Breakthrough Career Barriers using Content with Dr. John P. Williams

Foreign. What is up? What is up? I'll tell you what's up. It's your life begins again. Renewed. When you get yourself out of your comfort zone. It's a Neil Donald Walsh quote, but.

It really could have been written by our next guest.

Welcome to the Todd Hartley show. On this show, all I want you to do is listen to exceptional people that are doing remarkable things, impacting people's lives on a very deep and intimate level. And none better than Dr. John Williams, who's going to be joining me in just a few moments. Dr. Williams approached me years ago. He was, in his words, not mine, in his words, a little known country doctor in northern Virginia. And what did he want to do? He wanted to open up a breast cancer school for patients, an online video based education platform. And what he wanted to do was serve more patients. Dude's heart is so big that he wanted to serve more patients than could physically get into his, into his waiting room. So he wanted to create videos answering key questions and he wanted to educate people because he believed that what patients like my wife, when she was just diagnosed, what she deserved more than anything was an education in the battle that she was just about to embark on.

Right.

And that education is going to give her a much better chance of advocating for herself and getting a better outcome. So when he told me he wanted to come up with this breast cancer school for patients and, but he needed my strategy and my guidance, I was all in on Dr. John Williams. In fact, today, Dr. John Williams is the chairman of the White House's president's cancer panel. Sit back, listen to my conversation with one of my favorite people, one of my dear friends, somebody who loves videos so much that on Friday nights, because he's also assembly when he's done with surgery and he opens up wine, he uses a Todd Hartley training by creating a video. And on Friday nights I get a video from, yes, the chairman of the president's cancer panel of him opening up the wine that he's going to have that night. And what in the world that wine tastes like. A little, he's like, it's a little earthy, there's a little cinnamon, a little tobacco, a little BlackBerry, maybe a little cherry instead of BlackBerry. Like it's that level of detail and he sends it to me and because he lives on the east coast, it arrives before I'm at happy hour. But when you listen to Dr. John Williams, here's what you should be doing, I want you looking for his blueprint. He has always stayed on the cutting edge and most importantly, remember, life begins at the end of your comfort zone. He was very comfortable being a country doctor, but he knew he had a larger calling. By hearing that calling and responding to it, instead of what a lot of people do and say, oh, you know, that would be a really great thing for me to do, he got uncomfortable. He went from being an expert in surgery and the fight against cancer to an expert in video creation and digital marketing and YouTube ads. All the stuff we trained him on took his career to the next level. Most importantly, if you are an expert in anything, this is the blueprint I want you to be looking for. Pick up his blueprint, apply it to your life. Here it is. If you are an expert in anything, the next level, the dominant level, the one that you get acknowledged from the last two administrations in America at the White House and asked to serve as the chairman of the president's cancer panel, which is probably, you know, the least controversial thing today, the most bipartisan thing in America is can we just damn win the fight against cancer?

Right?

But he wouldn't have got there if he just remained comfortable as an exceptional breast surgeon. He needed to learn video. He needed to learn digital marketing and also ads on YouTube. And in doing so, his profile. Because he was willing to get uncomfortable and learn a new trick, become a novice in something else instead of just being a proud expert all the time because he learned another channel, he was able to take his career to the next level. And in doing so, served more people than most of us could ever hope to serve in our entire lifetime. Before you hear from Dr. John Williams, here, here's a word from our sponsors. This podcast is brought to you by the Wirebuzz team. Now, if that name sounds familiar, it's because I've spent the past decade growing Wirebuzz into a digital marketing powerhouse designed to maximize clarity in complex sales processes so we can help accelerate revenue. And we do this in three phases. Phase one, we transform your website to function like your best salesperson and then also incorporate persuasive on demand sales videos. Now, your entire team is aligned on messaging, and they're injecting massive clarity into your prospect's head. So your site looks great, but it also has engaging content that helps your team sell on demand 24.

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Dr. Williams, thanks for joining me.

Thank you, Todd. It's so good to see you again. And thanks for having me share my experience and also my successes and struggles with reaching that next level and helping people.

