Achieving Business Success with a 25 Hour Work Week: Neill Williams' Productivity Journey

First , I have to tell you that when I started working in like a high level mastermind slash group coaching program for established online course creators , I knew nothing about coaching and the goodness and greatness and wonderfulness that it is , until I saw Neil Williams in action . She's a master , certified coach , an entrepreneur , a mom and wife .

She helps busy female entrepreneurs achieve more in less time with a science-backed approach to productivity and performance for themselves and their teams .

And you got to know as you're listening to this episode , this is one that you should scrub back and listen to certain parts over and over again , because I've seen Neil help I don't even know how many it at least has to be 50 something entrepreneurs through their stuff and see tangible results in their business because of their sessions with her .

And she is the one who turned me on to coaching .

I didn't know that there was a difference between consulting and coaching until I observed her and then read books that she recommended , and I can say personally , just being an observer of the conversations that this lady is capable of having has helped me see and reflect on myself and grow so much as a online business owner . An intro can't even do her justice .

She is the host of the Success Genius podcast , where science meets entrepreneurial success to help people understand how to function well so that they can achieve all the things that they had wanted to in business , and in this episode you're going to get to know her more and how she built her business , how she's gone through a very intriguing pivot from teaching

people really well about Facebook ads and funnels to a business that's focused a lot more on productivity and performance . She's gone back to her roots and , neil , I can't wait for this episode to unfold . I'm experiencing it as a listener is experiencing it , and I'm so honored to have you as a guest . Thank you for being here .

I was super honored to be here and I can't wait for our conversation .

But the first one was already blowing me away . Sincerely , I manage Facebook ads , and yet I heard some of what you're doing and , I believe , two different podcast episodes , when I was like , geez , all right , you know a little bit of positive jealousy going on , you know , go Neal , but dang , I would like to be doing what you're like having that kind of .

So how did you go from ? How did you build that business up , really ? And then I really want to know later in the episode , like what happened as you shifted to this business that you're currently running .

The coaches I was working with specifically didn't necessarily have the businesses at the level where you would hire a Quajo and implement a Quajo into your business to do your ads for you , and so they were kind of bootstrapping , figuring out how to do it on their own , which is what I did , and I I mean I just practice a lot .

I think this is really like one of you think about , like a winning strategy . I think what it is . I'm really stubborn and I'm willing to practice an experiment with something long enough to achieve whatever it is . I'm really stubborn and I'm willing to practice and experiment with something long enough to achieve whatever it is that I want to achieve .

So I mean I was that weirdo girl who started Facebook ads like within the first few months of her business , like I started experimenting with them . I knew of Rick . I followed all of the stuff that he talked about at the time and I just kept trying things and trying things and trying things .

And even though it looks , I think , from the outside , people thought , oh , overnight success , right , like the one of the things that was super cool is the last , the last funnel that I built before the one that I have currently running .

I was like , all right , I'm going to see how fast I can get this thing to a hundred K because I want to show people that this is actually possible . And so I think it was like 93 days . We took it from zero to a hundred K in 93 days and even that blew my mind . But if you , but ?

But the thing that people don't see is all the work that I did behind the scenes for the years prior to that right , where I was learning like what works , what doesn't work , how do I experiment , how do I scale ads , how do I like all that stuff that you do . So people saw that success . And then , naturally , what happens when people see that success ?

They're like can you teach me how to do it too , right ? So that's so that's how I ended up , like my business ended up , going from productivity towards this more marketing angle where I was helping people set up funnels and ads inside of their businesses .

And you've already announced to the world that you're going to 100 and you're doing , like , what's going through your mind and give us like a peek behind the scenes of , like , what kind of hours were you pulling off and things you were doing too .

That was something that I came from the corporate world , where I overworked like a lot and I , just when I started my business , I just made that promise to myself that I would never do that . So I wasn't putting in a ton of hours .

I had like a block of time on my schedule every week and that was to pull the data from my ads in my funnel to look at it and figure out what is the test I'm going to do this week to make it work better . Like literally that's what I did .

And so I went on to Instagram and I was like , okay , I'm going to actually show the behind the scenes of everything that it takes for me to get from zero to 100k and what I , what , what I'm really good at is very quick execution , so like I don't let any grass grow under my feet , I'm just like I quickly , quickly , quickly implement , and that's why I

think it only took me 93 days If you look at all the tests that I did in that 93 days I think I'm trying to remember now somewhere around 50 to 60 different tests . So I was doing multiple tests per week and that is really how I ended up optimizing it so fast and I shared every week .

