April 7, 2025 • 30 mins
🎙️ The Bold and Brilliant Podcast with Tracie Root
Meet the Woman Behind the Curtain: Tech Strategy and Bold Decisions with Paula Allen
Guest: Paula Allen – Online Business Manager, Strategist & Founder of Services for You
💡 Episode Summary:
In this episode of The Bold and Brilliant Podcast, Tracie chats with the fabulous and tech-savvy Paula Allen, an experienced online business manager and longtime collaborator behind the success of The Gather Community. With over 20 years in the entrepreneurial space, Paula shares how one bold decision transformed her career and gave rise to a thriving business that supports women leaders in bringing their vision to life—without being held back by technology.
Paula walks us through her journey from transcription services to building a VA agency and now serving as a strategic partner for coaches, creatives, and even chiropractors. Whether you’re stuck on platforms like Go High Level or not sure which tech tool to choose, Paula’s got insights that can help you simplify, streamline, and succeed.
We also dig into:
- The evolution of tech for online entrepreneurs
- How to future-proof your business with the right foundation
- What it really means to be a partner in someone’s mission
- Building community and legacy with purpose
- Why networking is still the best growth strategy after two decades in business
If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by all the backend stuff, this episode is your permission slip to get help—and make bold moves anyway.
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🔥 Highlights:
- **04:50** – Why Paula got into tech: “I didn’t want tech to hold women back.”
- **13:15** – From daycare center to transcription entrepreneur—how she made the leap.
- **25:40** – Paula’s boldest business decision that changed everything.
- **39:05** – “Every platform has pros and cons. I’m tech-agnostic—I want it to work for YOU.”
- **50:55** – Building a business with legacy and transition in mind.
- **58:30** – How community and networking are still Paula’s #1 growth tools.
✨ About Our Guest:
Paula Allen is an online business manager and founder of *Services for You*. With a passion for empowering women entrepreneurs, she brings decades of experience in tech strategy, virtual support, and platform implementation. Paula is known for her calm confidence, practical tech wisdom, and dedication to meeting business owners exactly where they are.
🔗 Connect with Paula:
🌐 https://www.services-foryou.com
📱 [Social media handle(s)]
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xoxo
Your host,
Tracie Root
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tracie Root (00:01):
Are you ready to take bold action and live a life
of brilliance?
Welcome to the Bold andBrilliant podcast, where women
leaders share inspiring storiesabout daring decisions that
shape their businesses, theirlives, and their careers.
Today I'm with the fabulous andamazing Paula Allen as an
(00:23):
experienced online businessmanager.
Paula has become a trustedmentor and strategist for fellow
entrepreneurs, including me,dedicated to empowering them
with the insights and tools theyneed to thrive through her
business services for you.
(00:43):
Paula leverages her extensivebackground and passion for
entrepreneurship to helpbusinesses develop, grow, and
succeed in a dynamic onlineworld.
As we talk today, you'll hearPaula share her journey of
entrepreneurship, including onebold decision that has created
her path of what was next.
(01:04):
Her story of resilience, risktaking, and transformation will
inspire, encourage, and supportyour personal and professional
growth.
Please join me in welcomingPaula to the Bold and brilliant
podcast.
Alright, Paula, welcome to thepodcast.
I'm so excited that you're ableto finally make it on.
(01:25):
Finally, we just started, butthank you for being one of our
early episodes, I should say,because we've been talking about
it for so long, right?
I know.
It's so true.
For those of you who are outthere who don't know me and
don't know the relationship thatPaul and I have, we've been
working together for years.
Paula been supporting mybusiness for tracie root for the
Gather community for years.
(01:47):
All of the years, and and so wemeet every week.
So it feels like we've talkedabout all these things, but what
I want to make sure is that forall of you out there listening
who not only may not know me,but don't know Paula, I wanna
make sure that you really get toknow her well because her story
is one of real, a real journeyand also one of real deliberate
(02:12):
decision making bold decisionsand I love talking with her
about the things that broughther to where she is.
So Paula, again, thank you forbeing here.
Let's start by helping everyoneunderstand what you do, who it
is that you serve, and thenwe'll go back to maybe some of
the backstory.
Paula Allen (02:30):
Sounds good.
So I am an online businessmanager.
Most of my clients areentrepreneurs that are online,
mostly women.
'cause those who are, that's whoI connect with the most and I've
done a lot of networking and Iknow a lot of people and I just
love working with women.
One of the reasons I got intotech was because the women were
just not getting their stuff outonline.
So that's my big passion.
(02:52):
I just loved that when they gettheir stuff out online.
And I don't like the tech tohold them back.
Yeah.
The, so the tech holding peopleback and holding women back,
right?
We're so passionate aboutgetting things going that
sometimes we don't know what wedon't know until all of a sudden
we come up against this brickwall of lack of knowledge.
Tracie Root (03:12):
And I know that you have talked about, you're super
tech savvy and the women thatyou're helping, they know
exactly what they wanna do, butthey just don't know how to do
it.
Paula Allen (03:21):
So we walk through strategy and journey, and we
take care of all that.
We just put those piecestogether, and I try to make it
as simple as possible, becausethe more simple it is, the less
tech will break, the less youwon't be able to do it, the less
frustrated you'll be at 11o'clock at night on a Friday
when you can't get ahold ofanyone.
Things like that.
Tracie Root (03:39):
and the idea that technology we all feel like we
should know.
And what I love about the waythat you approach working with
me with other women that I knowis it's wherever they're at, it
is where you start, right?
Do they already know what theywant?
(04:01):
Let's find the solution.
Or do you not even know exactlywhat you want and what could
that look like?
Because your experience with somany different entrepreneurs
over these last, I don't knowhow many years, so many years,
Paula Allen (04:15):
it'll be 20 in August
Tracie Root (04:17):
big anniversary.
That's so exciting.
Yeah, so for 20 years,technology's changed a lot too.
Yes.
When 20 years ago, what was thebig obstacle that people were up
against?
Paula Allen (04:31):
So the, our phones weren't even smart yet.
20 years ago, can you believeit's been less than 20 years and
our phones have been smart, soflash players and things like
that.
But the biggest reason I gotinto tech was that women were
get, were having WordPresswords, websites put together,
and then.
People were trying to charge'ema thousand dollars to put a blog
on the websites and stuff.
(04:52):
And so it was frustrating mebecause you can't do business at
that level if you're an astarting a startup company.
Yeah.
And there wasn't the software asa service projects that there
are now.
And and so it was really toughfor people to get their stuff
out online.
And so I just started learningit.
I learned to code when I wasyoung, so I was, I just started
learning all this stuff.
(05:12):
I can't imagine trying tonavigate dealing with the
WordPress website when I firststarted.
Tracie Root (05:19):
So that, for me, that was 13 years ago and I, in
those first couple years, I didcreate my own Wix website, which
was one of the early kind ofplug and play.
Do it yourself.
Kind of things.
I can't imagine.
Yeah.
It would be so frustrating tohire someone to create your
dream online and now reallynickel and dime you for every
(05:41):
little update because youliterally couldn't figure it out
for yourself.
Paula Allen (05:44):
I basically started teaching people how to do it and
doing it for them and that kindof stuff.
And that's how that the, westarted in that, in the tech
part.
Tracie Root (05:53):
You not only meet people where they're at, but you
will help them in whichever wayis best for them, you do
trainings, you do come and askme anything hours, wherever
people are at, they can ask youquestions.
Just out of, sure, potentialclients, but also out of the
goodness of your heart becauseyou are so passionate about the
(06:13):
mission that you've created foryourself.
Paula Allen (06:15):
Yes, definitely.
I just want people to be outonline and help'em do, and it's
can be little things like this.
