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Brandon Held - Life is Crazy
This podcast is designed to help with suicide prevention. That is the #1 goal! This is also a Podcast of perseverance, self-help, self-Improvement, becoming a better person, making it through struggles and not only surviving, but thriving! In this Podcast the first 25 episodes detail my life's downs and ups. A story that shows you can overcome poverty, abusive environments, drug and alcoholic environments, difficult bosses, being laid-off from work, losing your family, and being on the brink of suicide. Listen and find a place to share life stories and experiences. Allow everyone to learn from each other to reinforce our place in this world. To grow and be better people and help build a better more understanding society.
The early podcast episodes are a story of the journey of my life. The start from poor, drug and alcohol stricken life, to choices that lead to success. Discusses my own suicide ideations and attempt that I struggled with for most of my life. Being raised by essentially only my mother with good intentions, but didn't know how to teach me to be a man. About learning life's lessons and how to become a man on this journey and sharing those lessons and experiences with others whom hopefully can benefit from my successes and failures.
Hosting guests who have overcome suicide attempts/suicide ideations/trauma/hardships/difficult situations to fight through it, rise up, and live their best life. Real life stories to help others that are going through difficult times or stuck without a path forward, understand and learn there is a path forward.
Want to be a guest on Brandon Held - Life is Crazy? Send Brandon Held a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/brandonheld
Brandon Held - Life is Crazy
Premium Episode 1: Nikky Ballou's Freedom Journey
This episode is only available to subscribers.
Brandon Held - Life is Crazy +
Exclusive access to premium content!Nikky Ballou shares his journey from escaping Iran during the Islamic revolution to becoming a champion for freedom and entrepreneurship in the West. His immigrant experience and father's wisdom shaped his people-first business philosophy that has helped clients transform their businesses and lives.
• Leaving Iran at age 11 during the Islamic revolution and discovering the true meaning of freedom in the West
• How reading Ayn Rand and listening to Ronald Reagan's speeches crystallized Nikky's passion for freedom
• The critical business lesson from Nikky's father: "Business is about solving problems for people at a profit"
• Why charlatan marketers focus on money while true entrepreneurs focus on service and transformation
• How reframing selling as an act of service and love creates authentic connection with clients
• The story of a personal trainer who went from $1,300/month to $100,000/month by finding his true niche
• Why helping others who are struggling can lift your own spirits and create positive consequences in your life
Connect with Nikky Ballou on social media, listen to his podcasts, read one of his 11 books, or book a free 45-minute conversation at ecircleacademy.com/appointment.
BrandonHeld.com iPad drawing for Life Coaching clients
Welcome. Welcome back to Brandon Held. Life is Crazy. I have a special guest on my show today, mr Do-It-All Mr Jack of all trades, and he's been on over 750 podcasts so he really knows what he's doing here, probably better than I do, since I'm so new at this. Mr Nicky Ballou is in the house today. How are you doing today, nicky?
Speaker 1:I'm blessed. I'm grateful, brandon, thanks for having me on the show. It's an honor to be here.
Speaker 2:Thank you. It's an honor to have you as well, so we got a lot to get into with all that you've accomplished and all that you have to offer. So I'm just going to have you start off by just telling everybody you know your backstory, who you are, where you come from, all that Absolutely.
Speaker 1:I'm originally an immigrant from the Middle East.
Speaker 1:I'm a Christian from Iran.
Speaker 1:When I was 11 years old, back in 1978, the Islamic revolution took place in Iran. There were gun battles in the streets and my mom and dad, they took a look around and they said this is nuts, this is not a place anymore to raise our family, our Christian family. So they made a plan to get me and my two brothers out of Iran and into a peaceful, stable country in the free West. And, mom and dad, they were really committed to having their family have the greatest chance of a great life and success. So it took them a while to get everything together in terms of dotting all the I's and crossing all the T's, but when they finally did, two years later, in August 1980, we left Iran and we moved to Athens, greece. And we were in Athens, greece, for two years and in July 1982, we left Greece and flew to Toronto, canada, which has become my permanent home ever since Now.
