Meet Christian Wilson-Poole | Financial Literacy Consulting Firm

We had the good fortune of connecting with Christian Wilson-Poole and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Christian, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
My thought process for starting my own company began my Freshman year of college while playing Basketball at Snead State Community College in Boaz, Alabama. Having the pleasure of growing up with a CPA as a mother, I was grateful to be taught the basics of Financial Literacy growing up. As an accountant and a former college athlete, I recognized a gap. Information for young adults regarding basic financial information is simply not available to the majority. Very few high schools have such courses and it’s not available at the collegiate level either. Once I got to school, I realized not every kid was blessed with the same exposure to this knowledge that I was.

I wanted to empower young adults by breaking down barriers regarding finance basics to include budgeting, use of credit, why a bank account is important and much more. Young FINANCE was started to help provide consulting work relating to financial literacy. We target 15 -25 year old young adults searching for information and best practices. It was important to me to pass on what I learned and I what I’ve studied.

In the midst of forming and building our Young FINANCE LLC sector, I also thought it would spectacular to add a non-profit sector to our model. Over the past couple of moths, I have also formed YF Foundation. YF Foundation was formed to offer the annual financial literacy training that these schools and instructors need to be able to effectively relay this Financial knowledge to students. Our goal at YF Foundation is to use funding to hire professional certified financial educators or “CFE’s” go into every school that has financial literacy in their curriculum as a requirement and offer our annual training so instructors feel more comfortable presenting this kind of information. For the schools who do not have financial literacy in their curriculum, YF Foundation will be offering our 15 week YF Foundation Financial Literacy content, as well as our annual training for school’s teachers.

I am aware that the continued wealth gap will continue if financial education is not a part of the foundation. We are intentional at Young FINANCE about the importance of the building blocks to wealth.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
What sets me apart is at Young FINANCE my goal was to make Financial Literacy stick, whether through our LLC or through our YF Foundation. Many have been doing podcast, pop up talks, small lessons and overpriced consultation. Here at Young FINANCE, we have created an affordable and useful platform to allow individuals of all walks of life to be educated properly on financial knowledge, freedom, and savvy. Our consultation is from real world financial professionals who have a true passion for making individuals financial goals and dreams come true.

Another thing that sets us apart is we are providing opportunities for young financial professionals that are not being offered today. Majority Financial/Business positions are requiring 3-5 years of working corporate before even giving anyone an opportunity. At Young FINANCE, we also give young professionals a chance to test their skills as well as test out exactly what their niche is in the business world. We have done that by creating a segmented internship program that allows young adults to come in and experience the marketing, sales, accounting and social media aspect of our company.

This journey has definitely not been easy, especially for a young black 22 year-old male, but I have extreme faith that this will have a long-lasting reward on our community as a whole.

Biggest lesson that I have learned while on my business venture is to take your time. What I mean by that is, do not rush your product or service to floor front when it isn’t quite ready. Do not be afraid of feedback…negative feedback is what usually gets company’s from one level to the next, so always be open to any sort of feedback.

I want the world to know that sharing financial knowledge with our youth is critical to our world’s success and overall quality of life for everyone!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I played College basketball so I love sports!

Hawks Game
Braves Game
Ticonderoga Club
The Consulate
Tannery Row Ale House
Aquarium
Six Flags

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Darlene Wilson: My mother! Helped me bring my dream into reality!

My Bestfriends: Matthew Mazique, Benjamin Vickers, Brendan Johnson and Alexander Jones (Been supporting my vision every step of the way since I started this business venture in February)

My two business partners: James Jocelyn and Maris Colton (Been a great help with deliberation and ideas on building out both of these platforms.)

YF Members: Taylor Duryea (Our first ever client)

Website: https://yfwealth.org

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yfwealth/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpcm42dblGwC4x0J2TxwNLQ