We recently connected with Willie Douglas and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Willie, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?
Open Heart Poetry is a phrase that poets see floating around a lot in the poetry community! Particularly for me open heart poetry came from the phrase of open heart surgery, when you step in the doors of an Open Heart Poetry event, you allow God to do the sanctifying work of restoring your heart through poetry and other creative expression’s.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I’m a spoken word poet, I’ve been doing spoken word for about 4 years now. Through spoken word I’ve created a loyal fan base that has followed me into starting my own Unique Christian Open Mic.
Open Heart Poetry is a space that is all things Christ & Creative. Allowing anybody to come and give God glory through creative expressions and any form of talent that glories God.
Open Heart Poetry is now one of the largest Christian Open mics in the tri state area! The growth within a little over a year has been phenomenal and something only God can do.
What i would say I’m most proud of when it comes to this business is keeping God in the center of it all. Without God this business wouldn’t be where it’s at today. Through fasting & prayer God has done some amazing things
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Before open heart poetry was a Christian open mic in January 2024, it was a regular (secular) open mic running from April 2023-October 2023.
As my relationship with God grew he put it on my heart to have my business represent him! Yes I was scared, I didn’t want to do it at first but God didn’t let up.
One day I shut everything down, deleting all content, and started the vision God laid before me.
Now? We house anywhere from 300-400 people MONTHLY. Starting at a cafe in downtown Trenton that held 50-60 people, then moving to an art gallery that held 150 people to now in a church that holds 400+ people. GOD DID
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
Initially starting this business I had NO CAPITAL!! A man by the name of Rob Wilborn believed in my vision, believed in me and let me use his cafe FOR FREE! That allowed me to build the capital to build on and invest into the business properly.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://beacons.ai/openheartpoetry
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/openheartpoetry__?igsh=cDAyYXZtdGJtNmc5
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1Ax8YwMoAF/?mibextid=wwXIfr
- Twitter: https://www.threads.net/@openheartpoetry__?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@openheartpoetry__?si=7xAXrYwXHp67XBAB
- Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@openheartpoetry__?_t=ZT-8va9aMJ2MjC&_r=1