So let's take people back to where you were in your career, like maybe five, six years ago when we first met. But as you mentioned it, you are a country doctor. But take me to that experience, because something inside you, there was an inflection moment where you realized that you could be doing more and serv. Serving more. Walk me through that experience for a moment.

You know, I. I think we all try to figure out is, is this what life is? And I think for me, as a general surgeon, I'm in Northern Virginia. I made a big shift to breast cancer. Ultimately, all I was doing. I then made another shift to create a. An accredited breast center. And I kind of pushed that as far as I could. Kind of a entrepreneur that doesn't make money out of it. And then I realized, what can I do differently? And what I love is that connection with patients. I think it's something that I feel is powerful. It drives me, and I wanted to share that with others. Take that little secret sauce that I share with patients with cancer and share it with others. And I was going to write a book, but then I realized books are dead and everything you have to do is on video. And that is what led me to find you and your prior work as I was exploring what to do into creating a breast cancer school for patients to teach every person that has breast cancer what they need to know and how to get it in their own community.

All right, so I'm at the American Society of Breast Surgeons conference. I get a text message from one of their past presidents that said, I'm sending a doctor, his name is John Williams, your way. He's a breast surgeon from Northern Virginia. I think he needs you. And so then Dr. Williams and I sit down and I knew there was something different about you because a lot of people, and I hope the audience, you can benefit from this. A lot of people say they want to get next level, but they go through the motions of it. But what was different about you is I've never seen anybody take notes like you do. And your notes were the notes that somebody takes when they want to learn and do it on their own. Have you always been somebody who took such detailed notes?

You know what you take notes when it's important. So it's a class you gotta get a good grade in to get to medical school. You take every bit of notes. And you know what? It was a passion. You have to make a decision to take whatever you do to another level or explore something that's totally new to you. And so I took notes. But I also showed you spreadsheets of ideas and a concept for a book that needed to be on video. You got it, which was the most amazing thing. And you kind of looked at me right then and there and said, you're going to actually do this, because no one's created a school for patients in anything. And I have no resources. I'm not a wealthy guy. I really funded it myself. So you knew that. But also, if you are going to do something, you have to not only commit to it, but put the hard work upfront, the fun work, but also the hard work at night when everybody's asleep on your computer brainstorming, it kind.

Of became a hobby, right? Like, in a way, it became one of your second passions. Besides treating patients. You had to become passionate about creating the videos so you could exponentially educate them and serve them at a higher level. But as I. I learned a lot watching you. And what I discovered is most experts, you're. You are excluded from this, aren't very comfortable getting out of their expert lane and becoming a novice in something. But that didn't seem to phase you, like, you were comfortable learning a new trick, even if it meant you'd feel uncomfortable while learning it. Is that accurate?

Absolutely. If I. I can speak to you, I can talk to you, I can share things with you, and I do it with ease and confidence. You put a camera in front of me. It's just interesting. It's a personal phobia, as I've said. If I go to the top, as I get older, I go to the top top of a building, I feel a phobia of falling over. It's a, you know, fear of heights. It's visceral. I always had a visceral fear of talking in front of a camera about medicine. Is my mouth twitching? Am I saying the right things? Am I parsing my words? Is it loud? Too loud? Can you hear me? So I was scared to death, but I was ready to push through. But you know what, what the most powerful thing is, once you and everybody gets a comfort level with it, it's painful. It was painful for me initially because I tried to memorize everything I was going to say, but Then you find how to do it. And you know what allowed me to be relaxed. I realized this when I started shooting videos and I put my hands beside me. I couldn't talk. I was stiff. If I started moving my hands. I talk like I do to everyone and like I'm talking to you now. And you find your trick, you find the comfort zone, and then you're on another level, and you're doing things on another level. You're accomplishing things, especially a video for me, and communicating online, which is essential in today's world and will be essential for the next several decades.

Yeah, it's really interesting. Like, I always figure that the hands are like the conductor of your tonality and your expression, your personality. And when you lock these things down and become wooden, so too does your ability to communicate the way you naturally would. And so you just, like, got into it. You got freed. We even Dr. Williams flew out to Arizona, I think twice. I think you came out twice. And we went through trainings on what I believe was your vacation. And I find that startling because most experts. I know a couple of experts right now that are on the beach in Cabo, that are colleagues of yours, and they would do that on their vacation. But instead, you came out to Arizona in the middle of summer, you.

