Meet Fred Willis

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Fred Willis. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Fred, first a big thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights with us today. I’m sure many of our readers will benefit from your wisdom, and one of the areas where we think your insight might be most helpful is related to imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is holding so many people back from reaching their true and highest potential and so we’d love to hear about your journey and how you overcame imposter syndrome.
This is a current journey that I’m on. I am continuously overcoming imposter syndrome and I’ll confess, “there are levels to this!” The greatest challenge for me is sharing the story of my successes. Over the years, my greatest challenge was breaking through to achieve success. In school, I hesitated to make the big play in sports because I was afraid that the team wouldn’t appreciate my effort or celebrate it. I didn’t see myself worthy of any celebration, not even if I’d done something praiseworthy. Isn’t that weird? Imposter syndrome is something I’ve dealt with my entire life.

I can’t tell you where it came from, but it has been a huge part of my life’s story, and do you know what? I finally got tired of it. Imposter syndrome is costly! We live in a “show me” age and without visible proof of success, you’re written off as unsuccessful. So, there I was, staring at successes and nothing to show for it. I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to be published in several outlets and I’ve had columns in well-read publications. Because of the internal struggle, I didn’t even share the articles that I’d written.

Somehow, someway, I just didn’t feel as though my thoughts or coverage on a subject were “good enough.” Imposter syndrome costs opportunities, and most importantly, it cost me the position that work would have afforded me had I the wit to embrace the celebration due those moments. I overcame the first level of imposter syndrome with faith.

I realized that shrinking in big moments was a slap in the face of the One who made it possible! I also realized that if I was too foolish to embrace all the Lord was doing, it would be no surprise that I one day lost it! One day I just said, “you know what? I belong here!” This became my centering phrase whenever old habits of self-sabotage crept in. Active 2: “I belong here” becomes my centering phrase whenever old habits of self-sabotage creep in, affirming my place and position in life and abolishing fear.

Secondly, I had to get over the fear of being known. That was the biggest issue for me. I didn’t want to be a nobody in my field, but I also didn’t want the spotlight. Imposter syndrome had me “shooting in the gym” but clamoring for a spot on the bench. What a weird life I lived…

I was tired of not seeing the results of my hard work and one day looked in the mirror and realized that I was to blame! I cost myself years of greatness and the people who leaned on me to do great work for them didn’t get my best effort because I never let myself feel good enough. All that changed once I was able to say without trepidation, “I belong here!”

“Here” for me is a place that hard work and the favor of God has brought me to. It has allowed me to see more in myself and about myself than I ever have. At 41, I feel as if life for me is just now beginning!

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?
The origin story of my company, the SoulProsper® Media Group, is an interesting one. For all my life, I just knew that I would be a musician, producer and record label owner. I never got into recording professionally, but as I was gigging, I wrote and recorded songs. I had all the gear at home and with the advent of DAW software; I shifted. I had everything to record songs and demos and got really close to having a few of my songs featured on an album. I continued my musical journey working for several churches here in Fort Worth, but writing was one of those things that I always seemed to come back around to.

I could write songs, but blogging quickly became a passion. I blogged on Myspace, and I loved it. Things in my life took a financial downturn and in 2011, I had finally given up on music. The album we were working on came to a crashing halt and I could no longer wait to make a living making music. Looking through a few job listings, I applied to an online publication, and I submitted a few of my blogs as writing samples.

They accepted me and from there, professional blogging became my thing! My column covered local gospel music, a community I was already a part of. From there, I developed a show featuring local indie artists and, coupled with the blog; I grew into quite a resource. I am also a minister, and considered booking a show on the local gospel music station, but I soon discovered that airtime was way beyond my budget. One day, I heard the Lord say, “you have everything you need to get started!”

He was right, too! All that equipment I had, all the college training I had was everything I need to produce a weekly show. I began posting the show to my website and in between segments of me teaching from the Bible, I would play some of the music I had by some of my friends or other local artists I met over the years. From there, music was sent to me from everywhere and soon I had too much for my little show!

