133 | From Dyslexia to Confidence: Turning Self-Doubt into Strength Featuring Willie Blake
episode
Career Growth for Working Women | Career Advancement, Visibility, Promotion, Raises
19 min
1 speaker
3 chapters
transcribed 1 month ago
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What early experiences shaped Willie Blake’s view of dyslexia and self‑confidence?
What if the thing you once believed was holding you back could actually become your greatest strength? In this episode, I sit down with high performance coach Willie Blake, who shares how being diagnosed with dyslexia at a young age shaped his confidence, mindset, and career path. Willie opens up about the perfectionism and self-doubt he struggled with early in life and how he eventually learned to embrace the unique ways his brain works. Are you ready? Let's dive in.
Welcome to Career Growth for Working Women. If you're feeling tired in a way rest alone won't fix, or successful on paper but unsure what's next, you're not broken. You're not alone. I'm Shannon, a promotion and compensation coach, and this space is about helping women grow their careers with clarity, confidence, and sustainability, not pressure or hustle. Take a breath, settle in, and let's talk about what's really going on beneath the surface. Hello, welcome to the show. My guest today is Willie Blake and his story begins with a belief many carry quietly about themselves. Willie was diagnosed with dyslexia in first grade, and for years he believed that meant something about him was broken. Like many people who feel different early in life, he spent years trying to catch up, hide his struggles, and prove that he belonged.
Over time, that pressure turned into perfectionism, overthinking, and a constant sense that he needed to work harder than everyone else just to keep up. Eventually, Willie reached a turning point. Instead of trying to hide dyslexia, he chose to lead with it. Today he works as a high performance coach, helping professionals and entrepreneurs shift from self-doubt into clarity, confidence, and consistent progress. Much of his work focuses on helping people who have always felt different or behind learn how to trust their own way of thinking and working. Willie, I'm so excited for today's conversation.
Shannon, I'm also excited. I'm ready for today.
Okay, so you were diagnosed with dyslexia very young. How how did that experience what did that experience teach you about how people see themselves in life and in work? I mean, at that time I guess it wasn't work, but as you've grown older.
Yeah. You know, you had s you had homework assignments. You know, that was kind of the work as a kid. But yeah, d the diagnosed uh at it was about six, seven, eight years old is when it happened. And I was uh going out there, curious kid, always adventurous, and then I got diagnosed and all of a sudden my friends started to treat me different. They're like, Why is Willie every Friday for the last hour of the week going to this other classroom? And with kids their imagination goes. So he's like, Oh, Willie's the bad kid. He's going to have a class Or it's just like Willie's this special kid. Regardless of whatever it was, he's На normal like us. So Willie, we're gonna we're gonna go play football. We're gonna go play football and uh you you hang out here and we'll hang out tomorrow.
Which tomorrow never came. And it's the yeah, the just seeing it as as I grew up with dyslexia of all of a sudden I started feeling shhy, feeling reserved. I always hid my voice because there are a lot of moments where teachers and grown-ups would be like, Hey, did this happen? And I'm like, Yeah, it did. But without being able to explain my side of the story, they just give me that punishment. I'm like, I don't I don't think I wanna raise my voice anymore 'cause any time time I do And the way in which my brain processes it takes me a little bit longer to communicate.
Right.
Then I guess I'll just wait until I can either give the perfect answer or not say anything at all.
Right.
Let up.
And then and so then that led into your perfectionism. And I I I'm a recovering perfectionist. And so. How did that ha I mean, and I know that there's probably a lot of our listeners are going, Yes, raising their hands, saying, Me too, like I I I wanna be a perfectionist. How did you make that transition from like having that perfectionism to now just leading and owning what um you're you know like how you lead.
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Chapters
3 chaptersSpeakers
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