Willie Jolley
15 min read ⭑
“I believe the old saying is true—prayer changes things. Prayer is a powerful tool that not only changes the situations we experience in our lives but also changes how we view them.”
QUESTION #1: ACQUAINT
There’s much more to food than palate and preference. How does a go-to meal at your favorite hometown restaurant reveal the true you behind the web bio?
First, I should say that I’m a foodie! I love good food! And since I travel as part of my job (as a professional speaker, author, and radio and television host), I’ve had the pleasure of eating at some of the best restaurants around the world, from Japan to South Africa to Canada to the Caribbean and all over America.
Yet one of my favorite restaurants is located in Washington, D.C., a few miles from my home. It’s a soul food restaurant called The Carolina Kitchen. The food is fantastic, and it not only fills you up but also fills our souls with joy. One day I got I call from two of my Hall of Fame speaker buddies who were coming to Washington, D.C. to speak for a big convention, and they wanted a great restaurant that offered real soul food. Now, let me note that I am African American, and my friends were white guys who love good food like I do! So I took these two very famous speakers to The Carolina Kitchen and ordered the best meals for them.
Once they got their plates, you would have thought they had never eaten before. They ate and ate and ate, and boy, did we have a great evening.
For hours, we sat around telling stories and laughing and eating great food. Throughout the evening, several people recognized that three Hall of Fame Speakers were in the corner eating this good food, and they came over and asked for autographs and pictures. Each time, we stopped and took a picture, but then they went back to eating that good food!
We had a great time that evening over food, fun, and fellowship! When they left town, they called and said, “We're coming back, but not to speak. We want to go back to the restaurant!” And lo and behold, that's exactly what they did. They came back a few months later—and this time, they brought more of our speaking industry friends with them. The party was bigger, the fun was larger, and the fellowship was greater. We bonded over food, real soul food, that filled our stomachs and, more importantly, blessed and enriched our souls!
Himiway Bikes; Unsplash
QUESTION #2: REVEAL
We’ve all got quirky proclivities and out-of-the-way interests. So, what are yours? What so-called "nonspiritual" activities do you love and help you find spiritual renewal?
My pastime is bike riding. Not motorcycle riding, but riding my hybrid bicycle. I live in Washington, D.C., which has some of the greatest bike trails in the country. And my home is just a couple of blocks from the historic Rock Creek Park. The bike path goes along the length of the city and passes through the National Zoo and past the beautiful Washington Monuments and Memorials. It is truly a beautiful path.
I started riding early in the morning so I could not only get my morning exercise but also have time to have morning devotions by the creek, at a spot called Pierce Mill, where the water gets still. I sit on the bench of the picnic table by the water and watch the ducks glide across the water as I pray and read my daily Scriptures.
One day, I read Psalm 23 and thought it was the perfect Scripture for this beautiful place. Here’s how I read it:
“The Lord is my shepherd (Hallelujah); I shall not want (He continues to supply my needs). He makes me lie down in green pastures (the green grass of the park on the other side of the path from the creek).
“He leads me beside still waters (the still part of the creek). He restores my soul (as I look at the little ducks I am calmed and inspired as I notice how they glide across the water appearing to do so without any struggle).
“He leads me in paths (the bike path) of righteousness for his name’s sake (as I go along the path, I praise his name for the beauty he has created).
“Even though I walk (actually ride) through the valley of the shadow of death (the small tunnel that goes under the bridge that is right past the mill), I will fear no evil (he has allowed the bend in the tunnel to be lit so we can see the other bikes coming in the opposite direction).
“Your rod and your staff, they comfort me (I trust him to keep me from situations that are beyond my ability to fix. I can fix a flat and a chain malfunction). You prepare a table (a picnic table) before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil (I always take off my bike helmet and the perspiration cools my head as I enjoy the breeze next to the creek); my cup overflows (I am always overwhelmed by the splendor of the moment).
“Surely (without question) goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life (what a blessing it is to be alive), and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever (I will praise him as long as I have breath because of all he has done and continues to do for me)” (Psalm 23, ESV, additions mine).
Amen!
