Neil Williams

Full transcript: Neil Williams on London Real

1:09 This is London Real, I am Brian Rose. My guest today is Neil Williams, recent graduate of our Broadcast Yourself accelerator. Welcome. Welcome. Thank you. Welcome. Tell me about you, man. Where are you from, what do you do? I am English, born here, first generation. I live in Greenwich. I’m an IT consultant, but I have a love for sports and for anything fitness related, lugli related. I think that’s my passion generally.

1:40 And what made you want to start broadcasting yourself? That’s a funny one. It was never in the plan. I started actually just posting a few things about my fitness journey on social media, started following movement gurus and so forth, and I came across you somehow. I think I must have signed up to something and I started getting communications, and I got an invitation to come on to one of your seminars, your free seminars. So I just jumped on, I had a look, and the next thing I knew, I thought that sounds right up my street. As simple as that, there’s no plan at all.

2:32 Oh, and so that’s kind of interesting. You know, so you never thought you would be starting your own podcast? No, never. I didn’t know anything about podcasting. I think I’d probably subscribed to one podcast by accident, you know, in the past, and it was to do with IT. I only realized I’d actually subscribed to it when I went to set my own podcast up and I saw it in my favorites, and, oh, that’s what that thing was that I was looking at. But broadcasting, podcasting wasn’t anything I’d considered.

3:04 But because I’d started posting on social media and trying to share my journey, coming back from an out-of-shape dad into fitness, I thought it’s a good medium to get on and maybe talk about it. Tell me about your journey, this kind of fitness journey that you’ve been on. Oh, well, as I said, I’ve always endeavored to try and evolve in fitness and movement in general. Donna gave she dancing, judo, gymnastics over the years, not so much recently.

3:36 I’ve always done weight training, but ever since I became a dad some six, seven years ago, that’s pretty much all I was doing, was weight training, and everything else was completely out of the picture. And although I was doing weight training, I was still putting a lot of weight on, you know, and I have arthritis in my knees, so I’ve a lot of knee problems. I felt sluggish.

4:11 And I really was keen to get my children to do some of the activities like judo and gymnastics I did when I was young, because I really loved them and I really think they helped develop my coordination and kept me generally fit. But also with that, I wanted to be able to show them how to do certain things, because I grew up with a dad who was a judo instructor for 11 years. So yeah, I go to the club, I always got that special training. Me and my brothers got that special training at home, and it definitely paid dividends with how we developed as judokas.

4:50 So I wanted to do something similar with gymnastics and judo for my daughters, but in my physical state I found it difficult. You know, I was making a lot of excuses about my knees and so forth. So as I was approaching 49, I think just a week or so before, I just decided that by the time I’m 50, firstly, I want to take part in a major judo competition, although I hadn’t even done judo for 20 years.

5:20 And I also want to be able to start showing them how to perform certain gymnastics moves, which meant I had to get back into certain shape, because I was struggling to extend my hands at that point, you know, it was a real strain. So that was what got me started down that road. I took a big deep breath, decided to take photographs of myself about a week before my 49th birthday, and I dumped it on Instagram and on Facebook and just said, okay guys, this is me, and that was it.

6:01 You know, people got whatever they wanted out of it there and then. From then on I’ve just been regularly posting, and now, you know, it’s increased more and more, and the response to sharing what you’re doing is amazing, and it’s just made me wanna do it more and more and more. And I’m sure, as you’ve seen in my most recent posts, I’m doing some pretty impressive things, or so I’m told. How many muscle-ups are you doing now? I’m doing about six, but apparently I’m doing them quite well, ’cause I’m keeping good form.

6:34 All right, so when you decided to pull the trigger on the Broadcast Yourself course, why London Real? I did love the way your content was presented. I’d watched one or two, but mainly the one with Ido Portal. He’s one of the people that kind of attracts me more into the kind of movement culture, and I just liked the way that you vibed with him. I liked the quality of the product. I recommended other people look at your podcasts and the links and so on, and so I guess that was it. I just thought, you know what, let’s do it.

7:13 Okay, now first week starts, I drop you in this Facebook group, 150 people around the world, I’m asking you to do lots of assignments, upload video, accountability doc, you have me twice a week live. What’s that experience like? That’s a bit heavy. Firstly, at that early stage I definitely wasn’t comfortable being on camera. I think during our video conferences I was kind of sitting there often just hoping you didn’t call my name for any reason whatsoever.

7:53 Because at that point I didn’t know what I wanted to really podcast about. I didn’t know why I was really there. I was kind of finding out a lot of things. I wasn’t afraid of the technical stuff, because I’m a technical person anyway, but it’s a completely different area of career that I was kind of thinking, oh, maybe I could go down this route, but I’d never ever even considered it previously. So it wasn’t like I’d been planning it or anything.