Speaker 1:At the time I was a kid, right from 11 to 15, formative years of childhood, right, I didn't want to leave my home. I didn't want to leave my friends.
Speaker 2:Right, I didn't want to leave my friends Right.
Speaker 1:As time went on, brandon, I could see the awesome nobility of my mom and dad's sacrifice. They left behind everything and everyone they knew for their children to have a better life. And I was the older I got, the more awed I was by what an incredible thing they did. And I was also a kid in Iran. I didn't really understand freedom and lack of freedom right From a political sphere. It just didn't penetrate. But when I came here to the West, penetrate. But when I came here to the West in Iran, mom and dad would say don't talk shit about the mullahs, man, because they'll come here and they'll take us all away. But in the West you could talk shit about the prime minister of Greece or the prime minister of Canada, right and especially at that time. And I started to realize, man, like being free is really good. It's really good and I believe inside every human breast beats the living heart. Freedom yearns to breathe free, to march to the tune of their own drummer, to chart their own course.
Speaker 1:That's how I started to become a champion for freedom and, as I told you, I read a lot. I was introduced to the works of Ayn Rand when I was 20 years old like actually 19 years old I read the book the Fountainhead, which was made into a movie in the 50s starring the late great Gary Cooper, who at the time was like America's biggest movie star, and I also then read the Shrugged biggest movie star. And I also then read the Shrugged, which is 1100 pages. It's like biblical in its size, and that book was my kind of intellectual and spiritual awakening. That's when I started to see yeah, it gave voice to what I felt inside that freedom was what mattered most to me as a human being, as a man, and really to everyone, whether they can articulate it or not. And I started to follow the speeches of the great American president, ronald Reagan. President Reagan's speeches were incredible rhetorical flourishes that uplifted the soul of humanity by extolling freedom for men.
Speaker 1:There was a speech he made in March of 1983. It's called now the Evil Empire Speech, but it's a speech he made to the National Association of Evangelicals and in it he got up and he just stood strongly to these pastors and preachers and he said that America was always going to be a godly nation and a free nation. And he talked about the battle between godless communism and free and Christian America and he said that these new forces, even domestically in America that are against the traditional freedoms that the United States has, they're louder perhaps than the rest of us, but they're not yet a majority. And he said they can speak up and speak out all they want, but they're never going to take away our belief in god. In that room erected at him saying that, remember, that's a politician, right who the hell claps river, darn politician. But he was also like a christian conservative freedom lover. So they went crazy. And then he started to talk about the soviet and everyone in that room was listening, right, because obviously the Soviets were communists and anti-religion and anti-God and anti-Christ and anti-freedom.
Speaker 1:And Reagan called them an evil empire. An evil empire. That was tough, harsh language. Nobody had ever called the Soviet Union something like that before. And the room erupted again and the propaganda news media of the time went crazy. Oh my God, how could he say that? That's like warmongering language.
Speaker 1:But his popularity with the American people went up 10 points within the next week after that speech, because and that just speaks to how powerful, how important those words were and then he did a whole bunch of other speeches. He did the speech in June, on D-Day in 1984 in Pointe du Hoc in Normandy, france, and he talked about American soldiers that were scaling the cliffs to kick the Nazis out of France. The nazis were shooting down the cliffs and these rangers, they were still climbing up, even though they're getting shot at. And they climbed up and they overran the german gunners. They took over with horrendous casualties, right, like horrendous casualties, like you imagine, like clips shooting at you as you're climbing up a clip. And he just delivered the line these are are the boys of Pondok, these are the lads that forged the generation. And those speeches were incredible.
