The Publishing Performance Show

Nicky Billou - Beyond Book Sales: How Podcast Guesting Can Transform Your Author Business

• Teddy Smith • Episode 66

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Nicky Billou is a business coach and author who specializes in helping entrepreneurs and authors maximize their impact through podcast guesting. As the author of "Get Booked and Get Paid" and "Finish Line Thinking," he has appeared on over 1,500 podcast episodes and helps clients generate significant revenue through strategic podcast appearances. Coming from an immigrant background, Nicky's passion for entrepreneurship and helping others stems from his father's example of generosity and business acumen.

In this episode:

  • The importance of viewing your book as a branding tool
  • How to leverage podcast appearances to generate leads and sales
  • Understanding commercial thought leadership
  • Strategies for introverted authors to succeed on podcasts
  • The power of having a strong intention for podcast appearances
  • Creating valuable secondary offers beyond your book
  • Technical aspects of being a great podcast guest
  • Building a systematic approach to podcast guesting


Resources mentioned:


Book Recommendations:


Connect with Nicky Billou:


Connect with Teddy Smith:

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[00:00:00] Teddy Smith: Hi everyone. Welcome to the Publishing Performance Show. I'm here with Nicky Billou, who's going to talk to us all about his new book, which is called get booked and get paid. And it's all about how you can appear on more podcasts and make more money doing that. So Nicky, welcome to the show. 

[00:00:22] Nicky Billou: Teddy. It's an honor to be here, man.

[00:00:23] Thank you so much for bringing me on your show. God bless your heart, brother. 

[00:00:28] Teddy Smith: Thank you very much. No, it was great to chat to you. And I really enjoyed our chat before we had this conversation. So I've been looking forward to the show. 

[00:00:35] Nicky Billou: And I'm going to become your client, brother. I'm going to, I'm going to subscribe to your service.

[00:00:38] Teddy Smith: So good. Yeah. I think the software could really help out your book, the publishing informant software. Yeah, definitely. So tell me a bit about, just give me a bit about your backgrounds. Just tell everyone a bit about who you are and why you are, how you got to hit this point today.

[00:00:54] Nicky Billou: Absolutely. That's a great question. So I'm actually originally an immigrant from the Middle East. I'm a Christian from Iran. When I was 11 years old, the Islamic revolution took place in Iran. That was a world changing cataclysmic event. And my late father, God rest his soul, he could see the writing on the wall.

[00:01:11] This wasn't going to be a place to raise a Christian family. So we got together with my mom. They made a plan and eventually they got me and my two brothers out of Iran and settled us where I now live in Toronto, Canada. Now at the time, Teddy, I was 11 years old, right? You know, I didn't want to leave my home.

[00:01:29] I didn't want to leave my friends. But looking back buddy, it was a single greatest thing mom and dad could have done for me and my two brothers. Yeah, it took us from a legacy of tyranny. to a legacy of freedom. I believe inside every human breast beats the living heart of freedom. Every man, every woman on this planet wants to march to the tune of their own drummer.

[00:01:50] They want to chart their own course. And if you think about it, Teddy, if you're an entrepreneur, You gotta have freedom just for you to be able to exist without freedom. You don't have free expression of free enterprise. And without those things, how can you have an entrepreneurial economy? You don't, you have a crony capitalist economy.

[00:02:11] You can't go make your dreams come true. So me. I've become the biggest champion for freedom and for entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship. My father, Teddy was an entrepreneur. Teddy, if you met him, you'd love him. He's the greatest man I've ever known. If you were looking for work, he'd sit you down in his office, call all his entrepreneur buddies till he got you a job.

[00:02:32] No joke. That's why I do it. And then if you were trying to start a business, he'd sit you down and he'd listen to you and then he'd give you advice and ideas and he'd introduce you to people who could help you with financing, who could help you with getting clients. And he would help you with everything in his heart Even if you were doing a competitive business because he didn't really believe in competition anyways And if you were his friend and you were trying to buy a car a house And the bank wouldn't give you quite enough money to get your dream car your dream home.

