21 | Comfort Is Killing Your Career: Why Playing It Safe Is Keeping You Broke and Burnt Out featuring Nicky Billou

Are you doing everything “right” in your career… but still feel stuck, underpaid, and invisible?

Are you tired of feeling burnt out while being overlooked—and wondering what it really takes to be seen, heard, and paid like a leader?

In this high-impact episode, I sit down with bestselling author and business strategist Nicky Billou to uncover what’s really holding career-driven women back from leadership, clarity, and income growth.

If you've ever found yourself stuck in overwhelm, doubting your worth, or hiding in your comfort zone while quietly resenting being undervalued—this episode is your wake-up call.

We dive into:

• Why comfort zones keep ambitious women burnt out and broke
• How to go from “expert” to “thought leader” (and why that shift changes everything)
• A powerful story of a career woman who 10X’d her income by owning her message
• Simple mindset shifts that lead to more clarity, confidence, and cash

🎯 If you’re ready to lead, earn more, and build a brand that reflects your brilliance—hit play now.

💡 Your Next Step:

🚀 Take the FREE Leadership Style Quiz
📩 Join the Career EmpowHERment Collective FB Group 

👉 Connect with Nicky

Kat and Tanner by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org/

Transcript

Shannon Fox:
Feeling underpaid, overlooked, or stuck in your career even though you're doing everything right? In this episode, Nicky Billou reveals why staying in your comfort zone might be the biggest thing holding you back and how building your own thought leader brand can help you earn more, lead with confidence, and finally get seen. If you're ready to stop playing small and start owning your brilliance, this one's for you.

Intro:
Hey mama, welcome to Career Growth for Working Moms. If you're stuck in a job that doesn't fit or burning out trying to do it all, you're in the right place. I'm Shannon, a career coach and fellow working mom. Here, you'll get simple career strategies and strength-based leadership tips to help you grow with clarity and confidence. So grab your coffee—or reheat it for the third time—and let's do this.

Shannon Fox:
Hello and welcome. I'm thrilled to have Nicky Billou with me today. Nicky has been called the world's greatest podcast guest for a good reason. He's been a guest on over 600 shows, always bringing power, passion, and actionable strategies to every conversation. He's a number one best-selling author of 10 books, including two New York Times bestsellers, an advisor to some of Canada's most successful entrepreneurs, and a sought-after speaker for major companies like RBC, Lululemon, and Royal LePage.

He's also the founder of E-Circle Academy, where he helps experts, entrepreneurs, and professionals position themselves as branded thought leaders, scale their income, and build businesses they love. On top of that, he's the host of two top-ranked podcasts, The Thought Leader Revolution and The Sovereign Man Podcast, where he's interviewed over 500 of the world's most influential leaders, including John Maxwell and Seth Godin.

Nicky believes that business is not a numbers game—it's a people's game. And today, he's here to share how you can take control of your career, stand out in your industry, and earn what you deserve without playing small. 

Welcome, Nicky. I'm excited to have a conversation with you today.

Nicky Billou:
Thank you. It's an honor to be here. Thanks for having me on the show.

Shannon Fox:
So, you have a huge backstory, and it's very powerful. Can you tell us what shaped your passion for business and leadership?

Nicky Billou:
Absolutely. As you said, I'm 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, and my mom and dad could see the writing on the wall. There was gun battles going on in the streets. This wasn't going to be a place to raise a Christian family. So, they made a plan, and they got me and my two brothers out of Iran.

It took a few years, but eventually, they got us out to where I now live in Toronto in Canada. Now, you've got to get it. At the time, I was a kid. I didn’t want to leave my home or my friends. But over the years, in retrospect, I could see this was the single greatest thing mom and dad could have ever done for me and my two brothers.

What an incredible sacrifice to leave behind everything they knew, to chart a new course, build a new life in a brand new country. I believe every human being on this planet—every man, every woman—yearns to be free. Everyone wants to chart their own course, march to the tune of their own drummer. If you're an entrepreneur or if you work in a business, freedom means everything to you—the right to choose what kind of career path you have, the right to go figure it out for yourself.

Freedom is the bedrock of being able to make your dreams come alive. To me, I am a champion for freedom. That's my number one value. I got into business because I wanted to help the good men and women in business—the ones who have a passion to make a difference, to take care of their families—to go out there and be able to do that, knowing they got someone who's got their back, who believes in the majesty of their dreams and the nobility of their soul. And that's why I do what I do.

Shannon Fox:
I love it. I can feel your passion. 