Speaker 1:Right, I would be listening to these and I'd just be going yeah, man, this is my guy. He's talking about what I believe in and, ever since then, the feelings of freedom, the belief in freedom, was something that crystallized within my being and within my soul, and I did a lot of reading and I also had the example of my father. My father was an entrepreneur, he was a Christian which, in Iran, was being a part of a minority, like a tiny minority. Iran is almost 99% Muslim, right, think about that. And the rest isn't Christian. That's all the other religions broken down in there Christians or Austrians, jews, hindus, et cetera. And dad was an entrepreneur, and quite a successful one in Iran, and he was very much in favor of freedom.
Speaker 1:But as his son growing up in Iran, dad would always try to teach me things. He'd say, son, life is about people. I'd go, yeah, okay, dad, that's good, that makes sense. And then he said, son, business is also about people, not money people. Now I'm a kid, I'm eight years old, and I said, son, business is also about people, not money people. Now I'm a kid, I'm eight years old, and I go, dad, but how's that possible? Without money you can't have any business. He said, son, that's true, but without people there's no need for money, because all business is is solving problems for people at a profit. That's the purpose of business. You solve acute problems for amazing people and you make an awesome profit. That is the awe-inspiring purpose of business.
Speaker 1:And Dad would say to me every day, son, that man in front of you, he is someone's brother, someone's son, someone's husband, someone's father. He's a hero to someone. He has hopes, dreams, fears, triumphs and disappointments. And he said, maybe someone just like you disappointed him in life in business. Hugh disappointed him in life in business, in friendship. He said, son, it's your job to restore his faith in humanity. And he said to me every day, son, believe in people. Everyone me, you, everyone needs someone to believe in them, to love them, to see their greatness. And that little spark of belief you give someone, that little encouragement, can turn into a roaring fire and then they're off into the races.
Speaker 1:And I don't know if you know the great Canadian intellectual philosopher, jordan Peterson, who's from my alma mater, the University of Toronto. Jordan Peterson would say on his public speeches often that all most people need is just that little bit of encouragement. And he said how so few people get it. So Jordan Peterson, my late great father, said this and this is what I do for a living is I professionally believe in people? I find good people, I see the greatness in them and I let them see that I see it and that I believe in them. And I get through whatever wall of cynicism and hurt and disappointment that failure has built around their heart and I break through it and I penetrate it. And when we do, that's what takes them and their business, their life, from tragic to magic, what takes them and their business their life from tragic to magic.
Speaker 2:That's a lot there that you've covered and I can hear your passion in everything you talk about. Certainly, freedom A lot of people that have always had it take it for granted. They don't really respect it like they should. And I say that having been in the military and I understand how people can take freedom for granted when that's all they've ever known. And probably something I know you're probably not familiar with, but there's a current show that I've watched it for a long time.
Speaker 2:It's called 90 Day Fiance and there's a guy that just came over from Iran in the latest season and you can see how his mind is blown in the way America operates and how much freedom we have and what we can get away with and what we can say versus what it's like in Iran. And they have to be careful with everything they say and do because it's so controlled there. So it's like in Iran and they have to be careful with everything they say and do because it's so controlled there. So it's great that you recognize how powerful freedom is and how much you can do with it, and you've certainly taken advantage of it with your vocal, vocal words and passion and just the way you describe freedom and Ronald Reagan was a great president. I usually don't honestly talk politics too much on a podcast, but that I definitely can say he was a great president. I know not everyone agrees with that, but I do agree with that. I think he was a great president as well, did you see the movie about his life?
Speaker 1:Did you see the movie about his life starring Dennis Quaid? I did not know, but you got to see that movie. It is a good story, it's a darn good yarn.
Speaker 2:It's just called Reagan Okay.
Speaker 1:Reagan starring Dennis Quaid no.
