The BOLD and Brilliant Podcast with Tracie Root

The Bold and Brilliant Podcast, with guest Paula Allen

• Tracie Root • Season 1

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🎙️ 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.

ʉϬ 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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 đŸ’Ź Let’s Keep the Conversation Going:
What was your biggest takeaway from this episode?  Comment below! Tag us on social @thegather.community and @tracieroot_coaching and share your bold insights!

Thank you for supporting The Bold and Brilliant Podcast!

Find out what's up with Tracie by connecting on your favorite social media channel, and with The Gather Community by joining us at an upcoming online event or receiving our mailing list. Go to:

https://www.tracieroot.com/links

to find upcoming events, workshops, courses and more!

We're just getting started, so I hope you subscribed, and please leave a review so we can start building some podcast-momentum!

xoxo
Your host,
Tracie Root

Tracie Root:

Are you ready to take bold action and live a life of brilliance? Welcome to the Bold and Brilliant podcast, where women leaders share inspiring stories about daring decisions that shape their businesses, their lives, and their careers. Today I'm with the fabulous and amazing Paula Allen as an experienced online business manager. Paula has become a trusted mentor and strategist for fellow entrepreneurs, including me, dedicated to empowering them with the insights and tools they need to thrive through her business services for you. Paula leverages her extensive background and passion for entrepreneurship to help businesses develop, grow, and succeed in a dynamic online world. As we talk today, you'll hear Paula share her journey of entrepreneurship, including one bold decision that has created her path of what was next. Her story of resilience, risk taking, and transformation will inspire, encourage, and support your personal and professional growth. Please join me in welcoming Paula to the Bold and brilliant podcast. Alright, Paula, welcome to the podcast. I'm so excited that you're able to finally make it on. Finally, we just started, but thank 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 out there who don't know me and don't know the relationship that Paul and I have, we've been working together for years. Paula been supporting my business for tracie root for the Gather community for years. All of the years, and and so we meet every week. So it feels like we've talked about all these things, but what I want to make sure is that for all 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 to know her well because her story is one of real, a real journey and also one of real deliberate decision making bold decisions and I love talking with her about the things that brought her to where she is. So Paula, again, thank you for being here. Let's start by helping everyone understand what you do, who it is that you serve, and then we'll go back to maybe some of the backstory.

Paula Allen:

Sounds good. So I am an online business manager. Most of my clients are entrepreneurs that are online, mostly women.'cause those who are, that's who I connect with the most and I've done a lot of networking and I know a lot of people and I just love working with women. One of the reasons I got into tech was because the women were just not getting their stuff out online. So that's my big passion. I just loved that when they get their stuff out online. And I don't like the tech to hold them back. Yeah. The, so the tech holding people back and holding women back, right? We're so passionate about getting things going that sometimes we don't know what we don't know until all of a sudden we come up against this brick wall of lack of knowledge.

Tracie Root:

And I know that you have talked about, you're super tech savvy and the women that you're helping, they know exactly what they wanna do, but they just don't know how to do it.

Paula Allen:

So we walk through strategy and journey, and we take care of all that. We just put those pieces together, and I try to make it as simple as possible, because the more simple it is, the less tech will break, the less you won't be able to do it, the less frustrated you'll be at 11 o'clock at night on a Friday when you can't get ahold of anyone. Things like that.

Tracie Root:

and the idea that technology we all feel like we should know. And what I love about the way that you approach working with me with other women that I know is it's wherever they're at, it is where you start, right? Do they already know what they want? Let's find the solution. Or do you not even know exactly what you want and what could that look like? Because your experience with so many different entrepreneurs over these last, I don't know how many years, so many years,

Paula Allen:

it'll be 20 in August

Tracie Root:

big anniversary. That's so exciting. Yeah, so for 20 years, technology's changed a lot too. Yes. When 20 years ago, what was the big obstacle that people were up against?

Paula Allen:

So the, our phones weren't even smart yet. 20 years ago, can you believe it's been less than 20 years and our phones have been smart, so flash players and things like that. But the biggest reason I got into tech was that women were get, were having WordPress words, websites put together, and then. People were trying to charge'em a thousand dollars to put a blog on the websites and stuff. And so it was frustrating me because you can't do business at that level if you're an a starting a startup company. Yeah. And there wasn't the software as a service projects that there are now. And and so it was really tough for people to get their stuff out online. And so I just started learning it. I learned to code when I was young, so I was, I just started learning all this stuff. I can't imagine trying to navigate dealing with the WordPress website when I first started.

