Meet Cleve Willis

We were lucky to catch up with Cleve Willis recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Cleve , appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
I think it’s safe to say I had a challenging few years as a teenager and into my early 20s. I was working hard to penetrate the music business while learning from some of the industry greats. I was trying to discover myself and figure out who I wanted to be…. it took quite a while. Actually, I’m not done yet, but I think I’ve just about figured it out. I’m also still fortunate enough to be working on music and recently cowrote and sold a song with my good friend, Tuk Smith.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
For the last seven years, I have co-owned Still Hot Yoga in Decatur with my business partner Ahoo Sarab. The business itself is 22 years old. Bikram yoga changed my life in 2003, so much so that I went on to buy a studio. Today, guiding others in this practice is a big part of my life and something I am very passionate about. It’s just one small way I can give back to the community that I love so much.

At the moment, I’m working on a few really exciting things. I have a new music project and plan to release some stuff in the fall. You can check it out here – https://linktr.ee/ghostofyouofficial. called Ghost of You I am also working with Jesse Owen Astin, a friend and incredibly talented music producer, on a solo project that includes a little bit of rock and some acoustic music.

On the acting front, I recently collaborated with Gissette Valentin, whom I’ve known for years, on a short film; it’s a psychological thriller that we’ve entered into a number of film festivals. I have a thing for these types of films and am also involved in cowriting a script with Erin Collins and Lucas Ayoub, two local actors I’ve come to know and work really well with. I’m excited to see what’s next with this particular project.

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?
My recovery journey has played an enormous role in where I am today. My dedication to that and my commitment to yoga cannot be understated. I try to stay deeply involved in the local Decatur community supporting local businesses.

Not sure if I’m the one to be giving advice. My whole life, I’ve done everything ass backwards. But I would say to anyone, no matter what they’re after, to give themselves permission to fail. I would also beg them to learn about the business side of things. Learn to manage money, learn to budget. This isn’t fun stuff, but it’s critically important to have a fundamental understanding of this kind of shit in order to thrive.

Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
One of the things I struggle with on a daily basis is letting go of things I can’t control. This sounds trite, because we all know, we can’t control everything… or in some cases, anything. I’ve had this issue my entire life. Lately, one particular scenario comes to mind, where I’ve allowed a truly unreasonable individual to rent entirely too much space in my head. What am I doing about it? I continue to remind myself that I have so much in my life to be grateful for. I have an incredible network of genuine folks that have inspired and supported me throughout my career and in life… in general. It’s much healthier to focus on positive things like this than try to make sense of something that doesn’t make sense.

Contact Info:

Image Credits
K.L. Vox https://klvoxpro.wixsite.com/kaelvoxphotography

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