I did something called a funnel fail Friday , where I shared my fails in the funnel so people could actually see and normalize in their brain what it actually takes to get a funnel up and running , the way that might end up running .

It's oh , shoot , yeah , I can't remember , but by the time that this episode is live , the link will be in the description below , but it's called shoot , yeah , I can't remember , but by the time that this episode is live , the link will be in the description below , but it's called a slight edge .

It must have come out before 2008 , because that's when I read it and it basically is talking about this concept of failing forward and how you continue to fail forward .

It's like a hockey stick logarithmic curve going upward , and the concept was the side edge was just this ability to embrace failure and fail forward on the way to success , and it was like why , in a short period of time , two people .

they'll look externally the same , but then over a longer period of time , one person is appearing , the other person is , and it's this concept of improving a little bit failing forward . And you said Funnel Fail Friday , so you're sharing this publicly .

That I wanted to do for myself for that year , personally , was to normalize failure for myself , and I thought , well , if that's helpful for me , maybe it would be helpful for somebody else to see this too , and so that's really why I shared it . It .

At times , it did felt very vulnerable , I will have to admit and like , but the response that I got was people were so grateful to have , like a real look behind the scenes . That that's what just kept moving me forward through it . Wow . So yeah it was an interesting experience .

And I don't say that , like in Jess , like people are like she is amazing , that , like in Jess , like people are like she is amazing , is she looking to be hired ? Right ,

so it's just Ellie and I . Really that was it . I was at the time I was doing my own ads , I was doing all my copy and my marketing and all of that , and , yeah , it's just the two of us wow , I might be missing something , but just the two of you .

And you're also doing this experiment if you will , the first time you've ever done it 100k funnel . All that with just you and one team member out .

But it's always been so very important to me that we never get in this place where we feel like we're tied to our computers , where the business is just going to crash if somebody goes on vacation or we feel burnt out , like if that were to happen , I would just shut my business down . It just wouldn't exist .

But this would be a good , natural spot to talk about your book how to thrive on a 10 hour work week , because I guess I just kind of jokingly requested a strategy call with you about like whipping my week into order and getting more results out of my business in a smaller period of work time , but you wrote a book about that .

So I , what I did is I figured out how to scale back my work week to 30 hours and that's really like that whole process is the thing that then allowed me to go into business . I think it's the reason why I was as successful as quickly as I was , because I learned really quickly how to execute and how to be really effective .

And I didn't get , I didn't stall . That Like I think a lot of new entrepreneurs kind of like we kind of like get stuck . I'm like I'm not sure what we're doing . We're just like putting in some time but it's not really creating any results , that kind of thing just like putting in some time but it's not really creating any results , that kind of thing .

Of that one , no counting the costs I have not , I think it might be solidly in the personal finance niche from the perspective of somebody who spent a lot of time with people well , hospice providers , so people who were at the ends of their life .

I read that there's so many intriguing things around personal finance , but also lining it up with the goals that you have in your life and the time that you get to spend with your loved ones , and these perspectives that only somebody who spent with people at the end of their life you know could have , because I think he helped people who were actually at the

end of their life dying not just like in a retirement home , but like people who wanted to plan their last moments . Basically , yeah , a very , very , very insightful book .

It's called taking stock oh , taking stock okay yeah , taking taking stock it's , it's a personal finance book , which is why , like , I'm okay sharing it here , because I don't , it doesn't detract from people . They should get get your book . I'm getting your book shoot , but this one .

You mentioned something about how you felt you were giving before we hit record . You said you felt you were giving online entrepreneurs candy bars before in the marketing business , but now you're giving them the kale that they need , and the context was is that I'm eating a lot more healthily now . So , neil , please .

So when I saw that to me , that that I pivoted my business because I wanted to be part of more of the solution to the root problem , not the surface level symptoms that we see , and it just felt more aligned for the work that I wanted to do . I feel like the impact is bigger .

Not that there's anything wrong with doing funnels and ads and all of that Like that's amazing , that can change an entire business in someone's life . But for me it is that internal work .

That's why I became a coach in the first place was to help people with the internal work that just makes them more effective , regardless of what it is they're doing in their business or in their lives .

It was like , okay is amazing , I actually pivoted at the height of my business .

But one thing that I had to work through was realizing that my identity was something else than the previous business that I had put my heart and soul and hours into . Maybe you don't understand 70 hours being put into a business . You did it like 25 hours a week but you were in corporate . So you did say that you were in corporate .

How did you go through that identity work as you kind of worked away from one business and toward toward the other ?

It was a fame kind of identity because people would recognize me on the street . I got a whole story about how not to run Facebook ads if you want to actually make money , but how to run Facebook ads if you want to get famous .

