Ashley Woods on TopBillerToolkit Podcast: How to make millions while traveling the world
From corporate recruiter to digital nomad entrepreneur — Ashley Woods shares how mindset, AI automation, and strategic partnerships transformed her recruitment business while living the life most people only dream about.
When most recruiters think about scaling their desk, they picture longer hours, more stress, and being chained to an office. Ashley Woods flipped that script entirely. She quit her corporate job, traveled to 45 countries, and built a thriving recruitment business that generates seven figures—all while surfing twice a day and working just 3-4 focused hours when she felt like it. Sound impossible? That's what everyone told her too.
In this conversation on the TopBillerToolkit Podcast, Ashley breaks down exactly how she did it—and more importantly, how other recruiters can apply the same principles to buy back their time and build businesses that serve their lives, not consume them.
The Foundation: Mindset Over Everything
When asked about her number one tool in the toolkit, Ashley didn't hesitate: mindset.
"You can't do anything without a proper mindset," she explains. "My mindset in particular has attributed to a lot of the success that I've had. Having a growth mindset really goes a long way in recruiting."
But Ashley wasn't always this way. Like many of us, she had to develop it intentionally. Her secret? The first 20 minutes of your day are the most impressionable. Every morning, Ashley would wake up and immediately start consuming motivational content — Tony Robbins, David Goggins, Tom Brady speeches. She literally reprogrammed her brain by feeding it positivity during that crucial morning window.
"If I'm feeling down or need to pump myself up, I go right back to those videos and switch my state," Ashley says. "It's such a simple concept, but it's so easy to either stop feeding your brain or get trapped in a negativity spiral online."
The lesson? Your mindset is like a muscle. You have to train it daily, or it atrophies.
Actionable takeaway: Block out 15-20 minutes every morning to consume positive, inspiring content. Make it non-negotiable. Your entire day — and business — will shift as a result.
The Journey: From Corporate to Digital Nomad
Ashley grew up in a small Canadian town of 3,000 people, five hours from the nearest city. She always dreamed of seeing the world but never imagined she could do it while running a successful business. After a stint in Whistler meeting friends from around the world, she became obsessed with the idea of working abroad. The original plan was to quit her corporate job and head to Australia.
"I was just so drawn to traveling the world and having freedom. I've always been motivated by freedom first," she explains.
When she finally pulled the trigger and boarded a plane to Thailand, there wasn't a moment of doubt.
"People told me I was crazy, that I was throwing everything in the garbage. I just ignored it," Ashley recalls. "I landed in Thailand, got in a taxi, didn't even know if it was safe. I just loved that uncertainty—it motivated me."
Most people hate uncertainty. Ashley thrives in it. And that difference in mindset is exactly what allowed her to build something extraordinary.
The Reality: Consistency Is Everything
Living the digital nomad dream sounds amazing—and it is—but it's not all beaches and Mai Tais.
"The one word that everything boils down to is consistency," Ashley emphasizes. "I wasn't consistent the entire time—that would be a total lie. But I learned through trial and error."
In the beginning, Ashley was taking client calls at 3 AM, 4 AM, 5 AM. She was staying in hostels where everyone was partying while she was trying to work. It was a disaster. But she got smart. Fast.
She started working time zones in her favor. She stayed in co-working environments where other people were doing similar things instead of party hostels. She learned which geographical locations allowed her to be most productive.
"In Europe, there's an eight-hour time zone advantage. I could surf twice a day before I even had to work," she explains. "Asia's tough—when I went back this summer, I just didn't take meetings."
Her typical day in Portugal: Surf in the morning, work a bit, hang out with friends, eat lunch, chill from 12-4 PM (when she knows she's useless anyway), then knock out focused work in the evening when North American clients were online.
The key insight? She designed her business around her life — not the other way around.
The Secret: Time as a Weapon
Here's where Ashley's approach gets really interesting. Most recruiters work 8-10 hour days and still struggle to hit their numbers. Ashley works 3-4 focused hours and crushes it. How? She uses time as a tool to force productivity.
"I knew if I had three hours to get something done, I'm just going to maximize those three hours and do it as fast as I can," Ashley explains. "I'd be laser focused, get it done, and then go do what I wanted to do."
Why? Because she wanted to get back to the beach. She wanted to go on excursions. She wanted to surf.
"It's counterproductive to work all the time. I was very time-motivated. I'd set my objectives for the day and do it as fast as possible."
This is the opposite of how most people work. They stretch tasks to fill the time available. Ashley compressed everything ruthlessly. The result? She can get more done in 3-4 focused hours than most people accomplish in eight.
Actionable takeaway: Try working in compressed time blocks. Set aggressive deadlines for tasks. You'll be shocked at how much more productive you become when time pressure forces you to eliminate distractions.