Speaker 2:Okay, I know who Dennis Quaid is, but I can definitely look that up and give it a good listen and watch. But I know one thing that was popping up on my social media a lot was when Donald Trump imposed the tariffs. Reagan had a speech about just how bad tariffs are for a country and how they sound like a good idea because your heart's in the right place and you're trying to make things more localized in your country, but in the end it makes your country suffer and pay for that, and so Reagan had a speech against tariffs, and I have seen that speech quite a bit recently. All right, when people their parents are immigrants. A lot of times not always, but a lot of times parents put pressure on the children to become successful, and your father was an entrepreneur and so he was teaching you entrepreneurship from an early age and obviously that's been ingrained into you. Did you feel pressure to become quote unquote successful from your parents?
Speaker 1:I don't look at it as pressure man, but we definitely had expectations.
Speaker 1:succeed man For sure, same thing in my book, but go ahead, pressure has all kinds of weird connotations with it, but my parents expected me and my brothers to do well and to work and we did. We believe. We believe that's appropriate. That's called parenting man. Have high expectations for your kids to do well in life and that's how they succeed. If you don't put any expectations on your kids, their natural state is to be lazy and they're not going to have a very good life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can put whatever you want on your kids. It's up to your kids to take it and go with it. I have three sons. One's a grown, 27 year old. I put all kinds of expectations if you will on him. That doesn't mean he's listened to me or done what I've asked him to do. So if you guys have done, that's great. And I actually come from the opposite. I come from where there were zero expectations Alcoholics, drug abuse, people that can't, frankly hold down a job, just living day by day, trying to get through life. So I set my own expectations, I set my own bar for myself, and so I had the opposite problem. So that's why I was curious about that for you. Okay, we've talked a lot about freedom, and so when we're talking about marketing, what is a charlatan marketer and how can you avoid them?
Speaker 1:That's a good question A lot of people that go into business. The overwhelming majority are really good people and they have a good skill set. They can do the thing that they do and they do it well. You know what I mean it's, and they have a desire to help people, right? That's why they get into business. But they're not necessarily skilled at business. They're not necessarily skilled at marketing, at sales, and they maybe also have a little bit of lack of belief in themselves, right? Okay, yeah, just a tad.
Speaker 1:And here's the problem they, especially when it comes to sales, they got really weird self-limiting beliefs about it. They look at sales as, oh my god, being pushy, being pushy, being salesy you know, reeking of commission breath when you walk in the room, right? So they go out of their way not to appear that way. The problem is that they don't go after business that they should go after. They don't go and try to help someone who could really use their help, and so what happens is they don't get that business because they don't go after it. So instead this charlatan marketer comes in. That's an individual who has zero compunctions about appearing anyway. They just want the business Right and they don't really care if they deliver or not. They're smooth talking, slick talking, but their desire to be of service is not there. And if they do deliver, it's a happy accident. And there's tons of these guys out there.
Speaker 1:One of the reasons I got into what I got into is because I've spent, conservatively, $300,000 plus on my personal professional development, on coaches, on masterminds, horses you name it right and I've gotten something from everything I've decided to do. But a whole lot of these programs delivered really not much for me, no return on investment, and that just became a pet peeve for me. And I said, man, when I get into this business, I'm going to make sure I deliver for Right. And I just. That just became a pet peeve for me and I said, man, when I get into this business, I'm going to make sure I deliver for people. Now, obviously, I can't do it all. People have to do their part, but I'm going to do my part. I'm going to lock arms with people and make sure that they win.
Speaker 1:And a lot of the people that I've come across in business who are like coaches, consultants, solopreneurs of some sort or a small business owner, they're just struggling with selling. You know what I mean. They're just like their sales. They're not consistent or predictable.
Speaker 1:One of the things that I started to do was go okay, so how do I help these folks? And I thought to myself I know how to sell, I know how to market. I don't have any compunctions about approaching people. I said I got it. Let's reframe selling to what it really is, which is service, yes and love.