This week I was helping someonebecause Zoom did a huge update
and no one could use their Zoomlinks and were having
frustrating with the workshopthey were doing, and it happened
to lots of people last week whenZoom.
Yeah, so I was just helping hertroubleshoot that and saying,
some of that's not just havingsomeone to go, this is
(06:36):
happening.
And you're like, it's not youtake a deep breath..
I used to be the person thattried to put out the fires and
control it all.
It's not that you can't do that.
I learned that very well, veryearly on, and just helping other
people.
You can't control everything,especially in this online world,
right?
It's there's.
Sometimes you can't control thatif Zoom doesn't update the day
(06:56):
before your meeting and deletesall your links like does.
We got it.
Everyone got on almost.
Tracie Root (07:01):
Yep.
It all worked out okay I hopefor your other clients it worked
out okay too,
Paula Allen (07:05):
actually, we're turning it into a good
opportunity to be able to reachout personally and say, Hey,
this is what happened.
Make sure you do this yeah.
And unfortunately don't shootout a lot of a lot.
Some companies shoot it out.
I also look at that and look atthe tech and watch it and follow
'em so I know what they're gonnashoot out so I can troubleshoot
a lot of times and warn people.
The first two months of threemonths of Covid, all I did was
(07:26):
give out guides on how to useZoom, how what to do all the
things because I just, it was awhole new world to a lot of
people.
Tracie Root (07:32):
Absolutely.
those of us who use social mediato market our business and to
create awareness, I'm reallygood at social media.
I don't follow it.
I don't know about the updatesthat are coming.
And I think a lot of us arebaffled when they change stuff,
and that's one thing that I loveabout you is that you're paying
(07:53):
attention to, oh, hey, thischange is coming.
Or, oh, you might wanna knowthat this change happened, so
make sure you'd make this changein your settings or whatever so
that we don't get surprised
Paula Allen (08:05):
absolutely.
Being proactive, try to beproactive because it just helps
everyone, right?
It makes everything worse inthis online world that's always
changing.
It's always changing,
Tracie Root (08:14):
I wanted to touch on, I know you just mentioned
that you work a lot with womenentrepreneurs, but in lots of
different fields.
You work with a lot of coaches.
And you speak the language andall of that.
For people who aren't in thatcommunity.
What other kind of businesseshave you worked with?
So people know that you knowtheir languages too?
Paula Allen (08:33):
I work in the, a lot of my niche has been like in
the dance studio industrybecause through one of my
clients owns a lot of dancestudios and she coaches a lot of
dance studios.
So we've just teamed up and I'vehelped with a lot of the tech in
the back end and all of that.
So I know all of those.
I work with anyone who wants tolearn, go high level.
So I have all kinds ofbusinesses.
(08:53):
I do have a go high levelagency, so and I keep up with
that tech.
And one of my sweet spots isjust what we've been talking
about, is teaching people how touse it and utilize it for
themselves.
So not only the people that areon my platform, but I do it for
anyone.
Tomorrow, I get to go see achiropractor here in town
locally and help him with his goHigh level.
So that'll be fun.
Tracie Root (09:11):
What I love about you is you're doing a lot of
training for people who reallywanna do it on their own as much
as they can.
Obviously they look for supportand guidance and expertise, but
it's one of those platforms thatpeople can take on and
self-manage if they have thetraining and the confidence to
do it, and the understanding ofwhat they're trying to
(09:34):
accomplish
Paula Allen (09:34):
and a lot of times that means I train their their
va, their assistant.
So I train a lot of virtualassistants to use Go high level
in the way that client needs itto work.
'cause you can use it in lotsof, you can use every platform
in lots of different ways.
And so knowing the strategy andstuff and then teaching it to
the strategy is really cool.
Tracie Root (09:53):
I love that.
It reminds me of when we firststarted working together when we
really made the shift for theGather community.
And what you asked me was, whatdo you want?
What are you gonna do in thenext year, two years, five years
with your business?
And I said, membership classeslike teaching, online courses
(10:15):
maybe products.
X, Y, and Z and I have these twodifferent brands.
And so you said given that theseare the things that you want,
this is probably the bestplatform at the best price that
does all of those things.
Is it the best at all of them?
No.
But is it a all in one?
That will satisfy the need andnot cost you an arm and the leg
(10:39):
and be easy to not only handlefrom a team standpoint, but I
also do some self updating aswell.
You did, so you know there's,there it was the perfect
solution.
I've never questioned whethermaybe once or twice question
whether
Paula Allen (10:56):
every platform has its pros and cons, every single
platform yeah.
And even though we've justtalked about go high level a
little while, you are not evenon go high level, I help people
find the platform that works isgoing to work and grow with what
they wanna do.
I'm pretty, I always say I'mtech agnostic.
I just want it to work for you.
Tracie Root (11:14):
It's just the evolution of how everything
changes, right?
Yeah.
So speaking of change, I wannago back to, because you have
been in business for 20 yearsand you had a life before being
Services for you, Paula Allen.
I did.
So before, talk about what youdid before that and what was
that bold decision that you madethat put you to creating what
(11:39):
you have today?
Paula Allen (11:40):
Okay, so I actually wanna go way back.
I've been an entrepreneur sinceI was 10 years old, so I have
run businesses and then I took ahiatus and went out into the
real world for three years of mylife.
Three whole years, three wholeyear two and a half I think if
you actually look at it.
But and I ran a daycare centerfor a little while and then I
went, I was an executiveassistant for a nonprofit and I
(12:03):
helped them start and get alltheir nonprofit.
Stuff and everything else.
And then, and at that time, Iwasn't making enough money.
I was a single parent to threeteenagers and they eat a lot and
need a lot.
And I needed to make more money,but I wanted to do it at home
because I've never left my kidsbefore.
My first business was a homedaycare, so my kids were raised
at home and so they weren't usedto me being gone.
(12:25):
And so I didn't want to leavethem any more time.
And I was like, what can I do?
What can I do?
And it was the beginning of theinternet world and I found
transcription.
And so I started working onthese teams for transcription,
and I did it for about a year.
Got really good at it.
I was managing one person'steam.
That executive assistant job Ibrought I talked them into let
me work from home so I could doboth, everything all at once in
(12:46):
one place.
And one day I said.
Things just weren't working wellin anything I was doing.
And I'm like, I'm gonna go dothis myself.
And so I literally looked at mydaughter.
She was sitting on the couch,she was 16 at the time.
She was the only one home.
And I said we're either gonna beon the streets or we're going to
eat and we're gonna have a roofover our head next month.
I don't know.
And I sent 30 day notices to totwo.
(13:09):
Actually it was about threejobs, but one of them wasn't.
It wasn't that big, but yeah, onthe same exact day, and so I had
to make it, I had three kids athome that liked food, and so I
figured it out, it was reallyhard as a single parent to make
that decision.
Tracie Root (13:23):
I bet.
So had you been thinking aboutit for a long time before that
day and just was there a strawthat broke the camel's back that
day, or was it just, what?
I don't know what it is, buttoday's the day.
Paula Allen (13:35):
Yeah.
So I'm a planner in my head formonths before I do anything.
So it looks like I might take abig leap, but I have it worked
out and I knew I had enoughmoney to keep us going for a
little while, while I got itgoing.
And one day I just said, why amI still doing this when I know
this is what I'm going to do?
And I was like, okay.
Today's the day, and I probablysaid tomorrow is I'm a calendar
(13:55):
person.
I'm like, on the first of themonth I'll give em 30 days
notice.
That kind of thing and figure itout.
And yeah.
So I planned
Tracie Root (14:03):
Did you end up staying with them that whole 30
days?
Paula Allen (14:06):
I did, yes, both of them.
I stayed with the 30 days and Iactually stayed on doing some
other stuff for them.