I was doing the famous part without lots of clients but yeah , I went from that identity of being the famous Chinese speaking black guy to well , I guess it stopped . It wasn't that I went from one to the other like it stopped . I had no identity .

Lots of crying , lots of praying , and then a different identity as I went forward yeah , thank you for sharing that .

And so the context from all this is , with the previous Chinese businesses , I was an actual paid member and then , being there , like I remember , I flew across the ocean . There were like two in-person retreats at that time because we could be in person at that time .

So I flew across the ocean from China after me being up at like 2 am for the coaching calls the group coaching calls because of the time difference to an in-person retreat and got all the cool strategy things and did things right there at the event and my business was growing quite well .

After I launched like a group coaching offer and that , also coupled with like it was it was , I was on the success curve going up , like starting to speak on stage , partner with like various education organizations in China that were bringing English teachers over and teaching culture and stuff like , plus the fame of improperly properly managed Facebook ads .

We'll call it Hollywood B-lister fame , like I don't know about . Three to four people out of ten would like recognize me on the street . These are expats like Chinese

. And then the pandemic happened . I took a vacation to Mexico on January 13th 2020 , because our second child had been born in 2019 . And me and my wife were kind of into language and crazy like this , so she would only speak Spanish to our kids and I would only speak Mandarin Chinese to our kids .

I still speak Mandarin Chinese to them and I was like I want to get in on the Spanish thing , let's go because business is going successful . And what do you do ? Well , you use some of that money for your dreams , and one of mine was language or Spanish .

And so I was like let's go to Mexico at this time of year , in January , where things slow down anyway for my clientele at least , and let's enroll in like a Spanish immersion program for me . And my wife was like sure , let's do it , you know . And so we did it .

And then we start hearing about this virus , and then people at the language school start looking at us sideways Like , did you say you're from China ? And we're like we put out 14 days , that's what the news says , we're good , but people are looking at us yeah , totally , and the school's starting to shut down . Then Because , I mean , can you remember ?

Nobody really knew what was happening . We only were hearing about stuff . But seeing stuff .

And then this thing is hopping to the state of Washington now , and so in this context , we're hearing what's going on in the news in the States because we're in Mexico , but then we're also seeing all the Instagram stories of our friends who are still in China and they're like in quarantine , quarantine , like one person can leave yeah , one family member can leave

a house , can leave like their house per week to the grocery store , and sometimes not even that . Sometimes the gate guards would just bring you like food and you were stuck in your apartment , like from there to like the mandatory , like nose brain swabbing , like every week .

We were like we're not going to go to China right now , we're going to stay in Mexico because it's quarantine . But there's still like the juice guy on the street with like tacos and guac , like within a walking distance , like it's good .

And then China's border shut down and then we were like we'll wait it out longer in Mexico , and then the borders never opened again , but we still had to like navigate while we're renting .

So then we had to get rid of a four bedroom apartment worth of stuff and then we had to shut down my incorporated business that was in China because we weren't there to be able to renew paperwork , and you can't do that overseas .

And it's about that time when I was , I remember we left Mexico because we only had a tourist visa and I'm like in my in-laws house , who they're quite successful and they have a very big basement and they were never pro us living in China for 12 years anyway .

And so like I'm everything that I've been working toward stopped , halted , like could not get back to pursuing it . And I am just like in my parents' basement , like praying every morning because I'm a Christian . So it's like I'm just like you just help me . Like nothing fancy , no , quoting scripture . It's like our savings is pretty much gone . I can't do this .

I got nothing else . And that's when I had called up Rick and I'm like can you give me a job ? And he's like come coach inside of this program , cause you know about ads , you know about you've run an online business . And then I met you like a year later and that is as short as I can make a story like that .

This , this idea that we get our identities interwoven with our business not just with our business , but achieving certain results for metrics inside of our business so I definitely have in the past , and when I started , my identity was clearly wrapped up in being successful , and when that all changed for me , when I was diagnosed with my autoimmune disorders , there

was a fundamental identity shift . That happened because I had seen myself as a healthy person and it was like that was shattered . So basically all my identity was kind of like shattered at that time . And what was really cool one of the gifts just like everything you can see as a blessing or a curse I see my diseases really as a blessing .

In a lot of ways . I was able to really read aside what my identity was , and that's when I completely untangled my identity from my business . Like it just there isn't this connection anymore , and I will have to tell you , like that is liberating , honestly , like my business could close tomorrow .

I'm like I would have a fantastic life , I'm whole as a human , everything's good , it's totally fine , wow , wow . Yeah , I totally get that , though , because I have been there myself with that identity .

