Willie Jolley: "Make 2012 your best year ever!"

I had the chance to attend an event featuring best-selling author and award-winning motivational speaker Willie Jolley on Monday night.  When a friend invited me to the event, I wasn't sure that I would get more than the experience of hearing a guy perform his routine to collect a check.  Oh, how wrong I was.

Willie Jolley speaks at Greater
Columbia Chamber of Commerce,
January 23, 2012.
Photo: The Woolfolk Group LLC

Speaking to a group at the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce, Jolley shared some of his experiences in life that helped him achieve multi-national success out of an initial setback and offered sincere inspiration on how his audience can do the same to make 2012 their best year ever.

Throughout the presentation, sponsored by the Greater Columbia Community Relations Council, Jolley referenced what has become his trademark mantra-- "A setback is a setup for a comeback!"  Using his own setbacks as examples, Jolley outlined how those experiences helped him develop a strategy-- based on vision, decision, action and desire-- that continues to lead him to achieve his dreams and he emphasized that his VDAD strategy can help everyone do the same.

Jolley, a former jazz singer, told the audience his story of working a steady engagement at a Washington, DC jazz club, successfully growing the club's clientele and expecting to receive a long-term contract and raise from himself and his band members.  Instead, on a night when Jolley performed two sold-out shows, the club owner called him in afterwards to say they were letting him go to cut costs.  "I couldn't believe it," said Jolley.  "I was being rewarded for my hard work by being fired and replaced by a karaoke machine. I was devastated!"  Jolley says that was the moment that changed his life and his outlook on life.    It was the setback that set him up for a comeback.  He is now CEO of Willie Jolley Worldwide, Inc., a growing empire that includes publishing, speaking, radio and television segments, DVDs, CDs and more.

Tre' Tailor with author and motivational
speaker Willie Jolley.
Photo: The Woolfolk Group LLC

The message resonated with audience members including popular former radio personality Tre' Tailor.  "So much of what he talked about touched me," said Tailor of Jolley's presentation.  "I am currently working toward my dream with a new venture that's challenging but I know it's achievable and hearing Willie Jolley just reinforced that for me."  Tailor recently launched Relax, It's Ok 2b Single in Columbia as an effort to address important issues unique and important to single people.

I, too, was amazed at how similar my own situation mirrors what he experienced with the jazz club.  I bought his book and can't wait to read it because I think it will really help me move forward from my own setback at WACH-TV and others that I have experienced in recent years.  I have been stuck in those disappointments for too long.  Spirit told me to attend the event and I'm glad that I listened!  I see this as a step toward total healing, understanding and building momentum to move forward toward my own comeback.

"I'm so happy we were able make this opportunity to connect with him possible," said Karen R. Jenkins, chairwoman of the Greater Columbia Community Relations Council.  "We all have experienced setbacks that, at the time, we think will mean the end of the world for us," Jenkins said.  "When I discovered Willie Jolley's message, it helped set me on the path toward reaching my dreams of helping people strengthen their financial footing. I'm an example that what he preaches works."

Karen R. Jenkins speaks at Greater
Columbia Chamber of Commerce
on Monday, January 23, 2012.
Photo: The Woolfolk Group LLC

Jenkins, a former banking executive, is a financial empowerment consultant and author of the book "Nobody Told Me! The Path to Financial Empowerment."

"I am so proud of Karen," Jolley told his audience as he held a copy of her publication.  "This is the best book on personal financial management that I have read and I highly recommend it."  Jenkins opened the Monday evening event by speaking to the group about the community relations council and "The Power of One."

In addition to his public speaking and writing, Jolley produces the nationally-syndicated "Live Better with Willie Jolley" television segment seen daily across the country.  The segment airs in Columbia on the WLTX-TV morning newscast.

For more information on Willie Jolley, click here.