Latest / Thrive After 45® | Life After 45, Self-Trust, Midlife Women / From Molotov Cocktails to Millionaire Maker - with Nicky Billou

Transcript

From Molotov Cocktails to Millionaire Maker - with Nicky Billou · Thrive After 45® | Life After 45, Self-Trust, Midlife Women

• 0:00
  Hello, and welcome to today's episode of Thrive After 45.
• 0:05
  I'm Denise Drink, heart whisperer, midlife mirror and mentor.
• 0:10
  And every week I am honored to share energy and space with inspiring guests whose stories reflect so many possibilities of thriving beyond 45.
• 0:21
  Together we'll uncover the whispers of the heart, the power of midlife transformation, and the wisdom that fuels expansion.
• 0:29
  What if the power to impact millions began with the courage to start?
• 0:37
  Over such an honor and a privilege to welcome Nikki Ballou, whose story is as powerful as the impact he's created in the world.
• 0:48
  Nikki's journey began as an immigrant, navigating the challenges of building a new life, and continued through the personal trials of divorce experiences that shaped his drive resilience and mission to help others.
• 1:03
  Break free from limitation.
• 1:06
  Over the last 20 years, Nikki has become a two-time New York Times bestselling author, a true millionaire maker, and a trusted guide for entrepreneurs who feel stuck in growing their businesses.
• 1:21
  His work has touched the lives of over 4 million people worldwide, helping them step into possibility prosperity.
• 1:31
  Purpose.
• 1:31
  This conversation isn't just about business growth.
• 1:35
  It's about courage, reinvention, and what it actually takes to rise no matter what life places in your path.
• 1:45
  Nikki, welcome to Thrive after 45.
• 1:49
  Denise, it's an honor to be here.
• 1:50
  Thanks for having me on the show.
• 1:51
  Absolutely.
• 1:52
  Let's dig right in.
• 1:54
  We need to know and understand your challenges brought you to the new country, rebuilding life after divorce.
• 2:04
  What's that backstory that you can share with us, and how has it even begun to shape the work that you are doing today?
• 2:13
  Great question.
• 2:14
  So, as you said, I'm originally an immigrant from the Middle East.
• 2:16
  I'm a Christian from Iran.
• 2:18
  When I was 11 years old, the Islamic Revolution took place in Iran and there were literally Denise gun battles going on in the streets near my home.
• 2:28
  Now my mom and dad were, um, freaking out, and then one day that freakout went up by a factor of a hundred Uhhuh.
• 2:37
  So all of a sudden there was a.
• 2:40
  Crashing sound through our living room window.
• 2:43
  Something was thrown through it and it landed next to my feet.
• 2:48
  And I'm looking at it and I don't know what the heck it is, but my father, he instantly knew what it was.
• 2:55
  It was a bottle with a burning wick in it full of liquid, a moto of cocktail.
• 3:01
  Dad grabbed the thing and pulled out the burning wick so it wouldn't explode.
• 3:05
  'cause if it had you and I wouldn't be talking right now.
• 3:08
  And, um.
• 3:09
  That's when him and mom said, that's it.
• 3:11
  We're outta here.
• 3:13
  And they made a plan to take me and my two brothers out of our home in Iran.
• 3:19
  And initially we went to Athens, Greece.
• 3:22
  That took two years to make that happen.
• 3:25
  And then another two years we left Athens, Greece to come to Toronto, Canada, where I now live now at that time, maybe you can relate.
• 3:33
  I'm a kid, I've got friends, I've got a home I love.
• 3:37
  I didn't wanna leave any of that.
• 3:38
  Yeah, yeah.
• 3:38
  Right.
• 3:40
  But as time went on, I started to see the nobility of my mom and dad's sacrifice because they left behind everyone and everything.
• 3:49
  They knew for a chance at a better life for me and my two brothers.
• 3:55
  I'm, I'm going through life being exposed to, um, a whole new way of living in Canada than in Iran.
• 4:03
  And Iran under the Shah was a relatively free place, but Iran, under the Mullahs was not at all a free place.
• 4:09
  It was a dark place, you know, um, girls, for example.
• 4:15
  And women were being forced to cover up.
• 4:17
  Yeah.
• 4:18
  Which they'd never had to before.
• 4:20
  Dancing was banned, music was banned.
• 4:23
  Um.
• 4:24
  Most movies were banned.
• 4:27
  And then we come to Canada and there's an openness, there's a freedom, there's a joy, there's a vibrancy, there's a life.
• 4:34
  And I started to see that inside every human breast beats the living heart of freedom.
• 4:39
  Every man, every woman on this planet yearns to breathe free, to chart their own course, to march to the tune of their own drummer.
• 4:48
  And that's what had me go.
• 4:50
  Okay.
• 4:51
  I'm all about this.
• 4:52
  Like my, my, my, um, avatar is freedom, freedom Capitalism, a society where you can go and choose where you're gonna go and what you're gonna do, and.
• 5:09
  It was very, very important for me to help the people that were the biggest beneficiaries of this freedom.
• 5:17
  And then the also, in many cases, the ones who understood it the best, the entrepreneurs, because if you're an entrepreneur, you gotta be free.
• 5:24
  You gotta be free to think, you gotta be free to express yourself.
• 5:26
  You gotta be free to engage in enterprise, free enterprise.
• 5:30
  You gotta be free to chart a course and right.
• 5:36
  My mom and dad, dad especially, they were entrepreneurs.
• 5:40
  Mm-hmm.
• 5:40
  And I wanted to honor them and I wanted to help the people that were the folks at the forefront of freedom.
• 5:48
  And my mission, my vision has become, and that's a crazy vision that I want the world to have.
