We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Heidi Clemons a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Heidi thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

I loved my job as a financial counselor, serving our military community in Japan where our family was stationed while my husband was in the Army. Many of my colleagues encouraged me to start my own business when I moved and complimented the services I provided to my clients. They saw my passion to serve not only the pressing money questions that my clients had—how do I budget, how do I invest, how should I save—but also that I genuinely cared for their financial future. I knew our move to Hawaii would be a good time to start building a foundation of a business to see if it was something that would work once we moved again. I felt like I had nothing to lose and everything to gain. I could remain flexible while starting the business and then decide if I wanted to grow it after a couple of years or pivot.

I also knew that I desired to have more flexibility in Hawaii since my husband’s job may include some travel and I wanted to enjoy island time as much as possible. We were recent empty nesters and this would be my husband’s last duty station before retirement.

My goal was to start and run my business completely debt free and I have been able to accomplish that so far. I started my website with a free version and then once I made some money through a 1099 contract, I used that to fund my business.

As we plan our move from Hawaii to Texas very soon, my business can move with me with very little disruption. I’ll end one of my contracts since its location-dependent, but I’ve built my business to be portable. I knew that I would need to move my business before I started it and grew it intentionally to be hybrid, serving my local community and others around the globe. Some of my work can also be done from anywhere in the world, which was also important to me and how I decided to build it out. As it continues growing, I’m excited about the future as we plant roots and plan to stay in our new community for the foreseeable future. I may build out more local options, but will definitely need the flexibility to travel for conferences, speaking events and leisure get-aways!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I started teaching classes about budgeting and debt elimination in 2016 when we were stationed in Germany. It was awesome and the participants were successful. I enjoyed the journey of helping them put together budgets, teaching them about how to making priorities in their budgets could get them what they wanted and then watching them reach their goals. During the 3.5 years teaching classes in the community, there was a $1.5 million impact in those who had taken the class!

An Accredited Financial Counselor (AFC®) candidate asked if she could sit in my class because she needed to earn her hours for certification. After class, she asked me if I had ever heard of the FINRA Fellowship for military spouses who want to be an AFC® because she said I was really good at teaching and sharing about money concepts. I had never heard of the program or even that the military offered financial counselors for military members and their families. We didn’t have money problems. We had been debt free, except a house, for years and had a big emergency fund.

Fast forward—I applied for the Fellowship, was accepted and finished up my AFC® certification, studying, rigorous testing and 1000 hours of experience, in 2020 in Japan during COVID. I was able to get a government contracting job at another base and was away from the family for 3 months. While I loved the job, I didn’t like being away from my family. After another short virtual stint, I served my local community for nearly a year before we moved (again) to Hawaii.

I am an Accredited Financial Counselor (AFC®), as well as a financial coach, educator and therapist, and my business reflects each one of those titles. Within my private practice, I offer financial coaching and counseling, which may also include financial therapy, depending on the nature of the client’s situation. I often help people with budgeting and debt elimination. I focus on money habits and behaviors, helping people overcome financial trauma through one-on-one sessions by setting realistic financial goals and then creating a personalized plan to achieve those goals. I am also a Subject Matter Expert in military money and work behind the scenes as a content creator and educator. I love that my business has different facets that keep me challenged.

I’m not afraid to have very difficult financial conversations, sometimes the ones that make you squirm and wish that you were anywhere but here in the moment. I believe that creating a safe space to have these types of money discussions allows people to be open, honest and authentic so that they can begin to think past their current situation. It gives them the space to be creative, knowing that I’ve got their back and that we can dream through all different types of scenarios, so that if the worst case happens, they are prepared for it. But even better, is preparing them for success in the future. Many of my clients are actually afraid to be financially successful because they don’t know what that feels like since they’ve never experienced it before. They may also not have another safe space to openly talk about money, so I focus on doing that for them. I didn’t have that growing up, but am thankful that my husband and I foster open money conversations in our relationship. It has not only improved our financial situation, but allows our marriage to continue to grow.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I started my business in the summer of 2023. I had specific ideas about how I was going to grow it, the upcoming conferences I wanted to attend and even the next 2 certifications I wanted—Military Qualified Financial Planner (MQFP®) and Certified Financial Therapist (CFT™). All of that changed in October, just a few months into my endeavors when I became very sick. I was unable to pursue everything I wanted to do and was only able to maintain one of my projects. I received the MQFP® certification right before I got sick. I had to set everything on the back burner to focus on my health journey. I had to cancel a conference. It was scary and at times, uncertain.

I ended up traveling from Hawaii to Texas for healthcare. While there, my mother-in-law unexpectedly passed away and I ended up being in Texas for 3 months, but was thankful that I was starting to get a handle on my health situation and could add a bit more of a workload with another project.

It took nearly a year to recover physically and get my health back on track. I wanted my business to be much farther along after a year. I had to give myself grace for keeping my priorities in check—health, family, work. The perspective from this self-imposed timeline helps me stay humble and remember that not everything can be a priority. Now, I’m more focused on myself and family first. My business will happen and continues to happen at the right time and pace. I’m thankful for all that has happened in just the last few months—many things I did not even dream before I started it.

This year, I have added more conferences, speaking opportunities and working on my CFT™ certification, along with moving!

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

My goal was to start and run my business completely debt free and I have been able to accomplish that so far. I started my website with a free version and then once I made some money through a 1099 contract, I used that to fund my business. I pour a large amount of my current earnings back into my business.

As a financial coach, I see how debt and finances can cause stress and with my service-based business, I have decided that running it debt free gives me the most amount of peace. At the end of the day, I get to decide if I want to keep doing this or not and won’t have a huge amount of debt.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.heidiclemons.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/expectmorewithheidi/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidi-clemons/