So for any audience member that may be watching, listening to this episode, can you explain the definition of dyslexia before we dive in, please?

Yeah.

Super simple.

We think differently.

Now what the heck does that mean? If you like to break it down, dys means difficult, and then lexia is reading.

So literally, dyslexia is difficulty with reading, and that's usually like the over umbrella of others like d- I'll, I'll be s- scientific, very brief here.

Dysgraphia, which is difficulty with writing; dyscalculia, which has to do with math; dyspraxia, which is like hand-eye coordination.

Sure.

Yeah.

Very, very alienated.

You're like, did I do something wrong? Am I broken? I was just trying to be a friend.

I was just being myself.

And if people don't like me for who I am, maybe that means I got to be somebody else.

And what horrible thoughts to have as a kid.

Because as adults, you know, we have tougher skin, but as kids, we don't know how to interpret that as well.

I'm going to ask you, Willie, when you feel anxious or depressed, or as you shared it in your profile, when you were coming out of that state of not feeling good enough, what did you use? What kind of tools did you put into play?

Yeah.

Very, very alienated.

You're like, did I do something wrong? Am I broken? I was just trying to be a friend.

I was just being myself.

And if people don't like me for who I am, maybe that means I got to be somebody else.

And what horrible thoughts to have as a kid.

Because as adults, you know, we have tougher skin, but as kids, we don't know how to interpret that as well.

I'm going to ask you, Willie, when you feel anxious or depressed, or as you shared it in your profile, when you were coming out of that state of not feeling good enough, what did you use? What kind of tools did you put into play?

Go ahead.

So you have 10 ounce can of cream of chicken, as well as a 10 ounce can of cream of mushroom.

Then you have two cups of sour cream, and these are pretty, pretty, uh, standard stuff you can find in your home.

So two cups of sour cream, uh, a half m- half cup of butter that's melted.

You'll want some chi- lo- half cup of chicken broth, a teaspoon of salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

And then you want, um, if you go to, like, Walmart or WinCo, just a small bag of peas, and I think it's about a half cup or a cup of frozen peas.

Then you'll want a full thing of spaghetti pasta, and then you want about a pound of cooked chicken.

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But then sometimes there's that like

explosion moment.

I know all of us have been there.

Then it's just in the moments where you can be with your kid.

Be with them.

That'd be the first thing.

Second thing is more on the learning side, which if you are a parent of multiple kids, you know that each kid is different.

And so when you took up entrepreneurship and helping entrepreneurs and doing the coaching and things, what was that journey like for you to go into that space?

And I don't know if you share that same philosophy with dyslexia or maybe something different.

No, I'm right on that same page.

First and foremost, entrepreneurs, we're just weirdos.

A bunch of weirdos trying to make this world whatever place that we're wanting to, right? But that's the awesome thing.

the best companies in the world were built by people who were considered crazy were considered different like elon musk wasn't like the most charismatic person and like jeff bezos and donald trump and you know there's a bunch of people who are like considered crazy but they have The results they get, they have done miraculous things and created the companies that they created and the people that they team up with.

So yeah, each of them had their own thing and it could be ADD, ADHD, it could be dyslexia, it could be autism or OCD, any neurodivergent thing or other realms as well.

Some people go through things such as type one diabetes or cancer or a miscarriage.

What did your career path look like? And when did you first recognize that your personal experience could become the foundation for a business? Ooh,

So what happened? What exactly switched in you?

Yeah, the thing that happened was about halfway through college.

Previously, during elementary, middle, and high school, so as a kid up through teenage years, life was hard, and just like you said, it was feeling like I was broken, always left behind by this thing called dyslexia, and which I didn't even ask for.

It's just something that happened because I was put here on this planet.

And so over those years in a traditional school system where you have a lot of memorization, reading, writing, and everything that has to do with, like, structure of that, of course it's gonna be difficult for people who are neurodivergent and especially dyslexic, which simple of simple, dyslexics have a difficulty with reading, speaking, and spelling.

