SEEING BEYOND THE ODDS:

An In-Depth Conversation with Visionary Lorna Blake

Ifound Lorna Blake to be a true visionary who’s passionate about leadership, success, personal/financial empowerment, and business growth. A dynamic and energetic International Speaker, she’s been described as “compelling,” “inspirational,” and “powerful.” In her interactive and engaging presentations. After overcoming many challenges in her childhood and early adult life she now lives her mission of traveling the world sharing a message that inspires others to rise from adversity, recognizes their power and live their lives on purpose.

Blake is the best-selling co-author of “Celebrating 365 Days of Gratitude”, The Art of Fear-Free Living, international best-selling author My Big Idea Book. In her 4th publication, No More Chains: Blake was also featured in a film/documentary of the same name. In addition, she has spoken at many conferences, seminars, and workshops internationally reaching thousands of people from different cultures. Lorna is a member of The Joh n Maxwell Coaching Team & is available for keynote speaking at events including business, professional, wellness & women’s empowerment conferences; youth leadership events, meetings, retreats, banquets, colleges, high schools, and other venues where you seek a motivational speaker.

The Interview

Blake is an international speaker, author, success coach, and real estate investor. She goes on to reiterate that she was not born with a silver spoon in her mouth. According to Blake, “I was born to my poor teenage mother on my grandparents’ farm in rural Jamaica. There was no running water, no electricity, no paved roads, and food was scarce. I grew up without my father and for the longest time, thought it was my fault. I was abused by my stepfather who came into my life when I was eight years old. From age 8 to 11, I experienced abuse and never told anyon e.”

I was stunned. Blake continued with her story “The abuse certainly clouded my life. I went to high school, finished high school in Jamaica, started a job, and moved to Canada alone when I was 19. During those years, I lived in a state of constant victimization and victimhood. It was only when I discovered some powerful spiritual leadership and prosperity principles that my life changed for good. I overcame some really incredible odds to graduate with an Honors Degree in Social Work while becoming a mom of two boys. From there I learned the importance of constantly re-inventing myself. Since then, I have lived and worked in five different countries. I have traveled to almost 20, and I’ve taught and inspired people across the globe. I’m also a travel enthusiast and was blessed to meet the love of my life while I was living and working in Asia. These days, Tampa Bay, Florida is home. I beamed, there is just no defeat when you believe with all your heart that God will certainly come looking for you when you are going through your darkest moments. This is such an awesome testimony, full of resilience. You mentioned being abused, I said. Let’s talk about some defining moments in your life. Some that sticks out and won’t ever go away. Without hesitation, she dived in. “Absolutely. And this is such a great question, and when I think of defining moments, I think of them as experiences that fundamentally changed me. here are a couple of them. Being abandoned by my father before I was born, coming up in poverty, being physically abused by my mother, and then sexually abused by a stepfather from age 8 to age 11. I kept that secret until I was age 25. All those things made me come to rely on a power greater than myself from early on in my life. I could have been depressed, despondent, and in despair. But in those times when it was darkest, I learned to trust God and to have faith. I was always praying for miracles.”

As Blake was speaking, I could hear Jesus in her life. “Yes, she says, I became a deeply spiritual person from the time I was, around age 8. I was also very intuitive. I would listen and watch for signs of God leading me. Somewhere in there, I came to understand that there was a power greater than myself that was leading in my life. I would watch and listen. I could hear God’s voice and I wanted to know how I was going to get out of this. Always, I knew there had to be a way out. I just didn’t know how or when. I was watching and listening for signs, and I would dream up and visualize a new reality, where I was free, had more than enough, was loved and supported. I lived life always with that sense of wonder and awe even though I had gone through all of that.” Your story brings to my mind the song that Lee Ann Womack sang, When you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance. As I look at you now Lorna Blake, I know you danced. Good for you, now tell us about some other defining moments in your story.

Blake goes on to explain “I knew there was something more for me. Another key defining moment was moving to Canada alone as a young adult and how that changed me, I grew up very sheltered and didn’t have much life experience.

