Kezia Williams Biography
Generation wealth triumphs all factors that keep white people at the helm of wealthy people and it is also the greatest factor that can help black people close the wealth gap. Black activists have pointed out some government policies that systematically keep black people poor and uninformed about finances but people like Kezia Williams are coming up with strategies to educate black people and help them build businesses that will create financial liberty.
Her desire to start the initiative stems from experiencing systemic racism firsthand. She is now a 6 figure earner and the founder of Black up Start an organization seeking to educate black people on finances. Kezia Williams is also the co-founder of MyBlackReceipt and a director at Capital Cause.
Personal Details
She was born on 30th November 1985 and is the first-born daughter in a family of 8. Kezia Williams is the daughter of Gail Davis. She has the traits of a conservative and family remains something she values. Miss Williams, however, has yet to marry but has publicly displayed her desire to be a mother and a wife. She also shares on her Instagram tips for getting a high-value man.
Education
Like many black Americans, Kezia Williams had chosen the traditional route of education to earn her way to success. She displayed this desire when she was a political science and journalism student at Christopher Newport University. Later on, she went and got a master’s degree becoming the first person in the family to get a degree and master’s as well.
Her journey towards greatness started when she was working at CENTRA Technology as the Senior Program Manager. For the 6 years she was there, Kezia William’s duties were writing national security reports that were used by the National Security Council and other high-level government agencies. Kezia also advised the Chief of Staff, managed the portfolio of Homeland Security, and analyzed quantitative and qualitative data of the Office of National Counterintelligence Executive.
She left the job in 2014 after she allegedly fell victim to systemic racism. When a white woman was promoted to become her boss, she fired Kezia because she found her educational requirements illegible for the position she was holding.
After leaving CENTRA, she joined the United Negro College Fund, an initiative focused on cultivating the next generation of black business persons. After getting exposed to the black people’s situation while working for UNCF, a desire to start a program to help black people was stirred.
Starting Black UpStart
In November 2015, Kezia Williams got the blessing from UNCF to start Black Upstart. The goal of her company was to create a curriculum to educate black entrepreneurs about business, connecting black entrepreneurs and those in academics and teaching generational wealth.
In July 2019, she expanded her company by introducing Black UpStart School, motivated by OW Gurley and JB Stratford who started a black people business community that provided products and services that black people in Tulsa Oklahoma needed. The Blackup Starts school sought to carry the touch of the black ancestors by creating an education platform that celebrates black people by providing free fully funded tuition for black entrepreneurs and hiring black trainers and teachers.
Over the 8 years, BlackUp Start has been active, more than 400 black entrepreneurs have received investments from VCs, scaled their businesses and others got featured on major media outlets. Backup has also received positive acclamation from Netizens glued to the financial content she posts on her social media, where she has more than 800,000 followers combined in her personal Instagram account and Black Up account.
My Black Reciept Campaign
While running Black upStart, Kezia launched My Black Receipt campaign in an attempt to reveal the level of financial power in black communities. With the help of Torrence Reed of Zoom Technologies, they created a tool to track black business receipts spent in black business. Using her influence on social media, she started the 17-day campaign aiming at reaching $5 million in total for the receipts. The tool crashed on the first day after more than 40,000 tried to access the website.
They re-launched it on the second day and moved on until the 17th day. More than 19,000 people participated in the campaign and a total of $7.4 million in receipts and invoices were uploaded in the system. The result of the campaign displayed the potential black people have to impact black businesses.
The campaign has remained active since its inception. currently, the receipts uploaded total to$10MM, the target being $ 100MM by 2025. The success of this venture earned a feature in major media outlets like Forbes, The Huffington Post, Ad Week, Black Enterprise, and CNN.
Kezia William Home Invasion
Despite vouching for black people, Kezia Williams one time became a victim of a home invasion from a fellow black man. The incident which she shared on Instagram involved a man who wanted to break into her house. Kezia shared the doorbell camera video of the man who was forcefully attempting to unlock her door.
According to her Instagram post, the police responded after 28 minutes after dialing forcing the man to run after they arrived. After 5 hours, an Instagram user shared the burglar’s name, address, and mom’s name with Kezia. The thied was arrested and charged with trespass and attempted burglary.
Success Strategies and Influence
Since starting her own company, Kezia Williams has remained pro-black people’s success. Apart from teaching people secrets to success, she actively practices these secrets. She bought her first asset worth $29,000 at age 20 and had 6 figure assets by age 6. Her strategy was using her salary to fund retirement and pay bills and creating 2 side hustles to save, buy stocks, give back to the community, and pay debts. 8 years now as an entrepreneur, Kezia Williams is considered a yearly six-figure earner.
She also wrote The Black Entrepreneurs’ Workbook which educates readers to monetize their innovation, turning a hobby into a business, and filing copyright trademarks and patents. Her passion for seeing black people become better versions of themselves has also been voiced by Gloria Mayfield Banks and Kalilah Reynolds.
A strategy to become a billionaire she shares with her followers are
1. Change Mindset
2. Create Multiple sources of Income
3. Invest in Partnershi[s
4. Find your customers
5. Invest in black entrepreneurs.
Kezia Williams Personal Details
Ethnicity: Black
Nationality: American
Religion: Christian
Age: 38
Marital Status: Single
Children: 0
Occupation: Entrepreneur
Salary: approx $200,000
Net Worth: approx $ 2 million
