The Thought Leader Revolution Podcast

Nicky Billou
  • 4.0 (4)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Daily

MAKE THE DIFFERENCE YOU WERE BORN TO MAKE The Business of Thought Leadership podcast is about building your thought leadership around your expertise, your brand and your name. To become well known and highly regarded in the market place for the results you are able to produce for your clients. Our guests are top thought leaders who have done it. They've become widely known for their expertise and results they're able to deliver for their clients. They all love what they do and get paid very well for doing it. You'll meet entrepreneurs that have leveraged thought leadership in driving business revenue, coaches that were unknown and barely making ends who later became celebrities and took their income into the 7 figures, consultants that transformed into best-selling authors and built multi-million dollar firms and senior executives who followed their passion, left their day jobs and are changing the world. We've had interviews with notables such as New Times Best-Selling Author Seth Godin, success and investment coaching icon, Raymond Aaron, a personal coach to billionaires, Alex Charfen & Tony Robbins' Director of Coaching, Marc Von Musser. Steve Jobs once said "The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do." Are you crazy enough to join us in making the difference you were born to make. We want you to 10x your impact, your income and your influence every 12 months. Financially successful people with purpose and passion are changing the world and we want to inspire you to be one of them.

  1. 1d ago

    EP808: Norm Gordon - Out Of The Norm

    "People have no idea how capable they are. They might think they're good — they might even be right that they're great — but they really have no idea what they're capable of until they start to realize it." Norm Gordon built a portfolio of over 1,000 apartment units in Canada. But the most interesting thing about his story isn't the scale — it's the method. He didn't grind his way there. He planted his way there. The son of two Holocaust survivors who arrived in Canada with nothing, Norm grew up watching his father turn ingenuity and a handshake into a real estate foothold. He filed the lesson away and spent the next several decades applying one core principle with increasing precision: find the highest-ROI use of whatever capital you have, deploy it, and iterate. A Sunday drive turns into $80,000 in distressed computer paper. A $25,000 stake in a 36-unit apartment building becomes $400,000 in 30 months. A year with a behavioral psychologist produces not a strategy, but presence — and six months later, his first million. Norm tells these stories not as a how-to but as a way of stoking your own thinking. His book, Out of the Norm, works the same way — it doesn't hand you a formula. It shows you what's possible when someone keeps asking: what's the highest use of what I already have? This is one of those conversations that rewards a second listen. Norm is sharp, specific, and genuinely funny — and the ideas compound the more you sit with them. Learn more & connect: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/norm-gordon-1b743014/ Montcom Group: http://montcom.com Out of the Norm by Norm Gordon — search the title on https://www.amazon.ca Resources mentioned: The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle — https://www.eckharttolle.com Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill — https://www.naphill.org Entrepreneur Magazine — https://www.entrepreneur.com Financial Freedom Report — historical publication, no active URL Visit https://www.eCircleAcademy.com and book a success call with Nicky to take your practice to the next level.

    EP808: Norm Gordon - Out Of The Norm

  2. 5d ago

    EP807: TL Nuggets #242 - Sales Hesitancy

    "Are you ready to confront your sales hesitancy head-on so that you can overcome it once and for all and make all the sales you've ever dreamed of making?" — Nicky Billou Sales hesitancy is one of the most common — and most quietly destructive — patterns in coaching and consulting practices. It does not always look like fear. More often it looks like productivity: researching content strategies, posting on social media, optimizing a funnel, doing anything that feels like business-building without requiring an actual sales conversation. Nicky names eight specific behaviors that signal sales hesitancy, then walks through a four-step path for overcoming it. The framework is direct and demands honesty at every stage — starting with the recognition that your perception of selling is the problem, not the market, not the timing, not the economy. The path forward involves a genuine decision to change, a commitment to developing real selling skill, and getting a coach who has actually helped others make this shift. Nicky draws on Tony Robbins' principle that resourcefulness matters more than resources — and makes the case that nowhere is that truer than in learning to sell. Learn more & connect: https://www.eCircleAcademy.com Resources mentioned: Tony Robbins — https://www.tonyrobbins.com Jocko Willink — https://www.jockowillink.com Visit https://www.eCircleAcademy.com and book a success call with Nicky to take your practice to the next level.