So what would you tell for our listeners that are career-driven moms that want to step into leadership? They may want to earn some more money, take control of their careers, but they might be stuck because they're staying inside their comfort zone. What can they do or steps that they can do to break out of that comfort zone?

Nicky Billou:
Well, your comfort zone is where your dreams go to die. Comfort’s like a drug, man. You won't let your kids smoke up in the house. You won't let your kid, you know, do crack cocaine. Don't let yourself do comfort. It's just as insidious as those things.

So you got to just ditch it and you got to find a way to stand out. You got to stand out. You can't be the same thing that everybody else is out in the marketplace. And the way you stand out is you find something you care about and you start putting it out there.

So, I’ve got a client of mine who’s also a career coach like you, and she works with people just kind of a rung or two beneath the C-suite in corporate America, and they’ve been stuck at the same level. And the whole deal is she helps them figure out how to do the nuances of corporate politics and how to stand out.

You gotta have something you’re passionate about that you put yourself out there for. Start talking about it. You can’t just go do your job and go home. That’s not gonna cut it for you. You’ve got to create some blog posts, some videos that talk about the things that you’re passionate about, and start putting them out there to build a thought leader brand for yourself. You do that, people will see you as a go-getter—and that’s when you get to step up the ladder, go to the next level of the leadership.

Shannon Fox:
I love that. So you keep talking about this thought brand leadership. So what exactly is that and how does that help propel these women in their career?

Nicky Billou:
So look—an expert is someone who knows something, but experts are a dime a dozen these days. A thought leader is someone who’s known for knowing something. And thought leaders are rare and valuable.

Another way to say it is: an expert is like a cover band, while a thought leader plays original music.

Shannon Fox:
I love that analogy.

Nicky Billou:
So when you’re a thought leader, you’ve put yourself out there, you’ve created something valuable that people want to read about, want to hear about, want to watch, want to consume. It’s all about that.

Listen—part of what made me a thought leader is I started to do these podcasts. My own podcast, The Thought Leader Revolution. I interviewed Seth Godin, I interviewed John Maxwell, I interviewed Marie Forleo, I interviewed George Ross, who was on The Apprentice and he was Donald Trump’s right-hand man back when he was a businessman.

These types of high-level people on my podcast elevated my brand. So people started saying, “Oh, you’re like the Napoleon Hill of the 21st century.” I’m like, “I like that.” Because you’re interviewing all these smart, accomplished people and you’re learning from them. That elevates my brand.

And then people who want to be successful, they go, “Okay, so Nicky, you help people be more successful. Well, you know a lot about success because you’re like the Napoleon Hill of the 21st century—Think and Grow Rich was Napoleon Hill. You’re Napoleon Hill today. I’m gonna work with you. I’m gonna have you be my coach. I’m gonna do your workshops.”

So if you’re a woman in business, that’s what you do. So I’ll tell you a story about a client of mine, a woman who was a functional medicine doctor. I’m gonna call her Dr. Vicky.

Dr. Vicky was a very successful woman. She made six figures a year. But, you know, her business was kind of like treading water. It wasn’t going any further ahead. And she was going through a life epiphany. Her father was dying of glioblastoma—brain cancer. So it was a rough time for her. And unfortunately, a few months later, he passed away.

But she was committed to honoring his memory by becoming successful. She says, “I gotta be next level. Seven-figure-a-year earner.” And we said, “Okay, Dr. Vicky, let’s talk. What’s going on?” She says, “Look, I am an expert in functional medicine. I can help anybody with any health problem.”

I go, “You’re gonna sound like everybody else. Don’t do that.” She goes, “Well, how do I figure it out?” I said, “Well, who have you already seen as patients?”

She says, “Okay, I’ve seen a whole bunch of people.” I said, “I want you to make a list of all the ladies you’ve seen as patients who were like your best clients—like, you loved working with them. They were just awesome.”

“Okay. Make another list of the people who got really good results working with you.”

“Okay.”

“Make another list of people who were easy to work with, easy to do business with—like, they paid on time, they sent you clients, did that.”

I said, “Who’s on all three lists?” She says, “Oh, that’s smart.” I go, “Yeah, it is. Very smart. I’m very smart.”

She says, “They’re all women.” I go, “Okay, that’s good.”

“They’re all over 45. They’re all married with children. They’re all successful career professional women. Their marriages are great. Kids are great. And their profession’s great.”

I go, “Okay, so what’s the problem? Sounds like a lovely life.”

She said, “There is a problem.” She said, “They all feel like time, beauty, youth has passed them by and they’re all upset about it.”