[00:03:04] Dad would top you up with a And then when you tried to pay him back, he'd say, get out of here. That's what he was like. And people go to me, come on, Nicky, man, this sounds like, you know, some Horatio Alger story, some Hollywood kind of schmaltzy movie. Nobody's really like that. Are they? And I go, yeah, at least one guy, my dad, the late great Napoleon Ballou, he was like that.

[00:03:25] And then they all get cynical. They go, what do you mean, man? What's in it for him? What's the percentage. And I go, I'll tell you what the percentage is. That's a great question. First of all, he was a devout and committed Christian. He believed he'd been blessed by his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and God Almighty above.

[00:03:42] And that it was his duty as a devout and committed Christian to share those blessings with his fellow man. And that was very important to him. Secondly, though, he did it because he could. He was rich. He was successful. I worship the ground my dad walked on. I wanted to be just like him. I remember when I was eight years old, he'd come to me and he'd say, Son, life is about people, not money.

[00:04:09] And business is a people game, not a money game. And I just go, dad, what are you talking about? Without money, you can't have no business. I'm eight years old, right? What do I know? And he said, that's true, son, but without people, there's no need for money. See, what's business? Business exists to solve problems for people, for profit.

[00:04:31] Imagine a Venn diagram. You got problems in one circle, you got people in another circle, and you got profit in the final circle, where all three meet. That little space, that's the purpose of business. You solve acute problems for amazing people at an awesome profit. That's the awe inspiring purpose of business.

[00:04:51] So you got to care about people. And my dad always said to me, son, believe in people. He said, son, believe in people, love people, pour into people. He said that man sitting in front of you, Teddy Smith, that's someone's son. That's someone's brother. That's someone's husband. Maybe even someone's father, right?

[00:05:12] He's a hero to somebody. He's got hopes. He's got dreams. He's got fears. He's had disappointments. Maybe even a guy just like you disappointed him in business. You know what your job is, son? You tell me, he said, your job is to restore that man's faith. In humanity, believe in him, pour into him so that when he wobbles in his belief, you will show him who he really is.

[00:05:40] Because everybody goes through moments where they doubt themselves, Teddy. You agree with this, right? Everybody goes through moments of doubt. 

[00:05:46] What we need is someone to believe in us when we don't believe in ourselves. And me, I got into the field of helping people through my coaching and business consulting.

[00:05:58] And my workshops and my books and my podcasts, because I'm Napoleon Belleau son. And I believe in people. I believe in you. 

[00:06:09] Teddy Smith: Great. Napoleon blue. That is a very cool name, isn't it? I, uh, I'm very jealous of that. So your coaching that you do is around entrepreneurship and helping people essentially improve themselves, and make more money for their own business.

[00:06:23] It was interesting. You talked about, yeah, it was interesting. You talked about entrepreneurs just now, because I think authors are entrepreneurs and you know, they don't maybe don't see it that way. A lot of them see themselves just writers and they, they kind of miss the. Money aspects of this whole business.

[00:06:38] And that's basically the reason why we did this podcast in the first place. So tell us a bit about your coaching. What, what does, what does it involve? What would people aim to get out of it? 

[00:06:47] Nicky Billou: Those are excellent questions. So let me do that through the form of a couple of stories. Okay.

[00:06:53] So, I had a client several years ago. And, Teddy, it's an incredible story. I met him when he was 57 and he was a very successful and accomplished man. He had been an executive vice president, which is kind of one level below managing director in, in, in British terms, in a, in a major manufacturing concern here in Canada, in Ontario.

[00:07:17] And he made 350, 000 a year. So good money, right? Really good money. And this was many, many years ago, right? It was like eight, eight, eight, eight or so years ago, but he was burnt out. So he quit and he became a business coach and he loved being a business coach. He loved helping people. He loved helping them solve business problems.

[00:07:38] Cause he was a very accomplished and savvy executive, but there was only one problem with being a business coach. So the problem was, even though he was working hours of the love, like 25, 30 hours a week, buddy, his income dropped from 350, 000 a year to 70, 000 a year. That's an 80 percent haircut. That's a technical term.

[00:08:01] Teddy Smith: Yeah. Haircuts. 

[00:08:02] Nicky Billou: Right. And he was like, Nicky, I love everything about what I do, except for the money I make. And he found me because I had a client who was in a BNI with them. Are you, are you, are you familiar with BNI business networking international? They're a referral organization with chapters across cities all over the globe.

