EPISODE OVERVIEW

Duration: Approximately 42 minutes

Best For: Trapped entrepreneurs who keep telling themselves they will sort the important stuff later, once things calm down

Key Outcome: You will see the one lie that keeps you stuck, and you will understand why looking after yourself is the thing that lets the business grow

She built nothing into a life. Then he found himself on a 130 foot tower at 4am, ready to jump.

THE BOTTOM LINE

You built this thing from nothing and now it runs you. Roy knows that feeling personally, and in this episode he says it out loud. He climbed a tower at his lowest, ready to end it, and three rounds of breath work got him back down. Nicky Billou knows it too. He spent twelve years gaining a pound a year and lying to himself that he could fix it any time, because he used to be a fitness trainer. The day he stopped believing that lie, he lost 58 pounds in six months. The thing is, neither story is really about towers or bodybuilding. They are about the lie you tell yourself right now, the one that says you will deal with your health, your family, your freedom once the business is sorted. This conversation is about why that day never comes on its own, and what it takes to make change happen yesterday rather than someday.

WHY THIS EPISODE MATTERS TO YOU

You are running on five or six hours of sleep, reaching for your phone before your feet hit the floor, telling yourself you will rest when things ease off. Nicky names the exact lie underneath that, and once you see it, you cannot unsee it.

You feel guilty resting and guilty working. This episode shows why putting yourself last is not noble, it is the reason the business stays dependent on a tired version of you.

You want to step away and know it still runs. The path to that starts somewhere uncomfortable. It starts with you getting better, because the business cannot outgrow the state you are in.

If you keep waiting for the calm that never arrives, you keep paying with your health, your relationships, and the years you do not get back. Roy nearly paid the highest price of all. That is the cost of inaction, spelled out plainly.

KEY INSIGHTS YOU CAN IMPLEMENT TODAY

The reason you stay stuck in any area is a lie you are telling yourself. Nicky's was "I am a fitness trainer, I can fix this any time." Yours might be "nobody does it like I do" or "I will delegate when I find the right person." Name the lie and the spell breaks.

Change happens at the level of how badly you want it. Nicky asks whether your desire is an "it would be nice" feeling or an "it has to happen yesterday" feeling. Most trapped owners sit in the first camp about their own freedom and wonder why nothing shifts.

Roy will not work with someone who has no time, then no wellness, before any growth conversation. The order matters. You cannot grow a business on a body and mind that are falling apart. The breath work that got Roy off that tower is the same principle, you steady yourself first, then you take the next step.

Robin Sharma told Nicky to triple his investment in his own development. He went from 75,000 to 220,000 in a year. The lesson for you is quieter, you are the asset the whole business rests on. When the asset is exhausted and never improving, the business cannot improve either.

AI works when a real human stays at the centre of it. Nicky's partner used a 120 a month tool to create songs that made a room full of sceptics cry and buy. Roy's client David turned War of the Worlds thinking into a full audio project. AI did not replace them. It let them think bigger and do more, while they stayed the thought partner.

GOLDEN QUOTES WORTH REMEMBERING

"The reason you stay stuck, and I stay stuck, in any area of our life is because we are believing a lie that we are telling ourselves." Nicky Billou

"It does not matter how much money you have. What matters is how bad do you want change." Nicky Billou, recalling his mentor Bill

"People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, they will never forget how you made them feel." Nicky Billou, quoting Maya Angelou

"I did three rounds of breath work at the top of this tower, the sun starting to come up, and that was just enough to get me down." Roy Castleman

"Everyone needs someone to believe in them. There are moments when our self belief wobbles." Nicky Billou

QUICK NAVIGATION FOR BUSY LEADERS

00:00 - Introduction: Two immigrants talk about freedom, and why it is the thing every entrepreneur is really chasing

03:30 - Nicky's escape from Iran: The Molotov cocktail through the window and the father who shaped everything

09:15 - Freedom becomes a prison: Roy on the 14 hour days, the lost relationships, and the trap that catches good owners

13:40 - The 5,000 dollar conversation: How a broke man sleeping on his mother's couch decided change had to happen yesterday

20:30 - The lie in the mirror: Why Nicky gained 50 pounds and what finally made him stop pretending

26:00 - Roy on the tower: The 4am moment and the breath work that brought him back

31:45 - AI with a human heart: The 120 dollar songs that made a room cry and a roomful of sceptics buy

38:20 - Conclusion: Why authenticity beats everything, and the one thing that moves the needle most

GUEST SPOTLIGHT

Name: Nicky Billou

Bio: Nicky Billou is co-founder and CEO of eCircle Academy, a year-long mastermind that positions coaches, consultants, corporate trainers, and service-based entrepreneurs as authorities in their niche. An Iranian-Canadian immigrant based in Toronto and a Magna Cum Laude Georgetown M.Sc. (Foreign Service) graduate, he is a number one international best-selling author of Finish Line Thinking, The Thought Leader's Journey, and The Power of Connecting, and host of The Thought Leader Revolution podcast. Known as "the world's greatest podcast guest" from 600 plus appearances, he speaks to the kind of business owners who are brilliant at their craft and never taught how to put themselves first.

