Meet Blanche Williams | CEO, Flutist & Life Enthusiast

We had the good fortune of connecting with Blanche Williams and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Blanche, how does your business help the community?

When I established Greatness By Design, LLC in 2003, it was the answer to a prayer and my embracing a calling to step into the male-dominated broadcasting arena as one of the newest female Talk Show Hosts on The Power-Channel 169, the only African American Talk Channel on the revolutionary XM Satellite Radio airing in Washington, DC. Having just relocated from Miami in 2002 with my 2-year-old, I had been given the opportunity of a lifetime; one that I realized held a huge amount of responsibility as well as reward.

My XM talk show and company shared the same name, Greatness By Design (GBD). It was a talk show dedicated to sharing one-on-one conversations about the road to greatness of legends such as Dr. Maya Angelou, Quincy Jones, Nikki Giovanni, Deepak Chopra, Denzel Washington, and Dr. Dorothy Height. Ironically, these ordinary people had decided to design their lives and careers for greatness. I gathered diverse roundtables to tackle controversial topics and received access to high profile politics including my front row access to the historic inauguration of President Barack Obama. For 7 glorious years, I was at the helm of making a difference by giving voice to an underrepresented audience.

Greatness By Design represented the path I was taking and the mantra I lived by. My radio show would serve to uplift, empower, and engage millions of people around the world through conversations that felt like we were sitting in their living room. During this time, I published my first book as an audiobook titled, How to Design Your Mind for Greatness and Build Your Best You.

I have always believed that success is by choice and not by chance, so we must choose wisely. This is a quote and topic I have shared with countless audiences, employees, and leadership, over the years, when speaking and training audiences from college students and corporate executives to governmental municipalities and even National Institutes of Health (NIH). I have created and facilitated signature programs from team building to leadership development. The people I have supported and trained have gone on to impact others. It’s the gift that keeps giving.

Since my twenties, I have always embodied a drive to be of service to my community through my vast entrepreneurial endeavors. My companies have included an award-winning non-profit arts and education organization, a destination management company contracted for special events management by the Clinton White House, and a massage/corporate wellness company serving as the Master Massage Instructor for 5 Star Resorts throughout the Caribbean.

Now in 2023, Greatness By Design, LLC continues to impact my community as well as the world through the clients I serve, collaborations, and signature projects I facilitate within my neighborhood. We all have the opportunity to make a social impact daily through random acts of kindness, conscious awareness and a desire to show up as the best version of yourself possible. We get to choose the impact we make! I suggest you choose greatness!

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?

After relocating back to South Florida in 2011, my life’s work continued evolving unexpectedly. It was 2014 and I was recovering from facial paralysis and nasal/frontal lobe surgery, when I heard Spirit say, “Go get a flute.” So, at the glorious age of 50, I started lessons to learn how to play the flute, thanks Grammy Nominated Music Educator Melton Mustafa Jr.

This single choice shifted the trajectory of my life and took me on a musical journey of Jazz, healing, ancestral reconnection and creativity that I am forever grateful. In Fall 2015, I would audition and be accepted into the Palm Beach State College Music Jazz Sextet as the oldest, only female and only flute player. Learning is such a joy! In March 2016, still evolving, I founded Jazz on J Street, a Professional Jam Session with the best musicians in the area. It led to the creation of an Art Exhibition, Film Documentary, and Jazz on J Street concerts at Palm Beach International Jazz Festival, Cultural Council of Palm Beach and Norton Museum of the Arts.

In January 2020, I was invited to perform my first flute solo concert for Sky Above Amphitheatre and Music in West Palm Beach, Fl. It was a beautiful outdoors experience that I called Spirit Walk, infusing flute with spoken word as I took people through a journey of sound and ease. I was seated on a wooden stage engraved with a magical design that inspired and intrigued me. Afterwards, I learned it was an ancient sacred symbol. It would be the catalyst for my next journey.

Nine months later in September 2020, during the height of the global pandemic, I was compelled to start creating collage art and exploring the Fruit of Life and Metatron’s cube. What ensued was an intense, intentional 30 day journey that would ultimately manifest in the creation of my one-of-a-kind Spirit Walk Imagery Board Game. This colorfully vibrant, energetically activated 5ft x 5ft mat provides a playful journey of self-reflection and remembrance by tapping into your intuitive wisdom. It’s a experience grounded in love, where all your choices are right and everybody wins. I guide you through a series of levels leading to you trusting the truth of your genius and your gifts.

I am proud to have accepted this magical walk with Spirit. It’s a journey that is filled with the unknown but is also filled with the reward of walking your path and pioneering your uncharted waters. We are living in a time where what the world needs more than anything else is more love in all forms. We are coming out of a time of uncertainty, anxiety and loss and I believe playing the Spirit Walk Imagery Board Game is making a difference. It allows 4 people to sit down on the ground nurtured by nature and spend time with themselves while in community with others seeking the same level of ease, flow and self-awareness. The only obstacles or challenges faced are the self-imposed barriers that are instantly dispelled once you join me to play.

Playfulness is the new Wellness!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?

Whenever friends come in town, I like to share a few beautiful hot spots for them to enjoy the variety of what Palm Beach County, South Florida, has to offer. Fly into PBI and experience the heart of West Palm Beach where downtown will dazzle you, including the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, The Square, and Clematis Street, home to all types of cuisine and bars, along with artsy shops and weekend events including green markets with artisans and music galore. Take some time to visit the eclectic Norton Museum of Arts on Dixie Highway and its beautiful outdoor lawns or on Wednesdays walk down the street to catch the SoulFAM Open Mic at Civil Society Brewery on the railroad tracks.

Another nearby gem to the north of downtown West Palm Beach is Northwood, a funky historic quaint area, home to local galleries like Artrepreneurs Gallery, LVNDR Wellness Lounge, and Café Centro Italian Restaurant where Sunday’s is LIVE JAZZ with the Susan Merritt Trio. Continue north to Riviera Beach for nature’s finest Manatee Lagoon, and a Marina with Sunday TikiMarket, Peanut Island excursions and Margaritaville Cruise escapes. Further north you will reach Jupiter where you will find $10 all day water cruises, a magical Inlet where the ocean meets the intercoastal, great beaches, and a dreamy Lighthouse. Quench your hunger around the corner at The Burger Shack and then enjoy Live Jazz on Sundays at Double Roads Tavern.

Whatever you decide to do there are artsy fun pockets of paradise in Palm Beach County, my home sweet home.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?

There are so many people along my journey who deserve credit and recognition including:

LaFontaine Oliver, Program Director, in DC/MD, took a chance on me and gave me my big broadcasting break on XM Satellite Radio The Power-Channel 169. He gave me access to the world! He gave me a platform to spotlight and support ordinary people doing extraordinary things. It led to my show also airing on XM’s Take 5 Channel dedicated to Women alongside Suze Orman and others!

Joyce Brown of Clay Glass Metal Stone Gallery opened her cooperative gallery, on J Street, to my community building idea for a monthly Jazz on J Street Listening Party and Professional JAM Session in Lake Worth Beach, Florida. She gave Live Jazz and its musicians a home to gather and jam.

Website: https://spiritwalkgame.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blancheawilliams/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blancheisgreatnessbydesign/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SpiritWalkGamePlayfulJourney

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