[00:08:21] They have 300, 000 members around the globe. They passed 16 billion a year in referrals. It's a serious organization, right? So he met my client who used to be a personal trainer and made very little money and then I helped him make a million Dollars a year now back then no trainers made a million dollars a year today quite a few do but back then Nobody did it.

[00:08:43] He was one of one right and I love my client the trainer. He's a really good guy But let's just say he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed. If you, if you catch my drift, right, he was a really good guy, but just not, not what you would call brilliant or a rocket scientist or anything like that, but just a good guy, very coachable.

[00:09:03] And so, Carl approached my client and said, Hey man, how are you doing this? And he said, Oh, my coach, my coach, my coach, Nicky. And he says, can I have his number? He goes, yeah, yeah. So he calls me and he says, do you think you can help me? I'd like to at least make the same amount of money I used to make when I was in corporate.

[00:09:18] I don't want to work that hard, but I want to make the same money. I say, yeah, I can help you. Yeah, come on. Let's be. So I sat with him and the first thing I realized is this guy is smart He knows business now a lot of entrepreneurs and coaches that don't but he did but he was making some classic mistakes Mistake number one.

[00:09:37] I asked him. So who do you help? What do you do? He said nicky I can't help anybody with any business problem Now, Teddy, you know, this about authors and marketing books. That's crazy. You can't help everybody with everything. That's insane. If you try to be all things to all people, you're nothing to nobody.

[00:09:54] So I started to realize why he wasn't doing well. Nobody understood his point of differentiation. So I sat with them and I said, Carl, this is not going to work for you. Right? This is why you're failing. He goes, Oh, okay. What do I need to do? I said, we need to understand who's your ideal client. He says, well, how do we go about figuring that out?

[00:10:11] Cause I don't know who that is. I could be this could be that low. I'm like, stop, we're going to do an exercise. So imagine a Venn diagram, Teddy. Okay. The top circle has in it, best results. These are the clients that Carl got the best results for. So we made a list of who all those people were. Second diagram was enjoyed the most.

[00:10:35] These are the clients that he loved working with the most. Like they were good people, fun people. I just, it was just a. It wasn't work for him, honestly. And then the final circle is easiest to do business with people who paid on time in full referred lots of clients. So as you can imagine, Teddy, there were some people that were in all three circles, those were his ideal clients.

[00:10:59] It took us a while to do all this, to really hone the exercise, but here's what we figured out. His ideal clients were typically men around 45 years old, and they solo practitioner lawyers. Barristers solicitors in English terms, right attorneys in American and Canadian terms and they were Really interested in growing they wanted to double triple quadruple And so carl said great he sat down with these fellas He signed a few of them up to his business and he was able to get him some really, really good results, really good results.

[00:11:40] So within six months, Teddy, his business went from 70, 000 a year to like 40, 50, 000 a month, so 480, 000. to 600, 000 a year on a run rate. So I'd say he was probably in the 500, 520 range. He still only worked 25 hours a week. So no more 60 hour work weeks like he used to do back then, but he made a ton more money.

[00:12:14] Now, Teddy, the story gets better. Little sadder, but better. So Teddy, Carl developed pancreatic cancer several years later. And within four years, it took him, he died of pancreatic cancer stage four. It was terrible, but Teddy, can you imagine going to your grave and not having fulfilled your potential as a, as a man and as a human and as a businessman?

[00:12:45] How would that feel if you did not fulfill that potential? I'm imagining you'd probably say it wouldn't feel too good. You wouldn't want to go to your grave that way. So Carl did die and he died sooner than he should have. But he died having accomplished his business goals. He died living a life. He loved doing work that he loved with clients.

[00:13:08] He loved with plenty of time to travel, to enjoy himself. And I think every entrepreneur alive can relate to Carl struggle can say to themselves, when I go, I want to be in Carl's shoes. I don't want to be in the shoes I'm in right now. 

[00:13:31] Teddy Smith: Yeah. It's a very powerful 

[00:13:33] Nicky Billou: story. Thank you. I love Carl. I'm still friends with him on Facebook.