• 5:54
  A billion multimillionaires.
• 5:56
  Wow.
• 5:57
  A billion multimillionaires by 2040.
• 5:59
  This will create the biggest constituency for freedom that the world has ever seen.
• 6:04
  It will destroy the forces of darkness that want to crush us and our dreams, and they don't mind burning our beautiful world to the ground as long as they can rule over the ashes.
• 6:14
  Mm-hmm.
• 6:14
  And those are the people that I consider the enemy, the the people that spread evil ideologies and evil ideas, and don't want us to be free.
• 6:23
  So what you're speaking of is so rich.
• 6:29
  Not just monetarily, but rich in soul because you're talking about freedom that many of us who have not had those experiences that you have had, don't really understand.
• 6:46
  What freedom is because we don't have that opposite side of the coin.
• 6:52
  How do you support entrepreneurs?
• 6:55
  I love that you do that work, because I love that you're seeing, those are the people that are already in that freedom mindset.
• 7:03
  That's their goal, but how do you take them from wanting that freedom but not seeing it?
• 7:14
  Well.
• 7:16
  You know, it's an interesting question.
• 7:18
  Um, I think that the average entrepreneur wants to be free.
• 7:24
  That's one of the reasons they're an entrepreneur.
• 7:26
  They've got this vision that they're gonna create a business that's going to give them financial freedom so that they can do wonderful things for their family and wonderful things for the people they love and wonderful things for themselves.
• 7:39
  And.
• 7:41
  I speak to that because that yearning in everyone's soul is there and it's powerful.
• 7:48
  Hmm.
• 7:49
  Like if I'm speaking to a client, a lot of our clients are, are, you know, coaches and consultants, right?
• 7:55
  Here's what, here's what I've noticed.
• 7:58
  Almost all of them have an incredible skillset, like they can do the thing that they do that helps people really, really well.
• 8:06
  So whether they're right.
• 8:08
  A mindset coach, a health coach, a relationship coach, a business coach, what have you, they're awesome at that, right?
• 8:16
  Where they fall short is their self-belief.
• 8:24
  So, and my father used to say this to me, said, son, every human being on the planet has days where their self-belief wobbles.
• 8:33
  Me, you everybody.
• 8:35
  And the difference between those whose self-belief recovers and those whose self-belief stays wobbly is that there's someone in the ear of the person whose self-belief recovers saying to them, Hey, I see you.
• 8:55
  Hey, I feel you.
• 8:59
  You are awesome and I know who you really are and I believe in you.
• 9:06
  And maybe those words aren't spoken, but the energy behind those words is conveyed and conveyed powerfully.
• 9:14
  And so those people, you know, you, you've probably seen speeches at the Academy Awards or athletes getting into the Hall of Fame or winning a gold medal, and they all tell you, my mentor.
• 9:28
  My father, my sister, my, my mother, there's someone there who really believed in them and made them believe in themselves.
• 9:37
  That little spark of belief they gave them turned into a roaring fire and they were off into the races.
• 9:42
  So people often ask me, they go, Luc, so Nick, man, tell me your skillset.
• 9:47
  Like, what are the things you do?
• 9:48
  And look, I got mad skills.
• 9:50
  Okay.
• 9:50
  I'm.
• 9:51
  Amazing.
• 9:52
  It's showing people how to get on podcasts and turn that into an opportunity to build relationships, get lead sales and clients.
• 9:58
  I do thought leadership and personal branding, and there may be two to three people on the planet at my level at that, and I show people how to sell from the heart, but sell right.
• 10:09
  Beautifully at that.
• 10:09
  I'm, I'm incredible at all that stuff and many, many other things, but there's lots of people who can at least claim they have some, some or more of those skills, but not one of them.
• 10:21
  Incredibly claim what I claim.
• 10:24
  Because what I claim is I'm Napoleon Ballou's son and I see you and I believe in you.
• 10:30
  And I'm a professional encourager of and believer in people.
• 10:34
  And most people don't even know that that's a thing.
• 10:35
  But it's a thing.
• 10:36
  And trust me, it's not only a thing, it's the thing that has allowed me to be successful in business.
• 10:42
  I have not spent a ton of money on, on ads.
• 10:44
  I mean, I've tried some ads in the past.
• 10:46
  Mm-hmm.
• 10:46
  How I got my clients.
• 10:48
  Is I help people.
• 10:50
  I put myself out there and, and I vibrate at a certain level that God decides that my vibration's high enough that he sends those people my way.
• 10:59
  Right, right, right.
• 11:01
  Yeah.
• 11:02
  Relationships.
• 11:04
  How does the relationship that you have with yourself impact your relationship with others?
• 11:14
  So, that's a good question.
• 11:16
  I've had lots of people like my father, you know, my mother, my mentors and coaches, and certain teachers believe in me and that has had me believe in myself, you know, not in an egotistical look at me, beat my chest kind of away, or look at me peacocking with nice clothes and brands and all of that stuff.
• 11:38
  Yeah.
• 11:39
  But in a, I know I am.
• 11:41
  Yeah.
• 11:41
  And I'm a rockstar.
• 11:43
  I'm a rockstar.
• 11:44
  And I say this with like no ego, I'm a rockstar.
• 11:47
  People are lucky.
• 11:48
  People that come across my path are lucky because they get a really, really awesome dude in their corner to help them get to the next level and mm-hmm.
• 11:57
  The overwhelming majority of the people I work with end up believing themselves more, making a lot more money, um, and having, having the faith to go out there and get a lot more done than before they met me.
• 12:09
  Nice, nice.
• 12:12
  So the 4 million people that's continuing to grow.