QUESTION #3: CONFESS
Every superhero has a weakness. Every human too. We're just good at faking it. But who are we kidding? We’re broken and in this thing together. So, what’s your kryptonite and how do you hide it?
I told you earlier that I’m a foodie, I love good food. My mom was a foodie as well as my brother, and they both succumbed to diet-impacted illnesses. My mother died from congestive heart failure and my brother from a sudden heart attack at 48 years of age. So even though I love good food, I also am mindful of the importance of moderation and daily exercise. I have made exercise a daily part of my life. Just as I pray every day, I also exercise every day and set aside one day per week to fast. I know there’s a price to pay for the food I love, and I know I can’t simply eat all the food I want. I must stay below a certain weight if I want to get to enjoy tasting the wonderful dishes that I love!
The key is discipline. I must discipline myself. Otherwise, I could face the physical effects my other family members faced. Neither my brother nor my mother liked to exercise, and both loved rich food, which is why I have made diet and exercise a priority in my life. That means knowing when to push away from the table, drinking lots of water, and exercising every day.
My daily routine is to wake up and, as soon as I open my eyes, say, “Thank you, Lord!” Then I roll out of bed onto my knees, and I pray. Next, I go to the bathroom, brush my teeth, put on my gym clothes, and go get some exercise. I may ride my bike, walk, run, or go to the gym, but I do something every day.
While at the gym or on my bicycle, I read one chapter from the Old Testament, one chapter of the New Testament, one chapter of Proverbs, and one Psalm! And then I go home, shower, and head to my office, where my team members and I recite a daily chant that I wrote and posted on my site JolleyGoodNews.org. The chant is “I am healthy. I am wealthy. I am happy. I am home. I feel terrific. I am blessed and highly favored. This is the day that the Lord has made, and I will rejoice, and be glad in it. And I pray, send prosperity today! And we will do all we can to make it come this way! Thank you, Lord! Amen!”
As we move forward in life, I continue to keep those words in mind. First, I want to seek God’s wisdom. Second, I want to be diligent about my health. And third, I want to create generational wealth (because Scripture says that a good man leaves an inheritance for his children’s children). If I do these things, I can overcome the generational health issues that have impacted my family and create a legacy of wisdom, health, and wealth. Amen!
QUESTION #4: FIRE UP
Tell us about your toil. How are you investing your professional time right now? What’s your obsession? And why should it be ours?
I’ve been blessed to speak around the world for decades, including for major corporations. I’ve spoken several times at the Crystal Cathedral for The Hour of Power and was even a featured speaker on the national Get Motivated! tour. After 30 years of speaking, though, I realized that they still work yet to be done. So in 2012, I shut down my business for a year to go back to school to get my Doctor of Ministry Degree in Faith Driven Achievement from The California Graduate School of Theology.
It was then that I realigned my priorities. I went from speaking and writing books as my professional priorities to a seven-point program. The first point is ministry.
The second is media, so I can get my message to more people globally.
The third is motivation and inspiration, which is the focus God has given me in my speaking. The fourth is music, which is an additional gift that the Lord has blessed me with.
The fifth is marriage because my wife and I wrote a popular marriage book based on what we’ve learned over 30 years of marriage. The goal for our book—called Make Love, Make Money, Make It Last—is to help save and enhance a million marriages. (That book led to a weekly TV show on Facebook Live, Instagram Live, and LinkedIn Live called Make Love, Make Money, Make It Last—The Broadcast.)
The sixth point is money. I want to help people learn the importance of making and investing money and understand the difference between being rich and being wealthy. I believe God smiles on wealth and frowns on simply being rich because riches have to do with one generation while wealth is multigenerational.
The seventh is mentorship. We should be teaching and developing others to help them succeed by giving them the lessons we’ve learned about faith, family, and finances so they can have a greater and more impactful future! Amen!
QUESTION #5: BOOST
Cashiers, CEOs, contractors, or customer service reps, we all need grace flowing into us and back out into the world. How does the Holy Spirit invigorate your work? And how do you know it's God when it happens?
A Setback Is a Setup for a Comeback! This is the title of the book that became my first global bestselling book. Yet I often tell people that, despite the profound accolades the book has received, neither the title nor the book itself came from me but rather came through me. I know God’s grace gave me this book.