Speaker 1:Now, brandon, I don't know about you, but I don't want to be sold by anybody. I don't want to be pushed into doing something I don't want to do by anybody. You don't either, I'm sure? Right, definitely not. But, brandon, don't you love it when there's someone who's with you who actually gives a good gosh darn about you, takes a stand for you like he't pushy, but he also sees through your BS that if you need something, he's going to point it out to you and if you say no, at the end of the day he's going to accept your no. But he's also all the way through that conversation, he's going to take a stand for you to get what you need to stop being stuck in the bullshit place you're stuck in right now. And those people, man, I love giving them my money.
Speaker 1:Two years ago, I found a guy like that I was really overweight. Right, I used to be a top fitness trainer, but when I got into business coaching, I stopped thinking that way and I gained five or more pounds a year. For 12 years I gained over 50 pounds bro.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I found this dude and I wanted a new me. And I went to him and I said hey, man, I'm 55. At the time I was 55. I'm 57. Now I said I'm 55, man, you think it's possible for me? He goes oh yeah, 100%, like I felt his certainty. And then I said how long do you think it'll take? And he said normally six to 12 months. Guys have done it in as little as three, but six to 12 months is what you should bank on. And I said you feel very confident about this. He said absolutely. I've done this for lots of people. I can do it for you too. If you're wanting to do the work, we'll get you the result. And I said okay, I'm in, man, I didn't even ask him what he charged bro.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I have been with him for two years. I've had members of my family work with him. I've conservatively spent $45,000, $50,000 with him for everybody Wow, bro. But I lost 60 pounds. I did a bodybuilding competition at 57 for people 35 plus I came in third. I'm going for my IFBB pro card at 60. My level of self-confidence everywhere in life has taken a quantum leap forward because of this big result I was able to achieve.
Speaker 1:And this happened because this guy served me and I'm happy to pay him. Whenever he says hey, nikki, I'd like you to do this. He has an event, he goes do you want to sponsor it? I'm always a yes. I don't even ask what he charges. I go yep, I'll do it, nikki, we're doing this new thing. Yep, I'm a yes to whatever he says, because I trust him and because he took care of me.
Speaker 1:And that's what people are looking for Someone that's going to take care of them. They don't want someone who's going to put their hand in your wallet. They want someone who can provide you a certainty that they can help you, who can give you clarity on why you're not getting the result and who can show you they care and they're not just out to get their hand in your wallet. Sure, they're there to do business, but they care more about you getting the result. And that's how I roll, man. If I'm on the phone with somebody and I feel they're not comfortable, I'm just like you know what. I'm not here to push them to do business with me. I'm here to show them I can help them. If they're ready to listen, great, I'll take a hard stand for that. But if they're like, no, I don't want to do it and back up, I'm like, okay, back up, all good.
Speaker 1:And I've had people say, hey, nick, you man, I'm feeling pressure, I'm going listen, there's no pressure, I'm just taking a stand for you. Any pressure you feel is the pressure of being stuck in a business that hasn't grown for the last five years, with you and your wife freaking out because you might lose the house if you don't turn this around. And I've said that to a guy and he started to bawl, he cried, he said you're right, I'm sorry. That is the real pressure. I'm like hey, man, I said look, if you're ready to solve it, I'm here to give you a hand and if not, all good, let's just part as friends, because I'm not here to convince you, man.
Speaker 1:I'm not here to push you. I'm here to show you a path to a better life. And if you do that for people and you show them how to do that for other people, you're doing God's work. Just doing this for some of the people I've worked with has helped them double, quadruple, tenfold their business. They didn't do anything else different. They just stopped being crazy about selling and they started thinking about it as serving.
Speaker 2:No, you make a lot of good points there and I was actually a personal trainer for 15 years and I didn't belong to a company. For most of that career it was me on my own and I helped a couple people lose over a hundred pounds and I know how satisfying they are with their life, how much happier it made them, how it changed everything from one guy had an abusive wife to it completely flipped the script and his wife was so much kinder to him and treated him so much better after we transformed his body. I had another guy who was basically a mommy's boy that lived at home and he went from that to getting his first real girlfriend and getting married. It's just life transforming. When you can do that for people, it changes everything and I know what I was capable of as a personal trainer, just like I know what I'm capable of as a life coach. But the problem is we have a world full of over-promisers and under-deliverers, so you Garleton marketers is what I like to call those people.