Tracie Root:

So that, for me, that was 13 years ago and I, in those first couple years, I did create my own Wix website, which was one of the early kind of plug and play. Do it yourself. Kind of things. I can't imagine. Yeah. It would be so frustrating to hire someone to create your dream online and now really nickel and dime you for every little update because you literally couldn't figure it out for yourself.

Paula Allen:

I basically started teaching people how to do it and doing it for them and that kind of stuff. And that's how that the, we started in that, in the tech part.

Tracie Root:

You not only meet people where they're at, but you will help them in whichever way is best for them, you do trainings, you do come and ask me anything hours, wherever people are at, they can ask you questions. Just out of, sure, potential clients, but also out of the goodness of your heart because you are so passionate about the mission that you've created for yourself.

Paula Allen:

Yes, definitely. I just want people to be out online and help'em do, and it's can be little things like this. This week I was helping someone because Zoom did a huge update and no one could use their Zoom links and were having frustrating with the workshop they were doing, and it happened to lots of people last week when Zoom. Yeah, so I was just helping her troubleshoot that and saying, some of that's not just having someone to go, this is happening. And you're like, it's not you take a deep breath.. I used to be the person that tried to put out the fires and control it all. It's not that you can't do that. I learned that very well, very early 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 that if Zoom doesn't update the day before your meeting and deletes all your links like does. We got it. Everyone got on almost.

Tracie Root:

Yep. It all worked out okay I hope for your other clients it worked out okay too,

Paula Allen:

actually, we're turning it into a good opportunity to be able to reach out personally and say, Hey, this is what happened. Make sure you do this yeah. And unfortunately don't shoot out a lot of a lot. Some companies shoot it out. I also look at that and look at the tech and watch it and follow'em so I know what they're gonna shoot out so I can troubleshoot a lot of times and warn people. The first two months of three months of Covid, all I did was give out guides on how to use Zoom, how what to do all the things because I just, it was a whole new world to a lot of people.

Tracie Root:

Absolutely. those of us who use social media to market our business and to create awareness, I'm really good at social media. I don't follow it. I don't know about the updates that are coming. And I think a lot of us are baffled when they change stuff, and that's one thing that I love about you is that you're paying attention to, oh, hey, this change is coming. Or, oh, you might wanna know that this change happened, so make sure you'd make this change in your settings or whatever so that we don't get surprised

Paula Allen:

absolutely. Being proactive, try to be proactive because it just helps everyone, right? It makes everything worse in this online world that's always changing. It's always changing,

Tracie Root:

I wanted to touch on, I know you just mentioned that you work a lot with women entrepreneurs, but in lots of different fields. You work with a lot of coaches. And you speak the language and all of that. For people who aren't in that community. What other kind of businesses have you worked with? So people know that you know their languages too?

Paula Allen:

I work in the, a lot of my niche has been like in the dance studio industry because through one of my clients owns a lot of dance studios and she coaches a lot of dance studios. So we've just teamed up and I've helped 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 to learn, go high level. So I have all kinds of businesses. I do have a go high level agency, so and I keep up with that tech. And one of my sweet spots is just what we've been talking about, is teaching people how to use it and utilize it for themselves. So not only the people that are on my platform, but I do it for anyone. Tomorrow, I get to go see a chiropractor here in town locally and help him with his go High level. So that'll be fun.

Tracie Root:

What I love about you is you're doing a lot of training for people who really wanna do it on their own as much as they can. Obviously they look for support and guidance and expertise, but it's one of those platforms that people can take on and self-manage if they have the training and the confidence to do it, and the understanding of what they're trying to accomplish

Paula Allen:

and a lot of times that means I train their their va, their assistant. So I train a lot of virtual assistants to use Go high level in the way that client needs it to work.'cause you can use it in lots of, you can use every platform in lots of different ways. And so knowing the strategy and stuff and then teaching it to the strategy is really cool.