To learn how to create videos because.

You wanted to get next level for yourself. How did that ability to communicate on video help you impact patients that you'll never get to meet?

It opened a world that I didn't know as a private practice physician who experience online as clicking away on the Internet. And I had no skills leading up to it. And I engaged with your team and you to not only learn the fundamentals well in advance, so we created content for some main videos that we were going to parse through. But in that process, I was going to learn how to create content. And also in my case, I need to shoot this in my basement because I. I got to go to work every day. And I. I'm. I'm on a shoestring budget for that project, which, by the way, I'll tell you how successful it is in a minute. But it really owns YouTube and breast cancer, the whole field of breast cancer. So I learned it with your team. They taught me best practices. They're really very simple things. It's kind of like simple care and medicine. We consider it pretty simple. You on the outside, if you're not a physician, think it's so complex. These are simple skills. But once you understand them and listen, you carry with them with you forward for the rest of your life to do good for people, to market things, to sell things. I teach my son. He has a YouTube channel on about space. He goes to museums and shows those. He's a natural at it. I never was. But those skills are helping my son. But more importantly, the breast cancer skill for patients has touched millions of people. If you put in and just search in YouTube, put breast cancer, you'll see my face at the very top. It's a really powerful platform. No one had ever done it before. You had done it with breast cancer answers before. And I did an organizational structure and took it to another level. And that's how I found you. And that was light years ahead of when I did it. And it was beyond forward thinking. And that's what I found with you and your team, your forward thinking. How are these videos going to rank? How are we. They're going to YouTube, going to use their algorithms. You told me to make long videos. Made no sense. That's. That's the nature of my success. But you knew it that summer because you knew YouTube was going to change their algorithm. So it's a lot of different components. But if you have someone to teach you, this is critical aspects to success in life and helping and in business.

Yeah, it's so cool. And then these videos started going viral. Dr. Williams started winning awards. People were watching like, I don't know.

At one point we had people that.

Were watching 7 minutes on average or 10 minutes on average. And today, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you have more subscribers than Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the National Cancer Institute. And both of them had like a two decade head start on you. And then tell me what happened to your career and how you can now support patients on a larger level. What happened after you learned how to deploy video and people started finding it?

It's amazing when you create a platform. And again, I'm a physician, we fight creating platforms. We do things the way we were taught. It is always decades behind in communication skills. It's what makes us good and not harm people but in practice. But not only did this platform rise and people found it and just were glued to this content. And again, it was not for profit. Had nothing to do with my practice. It's a breast cancer school for patients teach anyone anywhere around the world. And with that platform being visible, I ultimately was contacted by the White House and asked to chair the President's cancer panel. It was with the context of how do. Our panel identifies key opportunities in the National Cancer Program, meaning everyone, including corporations and doctors and patients. What are some things that we can do and communicate to the president of the United States and also everyone about how to do something better in cancer? I've chaired that for the last couple of years. It's an incredible opportunity. Work really hard at it. But I'll tell you, it's having those communication skills. And, Todd, I brought you into open public meetings to help teach. I mean, the leaders from Harvard and the leaders from National Cancer Institute and the leaders from Aetna and the leaders from government people, from the surgeons and the medical oncologists to teach them that they have to communicate and use. And it's uncomfortable for them to hear this. Marketing skills to do good in this world, to have people hear you and take an action. In this case, let's take cancer screenings, what we were talking about, and do something to help yourself. And those require thoughts, gather attention, touch people where they are, and then give them a message that they understand that resonates. And those are marketing principles. But there are the principles to help so many others. And you are critical in helping our number one category in the closing gaps in cancer screening for different cancers. It's about communications, and part of that is how do we communicate better and also touch people that we don't touch to get a mammogram or get a colonoscopy or something of that nature?

