We talked with Sarah about:

• Leveraging your personal connection to the industry to energize your work
• Finding a better fit client by being authentic in your marketing and actions
• Meeting clients at their emotional needs to help them unblock

About Sarah Carlson:

Having grown Fulcrum Financial Group over the last 26 years, founder Sarah Carlson is an established CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional, Chartered Life Underwriter®, and Chartered Financial Consultant®. In her recent book, Facing Financial Fears: 8 Steps to Financial Freedom for Women, Sarah steps up to empower others to move from fear to joy with money by helping them discover and love themselves. The end goal: to not only live wealthy but wellness wealthy in their own unique way.   

Featured Resources 

• Sarah’s LinkedIn Profile
• Fulcrum Financial Group Website
• Fulcrum Financial Group Facebook Page
• Facing Financial Fears Book on Amazon

Full Audio Transcript

Lauren Hong
Okay. Well, Sarah, thank you so much for joining us.

Sarah Carlson 
Thank you so much for having me, Lauren. This is really exciting.

Lauren Hong 
Yeah. Well, I appreciate you taking the time. I know you've recently written a book, you've really leaned on a target market. You're doing all kinds of education training. And before I steal your thunder, I'll let you do a brief introduction and then we'll get into kind of the nitty gritty of how you've been able to really lean in and build these different tools for folks you work with. So I'll let you do the quick intro here.

Sarah Carlson
Thank you. So my name is Sarah Carlson. I founded Fulcrum Financial Group 25 years ago and we're a wealth management, financial planning practice in Spokane, Washington. We have clients all over the world; we really help people, one person at a time. We embrace diversity and inclusion, and it's just been such an amazing industry to really profoundly, positively affect clients in helping them live their best lives.

Lauren Hong
So I have to say as someone on the this side of marketing, we talk with a lot of different firms and one of the things that sometime is scary for folks, especially if they've been in business for a while, if they go, okay, we really wanna lean in on a particular target market but we don't. Right? I get that a lot. It's like, okay, we're gonna go after business owners but we still wanna be able to talk to retirees who are our current clients and how do we do this and everything. And you've done a really nice job. I mean, even as you shared in the introduction, working with diversity, equity, inclusion as a main focus, and you work with a lot with women. How have you comfortably leaned into that particular target and how did you decide to go about really leaning into that space?

Sarah Carlson
Yeah. I see there's such a demand for helping that market. I, myself, being a woman, I've gone through a lot of change and adversity in my life. And having so many people who are making very challenging decisions, having good advice and having access to people who have experience and perspective to help them make decisions, it was almost like I realized the benefit of being authentic and having your vibe attract your tribe. 

I’m also a mother of two sets of twins. They're young adults now. So after 25 years, it's definitely a different vantage point now. But, you know, there's just so much balancing, right? As women, we tend to prioritize everyone before ourselves, our children, our partners, our bosses, our clients. And we always think we're gonna have more time and more resources to take care of ourselves. And I realize I'm so passionate about money and financial situations because I feel like it's the one thing you can control with some game plan and working on your life and not in your life. And it's just a way for me to really provide value. So I've assembled a team of incredible problem-solvers and it's just so rewarding to help people navigate through life and see their life unfold. So it's not just about making good money decisions, it's also about emotionally feeling comfortable with the game plan and being able to pivot and make different choices. So it's not just about putting a plan in place, it's really about taking care of that plan.

Lauren Hong
Yeah. That makes sense. And I love what you said earlier too, about this idea of authenticity and passion, right? Because I feel like if you're authentic, if there’s an audience or a topic or something you care about, that kind of energy resonates. And like you said, it attracts like, right? So I think there's something to that. So going along that sort of vein, let's talk a little bit about the book. What led you to write the book? Was it over the years of building out the practice, was it really leaning in and working with different clients? What sort of got you to that point? Or what was the trigger to go, okay, I'm gonna do this big, hairy, audacious goal.

Sarah Carlson
Yeah, it was seeing the incredible magic unfold in our clients' lives and having people come back and just be so connected and appreciative of the work we were doing. And I wanted the ability to touch more. I had myself gone through a very contentious divorce, and I learned so much. And even though I was an expert in the money business, I learned so much more about those money decisions. So it started with me blogging and wanting to share that information, and I was blown away by the positive response I received from people I didn't know. I didn't even know they were reading my content. And so at that point I thought this is an opportunity for me to put something together to just touch more people, one reader at a time. So Facing Financial Fears: 8 Steps to Financial Freedom for Women was born.

It was a long process. Probably wrote three books and probably took longer than most writers would take but I really wanted it to be right. And the final product is something I'm very proud of, and I'm just so touched and blown away by how well it's received. So it's in soft cover, hard cover, Kindle, and just recently came out with an audible version. 