We just process things in a different way.

So because of that, it was-- it, it felt like I always had to say yes to other people to serve them just so I felt of worth.

So why is that feeling so common? Just wanna ask.

So can you like share us, um, um, a, a brief history about yourself with the whole, um, um, dyslexia condition? How, how, how, how did you view life before you were like enough is enough, and you were able to take matters into your hand and, and, and decide how you wanted your future to be? Can you just give us a, a background of yourself?

Yeah, absolutely.

So quick history, around five or six years of age is when I got diagnosed with dyslexia.

For, um, the simplicity of what it is, it's difficulty with reading and also speaking for me.

And so o- as I grew up in elementary school, it was feeling behind.

It was always trying to catch up.

It was like doing double the effort just to be able to catch up to everybody else.

Yeah.

So what was the turning point in your life where you decided to stop hiding it and to own it?

Halfway through college, I was switching from my accounting degree to business management.

I came across a statistic that said 95% of CEOs read 50 or more books a year.

And I thought that'd be pretty cool.

Pretty cool to be a CEO.

So if this statistic says that they're reading, then I guess I got to read more.

Ain't no way I'm reading 50 books though.

What were some of the fears you had to overcome stepping out publicly and acknowledging it?

I know one of my daughters is dyslexic, you know, for her reading certain things was hard and things like that, too.

Yeah, it actually wasn't dyslexia that got me to it.

Ever since I was a kid, I wanted two things.

First was to write my own book.

I thought that'd be really cool to be an author.

Even though I struggled with reading, I always loved the fantasy world of how magic and how fiction and the adventure.

I loved all of it.

Yeah.

But what do you think is or what we are carrying wrong about intelligence and success that you would want listeners to gently let go of today from this conversation?

It would be that execution beats intelligence every single time.

And in even more simpler words, hard work beats lazy talent.

You can be the most talented person in the world.

You can have all the God-given gifts given to you and just be a prodigy.

But if you don't do anything, the one who has never given that but is working hard and going after it is eventually going to beat you.

So as entrepreneurs, as business owners...

And then

Now, Coach, how did being diagnosed with dyslexia shape the way you saw yourself growing up?

Yeah, being diagnosed with dyslexia really affected the ability of self-worth.

Because in a traditional school system, they focus a lot on reading, on writing and memorization.

which just happens to be the weakest points of someone with dyslexia.

And that's kind of the umbrella term, because if you break it into its parts, you have dys, which is difficult.

That's what it means.

And then lexia, which is reading.

So how can one distinguish, you know, between meaningful growth and simply just staying busy and wasting time?

What was the turning point that helped you stop seeing yourself as broken and start leading with your story?

Yeah, ever since I was a kid, about six or seven years old was when I was officially diagnosed with dyslexia.

And throughout elementary school up to high school and even into college.

I always felt behind, always felt broken because I was trying to put in double the amount of effort in which I wouldn't.

I would just be average at that point.

I always was the yes person, always having to please other people, because if I made a mistake or fail, goodness gracious, people would get after me for it.

Or teachers would be like, we got to watch this willy.

Yeah.

And what does that do? What do you think that that does to their mindsets and how can they make a shift to make that more positive?

What it usually does, I've seen like my clients and the people I've worked with is always second guessing themselves.

They always say, is this right? They might jump to a close friend or chat GBT and just be like, Hey, is this actually a good thing I'm about to do? So they're always second guessing as well as it, the, the, gap in between the time they have a thought and then the time to take action tends to be extended because of just that low confidence.

And really, it boils down to the trust they have in themselves.

So the way to combat that that I've seen is to one, do what works for you more often and do what doesn't work for you less often.

Now, and not just those generic terms, what that looks like, right? What that looks like is like, what are your strengths? What are things that you're great at? And I know there's a lot of women entrepreneurs out there who one of the great strengths they have is actually great relationship building with the clients or customers that they have.

Men in the workplace, they're just like, we're just doing this whole transactional thing and bada bing, bada boom, we're good.

Yeah.