When a teacher told 12-year-old dyslexic Natalie Williams she would probably end up in a transition class or be better off leaving school for a job, she could have taken it to heart. Instead, she used the moment as motivation to prove them wrong.
Today, the 39-year-old Kiwi entrepreneur splits her time between Dubai, Bali, the US and Australia, working in international property and finding herself in some extraordinary rooms along the way.
She’s met famous faces and built a life far bigger than the one she may once have imagined as a schoolgirl on Auckland’s North Shore.
“I was also bullied at the time, so I remember building resilience very early and deciding I wasn’t going to let anybody define me. I was going to become the best version of myself, no matter what.”
Natalie went on to study communications at AUT, but her first career wasn’t in a corporate office – she spent her twenties as a pastor.
“Contribution has always been really high up there for me, so I gave up everything material and just served people for 10 years,” she shares.
“I probably did things backwards – people usually do philanthropy later on in life – but I felt called to help people. Something I’m proud of from that time was creating a suicide prevention tour where I took the hip-hop world champions to schools with a message of hope and support. I loved that.”
His legacy lives on
Then her dad got sick.
“I was his main caregiver for six months and that was a huge turning point for me because I watched him die – he was only 52. I was able to spend that time with him and he imparted to me that you can do anything you put your mind to.”
His death prompted Natalie to back herself and move into marketing, PR and events. She launched her own agency and says she grew it into a seven-figure business within two years – a different world from pastoral work, but one that still drew on her people skills.
Natalie tells, “Being a pastor taught me that everyone has a story. You learn empathy and how to genuinely connect with people.”
Covid changed the game
Then Covid hit and her retainer clients disappeared overnight. Having reinvented herself once, Natalie knew she could do it again. She dove into business and personal-development training, including a Tony Robbins coaching course, and eyed real estate after friends suggested she’d be good at it. After selling her first house in three months, Natalie was hooked.
“I could just see the opportunity because I was entrepreneurial. I wanted to do brand-new builds and I wanted to do something different, so I went and pitched to a developer. “Everyone told me I needed to start grassroots, but I was like, ‘No, I’ve built businesses. I think differently. I back myself.’ I won my first development – a $350 million listing that I partnered with ex-All Black Troy Flavell on. That’s when the lights came on for me.”
Taking her business global
Working with developers and foreign investors opened her eyes to the global opportunity. She explored markets in the US and UAE, learning how people around the world build wealth through property. By the end of 2024, she’d moved to Dubai to establish Wealth Creators, where she now works with developers and investors all over the world.
Because of confidentiality agreements, Natalie can’t name-drop the high-profile people she’s worked with, but she can reveal she’s chatted with Chris Brown at a party in Los Angeles, talked life and business with Vin Diesel in New York, and watched rapper Tyga perform from a VIP booth in Las Vegas.
Dubai was a culture shock, but Natalie loves its energy and scale.
“Dubai has it all,” she enthuses.
“The millionaire migration is insane and, with the low-tax environment, the networking is amazing for entrepreneurs. I also love the wellness facilities, incredible restaurants and beach clubs. Dubai Mall is the best shopping experience in the world.”
Creating her own legacy
Her goal is to sell $1 billion of property in the next decade and eventually return to philanthropy, but for now, Natalie’s focused on building something of her own.
Natalie explains, “My twenties was ministry, my thirties was business and my forties will be all about building something I’m excited about. “I love being my own
boss, being disruptive, having the balls to go in on my dream and do something no one else has done. I had to believe in me – no one believed in me, so I had to believe in me first. “The one thing I hope anyone takes from me is resilience – pushing through, continuing to get back up and go again is so powerful. I’ve built my dream and I’m living it.”
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