Rising Stars: Meet Allie Beckmann

Today, we’d like to introduce you to Allie Beckmann.

Hi Allie, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Of course.  My story is quite a winding journey. Yet now, with the advantage of hindsight, it’s easier for me to see the throughlines and connections along the way.

I’ve had three main careers so far: 1) theatre artist, 2) yoga and meditation teacher, and 3) financial advisor. And while people can have a hard time reconciling how one person could do such different things, all my careers have informed and supported each other in a really beautiful way.

Overall, offering accessible and engaging education as a way to support people’s sense of personal empowerment and choice has always been my mission. This has been true for me in all three of my careers. I’m driven by impact and mission, and I have an insatiable entrepreneurial spirit that keeps me driving forward and (re)creating my own path many times over.

The decision to change careers away from theatre and yoga came from the realization that in order to keep creating at my highest level, I needed to better prioritize my own financial health and stability. Funnily enough, I didn’t start out seeking a career in finance. But when finance found me and I really looked at the opportunities within that field, I saw how aligned it all was.

Becoming a financial planner would allow me to stay a business owner, use education as my primary tool of engagement and empowerment (not to mention heal my own lack of financial education), and have a massive opportunity for real impact in people’s lives—and my own! So I took a huge leap of faith and said to myself, “If it doesn’t work out, I’ll have learned a lot, and then I’ll go do something else.”

Four years later, I’ve made leaps and bounds through this industry and reached the ultimate level of independence with my practice and firm. In 2024, I became a Registered Investment Advisor with the State of Colorado, which means that I am my own complete entity and don’t have to house my practice under anyone else. I’m still growing my business, but I am so grateful for how far I’ve come.

What got me here? So many things, and so many supportive people and partners! But my unrelenting need for alignment in what I’m doing has also played a huge role. I must feel 100% aligned and committed to what I’m doing, or it just won’t work for me. So, I am continually looking and solving for what’s out of alignment in order to find my best path to success and happiness.

Along the same lines, I also credit my reflective and critical-thinking brain for getting me to where I am. I make the time to check in with myself and assess what’s working and what’s not on a regular basis, and I follow it up with action. I’m constantly in that cycle: awareness, decision, action. This keeps me moving and flowing and never getting stuck anywhere for too long that doesn’t work for me.

Lastly, I have a strong internal drive and work ethic. I hold myself and my work to extremely high standards, and I’m a natural-born achiever. But more importantly, I’ve made the choice to commit to myself and my success, and I refuse to accept anything less than the best for myself and my business.

I truly believe that mindset is the core of everything, and it’s my own mental resilience and determination that keeps me from giving up on myself. The more times I practice showing up for myself and overcoming challenges, the more self-trust I build, and the easier it is to move through the ups and downs.

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?
Hahahahahahaha, no. It’s been anything but a smooth road.

And while there have been many times I’ve wished for more ease, working through and solving the bumps and challenges have kept me growing, evolving, expanding, and have ultimately led me to where I am today. If it weren’t for the bumps, I wouldn’t get the insight necessary to understand what isn’t working so that I can come up with a better solution in the future.

I think one of my biggest struggles has been feeling so different and oftentimes out of place in the financial industry. I think a lot of this is informed by my creative and non-traditional background – I’m really different from a lot of financial advisors out there! Also, being a woman has led me to feel out of place in a very male-dominated and patriarchal field. These feelings have led to a decent amount of imposter syndrome I’ve needed to work through.

And yet, the more I’ve learned to lean into my natural differentiators and elevate my authentic voice and spirit, the more success I have – and the more joy I feel in my work! While feeling different and out of place has been challenging at times, it also fuels my spirit to disrupt this industry, democratize financial advice for more diverse audiences, and be a role model for other advisors who also struggle to find their place in this industry because they don’t “fit the norm.”

Beyond that, I still navigate the struggles of the ups and downs of entrepreneurship – financially and emotionally. I have to work really hard not to tie all of my self-worth to my revenue or net worth numbers.

My first-year solo was really awesome but also really intense, and I also have to be really mindful to manage burnout and maintain boundaries between my work and personal life. Up until this point I’ve been building my business alone, and it’s been a real burden at times. Self-care is huge, and so is making sure I have the right people around me and supporting me – personally and professionally.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
While I’m all in on my financial business and am still working to grow it, I’d love to take this opportunity to talk about my creative work and passions.

As an artist, my work spans from being an actor, director, singer, musician, deviser, writer, and an experiential curator. I believe a big part of my purpose on earth is to shift the paradigm of how our culture sees and values creativity. In my opinion, being connected to one’s own creative spark is an integral part of health and wellbeing and the core of our spirit and identity.

The way our culture operates right now is with a lack of value or appreciation for the arts and creativity – or it’s highly commodified and inaccessible – and our systems start moving our youth away from their creative intuition by the time they’re 10 or 11 years old.

I believe that one of the ways we can shift that narrative is to get people more involved with the process of creativity. There is obvious and inherent value to a finished piece of art, but our audiences don’t know how to fully appreciate it – they don’t understand all that goes into making that finished product. I also think that so much of the value of creativity is in the actual process – the making of the finished product. But again, most people are removed from that.

So I am working to create more spaces where people have the opportunity to learn how to reconnect with their own creative spark. And I’m not just talking about fine arts. Creativity comes in myriad shapes and sizes – like carpentry, gardening, and cooking to name a few. Everyone has a creative spark, but they don’t always know how to awaken it. So I have ambitions to create an integrated healing arts space to do just that.

The first prong of the space is an interactive and immersive art space that has been intentionally designed by a collaboration of artists, healers, and neuro-scientists to create an external environment that simulates our internal world and stimulates our senses. A place where you know you’re safe to explore and get to know yourself – your instincts, your feelings, your body, your spirit.

The second prong are the open-style artist’s studios. This is where artists are actively working on projects and the audience is able to see and connect with them during their process. There is also the opportunity for people to take lessons in a certain craft by an artist in the space. In this way, people can learn from a professional maker and the makers’ will improve their craft by teaching it.

The third prong are the “practice rooms.” I see these as a space where someone can rent a room to themselves to further explore a craft or creative expression. For example there might be a percussion room or a watercolor painting room or a pottery room. I also see different individual healing modalities being available (ie acupuncture, therapy, massage).

Creating opportunities for community connection in this space is important to me. This could look like group yoga, meditation, or therapy and simply give people a safe space to gather, express, and connect.

So that’s a big ambition and dream of mine to bring to fruition. I’m also working on getting a jazz/funk/soul band together and fronting as the lead vocalist.

Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
You always have a choice, and it’s never too late. Identify what you need, and create it! Find your people.

Trust yourself. Lead with love.

Contact Info:

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

Image Credits
Audriana Luna – @audrianaluna_photo and Jorge Gonzalez