Williams’ recipe for success: helping others

In many ways, Chris Williams considers his friend’s success his success.

“I like to see my friends do well,” he said. “I want to help them out however I can.”

An independent financial consultant with Allstate of Culpeper in the Meadowbrook Shopping Center, Williams, 38, runs CW Financials and is relatively new to the community having moved to Culpeper just five years ago.

And yet in that time, he has gained a name for himself among young and established business members as an effective leader who is generous with his time and resources. For it, the Culpeper County Chamber of Commerce named Williams its Young Professional of the Year at its annual banquet earlier this month.

“I was just hoping I wouldn’t trip going up the steps to get the award,” he said, laughing, at a recent interview. “I am humbled by it and grateful that someone would think highly enough to nominate me.

“I don’t do this to get awards. I don’t do things for trophies.”

In fact, the Young Professional award was not displayed in Williams’ mostly bare office, only a single poster with some obscure, inspirational phrase.

“It’s at home,” he said.

Co-founder and president of the chamber’s Young Professionals, a business networking group for people aged 21 to 40ish, Williams said he lives by a mantra of putting others success ahead of his.

A graduate of the University of Maryland in his home state, he said he aims to help his community progress and is not satisfied with the status quo.

“If people realize you are trying to help them they’ll come back and help you too,” Williams said.

It was that spirit of “Do unto others,” that prompted Culpeper native Jason Coppedge to nominate his friend for the award.

An associate with Virginia Farm Bureau Associate, Coppedge said it was never about competition with Williams even though their fields are similar.

“He helped me out whenever he could even though we offer some of the same products,” Coppedge said, adding that Williams does a great job promoting the Young Professionals group. “He puts
everything he has into it.”

Previously a financial advisor with Morgan Stanley in Alexandria, Williams brought his family to Culpeper in 2004 to be closer to his wife’s job — Kristin Williams is assistant principal at M.M. Pierce Elementary School in Remington.

The couple has an 8-year-old son, Alec, and since moving here have completely fallen in love with the Culpeper community.

“It’s very welcoming,” Williams said. “I went from knowing literally no one five years ago to someone actually thinking enough to nominate me for this award and then actually winning. In a lot of other
places, if you haven’t been there 200 years they don’t pay attention to you.”

Before getting into finance, he worked a few years in politics, including a stint with the Republican National Committee during the 1996 campaign. As a financial consultant, Williams helps clients plan for
retirement, save for college, select insurance and such.

“I try to take a look at their entire package to put together a plan that will be with them throughout their whole life,” he said.

Looking for some free advice in this uncertain economy? Don’t let yourself lose sleep over your investments.

“If you are losing sleep you need to change some things,” Williams said. “There are retirement vehicles out there now that allow you to sleep,” he said, naming variable annuities among them. “If you are not comfortable with the risk you have been taking, look at options.”

Williams has amassed a clientele of about 350 since coming on as an independent contractor with Allstate, mostly folks from “middle America,” he said.

Considering that Williams does not advertise his business, his philosophy of getting involved with the chamber and helping others has served him well.

And then there’s his son.

“Whenever I see him, I want to make sure we leave the community a better place for him. I want to make sure he has the same opportunities I had if not better.”

Jim Charapich, director of the Culpeper County Chamber of Commerce, lauded Williams for being so active and for knowing how to lead.

“He leads in a way that people respect and respond to,” Charapich said. “You just know he’s a leader and people recognize it.”