Connect with Nicky:

Website: https://www.ecircleacademy.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickybillou/

YOUR NEXT ACTIONS

This Week: Write down the one lie you tell yourself about why you cannot step back yet. Read it out loud. Notice how thin it sounds once it is on paper.

This Month: Find one person who already gets it, a coach, a mentor, a peer who has walked out of the trap you are in. Start the conversation. You do not learn your way out of this alone.

This Quarter: Put your own wellness on the calendar the way you put client work on it, non negotiable. The business cannot grow past the state you keep yourself in, so change the state first.

EPISODE RESOURCES

The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma

The 5am Club by Robin Sharma

The Leader Who Had No Title by Robin Sharma

Wim Hof Method breath work

Eleven Labs voice tools, mentioned in the AI discussion

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READY TO ESCAPE THE TRAP?

Take the Freedom Score Quiz: https://scoreapp.atpbos.com/freedom

Discover how trapped you are in your business and get your personalised roadmap to freedom in under 5 minutes.

Book a Free Strategy Session: https://www.allthepower.co.uk/contact

Let's discuss how to build a business that works WITHOUT you.

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CONNECT WITH YOUR HOST, ROY CASTLEMAN

Roy is the founder of All The Power Limited and creator of The Owner's Thrive Method, a business coaching system for entrepreneurs ready to grow without burnout. As a certified Wim Hof Method Instructor and the UK's first certified BOS UP coach, Roy combines AI as a thinking methodology, wellness practices, and business operating systems to help trapped entrepreneurs reclaim their freedom.

Website: www.allthepower.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roycastleman/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@allthepowerltd

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Good morning, good afternoon, good evening wherever you are in

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the world. I'm here today with Nikki Blue and we're

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going to have a chat about all things entrepreneur. How

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do we, how do we do this, how do we

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go on this journey? And yeah, I'm very excited to

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hear some of your story, Nikki. Thanks for having me

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on the show, Roy. I'm excited to be here, excited

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to get into it with you. So one of the

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things that you mentioned is you're, you're also an immigrant.

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Like myself, I'm from South Africa and I live in

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the uk. Tell us a little bit about your story.

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Sure. As you said, I, I'm originally an immigrant from

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the Middle East. I'm a Christian from Iran. Now, when

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I was 11 years old, the Islamic revolution took place

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in Iran. And the moderate, forward

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thinking, progress oriented regime of the late Shah

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Muhammad was overthrown and replaced by a

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theocratic, repressive, anti human government of

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the mollus. And while this was all going on, there

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were literal gun battles going on in the streets near

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my home. Now, my mom and dad, they were freaking

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out. I don't know, maybe you can relate to your

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mom and dad freaking out over certain things when you

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were growing up that they thought were not safe for

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you. And their freak out though, increased a

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thousand fold. One day when there was a big crash

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through our living room window, glass flew everywhere, shattered, and

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this object sailed through the window and landed right

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next to my feet. Now I'm 11, I don't know

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what the hell it is, but it was some sort

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of cylindrical glass bottle and it was full of a

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liquid and there was this rag and it was burning

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in the neck of it. It was a Molotov cocktail.

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My father knew what it was instantly and he grabbed

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it and he pulled out the burning rag so it

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didn't explode. That's the only reason you and I are

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talking here today. And that's when my mom and dad

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said, that's it, we're out of here. Now it took

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them a couple years, but they made the plans and

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they got us out of Tehran, the capital city of

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Iran, and they moved us to Europe, to Athens, Greece,

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the capital city of Greece. And we were there as

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a way station because Greece didn't want us. And a

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couple years later we were able to move to where

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I now live, Toronto, Canada. Now you got to understand,

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Roy, at the time, man, I'm a kid still. I'm

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15 years old. I don't want to leave my home.

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I don't want to leave My friends, maybe you can

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remember what it was like for you when you had

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your mates, but that's what it was like for me.

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And. But as time went on, brother, I could

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see the nobility of my mom and dad's sacrifice because

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they left behind everything and everyone they knew and loved

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to step into the unknown for a chance at a

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better life for me and my two younger brothers. And

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I believe inside every human breast beats the living heart

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of freedom. Every man, every woman on this planet yearns

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to breathe free, to chart their own course, to march

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to the tune of their own drummer. And for the

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entrepreneur, freedom is the bedrock foundation on which they get

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to build the majesty of their dreams. Without freedom, you

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don't have free expression or free thought. And without those,

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you don't have free enterprise. You know, and to me,

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my father, he was an entrepreneur, and he was the

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greatest man I knew. Roy, if you knew him and

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he was your friend and you were looking for work,

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he'd clear his calendar, sit you down, and he'd call

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all his buddies who own companies, who are high officials

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in government and ethically manipulate them till one of them

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gave you a job. Wow. And if he knew you

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and you were trying to start a business again, he'd

