Hello, and welcome to Networking Unleashed, Building Profitable Connections.
Welcome.
I'm your host, Michael Forman.
And I'm here listening to the podcast where networking is more than just an awkward handshake
and bad coffee.
It's an art and a talent you can actually learn.
Yes, even if you're the person standing in the corner pretending to check emails, this
is for you.
Networking isn't just a nice skill to have.
It's a game changer.
When you get good at it, you'll wonder why you didn't start sooner.
More connections, more opportunities, more profits, it's like unlocking a cheat code
for life.
So whether you're the life of the party or let me just stay home and text type, we've
got something for you.
So let's tune in to those awkward small talk moments and big wins.
So I would like to introduce Nicky Belou.
How about your last name?
Nicky Belou.
Belou, okay.
I was right.
And really he has really quite an extensive amount of experience.
He's a number one podcaster himself, but he's written several bestselling books.
He's a two-time New York bestseller author.
He is an in-demand and highly inspirational speaker to corporate audiences such as RBC,
Lulu Lemon, the page and Torstar Media.
He's an advisor and confidant to some of the most successful and dynamic entrepreneurs
in Canada.
So if you would not mind it too much, Nicky, just give me a small introduction for yourself
and what's going on with you.
Of connecting, how to activate profitable relationships by serving your network.
My co-author for that book was Kai Bjorn.
He was the country head for Canada, BNI Canada, and the man who wrote the forward to my book
is none other than the founder of BNI, business networking international, Dr. Ivan Meisner.
But my backstory is I'm originally an immigrant from the Middle East.
I actually a Christian from Iran.
When I was 11 years old, the Islamic Revolution took place in Iran.
And my late father died rest his soul.
He saw this was not going to be a great place to raise a Christian family.
I mean, you think about it, being 11, being in the middle of a revolution with demonstrations
taking place in the streets, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people, rebels and
revolutionaries fighting against the Shah's regime.
And the Shah finally deciding he didn't want to kill people.
So he left the country and the army and the intelligence forces and the police forces
declared they were neutral.
And the new regime took over.
And for over a year and a half every day, people would be arrested or associated with
the old regime.
They'd get summary trials, kind of like the French terror during the French Revolution
and the communist terror during the Russian Revolution, the Komi Tat, the security forces.
And they would just execute these people by putting off against the wall and shooting
them dead.
Dozens, hundreds of people daily.
It was an occurrence that was just unbelievable.
And my mom and dad didn't want to freak their kids out, but they kind of looked at each
other and said, we got to get out of here.
We got to get out of here.
That's enough.
Yeah.
And things settled down in Iran.
But they made a plan, they packed us off initially to Greece with my mom and my two brothers
myself.
And then two years hence we came to Canada where I now live and my dad joined us.
And you know, at the time I was a kid, right?
I didn't know what the heck was going on.
I just knew I didn't want to leave my home or my friends.
But as I grew older, I started to see the incredible wisdom of what mom and dad did,
the incredible sacrifice they made, leaving everything they knew behind to come to a new
country to make a newer life, a better life.
And I started to see why freedom matters, why freedom is so important.
I think if you're an entrepreneur, the first thing you got to be is a freedom lover, a
philosopher of freedom.
If you don't understand freedom, how the heck can you understand entrepreneurship?
Entrepreneurship comes from freedom, free enterprise.
In the term free enterprise, the word free is prominent.
You got to understand that.
And everybody who lives here, man, you are so lucky.
You won the jackpot lottery, man.
You just did, and every single day you should get on your knees, kiss the ground, the sacred
soil of this free and great nation.
And if anybody tries to take those freedoms away from you with sweet sounding things like
disinformation and blah, blah, blah, no, man.
No, there's some called the First Amendment and it is beautiful, beautiful.
Not the First Amendment, you cannot be an entrepreneur.
Just remember, it's so, so important.
My late father, he was a free lover.
He was the greatest of men.
If you knew him, you were trying to find a job.
Michael, he would sit you down in his office and he would call all of his entrepreneur friends
until he got one of them to give you a job.
If you were trying to start a business, he would clear his calendar, sit you down, and
listen to what you have to say.
And he would give you his best feedback.