Tracie Root:

I love that. It reminds me of when we first started working together when we really made the shift for the Gather community. And what you asked me was, what do you want? What are you gonna do in the next year, two years, five years with your business? And I said, membership classes like teaching, online courses maybe products. X, Y, and Z and I have these two different brands. And so you said given that these are the things that you want, this is probably the best platform 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 and not cost you an arm and the leg and be easy to not only handle from a team standpoint, but I also do some self updating as well. You did, so you know there's, there it was the perfect solution. I've never questioned whether maybe once or twice question whether

Paula Allen:

every platform has its pros and cons, every single platform yeah. And even though we've just talked about go high level a little while, you are not even on go high level, I help people find the platform that works is going to work and grow with what they wanna do. I'm pretty, I always say I'm tech agnostic. I just want it to work for you.

Tracie Root:

It's just the evolution of how everything changes, right? Yeah. So speaking of change, I wanna go back to, because you have been in business for 20 years and you had a life before being Services for you, Paula Allen. I did. So before, talk about what you did before that and what was that bold decision that you made that put you to creating what you have today?

Paula Allen:

Okay, so I actually wanna go way back. I've been an entrepreneur since I was 10 years old, so I have run businesses and then I took a hiatus and went out into the real world for three years of my life. Three whole years, three whole year two and a half I think if you actually look at it. But and I ran a daycare center for a little while and then I went, I was an executive assistant for a nonprofit and I helped them start and get all their nonprofit. Stuff and everything else. And then, and at that time, I wasn't making enough money. I was a single parent to three teenagers 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 kids before. My first business was a home daycare, so my kids were raised at home and so they weren't used to me being gone. And so I didn't want to leave them any more time. And I was like, what can I do? What can I do? And it was the beginning of the internet world and I found transcription. And so I started working on these teams for transcription, and I did it for about a year. Got really good at it. I was managing one person's team. That executive assistant job I brought I talked them into let me work from home so I could do both, everything all at once in one place. And one day I said. Things just weren't working well in anything I was doing. And I'm like, I'm gonna go do this myself. And so I literally looked at my daughter. 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 be on the streets or we're going to eat and we're gonna have a roof over our head next month. I don't know. And I sent 30 day notices to to two. Actually it was about three jobs, but one of them wasn't. It wasn't that big, but yeah, on the same exact day, and so I had to make it, I had three kids at home that liked food, and so I figured it out, it was really hard as a single parent to make that decision.

Tracie Root:

I bet. So had you been thinking about it for a long time before that day and just was there a straw that broke the camel's back that day, or was it just, what? I don't know what it is, but today's the day.

Paula Allen:

Yeah. So I'm a planner in my head for months before I do anything. So it looks like I might take a big leap, but I have it worked out and I knew I had enough money to keep us going for a little while, while I got it going. And one day I just said, why am I 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 probably said tomorrow is I'm a calendar person. I'm like, on the first of the month I'll give em 30 days notice. That kind of thing and figure it out. And yeah. So I planned

Tracie Root:

Did you end up staying with them that whole 30 days?

Paula Allen:

I did, yes, both of them. I stayed with the 30 days and I actually stayed on doing some other stuff for them. I just moved out of running things, roles. I, one of them, I trained someone else to do what I was doing. That was the nonprofit. I trained her to do what I was doing and showed her how everything was set up and everything. And the other one and was a transcription company. And so the owner had to take back over and I had to send out an email, telling them that I had a non-compete agreement.'cause non-competes are big things, but, I've always been provided for, it was cool how everything morphed because that was a transcription company that I started it first.

Tracie Root:

So you just said something about a non-compete. So did you just couldn't call on those same clients. You found other clients?

Paula Allen:

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

Tracie Root:

Got it. It wasn't that you couldn't start the same type of work?

Paula Allen:

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 work from eight to five and do my work job. I'll be grumpy and not wanting to do it. You leave me alone and I'll come to work from 10 to 10.

Tracie Root:

It's funny to think of the employment versus working for ourselves and the ability that we have to focus when it's something that we really are caring about.

Paula Allen:

When I was doing that transcription company it was the boom of when everyone was writing their own honor biographies. All the big wigs were, and it was a big thing. And so we were transcribing tons of those through interviews.Oh,ghost writing. Yeah. It was fun.

