Today we’d like to introduce you to Tywanna Smith.
Hi Tywanna, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
HI! Thanks for sharing my story. In addition to my position as President of The Athlete’s Nexus – where I manage and advise athletes and sports organizational leaders – I am the CEO of Teen Money Box. In 2007, I began my professional career in financial planning by working with professional athletes. As a former professional athlete, I understood the challenges, pressure, and support needs of these elite players. So, it was my goal to continue working with athletes once I retired from professional basketball to help them manage their finances. I quickly found out how little the average player knew about money. Oftentimes, when they come from various levels of poverty, they never get to experience or learn how money works. So, after over a decade of working as a business and financial manager to players from the NBA, NFL, WNBA, and other international leagues, my colleagues and I added another asset to our model by launching a business and financial literacy program for teens. Our objective has been to expose young adults to various business, finance, and economics concepts so that they can learn how money works before entering the real world. In less than two years of operation, we have been blessed to collaborate with nearly a dozen community and sports organizations to offer our signature program – Teen Money Box.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
There were definitely struggles as we learned the best way to engage today’s teens. Their attention spans are shorter post-COVID. We started our launch in 2021 with a pilot program for families to help parents lead these conversations in the home. After all, who has more influence on a child than their parents? We learned that the grown-ups didn’t know many of the things we were teaching the teens either, and while they were intrigued, they oftentimes did not have the time to spearhead this learning experience at home.
Then, we tried partnering with schools. We tried showing them how the Teen Money Box differed from their mandated personal finance courses. We had done our research and done our homework on other leading financial literacy curricula and showed how Teen Money box aligned with state and federal standards. Since we lead our teens through practice with real money and not just definitions and concepts, we felt that we could enhance what was already being done in the classroom – especially since students are still leaving high school without a solid foundation in money even AFTER taking these finance courses. Is the traditional classroom the BEST way to teach teens about money?
We made the necessary adjustments to adapt Teen Money Box to be a community-led program in partnership with local banking institutions. We created a collaborative model to involve community stakeholders in the learning experience to create engaging learning experiences. To date, we have partnered with organizations like the Boys & Girls Club, the Police Athletic League, and various municipalities. We are creating generational wealth through community – one teen at a time! Ultimately, we listened to what was most impactful and made the necessary adjustments to reach our teens.
As you know, we’re big fans of Teen Money Box. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Teen Money Box is a business and financial literacy program for teens ages 13-18. Our mission is to ensure that all teens have a strong foundation in business, finance, and economics before entering young adulthood. We do this by partnering with community organizations and municipalities to provide engaging, hands-on learning experiences that allow teens to engage in real-life money scenarios.
Our program is unique because we make the teens active participants in the learning process. We teach them, then we help them use what they have learned in real time. We have worked well alongside workforce development programs. Our program is customizable to any session length, any topics, or any specific environment, and we provide a done-for-you solution to organizations looking for programming options. Most importantly, our teens walk away with real-life financial savings and wealth-building knowledge that will serve them into adulthood. Does it get any better than that??
Who else deserves credit in your story?
The credit for our success goes to our founders, our pilot families, and each and every organization that has partnered with us. Our company is led by three Black women who bring a wealth of expertise to the team. Tywanna Smith, CEO, possesses over 15 years of financial expertise and business knowledge. She is also a sought-after inspirational speaker who leads the in-person facilitation of the Teen Money Box.
Tandra Inmon, COO, has over a decade of experience in Executive Human Resources. She adds a level of professionalism and business skill development to the team. She also leads the external communications for Teen Money Box.
Genice Jackson, CFO, has nearly two decades of experience in accounting. She delivers our cost-benefit analysis to set pricing and licensing standards for Teen Money Box partnerships and collaborations. She is the financial manager for Teen Money Box.
Again, we learn from each and every teen, parent, or community organization that we work with, and we continue to make the necessary adjustments to keep Teen Money Box as the most impactful business and financial literacy program on the market.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.teenmoneybox.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/
teenmoneybox - Facebook: www.facebook.com/
teenmoneybox
