We recently connected with DeVonte Thomas and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, DeVonte thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Taking care of customers isn’t just good business – it is often one of the main reasons folks went into business in the first place. So, we’d love to get a conversation going around how to best help clients feel appreciated – maybe you can share something you’ve done or seen someone do that’s been really effective at helping a customer feel valued?
At Top Shelf Financial we prioritize paying great attention to the passion of our clients and their families! We do this by gifting them with whatever they’re personal like may be, such as gift cards to fine dining, sporting events luxuries from High fashion stores etc… we truly want our clients too feel Top Shelf.
DeVonte, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I started my career in Financial Services at age 19 and approaching my 13th year in the financial sector. My attraction to this industry was very simple but also passion driven; I wanted to do whatever it took to obtain financial independence for myself and family. In addition to building a lifestyle for myself and family I also developed a strong passion for contributing to closing the wealth gap in underserved communities… seeing GoFund Me being used as a financial means instead of life insurance was and is a problem we solve on the daily basis.
The product and services provided by Top Shelf are the following. Life insurance, investment Advice, retirement plans,
The problem we solve for clients: The challenges we solved on regular basis for our clients extends to; assuring proper life insurance coverage, better rates or more coverage for the same or less premium, stock market risk prevention, upside for improved stock market growth within investment products.
One of many things we’re proud about with Top Shelf Financial, is that we’ve built a lifestyle brand that has a huge purpose such as financial literacy! Often times financial services is a sophisticated boring subject, but at Top Shelf Financial we’ve had success in displaying a swagger that represents urban communities while still teaching great foundational principles pertaining to Financial services. In addition I would also mention we’re very proud of the quality service we provide to the world-class clients that place trust in working with our firm… I’ve always been turned off by transactional selling, so creating a Luxurious and customized experience for our clients is something I’m very proud of our firm.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
When I started in the financial sector as mentioned I was nineteen years old; the challenge with being nineteen years old in this profession, is sitting with a 40- 45 year old Man or woman and trying to yield professional financial guidance and sometimes the clients thinking “ I got shoes older than you!” Which in many cases the hesitancy was warranted because most young professionals have not had the luxury of time to gain life experience to speak to their situations fully. So being young in a profession that’s underrepresented by Black males was a challenge I endured; I over came this barrier by NOT quitting, personally developing I.E. reading personal development books, developing a strong work Ethic, such as coming early staying late, putting over time into learning personal finance. In conclusion I joined a community of other successful financial expert and aspiring financial experts. This was crucial because when times got challenging I was fortunate to speak to people that had the life I desired for myself, to draw inspiration, in addition to that I was also able to draw inspiration from peers that were also striving for the same goals in their own right, so having that community assisted tremendously.
We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.
The great thing about meeting my Cofounder is that she’s my wife! My wife Jazzmine Thomas and I met in high school and married each other at ages 24 & 25 we have always been a support system for each other and our values and vision for life and business has consistently aligned! Jazzmine Handles all investments advice for our firm as she’s a licensed Financial advisor, she is tasked with helping our clients with wealth accumulation as I handle life insurance and retirement planning for clients. Jazzmine and I both pioneered the vision for Top Shelf Financial together as we wanted to give high stake Financial services to all communities and not just limited to affluent communities.
***** if you have room to use Brand reputation please feel free to do so.
Some of the things that’s helped build mines and brand reputation is being a professional in one area, on my course off 13 years I’ve been approached to try other industries or bring other industries into my profession, but avoiding this distraction and staying focused on my expertise has earned myself and company the identity off being a viable option for clients to get assistance with their personal finance. By taking this approach I and my firm has established a high level of trust in our marketplace by maintaining discipline and not trying to be expert in many different areas outside of personal finance.
Moreover a huge boost for our reputation has been being very active within our community! My commitment has been we won’t be a firm that just cast a net for our bottom line, we want to contribute to the quality of life of the locals that live in this community. We have accomplished that by bringing valuable entertainment to our town such as hosting an upscale fashion Show, upscale social gatherings, working along with our city council, giveaways, sponsoring youth basketball leagues locally etc. at Top Shelf financial we go beyond the transaction for our clients and community. 
Contact Info:
- Website: www.topshelffinancialservices.com
- Instagram: Topshelffinancial