Now listen, I’m a man. I don’t know these things, but I hear a woman like beauty. So she said, “Okay.” She said, “Here’s the deal. My message to these ladies is, you know, getting older is inevitable. Every year, the number is going to rise, right? You’re going to go from 30 to 31, but aging isn’t.”

She said, “You can be just as beautiful, youthful, energetic in your 40s and 50s and 60s as you were in your 20s and 30s.” I’m like… she goes, “Oh yeah.”

I said, “Okay, let’s come up with a good name for this program.”

She says, “Okay.” And I said, “I got it. I got it. I’m good at these things.”

I go, “Get Your Sexy Back.”

Shannon Fox:
(laughs) I love it.

Nicky Billou:
She doubled her income three years in a row. She went from like six figures a year to six figures a month, girl—six figures a month—just by creating this brand as the “Get Your Sexy Back” lady who worked with the career women who were all like in good marriages, good kids, good careers, but not feeling the youth, not feeling the beauty anymore.

And boom—that’s how it went from tragic to magic.

Shannon Fox:
And now you, listening to this, can this happen for me? Absolutely. What is it you’re passionate about? What is your narrow strip of expertise? Let’s double down, triple down on that.

Nicky Billou:
Exactly. That’s the key. And what happens is people go, “Well, I don’t know if that’s possible for me. That’s possible for someone else out there.” And I say, listen, here’s the deal: You’ve lived some life. You’ve gone through some adversity. And there’s only two reasons for adversity.

Reason number one: the good Lord is trying to tell you something—that you’re on the wrong path, and he’s sending you the adversity because, kicking and screaming, you refuse to see that you’re on the wrong path. Right?

Shannon Fox:
Yes. That’s true.

Nicky Billou:
And reason number two: there’s a lesson there for you. Everybody who’s gone through adversity learns these lessons, and those lessons become the base of your expertise.

Your mess is your message. It’s what you’ve struggled with that gives you the right to call yourself a true expert and a thought leader and to teach others. That’s the facts.

Shannon Fox:
Yes, I love that. That’s so good.

Nicky Billou:
So I’m telling you, can anybody do it? Theoretically, yes. But you need some help from someone like me to show you what’s what and to make it happen.

So listen—like Dr. Vicky—she made a lot more money. If you’re listening to this and you’re going, “I’d like to make a lot more money,” what’s possible for you? It’s possible for you.

Shannon Fox:
Yeah, I love that. I always try and say: be in gratitude for the lesson I’m learning when I’m going through that adversity and be like, “Okay, thank you that I get to learn this lesson now instead of later on.” Gratitude is important.

So what would you—so you have practical strategies that any professionals can do to increase their income that you can provide to these listeners?

Nicky Billou:
Yeah. Well, number one is like we’ve been talking about: don’t try to be all things to all people. Don’t try to be a wandering generality—be a meaningful specific.

Shannon Fox:
That’s good.

Nicky Billou:
Right? So let’s get down to the specifics of what you can do.

Secondly, remember: life is not about you. It’s about them.

In my world, when I have a client—right?—let’s say you came to me and said, “Nicky, I’ve got a great, wonderful business, but I’m a little stuck. I’ve been making maybe a quarter million a year for the last three years, and I was really hoping I’d be at 350, 400 by now.”

I’d say to you, “Okay Shannon…” And then you’d say, “So what do you think I need to do?”

Well, the first thing I’d say is: “Shannon, who is it that you serve?” And then we’d get real specific on that.

And I’d say, “Let’s take all the attention off you, because if you just make sure their needs are met, your needs will automatically be met.”

If you put the attention on you—“I hope they like me, I hope they buy from me”—they’re going to feel it. Nobody likes that. It’s too much.

But if you say, “God, give me a sign as to whether I’m the person meant to help this woman. And if I am, God, give me the courage to boldly let her know that I am the one, and ask her to allow me to serve her out of suffering.”

They’ll feel that. They’ll go, “Oh my God, that’s such a good person. And I need help.”

Shannon Fox:
Yes, because you are serving. It doesn’t come across salesy if you’re coming from your heart—it does not.

Nicky Billou:
It does not. I’ll tell you my last story—this is a great story.

There was a woman who came to us—oh my God, this was a long time ago, seven years ago. She used to be the Country Director for Canada for one of the world’s largest and oldest personal development firms. Been around since the 60s, in a dozen countries—serious organization. And she was a rockstar.

But she felt she needed help. So she brought this fellow on to help her run Canada. At first everything went great, right? But after about a year, their vision of the future diverged. They were clashing.

And there was a Board of Directors… the board sided with him. They kicked her out of her own company.