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clear his calendar, sit you down, give you his full

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attention, and he would give you his best advice. He

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would connect you with capital, and he would connect you

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with customers. And if you knew him and you were

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trying to buy a car, a home, an apartment, Iran

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was a second world nation at that time. Right bank

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would only give you so much, and that's it. You

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had to come up with your own sources, friends and

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family for the rest. People would come to him and

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go, Mr. Blue, I'm trying to buy a car. I'm

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trying to buy a house and try to buy an

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apartment in the next 2000-500010-00020,000. Can I borrow some money

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from you? Can you give me a loan? And he

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always would say to his friends, yes. And he'd write

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him a check. And then people would come back a

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year, two years, three years later, all excited because they

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had that money saved up and they were about to

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pay him back. And they're going, here you go. And

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he'd go, what's this? And they go, that's the money

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I owe you. Money? You don't mean money? He says,

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no. Like, I got a loan from you. He says,

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I wasn't alone. That was a gift. And they go,

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no, no, it's too much. And he'd go, don't insult

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me. And people go, okay, but what am I supposed

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to do with this money? And he'd say to them,

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go find someone who was as badly off as you

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were when you came to see me and give it

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to them. Now, Roy, I tell people these stories all

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the time, and there's people like you who get it,

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but there's other people who are, like, cynical. They go,

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come on, Nikki, nobody's really like that. Yeah, yeah,

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I get it. And I'd go, but what a blessing.

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What a blessing it is. My dad. My dad was

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like that. And they go to me after that, come

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on, what's in it for him? Right? The cynicism would

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run deep. And I go, you want to know what's

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in it for him? I'll tell you. First and foremost,

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he was a devout and committed Christian. He believed that

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he'd been blessed by God Almighty and his Lord and

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Savior, Jesus Christ, and that it was his duty to

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share those blessings with his fellow man and woman. Now,

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dad didn't take himself very seriously, but he took his

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duty as a Christian very seriously. Secondly, the dude loved

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helping people. He loved it in ways big and small.

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It just. It just lit him up. And he could

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because he. He was successful. He was rich. And growing

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up, I wanted to be like my dad. I wanted

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to help people. I wanted to be somebody that was

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all about making a difference. And so I became an

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entrepreneur because I thought entrepreneurs, people help people. That's what

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it was like for me. And I wanted to help

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especially other entrepreneurs that were new in business who were

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good at what they did. But maybe they were not

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so good at business, especially marketing and sales. Sales freaked

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them out. My God, they didn't want to be one

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of those pushy people, those people with commission breath coming

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out of their mouth. And I saw this, and I'm

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like, I don't have these issues because, you know, I

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grew up in an entrepreneurial family. I studied business up

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to my master's degree. And so I said, you know

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what? I'm going to help these guys. And here's how

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we're going to do it. We're going to help them

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reframe selling, because nobody wants to be sold, Roy. You

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don't want to be sold, I don't want to be

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sold. But don't you love being helped by somebody being

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taken care of by a caring human being? So we

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reframed sales to service, and that has helped me help

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dozens of people double, triple, quadruple, tenfold, one hundredfold

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their business? I Love it. Now I want to just

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dig into one of the subjects that I talk about

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a lot. The entrepreneurial journey starts in

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90% of the cases with one wish. And that's the

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freedom you spoke about. Yeah, I want the freedom. Right.

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And for me, this was the case. I mean, I've

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been entrepreneurial since I was 11 years old and I

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kept on getting into things and then this freedom that

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I was seeking became the prison that I was living

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in. The 14 hour days, the seven day weeks, the

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losing relationships, the looking at other people and thinking, how

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can they do it? And I can't do it. Right.

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And it just became this, this, this prison that's there.

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And what lights me up is to be able to

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take people from that prison and say, listen, these are

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the shortcuts that you can use so you don't fall

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into this, this trap. Yeah. And yeah, we, we go

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through life. I'm 30 odd years in business now and

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we go through life and we just learn lessons and

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learn lessons and we can't learn lessons from the things

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that we do well. We only learn lessons from our

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failures. Yeah. And going through this process of understanding.

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Actually, do you know what? Yeah, I have this, this

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ability to fix this problem. This is what entrepreneurs bring,

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bring to the world. You know, we come into the

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world and we say, here's a problem and I can

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help fix that problem. To your, your service point. Yes.

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Yeah. You're providing a service and I don't want to

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work with people that don't have a passion. Now if

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you're not passionate about what you do, you won't have

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the energy to carry it through unless you're lucky. And

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we all hear the lucky stories, but there's not very

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many of them around, right? No, there isn't. Truly not.

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So tell us, tell me a little bit more about

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your own entrepreneurial journey. So how did you start? What

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was your epiphany moment? Did you have one in particular

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or you're just going through this from, from your dad?