I just moved out of runningthings, roles.
I, one of them, I trainedsomeone else to do what I was
doing.
That was the nonprofit.
I trained her to do what I wasdoing and showed her how
everything was set up andeverything.
And the other one and was atranscription company.
And so the owner had to takeback over and I had to send out
(14:28):
an email, telling them that Ihad a non-compete agreement.
'cause non-competes are bigthings, but, I've always been
provided for, it was cool howeverything morphed because that
was a transcription company thatI started it first.
Tracie Root (14:39):
So you just said something about a non-compete.
So did you just couldn't call onthose same clients.
You found other clients?
Paula Allen (14:44):
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.
Tracie Root (14:46):
Got it.
It wasn't that you couldn'tstart the same type of work?
Paula Allen (14:49):
No, I was a contractor, I'm not a very good
employee.
I found that out about myself.
You tell me I have to be at workfrom eight to five and do my
work job.
I'll be grumpy and not wantingto do it.
You leave me alone and I'll cometo work from 10 to 10.
Tracie Root (15:01):
It's funny to think of the employment versus working
for ourselves and the abilitythat we have to focus when it's
something that we really arecaring about.
Paula Allen (15:12):
When I was doing that transcription company it
was the boom of when everyonewas writing their own honor
biographies.
All the big wigs were, and itwas a big thing.
And so we were transcribing tonsof those through
interviews.Oh,ghost writing.
Yeah.
It was fun.
Tracie Root (15:25):
That's fun.
I'd love to know what you workedon, but I guess you can't tell
me.
I can't know.
They're all out.
They're all out.
They've been out.
Anyone interesting?
Anyone interesting that youlearned about that.
Had an impact on you.
Paula Allen (15:39):
I, first of all, I did a, we did a lot of internet
like internet startup companiesand stuff like that, so I
learned a lot about business.
One of my clients was really inthat world, and so that startup
world in Silicon Valley andstuff, I was living in
California at the time, so Iwasn't too far from Silicon
Valley, and it was reallyinteresting to learn all the
business stuff and all.
And, so it was fun.
(16:00):
It, I called that my dailyclassroom.
we did Harvard Business Schoolstuff from their lectures.
That was fun.
I learned so much.
Tracie Root (16:06):
That's why we do all this personal professional
development reading is to get tolearn from their experience, but
to do it like right when it washappening.
That must've been amazing.
Paula Allen (16:17):
Yeah.
Tracie Root (16:17):
So you decided one day you didn't just pick up and
leave.
You gave them notice, but youknew that you wanted to create
something different.
You started a new transcriptioncompany.
How long did you do that companybefore you got to creating what
you have now?
Paula Allen (16:34):
So it morphed into the VA world.
So that was the early twothousands that the transcription
was a big thing.
It was huge.
There was lots of stuff outthere.
We actually grew to six figuresin 16 months because I got a
very lucrative contract withwith a company that, that,
remember when I said those startsmartphones weren't smart yet.
YouTube was just coming out andYouTube used to have PDFs
(16:56):
underneath them.
If you guys don't, if youhaven't been around that long,
PDF downloads for two reasons.
One, the play the flash playersdidn't work very well, so some
people couldn't use them andother was, they didn't think
people would watch video morethan they would read.
Because the world hadn't changedall the way yet.
And so we were one of thepreferred providers for those
transcripts.
And so that was fun.
And that launched my company.
(17:17):
I had 65 transcriptionistsworking for me at one point in
time and everything.
And it was a lot.
My kids were like, 80 hours aweek.
I was on that computer and Istarted getting carpal tunnel.
It took a long time, but Istarted helping entrepreneurs
because I was seeing that myclients needed more than that
they were getting locked out oftheir WordPress sites.
They were, we were doing allkinds of things.
I just started supporting themin that way.
(17:38):
And I saw the transcriptionworld go down.
I don't know if you guysremember in about, I think it
was the fall of 2011.
It might have been 10.
When the government shut downfor three straight weeks.
Tracie Root (17:50):
Yeah, it rings a bell.
It was a crazy time in my life,but yeah.
Paula Allen (17:54):
The government shut down for three straight weeks.
It took me about a week our, mywhole team to get a week to get
caught up on what everything wewere doing, and then all of a
sudden it was like, where's thework?
Then the internet the iPhonesand all of that stuff.
Really, it was right after thateverything started exploding in
a different way.
And I could see thetranscription world going away.
All the electronic healthrecords went online, so there
(18:15):
wasn't as much of that kind oftranscription.
There was a lot of different, Icould see it.
So two of my girls had teamsthat worked under them, so I had
my transcriptionists plus theyhad teams sometimes and they
would take a, they took, weretaking a lot of my work and so I
transitioned out of thetranscription company by selling
it to them and staying on for ayear but with stipends.
(18:38):
So I had a monthly retainer andI trained them exactly how to
get work and all the thingsbecause getting work has never
been a problem of mine.
And so I trained them on all ofthat, on where it was coming
from, who got'em on thosevendors and all the things.
So it was fun.
And then I moved my company intoa virtual assistant agency.
Tracie Root (18:54):
That's amazing was that a thought when you created
your first business, did youthink, I wanna build this so
that I can sell it and then I'llstart something new?
Is that your entrepreneurmindset?
Paula Allen (19:06):
It wasn't.
Now it is.
Now I'm like, how do Itransition out?
But I think it's the age, right?
So I'm a lot older than I wasthen, and I don't have children
at home that need to eat.
I just go to their house and eatnow.
And they're the ones with allthe kids in the fun and and
yeah, at that time, I wasn't.
But because I studied so muchbusiness and stuff, I could see
what was coming.
I can usually see what's coming.
(19:26):
And it's like right now, withthe world, with ai, I'm just
watching to see what's gonnahappen with this business world
and this online world and what'sgoing on.
It's really interesting.
I love business systems.
I love like studying them andlooking at'em and all of that.
Tracie Root (19:40):
Yeah, I love the relationship that you mentioned
to that shutdown, and then allof a sudden everything really
shifted.
It's almost like that was likethe kick in the pants that some
of the people who'd been workingon some things needed to be
like, I'm not gonna be relianton this thing that I don't have
a say in.
I'm gonna start to create myown.
(20:00):
And maybe those, the smartphonecompanies and all of that
started to shift.
Paula Allen (20:04):
And you gotta think of what else was happening in
the world.
Then in 2010 to 2012, we had ahousing crisis.
We had a recession in 2008.,nine 11 happened.
So all of that happened right inthat era, yeah.
So yeah, it was a big shift andI saw it again with Covid.
Now you see all the AI stuffcoming out, right?
Because everyone had time tostay home and go, what am I
really gonna do with my life?
Tracie Root (20:24):
And so with Covid now we're, it's literally by the
time this comes out, we'll bepast the five year anniversary
of the lockdown.
So for those of us who are inthat coaching world, like
imagining what you want yourbusiness to look like five years
from now, most people strugglewith that.
So have you thought about whatyour business is gonna look like
five years from now, or what youthink it's gonna shift into?
Paula Allen (20:47):
Yeah, so I've already started like that
because the more, I'm doing moreconsulting, more strategy work
and stuff like that, instead ofbeing in actually doing the
work.
I love teaching people how to doit, how to work with them, and
whether that's a virtualassistant, whether that's my,
one of my.
On my team, whether or anentrepreneur trying to do it
themselves.
And so marketing consulting, asyou get older you kinda, you
(21:09):
can't work a hundred hours aweek anymore like I used to be
able to.
Tracie Root (21:12):
And do we want to, right?
Paula Allen (21:14):
Yeah, no, I don't want to, so it's really cool to
be able to work online and to moto travel and to do what I need
to do.
Yeah.