Kind of like Steve Jobs in the 80s with Apple. He brought on John Sculley, and the board sided with Sculley. They kicked Steve out. People ask me, “How do you get kicked out of your own company?” If you have a board, that’s how. So be careful who you put on your board of directors.

So she’s lost, like Steve was. For about 18 months—just lost. But then she’s introduced to me and my beloved Teresa.

And we could see—this was a good woman. Married, three sons. Just a good person. She needed someone to love on her and believe in her.

And my father—God rest his soul—my great father, Napoleon, he always said to me, “Son, everyone needs someone to believe in them. That person sitting in front of you—she’s someone’s daughter, someone’s sister, someone’s wife, someone’s mother. She’s a hero to somebody. And maybe someone like you let her down in business or life. It’s your job to restore her faith in humanity.”

That little spark of belief from you? It can turn into a roaring fire.

So we loved on her. We believed in her. We helped her narrow her focus—because it was all over the place, as you can imagine.

We helped her get specific. Entrepreneurs in Ottawa, in tech, over 10 million a year, that were burnt out. I know about burnout—I just went through it myself. It’s no fun.

So this woman—we’ll call her Julie—she made $10K in her first month with us. Then $12K. Then $18K.

And in her fourth month? She made $62,200.

So a few months later, my son—he’s 12 at the time—had a soccer tournament in Ottawa. I call Julie and say, “Hey, I’m bringing my son. You’ve got a son his age, why don’t you come to a game?” She says yes.

We meet up, the boys hit it off, we have lunch, great time. Fast forward a few weeks, she comes to our branded thought leader immersion workshop—very high-level, $10K to attend.

Now, at these workshops, we usually do a soft pitch for our year-long $40K program. And I usually ask for a few testimonials.

This time, before I even ask, Julie jumps up like a rocket, runs to the stage, and hugs me. She’s crying—sobbing.

She says, “You didn’t know this, but when you and your son came to visit, my son turned to me in the car and asked, ‘Mommy, are we going to meet the man who saved our family?’”

Shannon, I lost it. I’m not the crying type, but I was bawling.

She told me, “When we first met, I hadn’t worked in 18 months. The bank was about to foreclose on our home. My husband is an artist, and I was the breadwinner. We were fighting daily—our three little boys were watching us fall apart.”

And then she looked me in the eye and said, “But then I started working with you. I made $10K my first month, $12K the second, $18K the third... and in my fourth month, I made $62,200.”

She said, “I paid off the bank, and the fighting stopped. My boys weren’t scared anymore. Nicky... you saved our family.”

Shannon Fox:
Oh my gosh, Nicky, that is so incredibly powerful. I have chills.

Nicky Billou:
That day, everyone in the room signed up. Every single one of them. And I realized in that moment, my purpose has nothing to do with me. I’m just here to serve. That’s why I do what I do.

Shannon Fox:
That story is going to stick with me for a long time. I think so many women listening right now need to hear that — that their voice, their expertise, their experience — it all matters. And with the right support, they really can create that next level of impact and income.

Nicky Billou:
Exactly. Look, your mess is your message. That pain, that adversity — it’s not random. It’s preparing you to serve others who are struggling with the same thing. You’ve got something in you that’s valuable. Don’t sit on it. Don’t keep it to yourself.

Shannon Fox:
Yes. So where is the best place for our listeners to connect with you and learn more?

Nicky Billou:
Go to ecircleacademy.com/appointment. That’s where you can book a call directly with me or someone on my team. We’ll help you get clear on your niche, your message, and how to turn your experience into a premium brand. And if social media is your thing, I’m @nickybillou — I’m the only one with that name in the world, so I’m easy to find.

Shannon Fox:
Perfect. We’ll drop that in the show notes for sure. 

And before we wrap, I always love to leave our listeners with an action step. What’s one mindset shift you’d love to leave them with today?

Nicky Billou:
Plan your next day the night before. Simple, but powerful. It’ll help you take back control and start leading your life on purpose — not by default.

Shannon Fox:
Yes! 

Thank you, Nicky, so much for being here today. This was incredible.

Nicky Billou:
Thanks for having me, Shannon. Total pleasure.

Outro:
Hey, Working Mama, I hope you enjoyed today’s episode. If so, would you take 30 seconds to share it with a friend who’s stuck in her career but doesn’t want to sacrifice her family to grow?

Also, please leave a quick review on Apple Podcasts. It seriously lights me up to know the show is helping you navigate burnout, find clarity, and lead with confidence.

All right, time to shut down my laptop and pretend I’m not hiding from folding that laundry. I’ll meet you back here soon for another episode of Career Growth for Working Moms.

You’ve got this.