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Like I said, it was my father. I shared it

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with you in, in my previous answer. I, I wanted

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to be a man like him. I wanted to help

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people. And so how did you first do that? Dad

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helped people all his life. That was kind of his

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modus operandi of, of being a human being. It was

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his blueprint for daily living. And for me, I just

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equated entrepreneurs with, with society's great helpers and heroes and

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I wanted to be like that. That really was the

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long and the short of it. Even before I started

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my. My own company, even when I worked for other

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people, I had a very entrepreneurial helper's mindset. And, you

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know, there was. There was a day and a time

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in my own life where I was going through an

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unexpected divorce. Okay. My then wife had

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left me seemingly out of the blue. And here's

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what happened. I spiraled. Yep. A friend of mine took

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pity on me, bought me a ticket to a business

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conference because I didn't have the money. I hadn't worked

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or made money in 11 months, almost a year. And

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there was a dude on stage, and what he had

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to say spoke to my soul. You ever had that

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happen, Roy? Being in a room where someone spoke to

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your soul? So when he was done, I elbowed

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everybody out of the way and I went straight to

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the stage. And I introduced myself, I said, hey, my

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name is Nikki. Let me tell you my story. And

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when I finished telling him my story, I told him,

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I think I need to work with you. And he

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looked at me and said, all right. He said, what

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you need to know is. And this was quite a

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few years ago, 14, 15 years ago, he said to

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me, what you need to know is that my

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minimum fee for working with someone is $5,000. And that's

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five one hour sessions of my time. I take

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payment upfront, in full, in advance. I offer no guarantees

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and no refunds. Do you still want to work with

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me, son? And I'm like, whoa. Remember, I hadn't worked

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in almost a year. I didn't have any money. I

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was sleeping on my mother's couch. My wife had kicked

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me out of the house, Right? And I said, well,

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I don't have that kind of money right now. He

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said, all right, I'll give you some free coaching. I

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said, free coaching? Now that sounds great. Lay it on

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me. And he said, okay, it doesn't matter how much

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money you have. He said, well, I said, hold up,

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hold up. Didn't you just tell me that what I

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need is to pay you $5,000? Of course it matters

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how much money you have. And he just looked at

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me and he said, Son, there's 20 people lined up

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behind you ready to work with me. I don't need

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your business. You, on the other hand, need me. And

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I had to admit he was right. He says, let

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me reiterate, it doesn't matter how much money you have.

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What matters is how bad do you want change? I'm

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like, what? He said, well, you know, your wife kicked

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you out of the house. You haven't seen your kids,

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you're sleeping on your mother's couch. You're making no money.

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How much longer are you willing to put up with

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this? A day, a week? A month? I'm like, a

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year, a lifetime? That's

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when something went pop in my being, and I said,

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whoa, give me two days. So I made an appointment

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to go see him in two days. Remember, I'd made

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no money, and at the time, I was a personal

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fitness coach, and I had a whole bunch of people

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I was in conversation with who said neither yes nor

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no. So I contacted one of them, and I said,

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hey, man, I got good news for you and I

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got bad news for you. Which one you want to

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hear first? He said, bad news. I told him, you're

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fat, and if you don't do something about it, you're

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on the verge of having an extreme health event. That's

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the bad news. And he just looked at me and

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he said, that was not easy to hear, but you're

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right. I said, the good news is we can turn

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this around in the next three months. And

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I need business today. Told him my story about my

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son. I said, so I'm going to give you the

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deal of a lifetime, half price. But here's the catch.

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I need a yes or no now, and I need

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payment in full now. If it's yes, what's it going

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to be? Buddy said, yes. So he gave me a

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thousand bucks, and I called another fellow, and he said

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yes, too. I was elated. This is the first money

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I'd made in almost a year. So I go see

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Bill. That was the name of the gentleman. And I

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said, bill, here you go. And he said, thank

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you, but that's only two. And I. I told you

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that I charge five. So I was deflated. I said

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to him, okay, Bill, how many people have you shared

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this story with that you shared with me? He said,

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over the years, maybe 30 or 40. I go, that's

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a lot. Tell me, Bill, how many people actually came

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back to you with any money? Now it was his

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turn to get a little sheepish. He said, well, actually,

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you're the first. I said, the

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first me? Little old me, the first? Yes. Little old

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you, the first. And I said, look, man, so take

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my money, and I'm going to sign a contract stating

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that I'll pay the balance in 30, 60 days, whatever

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the case may be, because I, Nikki Ballou, want change

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now. And the rest is history within six months. I

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made six figures. I paid him back early. And

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I tell the story quite often from stage and on

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podcasts. Because my question for you is, you're

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probably not as badly off as I was then, but

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if you're listening to this conversation and even if you're

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like you, Roy, engaged in this conversation, there's probably a

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part of your life that you want changing. And the

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question is, how bad do you want change?

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Is it a it'd be nice level of desire or

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is it a it's got to happen yesterday level of

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desire and I'll do whatever the hell I have to

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do to make it happen yesterday? Yeah.

