Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Brynna Wilson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Brynna, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

When it came to creating a name for my company, I did what I feel like most business owners do: OVERTHINK.

How many people overthink the name of their business because you want it to sound cool, authentic, different, and/or interesting? It’s a natural reaction to wanting to have a name that evokes what you want to put out to the world and to wonder what others will think of the name. We all put meaning behind words and everyone can have an opinion about what is right or wrong. So, after going through this period of feeling this pressure for many, many months, I finally realized that there are companies out there that are named after ordinary things. Apple, General Motors, and Target to name a few. So, after realizing that it may not be as big a thing to overthink as I thought, I came up with Citrine & Gold LLC.

I knew I wanted to have a name with the & in it. For some reason, having it that way sounded fun to me. I also knew, that I didn’t want to have a typical financial advising firm name such as, “Wilson (my last name) Wealth Management”. I have enjoyed being unique and helping marginalized communities, so I knew the traditional name would not work for me or my clients.

Citrine, is my favorite stone as it means happiness, joy, prosperity. It’s a beautiful orange, amber, brown, yellow color as it has many hues. Gold is a stone that many people know and is specifically tied to money. So, with citrine being more about mindset and gold being about logical, I knew that it worked for me as I blend the psychological and logical sides of money when talking with my clients.

Brynna, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I have been one to have many different jobs throughout my life. I’ve enjoyed all that I’ve done but I had trouble picking one “thing” because I naturally enjoy many different areas of life and work. I have also felt for most of my adult life, that I have some sort of purpose that I need/want to fulfill but struggled to find what it was. While working at REI as a bicycle mechanic, a friend of mine introduced me to the financial industry and suggested I could be very good at it. My first instinct was “absolutely not” simply because I felt as though I would not have the knowledge or the personality for the industry. As an introvert, it was intimidating to think about having to make phone calls, have meetings, and put myself out there in order to succeed.

After thinking it over, I realized that I would enjoy the problem-solving of the work as well as had an interest in how to make money work for me since I was in high school. I had invested in real estate starting at a young age and wanted to continue learning how to make more money. After doing a lot of self-work, I became aware that I have a knack for explaining difficult or new ideas simply for others to understand. I enjoy sharing what I know and teaching others so that they can then find a better life for themselves whatever that looks like for them.

In this business and industry, I have found my purpose and passion. While starting a business and new career over five years ago has not been easy, it has 100% been worth it. I use my superpowers of listening, empathy, and introversion every single day. I have deep, impactful conversations with my clients to create amazing results even within short periods of time.

At Citrine & Gold, we like to focus on what is called behavioral finance. What this means is that while we can help people with the logical side of finances and money, such as investment accounts and retirement, we also get to help with the psychological and behavioral side. The habits and mindset that people have around money. We enjoy bridging the gap between these two areas of money because money can be very emotional and unless we change our behaviors and mindset, we won’t make lasting changes on the logical side.

We offer many different avenues when our clients would like to work with us from one on one to groups, to worksheets and a full financial plan. Every person is different so it’s important to have something custom for what you need as opposed to what is cookie cutter. Our core values are authenticity, connection, and creativity and we hope to bring these to each interaction with our clients.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

When it comes to my clients, I first had to figure out who I wanted to work with. That took a lot of time and now being in business for around six years, I have a good understanding of who I work best with. Finding your group of people is very important to start. From there, I get almost all of my clients just from relationships that I have built over the years. I have wanted to have long term relationships with my clients and so finding other people from the people I already like has worked well for me.

I started with friends and family and then from there, I would join groups that I wanted to be in just for myself for fun. I would go to enjoy myself and eventually built relationships with those people who then either referred me to someone or worked with me themselves. The key for me has been to play the long game. I enjoy being authentic and not trying to make a sale in my first meeting with someone but really connect with them. Also, I have found, the more I try to help that person succeed, the more likely they will try to help me succeed.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Social media has been difficult for me. As a person outside of business, I try to not use social media as I am a more private person but also, I hate how much time it can waste and stop me from really connecting with people in person. So, when it came time to create social media for my business, I struggled to get going as well as understand how to make it work for me.

I have had an advantage that most others don’t in that, my partner is a creative person and has been helping me to create content for my social media pages. That being said, before they came on to help, I had to get over worrying how I would look on camera and the fear of putting myself out there. Don’t get me wrong, I still have this fear from time to time but I have learned to manage it. I started out being challenged by my mentor to put a video out of me everyday for a week to get used to creating the content and being in front of the camera. From there, it was learning what I wanted to my social media to prioritize from values to education. It’s really important to have an understanding of what you want your message to be and to be clear with it.

From there, just do your best to put out content consistently and find people to connect with that are like minded. It takes time and there are weeks where I don’t post at all but that is ok. I will do my best and that’s all you can expect of yourself.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://citrineandgoldllc.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/citrineandgold/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/citrineandgold
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brynna-wilson-54a12b67/

Image Credits
Andy Schumacher