[00:13:37] So even though he's passed on, I'm always going to stay friends with him on Facebook. And I go to his profile from time to time. And I, I even posted a little something on the profile just to, just to stay connected with his soul, his spirit and who he is. 

[00:13:50] Teddy Smith: Yeah. Yeah. That is a really powerful story. So the clients you're working with the moment let's think about, you know, if, especially if they were authors and writers.

[00:14:01] What's like, cause you know, most people listening to this, they'll be thinking, okay, I'm, I'm more of an author, more writer, I'm not really understanding that business side of it. So what, what should they be focusing on? Do you think in order to, to get to that stage you are? 

[00:14:17] Nicky Billou: I think authors can really.

[00:14:20] Use their expertise to become a commercial thought leader. Now you're going, what the heck's a commercial thought leader? Well, a regular thought leader might be someone who's at a university and has spent like years studying something, but there's not a commercial side to what they do most of the time.

[00:14:36] Some of them have one, but most don't. A commercial thought leader is someone with the real expertise who has learned how to become known for that expertise. You follow me? Let me give you an example. So I live in Toronto. In Toronto, there's a university here called the University of Toronto. It's the Harvard of the North, we call it, right?

[00:14:57] And at the University of Toronto, there've been, there's a psychology department. And I'm going to give you an example of two professors in that psychology department. Now, these professors are identical in almost every respect. They are experts in social and personality. They've graduated from top universities themselves with PhDs.

[00:15:17] And they're well liked by the students. Now, one of them, his name is Dr. Jason Plax. Teddy, have you ever heard of Dr. Jason Plax? Do you know who he is? Uh, 

[00:15:28] Teddy Smith: nope. I don't know. That name doesn't ring a bell. 

[00:15:30] Nicky Billou: Right. So he's, he's not a thought leader. He's an expert. You know, he's an expert, but he's not well known.

[00:15:36] Now, the other fellow, his name is Dr. Jordan Peterson. Teddy, have you heard of Dr. Jordan Peterson? Do you know who he is? Yeah, I know. I know who he is. Yeah. Of course you do. Everyone is the thought leader. Yeah, his books have sold millions of copies. His videos have been viewed billions of times. So that's thought leadership.

[00:15:59] So how do you become Jordan Peterson and not Jason plaques if you're an author? Well, first of all, you need to look at your book as a tool for branding and not necessarily as. I'm going to sell a million copies of my book. So my first book is called finish line, thinking how to think and win like a champion.

[00:16:17] And I've maybe sold three or 4, 000 copies. So, you know, it's decent, but it's certainly nothing to write home about, but I've also given away another two or 3, 000 copies. Now that book has helped lead me to three and a half million dollars in revenue. Why not from book sales? I can tell you that right now.

[00:16:38] But the fact that people read that book and they saw what I could do Branded me and allowed me to generate coaching sales Mastermind sales, retreat sales. You with me? You follow what I'm trying to say over here? So, my, my take on this is really, really powerful in this respect, because I believe that, very strongly, if you are an author, you need to start thinking about how can my book sell me?

[00:17:07] Not how can I sell my book, but how can my book sell me? Those are some good questions to ask. So I have a client right now who just published his first book. That book is allowing him to get on podcasts. Now, why does it matter to get on podcast, Teddy? Well, you and I are going to discuss this, but that's why I wrote my book, get booked and get paid how to generate six figure.

[00:17:34] Figures plus a year through podcast guesting. So Teddy in this book I Examine exactly how to do this now this fellow who wrote this book is using this book to go on shows Now if you go on shows and your intention is to have a great conversation That's a weak intention you with me Teddy. Yes. It's not a strong intention Now, a weak intention is a lot like a weak erection.

[00:18:03] They're not very useful to people. You know, you want a strong intention because that's like a strong erection. Both of those are very useful, right? And if you think about it, right, your intention needs to be not to have a good conversation, but to generate a connection, a relationship and to generate leads, sales and clients.

[00:18:23] Generate a connection or relationship and leads sales and clients. That's a strong intention. That's an intention, which gets you going. So I teach people, have that be your intention. So before I go on a show, I'm going, I take a minute, I close my eyes. I go like this and I go, I'm going to be, I'm a meeting Teddy Smith.