Tracie Root (21:21):
For me, the idea of, five years from now, knowing
that my oldest will be out ofcollege then the youngest one,
will probably be edging outtacollege.
That's one of the things Ithink.
That, five years ago, obviouslygoing into lockdown, we had no
idea what was to come and wherewe're at compared to what we
thought we were gonna do fiveyears is all totally different
(21:43):
because we had the pandemic inthe middle.
But to just sit down and havethat thought and that vision,
and then to have someone likeyou in the corner to figure out
how to set yourself up for thatjourney.
It's so important, right?
Paula Allen (21:59):
The big picture, isn't gonna change that much,
right?
For your company, if you'regonna grow it and you need that
kind of looking at that, to seewhere you're going and what that
strategy is.
Because like I said, I wasn'teven looking at Legacy, but now
I am.
Right now I'm looking at Legacyand I'm helping a lot of my
clients with them, with Legacyas well.
It's what does that look like asyou transition out, who do we
have in place?
(22:19):
Let's get all those SOPs inplace.
Let's get all the, the standardsof procedure because procedure
that way it's really easy toturn over.
Tracie Root (22:27):
Yeah.
Also, I think, we talked aboutthe housing crisis, back in
2010.
We talked about covid.
We're going through some prettycrazy stuff right now as well
and, five years from now, wedon't again know what that
ramifications are.
Paula Allen (22:41):
Yeah.
The marketplace is is crazyright now.
There's not very much stabilityin it
Tracie Root (22:45):
but what it gives us is a chance to recognize, oh,
I don't know what's to come,but.
What do I wanna create in themeantime?
You can't just wait.
You can't just see what happens
Paula Allen (22:55):
and you need to have your foundation in place,
your foundation in place, thetop stuff changes, but that
bottom stuff stays solid.
As long as your foundation is inplace, it stays solid.
You just have to change up heremaybe how you're getting out
there, or just change the thingsyou're doing, not the actual
foundation of your company,right?
Tracie Root (23:13):
Yeah.
Your mission, the values yourcore like deliverables of what
you're trying to help peoplewith, and then, yeah, it might
show up differently in the howtos and the offers and stuff
like that, but that's okay.
Paula Allen (23:27):
Yeah, it's all fun.
It's all fun stuff.
I love this stuff so I can dothis all day.
Tracie Root (23:32):
Paula, those of you who know us, obviously Paula is
in my Gather Community as acreator, one of our founding
members from way back when inaddition to helping create the
things all on the backend, she'sbeen helping create the
community part as well, beinginvolved year over year.
And that's not changing the thethings that are coming up, like
(23:54):
you said, you're doing a lot oftrainings, you're doing a lot of
helping people still find theirplatforms and either.
Figure out how to do itthemselves, help their support
figure out how to do it.
And there's a few people thatyou, every now and then you'll
still help on your own with yourteam.
Paula Allen (24:12):
A lot of times we put it together and then turn it
over, so is really cool.
Yeah.
Tracie Root (24:16):
Which means that anyone who's looking for support
in their, the strategy side oftheir tech or the implementation
side of their tech, even if youalready have something in place
and maybe you lose your person.
Or, something changes in yourteam that's already existing.
Definitely you can reach out toPaula and find out a way to move
(24:36):
forward when you feel stuck, ifit's related to the technology
and the strategy underneath yourbusiness.
Yeah.
Paula Allen (24:44):
Yes, definitely.
It's always fun.
I always love it.
I jumped in for two people rightbefore for their Thanksgiving
thing because both of them had ateam member leave and they
didn't know how to set up theirBlack Friday specials, and so I
just jumped in and helped them.
And we got it done and then wewere able, I was able to
transition it back out to theteam that they did, but at least
that was in place and theydidn't have to worry about it.
Tracie Root (25:04):
Yeah.
That's great.
And surprises happen, right?
There's aging parents thatpeople are dealing with and, or,
their assistant or their supportteam might have some reason why
they need to take some leave.
And even if it's not you andyour team, you have a giant
network and community of peoplethat,'cause you have been doing
this for so long.
Paula Allen (25:25):
Yes.
Yeah.
So I know tons and tons of VAsand people that do different
things and I'm always referringpeople out to those communities
and that kind of stuff.
And go high level actually hastheir own certification team,
but a lot of softwares andservice do have certified
partners the way they.
They have people like VAs thatare on staff or that are trained
to use their product.
Tracie Root (25:46):
So not only you and your expertise in your team and
your years of knowledge, butyour resources are extensive.
Paula Allen (25:53):
Yes.
I'm always happy to refer peopleout to give'em a bunch of names
and say, these people are peoplethat I know and I vetted and
that have done work for lots ofmy friends we've been around for
a while.
Those are huge communities thathave been around for a while.
Yeah, absolutely.
Okay.
And every country
Tracie Root (26:09):
yeah, actually that's a good point..
You work with people in othercountries and for events and
things that they do that servepeople in other countries.
Is there anything is thereanything that I don't know, or
something that you want toemphasize as we start to get
towards the end of what we'retalking about?
Paula Allen (26:27):
No, but I can say that anyone who's wanting to
build a thing, networking is thething.
And getting into a community ofpeople that you really can
support you and you can supportthem is amazing.
And that's actually how I'vebuilt my business.
I've been in, I'm in manycommunities.
Like I said, I've been onlinefor almost.
Over 20 years now.
And I'm in many networks andcommunities.
Gather is one of my favorites.
(26:48):
And yeah, so I'm a creator.
I jumped on board as soon as sheopened it and I said I'm in, all
in.
And so just the platform to beable to speak and get out there
and talk to people and justshare, it's really cool.
Tracie Root (27:02):
Awesome.
Thanks for saying that.
I appreciate it.
And not just saying it, but forbelieving it, yes, for being in
all the time.
And yeah, I wanna touch on thatreally briefly.
'cause you mentioned you're in abunch of different communities.
I also am in a bunch ofdifferent communities, where I'm
an actual paid member of acommunity.
And I find that sometimes we'retalking to people who are like
(27:23):
I'm trying to decide which twoI'm gonna join.
And they limit themselves.
And sometimes it's because thatthere's a cost associated with
it.
But really when we're talkingabout joining a community a
networking group, having achance to meet people month over
month throughout the year whenwe're, a$300.
(27:44):
Investment for 12 months worthof meeting people is a pretty
low.
Barrier to entry.
Paula Allen (27:52):
Yeah.
And and I still get referralsfrom networks that I was in 10
years ago.
Yeah.
And not, and those networksdon't even exist anymore, just
from the friendships and thefriendships.
And I still refer out to thosepeople as well, and I'm like,
Hey, we haven't talked in awhile.
Let's catch up, yeah.
But also things like when yousaid, is there anything, I don't
know, I'm sure there's lots youdon't know personally, but
probably not in business becauseyou've probably heard all,
(28:13):
because I speak so much on yourstage.
Tracie Root (28:15):
Yes, absolutely.
And we all have very full lives.
There's a lot going on all atall times.
But yeah the ability torecognize that the evolution is
ongoing, that the relationshipsthat we get to build.
Regardless of where we meetpeople.
And that's, one of the bestthings about social media too is
that we can keep thoserelationships going even when
(28:38):
we're no longer in that group orthey're no longer in that group.
You connect with someone let's,these friendships are real
friendships.
Yeah.
They're not it's not aseparation of church and state.
It's not business and personal.
It's all interconnected.
Negate the idea of leaning intoa new community to find people
because you might find your nextbusiness partner, collaboration
(28:59):
partner, next best friend, theperson who's gonna have the
resource that you need for thataging parent that's coming down
the road.
All of the things, right?
That's what social media and allof this networking and community
is all about.
Paula Allen (29:12):
Absolutely.
It's so cool.
