"I failed English in grades eleven and twelve,” recalls Pauleanna Reid, journalist, author, and founder of WritersBlok. Actually, I failed many of my high school classes.”
Those aren't the words you'd expect from someone who now runs a prestigious ghostwriting agency serving A-list clients. Yet Reid defied every educational indicator to become the secret weapon behind some of today's most powerful personal brands. Leading a brilliant collective of all-women creatives, she’s blossomed from struggling student to the go-to advisor for high-profile leaders seeking to turn their personal stories into cultural moments that resonate.
Chess, Not Checkers
“I was not a scholar," Reid reveals. Growing up with a processing deficiency, traditional education became a battleground where she struggled to keep up. "It takes me a long time to comprehend," she explains. But instead of accepting limitations, she crafted alternative paths to learning and achievement—a skill that would later become foundational to her business approach. "Over time, I figured out my own ways of learning.”
As she was finding hacks for her slower learning curve, she was thrust into other challenges that also sharpened her strategic thinking. "My analytical sense came from when I was in elementary school and high school. I was bullied and tortured for many years,” she shares candidly, recalling the survival mechanism she developed during her school-aged years. "When I walk into any room, I'm asking: who's in the room?" This heightened awareness translated into a strategic approach to both life and business. Now when new entrepreneurs ask her for advice, she recommends they first learn how to play chess.
Opportunity Waits for No One
Reid has a priceless ability to see beyond her circumstances. She leveraged her vision and strategic thinking to build in-person relationships that would eventually launch her business. "I believe in proximity to opportunity," Reid explains. "I live in Toronto, Canada, and if you look at the history of a lot of entertainers—a lot of them didn't blow up until they went to the states."
While working as a corporate executive assistant, she began laying the groundwork by using much of her salary to fly to and from New York regularly. Reid approached relationship building with the same analytical rigor she applies to everything else. "I have a Rolodex of individuals categorized by multiple things, including location,” she says. “I’m very organized.”
A pivotal moment came when a mentor recognized her potential, but then tested her resolve. "One of my longest-standing mentors I found in 2009. I admired her career, and flat-out asked her for dinner," Reid recalls. "She was the one who said, 'Pauleanna, if you want to write, then write. Start a blog.'" This prompted Reid to commit to writing consistently, even when no one seemed to be reading. "For a year, I committed to this blog that nobody really knew about.”
Reid’s perseverance paid off when her mentor, who’d been monitoring her progress, offered her an opportunity as a freelance journalist for a publishing house with contracts across Canada's major newspapers. Suddenly, Reid went from a blog with a few views per month to writing for hundreds of thousands of readers across the country. “And that's the thing with anything in life—you have to commit because you don't know who's watching and what power they hold,” she advises.
Later, Reid’s entry into celebrity ghostwriting came through another mentor who ran a major communications agency for some of the biggest stars in the world. After working under that mentor for two years, Reid launched her own agency.
And all this happened while she maintained her executive assistant role. "Every day when I walked into my corporate environment, I looked at it as if I was going to business school,” she explained on the Hello 7 Podcast. “That's really where the seed was planted.” Reid went on to more than double her salary right from her cubicle. She quit in January 2019.
How to Use What & Who You’ve Got
It’s clear from Reid’s journey that you don’t have to have a loaded deck to build a winning business. You can succeed even if it seems like all the cards are stacked against you. From the expert herself, here’s how.
1. Exercise your analytical muscles: "A few of the biggest issues we have across North America are literacy, critical thinking, and problem solving. For someone to think that they can pursue business just by winging it—you have to exercise that part of your brain."
2. Learn from working for others: "I really do think that before people launch anything, [they should] work under somebody, intern for somebody, be their assistant for the day, job shadow them. I've done all of those things for all of my mentors."
3. Prioritize time with mentors: "When I was younger and didn't have a lot of money, I knew face time was important with people of stature. Sometimes you only get ten minutes because they get pulled into another meeting. That did not bother me at all."
4. Find thoughtful ways to be memorable: “I'm remembering key dates. I'm sending gifts. I'm not shy to articulate my dreams and what I'm working on. And then over time people just keep you top of mind.”
5. Be willing to go the distance: "The difference between me and other people is that I don't give up easily. If it took me twenty or thirty years to get to where I am now, I was willing to go the distance."
If you've ever thought your circumstances were too big to overcome, think again. From failing English classes to founding a thriving ghostwriting agency, Pauleanna Reid’s journey is the permission slip you didn’t know you needed to dream bigger. Take your cue from her, and keep your head in the game. “Rely on your mental fortitude,” she encourages. “Your mind will take you places that you probably physically feel like you can't go.”
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