    EP807: TL Nuggets #242 - Sales Hesitancy

  3. Aug 11

    EP806: Keyvan Billou - Building Success In Your Teens

    "However much discomfort you can tolerate is going to equal how much success you achieve, and there's not really any way around that." Keyvan Billou is 20 years old. He skipped university, works 14-hour days at Hammer Fitness in Toronto, and has built a coaching practice from scratch — in person and online — that gets people into exceptional shape. He is also Nicky's son, which makes this one of the more candid and personal conversations the show has produced. What Keyvan has figured out about discipline and discomfort at 20 is worth paying attention to regardless of your age. His central point: tolerance for discomfort is not a personality trait — it is a trainable capacity. He built it slowly and deliberately, a little more each month, until what once felt impossible just felt like his life. He once struggled to get through an 8-hour restaurant shift. Now he logs 14-plus hours at the gym and comes home to answer client messages. He also speaks honestly about why so many young men are adrift right now. Not as a sermon — as someone who has watched it happen up close. Comfort was never challenged. Reality was deferred as long as possible. When it finally arrives, the gap feels uncrossable and many just stop trying. His coaching philosophy carries the same logic into his work with clients. The program is not the hard part. Anyone can write a program. The real job is understanding how to deliver it to a specific human being in a way they will actually follow — and that takes patience, observation, and a willingness to look inward when something is not working. Learn more & connect: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kvon.bilou Resources mentioned: Peterson Academy — https://www.petersonacademy.com Hammer Fitness — search Hammer Fitness Toronto Visit https://www.eCircleAcademy.com and book a success call with Nicky to take your practice to the next level.

    EP806: Keyvan Billou - Building Success In Your Teens

  4. Aug 7

    EP805: Martha Byrne - From Soap Star To Justice Advocate

    "They put a bullet mark on my husband's head as a traitor to this country. Our Department of Justice put our lives in danger. We're American." Martha Byrne is best known for two Emmy Awards and more than two decades on As the World Turns. But for the past five and a half years, she has been doing something entirely different: fighting the United States federal government to prove that her husband — retired NYPD Sergeant and 9/11 first responder Michael McMahon — was framed. In 2020, the FBI arrested Michael over a 2016 private investigation job. Routine surveillance. Notified local police every day. A subject who turned out to be a former Wuhan official living in the United States illegally — and who, it emerged, had been in regular communication with FBI agents. There was no video evidence, no photos, no police reports from the alleged victims, and witnesses at trial who could not identify Michael McMahon. The jury convicted him anyway. He was classified as a terrorist threat and sent to a general population prison 600 miles from his family. Martha took the case to Congress, secured support from Congressman Michael Lawler, and had her husband's case cited in a full GOP Oversight Committee investigation as a leading example of DOJ failure in handling CCP-related matters. When President Trump was elected, she pressed further. He received a full and unconditional pardon. The Second Circuit Appellate Court then vacated the entire case. Less than 0.1% of federal convictions end that way. In this conversation, Martha and Nicky go deep on how federal prosecutors operate when they lack evidence, what it means that FBI agents were communicating with a Wuhan official against an American family, why cameras in federal courtrooms could fundamentally change accountability in the justice system, and how faith carried her family through years of documented institutional betrayal. She also shares what she hopes her book, In the Interest of Justice, does for families currently living through similar ordeals. Learn more & connect: In the Interest of Justice by Martha Byrne — available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com Resources mentioned: In the Interest of Justice by Martha Byrne — https://www.amazon.com GOP Oversight Committee Report on CCP and DOJ — https://www.congress.gov Congressman Michael Lawler (NY-17) — https://www.lawler.house.gov Phelim McAleer (filmmaker, Gosnell, My Son Hunter) — https://www.phelimmcaleer.com Post Hill Press — https://www.posthillpress.com Visit https://www.eCircleAcademy.com and book a success call with Nicky to take your practice to the next level.