Tracie Root (29:14):
Awesome.
Paula.
As usual, thank you and thankyou for all of your story and
all of your expertise.
I will never be able to thankyou enough for everything that
you've done for me over allthese years.
It literally, the gathercommunity would not be what it
is had we not co-created a lotof that together and still
(29:36):
continue to develop strategiesaround how to make it better,
reach more people and serve thewomen leadership and
entrepreneur community outthere.
So thank you for all that.
Paula Allen (29:48):
Thank you for inviting me to be a partner in
your business, which is what Ialways say.
I'm a partner in business.
And I have to I have to love themission and I love it.
And we get to see each other inperson sometimes, but normally
we don't.
Tracie Root (30:00):
I know we, we could say literally we've met in
person five times.
Paula Allen (30:06):
If even, yeah, if that,
Tracie Root (30:08):
I mean count'em on one hand, we'll just say, but
again, next month, which I'mvery excited about.
Yeah, exactly.
So can't wait.
Alright my friend, thank youagain.
Thank you.
Thank you for being on thepodcast.
Thank you for your support ofhelping the podcast get out
there in the world as well andlet's all go have a good time.
Are you ready to take bold action and live a life
of brilliance?
Welcome to the Bold andBrilliant podcast, where women
leaders share inspiring storiesabout daring decisions that
shape their businesses, theirlives, and their careers.
Today I'm with the fabulous andamazing Paula Allen as an
(00:23):
experienced online businessmanager.
Paula has become a trustedmentor and strategist for fellow
entrepreneurs, including me,dedicated to empowering them
with the insights and tools theyneed to thrive through her
business services for you.
(00:43):
Paula leverages her extensivebackground and passion for
entrepreneurship to helpbusinesses develop, grow, and
succeed in a dynamic onlineworld.
As we talk today, you'll hearPaula share her journey of
entrepreneurship, including onebold decision that has created
her path of what was next.
(01:04):
Her story of resilience, risktaking, and transformation will
inspire, encourage, and supportyour personal and professional
growth.
Please join me in welcomingPaula to the Bold and brilliant
podcast.
Alright, Paula, welcome to thepodcast.
I'm so excited that you're ableto finally make it on.
(01:25):
Finally, we just started, butthank you for being one of our
early episodes, I should say,because we've been talking about
it for so long, right?
I know.
It's so true.
For those of you who are outthere who don't know me and
don't know the relationship thatPaul and I have, we've been
working together for years.
Paula been supporting mybusiness for tracie root for the
Gather community for years.
(01:47):
All of the years, and and so wemeet every week.
So it feels like we've talkedabout all these things, but what
I want to make sure is that forall of you out there listening
who not only may not know me,but don't know Paula, I wanna
make sure that you really get toknow her well because her story
is one of real, a real journeyand also one of real deliberate
(02:12):
decision making bold decisionsand I love talking with her
about the things that broughther to where she is.
So Paula, again, thank you forbeing here.
Let's start by helping everyoneunderstand what you do, who it
is that you serve, and thenwe'll go back to maybe some of
the backstory.
Paula Allen (02:30):
Sounds good.
So I am an online businessmanager.
Most of my clients areentrepreneurs that are online,
mostly women.
'cause those who are, that's whoI connect with the most and I've
done a lot of networking and Iknow a lot of people and I just
love working with women.
One of the reasons I got intotech was because the women were
just not getting their stuff outonline.
So that's my big passion.
(02:52):
I just loved that when they gettheir stuff out online.
And I don't like the tech tohold them back.
Yeah.
The, so the tech holding peopleback and holding women back,
right?
We're so passionate aboutgetting things going that
sometimes we don't know what wedon't know until all of a sudden
we come up against this brickwall of lack of knowledge.
Tracie Root (03:12):
And I know that you have talked about, you're super
tech savvy and the women thatyou're helping, they know
exactly what they wanna do, butthey just don't know how to do
it.
Paula Allen (03:21):
So we walk through strategy and journey, and we
take care of all that.
We just put those piecestogether, and I try to make it
as simple as possible, becausethe more simple it is, the less
tech will break, the less youwon't be able to do it, the less
frustrated you'll be at 11o'clock at night on a Friday
when you can't get ahold ofanyone.
Things like that.
Tracie Root (03:39):
and the idea that technology we all feel like we
should know.
And what I love about the waythat you approach working with
me with other women that I knowis it's wherever they're at, it
is where you start, right?
Do they already know what theywant?
(04:01):
Let's find the solution.
Or do you not even know exactlywhat you want and what could
that look like?
Because your experience with somany different entrepreneurs
over these last, I don't knowhow many years, so many years,
Paula Allen (04:15):
it'll be 20 in August
Tracie Root (04:17):
big anniversary.
That's so exciting.
Yeah, so for 20 years,technology's changed a lot too.
Yes.
When 20 years ago, what was thebig obstacle that people were up
against?
Paula Allen (04:31):
So the, our phones weren't even smart yet.
20 years ago, can you believeit's been less than 20 years and
our phones have been smart, soflash players and things like
that.
But the biggest reason I gotinto tech was that women were
get, were having WordPresswords, websites put together,
and then.
People were trying to charge'ema thousand dollars to put a blog
on the websites and stuff.
(04:52):
And so it was frustrating mebecause you can't do business at
that level if you're an astarting a startup company.
Yeah.
And there wasn't the software asa service projects that there
are now.
And and so it was really toughfor people to get their stuff
out online.
And so I just started learningit.
I learned to code when I wasyoung, so I was, I just started
learning all this stuff.
(05:12):
I can't imagine trying tonavigate dealing with the
WordPress website when I firststarted.
Tracie Root (05:19):
So that, for me, that was 13 years ago and I, in
those first couple years, I didcreate my own Wix website, which
was one of the early kind ofplug and play.
Do it yourself.
Kind of things.
I can't imagine.
Yeah.
It would be so frustrating tohire someone to create your
dream online and now reallynickel and dime you for every
(05:41):
little update because youliterally couldn't figure it out
for yourself.
Paula Allen (05:44):
I basically started teaching people how to do it and
doing it for them and that kindof stuff.
And that's how that the, westarted in that, in the tech
part.
Tracie Root (05:53):
You not only meet people where they're at, but you
will help them in whichever wayis best for them, you do
trainings, you do come and askme anything hours, wherever
people are at, they can ask youquestions.
Just out of, sure, potentialclients, but also out of the
goodness of your heart becauseyou are so passionate about the
(06:13):
mission that you've created foryourself.
Paula Allen (06:15):
Yes, definitely.
I just want people to be outonline and help'em do, and it's
can be little things like this.
This week I was helping someonebecause Zoom did a huge update
and no one could use their Zoomlinks and were having
frustrating with the workshopthey were doing, and it happened
to lots of people last week whenZoom.
Yeah, so I was just helping hertroubleshoot that and saying,
some of that's not just havingsomeone to go, this is
(06:36):
happening.
And you're like, it's not youtake a deep breath..
I used to be the person thattried to put out the fires and
control it all.
It's not that you can't do that.
I learned that very well, veryearly on, and just helping other
people.
You can't control everything,especially in this online world,
right?
It's there's.
Sometimes you can't control thatif Zoom doesn't update the day
(06:56):
before your meeting and deletesall your links like does.
We got it.
Everyone got on almost.
Tracie Root (07:01):
Yep.
It all worked out okay I hopefor your other clients it worked
out okay too,
Paula Allen (07:05):
actually, we're turning it into a good
opportunity to be able to reachout personally and say, Hey,
this is what happened.
Make sure you do this yeah.
And unfortunately don't shootout a lot of a lot.
Some companies shoot it out.
I also look at that and look atthe tech and watch it and follow
'em so I know what they're gonnashoot out so I can troubleshoot
a lot of times and warn people.
