The Douglas Fearing Story
Doug Fearing is a husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. On a professional level, Doug is an entrepreneur, author, mentor, speaker, and nonprofit leader whose life journey reflects both the rewards of perseverance and the transforming power of faith. Best known as the co-founder and retired leader of Fearing’s Audio Video Security, Doug has spent decades building businesses, serving his community, mentoring others, and encouraging people to make a difference.
Born and raised in Reedsburg, Wisconsin, Doug grew up with strong Midwestern values rooted in family, work ethic, and community. He and his wife, Lois, became high school sweethearts and were married in 1976 after completing their secondary education. Their partnership would become the foundation for both their family life and many of the endeavors they would later pursue together. After graduating from DeVry Institute of Technology in Chicago, Doug returned to Wisconsin to work as a television technician in the family business, Fearing’s TV & Appliance.
A defining turning point came in 1981 with the tragic death of Doug’s father. In the aftermath of that loss, Doug witnessed firsthand how deeply his father’s life had impacted the community. People from all walks of life attended his father’s visitation and funeral service and shared stories about the kindness, generosity, and influence his father had carried into their lives. That experience awakened something profound within Doug: a desire not merely to make a living, but to make a difference. It became a guiding theme that would shape the rest of his life.
As Doug, Lois, and their two young daughters built their future together, they relocated to Portage, Wisconsin, in 1984. It was there that Doug became involved in civic and leadership organizations. His passion for service and leadership development led him into the Wisconsin Jaycees (Junior Chamber International), where he rose through the ranks to become State President, with Lois and their daughters joining him in the endeavor. Under Doug’s leadership, the Wisconsin Jaycees grew to more than 10,000 members, and Doug was recognized by the United States Jaycees with the Clint Dunigan Memorial Award as one of the top State Presidents in the nation. Through the Jaycees, Doug expanded his vision for leadership, public service, and the importance of investing in people, becoming known as a communicator and motivator who inspired others to believe they were capable of more than they imagined.
After leaving the Jaycees, Doug pursued his entrepreneurial dreams, eventually co-founding Fearing’s Audio Video Security with Lois in 1997 in Portage. Its humble beginnings included starting the business on a shoestring budget in a small 600 sq. ft. office with only 3 employees.
Through hard work, perseverance, and innovation, Doug and Lois grew Fearing’s, relocating it to Madison and then expanding to Milwaukee. Under their leadership, Fearing’s became a highly respected company serving commercial and industrial clients across Wisconsin and beyond. Fearing’s AVS earned and annually maintained an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau and also received numerous honors, including Columbia County Small Business of the Year (2003), Dane County Small Business of the Year (2015), Marcus Theaters Vendor Partner of Excellence Award (2017), and the Wisconsin Security Association’s Dealer of the Year Award (2017).
Throughout his career, Doug remained deeply committed to serving others beyond the business world. He served on the boards of several nonprofit organizations, including one he helped establish, and dedicated countless hours to youth mentoring through programs such as Big Brothers Big Sisters and Kinship Mentoring.
Beyond local community service, Doug and Lois became involved with Schools for Haiti, a nonprofit organization based in Tampa, Florida, in 2013. Schools for Haiti operates multiple schools that educate, feed, and clothe more than 2,000 students in Haiti and employ more than 250 staff members. Since becoming involved, Doug and Lois have co-chaired an annual fundraising gala that has raised more than $1.4 million in support of the schools, and the newest school is now called the Wisconsin Academy.
Since Doug’s youngest daughter relocated to the mountains of Colorado in 2007, then married and started a family, Doug and Lois make regular trips to the Rockies to visit which led to them becoming avid hikers, even scaling three fourteeners (mountains of 14,000 feet or more) and several smaller mountains. When in Wisconsin, Devil’s Lake State Park is their favorite hiking destination.
But despite personal and professional accomplishments, Doug eventually came face-to-face with a deeper spiritual reality. In 2005, he experienced what he best describes as a divine wake-up call—an encounter that radically shifted his understanding of life, purpose, and eternity.
Up until that point, much of Doug’s professional career had been shaped by the pursuit of the American Dream: success, achievement, security, recognition, and material prosperity. Yet he realized that even the fulfillment of those ambitions could not satisfy the deepest needs of the human soul. That realization marked the beginning of a profound spiritual transformation.
From that point forward, Doug devoted himself to pursuing what he calls the “Kingdom Dream”—a life centered not on temporary earthly success, but on faith in Jesus Christ, eternal purpose, and surrender to God’s calling. He calls this journey a “venture in faith,” because it’s been marked by excitement, adversity, and calling. This venture includes stories of exhilaration, brokenness, healing, and spiritual renewal and has become the foundation for his message to others.
He believes America’s growing division, moral confusion, and cultural unrest cannot ultimately be solved through politics, wealth, or human effort alone, but only through spiritual awakening and a return to God.
This conviction led Doug to write The Kingdom Dream: An Urgent Wake-Up Call to Life Beyond the American Dream. In the book, he combines personal testimony, cultural commentary, biblical insight, and heartfelt challenge to call readers toward a life of deeper faith and eternal significance. Through stories from his own life and reflections on America’s spiritual condition, Doug urges readers to move beyond the pursuit of comfort and worldly achievement and instead embrace a life fully surrendered to God’s greater purpose.
Today, Doug and Lois continue to live out their shared mission of “making a difference.” Following the sale of Fearing’s Audio Video Security, they have focused even more intentionally on ministry, mentoring, leadership encouragement, and inspiring others to pursue lives of eternal impact. Doug’s story is ultimately one of transformation—a testimony that true joy, freedom, and fulfillment are not found in the temporary promises of the American Dream, but in discovering and living out The Kingdom Dream.