He'd connect you with people for capital, for clients.
And if you were his friend, you were trying to buy a car or a house and keep in mind,
Iran was a second world country, so the banking system wasn't as well designed and sophisticated
as here.
And they wouldn't give you quite enough money.
He would top you up with a loan.
So you could buy that car, that house.
And then people would try to pay him back a year or two, three, four years later and
he just said, get out of here.
Get out.
Sounds like a very good man.
Sounds like a good man.
The best of men.
Good on his old...
Yeah.
And people would say to me when they met me years later, because my last name is very
unusual, Baloo, right?
They'd just go, hey, Baloo, you aren't by any chance related to Napoleon Baloo.
And I'd go, yeah, I'm a son.
And they would just...
Something would come over them.
They'd get very emotional.
They'd shake my hand.
They'd give me a hug.
These are people I don't know.
And they'd say, I want to tell you my story of what your father did for me.
And I tell this story of people all the time.
And there's people that they get it.
And there's other people that just go, I don't believe it.
And I go, what do you mean you don't believe it?
And I go, well, my dad was like that.
So why?
What's in it for him?
Well, you want to know what's in it for him?
They go, yeah.
I said, what was in it for him?
First and foremost, is he was a devout and committed Christian man.
He believed in his heart, in his soul, in his being, that he'd been blessed by his Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ.
And it was his duty to share those blessings with his fellow man.
Dad didn't take himself seriously, but he took that very seriously.
Very, very seriously.
And secondly, he did it because, well, he could.
He was rich, man.
He had money.
He was successful.
You know, I wanted to be like my dad.
This is my story.
I was raised by this incredible man.
I wanted to be like him.
And every day I sought to be like him.
When I was a kid, he would tell me, son, life's about people.
It's not about money.
I'm like, all right.
He's a business son.
It's not about money, about people.
I'm like that.
How's that work?
Not money.
There's no business.
He says, true.
Well, that people, there's no need for money.
He said, and you need to love on people, believe in people.
That man in front of you, that's someone's son, that's someone's husband, someone's
father, someone's brother, hero to somebody.
Maybe someone like you, let him down.
Your job is to restore his faith in humanity.
Be good to him.
Remember everyone needs someone to believe in him, son.
That little spark of belief you give him could turn into a roaring fire, it could change
their life.
That's why I do what I do.
The helping professions, because of my father, because I am his son.
All I want to do is I want to make him proud.
I want to help entrepreneurs win.
I bring freedom to them.
I remind them why it's important and I stand with them.
When they're lacking that little bit of belief in themselves, that's what I bring to the
table.
I'm looking at networking as a way to help more people.
That's beautiful, that really is, and probably leads right into your book, which we'll get
to in just a little bit.
In networking, there's a mantra.
If they know me, if they like me, if they trust me, they'll do business with me.
And that trust factor.
That trust factor goes such a long way and I'm sure that you've got a lot to say about
that trust factor.
Well, Michael, look at you and I today.
This podcast is an opportunity for several things.
The first one is an opportunity to give value and inspire the audience.
Give them something they can use.
That's number one.
That's really important.
That's why I come on shows.
Secondly, it's an opportunity on my part to make you look good, to have you be somebody
who's like, man, I'm glad I brought that dude on.
I want him back.
That's second.
But thirdly, this is an opportunity to create no like and trust.
In this half hour that you and I are going to spend together, we're going to get to know
each other.
We're going to get to hopefully like each other and trust each other at least a little
bit.
This is an opportunity you and I might end up doing business together.
Maybe I'll be your client.
Maybe you'll be mine.
Maybe we'll collaborate on an event, a project.
Maybe I'll introduce people to you.
Maybe you'll introduce people to me.
I go on a show.
I look at it as an opportunity to give value to the audience, to make the host look good,
and to add one significant businessman or businesswoman to my network.
This is a golden opportunity.
I don't even have to leave my home.
The two of us are in different countries right now, and yet we're doing the no like
and trust thing through this podcast.
It's beautiful.
Absolutely.
And that goes such a long way.
It's really easy, but I don't want my viewers to forget about the in-person networking
availability.
It's the in-person where you can feel the vibe of the person.
You can feel the vibe of the room.