Lauren Hong 
Oh my goodness. What a learning curve to be able to put a piece like that together. How did you go about it? I mean, you're running this firm, working with the team and clients. Was this something you sort of do on the weekends, or how did you even find the time to be able to put together this kind of piece?

Sarah Carlson 
Yeah. Something I do to take care of myself is wake up early. And when my kids were young, I'd wake up before I needed to get them up to get them off to school. And so I still to this day, I take about at least an hour or two hours every day after I wake up to journal; I write and I exercise and I just light my brain on fire. I feel so blessed to be in this industry and just absolutely love it—it gives me energy so it doesn't feel like work at all. And I think that's what I would want for anybody in any profession, is to have something they're just connected to.

Lauren Hong 
Yeah. That's wonderful. And just to make a note about what you shared earlier, talking about the book. I know you talked about you're putting out content and you didn't even realize people were reading it, right? And I think something that's kind of funny too, is that you're putting out things and sometimes you get a like or you get a comment but people are sort of watching all these little things you're putting out in the world. And so I think it's not easy to then be able to ride that, and then to be able to provide something that's more valuable and authentic to folks to be able to provide even more value in the world. So you just never know, I guess in the end, you never know who's watching, right? 

Sarah Carlson 
Well, and to that point, I consider myself a real Girl Scout. I call myself a wing woman. Someone said, does that mean you're helping people date? I'm like, no, it means I have got your back and I have perspective and tools to make sure to help keep you safe in a situation. And that's where writing content and sharing ideas—and to that point—we're not gonna be everyone's cup of tea but that's where if you can share your ideas and market in a way, then your tribe will find you and you'll end up getting a better fit.

Lauren Hong 
Yeah. That's so true. So along kind of that vein, and you were talking about just your own self-care. I know you write a lot about this idea of mental wellness, right? And I'd love to hear a little bit more about that, and also the intersection of it with finances. And being able to make sure you're set up for success, knowing that's an intersection you touch a lot on. So do you mind sharing a little bit more and maybe even some takeaways for folks who are listening? 

Sarah Carlson 
Yeah. So I graduated from Yale with a degree in economics and a minor in psychology. And I always felt there was so much connection between the markets and how people are feeling. And I think it's probably been more so now than ever. I’ve always led with it's not just about being rich and having a lot of money in the bank; it's really about being wealthy, wellness wealthy, where everyone's goals and what helps build security and comfort is different. My goal is that our clients have enough money so they get to spend time and energy with the people they wanna spend it with, where they wanna spend it, for how long they wanna spend it. And it's different for everyone.

Lauren Hong 
Just out of curiosity, do you lean kind of in on that as you're doing your discovery with clients? Is there something unique in the way you do that, or in the way you maybe carry out your engagement with clients to make sure that passion, that mental wellness, the financial wellness, is leading forward versus just sort of a transaction or a plan, if you will?

Sarah Carlson 
I think so. We always give a complimentary consultation for folks to come in to see whether or not we're a good fit. And I have so many stories. I'm thinking about Brenda, who's an artist who not too long ago came in. She had incredible income, makes these incredible pieces of art for like $20,000 apiece, and yet she was in debt. She made a ton of money but she was perpetually in debt. And so through cash flow analysis and helping to figure out why there isn't more money to put aside, we realized she had this incredible expense with luxury goods. And what was so fascinating about that is she was a very reclusive person. She was single, middle aged, didn't have a boyfriend, she was kind of a homebody. And so in looking at it, I was like, what's with all these Gucci shoes?

Lauren Hong 
Yeah.

Sarah Carlson 

And then she confided in me. Well, you know, at the end of the day, after I pour myself into my work, I wanna reward myself, and so I buy myself these beautiful gifts that then arrive later. And what was fascinating to realize it was part of her self-soothing, for emotional reasons, that was keeping her in a hole in perpetual credit card debt. And so in short order, I asked her, what would ultimately be the dream you'd wanna have? And she said, I'd wanna own my own studio, my own building, build equity, and be able to put more money into financial independence, retirement. Which was interesting, because with the rent she was paying and the luxury goods, we were able to get her into a space. She now owns a building, and this is like literally like just a few months after we started working together. 

After buying the building, her overall cash flow is less, so much less than it was before. And she's even putting away the maximum for retirement. And so every time I see her, she's like, oh my gosh, you've changed my life. And she hasn't even been a client that long, but it's so rewarding to help meet her at her emotional needs and help her recognize aha, these beautiful clothes I'm never gonna wear and would have a difficult time even getting rid of were holding her back. What she thought was helping her was really hurting her. And it took me to give a different take on it.