Tracie Root:

That's fun. I'd love to know what you worked on, 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 you learned about that. Had an impact on you.

Paula Allen:

I, first of all, I did a, we did a lot of internet like internet startup companies and stuff like that, so I learned a lot about business. One of my clients was really in that world, and so that startup world in Silicon Valley and stuff, I was living in California at the time, so I wasn't too far from Silicon Valley, and it was really interesting to learn all the business stuff and all. And, so it was fun. It, I called that my daily classroom. we did Harvard Business School stuff from their lectures. That was fun. I learned so much.

Tracie Root:

That's why we do all this personal professional development reading is to get to learn from their experience, but to do it like right when it was happening. That must've been amazing.

Paula Allen:

Yeah.

Tracie Root:

So you decided one day you didn't just pick up and leave. You gave them notice, but you knew that you wanted to create something different. You started a new transcription company. How long did you do that company before you got to creating what you have now?

Paula Allen:

So it morphed into the VA world. So that was the early two thousands that the transcription was a big thing. It was huge. There was lots of stuff out there. We actually grew to six figures in 16 months because I got a very lucrative contract with with a company that, that, remember when I said those start smartphones weren't smart yet. YouTube was just coming out and YouTube used to have PDFs underneath them. If you guys don't, if you haven't been around that long, PDF downloads for two reasons. One, the play the flash players didn't work very well, so some people couldn't use them and other was, they didn't think people would watch video more than they would read. Because the world hadn't changed all the way yet. And so we were one of the preferred providers for those transcripts. And so that was fun. And that launched my company. I had 65 transcriptionists working for me at one point in time and everything. And it was a lot. My kids were like, 80 hours a week. I was on that computer and I started getting carpal tunnel. It took a long time, but I started helping entrepreneurs because I was seeing that my clients needed more than that they were getting locked out of their WordPress sites. They were, we were doing all kinds of things. I just started supporting them in that way. And I saw the transcription world go down. I don't know if you guys remember in about, I think it was the fall of 2011. It might have been 10. When the government shut down for three straight weeks.

Tracie Root:

Yeah, it rings a bell. It was a crazy time in my life, but yeah.

Paula Allen:

The government shut down for three straight weeks. It took me about a week our, my whole team to get a week to get caught up on what everything we were doing, and then all of a sudden it was like, where's the work? Then the internet the iPhones and all of that stuff. Really, it was right after that everything started exploding in a different way. And I could see the transcription world going away. All the electronic health records went online, so there wasn't as much of that kind of transcription. There was a lot of different, I could see it. So two of my girls had teams that worked under them, so I had my transcriptionists plus they had teams sometimes and they would take a, they took, were taking a lot of my work and so I transitioned out of the transcription company by selling it to them and staying on for a year but with stipends. So I had a monthly retainer and I trained them exactly how to get work and all the things because getting work has never been a problem of mine. And so I trained them on all of that, on where it was coming from, who got'em on those vendors and all the things. So it was fun. And then I moved my company into a virtual assistant agency.

Tracie Root:

That's amazing was that a thought when you created your first business, did you think, I wanna build this so that I can sell it and then I'll start something new? Is that your entrepreneur mindset?

Paula Allen:

It wasn't. Now it is. Now I'm like, how do I transition out? But I think it's the age, right? So I'm a lot older than I was then, and I don't have children at home that need to eat. I just go to their house and eat now. And they're the ones with all the kids in the fun and and yeah, at that time, I wasn't. But because I studied so much business and stuff, I could see what was coming. I can usually see what's coming. And it's like right now, with the world, with ai, I'm just watching to see what's gonna happen with this business world and this online world and what's going on. It's really interesting. I love business systems. I love like studying them and looking at'em and all of that.

Tracie Root:

Yeah, I love the relationship that you mentioned to that shutdown, and then all of a sudden everything really shifted. It's almost like that was like the kick in the pants that some of the people who'd been working on some things needed to be like, I'm not gonna be reliant on this thing that I don't have a say in. I'm gonna start to create my own. And maybe those, the smartphone companies and all of that started to shift.

Paula Allen:

And you gotta think of what else was happening in the world. Then in 2010 to 2012, we had a housing crisis. We had a recession in 2008., nine 11 happened. So all of that happened right in that era, yeah. So yeah, it was a big shift and I saw it again with Covid. Now you see all the AI stuff coming out, right? Because everyone had time to stay home and go, what am I really gonna do with my life?

