One of Natalie Williams’ many skills has been helping people to reinvent themselves when their career has hit the skids, writes Donna Fleming. She’s living proof of how it’s possible not only to get back on your feet after things go belly-up, but to soar, thanks to her bold new career move.
Natalie Williams’ catchphrase should be ‘Dream Big’. It’s what she did when Covid tanked her marketing, PR and event planning business and left her having to find a new way of earning a living.
The Aucklander hit rock bottom when the company she’d spent years building collapsed in 24 hours in 2020 because nearly every one of her clients was unable to operate in a level 4 lockdown. In fact, many of them went under.
“It was heartbreaking watching everything fall apart,” recalls Natalie. “I kept telling myself, Okay, I’m going to find a way through this. But to be honest, at the time I just wanted to jump off the harbour bridge.”
Once she got over the initial shock, she figured the best way forward was to draw on her own experience in business to help others. She added to that by doing a Tony Robbins course to become a business and life coach, and started assisting people to get back on their feet following the catastrophic impact of Covid. As it turned out, what she was doing for others would help her with the skills and mindset needed to reinvent herself in a whole new field.
While working on her coaching business, she decided to also get her real estate license after people she knew in the industry suggested she’d be good at selling property.
“I’d never really considered it, but I thought, Why not try that too?”
Natalie quickly discovered a passion and a talent for selling brand-new luxury developments after being chosen as one of the agents to list a $350m complex being built on Auckland’s North Shore. She later became the New Zealand rep for an Australasian company that sells premium residential developments off the plan to investors, and educates people about making money from property.
That inspired her to set up her own property investment agency and real estate brokerage, and look further afield than New Zealand.
“I wanted to do it on a global level so I started looking into the best places in the world for people to invest in property, and where the best developers were.”
She went to the US, where she set up meetings with top developers in New York and Los Angeles. Her networking led to some amazing experiences, including getting to hang out with celebrities.
While the US market held lots of potential, there was one that she considered to be even better – Dubai.
“It’s one of the highest return on investment markets for real estate in the world. In New Zealand it takes around 15 years to double your money in property – in Dubai it’s around three. The government encourages investment and makes it accessible for foreigners. It just made sense.”
However, when she told people here that she was going to set up a business selling luxury property in Dubai to international investors, they thought she was crazy. “I got a few people saying, ‘Nat, what are you doing?’. I know I’m dreaming big, but I believe in going after your dreams. Life’s too short.”
She launched her company Wealth Creators earlier this year after working through a huge amount of red tape to set it up. Among the challenges she faced was starting a business in a place where men don’t always see women as equals.
Describing Dubai as a “bit of a culture shock” Natalie, who is single, recalls receiving multiple marriage offers in her first week there. On one occasion she was followed in the street by a man who not only asked her to be his wife but sprayed perfume on her and tried to touch her hair. “That was weird.”
She’s had to deal with her fair share of misogyny when it comes to the business world.
“Unfortunately it can come with the territory and while you meet some great people, there are also those who aren’t so good. You have to learn to navigate different situations and be as professional as possible. If you quickly let them know that you’re very knowledgeable, they realise that actually, you do know what you are doing.”
She’s now listing properties worth between $1m and $50m for some of the biggest developers in Dubai and has been dealing with high net-worth investors from around the world.
“People have said to me, ‘How have you pulled this off?’ I think it is because I decided what I wanted, and I went after it, fully focused. I’m pretty fearless, and I’m resilient.”
Natalie says that resilience, and her fierce determination to lead a fulfilling life, came from looking after her father Lance when he was dying of cancer. After he passed away she struggled with depression.
“I had therapy and came out of that thinking life was a real gift. I wanted to help other people find hope and purpose. I was able to turn my pain into power.”
While working in PR and marketing she spent 10 years as a youth pastor, helping at-risk young people. She also developed a suicide prevention programme called Unbreakable that went into schools and used hip hop dance to encourage teenagers to ask for help if they were going through tough times.
“I loved that season of my life,” says Natalie. “Now I’m really passionate about this next one, about helping people to create wealth through property and getting to work with some incredible entrepreneurs and businesspeople.”
She also finds it rewarding dealing with “mum and dad” investors who have worked hard to build up their savings and want to use them to create financial freedom as they head towards retirement. “It’s not about greed, it’s about fulfillment and freedom – being free to help your family if they get sick, to spend quality time with them, to not have to work so hard anymore.”
Natalie, who also hosts a podcast called The Hustle, still does some business coaching on the side, and says her experiences have proved invaluable when it comes to helping clients who are heading off on a new path.
Here are her top 10 tips for anyone reinventing themselves, especially after an upheaval like redundancy or loss of income. They also work for life in general.
- Have a vision of what you want and then reverse engineer that, working out a strategy and the steps you need to take to make your dream a reality. Know that you are the architect of your life.
- When you’ve scripted your dream life and written a list of how to achieve that, record yourself reading it out. Listen to that recording every morning. Also have a vision board with images of what your life will look like. Send it to your phone and look at it frequently during the day.
- Live as the future version of yourself. Don’t wait until everything falls into place, be the person you imagine being now.
- Remember that success is 80% psychology and 20% mechanics. You really are what you think – the average human has 75,000 thoughts a day and 90% of those are repeated. So be aware of what you are thinking about, and if your thoughts are negative or limiting, change them.
- Practising gratitude every morning helps to re-wire your mindset. There’s always something to be grateful for.
- Figure out your strengths and use them. Knowing what you are good at gives you confidence and that gets you a long way.
- Your diet is important, and that doesn’t just mean what you’re eating, although good nutrition matters. Diet means what you’re watching, reading, listening to, the conversations you are having with people, everything you are taking on board. If there are things you are reading, watching or listening to or talking about that aren’t good for you, stop it.
- Ration social media. It can be amazing for business but it has helped to create a narcissistic society and contributes to depression being through the roof. Get on social media, do what you need to do for your business, and then get off.
- Be prepared to do a full detox – not only of things that aren’t good for you, but of people. I’ve had to leave relationships that have become toxic and ones that I’ve outgrown. If you’re going on a big journey in life, there may be people you can’t take with you because you’re not on the same path.
- Remember that everything can be figured out. It may not be easy, but if you work through it, it can be done. Back yourself, and do it!