Yeah, it's so cool. So in my hands, right here is the report that the president's cancer panel submitted to the President. Dr. Williams is actually on his second administration, which in this bipartisan world is always really fascinating that you've been able to. You've got the opportunity to serve two White Houses, and it was fun working on this report and being able to provide marketing guidance to it. But can you talk to us about. Look, February 2nd, something extraordinary happened at the White House with the cancer moonshot project that was announced there in the White House. Wait a minute. You FaceTimed me from the White House before the president's. Nobody's ever done that. Can I tell you, there've been so many times where I'm like, why don't they just FaceTime me from the Situation Room? I could help help them clear up this mess. But you FaceTimed me from the White House, and it just was an awesome feeling to get that call, man.

Well, we issued. We came up with this report, and it. It's a big report, but it's simple, common sense. Connect the dots, actionable recommendations. And the White House was creating a cancer moonshot, a second cancer moonshot that they were planning to release in early February. So we align with the White House over a few month period of time. Our report goes to the president that it is directed at the President. If you google president's cancer panel report, you'll find off all our reports over the last 50 years. But the White House in creating its cancer moonshot, from screening to treatment to survivorship, included our report as the foundation and backed up by this report for screening and recommendations for our nation. In the East Room in the White House, the president, the first lady, the vice president all spoke about cancer a lot about screening. There were lots of important cancer people, advocates, congresspeople. It was a big announcement and there's some really neat opportunities within the administration. They're creating a cancer cabinet. So different FDA and HHS all get together and say how can we move the ball forward on something with the power of these federal agencies? Got to meet the President, get a picture with them. It was exciting. It's part of what we do and how do we do it better? And Todd, you've been very helpful, not only getting me in that position, but being able to communicate allows me to be more effective and in a federal position. Again, it's a part time federal federal committee. We have no power. But I tell you what, the skills that we're talking about not only help me create a platform, but give me the skills to do what I do and do it well and make people walk away feeling comforted that they're heard and that they hear me and that they want to work and implement things that I'm asking them to.

So amazingly, I get amazingly inspired when I hear you share this transformation that you've had because a lot of people have visions and dreams where they get to serve people on a much higher level and impact the world, but they miss the opportunity to learn a new trick or to level up their skills and. And I think you're a perfect example for being able to do that and learn a new trick at a, at any time in your career. And once you learn that new trick, like if we were sitting there and I believe, I don't know, I think we were in Dallas when we met. But if we were sitting there, neither of us would envision you propelling forward to a position supporting the White House on their national cancer policy. It almost seems bizarre. But that's the power of continuing education and learning new tricks, wouldn't you say?

It's critical in my situation. And you shared with Me and you probably shared in your other content. But innovation doesn't occur until you get to the edge of your comfort zone. And I felt that comfort zone, that uncomfortableness, that pain of. I'm Dr. John Williams in front of the video and I'm a breast cancer surgeon. I watched that video and I cringe because I was stiff and I was uncomfortable. I was trying to do it. But if you don't get to that level, then you're always going to stay wherever you are, which is fine. But if you're an innovator, if you have ambitions, or not even ambitions, but intentions, to do things, to help, to help your kids, help others altruistically, to help your business, to help your corporation, you have this. These are basic skills that the world and the Internet has taken off. And if you're not on that, you are being left behind by people that make lower quality content that therefore maybe even take a message forward that might harm people, or take a message forward to get sales that don't have as a product that is good, as another person that does not know these skills. So it really is a skill of life and a skill of today. And it's worth working through that because then you feel a comfort. Let me just tell you something, Todd. We all, after the pandemic, are spending time on a zoom call. I'm talking to you from a computer. I'm standing up here. I'll give you an example. So I'm standing up, but I'm going to turn around. Guess where my computer is? It's on a box. Okay. But that's because I'm more comfortable standing and I think that it's more engaging. I look into the camera. We now do video all the time. I've been doing it for five years. You've been doing it for your whole life almost. But if you don't have training and best practices, your engagement in this format, no longer at a roundtable or you therefore know to look people in the eye, you know to nod, you know to be engaged, you have to learn those best practices. And now we communicate by video. It's not even really in person anymore. You have to have these skills. They're basic, but. But there's a level of comfort to be training to do things in best practices. And I would just tell you, yes, it's uncomfortable. Seems crazy. You're like, oh, that Williams guy knows all this. It was a. It was, it was something that you put time in to learn the foundations. It's like. And then you. It's like riding a bike, you just apply it to anything you want to do.