• 12:18
  Yeah, I go on a lot of podcasts.
• 12:23
  I've been on over 820 shows in the last three and a half years as a guest.
• 12:28
  Mm-hmm.
• 12:29
  And I speak on a bunch of stages as well.
• 12:32
  I'm sure you do.
• 12:33
  And I'm sure what happens is the rooms shift completely.
• 12:39
  They do when, when you enter and that drop of belief.
• 12:47
  I'm smiling as you're speaking because as an educator, that's the one thing that I never lost sight of.
• 12:54
  It only takes one person to make a difference in another person's life.
• 12:58
  That's all it does, and, and you never know when that interaction is going to happen.
• 13:05
  You be your full self and you are there to support the people If you come from the heart-centered approach like yourself, Nikki, who believes in people because you know what's possible.
• 13:18
  Everything shifts for everybody that you come in contact with, and we all have that capacity to do so, but we lose it.
• 13:28
  Because we don't realize how important that really is.
• 13:32
  That's my 2 cents on that piece, and that's what makes you so empowering because you haven't lost your belief, and I am so grateful that you've had those people in your life who've shared that with you in multiple ways over the years because you've hit hardships.
• 13:50
  I have, right?
• 13:52
  Huge.
• 13:53
  Huge.
• 13:53
  Yeah.
• 13:54
  Hundred percent.
• 13:55
  Everybody has honestly, of course, if anybody who doesn't go through some serious adversity, it's the nature of being a human being, of course.
• 14:03
  And what, what happens with that is we get to choose what are we doing with that information.
• 14:09
  And thank heavens you've taken it and move the needle not only for yourself, but see the capacity in those around you and beyond, and know the world is a better place because of it.
• 14:20
  How do you have such a big vision?
• 14:24
  2040.
• 14:27
  I was in a program with, uh, Patrick Beda, the, the, um, the, the famous podcaster.
• 14:34
  And in this program he said, you gotta have a big vision.
• 14:37
  You gotta cast it all the time.
• 14:39
  And I just, that just hit me.
• 14:41
  It's like God gave it to me.
• 14:42
  I don't, I don't think I came up with that myself.
• 14:44
  Yeah.
• 14:44
  You know?
• 14:45
  Um, and it comes one person at a time.
• 14:50
  Hmm.
• 14:50
  Like one of our clients today.
• 14:53
  Her name's Shannon Coulter, right?
• 14:56
  She's got a huge vision.
• 14:59
  So she's a mom.
• 15:01
  And, um, when she married her, her husband, he had kids from a previous marriage that were a certain age and he was off at work and the kids were there with her.
• 15:13
  And, um, she said, okay, go outside and play.
• 15:18
  And they, they, they, they couldn't.
• 15:21
  Fathom what that meant.
• 15:22
  'cause they were used to phones and screens and she had to go teach these kids how to literally go outside and play.
• 15:30
  And so her mission has become to wean children and even adults off of screens.
• 15:38
  She says, look, you're not gonna be technology free.
• 15:41
  That's not realistic, but mm-hmm You are on tech 75% of the time.
• 15:45
  Let's make you be on tech only 25% of the time.
• 15:50
  Her big enemy is our screens, our addiction to screens and ignorance of parents.
• 15:57
  You know what I mean?
• 15:58
  There's an ignorance out there of what this is doing to children's brains and even to to adults.
• 16:02
  Yeah.
• 16:03
  Yeah.
• 16:03
  Right.
• 16:04
  There's a laziness.
• 16:05
  Some parents are just being lazy and this is like a digital babysitter for them.
• 16:10
  Yeah.
• 16:11
  Like screw that.
• 16:12
  Yeah, like screw that.
• 16:14
  And anyways, she had never.
• 16:19
  Done a business before she came.
• 16:20
  Yeah.
• 16:21
  As to what should I do?
• 16:23
  Hmm.
• 16:23
  She said, go start a pilot program.
• 16:27
  And she said, uh, should I give it away for free?
• 16:28
  And we said, no.
• 16:29
  Charge some money for it.
• 16:30
  Mm-hmm.
• 16:31
  So I don't think she's charging a lot of money for it, like a hundred or 200 bucks a person.
• 16:35
  But she filled her pilot program with like 25 people.
• 16:38
  Lty split.
• 16:39
  Yeah.
• 16:40
  Right.
• 16:41
  And she's got another pilot program and now she's gonna have a coaching program.
• 16:45
  And she just finished her pilot program and she said there's people there that have, that have, have reduced their screen time by three and a half to five hours a day.
• 16:54
  That's amazing.
• 16:56
  Right.
• 16:57
  And that's, that's like.
• 16:59
  She's not making a ton of money from this right now.
• 17:01
  I mean, you know, her, her, her family, her husband is extremely successful.
• 17:04
  She doesn't need the money, but mm-hmm.
• 17:06
  Um, still the fact that it's a business and she's making money, this was huge for her.
• 17:10
  Right.
• 17:11
  We had this other woman who came to us and she manages, um, uh, a med spa, her own, she owns a med spa, and now she, she has this Med Spa academy teaching people how to do med spas, you know, like Botox and all that jazz.
• 17:26
  Mm-hmm.
• 17:26
  Anyways.
• 17:29
  It took us a while to help her get everything sorted out from a messaging point of view, but in 32 days she made 1,000,050 thousand in sales.
• 17:37
  Wow.
• 17:38
  Right.
• 17:39
  And yeah.
• 17:41
  Well first of all, she's good.
• 17:44
  Secondly, she had us helping her believe in herself.
• 17:47
  And thirdly, she's in action and we make sure people are in action.
• 17:51
  Right, right.
• 17:52
  Yeah.