[00:18:43] He and I are going to have a great conversation. I'm visualizing it. We're going to get along really great. We're going to establish a strong connection. And as a result of me being on the show. Lead sales and clients are going to become a parent. And then I just breathe and let it all out. And I opened my eyes and that intention set, you follow what I'm saying?

[00:19:03] So that's why I came on the show. So I taught this client of mine how to go on shows and the books, helping him get on a bunch of shows, right? You got a book, you get on more shows. Yes or yes, Teddy, right? Yeah. You have a book, get on more shows. So every author listening to this. Book equals more podcast show appearances equals more leads sales and clients.

[00:19:24] This is good So he did this and i'm going to read you a story because I wrote about it in the book. It's a really great story Okay, he's from belgium. So he's across the pond from me So i'm just going to read directly from the book because you're going to love the story My man. So, Mathieu is an author and thought leader from Belgium who's passionate about saving the planet by promoting regenerative farming methods and encouraging everyone to have their own garden so that they can grow food and enjoy the benefits of nature in their own home.

[00:19:54] Okay. What he sells isn't exactly a necessity. Many people think it's a, it's hard to sell. But Mathieu believes in what he's doing, and he was very excited to learn about how to leverage his book to get on podcasts and how to leverage podcast guesting to build his business and his brand. English is also not Mathieu's first language.

[00:20:13] He has a cool but noticeable Belgian accent. He's from Belgium. And unlike most people, and this is very important, Mathieu had made a decision to become successful. The first thing you gotta do is you gotta make a decision to become successful as an author. And he was committed to learn how. And he was super coachable and taught and implemented what he what we taught him immediately So within his first week using what we taught him He leveraged that knowledge to get on a couple of podcasts as a guest and he made a 3 000 euro sale That's almost 4 000 usd Within 90 days of working with us and implementing our strategies On podcast guesting and other organic methods of leveraging his brand and his author brand to generate business.

[00:21:03] Machu was able to generate over 120, 000 in new sales for his business. Now that's a cool story, right? That's a super cool story. But here's the deal. If you're listening to this and you're thinking, okay, well, English, isn't my first language. Well, it wasn't much use, right? And, you know, you don't have to have English be your first language.

[00:21:24] You can still go on shows. If you have an accent, you can still go on shows. And you can be just as successful as Mathieu. If you take the time to buy and read our new book. This is a great book. I highly recommend it. And learn the right structure and process for how to leverage podcast guesting so that you can turn your guest appearances into lead sales and clients.

[00:21:47] Don't let having a less than perfect command of the English language or an accent slow you down or stalk you. All those are just excuses. If you have a book, you can get on shows. We can show you how to get on lots of shows. I'm on Teddy's show because we both are leveraging an AI driven platform to find guests and to find shows.

[00:22:13] And once you have a book, it's easier. The fact that I had a book made Teddy want to interview me, right? Teddy, you wanted to interview me because I'm an author. If I didn't have the book, you wouldn't want to have me on, but because I have the book, you had me on, this gives me a chance to do what I do and generate lead sales and clients.

[00:22:29] Teddy Smith: Yeah. Brilliant. Now the book's all because the book's all about going on podcasts, specifically about podcasts for generating leads. Like that is the main aim of the book. So what, what is it that makes a great podcast guests? Especially if you're an author, what can people take away that they think, okay, I, I, I see what you're saying.

[00:22:45] I want to be on more podcasts. What can I do in order to be a great guest? And so generate those leads. 

[00:22:51] Nicky Billou: Okay. So first of all, you need to have a little bit of an understanding of, you know, how you look and sound. Right. So I've got a, like a, a top end MacBook pro laptop, which is like configured for sound and all that good stuff.

[00:23:05] the camera's excellent. I'm sitting I actually have natural light behind me. I normally have a ring light, but the sun is shining, so let's go with natural light. So the sun is behind me. So you want to take care of that. I'm wearing solid dark colors. Like i'm, you know I've dark skin so it works well with me You need to understand what colors will work well with you for for going on a show and what your look is Sometimes i'd put on a suit or a jacket certain shows kind of that's required But like a show like yours you're more casual guy I decided to dress a little bit more casually because it fits the theme of the show So you got to pay attention to all those things, right?