Well, it's all really human if you just know how to get into what you're doing and why you're doing it. When you're in person with somebody, all you're doing is like facilitating those same human interactions. But you're not there in person. You're doing it right into a lens. And so you're almost, you almost forget that you're looking into a lens. And after a while you just feel like you're talking to another person and it becomes very natural. Dr. Williams is there. How do you motivate yourself when you're learning something new and it feels awkward because you've been a breast surgeon, you've been a surgeon for your career, you've been a doctor, you went to medical school and you had to learn something all the time. But it gets so different when you get really skilled at your craft. You take pride in it. Then when you learn something new, it's almost like your identity's taken away from you. But I didn't see you go through that when you were learning to edit video or learning to set up your studio. So did you have to motivate yourself to do something completely different?

Oh, it was, it was. It's all of those things. Setting up a studio, getting lights. These are not that difficult. But I'm a perfectionist so it's more difficult to me because I'm uncomfortable if it's not perfect or better than the professionals. But. So that's my own issues. But you know what, it's funny, all those, let's just say making content. I was met a, met a guy that did lighting and sound but he knew about lighting. So we kind of. I painted a wall green. That was the worst thing to do in my basement. Like painted it. Eventually put just a $10 sheet behind you and it works better than spending hours painting. But what I would just tell you is this. I had. Give it five tries, five good tries. I had this example last night. I was asked to write some questions for American American Board of Surgery Continuing Recertification Examination. I hate that exam. It's painful. I can't stand taking tests, nor am I that good at it. And making the questions is hard. Guess what? The person that teaches that had a 15 minute video and taught us how to do it. There's lots of written stuff. I don't have time for that. I'm busy. So I watched his video twice, started outlining it. I'm going to go back. So that was my first. And then I'm going to go back again. But after last night, after I was working on it, I kind of had the sense for my five questions I got to come up with, I felt more comfortable. When I go back to it, it's not painful. I'm like, okay, I know what I need to do. When I go back on a third time, I'm then actually doing it. And when I go back the fourth or fifth time, I'm correcting what I've done. And that is probably give it 5. Give it 5 good college tries and work through it. But always that first try is the most difficult. And then there's work. But then when you come out the other side. So when I do this again for next year, because a friend asked me to be on the committee and I'm happy to do it, I will. It shouldn't be a problem. And I'll know those skills. And so give it five tries. And it's whether it's five times in front of the camera or five things to set something up, or five things to find a way to communicate in video what you do to others or in business. But you've got to learn these skills, and the best practices are what people like you and others teach.

Thank you.

Did you have a similar approach when you did your TED Talk? Because I know that you applied yourself. You got in, you started reviewing other people's speeches, you started working and developing your material. You were in, if I recall, like support groups where you advised and guided each other on your material. Is that a similar approach?

Very similar. I did a very small, short TEDx talk about why we need to create more schools for patients about anything. So that was kind of my passion. Trying to share an idea worth spreading their motto. Condensing something into a short talk is a challenge. That was the biggest challenge, kind of your life's work into five minutes. It was a short TED Talk, but interesting. Yeah, you work on it, do it on your off time. And then I now train people to do it. Do you see what I'm saying? So now I know the best practices, and I train people subsequently, not because I'm any good at it, but you.

You.

It's a skill. It's a skill that I had to learn and work on and now had nothing to do with video. And it's video, it's online. But I can train people.

What I'm hoping people get out of.

