We recently connected with Allie Beckmann and have shared our conversation below.

Allie , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

It was the summer of 2020, and I was having a panic attack. I was living in such a scarce state of survival, and I had reached my breaking point. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, I had been growing a Corporate Yoga & Wellness business alongside my work as a teaching theater artist with a local non-profit in Denver. While trying to rebrand my business during COVID, I hit a wall and the panic started to creep in. While my anxiety rose, I had a moment of clarity where I could literally see myself stuck behind a wall that was keeping me from being able to access my greatest and most innate strengths – creativity and organization. This realization then escalated the panic, and it was all I could do for the rest of the day to calm myself down and get my brain back online.

This experience pushed me to slow down and pull back far enough from my life to really evaluate what was and wasn’t working – personally and professionally. And there was a lot that wasn’t working. And through root cause analysis (and therapy), I realized that most of my stress and strife could be traced back to my feelings of financial instability and scarcity. I’ve never been motivated by money, but it was then that I finally realized I needed to prioritize my own financial wellbeing if I wanted to continue doing the things that I really loved and cared about – creating, serving, and making an impact.

I didn’t seek out to work in the financial industry – it found me – and, after a lot of consideration, I realized that it made a lot of sense for me to pursue a career as a financial planner. Not only did I see an opportunity to continue embodying my core values of education, empowerment, and impact, but I saw a place where I could house all of my unique skills under one roof. This career allows me to exercise both my analytical and strategic left brain with my creative, social-emotional right brain. And I have chosen to build my practice around serving other creative professionals, working artists, and social impact entrepreneurs, aka “my people.” It’s incredible how full circle it’s all come.

Once I found my footing in finance, and I got a little space from “the grind,” I realized that I carried so much stigma, shame, and limiting stories around money as a creative professional. And the more creative professionals I talked to, I realized I wasn’t the only one with these struggles. I also realized that the traditional financial industry is neglecting to serve so many people who long for guidance. My business strives to be a safe place for people who have felt like financial advice “isn’t for them” and they “don’t belong” there – this includes women, LGBTQ+, BIPOC, creatives, and people who are still earlier on in the journey of building their wealth. I prioritize transparency and choice, working on a different fee and  compensation structure than most advisors so as to foster greater trust,  connection, and accessibility.

The artists, creatives, and entrepreneurs of our world are essential to our continued growth and success as a community and country. If these people are feeling scarce and insecure, how can they work and create at their best? I believe that if I can help more people build financial stability and confidence, not only will their critical and innovative work keep our world evolving, but we might also have a chance at starting to shift the balance of power in our markets and economy – a change whose effect could have long-lasting and generational impact.

Allie , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I started my financial career with a very large and prestigious insurance company. Despite finding swift success and winning the Rookie of the Year award for the state of Colorado after my first year, I realized I needed a different container for my practice and clientele. I found a local boutique firm to partner with, but eventually realized the culture was toxic and misaligned in values. So now I am building and running my own financial planning practice. I’ve learned to trust that my differentiators are my best leverage, and I’d be doing myself, my work, and my community a disservice to hide myself under someone else’s brand and rules.

My financial planning practice is different than most. I focus just as much on life planning as I do financial planning to make a truly holistic and comprehensive process. I prioritize getting to know my clients as whole humans – their values, their visions, their fears, their goals. In my process, your values and goals are the north star of your financial plan – they give meaning to your money. So once we clarify “what it’s all for,” a lot of subsequent financial decisions fall into place. Beyond that, we look at eight key pillars of your financial life: money mindset/behavior, spending, savings, debt, insurance, investments, taxes, estate, and small business (for my entrepreneurs). During our work together, we clarify and organize where you’re starting from, identify where you want to go, and then create and implement a strategic and values-aligned plan to mitigate risk and make real progress toward your ideal life and goals. After that it’s all about maintenance and making updates as we face life’s unexpected and inevitable surprises.

My process and style make space for the emotional side of money along with the tactical side of planning. I’m just as much a financial therapist as I am a financial advisor. The relationships I build with my clients are real and deep. Money is inherently emotional, and most advisors don’t address this aspect of our financial lives. In my opinion this is a missed opportunity. If we don’t address the behavioral side of money, it doesn’t matter how immaculate your financial plan is. We must honor all sides of our relationship to money for optimum implementation and execution. I love being able to blend my background as a social-emotional and trauma-informed facilitator with my strategic and analytical thinking to really give my clients a well-rounded and fully supported experience.