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Love it. Thanks so much. You, at that point

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you started working with him, you started a company? Yep,

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I started my second company because, you know, I had

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a company with my ex wife. That's when I got

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out of fitness coaching and got into the business of

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success coaching, mindset coaching and coaching primarily

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business owners and want to be business owners on how

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to grow their, their sales. And then one of my

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clients and I teamed up and formed a company together,

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which is my current company now called E Circle for

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entrepreneur Circle. And we started working with people who primarily

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were experts, like coaches, consultants, author speakers, facilitators, and

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sometimes even founders who wanted to build that expert brand,

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that thought leader brand. And we started to show them

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how to create themselves as a thought leader and use

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that to double, triple, quadruple, tenfold, 100 fold their business.

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Our biggest success, I mean my biggest success, because he

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and I just stayed together for about two and a

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half years and then I bought him out. My biggest

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success is I helped a client at 11 and a

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half million in four and a half months to their

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business. And the average person

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who works with us makes somewhere between 100 and $500,000

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additionally to whatever their current level of income is. And

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we've had probably about a dozen that have added at

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least seven figures. And that's been great. Awesome.

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Love it, love it, love it, love it. I want

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to dig into two other elements. Sure. So we'll go

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through this. Yeah, we spoke, you spoke about that

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negative place where you're at with your wife. And you

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know, one of the things that really kind

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of brings me very emotional is that business owners just

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get so stressed about everything. Right. Yeah, I, I ended

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up, honestly, 4 o' clock in the morning, I had

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nearly lost. Well, I was going to go bankrupt and

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I bought an adventure center in Bedford. It was the

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best possible thing that I could, that I could have

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done. I have three IT companies and I had this

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adventure center and then covert it and at my worst,

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I was, we had 130 foot tower where the wind

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tunnel was inside, you know, the indoor skydiving. Yeah, yeah.

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And I got up. Yeah. 4:00 in the morning, 3:30

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in the morning, and climbed up the tower and I

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was ready to jump off. That was it. I was

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done. And I, I thank

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my lucky stars that I'd been doing breath work with

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Wim hof. Yeah, yeah. I did three rounds of breath

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work at the top of this tower. The sun starting

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to come up and that was just enough to get

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me down to traction, let me take the next step.

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And I realized at that point that this, this wellness

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piece for entrepreneurs is so, so, so important. I'm just,

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people don't pay it near respect. And that's a core

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principle that I'm working with at the moment. I do,

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I'm a Wim HOF instructor now. I came down and

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signed up for the Wim Hof instructors course. Yeah. But

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I also do other breath work and I do a

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range of other things and I won't work with somebody

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if first of all they don't have the time. I

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help them talk with the time and then I help

352

them with the wellness and then we can grow and

353

scale their business. And yeah, the same as you, it,

354

it lights me up, you know, when I take somebody

355

through it and I'm like, yeah, okay, you know what,

356

you've gone from this figure to that figure. Yeah. And

357

more importantly, you've just been able to spend five weeks

358

not working and being there for your, your third child

359

when the last two children, you weren't there because you

360

were drunk. Right. That's what lights me up. Giving people

361

the freedom back. Yeah. Amen, brother. So, yeah,

362

I think, you know what's, what's been your experience around

363

that wellness piece and how do you maintain your own?

364

Obviously your faith is very important to you and that's.

365

Yeah, that's amazing. What else do you do for yourself?

366

Well, like I was a fitness coach for over a

367

dozen years. I worked with Olympic champions. My girlfriend, she's

368

a three time Guinness World Record holder for running 12

369

hours on a treadmill. She's run like 22 marathons. And

370

there was a point where when I got out of

371

health and fitness, I just didn't prioritize it the same

372

way in my head. And then my actions followed. So

373

over a 12 year period, I put on one to

374

seven pounds a year. I gained over 50 pounds. And

375

February 2, 2023, just shy of three years

376

ago, I look at myself in the mirror, and I

377

go, you're fat. Like, my gut is hanging over

378

my belt. And I made a decision in that moment,

379

irrevocable decision. I was going to turn that around. Now,

380

I made those kinds of promises to myself, but not

381

with the same level of resolve, because I used to

382

tell myself, you know, you're a fitness trainer. You know

383

what to do. But on that day, I told myself,

384

you're not a fitness trainer anymore, and you don't know

385

what to do the way you used to. You need

386

a fitness trainer. So I actually found one. I deliberately

387

set out to find a guy, and I found him.

388

He was in my home city of Toronto. I had

389

a conversation with him and I said to him, hey,

390

man, here's my story. And I got two questions for

391

you. He says, shoot. I said, first off, I'm 55.

392

You think it's possible for a man my age to

393

be able to do this? He said, oh, yeah, absolutely.

394

And then I said, how long do you think it'll

395

take? He said, Six to 12 months. I said, all

396

right, I'm in. I didn't even ask him what he

397

charged, gave him my credit card, started working together.