The 80/20: Leverage, Leverage, Leverage
So what were the actual mechanisms that allowed Ashley to work less while earning more? Three words: Delegation and partnerships.
Phase 1: Outsourcing (The Learning Curve)
Initially, Ashley tried hiring sourcers and recruiters. At one point, she had four or five sourcers working for her, and she trained them to become full-time recruiters.
"The only thing I had to do when I got on the phone was validate what the recruiter had already laid out for me," she says.
But there was a problem: she was spending tons of time on coaching and development.
"I love coaching and development—it's probably my favorite part—but it wasn't what I was after at the time. I was just trying to grow my business," Ashley admits.
Phase 2: Partnerships (The Game Changer)
Then Ashley discovered something revolutionary: partnering with other senior recruiters instead of hiring junior ones.
"When I made that shift to partnerships, my business just skyrocketed," she says.
The difference is profound:
- Hiring model: You're responsible for training, development, and results. You spend massive time on coaching.
- Partnership model: You work with senior recruiters (10-15 years experience) who already have crazy good networks and their own businesses. No training required.
"I'm working with people who are either better than me—most of them are better than me, honestly—or just as good," Ashley explains. "They have similar goals and objectives. They want to get deals done."
Instead of candidates coming from recruiters who work for her, they come from independent professionals who are just as motivated to close deals.
"Collaboration is the new competition," Ashley says, referencing the economic concept of competitive and comparative advantage.
Actionable takeaway: Before you hire your next employee, ask yourself: Could I partner with someone who's already excellent at this instead? It might save you years of headaches.
The Multiplier: AI and Automation
Here's where things get really wild. Ashley now runs her desk with minimal staff by leveraging AI strategically. And we're not talking about basic ChatGPT prompts—she's built sophisticated systems that save her days of work.
Her Three Rules for Technology:
- If the task doesn't require your brain, it belongs to automation
- If it repeats, it gets a system
- If it drains you, it gets redesigned
Real Example: From 3 Days to 1 Hour
Ashley specializes in government recruiting, which involves 50-100 page compliance documents for every candidate submission. In the past, this would take 3 days of work. Now? Less than an hour. Here's how she does it:
She trains custom GPTs to understand her clients' hiring preferences by analyzing:
- Who they've hired in the past
- Who currently works there
- Who they've picked to interview
- Feedback from successful placements
The AI creates detailed candidate personas based on actual data—not opinions. When she needs to shortlist 50 candidates down to 2, the AI analyzes those massive documents in minutes.
"The AI removes a lot of bias because it's not my opinion on who I think is good for the role. It's data-backed," Ashley explains.
The result? Her submission-to-interview ratio is incredibly high because she's giving clients exactly what they want.
Other AI Applications:
BD Outreach: Ashley drops a prospect's LinkedIn profile into a custom GPT that analyzes:
- Macroeconomic factors affecting their industry
- Microeconomic factors for their specific company
- Their DISC assessment profile (to match communication style)
- Industry-relevant problems and solutions
"When you come to the table and start talking about how macroeconomic impact trickles down into their specific organization, you become a different type of vendor," she says.
Candidate Personas: Pull all LinkedIn profiles from a client's team, feed them into a custom GPT, and have it identify patterns, trends, education backgrounds, and hiring biases.
"You're looking for fingerprints of who they already like," Ashley explains.
Actionable takeaway: Ashley only uses LinkedIn and ChatGPT (with custom GPTs and projects). She keeps her tech stack lean and delegates the complex automation to technical people. You don't need to become an AI expert—you need to know how to use it strategically or partner with people who do.
The Value-Add: Teaching Clients AI
Here's a brilliant positioning strategy: Ashley doesn't just use AI internally—she teaches it to clients as part of her value proposition. When clients push back with "What makes you different?" or "How do you add value?", Ashley talks about these AI-powered processes.
"Do they know about these things? Sure. Do they have time to do them? No. Do they really know how to do them? No. Would they prefer to have more time in their day and let you do them? Absolutely."
She invites clients to be part of the process — building candidate personas together, creating hiring fingerprints collaboratively. The result? She gets sticky with clients because she's teaching them something valuable, not just filling roles.
Actionable takeaway: Don't hide your secret sauce—use it as a differentiator in your BD. Clients will pay premium fees for recruiters who bring genuine strategic value beyond just sourcing candidates.
The Energy Audit: Beyond Time Management
Most recruiters have done time audits. Ashley takes it further with energy audits.