I also structure my fees differently than most advisors. I have options and flexibility in the way we work together so I can really meet my clients where they are. Instead of just selling you products or grabbing after your assets, I offer to work on a flat-fee basis that allows me to eliminate minimums, prioritize transparent advice, and to champion client empowerment and independence. My clients pay a monthly or quarterly flat-rate fee that is based on their needs and complexity, and if they desire services beyond the planning and advice, such as asset management and insurance, I can offer that to them as well. The bottom line is that they
have choice.

I face a lot of nay-sayers in my industry; the older advisors who only know the old ways of doing things – selling products and charging a percentage of assets under management. Not that there’s anything inherently wrong with this, but they are reluctant to see the gaps of these old models, the underserved people who want and are willing to pay for financial advice, and how our values and needs are shifting around what financial advice looks and feels like. I see the industry changing and evolving to empower more individuals to manage their own investments. The irreplaceable value is in having a relationship with a professional you can fully trust, feel safe with, and call anytime for guidance and education. Someone who can help you to clarify values, set goals, and strategize a long-term financial plan that truly reflects what is most important to you. While my journey is far from over, I am incredibly proud to be a disrupter in an industry that is aching for change and progress and to serve a community – my community – in a way that has real and lasting impact.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I spent 15 years as a musician and theater artist – performing, directing, teaching, devising, you name it. I also spent 5 of those years as a yoga and meditation teacher bringing yoga to non-traditional spaces and eventually started my first business as a private and corporate wellness coach. As I shared in my earlier story, I changed careers only after realizing I needed to prioritize building my own financial security for the sake of my sustained creative health and wellbeing. The point being, I have lived in my client’s shoes.

So many of my clients reflect to me, “You get it. You get me.” They recognize themselves in my story, my struggles, and my desires. I know how to speak their language and translate financial jargon into accessible and relevant advice without making them feel condescended or ashamed. I have lived with an uncertain and fluctuating income for nearly my entire adult career. I know what it means to be a working artist in a society that often doesn’t value your work, process, or mission. I know what it’s like to feel like financial advice “isn’t for me.” I understand their needs because I have lived them, and this builds trust for my clients. So much of the prevailing financial advice is tailored to people who have steady paychecks, employer provided benefits and retirement accounts, and a traditional nuclear family. There is absolutely nothing wrong with those things, but what about all the people who don’t fit into those categories? That is who I am, and that is who I love to serve.

Does your business have multiple or supplementary revenue streams (like a ATM machine at a barbershop, etc)?

Yes!  During the one year of my career where I did have a salary, I really missed having multiple streams of revenue, and I felt an increased exposure to risk from the lack of income diversity to which I had grown accustomed during my multi-faceted career.  Furthermore, if people don’t quite fit my primary offering, I like having flexibility and additional choices so I can meet them where they are.  The bulk of my business comes from my ongoing flat-fee planning clients where we meet on a regular basis, and they get continued accountability and year-round availability to my calendar.  Some of these clients also have me manage their assets which is another revenue stream.  I also have a sleeve of clients who choose to engage with me through a one-time intensive planning program that lasts about 5-6 months, and sometime they turn into ongoing clients.  I have recently started offering financial coaching, privately and in group format, which is separate from my planning business.  This came about because I found that there is a large segment of people who could really benefit from the truly foundational financial work: money mindset, financial behavior, and strategic plans for spending, savings, and debt.  I also contract with a digital content creation company where I build and film courses for their clients.  Lastly, I am building my speaking career which is both part of my marketing strategy and yet another progressively increasing stream of revenue.  As we say in the industry, diversify, diversify, diversify!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.beckmannfinancial.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alliebeckmann/

Beckmann & Co. is an independent firm not affiliated with Money Concepts Capital Corp. All Securities Offered Through Money Concepts Capital Corp. Member FINRA/SIPC.  Not FDIC Insured. May Lose Value. No Bank Guarantee.