398

Within six months, I dropped 58 pounds. I went from

399

227 pounds to 169. I was shredded, ripped, veiny,

400

vascular, the whole bit. And I decided then to continue

401

to work with him to do a bodybuilding show. So

402

a year and a bit later, we did the bodybuilding

403

show. And after that, I

404

made a decision to go for my pro bodybuilding card

405

when I turned 60. And I'm 58 now, so at

406

60, you can go for your pro bodybuilding card for

407

your age category. And I'm continuing to work with them.

408

All my meals are planned. I work out six days

409

a week. I have a rest and recovery strategy

410

that I do every day. And I preach this to

411

everybody that I meet. You know, if you go on

412

my Instagram, there's videos of lots of different things, but

413

you can see some videos of me training. You know,

414

you can go and see pictures of me in the

415

competition and things like that. So just

416

digging into that, but a little bit, you know, to

417

have that epiphany moment. Right. What were you thinking at

418

that stage? Because you mentioned, okay, I was looking the

419

mirror come fat. Yeah, but you looked in the mirror

420

before when you were fat. What was the. The. What

421

was the moment that. What was the thing that brought

422

you to that moment? And say, okay, now I'm going

423

to do something about it. Well, When I stopped lying

424

to myself that I was a fitness trainer because I

425

wasn't a fitness trainer anymore. Yeah. So I was lying

426

to myself. See, the reason you stay stuck and

427

I stay stuck and your listeners stay stuck in area,

428

any area of our life is because we are believing

429

a bullshit lie that we're telling ourselves. Period. Full stop,

430

end of story. There's nothing else to it. And the

431

lie I was telling myself is, you're a fitness trainer,

432

you can do this anytime you want. You know, just

433

like freaking drunks say, I can stop drinking anytime I

434

want. I can stop smoking anytime I want. It's

435

a lie. It's a disgusting, despicable, weak minded

436

lie. And when I stopped believing

437

the lie and telling the lie to myself, that was

438

the moment I knew this was going to be different.

439

And then when I went and I hired the, the

440

coach, the guide, the mentor. So you know the great

441

Robin Sharma, who by the way, back in the day

442

was one of my clients when I was a fitness

443

coach, I trained Robin Sharma. You know, you know who

444

he is, right? I don't know. Oh, he wrote a

445

very famous book in personal development called the Monk who

446

Sold His Ferrari. And then he wrote another very famous

447

book called the 5am Club and he let it, wrote

448

a very, another very famous book called the Leader who

449

Had no Title. Those books I think have sold 20

450

million copies between the three of them around the world.

451

He's worked with royalty, with NBA athletes, NFL

452

athletes, world class soccer players, multi billionaires. He's the right,

453

Robin's, he's the man. So I'm training him in his

454

home one day because he lives in the same city

455

as I do. And one day I asked him, and

456

this was 18 years ago, I asked him, I said,

457

hey Robin, man, you know, I'm,

458

I'm doing all right, but I'm a married man at

459

the time, was married, I have two young kids. I

460

make about 75,000 a year, which is decent. But all

461

that money was spoken for. I said, look, I need

462

to double my income. How do I do that? And

463

he said to me, he said, that's simple. All you

464

need to do is triple your investment in your own

465

personal and professional development. And I go, how's that? He

466

said, look, you are the most important asset in your

467

business and in your life. And for your

468

life and your business to get better, you must get

469

better. Ergo, you need to invest time,

470

energy, money, resources in getting better. And

471

he said, how much money did you spend on all

472

that last year? I said, maybe five grand. He said,

473

this year you need to spend 15. Now you got

474

to get. I didn't have a spare dollar, never mind

475

a spare extra, like 15. Right. But

476

I bought into what he said fully. And

477

when there's a will, there's a way. The facts don't

478

count when you're committed. As my great mentor, Mark Von

479

Muser says, the facts don't count when you're committed. And

480

So I invested $15,000 in myself. In the next year,

481

I hired additional coaches, I joined another mastermind and I

482

attended more conferences. And it was a stretch at first,

483

but I ended up making $220,000. It was a leap

484

from 75 to 220. That was almost three, threefold, an

485

increase in my income. And if you're listening here, like

486

you, you want to improve in your business, in your

487

life, you must invest in you. You

488

got to hire more coaches, better coaches. You got to

489

join masterminds, you got to attend conferences. And I say

490

this to you, especially if you yourself are a coach,

491

because there's a lot of coaches that coach other people

492

and don't invest in themselves. And I think that's insanity.

493

Personally. I have five coaches. I put a lot of

494

four at the moment. Yeah, yeah, I put a lot

495

of money into coaching. Yeah, right. And you

496

know, so the first thing you got to do is

497

you got to make a decision. You got to be

498

decisive and committed. You can't be kicking the tire, you

499

got to be buying the car. Secondly, you got to

500

just acknowledge that you, you know, you must commit

501

to victory, not to, I'll try it until. To victory.

