Finding My Voice: The Story Behind Champion’s Voice

Story – Where It All Began

After college, I thought I knew exactly what my life would look like.

For years, I had dreamed of playing professional football. It was all I could see for myself. It was my one path and identity. But when that dream didn’t happen, I found myself standing at the edge of a world I didn’t know how to navigate.

I had earned my degree in Sociology, but I had never learned how to apply it to real life. I was one dimensional and a strong athlete with no clear direction once the game ended. I had never developed the life skills, self-awareness, or confidence to thrive outside of sports. I didn’t have a father to teach me how to move in different circles, how to build relationships, or how to believe that I could still become something more.

Therefore, I floundered through life for years. I worked wherever I could, in social services, juvenile justice, and detention centers. I coached sports, trying to make sense of life, trying to find meaning. I wasn’t chasing success as much as I was chasing clarity. I was trying to figure out who I was without the game.

Then came the day that changed everything.

I went to the doctor for a checkup, expecting nothing more than routine results. But when the doctor read my chart, his words cut deep: “Curtis, you’re morbidly obese. If you don’t change something soon, you might be dead within a year".

I sat in the car afterward, staring at my name written beside that diagnosis. “Morbid.” I knew what it meant death.

Tears streamed down my face. For the first time, I saw my name connected to something final. Every report card, every jersey, every award I had ever received had my name beside something positive, but not this time.

That was the day I realized I had drifted too far from the person I was meant to become. I didn’t know what my next move would be, but I knew I had to listen to that quiet voice inside, the one I had ignored for far too long.

A few months later, my son, Jakobi, was born. The doctor lifted him up, looked at me and said, “Cut the cord, Dad.” I took the scissors, hands trembling, and did what he said. It was the first defining act of my fatherhood. This was the moment I stepped fully into the responsibility of being the man my son would one day look up to and could be proud of.

When I looked at him, this small reflection of me, something inside shifted. I heard the voice again. This time, I didn’t just hear it, but I listened.

In that moment, I thought about everything I had carried for so long. I carried anger, frustration, low self-esteem, fear, and the constant feeling of not belonging. Those emotions had shaped much of my early adult life, but I was determined they would not shape his.

That was the real beginning of my journey toward leadership. I wanted to become the kind of father who was fully present, not just in body but in spirit. I wanted to ensure Jakobi never had to wonder if he was enough, never had to question his worth, and never had to grow up feeling limited by one path.

The Turning Point: A Promise and a Purpose

That inner voice told me something simple but powerful:

"You can’t teach leadership until you become one.”

So I made a vow. For every pound Jakobi gained, I would lose one.

But I wasn’t just losing weight. I was shedding fear, ego, and doubt.

I decided to take a full year off from teaching to stay at home with Jakobi when he was 2 years old. I had spent years in the classroom as a highly effective teacher and I loved working with students. But deep down, I knew there was more.

I often noticed how many of my students thrived with me, only to struggle once they moved on to other classrooms. I saw too many teachers overlooking or giving up on the very students who needed them most.

I saw kids like me, kids who grew up poor, misunderstood, and underestimated being dismissed, not because they lacked potential, but because they lacked teachers who believed in them.

That realization hit hard. My inner voice grew louder:

“Curtis, you’re not meant to just teach students. You’re meant to lead teachers.”

That voice told me that my purpose was bigger than one classroom. It was about holding teachers accountable for seeing every child’s worth. It was about changing the system from within.

So during that year, I dedicated myself to growth. I focused on my health, my family, and my next step. I enrolled in graduate school and earned my Master’s in Educational Leadership.

Because if I wanted my son to grow up believing he was capable of anything, I had to live that truth first.

From there, I became the principal of a middle school, the same school I attended as a child growing up in a poor neighborhood. The same hallways where I once sat as a restless student now echoed with my footsteps as an educator and leader.

It was also the same school my parents had attended decades earlier during segregation. That realization struck me deeply. Life had brought me full circle from student to principal, from uncertainty to purpose.

The students I now served were the sons and daughters of my childhood friends. I knew their struggles, their stories, their streets. And while I had once disliked school, I realized that was exactly why I was meant to lead one.

I wanted to create the kind of environment I never had which was a place where every student felt seen, supported, and believed in. The voice that once told me “you don’t belong here” was now whispering, “you’re here to make sure every child does.”

