MacBook rendering speed (M1) in Premier Pro: 1 week and 170 videos

[stalechipsco]

Whats the fastest method/settings for rendering 4k videos on MacBook Pro 16gb?

I'm getting times of 1.5hours or more for 9min videos.

Our project is due in a handful of weeks. All I've done to the videos is add a fade in/out and a title.

However, each video is arrived to me as a color corrected After Effects file (if that makes a difference).

I have the videos stored on an external SSD. I've rendered from the internal drive to test speeds, same result.

I'm open to buying whatever is needed to get the rendering speeds down: eGPU, whatever needed.

Being a novice, I have no idea how to fix it. Hoping I can get some kind of list of settings, guide, anything to reduce the time dramatically.

Save me? Please!