8:24 Those first few weeks I got over a lot of demons, because I was forced to put my voice on camera, sorry, on tape, forced to do vlogs, get my face out. And the first one I did, a lot of cuts. I mean, it took me a while to get that simple video out. Compared to now, I walk down the street with my camera, talk, press send. So there’s been a massive change in eight weeks. I’m not self-conscious like that anymore, and I put stuff all up on social media. I’m honest, I don’t hide anything. It’s amazing the change that has happened to me in this small space of time.

9:12 What are these classmates like, all these people from around the world you never met until this weekend? I gotta say, I feel like some of them are like brothers. I’ve got to know so many of them so well just through social media, video conferencing. I think I know many of my immediate team Lee Rothstein nothing better than some of my friends. I know personal things about a lot of them, more than I know about friends of mine who I’ve known for many, many years.

9:44 You know, I’ve got friends that I could pal with for 20 years, I don’t know them, kind of, more than in a social environment. I don’t know what demons they’ve had growing up, whereas the people in my team have got interesting stories that they’ve been sharing openly, and it’s kind of encouraged me to come out and do the same. So I think I’m gonna be friends with a lot of them for a long time.

10:08 What did you struggle with most on the course? That’s definitely time, time allocation, time. Look, I don’t know if it’s just me, but I think any time I’ve given an excuse for not doing something, it’s been time related, to do with commitments at home with the children, or feeling guilty that I’m leaving my wife looking after them while I’m sitting in the room on the computer. Because this was all sudden. I mean, one minute I was available and the next minute I’m signing up to this course and then another course, as you know, and my wife’s thinking, when are you gonna stop?

10:49 Look, it’s just, you know, put in the work now, because I don’t want this dragging on for a year. I’ve got so into it now, so I want the momentum to keep going. I don’t really want to sit back, wait a year, struggle to get the business up and running, because there is the business side of it, and that’s the bit where I’m still not confident: how am I going to transfer what I’ve learned about building a podcast and make a good business out of it? But as I’m working through, ideas are coming up, and I need to keep at it now. You know, if you lay off for a year for a time when you have more time, that time’s not gonna come. Yeah, I believe it’s gonna come.

11:36 What’s the name of the podcast, and what was your big highlight on the course? It’s called Do It That. I never for once thought I’d be doing a podcast called Do It That. I always for some reason thought I was gonna be doing a podcast to do with exercise and sport, but I suppose it’s kind of related, because my fitness has been directly affected by the fact that I became a dad.

12:06 The minute I became a dad, my physical activities just dropped. One minute they were like that and it was regular, I only had to look after myself, no commitments, and when the children came along it went down to that, and I had to squeeze everything in. I had to get up early, I couldn’t sleep the amount of hours I wanted to sleep. And so I realized there’s a lot of challenges dads specifically face when they try and maintain those kind of activities that they really, really enjoy.

12:36 And in that respect I started realizing I did actually have an interest in the father aspect of fitness, because I found that if I had to complain, it was more to do with things related to the fact that I’m a dad. I can’t go and exercise in the evening anymore when I want, I can’t just decide I’m gonna go and dance salsa, which I did a lot before. You know, I’d be out four nights a week maybe dancing. That came to an immediate stop. So, you know, burning calories and this sort of thing, I could see where the weight was coming from, because I wasn’t as active.

13:17 And I realized there’s a lot of other fathers that I wasn’t really giving credit. I remember my own brother, I’d slate him before I had children and tell him, why doesn’t he just do this, just do that, you know, surely just plan your time a bit better. I had to personally apologize to him as soon as I became a dad, because I didn’t understand. So that’s the theme.

13:42 And so what were some of your glorious moments? Did you have a great guest that you had on? What was the feedback to your podcast? Interestingly, initially I was kind of imagining I was going to just focus around London, and I found that my interest has come from dads from all over the place, Australia, you know, all different places, and they’re all tuning in. And a lot of them can see the fitness aspect, it seems.

14:19 Definitely, I’ve realized that’s an area of my podcast, and perhaps because they realize it’s an interest of mine as well, they kind of glued the dad thing and the fitness thing together. I wanted to talk about career and so on as well, being a dad in terms of career, but I found that’s not an area that I really feel skilled in myself to go down, you know, to give anyone any kind of discussion or advice in that area. But from the fitness side, the physical side, I feel very confident.

14:51 And I found that when I’m speaking to dads on social media, they’re coming back and saying they love what I do, and I’ve had quite a lot of people coming back and saying they love what I do, not just men, I’ve had ladies coming back as well. They’re very interested in the physical side of it. So I think I’ve realized that that is a part of life that most dads really, really notice changes in, maintaining themselves.

