Pilates workouts rarely end with discussions about retirement planning. But sometimes they do.
Natasha Howe, a financial advisor and vice president of Siebert Financial in Miami Beach, Florida, has made friends in the online influencer community, especially with those interested in fitness. One thing she's learned from her friends is that an influx of money — while welcome — doesn't necessarily come with the savvy necessary to make the best financial decisions.
"They're making a crazy amount of money, and they don't know what to do with it," Howe said.
After helping one friend who had a stash of uncashed checks get over a fear of investing, Howe started working with friend and fitness influencer Allegra Paris to host pilates workouts that end with some light Q&A about finances. They're just an opportunity to open the door to more robust discussions about financial planning and saving for retirement.
Howe said she has about 20 influencers under her belt now as clients, which is a small portion of her firm's client base. But she saw an opportunity to help a friend while tapping into a client base that has serious earning potential and, typically, a lack of financial education to handle it.
Howe spoke with Financial Planning about how she's building her niche of online influencers. The conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Financial Planning: What do you see as the benefit of working with influencers?Natasha Howe: My friend group and I started thinking about this two years ago. I realized it would be so fun to host events for us girls, to get together and talk about finances, taxes, issues like that to get knowledgeable about the basics, because nobody talks about that with each other, even in regular friend groups.
I was also thinking influencers are perfect for posting on TikTok and Instagram, getting the word out there to influence other females to start thinking about their finances and start looking into their 401(k)s and things like that that nobody really brings up to them.
FP: You host pilates classes and events like that paired with talks about finances. How does that work?
NH: We're focusing on bringing girls into environments where they feel comfortable. We're doing pilates workout classes and hosting them with my friend [fitness influencer] Allegra Paris, who's also my client. We get a group of girls together to talk about things after the pilates workout with matcha drinks and coffee drinks, and have a Q&A where all the girls can ask questions about their finances.
It's not too complex to get started. It depends on the group of girls. I do ones with influencers, and then I do them with successful female entrepreneurs that have more background.
FP: One of those people who didn't have a lot of background in handling finances was the friend who had the pile of uncashed checks. How did you approach the topic with her?
NH: I told her that if you put the money in your bank account, you're earning zero. But if she invested, she could start earning compound interest. She thought that was too risky, too aggressive. I told her she could be more conservative. If you put it in a money market, then you're earning — at the time it was almost 5%.
So we opened up her account, and she saw the interest payments started hitting every single month, and she was like, "This is amazing!"
FP: Besides pilates and personal friendships, how are you reaching influencers to develop this client base? What does your marketing look like?
NH: We're focusing heavily on filming content and posting short, easy clips to give bite-size information on what you should be focusing on, what's important. It's nothing too complicated. And the girls do collab posts. Sometimes it goes out to their audiences, spreading the word.
FP: What challenges do these clients have that your other clients don't? What makes their planning needs stand apart?
NH: When you work for a company, they usually offer a 401(k) or another retirement plan. That gets you started, and the power of that is insane. These entrepreneurs or influencers, they don't have that. No one is offering that to them. Yes, they're making crazy amounts of money, but they're also spending crazy amounts of money every month, and then they're left at zero.
They don't think they need to worry about a retirement account. What's that good for? But I show them that they're making so much money, but what do they have to show for it? When you get older and you can't work anymore, you don't have anything to fall back on.
FP: Are there any challenges that you have in serving these clients?
NH: Yes, because finance isn't always fun to talk about. It's another language, and it really can get complicated. I want to make it as simple as possible, as easy to understand. I feel like the best way to do it is just to connect it to real-life scenarios, like explaining a money market. Then when they see the interest payment instead of checks just sitting on a nightstand, they're like, "Whoa!" That's kind of where I get the spark from.
FP: What's your best advice for someone wanting to start their own niche, whether it's with influencers or anyone else?
NH: It's all about consistency and being authentic. That's what I've seen with my friends. They're all very authentic with what they post. They're not trying to put on a facade. That's where the really successful people get ahead, when they're being real and authentic, sure and consistent.
It's also about the community that you put together. I love putting like-minded females in a group and then introducing them to other girls. Once you become an adult, it's so hard to make a good friend group. Creating a community of like-minded people, that's what's been the most successful.