• 17:52
  Uh, it's great to have all the ideas, but if you do nothing with it.
• 17:56
  It just sits right.
• 17:58
  It doesn't become a reality.
• 17:59
  So what you do in supporting the people that you support, in the 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 ever believe, even though their heart and soul is in it.
• 18:20
  Yeah.
• 18:21
  Love it.
• 18:23
  Thank you.
• 18:23
  I love it.
• 18:25
  If you are listening to this and you're thinking, well, I have an idea and I don't, nobody thinks it's a good idea.
• 18:32
  What do people do with that?
• 18:33
  Because they do have good ideas.
• 18:35
  Like my listeners have lots of incredible thoughts and ideas.
• 18:39
  This is a turning point for a lot of women in their lives, like children are leaving the nest, whatever's going on in their world, they're thinking.
• 18:47
  Ah, that's a crazy idea.
• 18:48
  What do you do?
• 18:49
  What do you suggest people do when they have this really good idea that they want to, but nobody thinks it's a good idea, but they know in their heart it is.
• 19:01
  Well, I think you've got to, um, run with it.
• 19:06
  Mm-hmm.
• 19:07
  Because.
• 19:09
  Let's be honest.
• 19:11
  People that love you, many, many often, many times they mean well.
• 19:15
  Yeah.
• 19:16
  But their own fears get in the way.
• 19:17
  They try to hold you back.
• 19:19
  Love that.
• 19:19
  Yeah.
• 19:20
  And you can't let that happen.
• 19:22
  Yeah.
• 19:22
  If, if you got something on your heart, you gotta listen to yourself ahead of listening to any outside voices.
• 19:28
  Mm-hmm.
• 19:29
  Denise, like look, um, I'm 58 years old.
• 19:34
  Mm-hmm.
• 19:35
  And when I was 55, um.
• 19:40
  I, um, I came to a point in my life where like I just was not happy with my physical condition, my, my, my fitness level.
• 19:49
  Yeah, I was overweight.
• 19:51
  Um, I not happy, not happy with how I looked, not happy with how I felt, right?
• 19:58
  Yeah.
• 19:58
  I hired someone to get me in good condition and it worked.
• 20:01
  I dropped 58 pounds.
• 20:03
  I ended up doing a bodybuilding competition a year later, and I'm actually continuing on that path.
• 20:09
  Go for my bodybuilding professional card.
• 20:12
  Nice.
• 20:13
  The IFPB Pro card.
• 20:14
  Yeah.
• 20:15
  Now I have someone who I really like and, and respect in many ways.
• 20:19
  Yep.
• 20:20
  Come to me during this point and, you know, I'd hired her to do some, some, uh, energy work for me to unravel something or not.
• 20:31
  Yep.
• 20:32
  And she decided, she wanted to tell me that I should stop lifting weights so hard that I was.
• 20:38
  Too old for it and it was, I was in a stage in my life and she just started like coming at me and I just said, yo, that's not happening.
• 20:47
  And I didn't hire you to give me this information.
• 20:49
  Right.
• 20:49
  I hired you to do the work for me.
• 20:51
  And back off.
• 20:53
  Yeah.
• 20:54
  Okay.
• 20:55
  Back the hell off because this is what I want to do.
• 21:01
  Yeah.
• 21:01
  You don't get a say, you get a say in what you wanna do.
• 21:06
  I get a say in what I wanna do.
• 21:08
  That's what freedom is.
• 21:12
  Right?
• 21:13
  Perfect.
• 21:14
  And, and, um, like I said, this is someone I respect that hired to do specific work for me.
• 21:19
  And in the past there would've been a time, oh, you know, I wouldn't have said anything.
• 21:23
  And I'm like, yeah, boss's off.
• 21:25
  Boss's off.
• 21:27
  Yeah.
• 21:27
  Like, this feels right for me.
• 21:30
  Training like this, getting in good condition.
• 21:33
  It's very important for me to be 58 and be physically like I'm 38.
• 21:38
  Like strong, tough.
• 21:40
  Yep.
• 21:40
  You know, capable.
• 21:42
  And right when, when I leave this earth, whatever that age that is, you know, and years ago, I, uh, I had someone say, you're gonna live till you're in your mid nineties, 96, let's say that that happens.
• 21:56
  I'm not gonna be some frail dude.
• 21:58
  I'm gonna be mm-hmm.
• 21:59
  Muscular, strong person and.
• 22:02
  Right now, lifting weights on its own is gonna get it done, but I'm looking into folks that are doing things like testosterone replacement therapy and things like that.
• 22:12
  Mm-hmm.
• 22:13
  And a hundred percent I'll, if that's what it will take for me to keep my condition right.
• 22:18
  I'll do it.
• 22:19
  I'll do whatever I gotta do, you know, in, in.
• 22:24
  You know, uh, consistent with remaining healthy, I'm not gonna take drugs, of course, like that.
• 22:29
  But Absolutely.
• 22:30
  That's important to me.
• 22:31
  Yeah.
• 22:32
  And I don't need anybody else's opinion on whether that should be important to me or not.
• 22:36
  It's, it just is.
• 22:38
  Yeah.
• 22:38
  And I recommend that someone listening to this, don't let anybody steal your dream away.
• 22:45
  Exactly.
• 22:46
  Gonna steal your damn dream away.
• 22:48
  You, you don't wanna go through life and then come out of it on one side and go, oh my God, I really wanted to do this and I didn't.
• 22:55
  You know?
• 22:56
  Yeah.
• 22:56
  And like growing up, one of my dreams was to be a writer and to like sell millions of copies of my books.
• 23:07
  And I've written a bunch of books.