[00:23:38] Those things are super super important Additionally, this is really really important You need to have your appearance mapped out like a TED Talk. In a TED Talk, you have 18 minutes. You don't have time for wasted words. You're going on a show. If your intention is to generate lead sales and clients and a, and a strong relationship with the host, buddy, you had better.

[00:24:01] And I mean, you had 1000 percent better habit, all of that well thought out and laid out, that's what we talk about in the book, how to do that, how to lay that out and on top of that, we also have a course. So if you read the book and you want more help. In this course, we show you how to set up your opening stories to introduce yourself.

[00:24:21] And you may have noticed, Teddy, I told my story of myself and I segwayed right into what I do. And that's important to do. And then you've got to have a few good solid stories of, of people you've worked with or, or, or even yourself that emphasize the key points you want to make and interest people and wake up their pain points because people.

[00:24:42] Are going to act when they have a pain. Why am I hiring your company to help me sell my book? Well, I got a problem called, how do I get people on Amazon to know about my book? Right. Yeah. You've got a solution called an AI platform that will run an Amazon ad campaign for you. I'm like bonus. That's why I bought, I have a pain point.

[00:25:05] You have a solution. Your job on the podcast appearance is to be thinking about the pain that your potential clients have and talk about them through the stories that you do. As I said, the book will let you. See how to do that. And if you need more help than that, we've got a workshop and the workshop is where it all comes together.

[00:25:24] We sit there with you. We work with you one on one. We specifically help you get your profile done, right? So that when you're on these platforms, people are going to want to. Work with you and have you on their shows. We're going to show you how to pitch people with a good email, because that's very important as well.

[00:25:40] We're going to show you how to set up your talk, your story, the stories and pain points you're bringing in your, your call to action, it's going to be laid out. With military precision so that you will generate lead sales and clients. Cause if you just go on a show and you vomit out, whatever, you're probably not going to get a lot of lead sales and clients.

[00:26:00] It'll be a nice conversation, but there's going to be no results. We're here to get you a result. Most important thing, Teddy is a result for you. 

[00:26:09] Teddy Smith: Yeah. A hundred percent. I mean, for a lot of authors, they don't necessarily have that. Secondary product to sell. So for example, you've got your course, you talk about your book as a lead magnet for that course.

[00:26:18] if authors don't necessarily have that secondary product to sell, do you think podcast is still a good way to try and generate sales for the books in the first place? 

[00:26:25] Nicky Billou: Absolutely. Of course it is. But I'm also going to tell you that's very short sighted. If you have a book, unless you're like writing fiction, create some sort of secondary higher ticket offer.

[00:26:36] The book sells you. That is the best thing your book can do for you. Your book sells you. You selling the book? Man, that's gonna take a long time. I'm not saying you can't do it or you shouldn't do it. But if you have an offer, like, look, I got my book. I'd be thrilled if 10, 000 people bought my book. But I'd be even more thrilled if 10, 000 people bought my book.

[00:26:58] And a hundred of them signed up for my course. The price of the book is 20. Great. If I sell 10, 000 copies of the book, that's 200, 000. Okay. And if I spend money on ads, et cetera, et cetera, there's, you got to subtract that, let's say I spent 50, 000 on ads. I made 150, 000. That's not bad. But if a thousand, but if a hundred people sign up and do my podcast course, that's 250, 000.

[00:27:27] Teddy Smith: Yeah. 

[00:27:28] Nicky Billou: Right. Boom. And that's all profit. Cause I do this on zoom. So you think about this book, sales are great, but the book selling you is 10 times better. A hundred times better. 

[00:27:46] Teddy Smith: I mean, you've been on like, how many podcasts did you say you've been on now? 1500 or something. 

[00:27:51] Nicky Billou: Yeah. Yeah. My own show I've done.

[00:27:56] Over 600 episodes of my of my one show on the other show. I've done another 160. So that's 770, 780 right there. And then I've been on a guest on 650. So we're talking total combined. 

[00:28:13] Teddy Smith: Yeah. 

