Podcast 135: Financial Planning for Creatives with Lauren Estes

I am a person whose underwear drawer looks like Marie Kondo gave it an A+++ but I have a few drawers in my house that barely close and are like a mosh pit for random items – one bootie I tried to knit for my son when I was pregnant that looks like a Christmas stocking gone wrong, some DVD’s of northern exposure (no DVD player), a stale bag of gummi bears, a vintage label maker – you get the picture. 

Even though I was living an early 2000s version of Sid and Nancy with my junkie boyfriend and punks crashing on my couch, I graduated magna cum laude from college.

Sometimes it feels like one minute I’m just a breath away from either convincing everyone at dinner to do shots of tequila and write poetry on some dive bar bathroom wall in Sharpie marker or sneaking away from the table and going home to get in bed and read one of the dozens of self-growth books on my nightstand. 

In other words, I’ve always felt like a classic right brain/left brain.

I tend to feel like the odd woman out when it comes to balancing these two sides of myself, that is until I met our podcast guest today, Lauren Estes of Allegiant Financial Planning. Lauren is a certified financial planner AND an artist.

I know that I’m not the only creative person who has to fight her natural impulse to ignore the financial side of her business and focus on the creative side. But, learning to understand and even embrace that “left brain” side of business that includes all the numbers is what will give your business staying power and allow you more time to focus on what you really love to do. And yes, you can hire someone to do all the money stuff and in fact, I recommend it but I also think you need to have knowledge even if it’s basic of what’s going on to keep things in check and know the questions to ask. 

That’s why I invited Lauren to join me and chat about money for creative business owners. Lauren and I talk about money mindset, the financial things we should be doing on a daily basis, the biggest mistakes she sees creatives making when it comes to money, how to start from zero, and more.