• 23:08
  I haven't sold millions of copies of my books, not even close.
• 23:11
  Mm-hmm.
• 23:11
  That's still part of my dream.
• 23:13
  And I'm gonna tell you.
• 23:15
  I'm gonna at some point put a lot of effort into just that.
• 23:19
  Right now, not the time, but the old days was you get a publisher and hope lightning strikes Today, it's a little different.
• 23:27
  Right.
• 23:27
  Um, you, you learn about how to market and sell and Yeah.
• 23:32
  I'm, I'm good with that.
• 23:33
  And I can write, I've written 11 books.
• 23:35
  I'll write more.
• 23:36
  Right.
• 23:36
  Let's roll.
• 23:37
  Yeah.
• 23:39
  There's a couple of things that you said that I think are really important.
• 23:41
  The key one is.
• 23:44
  That is if you have a dream, if you have a desire, if you have a passion and you share it with whoever and, and they water it down or watch out, it's their fear.
• 23:57
  That's not your passion.
• 24:00
  Don't mix the two.
• 24:01
  Right.
• 24:02
  I love what you're sharing specifically about the person you hired and your story is fantastic'cause it's a very concrete example of, Nope, I know what I want.
• 24:13
  This is going to happen.
• 24:15
  It doesn't mean tomorrow, but it will be happening.
• 24:17
  Your book Dream of Selling Millions is still on the table.
• 24:22
  It hasn't disappeared.
• 24:24
  It needs to change in terms of when, but it's not disappearing.
• 24:28
  So Nikki is doing exactly what this this podcast is about.
• 24:36
  Make sure you do something for you by you because of you, and it's in your soul.
• 24:42
  Tap into that and find people like Nikki who can be in your ear as your believer.
• 24:52
  He's got you.
• 24:53
  'cause he knows what's possible.
• 24:56
  Thank you.
• 24:59
  Is there anything you would love to share with our listeners as we wrap up today's conversation?
• 25:05
  Nikki?
• 25:08
  You know, there's a, there's a story that I, um, from time to time share to end podcast guest appearances.
• 25:16
  And it's a, it's a good story.
• 25:17
  Lemme share it with you.
• 25:19
  Um, back in, um, God, 2018, so a while ago.
• 25:29
  Um.
• 25:30
  I had been, uh, connected and introduced to a very, uh, special, um, individual.
• 25:37
  This woman was, um, the country director for Canada for one of the world's oldest and largest, uh, personal development firms.
• 25:45
  You know, there's a lot of really big globally renowned personal development firms that have been around since like the sixties and seventies.
• 25:53
  This was one of them.
• 25:54
  Yeah.
• 25:55
  So, um.
• 25:59
  When I met her, um, she had, um, she had been, um, like I said, the country director for this firm for Canada, and she had decided she needed help.
• 26:15
  So she brought a fellow on board who was a Canadian, um, fellow who had had some notoriety in personal development in Canada.
• 26:25
  And he had done the program that she ran and said that it had transformed his life.
• 26:29
  And so she brought him on board.
• 26:31
  She thought it would be a good win-win.
• 26:33
  And for a while it was like they, they did great things, but after about a year, their visions for the future started to diverge and, um.
• 26:44
  There's a board of directors involved and they sided with him and they kicked her outta the company.
• 26:50
  Right.
• 26:50
  And, um, kinda like Steve Jobs in the eighties when he brought John Scully on board, if you remember that story.
• 26:58
  Mm-hmm.
• 26:58
  Right?
• 26:58
  Mm-hmm.
• 26:59
  And people go, your company, board of directors kicks you out.
• 27:02
  It totally can happen.
• 27:04
  Right.
• 27:04
  It.
• 27:04
  Sure.
• 27:05
  More common than you think, right?
• 27:07
  Mm-hmm.
• 27:07
  So this woman, super wonderful, charismatic, high energy, big heart.
• 27:14
  She is like bereft for about 18 months.
• 27:18
  And then she gets connected to me through some mutual friends, acquaintances.
• 27:23
  Mm-hmm.
• 27:23
  And I see that I could help her.
• 27:27
  And so I, I say, yeah, come, come to our program and anyways.
• 27:35
  She really took to it and we, um, decided to sign up with us for a year and, um, we sat down, we helped her figure out her ideal client.
• 27:46
  We helped her figure out her message, and we helped her have a plan of putting herself out there to get clients.
• 27:52
  Mm-hmm.
• 27:54
  And she did really well.
• 27:55
  In her first month she did$10,000 in sales.
• 27:57
  Right.
• 27:58
  And this is in 2018, so spectacular.
• 28:00
  Yeah.
• 28:01
  Yeah.
• 28:02
  Back in month she did more.
• 28:03
  She did 12,000.
• 28:04
  And then in her third month she went up to 18,000.
• 28:06
  So she's like on her own.
• 28:08
  And in her fourth month though, she just went super nova.
• 28:12
  She did$62,200.
• 28:15
  Like whoa.
• 28:16
  And I'll tell you why that's germane in a moment.
• 28:20
  So she's from Ottawa, I'm from Toronto.
• 28:23
  Yep.
• 28:23
  Five hour drive.
• 28:25
  Um, my oldest son at the time was 12.
• 28:29
  He's 19 now.
• 28:31
  Mm-hmm.
• 28:31
  He played soccer until recently.
• 28:33
  He played pretty high level soccer, but back then he was a 12-year-old man.
• 28:37
  They had a tournament in Ottawa, so we drove to Ottawa for the tournament and I'm calling her on our way there'cause she had a son his age.
• 28:44
  And I said, Hey, um, Julie, I'm gonna call her Julie.