Inspired by Dan Martell's book "Buy Back Your Time," Ashley recommends this exercise:
- Write down everything you do for two weeks
- Highlight in green the things that energize you
- Highlight in red the things that de-energize you
- Look at it like a map
"The first thing you're going to want to automate as a recruiter is the things that are red—because you hate doing those things. They drain you," Ashley explains."When people think of time audits, they think about just time. How do I save time? But what about energy audits? That's what really matters."
This is brilliant. You can save time on a task but still feel exhausted if it drains your energy. The goal isn't just efficiency — it's sustainable energy throughout your day.
Actionable takeaway: Do an energy audit this week. Identify what drains you and make a plan to eliminate, automate, or delegate those tasks immediately.
The Leverage Lifestyle: How to Get Started
"I'm 80% leverage," Ashley says. "I have a ton of time because I've leveraged so much."
Her process:
- Identify the task
- Ask: "Who can I delegate this to that'll do it better than I can?"
- Give up control and accept 80% results (which is fantastic if you're not the one doing it)
"I'm an outsourcing queen. When I get a task, I'm like, who can I delegate this to?"
But here's the key: You have to build leverage first before you can spend time learning AI or optimizing your business.
"I took the responsibility and gave it to somebody else. I trust that they'll do their best. Now I have all this time to research and learn and geek out and listen to podcasts."
This is why having a podcast is powerful—you're learning directly from people who are already doing the thing. It's a massive shortcut. If you don't have time to learn tools yourself, learn from people who do: podcasts, events, coaches.
The Investment Mindset: Coaches for Everything
Ashley has coaches for:
- Nutrition
- Fitness
- Muay Thai
- Surfing
- Business (Tony Robbins results coach)
"The best thing I ever did was get coaches for everything," she says. "They keep me super accountable. They're experts in their fields, so it saves a lot of time."
Her coach constantly pushes her: "We focus on results. We manage and we measure." Without that external pressure, Ashley admits she'd be focused on results but in a "squiggly line" instead of a straight trajectory.
Her Latest Strategy: Setting ridiculously aggressive time-based goals.
"Last week I set a task that I was going to call 70 recruiters. That's a lot of recruiters, but all of a sudden I have this time pressure that forces me to be super dialed in."
The Coach Mindset Shift:
Don't expect a coach to solve your life or give you everything. If you can get 10% improvement from a coach, it's worth it.
"Small things add up and compound," Ashley explains. "If you get 10% in different areas of your business, well, now you have 100%."
The recruiters who succeed long-term? They're the ones who think beyond the next month or quarter. They're thinking three years out, then working backward.
Actionable takeaway: Invest in at least one coach this year. Not for a 100x return, but for consistent 10% improvements that compound over time.
The Warning: Adapt or Die
"The bar is going to raise. The floor is going to raise," Ashley warns. "What's expected of us as recruiters is raising. If people are not using AI technologies, it's going to be really difficult in 2026 and 2027. I'd be shocked if they make it past that."
Right now, the gap between AI-powered recruiters and traditional recruiters isn't big enough to be existential. But it will be.
"A regular recruiter can't compete against a supercharged recruiter," Ashley says bluntly.
The time to adapt is now—before you're forced to.
The Philosophy: Raise Your Floor
Ashley's favorite concept comes from Dr. Benjamin Hardy's "The Science of Scaling" and a Warren Buffett quote: "The difference between a good entrepreneur and a great entrepreneur is that great entrepreneurs say no to almost everything."
They've raised the floor—the bar at which they operate. They're super dialed, super focused.
"Recruiters need to bring that energy to recruiting," Ashley insists. "Stop getting distracted. Stop saying yes to every little thing."
This includes the constant noise of new tools, new strategies, new shiny objects. Have exploratory time for new tech—but schedule it. Don't let it consume your A-time (the hours that directly drive revenue).
Final Thoughts: Permission to Live Differently
For too long, recruiters have been conditioned to believe that the only way to success is hustle. Ashley challenges that completely.
"I'm living proof that hustle's not required—to some extent. I don't want to say I didn't hustle to get things started. I absolutely did. There's no magic fix. The thing has to be built."
But once it's built? You can design it however you want.
"I found it a healthier lifestyle than living in Canada because here I have a habit of waking up and getting to work right away. There, I could surf twice a day before I even had to work."
The key principles:
- Mindset first - Train it daily like a muscle
- Consistency over intensity - Show up regularly, not sporadically
- Leverage everything - Delegate, partner, automate
- Time as a tool - Use pressure to force productivity
- Energy management - Eliminate what drains you
- Strategic AI - Multiply your output without working more
- Long-term thinking - Compound small improvements
- Raise your floor - Say no to almost everything
Ashley Woods built a seven-figure recruitment desk while traveling the world not because she worked more hours than everyone else, but because she worked differently. She gave herself permission to live life on her terms—and then built a business to support that vision.
The question is: Will you?