When you first walk into a room, into a networking event, you see a grand amount of people.
But you go to a table, let's say, and it's only four.
So that's your focus.
And you have to work the room, so to speak.
But you have a very short amount of time for that.
So that's the main...
Absolutely.
100%.
It is absolutely very, very difficult for people to understand what it's going to take
to do business with somebody.
And I'll tell you, the most important thing from my point of view, in-person is where
it's at.
In-person is where it's at.
There's nothing more powerful than in-person, my brother.
Not a thing.
I love in-person.
In-person is...
I did two talks on Monday.
Okay?
One was in-person, one was on Zoom.
It was the exact same talk.
The in-person talk had nine people in the room.
Three of them signed up for a workshop I'm leading at that in-person meeting.
The Zoom meeting had 22 people in the room.
Nobody signed up for my workshop.
Same talk, delivered by the same fella, two hours apart.
Why did one work and the other one did not?
Very simple because being in-person lets you, as you say, feel the vibe.
And it is one of those powerful things that you and I, in-person, can totally create the
most beautiful, the most powerful personal business relationship anybody could have.
You've got to do in-person.
But I'm also saying that if you're in the podcasting world, it's a beautiful thing to
be able to meet people that you otherwise would have a difficult time meeting in-person.
You and I, we're not going to meet in-person today.
We're in different countries.
And it's a beautiful thing that we still get to do a little bit of networking today.
They said this to one of my podcast guests, and he was in Australia.
And the same thing.
We're talking as if we were right next door to one another, and we were continents away.
And so it's just that know you like you trust you.
And when you do this, when you do a workshop or a talk, and you do it over Zoom, you lose
that personality, I like to put humor every time that I speak.
When I do it in-person, it usually kills, okay, where you can feel the laughter of the
people in the room, and you can work off that.
And you can't do that with Zoom.
I say that are there 20-somethings or 30-somethings in the room?
And hands go up.
And I say, look, what I'm going to say to you is Greek.
You never heard of it.
And you're 40-something, 50-something, you have heard of it.
I'm 62 years old, okay, so I've seen a lot.
Come on, get with it.
And they don't understand.
They don't understand how you can network or communicate without the cell phone, without
the Zoom call.
You have to put all that stuff away, get in touch with somebody, be personable.
You can't be personable on Zoom.
Or you can, but that's not as great.
You know, there's so much more.
And that brings me, before we get, I want to hear a few excerpts from your book because
it sounds very interesting.
Let me ask you a question.
What are some challenges that business professionals face, and how can they overcome them?
Well, a lot of folks just aren't good at sales and marketing.
They're just not.
It scares the crap out of them.
And they especially don't want to be seen as pushy or salesy or anything like that.
And the problem is that that prevents them from going after business they should be going
after.
So they don't get it.
And then the client who could have used their help doesn't get their help.
And instead, some charlatan marketer comes in who doesn't give a good gosh darn about
whether they help you or not.
They scoop up the business.
And if they help you, it's a happy accident.
It wasn't by design.
And so the sum total of goodness in the world goes down because everybody loses in this
situation.
You lose.
You don't get the business.
The client loses.
The problem is not solved.
Me, I teach people.
I come from a business family.
I got my masters in my undergraduate economics and business.
So I get business and I'm not afraid to sell.
And you know, here's the problem with sales.
People don't want to reek of commission breath.
Right.
And so the reason is because they're putting all the attention on the other person.
I hope they like me.
I hope they buy from me.
What's going on?
What if they don't like me?
That's what gets in the way.
You got to take the attention off you put it on the other person and don't think of selling.
Think of serving.
Michael, no one wants to be sold, man.
You want to be sold?
I sure as hell don't want to be sold.
But don't you love to buy from a caring advocate, a caring servant?
That's I spend money on people that I love all the time because I know they got my best
interest at heart.
I don't mind spending money.
In fact, I like spending money with people like that.
That's what it's all about.
So me just teaching this to people has helped them double, triple, quadruple their money.
So there was a fellow.
He was a relationship coach.
He was really good at what he did.
He helped men whose wives had said, bye-bye, save their marriages, man.
It's a big deal, right?
And he made very little money.
He was making like two man a month as a coach.