The first two months of threemonths of Covid, all I did was
(07:26):
give out guides on how to useZoom, how what to do all the
things because I just, it was awhole new world to a lot of
people.
Tracie Root (07:32):
Absolutely.
those of us who use social mediato market our business and to
create awareness, I'm reallygood at social media.
I don't follow it.
I don't know about the updatesthat are coming.
And I think a lot of us arebaffled when they change stuff,
and that's one thing that I loveabout you is that you're paying
(07:53):
attention to, oh, hey, thischange is coming.
Or, oh, you might wanna knowthat this change happened, so
make sure you'd make this changein your settings or whatever so
that we don't get surprised
Paula Allen (08:05):
absolutely.
Being proactive, try to beproactive because it just helps
everyone, right?
It makes everything worse inthis online world that's always
changing.
It's always changing,
Tracie Root (08:14):
I wanted to touch on, I know you just mentioned
that you work a lot with womenentrepreneurs, but in lots of
different fields.
You work with a lot of coaches.
And you speak the language andall of that.
For people who aren't in thatcommunity.
What other kind of businesseshave you worked with?
So people know that you knowtheir languages too?
Paula Allen (08:33):
I work in the, a lot of my niche has been like in
the dance studio industrybecause through one of my
clients owns a lot of dancestudios and she coaches a lot of
dance studios.
So we've just teamed up and I'vehelped with a lot of the tech in
the back end and all of that.
So I know all of those.
I work with anyone who wants tolearn, go high level.
So I have all kinds ofbusinesses.
(08:53):
I do have a go high levelagency, so and I keep up with
that tech.
And one of my sweet spots isjust what we've been talking
about, is teaching people how touse it and utilize it for
themselves.
So not only the people that areon my platform, but I do it for
anyone.
Tomorrow, I get to go see achiropractor here in town
locally and help him with his goHigh level.
So that'll be fun.
Tracie Root (09:11):
What I love about you is you're doing a lot of
training for people who reallywanna do it on their own as much
as they can.
Obviously they look for supportand guidance and expertise, but
it's one of those platforms thatpeople can take on and
self-manage if they have thetraining and the confidence to
do it, and the understanding ofwhat they're trying to
(09:34):
accomplish
Paula Allen (09:34):
and a lot of times that means I train their their
va, their assistant.
So I train a lot of virtualassistants to use Go high level
in the way that client needs itto work.
'cause you can use it in lotsof, you can use every platform
in lots of different ways.
And so knowing the strategy andstuff and then teaching it to
the strategy is really cool.
Tracie Root (09:53):
I love that.
It reminds me of when we firststarted working together when we
really made the shift for theGather community.
And what you asked me was, whatdo you want?
What are you gonna do in thenext year, two years, five years
with your business?
And I said, membership classeslike teaching, online courses
(10:15):
maybe products.
X, Y, and Z and I have these twodifferent brands.
And so you said given that theseare the things that you want,
this is probably the bestplatform at the best price that
does all of those things.
Is it the best at all of them?
No.
But is it a all in one?
That will satisfy the need andnot cost you an arm and the leg
(10:39):
and be easy to not only handlefrom a team standpoint, but I
also do some self updating aswell.
You did, so you know there's,there it was the perfect
solution.
I've never questioned whethermaybe once or twice question
whether
Paula Allen (10:56):
every platform has its pros and cons, every single
platform yeah.
And even though we've justtalked about go high level a
little while, you are not evenon go high level, I help people
find the platform that works isgoing to work and grow with what
they wanna do.
I'm pretty, I always say I'mtech agnostic.
I just want it to work for you.
Tracie Root (11:14):
It's just the evolution of how everything
changes, right?
Yeah.
So speaking of change, I wannago back to, because you have
been in business for 20 yearsand you had a life before being
Services for you, Paula Allen.
I did.
So before, talk about what youdid before that and what was
that bold decision that you madethat put you to creating what
(11:39):
you have today?
Paula Allen (11:40):
Okay, so I actually wanna go way back.
I've been an entrepreneur sinceI was 10 years old, so I have
run businesses and then I took ahiatus and went out into the
real world for three years of mylife.
Three whole years, three wholeyear two and a half I think if
you actually look at it.
But and I ran a daycare centerfor a little while and then I
went, I was an executiveassistant for a nonprofit and I
(12:03):
helped them start and get alltheir nonprofit.
Stuff and everything else.
And then, and at that time, Iwasn't making enough money.
I was a single parent to threeteenagers and they eat a lot and
need a lot.
And I needed to make more money,but I wanted to do it at home
because I've never left my kidsbefore.
My first business was a homedaycare, so my kids were raised
at home and so they weren't usedto me being gone.
(12:25):
And so I didn't want to leavethem any more time.
And I was like, what can I do?
What can I do?
And it was the beginning of theinternet world and I found
transcription.
And so I started working onthese teams for transcription,
and I did it for about a year.
Got really good at it.
I was managing one person'steam.
That executive assistant job Ibrought I talked them into let
me work from home so I could doboth, everything all at once in
(12:46):
one place.
And one day I said.
Things just weren't working wellin anything I was doing.
And I'm like, I'm gonna go dothis myself.
And so I literally looked at mydaughter.
She was sitting on the couch,she was 16 at the time.
She was the only one home.
And I said we're either gonna beon the streets or we're going to
eat and we're gonna have a roofover our head next month.
I don't know.
And I sent 30 day notices to totwo.
(13:09):
Actually it was about threejobs, but one of them wasn't.
It wasn't that big, but yeah, onthe same exact day, and so I had
to make it, I had three kids athome that liked food, and so I
figured it out, it was reallyhard as a single parent to make
that decision.
Tracie Root (13:23):
I bet.
So had you been thinking aboutit for a long time before that
day and just was there a strawthat broke the camel's back that
day, or was it just, what?
I don't know what it is, buttoday's the day.
Paula Allen (13:35):
Yeah.
So I'm a planner in my head formonths before I do anything.
So it looks like I might take abig leap, but I have it worked
out and I knew I had enoughmoney to keep us going for a
little while, while I got itgoing.
And one day I just said, why amI still doing this when I know
this is what I'm going to do?
And I was like, okay.
Today's the day, and I probablysaid tomorrow is I'm a calendar
(13:55):
person.
I'm like, on the first of themonth I'll give em 30 days
notice.
That kind of thing and figure itout.
And yeah.
So I planned
Tracie Root (14:03):
Did you end up staying with them that whole 30
days?
Paula Allen (14:06):
I did, yes, both of them.
I stayed with the 30 days and Iactually stayed on doing some
other stuff for them.
I just moved out of runningthings, roles.
I, one of them, I trainedsomeone else to do what I was
doing.
That was the nonprofit.
I trained her to do what I wasdoing and showed her how
everything was set up andeverything.
And the other one and was atranscription company.
And so the owner had to takeback over and I had to send out
(14:28):
an email, telling them that Ihad a non-compete agreement.
'cause non-competes are bigthings, but, I've always been
provided for, it was cool howeverything morphed because that
was a transcription company thatI started it first.
Tracie Root (14:39):
So you just said something about a non-compete.
So did you just couldn't call onthose same clients.
You found other clients?
Paula Allen (14:44):
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.
Tracie Root (14:46):
Got it.
It wasn't that you couldn'tstart the same type of work?
Paula Allen (14:49):
No, I was a contractor, I'm not a very good
employee.
I found that out about myself.
You tell me I have to be at workfrom eight to five and do my
work job.
I'll be grumpy and not wantingto do it.
You leave me alone and I'll cometo work from 10 to 10.
Tracie Root (15:01):
It's funny to think of the employment versus working
for ourselves and the abilitythat we have to focus when it's
something that we really arecaring about.