Tracie Root:

And so with Covid now we're, it's literally by the time this comes out, we'll be past the five year anniversary of the lockdown. So for those of us who are in that coaching world, like imagining what you want your business to look like five years from now, most people struggle with that. So have you thought about what your business is gonna look like five years from now, or what you think it's gonna shift into?

Paula Allen:

Yeah, so I've already started like that because the more, I'm doing more consulting, more strategy work and stuff like that, instead of being in actually doing the work. I love teaching people how to do it, how to work with them, and whether that's a virtual assistant, whether that's my, one of my. On my team, whether or an entrepreneur trying to do it themselves. And so marketing consulting, as you get older you kinda, you can't work a hundred hours a week anymore like I used to be able to.

Tracie Root:

And do we want to, right?

Paula Allen:

Yeah, no, I don't want to, so it's really cool to be able to work online and to mo to travel and to do what I need to do. Yeah.

Tracie Root:

For me, the idea of, five years from now, knowing that my oldest will be out of college then the youngest one, will probably be edging outta college. That's one of the things I think. That, five years ago, obviously going into lockdown, we had no idea what was to come and where we're at compared to what we thought we were gonna do five years is all totally different because we had the pandemic in the middle. But to just sit down and have that thought and that vision, and then to have someone like you in the corner to figure out how to set yourself up for that journey. It's so important, right?

Paula Allen:

The big picture, isn't gonna change that much, right? For your company, if you're gonna grow it and you need that kind of looking at that, to see where you're going and what that strategy is. Because like I said, I wasn't even looking at Legacy, but now I am. Right now I'm looking at Legacy and I'm helping a lot of my clients with them, with Legacy as well. It's what does that look like as you transition out, who do we have in place? Let's get all those SOPs in place. Let's get all the, the standards of procedure because procedure that way it's really easy to turn over.

Tracie Root:

Yeah. Also, I think, we talked about the housing crisis, back in 2010. We talked about covid. We're going through some pretty crazy stuff right now as well and, five years from now, we don't again know what that ramifications are.

Paula Allen:

Yeah. The marketplace is is crazy right now. There's not very much stability in it

Tracie Root:

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 the meantime? You can't just wait. You can't just see what happens

Paula Allen:

and you need to have your foundation in place, your foundation in place, the top stuff changes, but that bottom stuff stays solid. As long as your foundation is in place, it stays solid. You just have to change up here maybe how you're getting out there, or just change the things you're doing, not the actual foundation of your company, right?

Tracie Root:

Yeah. Your mission, the values your core like deliverables of what you're trying to help people with, and then, yeah, it might show up differently in the how tos and the offers and stuff like that, but that's okay.

Paula Allen:

Yeah, it's all fun. It's all fun stuff. I love this stuff so I can do this all day.

Tracie Root:

Paula, those of you who know us, obviously Paula is in my Gather Community as a creator, one of our founding members from way back when in addition to helping create the things all on the backend, she's been helping create the community part as well, being involved year over year. And that's not changing the the things that are coming up, like you said, you're doing a lot of trainings, you're doing a lot of helping people still find their platforms and either. Figure out how to do it themselves, help their support figure out how to do it. And there's a few people that you, every now and then you'll still help on your own with your team.

Paula Allen:

A lot of times we put it together and then turn it over, so is really cool. Yeah.

Tracie Root:

Which means that anyone who's looking for support in their, the strategy side of their tech or the implementation side of their tech, even if you already have something in place and maybe you lose your person. Or, something changes in your team that's already existing. Definitely you can reach out to Paula and find out a way to move forward when you feel stuck, if it's related to the technology and the strategy underneath your business. Yeah.

Paula Allen:

Yes, definitely. It's always fun. I always love it. I jumped in for two people right before for their Thanksgiving thing because both of them had a team member leave and they didn't know how to set up their Black Friday specials, and so I just jumped in and helped them. And we got it done and then we were able, I was able to transition it back out to the team that they did, but at least that was in place and they didn't have to worry about it.