• 28:47
  I said, we'll come to Ottawa soccer tournament.
• 28:50
  Would you like to bring your son?
• 28:52
  Watch us play?
• 28:54
  She says, yeah, I'll come to your last game.
• 28:56
  So that's what they did.
• 28:57
  And anyways, it was great.
• 28:59
  We won the tournament, which was super fantastic.
• 29:03
  And um.
• 29:05
  Then we, um, you know, we had lunch with her and her son and we drove back to Toronto.
• 29:09
  She drove back to her, to her house with her son.
• 29:12
  A few weeks later in Toronto, we had one of our quarterly branded thought leader immersion workshops.
• 29:17
  This is a highly curated high ticket experience.
• 29:21
  Mm-hmm.
• 29:22
  And, um, she was in there.
• 29:23
  Right.
• 29:23
  'cause she's part of our community.
• 29:25
  And Sure.
• 29:26
  We came to this, um.
• 29:28
  Point And Denise, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm kind of, you know, you've been around, you, you know what happens at these meetings?
• 29:33
  There's an enrollment opportunity for something else.
• 29:36
  Of course.
• 29:36
  Yeah.
• 29:37
  So we had our enrollment opportunity and it's for a year long program.
• 29:41
  Mm-hmm.
• 29:42
  40,000 US dollars.
• 29:44
  Okay.
• 29:44
  So, um, high ticket, right?
• 29:47
  Sure.
• 29:48
  Absolutely high ticket.
• 29:50
  Um, but the way that I sell is, I don't usually do most of the.
• 29:56
  Selling myself, I kind of like say, Hey, so it's time.
• 30:00
  Yeah.
• 30:00
  We want you to join the community.
• 30:02
  Let's hear from a few of our existing members, like Right, Denise.
• 30:06
  It's a quite, quite, quite a clever thing to do, right?
• 30:08
  Because third party validation, all that.
• 30:11
  And normally I pick on like two to three, maybe four people to tell their stories.
• 30:15
  And I kind of, you know, I kind of, um, normally, um.
• 30:20
  Uh, you know, prep them by asking them questions.
• 30:25
  Sure.
• 30:25
  Tell us a story, blah, blah.
• 30:26
  So it's not like just a ramble.
• 30:28
  It's like, right.
• 30:29
  What was it like before you came here?
• 30:30
  Right.
• 30:31
  What'd you get outta being here?
• 30:32
  The, you know, what are the results you've gotten and would you recommend the people in the room to join us?
• 30:37
  Like, it's, it's, it's, it's a setup.
• 30:39
  It's, it's a beautiful setup, but it's a setup.
• 30:41
  Well, this time I did what I usually do, which this is anybody like to share and normally people put up their hands.
• 30:49
  But today, Julie didn't wait to put up her hand.
• 30:52
  She.
• 30:53
  Bounded on stage and ran right at me.
• 30:56
  I mean, nearly knocked me on my butt.
• 30:59
  So she's ran right at me and you know, she's tiny and I'm not tiny.
• 31:03
  So, yeah, that's why I didn't fall down.
• 31:04
  But like, it was like a, like a football run, tackle, tackle.
• 31:10
  You like, okay, I guess you wanna go.
• 31:12
  So.
• 31:13
  Recede into the background and she's sitting in the front and, um, not standing in the front.
• 31:18
  And I am standing behind her, remember right?
• 31:21
  She's tiny and short.
• 31:22
  And, and you know, I'm, at the time I was 200 pounds plus.
• 31:27
  Um, and, um, I'm standing behind her giving her the spotlight, but she.
• 31:37
  Doesn't talk.
• 31:38
  In fact, she's just kinda like staring and looking.
• 31:40
  And after about 30 seconds of this, I'm like, what's going on?
• 31:43
  What's going on?
• 31:45
  And then I heard, uh, I, I saw her shoulders go up and then I heard a soft.
• 31:51
  Yeah.
• 31:51
  I'm like, oh, she's crying crap.
• 31:54
  So, Denise, you're a woman.
• 31:56
  I'm a man.
• 31:57
  Let me explain what happens to a man.
• 31:59
  When a woman starts, Lauren starts crying.
• 32:01
  Why around him.
• 32:03
  And he has no idea why.
• 32:05
  Why, right?
• 32:09
  The first thought in my head is, and this must be from my mother.
• 32:12
  Maybe, I don't know.
• 32:15
  I must've done something wrong.
• 32:16
  What did I do wrong?
• 32:17
  Right?
• 32:17
  Like, that's the first thought.
• 32:19
  And um.
• 32:21
  Um, I'm like, oh crap.
• 32:23
  This is, this is, this is gonna be a disastrous, what?
• 32:26
  It's going through my head.
• 32:27
  Right.
• 32:28
  Um, but my girlfriend Theresa, who works with me, um, you know, being a very intuitive woman of course, came up with a box of tissues and, uh, yep.
• 32:38
  Handed them to Julie, and Julie gratefully accepted them.
• 32:40
  And then she motions me over to come stand with her and she's still sobbing, still crying.
• 32:45
  And I'm, I'm looking cool, but I'm not feeling cool.
• 32:48
  Yeah, exactly.
• 32:49
  I'm looking cool.
• 32:49
  I'm not feeling cool.
• 32:51
  Um, and she, in between her sub says, Nikki, when you and your little son came to Ottawa Mm.
• 32:59
  And to visit with me and my little son, um, my little son being 12 and Piper like all 12-year-old boys, go, mommy, mommy, where are we gonna go?
• 33:08
  Where are we going?
• 33:09
  Where are we going?
• 33:10
  I'm like, I gotta shut this kid up.