Stepping Beyond the Familiar

During my years as principal, I found myself once again at a crossroads.

I loved my school, my community, and the students I served, but I also knew charity starts at home. I had spent so much time giving my energy to others that I began to drift from what mattered most which was being a father, a husband, a son, and an uncle to my amazing nieces and nephews.

So, I made another decision guided by that inner voice. I stepped down from the principalship and took a leap of faith. I moved to Mumbai, India, seeking not just a career change, but a life expansion.

It was an opportunity for both Jakobi and me to grow. I wanted to model what it meant to step outside of your comfort zone, to embrace the unfamiliar with confidence and curiosity. I wanted him to see that faith and courage are universal languages.

India changed me. I loved the people, the culture, and the energy. To this day, I still have lifelong relationships with friends I met there. I was no longer just teaching academics, but I was living education through experience.

Our time in India opened Jakobi’s eyes to the world. As we traveled across Asia and Africa, through places like Cambodia, Tanzania, and China, he saw both beauty and struggle. He noticed poor infrastructure and communities living without basic necessities. Those observations planted the first seeds for what would become his passion for Civil Engineering.

Later, I continued my international teaching journey in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, a place that would soon hold an unexpected moment of destiny.

Research – The Universal Truth Behind the Experience

Research from Cornell University’s College of Human Ecology reveals that a child’s sense of confidence and resilience begins forming in the earliest years of life, shaped by the consistent presence of nurturing parents and caregivers.

That finding mirrored my own experience.

Growing up without a father in the home, I knew the silence of absence. So I made sure Jakobi grew up surrounded by presence and by example, not just instruction.

Reflection – The Moment the Voice Became Legacy

Years later, everything came full circle.

Jakobi went on to major in Civil Engineering with a focus on Renewable Energy Systems at Cornell University. He served as captain of the baseball team and as a mentor in the Diversity of Engineering Program, guiding younger students through both academic and personal challenges.

He also served on Cornell’s Leaders to Leaders Council, a committee of student-athletes representing every sport on campus, working together to build a stronger athletic culture through collaboration and mentorship.

He became the well rounded individual I once wished I could have been. He is strong, confident, empathetic, and grounded. He learned to lead in every space he entered, whether on the field, in the lecture halls, on stage or within his community.

On his graduation day, as Jakobi walked across that field, I lifted him onto my shoulders, not just as a proud father, but as a man holding living proof that faith, love, and presence can change the story for generations to come.

The image went viral, but the moment was never about views. It was about legacy, a reminder that when we walk in purpose, our belief becomes the bridge our children stand on.

The Birth of Champion’s Voice

A year before that moment went viral, I was teaching halfway across the world in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, when Jakobi called me from Cornell.
His voice sounded different that day. It was steady, focused, and full of purpose. It was the kind of tone a father recognizes, not because he taught it, but because he’s hearing his own echo in his son.

“Dad,” he said, “I want to start my own motivational speaking business. I want something that gives me a chance to speak to others. Being here at Cornell, I’ve realized that a lot of students around me have money, privilege, and access, but they don’t have emotional wealth. They’ve never had the kind of relationship we have. They don’t know what it feels like to have a father guiding them, believing in them, showing them what real support looks like. I want to give them that. I want to share what I’ve been given, because some people have all the resources in the world, but they’ve never had a voice that spoke life into them.”

That moment was the spark.

Jakobi became the Founder of Champion’s Voice. I became the CEO.

He would reach the younger generation, peers and students searching for purpose. I would reach the older generation, parents, educators, and adults searching for meaning.

Together, we built a bridge between worlds, between experience and aspiration, between finding your voice and listening to it.

That’s how Champion’s Voice was born. It was from love, legacy, and the understanding that when one generation believes, the next one becomes unstoppable.

Call to Action – The Invitation to Listen

Every one of us has an inner voice, a whisper of truth that speaks even when life gets loud.

It tells you when it’s time to change, time to let go, time to lead, or time to begin again.

You don’t need to search the world to find it. You just need to get quiet enough to listen.

Because the voice that saved my life is the same one that continues to shape it.

And maybe, just maybe, it’s trying to speak to you too.

“Champion’s Voice isn’t about us speaking louder. It’s about helping others hear themselves more clearly.”