[00:28:13] Nicky Billou: We're right up there, brother. 

[00:28:15] Teddy Smith: That's quite a lot. So what, I mean, what, with your experience you've had of all those people, what are some of the biggest mistakes you've seen both guests and hosts make when they're having these shows and these conversations?

[00:28:27] Nicky Billou: Well, depends on what your objective is, right? If you're a guest and you're wanting to have a conversation, it doesn't matter. Just go have a conversation. But if you're looking to generate lead sales and clients, I'll tell you, one of the biggest mistakes that you can make, right, is, not having a good message when you come on the show, just come in and talk about anything.

[00:28:50] Right? You, you really want to have a strong, strong, strong message. Because if your message is weak, you got to understand if people find that message, that's on the internet forever. That's not good. That's not good. You got to make sure that you take the time to get a really, really strong message dialed in.

[00:29:16] Forever, forever is a mighty long time. And that's a quote from a Prince song. That's forever and that's a mighty long time. You know? Yeah. You don't want to do anything. That's going to have your brand being a negative light forever. 

[00:29:35] Teddy Smith: Yeah, of course. a lot of people also, this is probably quite stereotypical, but a lot of authors are quite like shy, maybe, you know, maybe a bit introverted.

[00:29:42] So they're kind of those writers and they sort of sit there, do their writing. but have you any tips for people who are maybe a bit hesitant to go on podcasts, how they can, you know, emphasize their own, personality and to appear in the best way possible? 

[00:29:56] Nicky Billou: That's a great question. So I'll answer that by telling you the story of a client of mine.

[00:30:00] His name's Michael. And he's a tax accountant. Now, do you know any tax accountants? 

[00:30:06] Teddy Smith: No, I've got, oh, I know, I know a couple of accountants that, you know, they're, they're cool guys, but not known for being the most fun. I'd say 

[00:30:16] Nicky Billou: the, the stereotypical tax accountant is dry, is not massively charismatic.

[00:30:21] Public speaking isn't their thing. Would you agree that that's the case? 

[00:30:24] Teddy Smith: Yeah. 

[00:30:25] Nicky Billou: So that's Michael. He is dry. He's funny, but not Mr. Personality. Okay. Let's just. Let's just say that. So buddy, Michael went on a podcast, what I taught him in the get booked and get paid workshop, right? He implemented it. And as a result of it, the host said to him at the end of the appearance, cause he did everything I taught him.

[00:30:56] I want to introduce you to some of my clients. I think they need your help. She has sent him 12 referrals. He has signed up as clients. He's made thousands and thousands of dollars from one show. One appearance. You don't need to be some big extrovert for podcast guesting to work for you. You just need to follow a process, a recipe, a system.

[00:31:24] As long as you're willing to speak clearly and articulately, Your personality is not what's at issue there. What's at issue is, are you speaking about what you know, knowledgeably enough? And are you speaking about the pain points that the people you help have and badly want to solve? If you do that, you're golden.

[00:31:44] You're going to do great.

[00:31:47] Teddy Smith: So is that one of the main takeaways from the book? Do you think it's like getting that message, like tied down, making sure you understand your brief and then just explaining it as perfectly as you can. Yeah. Is that something? Yeah. 

[00:31:58] Nicky Billou: Yes. And introverts. We'll do well with this because they're detail oriented.

[00:32:05] So if you're a detail oriented introvert, you're going to do great. Come learn what we have to teach you and follow it to a T. That's how you'll be successful. 

[00:32:14] Teddy Smith: Brilliant. So just before we finish off what the, like the three things, let's go, let's, let's cut it down to three things. What are the three things that are the main takeaways from the book you think?

[00:32:23] And then tell us a bit about where the best place to go and get that book is. 

[00:32:26] Nicky Billou: Well, obviously go to Amazon, right? Let's go to Amazon, take a look at the book, book can get paid. It's pretty easy how to generate six figures plus a year through podcast guesting, Nicky Baloo. If you type in my name, Nicky Baloo, I'm the only Nicky Baloo in the world.

[00:32:40] Very unique man. So you can easily find me. And you'll get that going. And the other thing is that, you got to understand this. if you want a podcast guest, you have to first make a decision. That you want to learn this and you want to get good at it and you got to commit to do the work because you're Not going to be good at it first.