502

Which means that you're going to, you know, suck at

503

first. That's a technical business term, suck, right? Yeah, you're

504

going to suck at first, but you're going to stop

505

sucking. You're going to just be mediocre and then you're

506

going to stop being mediocre. You're going to be average,

507

then you're going to stop being average. You're going to

508

be good, then you're going to stop being good. You're

509

going to be great, then you're going to stop being

510

great. You're going to be one of the best that

511

ever was. And that's when success happens. So when we

512

work with coaches and consultants, a lot of our coaches

513

and consultants are already successful, right? So we've had somebody

514

who had a quarter million dollar a year business. We've

515

had a fellow who ran a 50 million dollar a

516

year online supplements business who decided to get into coaching

517

and These people are already successful, but what they don't

518

understand how to do is how to be seen as

519

the go to thought leader in their space. And I'm

520

not talking about posting on Instagram because that's not how

521

you do it, man. That's like, that's like sizzle. That's

522

not steak. We show these folks how to get their

523

actual expertise out in a way so they feel confident

524

with what they're sharing out there. And we show them

525

how to sell because most people don't know how to

526

sell. And those two things alone help people making

527

a quarter million a year to make a million a

528

year and help this guy who ran a 50 million

529

dollar company create a world class coaching business. Awesome.

530

Awesome. So I'm conscious of time and I want to

531

get your view on the next two years, but in

532

specific around AI because it's such an opportunity

533

and such a noisy space and I personally believe every

534

single person is not looking at it correctly at the

535

moment. You know, I've got a different approach to it.

536

If you're using AI as a way to evolve your

537

brain. Yeah. A way to be able to get skill

538

sets, to get everything that you need, but you remain

539

the thought partner, you're going to do a lot better

540

than what 95 of people are doing now. What's your

541

view on where, what is, what's the next two years

542

look like? Because it's such a thing, right? Dude, who

543

the hell knows what the next two years look like?

544

All we can say is it's going to look very

545

different than the world has looked before. I mean this

546

is like asking people, you know, 150 years ago, hey

547

man, what are these factories and machines going to do

548

to your life? Knows. But I can tell you this,

549

we are doing things with AI that we find interesting

550

so that we learn from them. So my, my sweetheart

551

who works with me, she's an artist in addition to

552

being a coach. Like she coached for Tony Robbins and

553

she's done like 14,000 hours of coaching people. But she

554

also acts and sings. So she's been using AI to

555

create beautiful songs. So she created a beautiful song for

556

the brave freedom fighters in Iran. And it's, she used

557

AI to, to, to, you know, sing the song and

558

create the melody. Now she wrote the lyrics and she

559

created the video, but she even used AI to to

560

create a music video for it. And in the past

561

that music video would have taken months and tens of

562

thousands of dollars and she used an AI platform that

563

cost us 120 bucks. A month to do all of

564

that. And in one of our thought leader events,

565

so we have a quarterly three day branded Thought Leader

566

event. We charge $12,000 US for it. And

567

what we did is we brought people in and it

568

was an intense few days. And at the end of

569

day three of four, they were like ready to go

570

to their hotel room. And Teresa said, no, no, guys,

571

I need you to wait another 45 minutes. And they're

572

like all doing it, but they're grumbling, right, because they

573

love her. But they're also like, we just want to

574

go. And then she had created a personalized song using

575

AI and a questionnaire she'd send out to everybody to

576

get their origin story. These songs told their story in

577

song with unbelievable lyrics and unbelievable

578

melodies. And the very first song was for this woman.

579

Her name's Jennifer. And I'm telling you this, this is

580

a top 10 hit. If somebody knows how to do

581

that, this song is that good. And one minute into

582

her playing the song, she started to realize this was

583

a song about her. And she started to cry, this

584

girl. And everyone on the rooms realized it and they

585

started to cry. And we played 10 of these songs

586

for 10 people in the room. And by the end,

587

when it was all done, nobody wanted to leave. We

588

had to kick him out because we had to prep

589

for the next day. Nobody wanted to leave. They all

590

were just there. And the very next day, people were

591

so touched, moved and inspired that they, when

592

they were given an opportunity to sign up in our

593

year long program, right, which is an expensive program, right.

594

Just shy of 50,000 USD a year, all

595

the people that were potential clients for it bought everyone,

596

including two people who'd come to me and said, I'm

597

not buying. Not buying it. We love you. I'm not

598

buying. Just when you do your upsell, I'm not buying.

599

They bought. They bought. Why? Because AI brought

600

magic. But that magic was infused

601

with the human spirit of Teresa. And that love married

602

with AI blew everybody away. Love it. I've

603

just one of my clients, David Payne, he's an amazing

604

artist. He plays all the instruments. He, he's living his

605

dream at the moment. He's, you know, gone from being

606

a teacher to three and a half million this year.

607

He'll do. And yeah, I, I went to him with

608

AI beforehand and he's like, I can't use AI with

609

what I do. It's not going to work. And he

610

came to me at the end of the year and

611

he said, at the end of last year, he said,

612

I've got something I want you to see. You know

613

the war, the War of the Worlds, right? Yeah, of

614

course. He's created AI Apocalypse. So what he's done is

615

he's gone to chat GPT and he's said, okay, if

616

you're going to take over the world, how would you

617

do it? And he's literally gone through this entire process

618

for six months. He's used eleven's labs to get the

619

voices. He's used different platforms to do. And he's created

620

this and he's put it out onto Spotify. It went

621

live a couple days ago, you know, a week ago.