Speaker 2:People have to go with their instinct. They have to go with who they feel works for them. And now, just because people don't decide to pick me for personal training or life coaching, it doesn't mean that I'm not great at those things. It just means they weren't feeling me, we didn't connect. I don't take that personal, but, yeah, that is a problem that we have so many people like that.
Speaker 2:And so when people were pitching me personally, trying to sell me something, I need to hear certain things that make me feel like I can trust you and you're going to do for me what you're saying you're going to do for me, because telling me what you did for everyone else, that doesn't really mean anything to me. Great, you did something for them and that's great, but what can you do for me? I am me. I'm not that person, right? I get everything you're saying and that connection is super important, is super important. And your passion. It's hard to deny anything about you, because your passion is so strong and so powerful that you can feel it when you're talking to you. Appreciate it, brother.
Speaker 1:Thank you very much.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no problem. So one of the things that I wanted to ask you is how can someone add $20,000 to $100,000 to their income in a year?
Speaker 1:That's a great question. Let me illustrate it with a story of some folks that I've worked with, interesting that you were a personal trainer too, because yeah, that's pretty wild. I was that for about 10, 11 years, something like that. And the story I'm going to tell you is about a guy who was a personal trainer. Actually, I have a few of those. For whatever reason, a whole bunch of them got attracted to me, the vibe of personal trainer, Blocked together.
Speaker 2:That's all it is.
Speaker 1:So this was about 10 years ago that I initially met this fellow and at the time he was 25 years old. Okay, now, this dude, like I said, he was a personal trainer and he was a good dude. You know what I mean. Yeah, like nicest guy, the kind of guy that if you had a sister or a daughter, you would just go to her and you'd just say, hey, listen, you know these losers you've been dating. Stop dating him, I got a guy for you.
Speaker 2:No, that's high praise. You can't really get much higher praise than that, no he's going to treat you with respect.
Speaker 1:He's a good dude. Just go out, go have coffee with him. Okay, you tell me what you think, all right, and he was really excited about personal training. Unfortunately, he wasn't very successful at it. He had seven clients and he didn't charge a lot. Back then it was nuts it's $25 an hour, which was insane back then.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's super cheap.
Speaker 1:So he was making $1,200, 1300 on a good month, okay, and he lives in Toronto. So Toronto was like the New York city, the Manhattan of Canada. Sure, $1,200. It's not going to cut it, bro, not at all. So his name was Dan, I called him Danny and I'm like he was introduced to me by another client and when I met him I'm like, okay, you're a good dude, this is great. And he said to me I'm a personal trainer. I said okay, what's your specialty? Like? Who do you work with? He said I don't, I'm a specialty man, no specialty. I can help anybody with anything. I can help them lose weight, I can help them add muscle, I can help them get ready for life events like weddings. And I didn't do anything. And I just looked at him and I said Danny, I know now why you only have seven clients. He says why. I said because you're trying to be all things to all people, which means you're nothing to nobody. He said oh, he said so what do I do? I said you need to narrow your focus.
Speaker 2:And he was. He needed a niche.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and he said, okay, I got it, I got it. He said I'm going to go after doctors.
Speaker 2:I came out of the field right Like doctors. Why doctors?
Speaker 1:He said doctors like they, my dad, he's a doctor, I love my dad, I want to help people like my dad. I'm like that's great. I said also doctors make a lot of money, this is great. Makes so much money and I'm like that is not the criteria. You sure working with people who have some money is important. Okay, don't get me wrong. You don't want to work with broke people, right, because you won't get paid. But that was his like leading criteria. I love my dad and they have money. There was like nothing else there and I'm like Danny, I don't think that he goes. No, I'm doing this, nicky, like gung-ho personal trainer, right, I'm like all right, dude, okay, fuck it, go do it. A couple months go by, he gets like maybe two clients. So you know he went from $1,300 to maybe like $1,400 a month.