That's not a lot.
He could barely feed himself and pay the rent.
And first thing I did was I said, look, stop focusing on them, whether they're going to
buy or they're going to do this.
Just say, you want to help men?
It was the idea.
I said, why is that important to you?
He said, well, marriage breakups, one of the most horrible things, the person you go through.
But for men, it's way worse than for women.
Because usually it's the woman leaving and it's utterly devastating.
There's lots of men who even commit suicide over it.
I said, focus on that.
And I said, oh yeah, here's the other thing.
You're under charging.
You're going to raise your fees.
He says, oh, come on.
I can't raise my fees.
You're raising your fees.
You're five-folding your fees.
He freaked out when I said that.
I said, you can keep it for the people you're already working with, but for new people, it's
going to be five-fold.
He listened.
He was coachable.
It's a very important trait to be coachable.
Brother, he doubled his income in a week and doubled it again within a month.
So he went from two grand a month to eight grand a month in a month.
That may not sound like a lot to you.
For somebody who's damn near broke in destitute, that's a 400% increase in their income in
one month from a very simple shift in mindset and in value pricing.
And within six months, he was doing over 10 grand a month every month, within six months.
Within a year, year and a half, he was doing 20 grand months.
Now for a coach who used to make $2,000 on a good month, that is life changing.
It's life changing.
Sure, it's life changing for almost anybody.
Listen, before this really gets away from us, just in three or four minutes, just give
me an excerpt from your book.
So look, the name of the book is Power of Connecting.
How to generate, how to activate profitable relationships by serving your network.
We talk about a few things.
So one is people are craving connection more than ever.
And part of why they don't have it is technology.
Digital distraction is a thing.
And I go deep in the book into what has us be in the world of digital distraction.
You know what I'm saying?
What it's doing to people.
Why, you know, this thing can connect us to people, but generally it's not.
It's keeping us from being connected to people.
And what you need to do is you need to get rid of this and do more of this.
And that's the truth.
And people, you know, Maya Angelou said, people don't care how much you know until they know
how much you care.
Connect with people's reasons because you connect with people for a more fundamental
reason because being stew about being alive.
You don't need to be scrolling through stupid social media as much as you are.
You just don't.
We tell people usually when they go in either one on one meeting or to a networking event,
it doesn't make a difference because the phones are always out.
But I say put the phone away, not just turn the phone over and put it on the desk, put
it away.
Because your goal is to give 100% of your attention to the person you're speaking with.
So now if your phone goes off or if it just vibrates, what do you do?
You look at it.
And what does that tell the person that you're speaking to?
You don't have 100% of your of his attention.
So if you put that phone away, give them 100% of your attention.
And listen, as we said before, people love to buy, but they hate to be sold to.
So if you keep that in mind and you're talking with somebody and you're speaking with them,
let them speak.
Let them speak about themselves.
I use an acronym called FOR, F-O-R-M, family, occupation, recreation, and a message that
you can get onto the same level.
And you can let them talk about their family, husband, wife, sister, brother, son, daughter,
talk about their little league experience, talk about their job or snowskating something,
and keep them talking about themselves.
Because as I said, people love to talk about themselves.
And when they're finished, because you're listening, then you pause.
And that is so important, because that pause tells the other person that you are listening
to them and you can respond.
But instead of responding with something business-like, say something, I like you.
I like what you're doing and how you're doing it.
How can I make you more successful?
How can I be a good referral source for you?
I used to come home when I was in a mortgage industry.
I used to come home with a shoebox full of business cards and say, oh, I had a great
night.
Did I?
Now with a three or four hour event, I come home with 15, maybe 20 business cards.
But each one of those cards, I'm starting a relationship.
Yeah, that's way smarter.
Meet people, talk to them, start a relationship with them.
That's the way.
Okay, give me one takeaway that my audience can use today or tomorrow.
So it's from the book, but if you want to grow your network, the fastest way to do it
is through who you already know.
So to just give you an example, let's say Michael, you and I knew each other for a long
time.
If I wanted to meet more people like you, here's what I would do.
I'd give you a call and say, hey, Michael, it's Nicky.
We chit chat for a minute.
I'd say, listen, there's a purpose to my call.
