A.M. Williams is a Breakthrough Performance Strategist who businesses hire to achieve “BOSS-level growth” by using his secret sauce of leverage. His Leverage Without Limits philosophy has helped business owners across various industries to break through their limitation barriers and Blast Off Strategically & Systemically (BOSS).
Having been diagnosed incomplete paraplegic in 2000, A.M. has discovered the gift of challenges and has been relentless at fulfilling his unlimited potential through the power of Leverage leadership. Today, Coach A.M. challenges individuals and organizations to find their optimal leverage; explore their true potential, and achieve more than they’ve ever imagined.
A.M. coaches, trains, and consults 6 – 8 figure Founders and CEOs in the art of leverage to achieve BOSS-level growth. He is co-author of the best-selling book Resilience: Turning Setbacks into Comebacks, and sole author of “Leverage Without Limits: How to Make it To the TOP When You Can’t Take the Stairs” scheduled for release in 2022.
Connect with A.M. on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
What You’ll Learn In This Episode
- Leverage Without Limits
- BOSS-level growth
- Leverage is a powerful way to grow a business
This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix
TRANSCRIPT
Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity Radio.
Stone Payton: [00:00:13] Welcome to the High Velocity Radio show, where we celebrate top performers producing better results in less time. Stone Payton here with you this afternoon. You guys are in for such a real treat. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with AM Williams Coaching Company LLC. Coach AM Good afternoon, sir.
A.M. Williams: [00:00:35] Good afternoon.
Stone Payton: [00:00:36] Well, we are excited to have you, man. I know you and I got a chance to talk off air a few days ago, and I’ve been looking forward to this ever since. I’ll tell you what, let’s start by having you, if you would, just share a little bit about mission purpose. What is it exactly that you’re out there trying to do for folks?
A.M. Williams: [00:00:56] Well, literally. What what I’m. But I believe my mission and purpose is is threefold, is to create significant impact into the lives of other people and inspire people to take action. And then lastly, empower them to achieve heights that they never before imagined. So I showed them how to get to get more out of themselves and their business so that they can purposefully and intentionally inspire people to take action on their solutions.
Stone Payton: [00:01:37] Well, when you and I were visiting the other day, you mentioned this whole idea of leverage without limits. Can you speak to that some?
A.M. Williams: [00:01:47] Yeah. So leverage without limits is the way truly successful people accelerate growth and achieve their inner greatness. Jay Abraham says that successful people think and act differently. So when you think about that, they’re going beyond the norms of conventional and traditional ways of doing things. They don’t just look for ways to simply create incremental growth. All their efforts are designed to create some form of leverage, meaning that they can achieve significantly more. Do utilizing less time, energy and resources to be able to accomplish it. The whole dynamic of without limits is because once you’re able to find that, once you’re able to access that inner wisdom inside of you, you you gain the ability to attract everything you need to be able to literally break your impossible and be unstoppable. So I’m not just talking about any leverage because there are certain types of leverage that limit you. And then there are some types of leverage that gives you the ability to leverage without limits. So I showed them how to utilize leverage that has no limits so that they can break their impossible and achieve heights they never before imagined.
Stone Payton: [00:03:38] So this whole body of work clearly a passion for you, but you’ve turned it into a business. How did the business start, man? How did you get it off the ground?
A.M. Williams: [00:03:46] So literally, I started my business stone. In the hospital from a hospital bed. I got my first client in the hospital. Wow. And from that point, I went on this journey, having heard a still small voice, which I recognize as the voice of God, telling me something in my life can be leveraged to create something that I wanted. And it took me on a path to to discover what that thing in my life was that would give me the ability to not only. Get beyond the current situations that I was in. I mean, when people ask me, was it frustrating losing, you know, being diagnosed, incomplete paraplegic, not being able to rely on the systems and things that I utilize to walk, be mobile and all of that. I tell people it was not frustrating. It was impossible.
Stone Payton: [00:05:03] Yeah.