Speaker 1:I'm like all right, danny. I said, danny, this is not what we were looking to achieve here. He said, okay, so you know, niche down more. Oh my God, I want to work with cardiologists, cardiologists and he said they make more money than doctors. Oh my God, daddy, no, I'm doing it. A month or two goes by and he signs up zero new clients, no cardiologists, nobody else. Yeah, now, near the end of that, though, he signed up one client who was not a cardiologist. What? He was?
Speaker 1:A Paralympian athlete, okay, originally Cuban, like award-winning, medal-winning athlete. He had a missing leg. I think it was his right athlete. He had a missing leg. I think it was his right leg. He had a cool name Papito Wilson. So Wilson to us Anglicized folks, but Wilson, the way he said it. Now, these two dudes, they just meshed, and he really did great things with this guy, and some major championships were coming up, I think with the Pan Am Games or something like that. It was in Toronto, actually that year, 2015. And, buddy, he won medals. I think he maybe even won a gold or something, but he won medals. Pepito Dead.
Speaker 1:And so Danny comes to me and he goes to me Nicky, I owe you a big apology and I'm like what for? He said I've not been coachable and I promised you I'd be coachable. And I said, yep, that's right, you've not been coachable. And he said I also realize you've been trying to give me a message that, while making money is obviously important, you cannot lead with how much cash you need. People feel that and they don't like that, right? I said glad, you see that. And he said I think I've figured out my niche. He said I'm going to work with people with missing limbs.
Speaker 1:By the moment he said that there was a different energy to Danny when he said this it was none of this, I'm going to make so much money bullshit. And he said not a lot of personal trainers are trying to help these guys Not a lot at all and they all need my help and I know how to help them. And I instantly knew this was a good decision. It was a big idea and a good decision and I said run with it. So I want you to understand he was no longer chasing the money. Okay, so that was. He was not leading with money.
Speaker 1:And in six weeks, danny, who was making 13, $1,400 on a really good month, went from seven clients like, or eight, because whatever you sign up a couple of docs, he added 400 clients in six weeks. Zero ad spend, zero, zero ad spend, all word of mouth. And he was a one-on-one personal trainer. So he needed to completely rejigger his model. We worked on creating a new model with online, and all this because he could not do 400 people one-on-one, one guy. That's just not happening. He estimated that if he didn't sleep more than four hours a night, he could do 60, which was crazy. So that's when we said no, no model. And his income went up from $1,200, $1,300, $1,400 a month to over $100,000 a month.
Speaker 1:This was before the big online coaching phrase came into the fitness world. Sure, and why did this happen? And he no longer went after the money. The money came after him because he gave value. He was about making a difference for a group of people that had nobody. There was a missing in the marketplace at that time and he went after helping these people. And his message wasn't just, hey, I'm going to make you fit, I'm going to help you lose weight. Whatever the reason all these people flocked him flock to him was because the subtext of the message was I see you, you are just as worthy, just as good as capable, just as strong as anybody, and put yourself in the mind of a person with a missing limb. They probably did not choose this, they did not want this. They're probably not happy that they are needing to deal with this.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And they probably have some level of unless they've done deep inner work upset, disappointment, resentment, feeling less than Sure. You see how his message would just lift their souls and their spirits up. Yeah, and you asked me how do you make an extra $2,100,000 this year? Stop putting all the attention on that. Have it as a goal. Don't get me wrong. Have it as a goal. You need to write down your goals to serve the good men and women in my niche, the ones that are hurting, the ones that are suffering, the ones that have this deep pain that they don't want anyone to know they have, but it's obvious that they have. I'm going to show them that we can take that pain away forever, that we can take that pain away forever, and I'm going to solve the surface problem for them. But more deeply, man, I'm going to heal their soul Because you do that, brother, and they feel that from you. $100,000 ain't what you'll make in a year, man.