[00:33:00] You're going to be bad at it I'm going to suck suck as a technical business term, of course And then once you stop sucking you'll be okay, and then you'll be good and then you'll be great But that's what it takes then you've got to get coaching So buy the book learn the methodology and if you need more help than that Call us and come do our course.

[00:33:19] We do a workshop several times a year Where we will help you develop your profile to put on all the pro the platforms that you use. We'll show you how to get your your pitch to podcasters. We'll show you how to have your talk go well, and we'll show you how to leverage that talk to lead sales and clients.

[00:33:38] Cause that's what you want. And to me, if you do that, you're going to be in great shape. Don't do it alone. Trying to figure this out by yourself is crazy. I went on a hundred shows and I got no results. How would you want to do that to yourself? You hire someone like me, buy my book, come do my course.

[00:33:55] It'll short circuit that time. Yeah, 

[00:34:00] Teddy Smith: brilliant. That's great. I'm really, I've, I mean, I've started reading the book. I'm really for to get through. I mean, it's really short, so you should be able to get, I mean, how many pages is it? A hundred pages or something? It's like you. 

[00:34:09] Nicky Billou: Eight, 84. So yeah. 

[00:34:12] Teddy Smith: Get through in a couple of hours.

[00:34:13] So it's perfect. And if you are an author and you want to appear on more podcasts, I think it's a really good thing to do because firstly, it's a, it's fun. You know, it's nice speaking to new people. And also if you do have extra services you want to provide, then yeah, it's a great way to, Get those extra services, and also, you know, you can also make some more book sales, which is the main aim of this show.

[00:34:31] So, yeah. So thank you very much. Nicky, it's been really great chatting to you. I really appreciate your, your time here. Just before we go, my 

[00:34:38] Nicky Billou: pleasure, 

[00:34:39] Teddy Smith: just before we go is, um, we ask all this guests this, and it's like for a book recommendation not necessarily one by you, but by that's by someone else that you've, that's really inspired you and your journey and you think maybe other people should read.

[00:34:53] Nicky Billou: Okay, there is an author, who, has been dead for, God, quite some time. His name is Og Mandino, and he wrote a lot of inspirational self help books starting in the late 60s to the, to the mid 90s. And his most famous book is called the greatest salesman in the world. But he also wrote, you know, the greatest miracle in the world mission success, and I just say, Oh, O-G-M-A-N-D-I-N-O

[00:35:24] I think everyone in your audience ought to go and buy an Og Mandino book. They're short books. They're under 200 pages. Most of them, there's one or two that are longer. But you'll, you'll love them. He's a wonderful author and I highly recommend his books. 

[00:35:38] Teddy Smith: Brilliant. Great. I haven't heard that one before.

[00:35:41] So it's a really good recommendation. Thanks. It was great chatting to you. If people want to follow you around apart from your book where's the best place for them to get in touch? 

[00:35:51] Nicky Billou: The only Nicky Baloo in the world, any social media platform, type in my name, you'll easily find me. If you're a business owner though, and you want to have like a free business consultation.

[00:36:02] And normally when I do business consultations. My hourly rate is 2, 500 an hour. So that's what I normally charge to do one, but I'm going to give, give it to your folks for free. There's a link to get on my calendar and just let me know you came from this show. That way I'll know, you know, I'm not going to charge you.

[00:36:19] And it's at East circle, academy. com forward slash appointment. So if you're an author and you're looking for ways to monetize your brand, that's a good reason to get on the call. If you're interested in podcasts, guesting, and you're thinking, yeah, the book's great, but I like doing workshops. That's a good reason to get on the call as well.

[00:36:37] Teddy Smith: We'll put a link to it in the show notes so that everyone can, uh, can find that. 

[00:36:40] Nicky Billou: Thanks 

[00:36:40] Teddy Smith: very much. Great. Well, thanks for coming on the show. great chatting to you. We'll speak again soon. 

[00:36:45] Nicky Billou: Thank you, Teddy. 

[00:36:46] Teddy Smith: Thank you so much for tuning into the Publishing Performance Podcast. I really hope you found today's episode inspiring.

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