A.M. Williams: [00:05:04] So what this journey has done was helped me to break my impossible. And achieve heights in many different areas that were totally, you know, that allow me to exceed my expectations. I give you a couple of examples. I went back to school having been diagnosed incomplete paraplegic. The reason why I spent so much time in the hospital and in acute care facilities, I even was in a nursing home. I turned. What I gained about leverage literally allowed me to show up in a way that caused the doctors to tell the nurses, put up on us, put a sign up on the door saying, Do not disturb. He’s recording. I can’t make this stuff up. So I showed up that way in the hospital. When I got out of the hospital, I was I was I was able to go back to school, achieve several degrees. I’m currently in a doctoral program right now, and so I am doing the things to become Dr. AM Williams. And I was able to turn that business. I started in the hospital into a reputable six figure enterprise, and now we’re going beyond the six figure mark where this is our first year, we’re breaking the million dollar mark. And so I, I am very grateful for what I’ve gained in this process and what I’ve learned in this process. I put it all in the book, which we’ll discuss later this coming out in August. So I want to show people how to tap into that. And once they get it, they they gain what is needed to help them break their impossible and exceed their own expectations.
Stone Payton: [00:07:10] I’d love to be in the room or on the phone when someone that you were working with or maybe someone who is considering engaging your services began to offer up excuses. I wonder what that exchange is like. Are you empathetic for I mean, can you even be empathetic in your situation? You’ve got to be a no excuses guy.
A.M. Williams: [00:07:30] Well, I am a no excuses guy, but I’m empathetic to the point that I deeply understand their problem better than they do. I know a lot of people won’t share this, but the real key to inspiring people to take action is your ability to communicate to them very quickly that you have a deeper understanding of their problem than they do. And once you’re able to do that, you have what it takes. You convey to them that you have what it takes to help them break through that. Now, another thing that I will say, and I think this is Keystone, is that. I don’t mind being the bad guy. I learned that from personal trainers. There’s only two times you like personal trainers when you hire them and when you release them, that’s the only time you like them. The rest of it is pain all the way through because they’re going through the process of administering transformation in you. So it’s going to make you extremely uncomfortable. And, you know, they’re they’re working with you and they’re saying, come on, give me give me five more. Give me this. You’re kicking their blood the whole time.
A.M. Williams: [00:08:55] And because I know what it takes to implement that transformation, I kick their. But as I was sharing with you they call me coach am not because you know so much about me just being a coach in business. I coach like Tim Grover, the guy who who trained Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. Yeah, I coached them like that in business. So I kick their butt in business. And the only way you can do that is you can’t you can’t mind being the bad guy. I’m going to be the bad guy. And I’m okay with being the bad guy because my goal is to help you is to facilitate the transformation that my solution provides. And you’re not going to like it. You’re not going to like how you got to do it because you’re so used to doing things the way that you’ve been doing them. And I bring along something that’s going to disrupt your path and going to allow you to self innovate and do the things cause you to show up the way that you need to in life and in business to be able to attract the people that you want.
Stone Payton: [00:10:16] So you also, I’m sure, have to have some some pretty healthy business acumen to be effective in this line of work. Did your diagnosis and your situation lend itself to to capturing and synthesizing more business knowledge? Or how how did you go about that? And what impact, if any, did the the circumstances, the situation impede that or actually support it?
A.M. Williams: [00:10:44] So what it gave me was an application like it really gave me. A greater sense of just humanity, period. Like businesses only struggle because people struggle. And so if you’re going to be effective at transforming your business, you have to, first of all, become more. And I think the becoming more has gotten a bad rep. People have become desensitized to the notion of becoming more. By trying to shortcut growth with external tools. I’m a firm believer that. Language is location. So when people come to me and say, Man, I’m trying to get more clients, I’m trying to get more sales, I’m trying I’m like, I got to close more sales. I got you’ll never do any of that stuff because you’ve given all your power away to something external. True brands are not sold. True brands have the power to influence purchasing behavior so they’re not sold their board. If you’re going to create significant transformation. You’ve got to transfer your business into a brand. And what I gained. In my tenure of of disability. It’s understanding how people work, what’s school, what goes on with people. And so what my life demonstrates is the no excuses component that you talked about.
Stone Payton: [00:12:37] Yeah.