Speaker 2:You can make that in a month, a week or even a day. Yeah, that's a good message and a powerful message, and I totally agree. I think one of the hardest parts, like you said, word of mouth is the best kind of advertising, and one of the hardest parts is getting to people so that they can see and know what you're capable of doing, and there's not much better than a testimonial of someone who has profited from your service and they're overcoming whatever it is they were trying to overcome. Having said that and you've provided a ton of great information today, I'm going to give you an opportunity here to just leave with the listeners. Whatever it is you feel they still need to know and how they can get in touch with you and what's the best way to reach you.
Speaker 1:We live in a time today where there's a lot of people that are hurting. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:A lot of people that are hurting, and the best way for you to feel better about whatever pain you have is not to focus on that, but to go find another human being, or many other human beings that are hurting more than you, and give your love, your belief, your heart, your soul to them. Help them see their beauty, their majesty, their greatness, and look for something to believe in them and let them know you believe in them. If you can do that for one person this week, it'll make your week and I promise you the positive consequences of that, or whatever you're up to in your life, will flow easier and more naturally better for you. If you want to get a hold of me, I'm a uniquely named individual. I'm the only Nikki Ballou on planet Earth.
Speaker 1:So if you go on social media and you just pick a platform and you type in at Nikki Ballou, n-i-c-k-y-b-i-l-l-o-u, you can follow me, friend request me, connect with me, whatever. If you're a podcast listener, look me up on Spotify, google play, itunes, whatever. You can look me up on shows like this one. You can look up my own shows. I have two podcasts of my own and I think, brandon, we're talking about having you come on my men's show. Right, we did talk about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Brandon on that show as well. Shout out to Brandon for coming to do that and do that. If you're a and I want to encourage you if you're not a reader, freaking well, become a reader. Man, like in this day and age, you should be a reader. I've written 11 books. The shortest one I wrote is 30 pages long, so you really have zero excuses for not reading one of my books, right, Come on, man, just invest in yourself and read the book.
Speaker 1:And finally, if you want to have a conversation with me and you're a business owner who's wanting to talk to somebody because you're feeling a little stuck, or if you're just a human being who's feeling a little stuck and you just want to chat, no agenda whatever. Or if you're a man who's feeling a little stuck because, as Brandon is, I do some work with men and I run a men's meeting as well.
Speaker 1:Just go to my main calendar, which is at ecircleacademycom. Forward slash appointment. Book a time on my calendar. I still offer this for free. I know there's a lot of people in my position that are charging for this time. I don't. You'll get 45 minutes of my time for free. Take advantage of it if you're so inclined.
Speaker 2:That's a generous offer. There's a lot of people who don't give up that kind of time for free.
Speaker 1:There you go, Not anymore man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, especially once they've made it to a level of success, like you mentioned. So I want to thank you, nikki, for having you on. It's a pleasure knowing you. It's a pleasure having you as a guest. I can't wait to be a guest on your podcast as well, and we should follow each other on Instagram. I usually follow guests on Instagram. I didn't follow you yet, so I need to do that. Sure, sure, that's good man, all right. So for me, I have a few calls to action as well.
Speaker 2:I would like you guys to go to brandonhellcom and subscribe to my podcast. There you have a couple of options. You can either just be a generous donator or I have a subscription program where, if you subscribe, I do podcasts exclusively just for members. That will only go to subscribers. You can follow me on Instagram. Like I was just mentioning with Nikki, it's bhlifeiscrazy. On Instagram, I also have a YouTube channel, brandon Held. Life is Crazy. And that's really all I have for you guys today. I appreciate you listening to Nikki and myself. Great advice from Nikki, great passion from Nikki, and just don't take freedom for granted and definitely lead with your heart, and it will take you a lot of great places. So thank you for listening.