Paula Allen (15:12):
When I was doing that transcription company it
was the boom of when everyonewas writing their own honor
biographies.
All the big wigs were, and itwas a big thing.
And so we were transcribing tonsof those through
interviews.Oh,ghost writing.
Yeah.
It was fun.
Tracie Root (15:25):
That's fun.
I'd love to know what you workedon, but I guess you can't tell
me.
I can't know.
They're all out.
They're all out.
They've been out.
Anyone interesting?
Anyone interesting that youlearned about that.
Had an impact on you.
Paula Allen (15:39):
I, first of all, I did a, we did a lot of internet
like internet startup companiesand stuff like that, so I
learned a lot about business.
One of my clients was really inthat world, and so that startup
world in Silicon Valley andstuff, I was living in
California at the time, so Iwasn't too far from Silicon
Valley, and it was reallyinteresting to learn all the
business stuff and all.
And, so it was fun.
(16:00):
It, I called that my dailyclassroom.
we did Harvard Business Schoolstuff from their lectures.
That was fun.
I learned so much.
Tracie Root (16:06):
That's why we do all this personal professional
development reading is to get tolearn from their experience, but
to do it like right when it washappening.
That must've been amazing.
Paula Allen (16:17):
Yeah.
Tracie Root (16:17):
So you decided one day you didn't just pick up and
leave.
You gave them notice, but youknew that you wanted to create
something different.
You started a new transcriptioncompany.
How long did you do that companybefore you got to creating what
you have now?
Paula Allen (16:34):
So it morphed into the VA world.
So that was the early twothousands that the transcription
was a big thing.
It was huge.
There was lots of stuff outthere.
We actually grew to six figuresin 16 months because I got a
very lucrative contract withwith a company that, that,
remember when I said those startsmartphones weren't smart yet.
YouTube was just coming out andYouTube used to have PDFs
(16:56):
underneath them.
If you guys don't, if youhaven't been around that long,
PDF downloads for two reasons.
One, the play the flash playersdidn't work very well, so some
people couldn't use them andother was, they didn't think
people would watch video morethan they would read.
Because the world hadn't changedall the way yet.
And so we were one of thepreferred providers for those
transcripts.
And so that was fun.
And that launched my company.
(17:17):
I had 65 transcriptionistsworking for me at one point in
time and everything.
And it was a lot.
My kids were like, 80 hours aweek.
I was on that computer and Istarted getting carpal tunnel.
It took a long time, but Istarted helping entrepreneurs
because I was seeing that myclients needed more than that
they were getting locked out oftheir WordPress sites.
They were, we were doing allkinds of things.
I just started supporting themin that way.
(17:38):
And I saw the transcriptionworld go down.
I don't know if you guysremember in about, I think it
was the fall of 2011.
It might have been 10.
When the government shut downfor three straight weeks.
Tracie Root (17:50):
Yeah, it rings a bell.
It was a crazy time in my life,but yeah.
Paula Allen (17:54):
The government shut down for three straight weeks.
It took me about a week our, mywhole team to get a week to get
caught up on what everything wewere doing, and then all of a
sudden it was like, where's thework?
Then the internet the iPhonesand all of that stuff.
Really, it was right after thateverything started exploding in
a different way.
And I could see thetranscription world going away.
All the electronic healthrecords went online, so there
(18:15):
wasn't as much of that kind oftranscription.
There was a lot of different, Icould see it.
So two of my girls had teamsthat worked under them, so I had
my transcriptionists plus theyhad teams sometimes and they
would take a, they took, weretaking a lot of my work and so I
transitioned out of thetranscription company by selling
it to them and staying on for ayear but with stipends.
(18:38):
So I had a monthly retainer andI trained them exactly how to
get work and all the thingsbecause getting work has never
been a problem of mine.
And so I trained them on all ofthat, on where it was coming
from, who got'em on thosevendors and all the things.
So it was fun.
And then I moved my company intoa virtual assistant agency.
Tracie Root (18:54):
That's amazing was that a thought when you created
your first business, did youthink, I wanna build this so
that I can sell it and then I'llstart something new?
Is that your entrepreneurmindset?
Paula Allen (19:06):
It wasn't.
Now it is.
Now I'm like, how do Itransition out?
But I think it's the age, right?
So I'm a lot older than I wasthen, and I don't have children
at home that need to eat.
I just go to their house and eatnow.
And they're the ones with allthe kids in the fun and and
yeah, at that time, I wasn't.
But because I studied so muchbusiness and stuff, I could see
what was coming.
I can usually see what's coming.
(19:26):
And it's like right now, withthe world, with ai, I'm just
watching to see what's gonnahappen with this business world
and this online world and what'sgoing on.
It's really interesting.
I love business systems.
I love like studying them andlooking at'em and all of that.
Tracie Root (19:40):
Yeah, I love the relationship that you mentioned
to that shutdown, and then allof a sudden everything really
shifted.
It's almost like that was likethe kick in the pants that some
of the people who'd been workingon some things needed to be
like, I'm not gonna be relianton this thing that I don't have
a say in.
I'm gonna start to create myown.
(20:00):
And maybe those, the smartphonecompanies and all of that
started to shift.
Paula Allen (20:04):
And you gotta think of what else was happening in
the world.
Then in 2010 to 2012, we had ahousing crisis.
We had a recession in 2008.,nine 11 happened.
So all of that happened right inthat era, yeah.
So yeah, it was a big shift andI saw it again with Covid.
Now you see all the AI stuffcoming out, right?
Because everyone had time tostay home and go, what am I
really gonna do with my life?
Tracie Root (20:24):
And so with Covid now we're, it's literally by the
time this comes out, we'll bepast the five year anniversary
of the lockdown.
So for those of us who are inthat coaching world, like
imagining what you want yourbusiness to look like five years
from now, most people strugglewith that.
So have you thought about whatyour business is gonna look like
five years from now, or what youthink it's gonna shift into?
Paula Allen (20:47):
Yeah, so I've already started like that
because the more, I'm doing moreconsulting, more strategy work
and stuff like that, instead ofbeing in actually doing the
work.
I love teaching people how to doit, how to work with them, and
whether that's a virtualassistant, whether that's my,
one of my.
On my team, whether or anentrepreneur trying to do it
themselves.
And so marketing consulting, asyou get older you kinda, you
(21:09):
can't work a hundred hours aweek anymore like I used to be
able to.
Tracie Root (21:12):
And do we want to, right?
Paula Allen (21:14):
Yeah, no, I don't want to, so it's really cool to
be able to work online and to moto travel and to do what I need
to do.
Yeah.
Tracie Root (21:21):
For me, the idea of, five years from now, knowing
that my oldest will be out ofcollege then the youngest one,
will probably be edging outtacollege.
That's one of the things Ithink.
That, five years ago, obviouslygoing into lockdown, we had no
idea what was to come and wherewe're at compared to what we
thought we were gonna do fiveyears is all totally different
(21:43):
because we had the pandemic inthe middle.
But to just sit down and havethat thought and that vision,
and then to have someone likeyou in the corner to figure out
how to set yourself up for thatjourney.
It's so important, right?
Paula Allen (21:59):
The big picture, isn't gonna change that much,
right?
For your company, if you'regonna grow it and you need that
kind of looking at that, to seewhere you're going and what that
strategy is.
Because like I said, I wasn'teven looking at Legacy, but now
I am.
Right now I'm looking at Legacyand I'm helping a lot of my
clients with them, with Legacyas well.
It's what does that look like asyou transition out, who do we
have in place?
(22:19):
Let's get all those SOPs inplace.
Let's get all the, the standardsof procedure because procedure
that way it's really easy toturn over.
Tracie Root (22:27):
Yeah.