A.M. Williams: [00:12:38] It’s like if you think life is hard. Try doing a meeting. Why you got a nurse trying to change a bedpan? Yeah, you. If you think business is hard. Try administering a meeting and you’ve gotten spasms. You know, try administering a meeting from a hospital bed at home. Try administering a meeting when you’ve been told you’ve got ten days to live. And so I’ve had those experience experiences and that’s the real value of my solution is through the lens of my experiences. I do not shortchange growth. You can’t shortcut growth with external solutions, with external tools like, well, man, if I, if I just master, if I just hack this funnel, I just hack the way he’s doing business. I don’t have to grow. I can grow. I can grow after I learn how to make money. And when we put it in that framework, Stone doesn’t seem to be so bass ackwards. Yes.
Stone Payton: [00:13:58] So what kind of entrepreneurs, what kind of clients are you working with? I’m operating under the impression that you’re certainly must be working with entrepreneurs. Or are you working with people in a certain type of industry or at a certain stage of growth? Who are your clients?
A.M. Williams: [00:14:16] So yeah, my business is not isolated to an industry. The challenges that I speak about happen in every industry. However. There are winners and losers in every industry. What that person has to make the decision on is which one would. Are they going to be? And I typically work with entrepreneurs beyond the million dollar mark because. These guys don’t even realize what they did actually to cross the million dollar mark. And now that they’re trying to move forward, they’ve come to a harsh reality that their hustle. Is no longer applicable to the level of business that they aspire to. And so the hustle is not so much the problem as it is the hurdle in the hustle. And that hurdle is the dynamic of trying to get clients. You don’t get clients beyond the million dollar mark. You attract them. You don’t get clients at the $10 Million level, you attract them. You don’t get clients, the $20 Million level, you attract them. And so I show them how to basically leverage themselves. And that does not mean that they necessarily are the leverage. Their authenticity is to leverage. Their partnerships can be the leverage, their systems can be the leverage. But I’m literally showing them that they are the fulcrum. So I don’t care how lengthy your tools and systems, I don’t care how lengthy your leverage may be if you’re if you’re trying to leverage that on a little rock or a pebble. How far is that going to get you?
Stone Payton: [00:16:24] Right.
A.M. Williams: [00:16:24] You got to have a big enough and strong enough fulcrum. On which to place that lever. So that you can adequately get out of. Your authenticity, your differentiator, your systems, your partnerships, your team to create the result that you’re actually after. So I clients that I typically attract are entrepreneurs leveraging themselves.
Stone Payton: [00:16:58] So something that really stood out for me when you and I had a chance to visit before, we weren’t on air. We were just we were just chatting. You spoke to this idea of boss level growth. Can you dove into that a little bit and describe that?
A.M. Williams: [00:17:14] So boss level growth, boss meaning blast off strategically and systemically. So it’s not so much a destination as much as it is a method of modality of growth. There are there’s a modality of growth that gives you incremental results. But. You know, many years ago, people traveled by horse and buggy. And I remember somewhere Henry Ford said if I gave people what they wanted. I’d have just created a bigger horse and buggy. Yeah, but what he ended up creating was a vehicle that had the ability to get him where? Get them where they wanted to go faster. Well, since then, you know, we’ve created the airplane, so now you don’t have to just utilize something with wheels to get you where you want to go. Yes. Can you get in a car and drive from New York to California? You could. But why? When airplanes are available. So. There are there has been vehicles, modalities that help people get to where they want to go, help them to travel further and faster than traditional means of growth like today. If you try to sit a person down and tell them, man, if you just set aside $50 a month, by the time you sit down to try to tell an entrepreneur 30 years old, if they just sit down and just invest it or 25 years old just invest $50 a month into something. By the time they turn 65 or 70, they could actually create $1,000,000. Nobody’s doing that stuff. Nobody’s doing that. They’re not working a job 40 years. They’re not.
A.M. Williams: [00:19:12] They’re not trying to wait 40 years in business. And they don’t even want to commit to a mortgage for 30 years. And some of them don’t even stay in relationships for 30 years. So nobody is trying to do long term methods to get there. What they’re looking for something is that something that has the ability to take them further and faster. So that they can show up when they want to be there. Now, the other side of that is I’m not talking about. You’re learning something that’s going to get you financially independent by next Saturday. I’m not talking about that either. I’m just talking about a mechanism, a method of growth that will allow you to go further and faster. And boss level growth is that method that has the ability to take a person further and faster. I call it the boss growth method to achieve boss level growth. Those people that are really doing this at a high level are doing boss level growth. They got boss level growth to achieve that. They don’t have to work all year to make $1,000,000. They built themselves to a place where they can do that in a summit. They could do that in a seminar. They can do that. You leverage their influence using the power of leverage to achieve what they want. And leverage is a boss growth method. It allows you to pick the high, the highest and most optimal path to get you where you want to go. So that’s what I mean by boss level growth.