622

And the quality and the power of it is just

623

insane. Yeah. And this is the power of AI is

624

it allows us to think more and do more. Right.

625

So if you have a look at. Yeah, it's huge,

626

bro. Yeah, yeah. Let me grab something

627

and send it to you, man, because it'll blow your.

628

It'll blow you away. I'm just trying to find it

629

here. Here we go. So

630

this is Teresa's song. I'm just going to drop it

631

in the chat here for you. Listen to. It's on

632

YouTube, so just click on it and listen to it

633

when you have a chance. But that's what she created

634

on the weekend. And when Charlie. When Charlie

635

Kirk was assassinated, she. She did a tribute song for

636

him as well. Well, I'll share that with everybody as

637

well. So let's. Let's wrap this up. It's been amazing

638

chatting to you. And. Yeah. What would be one thing?

639

If you were going to help people move the needle

640

the most for themselves, what would be the one thing

641

that you suggest that you. Okay, so what I'm going

642

to say, you may not like, but I

643

believe in this more than I believe in anything in

644

business today. I believe that people are

645

seeking authenticity from their vendors,

646

and I believe that is the number one value they're

647

looking for. And I believe that matters even more than

648

the quality of the solution and the product. I believe

649

people are willing to do with a lesser solution in

650

certain cases if they trust the authenticity of the provider.

651

100. I've seen it and I've seen it right. And

652

that's going to be even more. More powerful when everyone's

653

doing 90% of the AI. So it. It's. It's. It's

654

the number one thing that people want is they want

655

to know that you're real and that you care. Right.

656

Maya Angelou said, people will forget what you said. People

657

will forget what you did. They'll never forget how you

658

made them feel. Never. So it's, it's all about that.

659

And Tony Robbins said that success in life is

660

20% strategy and tactics and 80 psychology and soul. And

661

then a few years later, he said he was wrong.

662

It's actually 95 psychology and soul, only 5% strategy and

663

tactics. So if you're listening to this and you're looking

664

to, to grow, you need to hire

665

guides, mentors, coaches, join masterminds, and you need to find

666

those guides, coaches, and masterminds that are truly authentic

667

and truly care and truly believe in you. You

668

know, my father used to say to me, son, you

669

got to believe in people. Everyone needs someone to believe

670

in them. You, you need it, I need it. Everyone

671

needs it. Because there's moments when our self belief wobbles,

672

and all it can take is someone seeing who you

673

really are and giving you that little bit of self

674

belief that, that turns into a spark, that turns into

675

a roaring fire, and then you're off into the races

676

and find somebody who believes in you and believe in

677

other people. Believe in other people. That, that's my superpower,

678

man. Like, look, I got ridiculous strategy in Texas. You

679

and I didn't get into a lot of it today.

680

There's, there's a lot we could have talked around. Thought

681

leadership, podcast casting. I'm the world's greatest podcast guest. I've

682

been on over 900 shows in three and a half

683

years. And I earned that title honestly because I've been

684

on a lot of shows in a very compressed period

685

of time. Right? And when it comes to thought leadership,

686

I'm the what. I know how to help people become

687

seen as thought leaders and helping good people sell, but

688

from the heart, not in a pushy way, but really

689

sell. Not sell, really sell. I'm the at that too.

690

But that, those things, I, I, I, I'm not going

691

to say they're irrelevant, but they don't matter nearly as

692

much as the fact that I'm Napoleon Billu's son and

693

I'm a professional believer in people. And, and I look

694

for the good in everyone I meet. And I look

695

to, to pour into them whether they're my client, whether

696

they're a guy I meet for two minutes, it doesn't

697

matter. Yesterday, man on Monday, on Tuesday. Sorry. I

698

was invited to speak to a live stream called Group

699

of Seven by a woman named lan Phan, and she

700

has a huge LinkedIn following over. Okay. And at the

701

end, she gave me an opportunity. How can we help

702

you? Tell us about your business, tell us what we

703

can buy and support and bring you. You know what

704

I said, here's how you can help me. Pray for

705

the people of Iran and if you have influence with

706

your elected officials, press them to publicly support the people

707

of Iran and, and to chastise the mullahs. You

708

want to help me do that? Everyone in the room

709

looked at me was like, what? You mean he's not

710

going to pitch something? You mean he's not going to

711

ask us to buy his book or jump on his

712

calendar? No, I'm not. Because right

713

now those things don't matter nearly as much as that

714

15 year old boy and that 11 year old girl

715

who were about to get shot. Not getting shot. While

716

they demand human dignity and basic human rights. That

717

was very, very heartfelt. Thank you so much for, for

718

joining me and thank you so much for sharing. It's

719

been amazing chatting and we'll do it again soon, I'm

720

sure. I look forward to it.