Grace is the secret to my success as a speaker and author. God's grace allowed me to be in the right place to meet the right person to create the right connection to allow me to have the success that I have had. Even getting the deal that allowed the book to hit the marketplace was God’s divine intervention. It happened while I was speaking at a small breakout session at The National Speakers Association during the last session of the last day before the evening Gala. If you don’t know, that’s the "dead hour" for events because most people skip that last session to get ready for the Gala in the evening. And yet God knew who would be in that audience that day. I spoke for the breakout session, not knowing that one of the top PR agents in America had slipped in and heard me speak before stepping out again.
I never even knew he was there, but a few weeks later, I got a call from the literary agent for the hit book Chicken Soup for the Soul series.
The agent told me that his good friend, the legendary PR agent who heard me speak, told him about this new young speaker named Willie Jolley who was going to be a big star! He also told me that he never reached out to a new author, but due to the raving testimony of his friend, he decided to call me. He then said he would be in Washington, D.C., a few weeks later and wanted to have lunch. When he came to D.C., we had lunch and he told me he liked my ideas and thought he could get me a major book deal. He lived up to that word and got me a great book deal with a big New York publisher.
Soon after, my first book came out called It Only Takes A Minute To Change Your Life, which became a national bestseller. The publisher then asked me about a second book, and I told them I would pray about it and see what happened. The book ended up being A Setback Is a Setup for a Comeback, and it became a global bestseller—all because a guy came into my session at an unlikely time and connected me with one of the top literary agents in the world! That’s all God's grace!
QUESTION #6: inspire
Scripture and tradition beckon us into the rich and varied actions that open our hearts to the presence of God. So, spill it, which spiritual practice is workin' best for you right now?
Every day I find it powerful to pray with purpose, intention, and focus. I pray first for wisdom because the Bible teaches us that wisdom should be one of our primary goals in life. Next, I pray for good health for my family, my friends, and myself. Then I pray for God to use me like a telephone today—to speak to and through me and to use me as he sees fit (and then hang me up until he needs me again). Plus, I make it a point to listen to positive, uplifting music and praise God every day. I also have a weekly prayer call with my prayer partner in which we pray for each other and for health, family, friends, and finances.
We have done this consistently every week for the last 21 years. Even when I’m speaking in Australia or Japan or Malaysia or South Africa, we find a time to pray. Either I’ll get up early so we can connect or I’ll stay up late, but somehow, someway we have faithfully prayed every week for over two decades.
I believe the old saying is true—prayer changes things. Prayer is a powerful tool that not only changes the situations we experience in our lives but also changes how we view them. And most importantly, prayer gives us hope, and hope in the future gives us power in the present—the power to keep moving forward! The truth is that everyone needs hope, especially in the midst of challenging times.
In addition to my morning and weekly prayer times, I make it a point to close every night with prayer. By starting and ending the day with prayer, I strive to "pray without ceasing" (see Colossians 4:2). Does that mean I pray all day long? No! It means I stay in a prayerful mindset all day long. While I work, I’m excited about praying for my achievements, and I do that with an attitude of prayer (not necessarily stopping and falling on my knees). The attitude of prayer is the key to my daily prayer activity, and I can attest that prayer truly does change things!
QUESTION #7: FOCUS
Our email subscribers get free ebooks featuring our favorite resources—lots of things that have truly impacted our faith lives. But you know about some really great stuff, too. What are some resources that have impacted you?
I love reading The Message version of the Bible every day. I have it on my phone as well as on my iPad because it offers a motivational narrative of the Bible and a modern perspective of biblical messages. In addition, I listen every day to a playlist on my phone with songs by Babbie Mason, John Stoddart, Kirk Franklin, and surprisingly, a Celtic group called Leahy.
All the songs are from different genres, and they all inspire and lift my spirit. Occasionally, I’ll also listen to a few things on YouTube, such as music from the choir at my church, First Baptist Church of Glenarden, which has a huge, talented choir of about 100 voices.
We all have things we cling to to survive (or thrive) in tough times. Name one resource you’ve found indispensable in this current season—and tell us what it's done for you.