Lauren Hong 
So sort of like what utility is that adding to the bottom line of passion, if you will, or the bottom line of sort of what you want for an end goal. So interesting. So it sounds like part of it is asking the right questions and the discovery and being able to kind of pull that out through the individual to be able to get to put the plan in place so it’s not just a plan for, how do I say, a plan for long term, but a plan for passion, a plan for what you want out of life too. What about with your employees? Do you have anything internally to where you're helping them with that financial wellness side of it as well?

Sarah Carlson
Yeah, definitely with my back office, it's LPLl Financial, and I certainly help with educational programs and they've been very supportive with the book. So that's been a wonderful way to give back. And then with my own team, we have processes and systems we work on problem-solving with every client. We all do different pieces of it. The young people coming in many times don't have the same level of experience our advisors do—between the three advisors on my team, we have over 75 years of experience, which is just crazy when I think of it. They are definitely able to work on the systems and participate in the process, which is probably the best financial education any young person could have.

Lauren Hong
Okay. That's great. And then I know from earlier that you're doing some training as well for others around this idea of financial education and mental health and all that. I'd love to hear a little bit more on that too, sort of an outpour of the book.

Sarah Carlson 
Right. So it's been wonderful. I haven't done a lot to market the book. It made the bestsellers on Amazon and has gained traction in the financial industry. So I've had some large wirehouses and in the independent space I've had the opportunity to share my philosophies and different ideas to help their employees get a handle on their financial life. Because it doesn't have to be a big step to make an important difference in your life. And it's not just about being financially secure and getting to your goals. It's really about getting to the goals if you're a parent, your parenting plan, your relationship goals, your spiritual goals. It's really about wholeness, financial fullness.

Lauren Hong 
Yep. And that’s easier said than done, right? So I'd love to hear if you were just sort of to give an elevator pitch or a high level of your philosophy around it too, just sort of a recap for folks that are listening. 

Sarah Carlson
Well, I believe the way to help a client go from fear to joy with their money through some curious steps is to help them find themselves. So my book is really about financial empowerment. It's really about helping the reader discover and appreciate and develop self-love. It's about getting okay with yourself. I love the acronym, that book, Grit. They talk about that grit is the combination of passion and perseverance. And I think every advisor out there most likely probably has that. But I think there's also another opportunity with the definition of grit and using grit as an acronym—get right in there—meaning you have to feel good inside to really be able to launch and live the life you want, you know? Being okay with what's going on.

Lauren Hong
Yeah, absolutely. I feel one of the biggest gifts you can give yourself is to be able to answer those tough questions too—sometimes for better or worse—and some folks are able to answer and some just aren't. And so if this book can be able to help tease that out of them, I think there's a lot of beauty in that as well, which probably I would assume is your job if someone comes to you. I dunno if it makes it easier, but with that clarity, the idea of what north is, you can get to that better outcome, if you will. So that's so wonderful. Well, anything else you wanna share too around the book or your philosophy or approach to what you're doing? Just any closing thoughts?

Sarah Carlson
Well, I want to share with every advisor and consumer out there that you're worth it, you are worth prioritizing and creating some time and space. I mean, the one thing you can't create more of is time and energy. And so by dedicating a slice for yourself, you are going to be just so much better off, you're gonna be a better mother, you're gonna be a better partner, you're gonna be a better employee and advisor. So I really want to encourage people to prioritize themselves and work on themselves and not get caught up in the fear of missing out. 

Lauren Hong
Yep. Absolutely. It's so true. There's a lot of shiny objects out there in the world, right? So being able to be true to self is much harder, like I said, easier said than done. So thank you again for your time for sharing. I think not only for being able to share your story about where you've gotten to with the firm but also just for taking the time to be able to put together a piece like this and be able to share that with the world so others, if it's your clients, if it's prospects, if it's just folks who run into it, can really lean into those years of experience, as you've been able to, I'm sure, see behind the curtain with so many people's lives, which I'm sure would better equip you to be able to ask those tough questions. But then you're not just sharing that among those folks who are clients. I think it sounds like the book is really a gift you're giving to the world to be able to help others who are ready to sort of tease that out and lean into it. They have a template, if you will, to do that. So thank you for your time to put that together and for sharing with us today too.

Sarah Carlson
Oh, thank you so much, Lauren. And the services you provide can help us as advisors make a meaningful impact in getting that information out. We have a lot of information to share and having a good strategy, like you help folks develop, it's really, really important. So thank you for the work you do.

Lauren Hong
Oh, absolutely. Well, we'll make sure to include links as well to your website and book and other resources and we'll go from there.

Sarah Carlson 
Awesome. Thank you.

Lauren Hong 
Great. Thanks.