Moving to Canada alone without a support system or without family meant I had to learn to take care of myself. Before I left Jamaica, I had a good job just out of high school that paid me well, but I didn’t have any bills because I lived at home. So I didn’t know how to budget. Actually, part of my paycheck went to savings. The other part went to helping people in my community. I was part of a church community, and there were people who couldn’t pay their rent, and I would help them. From those early days, fresh out of high schools, I was helping take care of other people. So, when I got to Canada, the roles became reversed, there it was strangers who helped me. I also had moments where I couldn’t pay my rent, and I was practically homeless. I learned to trust in God more.”

You mentioned that you’ve had to reinvent yourself a couple of times. So. tell us about the times that you reinvented yourself. Describe the process and the reasoning behind it. “I reinvented myself too many times to count and the reasoning is that I am just always being called to step it up, to grow stronger, and to never get too comfortable with where I am always striving. There’s no arriving, I’m always striving, just never arriving. Some people might call it ambitious or driven, To give you an example, after arriving in Canada and struggling for about five years, I got a good job as an accounting clerk in an insurance company. It paid me well. I had flex time, I had great benefits. I could travel. I had some disposable income and by all accounts, I should have been satisfied with that but I wasn’t. Two years in, I got the nudge from God that I needed to go back to school and get a degree.

By this time, I was getting ready to have my first child, and some of my coworkers thought I was irresponsible. Here I am in a stable job and I’m looking now to leave a stable job to go back to school full-time when I was going to have my son to take care of. But I didn’t allow that to deter me, and five years later, after graduating from my degree program, I went back to visit my coworkers, everybody had been let go, due to a merger and restructuring that had occurred. It’s never just me doing whatever. It’s always guidance. And since that time, I worked in social work for five years.

However I burned out and I took my two sons and I went to Asia to teach. While I was there, I met my, now husband. I taught for a couple of years, I got the guidance to step into motivational speaking and coaching consulting, which I’ve been doing for more than 10 years. But during Covid, when my coaching and speaking income disappeared, I got the nudge to move into real estate investing. I have found it to be an incredible opportunity for building generational wealth. when I’m in the process of doing something new, I don’t really speak on it because I want it to take effect. But I’m always, always, reinventing myself.”

I love that answer. Let’s switch gears, what does success mean to you? “A couple of years ago, I was preparing to speak at a business conference on nuggets, spiritual nuggets for your success. That was my topic. And so I came across a quote from Steve Harvey and to paraphrase it, he was saying, don’t look at other people’s success to determine yours. You have to look at where you’ve come from. Measure your success by how far you’ve come and what you’ve had to overcome.

And when I think of how far I’ve come from my grandparents’ old farmhouse in rural Jamaica with no running water, no electricity, and no paved road, I think I’m a success. And when I think how far I’ve come from poverty, where many times I had no food going to school as a child in Jamaica, where I would walk miles to school and back because there was no bus. And I would go home hungry and really had nothing to go home to, after getting home to where I’m now helping facilitate scholarships for students who are experiencing poverty, I have no doubt in my mind that I am a success. And when I think of how far I’ve come from abandonment and abuse to being a loving mom and family member, and also being in a loving and stable relationship for more than 16 years, I know I am a success.”

You are indeed a success and a role model for many. Is that what your new book Born To Rise is all about? “It is to some extent, Blake states, I would say it’s an autobiographical account of my early life. It’s my latest work and it’s my first standalone book. As an author, I’ve been featured in several anthologies over the past 12 years. But in this book, I take readers on a personal journey of some of my major life setbacks, my comebacks, and some of the lessons I have learned along the way. It’s actually where I allow myself to rise up from the ashes like a Phoenix. It’s where I have freed myself from the voices of fear and shame from my past.” Awesome. Thank you for this great interview. Where can our readers purchase your book? You are so good at this. “Blake admitted with a smile, “I did enjoy the interview and thank you for having me on.” “My new Book is just getting ready to be released on Amazon, I believe in the next week or so it will be live on Amazon. What a blessing, where can my readers reach you? “I am on Facebook. My profile is Lorna M as in Mother Blake on Facebook. And I’m also on Facebook under my consulting page Lorna Blake public figure at Empower Yourself Consulting. And so I’m also on Instagram under the same name, Lorna M as in Mother Blake, and LinkedIn the same way. I’m on Twitter. I’m Lorna B as in Blake 09.”

Marnice Miller