you allow me to, is to have a, a session with you where we basically do that. I, I've done this for about a 500 people. It's very effective. It's very powerful. It's about 90 minutes long. And, you know what my experience in having done this 500 times is about 130 of those people ended up doing business with me eventually. You know what I mean? Either immediately or eventually, but I have no problem doing it. And in fact, I wholly think it's the right thing to do. But if there's someone who's in this and all they're thinking about is, I don't wanna look bad, then your attention is all on you. Your attention's on you. What are that? What's that person gonna think of me? That's pretty freaking selfish if you ask me. Right? That's all about you. Instead, your attention should be all on the other person. Wow. What are they dealing with? Are they dealing with something? that I have some knowledge about, have some ability to help with, then I better have a conversation with'em and I better, you know, talk to them. That's how I do business. My business is, it's very focused. I wanna help, I have a vision right now in the next, you know, 60 days. I want 12, clients that are like coaches, consultants, solopreneur type people, 12 new clients that I'm helping. That's what I want. That's my vision. We, we got an event coming up in January, et cetera. That's what I wanna do. And 12 new clients, man, that's, that's, that's a good number. That means that I gotta find at least 20 people, maybe 30 people, all of whom are struggling in the way that I know how to solve. So I have to have 30 conversations, let's say, up to 30 conversations with those individuals. And those conversations are fantastic opportunities for me. I, I, I, I'm looking forward to that, you know? I'll tell you a story, okay? I think this is the best way to do it. There was a, there was a woman, she, was the country director for, one of the world's oldest and largest personal development companies. You know, they help you deal with, unlocking childhood, issues. Very well known organization. Been around since the late sixties, right? Like real deal organization. and she led Canada. And what she did was she, wanted to really grow. So she brought this fellow on board who she believed was very talented to help her run the company. And I like Steve Jobs and John Scully back in the day with Apple. And just like Steve and John, the two of them at first really got along. They made good things happen. Their visions were aligned. But just like Steve and John, after about a year or so, their visions started to diverge and they started to butt heads. And just like Steve and John, she was pushed out of her own company. Now you might be thinking, especially cuz you know, how can someone get pushed out of a company They started, that's crazy, right? But it happens. And she was bereft brother. She was lost. What am I gonna do next? How am I gonna do it? And someone introduced her to us and I worked with my lady and we sat and we talked to her. I loved on her, my lady loved on her. We poured into her cuz she was hurting. You know what I mean? Yeah. She was really, really hurting. We helped her feel a little bit less pain, which was good. And we helped her start to think about, okay, what's next? Well, immediately what's next is let's build her own brand and her own practice, like her name.com, you know, like eis.com. And what she started to do was work with CEOs of 10 million plus companies. And her, her shtick was burnout victims. People who had burnt out, worked so hard, they were burnt out. She was their, she was their gal. She would go in, help'em overcome the burnout, be able to get back into life in business and, and still grow the business, but have a real life at the same time. It was a very, very powerful, it took us a little bit to really help her hone in on the message, and the ideal target market. In our first month, once we got it all sorted out, she did$10,000 in profit. Wonderful. Right? Not bad. Second month, 12,000. keep in mind, this is a solopreneur, this is not a person with the company, so that's all profit into her pocket pretty much, right? in her third month, 18,000, but in her fourth month it blew up$62,200. Right. So she was on the on track for three quarters of a million dollars, which is a wonderful, income for anybody. right. It's really good. Yeah. And she lives in Ottawa. I live in Toronto. That's a five hour drive. And what happened was, my eldest son, he plays football. He's a, he's a Centerback, right? And he was 12 at the time and he had a tournament in Ottawa. She has a son my son's age. So I called her up and I said, Hey, my son and I were coming to Ottawa for this tournament. How would you and your son like to come watch a game and maybe have some lunch with us? And she said, that sounds wonderful. So we all did that. And my son's team one, which is great, and you know, we had a, we had a, we had a great lunch and then we drove home A few weeks later, we had one of our branded thought leader immersion workshops. Okay. This was a three day opportunity to really, get your message fully dialed in, get clear on your ideal target market, learn what it's gonna take to add that one to two zeros, to your income. And, you know, it, it was, it was, it, it's, it is an incredible, incredible event with really great results for people. And she had done that and she had signed up for our, you know, ongoing program. Education, masterminding, accountability, helping them with sales conversations. Cuz that's one of the things we do is people go do sales calls, they record them, we dissect them, we do mark sales calls. It really helps. Right. It's good stuff. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. and we were at the section of the, event where we talked to the new people about how they can continue to work with us to sign up for the ongoing, you know, year long program. And the way I I do it is, I ask some of our people to share their experiences and what I did was I said, okay, who'd like to share before I could pick anybody, she just jumps up on stage. She goes, me. I'm like, okay, you're eager. This is good. In my head I'm saying all this. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And she's she's a very charismatic, magnetic person, you know, attractive lady and all that. And, So she's on stage. And then I'm like really excited because, you know, I'm like, she's, she, she came in with a lot of kind of ownership of wanting to do this right? But she's on stage and then she starts, her shoulders start to heat. Her head's going like this. And then I hear sniffles, soms, and then full on tears. And I'm like, whoa, in my head, right? I'm staying calm on the outside. What did I do? Like, why is she crying? And then she turns around and you know, we give her some tissues and she goes between her tears and her sobs, she goes, Nicky, you didn't know this, but when you and your little son came to visit me and my little son, my little son asked me, mommy, mommy, mommy, who are we gonna go meet? Decided right little boy. And she goes, oh, we're gonna go meet Nicki Ballou and his son. And then she said, all of a sudden he got really quiet and really serious. And he said, oh mommy, are we gonna go meet the man who saved our family? Whoa. I was absolutely shocked. And then I started to cry, and you know, I'm from Milli. I'm like, we don't cry, right? Like we don't Like when I cried and we hugged, and then she says to me, Nick, I didn't tell you this, but when I first came to see you, the bank was about to foreclose on our home because we hadn't paid our mortgage in months. My husband and I were fighting like cats and dogs every single day in front of our small children. And it looked like we were gonna break up and I was gonna lose my precious family. You literally helped us save our family. So we hugged Samora. And I learned a couple things from this. Number one is I had no idea, you know what I mean? What was gonna happen? Like zero, zero idea. And, you never know what someone's dealing with. They might not wanna tell you. And I ask God every day to bring someone to me that I have an opportunity to serve them the way I serve this woman and her family. It's an honor of a lifetime to be able to have played a role in making that happen. But here, what, here's what was amazing, brother. normally we hand out the registration forms and there were eight potentials in the room. And normally, some people sign up right away. Some people don't sign up. And some people, eh, you need to have a little bit of, back and forth with them. Yeah, yeah. Right? Everyone signed up immediately. That little boy was the best salesperson I've ever had. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I