Tracie Root:

Yeah. That's great. And surprises happen, right? There's aging parents that people are dealing with and, or, their assistant or their support team might have some reason why they need to take some leave. And even if it's not you and your team, you have a giant network and community of people that,'cause you have been doing this for so long.

Paula Allen:

Yes. Yeah. So I know tons and tons of VAs and people that do different things and I'm always referring people out to those communities and that kind of stuff. And go high level actually has their own certification team, but a lot of softwares and service do have certified partners the way they. They have people like VAs that are on staff or that are trained to use their product.

Tracie Root:

So not only you and your expertise in your team and your years of knowledge, but your resources are extensive.

Paula Allen:

Yes. I'm always happy to refer people out to give'em a bunch of names and say, these people are people that I know and I vetted and that have done work for lots of my friends we've been around for a while. Those are huge communities that have been around for a while. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. And every country

Tracie Root:

yeah, actually that's a good point.. You work with people in other countries and for events and things that they do that serve people in other countries. Is there anything is there anything that I don't know, or something that you want to emphasize as we start to get towards the end of what we're talking about?

Paula Allen:

No, but I can say that anyone who's wanting to build a thing, networking is the thing. And getting into a community of people that you really can support you and you can support them is amazing. And that's actually how I've built my business. I've been in, I'm in many communities. Like I said, I've been online for almost. Over 20 years now. And I'm in many networks and communities. Gather is one of my favorites. And yeah, so I'm a creator. I jumped on board as soon as she opened it and I said I'm in, all in. And so just the platform to be able to speak and get out there and talk to people and just share, it's really cool.

Tracie Root:

Awesome. Thanks for saying that. I appreciate it. And not just saying it, but for believing it, yes, for being in all the time. And yeah, I wanna touch on that really briefly.'cause you mentioned you're in a bunch of different communities. I also am in a bunch of different communities, where I'm an actual paid member of a community. And I find that sometimes we're talking to people who are like I'm trying to decide which two I'm gonna join. And they limit themselves. And sometimes it's because that there's a cost associated with it. But really when we're talking about joining a community a networking group, having a chance to meet people month over month throughout the year when we're, a$300. Investment for 12 months worth of meeting people is a pretty low. Barrier to entry.

Paula Allen:

Yeah. And and I still get referrals from networks that I was in 10 years ago. Yeah. And not, and those networks don't even exist anymore, just from the friendships and the friendships. And I still refer out to those people as well, and I'm like, Hey, we haven't talked in a while. Let's catch up, yeah. But also things like when you said, is there anything, I don't know, I'm sure there's lots you don't know personally, but probably not in business because you've probably heard all, because I speak so much on your stage.

Tracie Root:

Yes, absolutely. And we all have very full lives. There's a lot going on all at all times. But yeah the ability to recognize that the evolution is ongoing, that the relationships that we get to build. Regardless of where we meet people. And that's, one of the best things about social media too is that we can keep those relationships going even when we're no longer in that group or they're no longer in that group. You connect with someone let's, these friendships are real friendships. Yeah. They're not it's not a separation of church and state. It's not business and personal. It's all interconnected. Negate the idea of leaning into a new community to find people because you might find your next business partner, collaboration partner, next best friend, the person who's gonna have the resource that you need for that aging parent that's coming down the road. All of the things, right? That's what social media and all of this networking and community is all about.

Paula Allen:

Absolutely. It's so cool.

Tracie Root:

Awesome. Paula. As usual, thank you and thank you for all of your story and all of your expertise. I will never be able to thank you enough for everything that you've done for me over all these years. It literally, the gather community would not be what it is had we not co-created a lot of that together and still continue to develop strategies around how to make it better, reach more people and serve the women leadership and entrepreneur community out there. So thank you for all that.

Paula Allen:

Thank you for inviting me to be a partner in your business, which is what I always say. I'm a partner in business. And I have to I have to love the mission and I love it. And we get to see each other in person sometimes, but normally we don't.

Tracie Root:

I know we, we could say literally we've met in person five times.

Paula Allen:

If even, yeah, if that,

Tracie Root:

I mean count'em on one hand, we'll just say, but again, next month, which I'm very excited about. Yeah, exactly. So can't wait. Alright my friend, thank you again. Thank you. Thank you for being on the podcast. Thank you for your support of helping the podcast get out there in the world as well and let's all go have a good time.