I reached out to several stations and the Prayzefest Gospel Network was the first to air The SoulProsper® Radio Show. Increase happened again and my show expanded to 11 airings on 10 networks. The show became international and aired in Manchester, England, and the Little Cayman Islands. Around 2014, I had so much music and not enough airings to spread it around so I dove into the world of internet radio. SoulProsper® Radio began as a station and we are still growing!

The station specializes in playing GREAT gospel music and partnering with artists to educate them and inform them. I have covered several major industry events and have grown as a broadcaster and freelance journalist.

Writing has been a major part of all of this, and in 2019, I released my first book, “The Journey to Genesis” on my imprint Mighty Pen Publishing. In this book, I told this story in greater detail and shared that, upon discovering my purpose, I discovered how to deal with everything else in my life. This affected my marriage, jobs, and literally everything in my life.

To date, the SoulProsper® Media Group encompasses a digital digest, a radio station and publishing imprint.

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?
For me, the most important skill I had was reading. There was never a time when I felt like I knew everything. As I already mentioned, I struggled with imposter syndrome, so most of the time; I felt as if I just winging it, even when I did things by the book. I learned that the only thing worse than not knowing was foolishly presenting as if I knew the answer.

I ventured into new areas with each company and endeavor. To get caught up, read. My personal library doubled in size in a matter of months. This was before search engines became so popular. I sought out books to read to find the information I needed, but when I didn’t find it in a book, I searched online. This was difficult because our phones didn’t have unlimited web data and our internet speeds weren’t as fast as they are now.

What I gained in the process was an appreciation for knowledge. I learned how to research and keep reading until I was sure that I had the right information! This put me at odds with a few of my colleagues because occasionally, I did things by the book instead of the way they did it. I also connected with professional organizations and bypassed many of the clubs and cliques.

This kept me on the outs in some ways, but in other ways, I gave myself and my company the best chance to succeed. I never wanted to limit myself based on connection, so I made sure to spread my net as wide as possible. Sometimes, I was the most knowledgeable on a subject and plenty other times, I was the neophyte taking it all in at the back of the room.

To me, the most important skills any person striving to do their best needs is: A hunger for knowledge, an affinity for research and humility. Know that you don’t know it all. Develop the skill of seeking out answers and the satisfaction of finding THE answer to the question. Lastly, it’s beneficial to develop and maintain the quality of humility. Remaining teachable will keep you in the presence of masters of your craft. Be loud enough to ask, quiet enough to listen, and smart enough to write the answer down once you receive it.

Looking back over the past 12 months or so, what do you think has been your biggest area of improvement or growth?
The biggest area of growth in the past 12 months has been overcoming the various stages of imposter syndrome. I didn’t realize how much it affected my life until I realized that the way I saw myself affected how other people see me. Because I didn’t see the value I present to the world, I wasn’t letting the world know that I have value to offer. It’s such a strange phenomenon because there was never a day I didn’t show up to work. There was never a time I declined an opportunity, but every time, I saw myself through the lens of undeserving.

In my eyes, I was undeserving, but in reality, I was under serving my listeners, readers and media clients. This was a faith journey to end this personal struggle that I really haven’t shared much. All people have seen is who I wanted them to see. They haven’t seen the real dreamer; they haven’t seen what I want to do to change the world, but all that is changing and I for one am glad about it.

I believe that this opportunity affords me the space to speak to others who struggle like I did and sometimes still do. You are never in a place God didn’t intend for you to be. I don’t care who isn’t there that you think should be there with you or instead of you. Once I closed my eyes and embraced this, I grew to be ten feet tall! That sounds like something from a child’s story, doesn’t it? It should. Children are fearless. Nothing is beyond the bounds of their creativity. Sometimes as adults, we’re guilty of imposing our will and projecting our fears onto children, which inhibits the reach they’re born with.

This past year has been one of personal and spiritual transformation and transition, and there’s no way I could journey forward without embracing a new level of fearlessness and breaking the chokehold of imposter syndrome.

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Image Credits
Image #4 (in clergy vestments)- Nichole Foster

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