This is there's moments in Dr. Williams evolution when he's learning video or becoming a surgeon or doing a TED Talk that's going to change the world, where he said to himself, I don't know if this is going to work. And yet he continued to refine and develop and motivate himself while he was going through the I don't think this is going to work moment. And then he had the breakthrough. And with each of those breakthroughs, his career took off to another level so he could serve more people. And that's what I love. Like when I think of Dr. Williams, like you mentioned, I think of life begins at the end of your comfort zone. That's Neale Donald Walsh, and it's a great quote. But for anybody that's ready for next level in their life, like you're feeling stagnant or maybe your spirit's crying out to you right now because you know there's another level. The next level will happen and it'll happen. But what it looks like is it appears with in overalls and it looks like work. And if you're willing to get into the work and get a little dirty and learn some new skills, you'll be able to have that transformation. And if you aren't, you're still going to have the same frustration, except you're never going to be reaching that full potential that you owe yourself to see. Dr. Williams, thank you so much for joining me. More importantly, thank you for the work that you do for patients in Northern Virginia and the work that you do for patients all over the US Helping to improve access to cancer and to screenings and cancer treatment. Excuse me. And then on a larger level, thank you for the work that you do for patients like my wife, who could be anywhere in the world that now have access to leading information on how to help themselves improve their outcomes by going through the breast cancer school for patients. You are a real gem and honor to be able to spend time with you, Todd.

Likewise. Thank you for having me. You know what? I just thought of something about taking life or whatever business to the next level. It's not only getting to your comfort zone. We can work and work and still do the same thing. And if it hasn't worked in the past and we just work a little harder, help some. But sometimes you're just going to be repeating the cycle. So what you have to do is find the edge of the comfort zone in a different aspect and then apply that extra work to that. So I think it's get the edge of your comfort zone and then do the work to it. And the second thing is nothing is ever, ever successful. But more importantly, rewarding, whether it's personal or business or in your life, unless you put a lot of time and effort into it. So that's the message to anyone. It's a message we try to give to our kids.

Yeah.

A message in work and it's a message in helping people. And we want to motivate more people to do it, but we also have to have the tools to do it. And these are just, these are just some skills that I wouldn't be doing any of what I'm doing without actually working with you and finding you. And I found you online. Not you, but actually the person that was the physician that, that did all of your content years ago. So I owe what I do to those skills in the relationship that with you and your larger team at Wirebus. Wow.

Thank you. It's a real honor. Dr. Williams, where can people find out more information if they want to get on the Dr. Williams websites and start following you? Where should they go?

Well, the President's Cancer panel, if you Google that, is our larger panel. It's a federal advisory committee that advises the country on some cancer panels. So we have reports than the recent panel report just came out. You can go to the Breast Cancer School for patients. It's breastcancercourse.org and you can also go to YouTube and pull up Breast Cancer School for Patients and see the. I don't know what. We're up to 25,000 subscribers now and people watching content all along. So those are just some things. Things. But you know what? They're all linked to the same skills of communicating and taking your time to come in and do an interview where I know that this is a powerful format to also share different concepts with others and you have to make yourself available. But you know what, when you do something unique, rewards find you in ways you never ever would have predicted. And that's what's happened to me in many different ways.

Yeah, it's so true. I mean, I think about this all the time. Look at your screen. I think of this on the website and I think this is the gov site and the President Cancer Panel site. It says he is the founder and is the medical director of the Breast Cancer School for Patients, an online video based cancer education platform. And none of that would have happened if he just got really comfortable and stayed in his lane. Instead everything took off and he was able to start serving more people. Dr. Williams, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for reaching out and supporting patients all over the world and being a dear friend through the process. I'm honored to get to work with you.

Yo, that was a powerful episode. And from what we just learned, it should be obvious how you can now implement these lessons in your life to get to the next level. Now, before you bounce, I just have three quick thoughts. First, thank you for taking me on your incredible life journey. Second, if you receive some value from me and you want to pay it forward, it would mean the world to me. If you left an honest rating and review at Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you listen, I'd be incredibly grateful. And lastly, if you share this episode, whether it be a screenshot or a photo from where you're listening, anything via Instagram stories or LinkedIn, Facebook, or any of the social media sites, just tag me and the guest. I'll repost your content and I'll reply back in the comments because I love mixing it up. In fact, I'd love to share your shout outs in my feed too. Not only are these shout outs really good for you and for me, but they also help us book more amazing guests because they'll be able to see the reach that you're helping to cultivate. This is a way for you to help contribute to the show. So thank you again for listening and I look forward to earning a regular spot inside that ear of yours.

Let's grow.

Sam.