I was just kind of just like being , you know , like trying to figure out like how to get myself healthy . How , like what ? What does this look like ?

So there was probably three to six months of figuring that out , and then , once I was kind of through that phase , like I was on a path to health , then it was like , okay , what do I want to use this business for ?

And that's where I decided like I actually want to use it to make an impact , deeper impacts , in terms of , like some of that internal work , really helping people be as effective as they want in their lives and their businesses .

And so then I was like , well , a pivot is challenging , right , because all the content you have in your background is not necessarily aligned . And so I was like , okay , what's a quick way for me to reposition myself ? And that's when I decided I'm going to write a book . And so then I did the book and now we have the book funnel launch .

So all of that's been about , I would say , six to nine months maybe . Wow .

It's linked up already in the show notes below , but if I didn't say this before , forgive me , but you're going to come back and you're going to share about , like , why growing a team can be so challenging , why most entrepreneurs work more , not less , even when they hire people , and how to get the right size team for your business .

Basically productivity stuff , that kind of surrounds , and what you put in the book and then what you've lived out through both of your businesses .

All that is to say , well , teasing the upcoming episode , yes , but all that is to also lead into the next question , which was when you started growing your second business , what changed from how you grew your first one ?

If you think about , if you read a book , the person who's integrating the ideas from a book like that came from , whoever , whatever author that is , I don't care who you are that is the culmination of that person's experiences , learning , thought processes over a long period of time , right , so there's a different level of impact .

I think that happens in something like that . So everything that I'm doing with my marketing , everything we're doing in terms of bringing people into our world , is really done at a more , a deeper , relational level rather than volume . I'm not trying to like turn out a lot of volume , necessarily .

We're really trying to create impactful conversations with people that make a difference .

What really happened on the back end was us figuring out how to organize our business in a way that was really easy for us to execute . You know , using ai , because ai came out right along as I was doing this transition , this pivot .

We really dove deep into that , integrated AI into our business to make things so much easier , yeah , and setting up workflows and those kinds of things . So it was just our opportunity to take the resources we had and this is what we do as entrepreneurs right , we're so resourceful .

can well , of course , remember before we had AI . Cause , like it's been , both have been such an impact and a change for like how we do things . At least , like I feel like maybe we're in a small bubble right now , like it's online business owners who use AI like profusely .

But yeah , I don't know , I had one of those moments like whoa , isn't it kind of cool to ?

Like there's so much that's available to us now that wasn't available to us two years ago , and it's really fun and exciting to think about .

So , as we transition into the next episode , can you leave us with a snapshot of the second business , the hardest thing that has been about being it , building it , and then the biggest like moment of success that you've had so far ?

Even with your transition of the podcast and all that , like there's certain people who are attracted to that , and then you make a change as a business owner and then there is like new people you need to attract into your world .

But , it's also been fun because it's allowed me to take my own skill level and take it to the next level , Like I have an acquisition funnel now . It's something I've always wanted to have . That's a different level of funnel than the funnel that I was running before , but super fun and I think overall it's .

It's like letting the process naturally unfold , Like I'm sewing a lot , sewing , sewing , sewing . I'm going to be sewing for probably another year and letting , like trusting in the process that there will be a time where I get to reap those the benefits from that sewing , but the patience to continue along even when you're not reaping the benefits yet .

So for me , that is really . It feels juicy and aligned , and I have to tell you it's different running a business when you feel really aligned with what you're doing and I'm thinking more in terms of vocation than career than I ever have in my life and it's a really liberating way to run a business . So that's been the high point .

I want it , but , like I'm telling the listener right now and the purpose of this episode wasn't even to promote the book Like I only saw that you had a book when I opened up the podcast notes , like five minutes before the episode , because I had just finished recording another episode .

But , like what I can clearly say to like you who's listening right now and hasn't known Neil is like one . She's phenomenal , cause I've sat in on so many sessions where she's coached other , like online business owners . Like as a master coach , not just a certified coach , but you're a certified master coach , no , a master certified coach .

But just the fact alone where I want to end is just the fact alone that you pulled off such a successful business off of 20 hour , 25 hour weeks Wow , I mean , I see a lot of .

I've seen behind the scenes of a lot of businesses too , because I coached alongside of you for two-ish years and get the book , get the book , I'm getting the book , you should get the book , and with that we'll end the episode . Thank you , you're welcome , neil . Thank you for being here Like . This has been such a good episode .

I can't wait for the next one , you too , Thank you , we'll get going now , and the link to the next episode is in the show notes below .