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Meet Curtis J. Williams of Curtis J & Associates

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Curtis J. Williams.

Curtis, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Growing up, I loved to play video games just like any other kid. I wanted the “new” game, the “new” gaming system every time one was released as would any young kid would. I would ask my mom who would tell me to ask my dad, whom would easily say, “no” or to “use your own money.” Video games and gaming systems were not cheap! So here I am thinking, “how can I use my own money when the only money I had coming in was my birthday money and Christmas money?” One thing I knew was that I hated the word “no” and so I needed some way to make some money to buy my video games. Then one day, while shopping with my mom in Target, my entrepreneurial journey began!

At the age of 14, I (with a loving mom’s help) purchased a manual hand powered ice shaver. It allowed me to make and sell flavorful snow cones. I would set up my little shaved machine at my mothers company-sponsored events, at family reunions, and anywhere else my mother would take me that allowed me to set up and sell cups of flavored ice. It was WORK. Do you know how many times I had to turn this lever with all my strength to make just one cup of flavored ice! But this allowed me to make money while I also saved money that came in on my birthday, Christmas, random change I found etc.

I learned that you make different decision when you have to use your “own” money versus using someone else’s money. I say that to say, I never bought a game system or video game ever again. Because my family was military, I had the chance to live overseas. When we came back to the USA, I started a small wholesale and drop shipping business specializing in novelty items. wrist watches, and clothing. All of my friends wanted all of these bling bling watches and jerseys at the time. The prices they were paying were ridiculous! Because I’d seen these same items being produced overseas and being sold for much lower, I thought hey I can make some money!

Thus, my second business was born! I continued that throughout high school and into my first year of college. I was accepted into Georgia Southern University. The first day of school, I met my current business partner. He had big dreams on being in the entertainment world as he was a DJ back in Jamaica where he was from. I didn’t know anything about the entertainment world, but I knew I could help with the money. To save the long story, we had a lot of success in college. We hosted concerts for major names like Nicki Minaj and Drake! What many people don’t know is that we really focused on entertainment distribution, not just concerts and parties which allowed us to do a lot of cool things.

We even hosted and staffed our own theater based events and comedy shows, managed 13,000sq ft event center all while under the age of 22. Crazy! We took all of our skills and moved to Atlanta after graduation. Were we began heavily focusing on our music department. We had success in this arena again, so much that we turned out entertainment company into a holding firm, HHE Enterprise. That placed me behind the scenes even more. So now I’m dealing with many of your high paying artist, execs, producers etc behind the scenes. One common theme was that they would be on top and making money left and right, but then when they were not “hot” or didn’t have any music moving, then the funds would dry up. But you see they still have this “lifestyle” and “image” to uphold.

Family members still have their hands out, mortgage payments are still due, the luxury cars still need payments and/or maintenance. So they go broke trying to stay looking rich..until the next hit or placement comes in. Whenever there is a problem, there is always opportunity. I told my partners, what IF we can do more for these entertainers by helping to manage their money? I did research, hired a research firm, leaned on my relationships, and reduced my day-to-day responsibilities on the music side. What I learned on the financial end, inspired me but it also, for lack of better words, pissed me off. I found passion on wanting to educate the masses and teach them about financial literacy and wealth building principles.

Avenues and strategies that they have NO IDEA about. I now have multiple offices or educational centers I like to call them here in the U.S with a team of 62. Curtis J & Associates, we do things our way, the new age way. With transparency, credibility, respect, and just adding value. I bring the same excitement from the entertainment world to the financial world. It’s a lot fun. So much fun that we’ve created a community, A Wealth Movement. So now, I have merged the two worlds, I call them Music and Money!

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Smooth? HA!HA! Is that even a word? Business in itself is EASY. It’s the people that make it hard. No matter what business you are in, people are the ones that make it difficult.

Struggles, I don’t know where to start…
-Building teams, those teams quitting… then having to build teams again!
-Dealing with so many people who would rather quit, than commit.
-Having people not believe in you because of your age
-Not having the proper “relationships” to get into certain doors, circles, etc regardless of credentials
-Having members of your team executive team try and steal your company’s blueprint to start a separate company ( they tried and failed).
-Spending thousands on renting out a venue and promotions, only to arrive at the venue two hours before the event to chains on the doors with the owners saying electrical issues.
-Having rival party promoters, call the fire marshal and have your shut your event down
-Losing over 6k on an event because the venue owner decided to host a free all night event the night before your “paid” event.
-Putting together Artists’ entire marketing plans, marketing them, having them perform into the front of various crowds…. only to lose out on the artist(s) because your paperwork wasn’t “tight.”
-Losing half a 1.8 million dollar deal because your client felt as though you were disrespectful by being 2 minutes late to your scheduled meeting
– Trying to help others win, but their egos won’t allow them to be the recipient of knowledge.
-Having a client listen to their uncle’s advice, as it pertained to their financial planning and investments, and lose everything… their home, their thriving business, the kid’s college money. Everything! And the only thing the uncle could do was to say, “sorry” and can’t even help them with a place to stay. But my guys are left to get blamed because they felt as though “we should have done more to convince them not to listen…”

I could go on! But I embrace struggle. They are all just learning experiences. I love struggle. You see, in every adversity lies a seed of a benefit, if and only if you look for it!

Please tell us about Curtis J & Associates.
As a holding firm, we have various business entities. But I want to focus on and highlight my financial firm and our financial community: Curtis J & Associates | A Wealth Movement We are a full-fledged financial service and education firm. We specialize in financial planning, retirement planning, wealth advisory, insurance, active money management and educational workshops for individual, families and businesses.

We are different by design in MANY MANY ways. One way is that our revenue model. We believe that everyone should have access to financial education and financial tools that can assist them in their desired end goal-regardless of net-worth. I like to tell people, we are bringing wall street principles to mainstream America. We provide financial education, access to resources and tools, and full financial plans complimentary. What’s the catch right? We’ve done the hard work and explained our new age vision and approach to many of your favorite major financial A-rated institutions and have secured financial backing and contracts to where we are now in partnership and not competing with many of them.

You see the client should always be the winner. So, therefore, now we can provide unbiased recommendations and do what is truly in the best interest of the client while providing them with the best options based on their specific situation, goals, and dreams. The old way, you walk into say “Barney Rubble financial firm” and they tell you that they have the best products on the planet. Their “advisors” have nice titles, good customer service but no matter what you’re needs are, you will only receive what Barney Rubble has to offer. Whether it is the best for you or not. That’s that old industry we are talking about. Times are changing, People should have options. You either keep up or get left behind or even play catch up. (look at Amazon now compared to Walmart). We are looking to make a difference, not just a living.

We also allow non-traditional individuals to assist with our crusade as we’ve created an amazing referral compensation program. Because let’s be honest, most people get their advice from the people around them, not some advertisement and brochure. We are truly working in the new age of communication and compensation. We are known for hosting some amazing and unique financial events and workshops. You have to remember, I come from the entertainment world doing events so of course, I have to bring the flavor over to the financial world. We’ve created an entire Community entitled, A Wealth Movement. We are able to raise the awareness and increase the conversations on and about wealth building. Truly relaying that Wealth is more than just “money”, it truly comes down to your conversations and your relationships.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Being able to travel the world and experience different culture. It really allowed my vision to be stretched, taught me how to effectively communicate with people and helped to develop my abundance mentality.

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Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

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