Isar Meitis: 32:53

mean? Yeah. Wow. first of all, amazing, incredible story. I think the, the key after this amazing story to the answer to my question is going back to what skills do you have that provide real value, understanding the problem the person on the other side is having. And if you have that, it's not selling, it's as you said, servicing. And I love the way you approach it. He said, I feel obligated to help them. He said, forget about the money. That person needs help in something. It doesn't matter what the thing is in setting up a. You know, tech thing for his company, it's still the same thing, right? It doesn't have to be I saved his personal marriage. It can be something very specific that you have the skills to do that they have a real need for. Then it's not selling. Then you're providing them a service that they actually need. And all you have to do is offer and if you offer it the right way. And I think the, the beauty of all of this is it all comes from a place of service. If you come from a place of service, it won't feel to them like you're selling to them. And it won't feel to you like you're a lousy salesperson or a sneaky salesperson. Exactly. And then just because of the mindset, the whole thing changes. I wanna ask you one last question because this was, I I, the last story was so incredible that I don't think, I don't think we can go up from here, but, but I do wanna ask a question that is related to that you found her at just the right time. How do you do that? How do you, how do you find the right people, right? Because then going back to sales and business and whatever your conversion, like you said, is now a hundred percent because it's, they have a real need and, and, and, and the, and the outcome of that, it's not just that one client, but like you said, you immediately out of that got eight additional clients just from having that one client. So if you do the right thing for the right people, not only they become a client probably for life, but they're gonna be your best serve, your best referrals. How do you find the right people? That's a great question. Okay. I try to ask good questions. That, that's my only role here, by the way, is to ask good questions.

