About this episode
In the inaugural episode of Head to Head, a new podcast from FireSide, Co-Heads of Distribution Kirsten Pickens and Ryan Robertson share their conversation with Cheryl Young, Private Advisor at Rockefeller Global Family Office. Cheryl shares how she built her business and why she believes her authenticity sets her apart as a top advisor.
About Cheryl Young
Cheryl Young, CFP®, ChFC®, CPM®, has been a financial advisor since 1998 and is the founder of Young & Associates. As a Certified Financial Advisor® and Portfolio Manager®, Cheryl brings a comprehensive approach to wealth management, focusing on portfolio management and stock option planning, and enjoys working with entrepreneurs, executives, engineers and professional athletes in Silicon Valley.
Transcript excerpt:
Kirsten Pickens: Thank you so much for joining us today, Cheryl, on our inaugural recording day here for Head to Head. As our tagline says, we get personal with the people of financial services and as one of the top advisors in the country, we could not be more excited that you’re with us today. Thank you.
Cheryl Young: Thank you, Kirsten. It’s an honor to be here.
Ryan Robertson: Cheryl, as we say in the opening, we’re always just so intrigued by the top advisors in the country. And so, I would just start by asking, what made you want to be a financial advisor? Like as you were a little girl, as you were going through college or high school, what made you go, “You know what, I want to become a financial advisor”?
Cheryl Young: Ryan, I didn’t know the stock market existed as a little girl. That’s the funniest thing about your question. I have literally 10 brothers and sisters. Five older brothers. Five sisters. So there are 11 of us. My parents lived paycheck to paycheck. I had no idea this world was even out there. When I was in college, I started off as an engineering student and I was dating a guy who was studying business and he was struggling in his finance courses because he had not taken as much math as I had taken, and I had taken a lot of calculus. I was a total geek as a kid. Graduated high school at 16, by the way, started college at 16. So I was very young, and when I was explaining to him what a derivative was in finance, I had no idea that math had applications in the business world.
So it opened up a whole new set of possibilities for me that I didn’t even know were out there. I started investing in stocks when I basically was helping him through that finance course and I just fell in love with the stock market and with the whole concept. And so, it was a complete accident that I got into this career. It was never my intention.