• 33:12
  Someone say, oh sweetheart, we're gonna go see Nikki Ballou and his son.
• 33:16
  And then she said, that seemed magically a work.
• 33:20
  'cause the kid shut up right away and she's like, to the point where, you know, he's in the backseat, she's starting to get worried, son, everything.
• 33:28
  Okay.
• 33:28
  She goes, yeah, yeah.
• 33:29
  She says, mommy.
• 33:31
  And he, she said his voice got really soft and, and like, like.
• 33:36
  You know, like a little vulnerable little child.
• 33:39
  Mm-hmm.
• 33:39
  And said, mommy, are we gonna meet the man who saved our family?
• 33:45
  Mm.
• 33:47
  And so, so Denise, you may have gotten from me.
• 33:50
  I'm a very old school masculine man.
• 33:53
  I do not cry in public.
• 33:55
  Okay.
• 33:56
  I am not a softie.
• 33:57
  Right.
• 33:57
  In that respect, on that day, you would not know that.
• 34:00
  'cause I started to b my eyes out, like, yeah, I'm just crying.
• 34:05
  She's crying and we are hugging and everyone in the room's like, oh.
• 34:09
  And, and I'm like, and then she starts, she keeps talking, she pulls away from me and she's like still holding onto me.
• 34:16
  You know that semi a hug where you're kind of like halfway and she says, Nikki, you didn't know this.
• 34:24
  But all those months ago when I came to see you, um, um.
• 34:31
  Things weren't going well for us.
• 34:33
  And I kind of had a sense, but I obviously didn't know all the details and she hadn't shared them right.
• 34:37
  She said, um, we hadn't made, I hadn't made any money in 18 months and my husband's an artist.
• 34:43
  I'm the breadwinner in the family.
• 34:44
  Right.
• 34:45
  He was like a polygrapher.
• 34:47
  Yeah.
• 34:47
  So I think he made like 50, 60 grand a year, but that was not what they needed.
• 34:50
  Right.
• 34:53
  Yeah.
• 34:53
  And she hadn't made money in 18 months and um, they were fighting like cats and dogs in front of the kids.
• 34:58
  So this.
• 35:00
  Husband of hers, still a pretty, you know, like you wouldn't know.
• 35:05
  He's an artist to look at him.
• 35:06
  He's like a Right.
• 35:08
  Okay.
• 35:08
  Big strapping athlete.
• 35:10
  Yeah, dude.
• 35:11
  But an artist, right?
• 35:13
  Yeah.
• 35:13
  And they're fighting in front of their children, like yelling and screaming.
• 35:16
  Three little boys under the age of 12, and the boys are freaking out.
• 35:21
  She said, because they're thinking, oh my god, mom and dad are gonna break up.
• 35:25
  Right?
• 35:26
  Totally.
• 35:27
  And, and she's thinking, oh my God, are we gonna break up?
• 35:30
  Um, but she said, but you came into our lives and you helped me.
• 35:37
  You helped me make money, and we paid off the bank and we stopped fighting.
• 35:43
  She said, you literally saved our family.
• 35:46
  Right.
• 35:47
  Thank you.
• 35:48
  Now, um, we hugged.
• 35:52
  She stepped off the stage.
• 35:53
  Now, like I told you, Denise, Denise, I normally have 2, 3, 4 people.
• 35:56
  Of course.
• 35:57
  Yeah.
• 35:58
  I made an executive decision.
• 35:59
  Yeah.
• 36:00
  Not a good idea today.
• 36:03
  And that was the only person who was gonna share there.
• 36:04
  It's, we're done.
• 36:07
  You can understand that, right?
• 36:08
  You can understand why I would make that executive decision in that moment.
• 36:12
  Yeah.
• 36:12
  Because following that would be impossible.
• 36:15
  Yeah.
• 36:15
  No, impossible.
• 36:16
  Like it would, it would be counterproductive.
• 36:19
  So, oh, sh of course.
• 36:21
  So what we did is we handed out, um, I think it was like, uh, eight, um, registration forms.
• 36:28
  It was eight people in the room that were new and Yeah.
• 36:31
  Prospects for the right.
• 36:34
  So normally some people are immediately Yes.
• 36:37
  And they start signing up, right?
• 36:38
  Yeah.
• 36:39
  Some people are immediately a no, and they're, thank you, but No thank you.
• 36:42
  Right.
• 36:42
  And some people are, let's talk, right.
• 36:45
  Think about it.
• 36:46
  Yep.
• 36:46
  Think about it.
• 36:47
  Whatever.
• 36:47
  Think not even.
• 36:48
  They're like, they're, they're like wrestling with it, and I'm, I'm sitting there with'em helping, right?
• 36:53
  This is the first, last and only time it went this way that I'm about to share with you.
• 36:58
  All eight people immediately signed, filled their forms, signed credit cards on them, and handed them it all eight.
• 37:06
  It's never happened before.
• 37:07
  Never happened since I've had.
• 37:09
  A hundred percent enrollment results before, but I had to sit down and talk to people.
• 37:14
  But this time that didn't happen.
• 37:16
  And two of the people had said to me prior, because like I told you, you know what happens at these events?
• 37:23
  They know what happens at these events.
• 37:25
  Yeah.
• 37:25
  So they'd come to me at a break.
• 37:26
  They said, Nikki, listen, you are terrific.
• 37:29
  We love your event.
• 37:30
  This is great, but we just want you to know, we, we know something's coming and we just want you to know we're not gonna partake.
• 37:37
  Right?
• 37:37
  Mm-hmm.
• 37:38
  You just don't want you to be upset.
• 37:40
  I be upset.
• 37:41
  I mean, it's whatever you wanna do, right?