Stone Payton: [00:21:00] So can you walk us through an engagement, if that’s the right word, but maybe some of the activities and maybe an example or two? You know, of course, I wouldn’t ask you to name names or anything, but of, you know, what things were like when you began the relationship and some things that you worked through and recommended that they do or not do just to kind of paint a picture of what working with Coach AM looks like.
A.M. Williams: [00:21:26] Well, one of the things that having been having gone through the stuff that I had. I could have looked at that two different ways. I could have looked at that as a major setback. Or I could have looked at that as the cheat sheet. For how to dance with adversity. I chose the latter. So as a result, when COVID came around, my business exploded. Huh? It didn’t it didn’t contract. It didn’t. It didn’t fold. It exploded. Why? Because I had the cheat sheet. Add the cheat sheet from learning how to build a business when you’re not getting stages at that time. You know, when we talked about stage, somebody was telling how virtual summits, people were talking about live events and there was a lot of people that were building their business off live events for when COVID hit. Guess what? Those live events dried up. Mm hmm. And what my experience taught me is. Is a very powerful lesson I got from grapes. You can go to a grocery store and buy a bushel of grapes, probably for a little over $1 and some change a pound. A bushel or so and so. But if you go to a vineyard, you can take grapes that were grown in a vineyard and put them to a fermentation process where they they they are utilized. To create themselves and to create something at a different form that allows them to be significantly more valuable. So you can take grapes out of the store.
A.M. Williams: [00:23:14] They go through a process and they’re sold about a dollar or something, a pound, or you can take grapes and put them through a fermentation process where they’re basically sold for 50 to $100 a bottle. Lesson being you could be more valuable in a different form. So I had a case with a client who phenomenal speaker. Phenomenal speaker, but when COVID hit, it dried up the business. So I gave them the analogy and open them to the possibility that they could be more valuable in a different form. So through that process, we took her message for speaking and put them in the form of online courses. Took her book, created online courses from the book. Upon doing that, her business exploded within a month. I mean it literally like 2 to 3 eggs then. And her ability to generate revenue. Very quickly. And so we did that for that client. And I had a client come to me that was doing. And much, much of the same challenges because they could not physically meet. With their clients. And so when I showed them how to reposition themselves and take their clients through a different process and show them how to help their clients migrate to online based training versus the traditional methods and means, their business did very much the same thing. And so what is being what has come from that is our ability to help businesses. Three X their results and as little as six weeks.
Stone Payton: [00:25:20] Wow.
A.M. Williams: [00:25:20] Six weeks.
Stone Payton: [00:25:22] So what are you I mean, clearly, you’re very passionate about this and you’re thoroughly enjoying the work, but what are you finding the most rewarding right now? What are you enjoying the most about the work?
A.M. Williams: [00:25:35] The transformation. Man. It is so powerful to see the transformation that’s going on in these guys, to see them realize the greatness inside of them. I’m not I’m not doing anything. As much as I am helping them to realize the greatness, to access that greatness in them and compel them to live it out. And as they as they adhere to it and they buy into it. And when I say buy in, I basically mean. They rightly filter it, experience it, meaning they’re present with it, or take action on it without action. What’s the value of any solution? So they have to experience it. Having rightly leveraged it. So that they can ultimately transform their life and their business. So when you look at Riley filtered experience, leveraged and transformed it, it shows rightly felt. So knowledge becomes treasure once it is rightly felt. And that’s. That’s the value that we bring to the world. And. Serve others with. The knowledge that is rightly felt.
Stone Payton: [00:27:15] Are you finding in your work that some lovers or one particular lover is, I don’t know, more powerful, easier to implement faster? Like is there almost a go to lever or to that you’re almost certain at some point you’re going to engage that and facilitate their their propensity to to to utilize that particular lever? Or is it just different in every situation?