15:32 A lot of them, I realized, they’ll give up on their fitness to be the breadwinner and to be the serious dad, but really, in the back of their mind, what I’ve discovered is a lot of them want someone to help them get back to it. Yeah, most definitely. And what does this thing look like in 12 months? What do you want it to be? Well, the podcast for me is more of, I suppose, a funnel to drive people towards my business idea, because I’ve started this website. It’s called If I Move.

16:05 My journey involves fitness, trying to get my mobility back, trying to get my knees working properly again and so forth. At the same time, because I put on so much weight, I realized that was contributing to some of the aches and pains I was having. I mean, I was in and out of hospital at one point, seeing surgeons about my knees and stuff. It got to the point that they literally had said to me, you’ve worn the cartilage down so much, in particular in my right knee, we can only really offer you at this point a knee replacement, but really you’re too young.

16:40 So I kind of walked out a bit, and I haven’t been back, and I just decided to shift some of this weight off and just start doing something to strengthen, and since I’ve taken that approach I’ve gone from strength to strength. And so what I want to share from my business side is, I want to put out videos to start to encourage other men who find themselves in a similar situation to me, and they really don’t know where to turn, to see that, look, there’s someone else who’s been in that situation and has managed to turn it around.

17:11 And not just turned it around, but I’m actually doing things now that I wasn’t able to do previously, when I was thirty, twenty. You know, I couldn’t have done a muscle-up. Yeah, it’s crazy watching yourself, it’s impressive. And have you changed? If we went out on the street and bumped into the Neil that didn’t take this course, what’s that guy like? I’ll tell you what, my confidence level has… I mean, I would say most people would say I come across pretty confident, and in myself I’m quite overconfident, but it depends on which scenario you meet me in.

17:48 If you meet me in the scenario where I really, really think I’m the bee’s knees, or I know my stuff, like in judo for instance, I’m very confident, because I know if you put me up against anyone that he’s gonna have a hard fight with me. It doesn’t matter what their belt is. I’m not saying I’d win, but I know he’s gonna have a hard fight, because I’ve been doing it so long through, you know, my childhood, and then I had a lot of success when I was in my mid-20s, and then I went back more recently and I’ve, you know, done OK for an old guy.

18:21 So I’m pretty confident, but if you put me in a situation where I’m not so comfortable, then I will come over the complete opposite, as the shyest person in the room. I won’t talk, or, you know, just sit in the back room. Now what I’ve noticed is that since I started podcasting and putting my face on camera, I’m willing to talk about anything, and I’m willing to put my views out there, and I tell people what I’m doing.

19:00 Whereas before I definitely used to kind of do things in secret, not secret, but I wouldn’t tell people before I did; I’d tell them after I had the success. Now I tell them before I have a success, because I know telling them is actually gonna make me have the success. That’s how I feel. Put it out there, and now you have to be accountable, because these people are gonna judge you on your word. And that is actually one of the biggest things I picked up, the accountability.

19:31 Nice, I like it. And if someone was watching us who’s on the fence, not sure if they should take this course or not, what would you tell them? No-brainer, just go for it. Definitely, is that you will change and discover so much about yourself, you know, in a short space of time. Look at me, I jumped straight on to the next course, you know, the Business Accelerator, because with what I’ve got from the Broadcast Yourself course, I’ve started seeing all sorts of different opportunities.

20:04 I’ve networked so well with so many people. I mean, not just the people in my team; people have been contacting me from other teams, people have contacted me outside of London Real who want to do stuff with me. So I could see a lot of opportunities. The only problem I have now is, again, lack of time. You know, I’ve just promised myself I’m gonna get through the end of this next course and then I’m gonna start following up on some of these leads, because there is a certain amount of time you have to do something well.

20:44 Yeah, well, look, welcome to the family. You’re also, you see, on the Business Accelerator, so I can’t wait to see how we’re gonna take this funnel from your podcast and turn it into a business. I know we can do it. You know, men see you at 49 going on 50 and the things you can do. There’s a huge market, right? These guys have money; what they don’t have is their physicality. Maybe they don’t have time, they don’t have memberships, and all they have to do is watch two minutes of you on a video and they can tell you’re the real deal.

21:08 So you really got something here, Neil. You’ve got a great vibe, it comes across on camera, it comes across on audio, so I’m just so glad you pulled the trigger on this, ’cause this is made for you. Because I’m really looking forward to building this business in the next 12 months. So as we say at London Real, it’s about the journey, and I’m gonna be watching you, and I’m expecting big things. But let’s do this. All right, yeah, I’ll definitely… Thank you. Great. Thank you for having me on.