This has been a challenging time for everyone all around the world. A global pandemic that has killed millions of people, economic downturn, massive job loss, defunct businesses, anxiety, fatigue, depression, and much more.
People need help and hope, and that’s why I’ve been busier than ever. I make my living by helping people get past tough times. I wrote earlier that I believe that my book A Setback Is a Setup for a Comeback came through me and not from me. As a result, I’ll often pull that book off the shelf and re-read it to get insights on how to encourage myself and others through these challenging times. In the book, I find hope, help, and specific steps to use to get past these tough times and to make the future better. I am reminded that everyone has setbacks, and when those setbacks occur, it’s time to make a decision. I must decide if I’m going to see it as a setback with a period or as a setback with a comma. A period means "end of the story, no more to be said" while a comma means "pause, transition, more to come—keep moving to see the rest of the story.”
All great comeback stories and happy endings follow the same pattern: an opening followed by a challenging middle, then a resolution of the tension that creates a happy ending (or in our case, an incredible comeback).
One story from my book always inspires me. It’s about a young man who died in his early 30s after a brief public career had brought him fame in his time and territory. The tragic element of his life story is that after a stunning success, he was falsely accused of a crime that resulted in his imprisonment, trial, and execution. The death penalty was carried out. The end of his life was utter disgrace, humiliation, and shame. I would weep as I think of the whole sad, sordid spectacle of this social injustice—except that his name was eventually vindicated. He came back, and his comeback was stunning and spectacular. His honor was restored and elevated. His name today is the most respected and renowned in the world. Today, we even count the years by him, dividing time between before his death and after his death. His name is Jesus, and he is my friend and inspiration. I know if you will just call, he will answer! Just try him. I’m sure you’ll like him.
QUESTION #8: dream
God is continually stirring new things in each of us. So, give us the scoop! What’s beginning to stir in you but not yet fully awakened? What can we expect from you in the future?
I’m so excited about the future that I almost cannot contain it. After 30 years of speaking all over the world and being on some of the biggest tours in America and getting to see city after city, I am now excited about my new dreams.
I started a website called the Willie Jolley Master Suite of Websites, which offers many different ministries, all designed to help you win in some area of your life. We have a site there to help people win in their marriages and with their children. We have sites on that page to help you win in business, win with your attitude, win with your faith, and win in speaking, goal setting, and much more.
Plus we have expanded Jolley Media from just a weekly show on Sirius XM to a daily syndicated radio show on Radio One stations across America.
We also now have daily one-minute motivational videos available on all social media platforms, including TikTok and Clubhouse as well as on my Dr. Willie Jolley’s Wealthy Ways podcast. We are now launching Jolley TV and music. Our goal is to mix inspiration and motivation with faith-based entertainment and information to help people all over the globe do more, be more, and achieve more—and to give God glory for all of the above!
We’ve been blessed over the last 30 years with a wonderful time speaking, but now we are going to build a massive media presence. So I close with what I tell my audience at the end of all my radio shows: I know for sure that your best (and my best) are still yet to come! God bless you!
Why are we as human beings so drawn to stories? Could it be that they typically follow a pattern that’s already ingrained in our souls? Willie Jolley described that pattern earlier—an opening goal, a seemingly insurmountable problem, and a triumphant ending.
Could it be that comeback stories resonate with us so much because that’s exactly what God has planned for our lives?
The apostle Paul paints a picture of the triumph we get to experience: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? … No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:35, 37, ESV).
We may be experiencing seemingly insurmountable problems right now. But can we trust God to turn them into a comeback story that’s even greater than we could imagine?
Dr. Willie Jolley is a Hall of Fame speaker who was also named “One of the Outstanding 5 Speakers in the World” by Toastmasters International. He is a national radio and television personality and is the author of several international best-selling books including It Only Takes A Minute To Change Your Life, A Setback Is A Setup For A Comeback, Turn Setbacks Into Greenbacks, An Attitude of Excellence, and his popular marriage book, Make Love, Make Money, Make It Last. His goal is to help people globally to pursue excellence and be all that God calls them to be!