Also, I think, we talked aboutthe housing crisis, back in
2010.
We talked about covid.
We're going through some prettycrazy stuff right now as well
and, five years from now, wedon't again know what that
ramifications are.
Paula Allen (22:41):
Yeah.
The marketplace is is crazyright now.
There's not very much stabilityin it
Tracie Root (22:45):
but what it gives us is a chance to recognize, oh,
I don't know what's to come,but.
What do I wanna create in themeantime?
You can't just wait.
You can't just see what happens
Paula Allen (22:55):
and you need to have your foundation in place,
your foundation in place, thetop stuff changes, but that
bottom stuff stays solid.
As long as your foundation is inplace, it stays solid.
You just have to change up heremaybe how you're getting out
there, or just change the thingsyou're doing, not the actual
foundation of your company,right?
Tracie Root (23:13):
Yeah.
Your mission, the values yourcore like deliverables of what
you're trying to help peoplewith, and then, yeah, it might
show up differently in the howtos and the offers and stuff
like that, but that's okay.
Paula Allen (23:27):
Yeah, it's all fun.
It's all fun stuff.
I love this stuff so I can dothis all day.
Tracie Root (23:32):
Paula, those of you who know us, obviously Paula is
in my Gather Community as acreator, one of our founding
members from way back when inaddition to helping create the
things all on the backend, she'sbeen helping create the
community part as well, beinginvolved year over year.
And that's not changing the thethings that are coming up, like
(23:54):
you said, you're doing a lot oftrainings, you're doing a lot of
helping people still find theirplatforms and either.
Figure out how to do itthemselves, help their support
figure out how to do it.
And there's a few people thatyou, every now and then you'll
still help on your own with yourteam.
Paula Allen (24:12):
A lot of times we put it together and then turn it
over, so is really cool.
Yeah.
Tracie Root (24:16):
Which means that anyone who's looking for support
in their, the strategy side oftheir tech or the implementation
side of their tech, even if youalready have something in place
and maybe you lose your person.
Or, something changes in yourteam that's already existing.
Definitely you can reach out toPaula and find out a way to move
(24:36):
forward when you feel stuck, ifit's related to the technology
and the strategy underneath yourbusiness.
Yeah.
Paula Allen (24:44):
Yes, definitely.
It's always fun.
I always love it.
I jumped in for two people rightbefore for their Thanksgiving
thing because both of them had ateam member leave and they
didn't know how to set up theirBlack Friday specials, and so I
just jumped in and helped them.
And we got it done and then wewere able, I was able to
transition it back out to theteam that they did, but at least
that was in place and theydidn't have to worry about it.
Tracie Root (25:04):
Yeah.
That's great.
And surprises happen, right?
There's aging parents thatpeople are dealing with and, or,
their assistant or their supportteam might have some reason why
they need to take some leave.
And even if it's not you andyour team, you have a giant
network and community of peoplethat,'cause you have been doing
this for so long.
Paula Allen (25:25):
Yes.
Yeah.
So I know tons and tons of VAsand people that do different
things and I'm always referringpeople out to those communities
and that kind of stuff.
And go high level actually hastheir own certification team,
but a lot of softwares andservice do have certified
partners the way they.
They have people like VAs thatare on staff or that are trained
to use their product.
Tracie Root (25:46):
So not only you and your expertise in your team and
your years of knowledge, butyour resources are extensive.
Paula Allen (25:53):
Yes.
I'm always happy to refer peopleout to give'em a bunch of names
and say, these people are peoplethat I know and I vetted and
that have done work for lots ofmy friends we've been around for
a while.
Those are huge communities thathave been around for a while.
Yeah, absolutely.
Okay.
And every country
Tracie Root (26:09):
yeah, actually that's a good point..
You work with people in othercountries and for events and
things that they do that servepeople in other countries.
Is there anything is thereanything that I don't know, or
something that you want toemphasize as we start to get
towards the end of what we'retalking about?
Paula Allen (26:27):
No, but I can say that anyone who's wanting to
build a thing, networking is thething.
And getting into a community ofpeople that you really can
support you and you can supportthem is amazing.
And that's actually how I'vebuilt my business.
I've been in, I'm in manycommunities.
Like I said, I've been onlinefor almost.
Over 20 years now.
And I'm in many networks andcommunities.
Gather is one of my favorites.
(26:48):
And yeah, so I'm a creator.
I jumped on board as soon as sheopened it and I said I'm in, all
in.
And so just the platform to beable to speak and get out there
and talk to people and justshare, it's really cool.
Tracie Root (27:02):
Awesome.
Thanks for saying that.
I appreciate it.
And not just saying it, but forbelieving it, yes, for being in
all the time.
And yeah, I wanna touch on thatreally briefly.
'cause you mentioned you're in abunch of different communities.
I also am in a bunch ofdifferent communities, where I'm
an actual paid member of acommunity.
And I find that sometimes we'retalking to people who are like
(27:23):
I'm trying to decide which twoI'm gonna join.
And they limit themselves.
And sometimes it's because thatthere's a cost associated with
it.
But really when we're talkingabout joining a community a
networking group, having achance to meet people month over
month throughout the year whenwe're, a$300.
(27:44):
Investment for 12 months worthof meeting people is a pretty
low.
Barrier to entry.
Paula Allen (27:52):
Yeah.
And and I still get referralsfrom networks that I was in 10
years ago.
Yeah.
And not, and those networksdon't even exist anymore, just
from the friendships and thefriendships.
And I still refer out to thosepeople as well, and I'm like,
Hey, we haven't talked in awhile.
Let's catch up, yeah.
But also things like when yousaid, is there anything, I don't
know, I'm sure there's lots youdon't know personally, but
probably not in business becauseyou've probably heard all,
(28:13):
because I speak so much on yourstage.
Tracie Root (28:15):
Yes, absolutely.
And we all have very full lives.
There's a lot going on all atall times.
But yeah the ability torecognize that the evolution is
ongoing, that the relationshipsthat we get to build.
Regardless of where we meetpeople.
And that's, one of the bestthings about social media too is
that we can keep thoserelationships going even when
(28:38):
we're no longer in that group orthey're no longer in that group.
You connect with someone let's,these friendships are real
friendships.
Yeah.
They're not it's not aseparation of church and state.
It's not business and personal.
It's all interconnected.
Negate the idea of leaning intoa new community to find people
because you might find your nextbusiness partner, collaboration
(28:59):
partner, next best friend, theperson who's gonna have the
resource that you need for thataging parent that's coming down
the road.
All of the things, right?
That's what social media and allof this networking and community
is all about.
Paula Allen (29:12):
Absolutely.
It's so cool.
Tracie Root (29:14):
Awesome.
Paula.
As usual, thank you and thankyou for all of your story and
all of your expertise.
I will never be able to thankyou enough for everything that
you've done for me over allthese years.
It literally, the gathercommunity would not be what it
is had we not co-created a lotof that together and still
(29:36):
continue to develop strategiesaround how to make it better,
reach more people and serve thewomen leadership and
entrepreneur community outthere.
So thank you for all that.
Paula Allen (29:48):
Thank you for inviting me to be a partner in
your business, which is what Ialways say.
I'm a partner in business.
And I have to I have to love themission and I love it.
And we get to see each other inperson sometimes, but normally
we don't.
Tracie Root (30:00):
I know we, we could say literally we've met in
person five times.
Paula Allen (30:06):
If even, yeah, if that,
Tracie Root (30:08):
I mean count'em on one hand, we'll just say, but
again, next month, which I'mvery excited about.
Yeah, exactly.
So can't wait.
Alright my friend, thank youagain.
Thank you.
Thank you for being on thepodcast.
Thank you for your support ofhelping the podcast get out
there in the world as well andlet's all go have a good time.
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