For about a year, I was convinced this Substack was about building a life abroad.
That was true. It was also not enough.
I wrote about the move. The schools. The visas. The bank accounts. The morning a country starts to feel like home. I interviewed people who had done it. I told my own story.
From New Jersey. To London in 2015. To Copenhagen in 2016. Back to London in 2021. Now in the Middle East in Doha, Qatar, as of August 2024.
Two kids. A husband. A business that kept running while we kept moving.
What I left out is the part that made the moves actually work.
The business underneath them.
Here is what I never said out loud on this Substack.
The only reason the moves worked is because the business held up. The only reason the business held up is because of the operating system I had been building inside other people’s companies and my own for over ten years.
I split the conversation in half. Life over here. Business over there.
The people I am actually built to help do not live that way.
You do not get to leave the business at the airport.
You do not get to fantasize about a slower week without looking at who, exactly, is going to do the work that has your name on it.
The life decision and the business decision are one and the same.
So I was telling you half the truth. Here is the other half.
Who am I?
I am Sonaya Williams.
Wife of ten years. Mom to two daughters, ages seven and nine. Business owner for fifteen years.
I have lived in three different countries with my family over the past nine years.
That is the personal side.
Here is the working side.
For the last decade, I have been the CEO Partner. That is the agency I run. We come in when a founder has built something successful and is now stuck inside it. The business is making money. The founder is exhausted. Every decision still goes through them. Nothing moves without them.
We install the operating system underneath the business. The one that removes the founder as the bottleneck.
We call it the CEO Operating System, or CEO OS.
It is not a course.
It is the actual structure a business runs on.
Decisions. Rhythms. Roles. Money. Delivery. Team.
When the CEO OS is in place, the founder gets their brain back. I like to call it Brain Space.
When it is not, the founder keeps solving the same problems on a different week.
Why I cannot sell that to you… yet
The full CEO Partner engagement is built for businesses that already have a team and serious revenue.
If you are reading this, that is probably not you yet.
The math does not work. Not because the work is not worth it. Because it was built for a business three or four steps ahead of where you are right now.
That is the gap I am closing here.
What am I actually doing?
I am taking the CEO OS, the same intellectual property I install inside the businesses I work with, and I am right-sizing it for the solo and lean operator.
The one person shop. The founder plus a virtual assistant. The founder, plus two contractors, and a podcast editor. The person trying to get to six figures and feel like the business is already heavier than it should be.
Same IP.
Smaller frame.
Tools you can actually use, right now.
This is where being a Global Citizen becomes real. Honest writing about what it takes to run a business that does not need you in every seat.
Inside the Global Life Library are the tools. Every post includes a tool, a template, a framework, or a system you can use the same week. Every tool, template, framework, and system stays inside the Global Life Library.
How will this Substack run every week?
One life article. One business article. Every week.
Sundays are for life decisions. Where to live. When to move. How to design a footprint that fits your family. The big calls that have nothing to do with a P&L and everything to do with the shape of your year.
Wednesdays are for business decisions. What to install. What to stop doing. How to run a small operation without becoming the operation.
The two frameworks I work from
There are two. They do different jobs.
The Global Citizens Framework is the lens through which Sundays are viewed.
The life lens.
It has three phases.
Desire. Should I? Direction. Where do I? Design. When do I?
It works if you are literally moving abroad. It also works as a model for any operator making a big call. Should I take this on? Where does it go? When do I commit?
The CEO Operating System is the lens through which Wednesdays are viewed.
The business lens.
How the business runs. Where the leaks are. What to install first. What to stop doing entirely.
A note on location
The title of this Substack is Global Life Project.
But here is what I want you to hear:
Location is the differentiator. Not the requirement.
You do not need to leave the country to belong here.
The systems work in Cleveland. They work in Croatia. They work in Cairo. They work wherever you are.
Global Life Project is for the operator running a small, lean business who wants the option. To move. To slow down. To rebuild. To step back. Without it costing them the thing they built.