• 37:43
  Yeah.
• 37:44
  They were the first two to sign up, the first two to sign up.
• 37:48
  They handed in the, the one fellow who had like an energy about him, like a kinetic almost, you know what I mean?
• 37:54
  Like not Oh yeah.
• 37:55
  A nice energy, but a kinetic, like mm-hmm.
• 37:58
  Mm-hmm.
• 37:59
  Walks to me and he just, he, he like slaps the thing into my hand and like, and he goes.
• 38:06
  Son of a bitch.
• 38:09
  He said, I told you I wasn't gonna sign up for your damn opportunity.
• 38:12
  Mm-hmm.
• 38:13
  I said, yes, you did.
• 38:14
  So why did you So I threw it right back at him.
• 38:17
  Right, of course.
• 38:19
  And he was like, he was a little jolted by it.
• 38:22
  And he said, okay, so here's the truth.
• 38:25
  I need help.
• 38:27
  I've just been burned too many times by too many people who are full of shit.
• 38:32
  Mm-hmm.
• 38:33
  And that's how he said it.
• 38:34
  Full of shit.
• 38:35
  Yep.
• 38:35
  Yep.
• 38:36
  And, um, he said, listening to that woman, and I'm sorry, I'm getting a little emotional even saying this, listening to that woman, I kind of thought maybe this guy ain't full of shit.
• 38:49
  Yeah.
• 38:50
  That's what he said.
• 38:50
  That's all he said.
• 38:51
  Yeah.
• 38:52
  And he said, yeah, looking forward to it.
• 38:55
  Mm-hmm.
• 38:55
  And then he walked away.
• 38:56
  Mm-hmm.
• 38:56
  And, um, a, um.
• 39:00
  Here's, here's, here's what I gotta tell you.
• 39:03
  I I, I have this big vision that I told you about a billion multimillionaires, and I believe that helps families, strengthens families.
• 39:09
  I'm, I'm, I'm a family man.
• 39:10
  I believe in all that.
• 39:11
  I believe it's, um, I believe it's, it's what God intends because there's dark evil forces out there that want to keep us all enslaved.
• 39:20
  And capitalism is their enemy.
• 39:22
  And, and they, they may say, oh, we're all for the workers.
• 39:25
  No, you're not.
• 39:25
  You want, you want the workers to be your damn slaves and.
• 39:30
  And, um, I also think these charlatan types who go take people's money and don't deliver for them at all, just like take their money and don't even like talk to someone.
• 39:38
  It's like insane.
• 39:39
  They are the enemy too, as far as I'm concerned.
• 39:41
  And I'm, I'm like, God, for whatever reason, God's made me a guy who wants to help people.
• 39:48
  Mm-hmm.
• 39:48
  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 pristine results, but the majority of people that I've worked with have gotten pristine results.
• 40:01
  Right.
• 40:01
  Um, I'd even say the overwhelming majority of the people that I've worked with have gotten pristine results.
• 40:05
  There've been some who haven't.
• 40:07
  Mm-hmm.
• 40:07
  And you know, the, the truth is usually those folks don't wanna do the work, and that's the truth.
• 40:15
  Right.
• 40:16
  Don't wanna do the work.
• 40:17
  They're ready to sign up and then they, they back off, they quit.
• 40:22
  And, um, yep.
• 40:24
  I'm always here, always ready to take'em back.
• 40:27
  Right.
• 40:27
  Um, but in my experience, if someone comes in, they're ready to do the work.
• 40:32
  Our brand of helping people, which is to be very hands on, very much with, um mm-hmm.
• 40:38
  Really works.
• 40:39
  Yeah.
• 40:40
  That, that part really, really, really works.
• 40:42
  Right.
• 40:42
  And on that day, here's what I got.
• 40:44
  I got that.
• 40:45
  Um.
• 40:47
  God wants me to help a certain kind of person, and my job is to show up every day and say, here I am, God.
• 40:57
  Send me.
• 40:58
  Right.
• 40:59
  Use me.
• 41:00
  Right.
• 41:01
  Right.
• 41:01
  Yeah.
• 41:03
  I I think the biggest piece of all of that is exactly.
• 41:08
  Who you are at the center and the core.
• 41:11
  The reason why all of that happened the way it did is because you're about connecting.
• 41:16
  You're a people person first, and those who are people, people know it, feel it, love it.
• 41:27
  End of the day, the business is the part that you do well, but I think there's something way bigger that you do even better, and that's about the connection.
• 41:38
  That's about giving and seeing your purpose as being what in your words, God has given to you and you go out and do that every day.
• 41:48
  So thank you for doing and being you in all aspects, because the world benefits as a result.
• 41:55
  So thank you.
• 41:57
  Thank you, Denise.
• 41:58
  Thanks for having me on the show.
• 41:59
  It's been a lot of fun.
• 42:00
  Absolutely.
• 42:01
  It's my pleasure.
• 42:03
  In the show notes we have how to, um, find Nikki in eci.
• 42:09
  We'll have all of that in the show notes, so make sure that you, how many podcasts did you say you've done?
• 42:15
  Oh my gosh.
• 42:16
  Crazy amount.
• 42:17
  You keep doing them over, over 820 in Yeah, I was like May, 2022.
• 42:22
  Yeah, so.
• 42:25
  You're sending out what needs to be heard, and you can find Nikki, um, in the, like I say in the show notes, make sure you reach out if this is resonating at all.
• 42:37
  Thank you, Nikki, for being here with us today and sharing your stories, your gifts, and giving us a little bit of insight behind the scenes.
• 42:49
  Thanks.
• 42:53
  What has activated in you claim your Sovereignty Me Academy expands you.