    EP805: Martha Byrne - From Soap Star To Justice Advocate

  5. Aug 4

    EP804: Kris Hregdovic - Seeking Service

    "You think you've won today? You haven't won nothing. Your country will burn from the inside, and we will have victory." That's what a flex-cuffed Taliban fighter said to Kris Hregdovic's face in Afghanistan in 2012. He still thinks about it, fourteen years later. Kris spent two decades as a Navy SEAL — the latest in a family line that answered the call every time the country asked. A great-uncle survived a POW camp in Korea. An uncle was killed in Vietnam. A brother deployed to Iraq. Kris lost his own father to cancer right after high school graduation, and lost his mentor and his direction along with him — until service gave him both back. Now transitioning into speaking and executive coaching, Kris lays out the operating principle that's carried him through two decades of hard places: before you point the finger at a broken system, point the thumb at yourself. He's not interested in outsourcing responsibility to the news cycle or to politics. What actually changed his life was narrowing his focus to what he can control — his home, his community, his own choices — and building outward from there. Learn more & connect: Instagram and Facebook — Pushing Back Chaos: https://www.instagram.com/pushingbackchaos Resources mentioned: Pushing Back Chaos (Kris's speaking, coaching, and consulting practice): https://www.instagram.com/pushingbackchaos Visit https://www.eCircleAcademy.com and book a success call with Nicky to take your practice to the next level.

    EP804: Kris Hregdovic - Seeking Service

  6. Jul 31

    EP803: TL Nuggets #241 - Francesco Totti And Loyalty

    "He picked meaning over transactional maximization. And because of this, Francesco Totti has become the stuff of legend." — Nicky Billou Francesco Totti could have left for Real Madrid. He could have taken the money from AC Milan or Manchester United. He chose Rome instead — every time, for 25 years — and became something no amount of trophy-chasing could have made him: a legend inseparable from the city itself. Nicky draws on Totti's story to make a case that runs deeper than football. In an era that rewards mobility — in sport, in business, in life — choosing full, permanent commitment to one thing is rare. Rarer still is doing it when the alternatives are genuinely better by most measures. Totti had those alternatives. He said no. And the Stadio Olimpico wept when he played his final match. The lesson Nicky draws is clean and direct: the best of you is the most loyal part of you. That is not an argument against opportunity — it's an argument for knowing what you stand for and refusing to let transactionality make that decision for you. Learn more & connect: https://www.eCircleAcademy.com https://www.TheThoughtLeaderRevolution.com Resources mentioned: Francesco Totti — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Totti AS Roma — https://www.asroma.com Visit https://www.eCircleAcademy.com and book a success call with Nicky to take your practice to the next level.

    EP803: TL Nuggets #241 - Francesco Totti And Loyalty

  7. Jul 28

    EP802: Lisa Kavanagh - The Great Books Discussions - Anthem By Ayn Rand

    "Individualism without a sense of unity is just as dangerous as the hive mind." This one's a little different. Nicky Billou hands his longtime energy-healing mentor Lisa Kavanagh a copy of Ayn Rand's Anthem, no priming, and the two of them just talk through it — what it says, what it gets right, and where it goes too far. Lisa had never read Rand before. She found the story of a man raised in a collective so total it abolished mirrors and the word "I" genuinely unsettling in how current it feels — but she isn't shy about pushing back on the ending, where Rand's hero swings from one extreme to another. Nicky fills in the rest: who Rand was, what she escaped, and why Anthem still sells alongside The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged decades after her death. If you've ever wondered whether a short, decades-old novella is worth your time, this is basically two friends talking you into reading it. Learn more & connect: Lisa Kavanagh — Natural Healing Reiki: https://www.naturalhealingreiki.ca Anthem by Ayn Rand — available on Amazon for under $10: https://www.amazon.com/Anthem-Ayn-Rand/dp/0451191137 Resources mentioned: Anthem by Ayn Rand: https://www.amazon.com/Anthem-Ayn-Rand/dp/0451191137 The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand: https://www.amazon.com/Fountainhead-Ayn-Rand/dp/0451191153 Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand: https://www.amazon.com/Atlas-Shrugged-Ayn-Rand/dp/0451191145 Visit https://www.eCircleAcademy.com and book a success call with Nicky to take your practice to the next level.