I'd say, look, I really like you, I really respect you, and I want to know more people
like you.
Okay.
And here's what I've discovered, Michael, the best way to meet more people like you
is through you, who knows more people like you than you.
But I don't want to come here and just say, hey, man, give me one of your connections.
I want to be a giver first.
And I've been thinking about your business and you, and there's a fellow that I think
could potentially be a good prospect for you.
Would it be okay if I introduced this man to you?
What are you going to say?
You're going to say yes.
Of course you're going to say yes.
And then I'm going to say, once this conversation is over, look for an email from me introducing
you to so-and-so.
And then I'm going to say, do me a favor, Michael, open up your phone, go into your
phone contacts, start scrolling at the top of the A's, and keep scrolling until you
come to a name that you think would be a good connection for me.
Give it similar thought as I gave to the person I'm introducing you.
You'll do that.
You'll open your phone.
You'll go to the A's.
You'll start scrolling.
You'll look and then you'll, at some point, there'll be a name that you wouldn't have
on your own thought of.
And you'll go, oh, Nicky, it's James Brooks.
James Brooks.
All right, I'm going to introduce you to James Brooks.
Here's why I think he'd be a good potential prospect for you.
Look for a text intro.
And I'm going to go great.
So as soon as the call's over, I'm going to do the text intro for the two of you.
You're going to do the text intro for the two of me.
Now you think about you doing this once a day, every day, 200 days a year.
What just happened?
You made 200 new business connections.
200.
Once a day, every day, 200 days a year.
Now, I don't know about you, but in my world, meeting 200 new business connections is potentially
game-changing.
All it's going to take is for one of them to open a door for me that could completely
transform the trajectory of my life and my business.
I've made introductions like that to people that have resulted in $11.5 million in profit
for them within four months.
I've made those kinds of introductions for people.
And introductions like that have been made for me that have resulted in me making millions
of dollars as well.
The smartest thing you and I can do is continue to get to know each other and do that for
each other within a few weeks and months once we know each other better.
Absolutely.
I'm looking forward to that, actually.
Nicky, you've done so much.
You've done so much.
How can somebody get hold of you?
What's the best way they can read about you, get hold of you, ask you a question?
What's the best way?
Look, there's three levels at which we can connect.
One is we can connect.
You never meet me.
Go on Amazon, pick up this book, 20 bucks.
It's a great book.
Teach you a few good things.
Readers are leaders.
That's one way.
We'll never meet, but you'll be connected to me.
Second way, go on social media.
Like I said, I'm the only Nicky Balu on the planet.
If you go on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, just type in Nicky Balu and say, I heard you
on a podcast I'd like to connect.
I'll connect with you.
We'll be connected on social media.
We can ask questions, whatever.
Then there's the third way.
This is the deep way.
This is an actual honest to goodness conversation.
This is where real richness happens.
We can have this conversation in one or two ways.
I just want to connect and talk or you can go, you know what, I'm interested in finding
out about can you help me in my business?
Either one of these, you go to the following link, eCircleAcademy.com forward slash appointment.
You click on that link, you'll fill in your info, you'll pick a time and we'll talk.
Nicky, this has been great and we probably can go on for another two hours.
Just talking back and forth and figuring out how we can help each other with business,
how we can help my audience with business, whether they're just beginning or even though
they can have the biggest network.
There's always room for improvement.
But listen, if anybody wants to get hold of Nicky, I'm going to put all of his information
in the show notes.
So please call him, contact him and we'll all be better because of it.
All right.
Thanks, brother.
Hey, Nicky.
I'll see you soon.
Well, that's a wrap, folks.
A huge thank you to our special guests for sharing such incredible insights today.
And of course, a big shout out to you, our amazing listeners for tuning in and spending
your time with us.
Remember, networking isn't about being perfect.
It's about being present.
So take what you've learned today, get out there and make some meaningful connections.
If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe, leave us a review and share
it with someone who could use a little networking inspiration.
Let's keep the conversation going.
You can find me on Apple, Spotify, YouTube or my website, MichaelAForman.com.
Remember, until next time, keep practicing, keep connecting and keep building those relationships.
This is Michael A. Foreman signing off.
Take care and happy networking.