Meet Freddie Scott

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Freddie Scott. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Freddie below.

Hi Freddie , thank you for being such a positive, uplifting person. We’ve noticed that so many of the successful folks we’ve had the good fortune of connecting with have high levels of optimism and so we’d love to hear about your optimism and where you think it comes from.
My optimism ironically comes from the environment that I was raised in. I am born in raised in Columbus, Ohio. I grew up in an urban community called the South Linden neighborhood which is rather notorious for crimes and drug use.

I opted to not become a statistic of the environment, though I have always loved my community. Rather than join in, I elected to go the opposite direction. You may not see the correlation to the question, but growing up how I grew up, I learned to view new things that my community did not have to offer in a positive light. I learned that the unfamiliar was what was required in order for me to grow, so I was drawn the that light.

I have always been viewed as the savor in my family and while I am not sure if I lived up to that mantle, I can say that I have accomplished things that no one in my family has. I hang my hat on the fact that I took the negatives from my neighborhood and turned them into a perspective that allowed me to navigate any situation with a optimistic approach because once you have seen what the bottom of life has to over, anything is better than revisiting those scenarios.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I have always been a creative person. My original outlet was poetry. I currently have over 300 poems. From poetry, the natural maturation for me was music, so I began to rap around 2000. While rapping, I also developed the ability to produce music, so I was a rapper, producer and record label owner along with my brother/partner Dennis Bradford. Our record label, Streetkor Entertainment, did not get out of the state of Ohio, but we did have some local successes which I am very proud of.

While I no longer emcee as much as I once did, I have produced music for several artists over the years. Music is my first love, so it is difficult to let go. Some of the artist who I am have produced for include artist from my city such as Infinite, Kadiz, Christian W. Holiday, DotCalm, M’Kala Delaney from the Bay Area in California, and The High Breed which is a rap group based out of the UK,

Professionally, I have worked in school book publishing since 1998, so my current venture only makes sense. In May of 2023, I officially released my first published book through Lulu Publishing. The title of the book is “A Daddy’s Black Daughters”. This book is a children’s book dedicated to my two daughters, Ilaysia and Kennedi. Ilaysia is now 23 and Kennedi is 18. This is a book of affirmations and things that I have always wanted for my daughters. Parenting is challenging and hindsight is indeed always 20/20, but my can apply to any father who is parenting daughters, though the title is specific to my journey.

What does the future hold for me? Well I am planning out my next two book. The next book will be a book of poetry entitled “Thoughts at a Pyramids Peak” and then will come the follow up to my first book entitled “A Daddy’s Black Son”. I am hoping to publish both in 2024.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Persistence is one quality that I have always thought was the key to any level of success. Most of us quit too soon due to impatience. When you have a passion, waiting on the payoff can be very frustrating, but often times we must take a step back and define what success is for us. Our level of success and the successes of someone who made it further differ for various reasons. You get what you put into your passions.

Along with being persistent, I am a lifetime learning. I absorb information daily. While I do not read books as often as I once did, I consume information in other ways which allows for my mind to never become idle. I listen to TED talks, podcasts, I read articles, watch the world news, and converse with people in areas of specialties that are outside of my own. You cannot aspire for more if you are not willing to learn. While I hold a bachelor’s degree, those few years mean nothing compared to the lifetime of learning that I have enjoyed for 45 years now.

Faith is another key component that is often overlooked. I am not talking faith in a religious sense thought that too is applicable, I am referring to the faith that one has in his or herself. This faith has to grow and I am not expert on the subject, but having people around you who are realistic and also want the best for you has been a life saver. I am not the type that enjoys people who placate, however having encouragement has allowed for me to gain confidence in my passions and also pushed me to do things that I originally did not believe I could do. I have faith in my abilities and faith in the process.

If someone can master the art of those three things, I honestly feel like they are on the right track. I am not saying that there will be promised opulence, but if you do the work, you will have something to look back on and actually be proud of. Everyone’s objective is different, so making that determination early on and applying those three things has been the basis of my successes, no matter how large or small.

Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?
There is a rather significant challenge that I am currently facing. My mother was diagnosed with Pulmonary Fibrosis several years back. Pulmonary Fibrosis is an incurable lung disease. The life expectancy is 3-5 years. If I am not mistaken, she is 7 or 8 years into her terminal illness.

The ongoing pandemic has been really frustrating and scary. With COVID-19 being an attack on people with preexisting medical conditions, my nerves were a mess. Not only that, but as each day passes, I am literally losing a piece of my mother as death is certain with this disease, so the pandemic cheated my family out of time to make memories. While we have done our best and continue to do so, before things got to the place where they are now, I had hopes of traveling with my parents and doing really exciting things with them. Those three years took that time away from us, so we are trying to find creative ways to keep life interesting.

I am an only child, so this is particularly challenging for me as my mother and I are extremely close. My mother is only 63 years old, so I fight with the thoughts of “why me” and “why her” daily. Yes, I still have my mom around and she is doing well, all things considered, but I would be lying if I said that this has been easy. I have a very big heart and the little family that I have (consisting of my wife Adia, my parents, three kids Stefon, Ilaysia and Kennedi) are all that I have.

Yes I have a few other family members and friends, but everything I do, I do with my family in mind.

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