Nicky Billou: 35:25

you're you're awesome buddy. My mentor and business coach, his name is Mark Van Neer, and he says to me that you'll find the right people when your focus is on finding the right people. When your focus, when you wake up in the morning, first and foremost, is you have a goal. Like you have to have your personal goal. Let's say you wanna work with 10 clients, you wanna make a high grand a month, whatever, it's right, yeah. Whatever the case may be. But then you want to like elevate your own energy. Your frequency can't be low. You can't be like in a, I'm doomed energy. You know what

Isar Meitis: 36:06

I'm saying? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So

Nicky Billou: 36:09

I have here a little workbook, a notebook, excuse me, every day in this notebook. Do little journaling. So I started to journal before we spoke, I wrote down a hundred K month. Let's go serve 10 great people this month and help them build a movement. That's what I started with. And I'm gonna, I'm gonna write out like five little touchpoint goals for the day. So one of my goals is do a great job on this show so that our relationship continues, right? Second goal that I have is, right now I'm tightening up my nutrition. So I'm making a, a goal around that. Third goal that I have is, I've got a client I'm seeing today. I wanna really be prepared and do a good job for that client. you know, fourth goal that I have is to read a certain number of pages today. And the fifth goal that I have is, you know, both my sons are here with me, this week cuz my ex went away. on vacation with her new guy, and they both have sports. So, one of them I've organized for someone else to take and the other one I gotta take. Yeah. So, my goal is to just, you know, have a, have a wonderful time being with my boys. So those are my five goals. I, I write that down and then I've got some great songs I listen to. I get up and I dance around to them. You know what I mean? I move my, my body. And then there's, there's some smart questions. I call them intelligent questions. This is, I created this as a ritual, right? It's called the finish line Thinking Results Ritual. Step one, listen to music that stirs your soul, right? Because the research shows that you know, music you love has powerful effects on your body and on your brain, and you know, it releases adrenaline and dopamine into your body, right? That makes you feel energized and happy at the same time. So what's the music that stirs your soul? Put it on a playlist and have it handy. And secondly, move your body emotions caused by motion. Tony Robins said that, right? Move your body, clap your hands together, pump your fist, jump up and down, say yes 10 times, right? Create, you know, moves that just put you in a great space. and then three, ask intelligent questions. Tony Robbins said this too. The quality of your life depends on the quality of the questions you ask yourself, right? The human mind's absolutely amazing, right? It'll answer any question you put before it. If you ask yourself negative questions, your mind will answer negative questions. It'll disempowering you and that'll lower your energy. But if you ask yourself intelligent, empowering questions, it'll put you in peak state. So here's some questions that I ask, the five intelligent questions that all finish line thinkers ask. Step number one is, what am I happy about today? So I'll answer it and you answer it. So just to give people an example, what am I happy about today? Well, I'm happy that. I got two beautiful, amazing sons. That's what I'm happy about today. What are you happy about today? I'm happy

Isar Meitis: 39:05

about today that I'm making serious progress on renovating the house that's been delayed for a very, very, very long time. And I finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, and we'll be able to move back to our house.

Nicky Billou: 39:16

Awesome. Zach, one, what am I excited about today? I'm excited that I'm building a relationship with a good new friend, Essar. That's what I'm excited about. What are you excited about today? Same here.

Isar Meitis: 39:25

I, I really, you know, we met two weeks ago and we had so such deep conversations that I don't have sometimes with people I've known for years. So I'm truly excited about our conversation today.

Nicky Billou: 39:36

Awesome. Who can I make a difference for today? several people, both my boys, you, my lady, my client. Those are the folks I can make a difference for today. What about you? Who can you make a difference

Isar Meitis: 39:50

for? A lot of people. I have a, CEO that I'm, mentoring. I had a great conversation with him this morning, gave him some great ideas that he can implement. I have another call I late this afternoon with a guy that I'm, I'm not even trying to do business with, but we're helping each other just like what I'm doing with you. So I know I can help him with some ideas. And I already have three pages of ideas for him written down because I was very excited getting ready for that conversation. So, yes, I, them and my kids, it's always, you know, at the end of the day, it's always the kids. It's the, that's the, the main thing.

Nicky Billou: 40:23

So the fourth question is, how can I attract my ideal clients today? Well, for me, going on podcasts like this, I've got this interview and I got one this afternoon. That's, that's a way I can attract my ideal clients and give a shit ton of value. You know, like just give a lot of good stuff so that the folks I'm connecting with go, yeah, this is good. And when that energy comes in, the ideal clients get attracted.