    EP802: Lisa Kavanagh - The Great Books Discussions - Anthem By Ayn Rand

  8. Jul 24

    EP801: Rick Rosenfield - The California Pizza Kitchen Story

    "It's not the concept that got us there. We were blessed to have created barbecue chicken pizza. But if we didn't know how to trust and empower and manage people, we would have died with one restaurant." Most people who know California Pizza Kitchen know the barbecue chicken pizza. Fewer know that the two men who built it were federal prosecutors who had never run a restaurant, borrowed a quarter million dollars, mortgaged their homes, and lost their first chef after one month. Rick Rosenfield, co-founder of California Pizza Kitchen, joins Nicky to tell the full story — from a single Beverly Hills location in 1985 to a 14,000-employee national brand sold in 2011. What he describes is less a business story than a people story: how two lawyers with no industry experience figured out, on the fly, that culture was the actual product. The barbecue chicken pizza brought people in the door. The R.O.C.K. values — Respect, Opportunity, Communication, Kindness — brought them back, and kept 32 regional directors on board for an average of 14 years each. Rick and Nicky get into the mechanics of a 40-year partnership that worked, including the one rule Rick credits most: they never said "I told you so." They dig into high standards as a hiring filter, the decision to go non-smoking before any other national chain, what it means to be a work-with company instead of a work-for company, and why a great concept is not enough without the people to carry it. Rick closes with three pieces of advice drawn from four decades of building something real — all of them applicable well beyond the restaurant business. Live by R.O.C.K. — Respect, Opportunity, Communication, Kindness. Let these four values guide your hiring, your culture, and your daily decisions, not just your mission statement. 2. Commit to perseverance over momentum. The path is rarely a straight line — it stalls, crashes, and restarts. Stay true to your vision through the cycles rather than abandoning it when circumstances get hard. 3. Do the right thing. It is not always easy to do, but it is almost always easy to identify. Build the habit of acting on that knowledge even when it is costly. Learn more & connect: Rick Rosenfield: https://www.rickrosenfield.com The California Pizza Kitchen Story (Amazon): https://www.amazon.com Resources mentioned: The California Pizza Kitchen Story by Rick Rosenfield — https://www.rickrosenfield.com The War of Art by Steven Pressfield — https://www.stevenpressfield.com The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield — https://www.stevenpressfield.com Jack Carr (foreword author) — https://www.jackcarrusa.com R.O.C.K. culture framework — discussed in The California Pizza Kitchen Story Visit https://www.eCircleAcademy.com and book a success call with Nicky to take your practice to the next level.

    EP801: Rick Rosenfield - The California Pizza Kitchen Story
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Ratings & Reviews

4
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

MAKE THE DIFFERENCE YOU WERE BORN TO MAKE The Business of Thought Leadership podcast is about building your thought leadership around your expertise, your brand and your name. To become well known and highly regarded in the market place for the results you are able to produce for your clients. Our guests are top thought leaders who have done it. They've become widely known for their expertise and results they're able to deliver for their clients. They all love what they do and get paid very well for doing it. You'll meet entrepreneurs that have leveraged thought leadership in driving business revenue, coaches that were unknown and barely making ends who later became celebrities and took their income into the 7 figures, consultants that transformed into best-selling authors and built multi-million dollar firms and senior executives who followed their passion, left their day jobs and are changing the world. We've had interviews with notables such as New Times Best-Selling Author Seth Godin, success and investment coaching icon, Raymond Aaron, a personal coach to billionaires, Alex Charfen & Tony Robbins' Director of Coaching, Marc Von Musser. Steve Jobs once said "The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do." Are you crazy enough to join us in making the difference you were born to make. We want you to 10x your impact, your income and your influence every 12 months. Financially successful people with purpose and passion are changing the world and we want to inspire you to be one of them.

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