We recently connected with Sheena Robinson and have shared our conversation below.

Sheena, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I came up with the idea for Financial Parent Academy after writing my first book, Financial Parenthood: The Keys to Raising a Rich Kid. The thought of the book came about after being in the financial industry for several years and teaching financial concepts to adults. I would always hear many of them say “I wish someone would have taught me this when I was younger.” I remember feeling the same way when I first heard the information I was teaching. I realized there were many people like me that did not have access to valuable financial information growing up and had to learn about money from experience. After having my daughter Madison in 2013, I realized I did not want her to experience some of the same things I did growing up. I decided to write Financial Parenthood to help parents raise financially successful children. Within the book, I walk parents through the different financial concepts they should be teaching their children at every age level as well as the different accounts they should open for their children. After writing the book, I still felt something needed to be done to give parents resources and tools they would need on their journey to becoming a financial parent. I knew that there were a few organizations that taught financial literacy to kids, but I didn’t see an organization focusing on helping parents teach their children at home about finances. Financial Parent Academy is designed as an reinforcement program to help reiterate what parents teach at home when kids attend our workshops. We want the family to be on the same page. We also have separate workshops for parents who want to get their personal finances in order.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

After graduating college in 2007, I decided to move to Atlanta. I knew I wanted to help others, but I was not sure what I wanted to do. I started working for corporate when I got to Georgia and quickly found out it was not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I was introduced to the financial industry in 2008. After learning how money works, I decided I wanted to become an entrepreneur. I became a licensed financial professional and started helping people build a solid financial foundation. After several years helping individuals with putting plans together, I wanted to focus my attention on helping families. Now, I am a Financial Parent Consultant. I help parents build financial plans for their family. I also lead a team of other mentors who do the same. At Financial Parent Academy, we host various workshops to help parents and children stay on track to reaching their financial goals.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

When I first started Financial Parent Academy, I had to fund it out of my own pocket. I would often become discouraged because things were not moving as fast as I wanted them to. I continued to believe in the vision in spite of what I was feeling. I made up my mind to just start the programs and not focus so much on perfection. My thought process was to get started and then I can correct things along the way. Many people would question me and ask how I could really make money with the academy. In the beginning, I just knew God told me to start this organization and do workshops overtime I began to learn how to monetize it. When the support was not coming from the people I thought would support me, I became discouraged. I had to learn that this was my vision and if it was meant to be then everything would come together. When I changed my mindset about how things were going and saw things as just a step in my process I began to see things happen for me. I started to get out and market myself at events and began doing speaking engagements and before I knew it my brand was growing.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I think my personality and being relatable helped build my brand. I am very personable and like to make people feel comfortable. I like to be the authentic me. Financial Parent Academy always takes people back to their childhood and makes them comment about how they were brought up. The name itself is a conversation starter. People also see the need for the organization. Although there are other well known organizations out there teaching financial literacy, many people gravitate to our unique family approach and our desire to help children as young as three-years-old.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.financialparentacademyinc.com
• Instagram: @financialparentacademyinc
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/financialparent/

Image Credits
Anthony Cody, Daletha McRae, Marcus Dorsey