Isar Meitis: 40:44

How about you? I first of all, need to identify who are my ideal clients right now with the situation that I'm in right now. So, you know, I, I know what, I know I can help a lot of people with setting up how to build communities, how to build networks, and how to grow businesses that way. But I also have a lot of experience in growing businesses, period. So I gotta define what is it that I wanna focus on in the next future, either me or long term. And, and then, and then go to find that. So I, I don't think I have a good answer for that question because I don't have a clear answer on who am I trying to serve in

Nicky Billou: 41:19

future. What you can do is you can start thinking about that today. You can start putting a plan together. Yeah. And I'll, I'll give you a, a thought on how we can do that. question number five. How can I give my best today? Well, how I can give my best today, honestly, is do this interview. Go on pod match and do the six matches, like I I, every, every day I do at least the six matches they give me. That's important to me. That's the way I can give my best. and, make sure that I'm really prepared for, the meeting I have with my, with my client today. And, read, do the 30 pages of reading today. That's how I like, like, just full on, just go to the edge. What about you?

Isar Meitis: 42:03

How can I be my best today? Keep positive thinking. I'm in a interesting time in my life. You know, every time I'm in a crossroad, there's uncertainty. Uncertainty is not a good thing for the human mind and the human soul. And I really try to stay positive in a very conscious way. And that helps me a lot, share my situation with, people that I care about and that I trust that helps me be at my best. and, and think long term. I think that's, as a value, that's a very important thing and be grateful. I'm always, always, always very grateful for everything that I have and for everything that happens. Everything happens, and in the end it turns for the best. And I think that's maybe, maybe the most incredible virtue to have is to be able to be grateful even in difficult times.

Nicky Billou: 42:47

There you go. You ask a bunch of questions like this, you do that kind of stuff, you're in a good place, and that's when the energy of attraction comes. I'm a big believer in the law of attraction. You gotta create the energy of attraction. To have the law of attraction go your way.

Isar Meitis: 43:01

I gotta say something about what just happened because I think it's absolutely brilliant. And you started, when I asked you the question, you started with something that I personally think, I'm like, oh my God, this is so fluff. When you said you gotta be focused on attracting the right people. Like, okay, how? But then as I expected from you, came with an actual. Plan, and here is how I do this, and here's a piece of paper I have on my desk every freaking day. And I'm gonna ask these questions and these will lead me. And I journal and I give myself goals. And I think being goal driven is really important for any business and really important as an individual. And I also love the way you do this. I really like the OKR system. It's something that was developed I think by, Intel originally, but Google made it famous and the OKR on a very, very big idea. And if you guys are in a business and you wanna understand what it is, just go read about it. I'm not gonna explain the whole thing, but the biggest idea behind it is, what's my 10 year gold goal and my five year and my one year. And out of that, what I have to achieve this quarter to hit the one, the one year goal. And if I have to achieve this, this quarter, what has to happen this week? And if this has to happen this week, what needs to happen today? And you can do this for the person, for the team, for the department, for the company. And each one has these clear. checkpoints that actually leads to the goal you want in the long term, because otherwise, and it's exactly what you said, otherwise, you'll achieve a lot of things, but they may or may not help you to achieve the bigger goals you're trying to achieve. Nicky, this was amazing, like emotionally and logically and from a value of stuff that people can actually take to their businesses, really, really great. If people want more of you wanna connect with you, follow you, do business with you, consult with you, what's the best way to find you.

Nicky Billou: 44:59

So, if you're a reader, go to Amazon and go and type in my name, Nicky Biu, N i c k y B I L L O U. My podcasts are there, my books are there. There's some good things in there if you like to read, and I recommend it if you like to listen to podcast. And if you listen to this podcast, you probably do. So check those out. I think there'll be good things there. If you're a business owner, or you wanna be a business owner and you, would like to have a conversation with somebody to help you get unstuck, to get to that next level, to get past whatever's holding you back, I offer something I call a success call. It's like a strategy call. And the way to get that going is to go to my main website, e circle academy.com/appointment, or there's a button there that says Book a success call. the calls are free. we do have a screening tool cuz we just wanna make sure that you're a serious person. and you know, one thing that I say is being of space in your life where you're, you're you, you, you poke fun at yourself, but you take what you do seriously. So that you can create something that is worthy of the nobility in your soul. Awesome.

Isar Meitis: 46:10

Nicky, thank you so much for the time and for sharing your knowledge and your opening your heart and sharing your personal, and, and, and business journey with everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. My pleasure,

Nicky Billou: 46:21

brother. My pleasure.

Isar Meitis: 46:23

What an amazing conversation with Nicky. He has such a deep understanding of people and their needs and their mindsets. And his ability to give really practical tips is phenomenal, and I really appreciate him taking the time to do that. And until next time, have an amazing week.