A.M. Williams: [00:27:44] Well, the most powerful lever across the board. Is the the dynamic of becoming more is the dynamic of personal growth. Jim Rome once said, if you’ve got $1,000,000, you’ve got to become a millionaire quick. So growth is the most powerful lever in any business. If you’re not making the conscious decision to become more than your leverage is limited. The greatest limitation Tony Robbins talked about this and I’m paraphrasing, he said the greatest limitation in a business often is the psychology of the owner. Man. So when we try to shortcut growth by looking for external tools, external systems, we’re trying to shortcut the thing that not only allows us to achieve at a higher level, but to sustain that growth. Like, who wants to, you know, when we play football back in the day? Stone We used to do these things called. Suicides where you have to run.
Stone Payton: [00:29:03] I remember those in basketball.
A.M. Williams: [00:29:07] Yeah. Run ten yards, then run back and run. I hated those things. I hated those things. But, you know, people don’t think they’re really accomplishing much unless every time they hit a new level, they have to run back to the starting line. And again, if we just think about things twice, Mike Murdock said, Dr. Mike Murdock said, If you think twice, you’re almost genius in this generation. If we can just really get people to think. Twice about what they’re doing. And how is it really attributed? It’s never what we’re doing. It’s the way we’re thinking about what we’re doing that’s causing the problem. And so I just encourage people to really think about what they’re doing. And so I guess in many regards that’s like, what, metacognition? It’s not so much about what you’re thinking as the way you’re thinking about what you’re doing. It’s not so much about what you’re doing is the way you’re thinking about what you’re doing is creating the problem. So that’s why I say if you if we work on us. That personal growth, that commitment to grow as a a business owner, that commitment to grow in our culture of the business, that commitment to grow within our sales team, that commitment to grow in the organization. Once we create a culture that is growth oriented, we position ourselves with the ultimate lever. Of what it takes to really achieve more of the success that we want.
Stone Payton: [00:31:06] So let’s talk about the book, which strikes me as one of the ways you’ve chosen to to leverage your ability to reach more people, to serve more people. You’re no stranger to the to the world of authoring. You’ve coauthored a book before, but now you’re the sole author of a book that is going to be released any time now, probably soon. Not too long after this particular conversation is published. Tell us a little bit about the the book, how it came together and what you’re hoping to accomplish with that.
A.M. Williams: [00:31:38] So I literally just basically take people on my path. I give them an inside look on my path from the time of the year 2000. And I, I basically share with them the things that I went through, being vulnerable and sharing, what the challenges that I went through about being told I would be dead in ten days, multiple times since the year 2000. Yet ten years from the last time I was told that I’m still here and on the interview with you. And the reason why that is, is not that, you know, the doctor was bad. He was doing what his level of information told him, how it should turn out. He didn’t realize I had a higher level authority in my life. God himself. They said I should not die. I shall live. And since he created me, I tended to lean more to what he said than what the doctor said. And that that gave me the power to stop focusing on my condition, not be conditioned by my condition, but basically live out the greatness that I had. And I had to get to the point where it was no longer about my condition. As long as I thought in my condition I was a victim, I was a victim. And whatever leverage I had was limited. It was limited. Why? Because the way I saw myself. Technology was there. There were tools that could have helped me better reach, better do, man. When I started seeing myself different, I saw I saw the things that helped me expand my reach differently. As a result, man, I train. I had a client with a business in nine different countries. I trained her sales team. Across nine different countries from my bed, my hospital bed at home.
Stone Payton: [00:33:49] Wow.
A.M. Williams: [00:33:50] I trained that sales team. I’ve done leadership coaching for a Fortune 50 organization. From a bed bound condition. I’ve worked with professionals, doctors, lawyers, accountants, dentists. I’ve worked with them across several I mean, across several industries, coached them all from a bedbound state. I’ve worked with tons of entrepreneurs and processed them through a course that I have and of course that I offer just to kind of kick start their whole growth and development. And that that has also been very lucrative for me. And as a result, now I’m getting all kinds of things from coaching clients and, you know, working with people that are attracted to what I’m doing, having experienced some level of publicity, whether it be a podcast or a stage, a virtual stage or something, and they say, Hey, man, I want you to work with me. And, you know, at at the level at which I do it, you know, these guys are pretty much like, listen, you’re going to help me do this and I’m going to pay you 250 K to do it. I’m like, at the time I didn’t even have a 250 K program, but who am I? To tell this person that, you know what what what I charge, they told me at the level at which they can implement. And I said, sure, okay, let’s do it. And so that’s the thing that I don’t think many consultants or coaches understand, man. If you just show up the way that you’re supposed to, they will. They will either come in and. And be a prospect and and turn into a client, or they will connect you with people in need of what you have. And it will turn into business for you. So that book is a documentary of my past. Of the things that I learned along the way, and I call it leverage without limits. How to make it to the top. When you can’t take the stairs.
Stone Payton: [00:36:17] Wow. What a great title and what an inspiring story. Okay. Before we wrap in just a moment, I’m going to make sure that we provide our listeners with some contact information in some ways to get to you and talk with you or someone on your team. But before we go there, what are some things that someone might be well served to do in preparation of visiting with you? Or are there some things that maybe they should think about or read or do so that they get the most out of reaching out and having an initial conversation with you, do you think?
A.M. Williams: [00:36:52] So Leland Vandewalle. Once was quoted saying. A man’s growth is directly proportional to how much truth? He is willing to confront about himself without running away from it. So. When a person comes to me, I want them in the mind frame that I know I need to grow. But part of my growth is my willingness. To come face to face with the truth and not run away from it. So. I allowed them to do that from the onset with my course called address your BS. I like it and BS representative of belief system. Blindspots. Backstories. Basic suppositions. And we turn those things, we create a breakthrough, we turn it, transform it into a breakthrough strategy. Solid business structure. A business simplified. Better. Business sales. We get rid of that busyness in the schedule. And so that leads to better bank statements. So when people ask me, what do I sell, I just tell them I just sell a bunch of ads.
Stone Payton: [00:38:34] I got to tell you this this conversation, the time and energy invest in this conversation for the for your BS list alone is definitely worth it. All right. So if our listeners would like to reach out, have a conversation with you, begin to learn more about your work and begin working on some of these topics. Let’s leave them with some points of contact. Whatever you feel like is most appropriate LinkedIn, email, whatever. What’s the best way for them to reach out and connect and have a conversation?
A.M. Williams: [00:39:02] So you can you can reach out to me on LinkedIn. I’m under Coach Am Williams. You can also reach out to me on Facebook. I’m under Coach AM Williams. You can coach A and Williams fan page and so you can reach out to me there. I’m under Coach Am on Instagram. So in my social media we have a lot of great fireside chats. You know, I promote promote a lot of inspiration there, but I’m not just inspiration. I am perspiration. So while I don’t want to just get you close to the fire, I want to set you on fire. And the way that we do that is put you through this address, your BS course, so we can purify all of that stuff out and you get all of that mess in the bottom, your view up to the surface and scratch it out and cut it off so that you can show up like gold and you can show up in a way that allows you to attract the people that you most enjoy working with. So social media is great for fireside chats, but if you’re at the point where like, Listen, man, I don’t want to sit by the fire, I need to be set on fire. Then go to address Shabazz Workshop that come. And register for one of my upcoming workshops where over three days I take people from bound to box to show them how they got what it takes to achieve boss level growth.
Stone Payton: [00:40:42] Well, Coach, it has been an absolute delight having you on the show this afternoon. I’m going to ask you if you would to stay on the line even after we go off the air, because I want to chat with you for for a moment, but man, I can’t thank you enough. Thanks so much for coming on and sharing your story and your perspective. We’ll look forward to the book coming out. And if you’re up for it, man, we’ll have you back on when you release that book.
A.M. Williams: [00:41:05] Actually, that would be awesome. My pleasure. And thank you for the opportunity. I consider it a pleasure. People really want to grow, man. I suggest if they haven’t already, I don’t know why, but just in case you’re operating with that level of dysfunction, subscribe to this podcast. Subscribe to this, because this is an amazing resource, an amazing resource for anyone who wants to achieve boss level growth. I would strongly suggest that you do subscribe to this podcast and get great interviews like this one on a regular that would help them tremendously.
Stone Payton: [00:41:44] Well, thank you for that. All right. Until next time, this is Stone Payton for our guest today, Coach AM Williams with AM Williams Coaching Company, LLC, and everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying we’ll see you in the fast lane.
