The BOLD and Brilliant Podcast with Tracie Root, w/Guest Lia Allen

🎧 Episode Summary:
In this energizing conversation, Tracie sits down with Lia Allen—entrepreneur, community builder, and networking powerhouse—to talk about the bold decisions that reshaped her life and business. Lia shares her “immigrant-to-impact” origin story, the career pivot that saved her health, how she built a thriving business from her skills (starting with transcription and virtual support), and the brave season where she homeschooling two boys while keeping her business alive. Along the way, you’ll hear why community is the secret ingredient to resilience, growth, and momentum—and how Lia teaches business owners to network with confidence, clarity, and real connection (not just “showing up in the room”).

✨ What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• How Lia recognized a toxic work environment—and made the bold choice to leave for her health and peace
• The “start small, grow smart” path from admin skills → transcription → virtual assistant → business consultant
• How to pivot your business to fit your life season (without shutting the whole thing down)
• Why community isn’t optional—it’s often the answer when life feels impossible
• The truth about networking: why big rooms don’t equal business (and what does)
• How confidence + clarity make you memorable, trusted, and referable
• What Lia is creating next: a book and more speaking engagements

🛠️ Actionable Tips from Lia Allen:

• Stop “attending” networking events—start connecting. One meaningful conversation beats 50 quick hellos.
• Get in the right rooms on purpose. Networking works best when your people are already there.
• Know your message before you walk in. Practice saying who you help + how you help in one clear sentence.
• Do the follow-up. A quick one-on-one turns “nice to meet you” into a relationship.
• Pivot without panic. When life shifts, scale down, keep what works, and stay “on simmer” until you’re ready to ramp back up.
• Borrow belief from community. If you’re overwhelmed, don’t isolate—plug into people who’ve done it before.

🎤 Memorable Quote:
“Just ’cause you show up to a room doesn’t mean people are gonna remember who you are and what you do.”

🔥 Bold Moment of the Episode:
Lia didn’t just leave a toxic job—she left before it broke her, rebuilt with resourcefulness (even working nights for health insurance), and later made another brave pivot to homeschool her kids while keeping her business going. That’s bold leadership in real life.

📱 Connect with Lia Allen:
www.liaallen.com and www.businessmarketinggym.com

🚀 Join the Bold and Brilliant Podcast Community:
If this episode lit a fire in you, don’t keep it to yourself—share it with a woman building something big (and maybe feeling a little stuck showing up). Community is the catalyst… and this is your reminder to stay connected.

🌟

Transcript

Tracie: 0:00

Are you ready for bold moves and brilliant leadership? Welcome to the Bold and Brilliant podcast, where powerful women share the decisions that changed everything. Today's guest is Lia Allen, entrepreneur, community builder, and high energy leader. With over 30 years experience turning vision into thriving businesses, Lia leads with heart, faith, and presence. And in this episode, she shares the bold decision that shaped what came next. Get ready to be inspired. Welcome, Lia to the Bold and Brilliant podcast. Lia, I am so excited that you're on the podcast. Welcome to the party. Yay.

Lia: 0:38

Thank you. I'm so excited to be here.

Tracie: 0:41

Awesome. Well, you know, you and I, we've done a lot of these kind of conversational interviews, whether they work five minutes or 20 minutes. Or just chitchatting. Mm-hmm. Over these last few years, you joined us in our Gather Community as a VIP, kind of checking us out, decided that you wanted more, and that you saw a way that. The connections that we were making could help your business. So you joined as a creator and you know, here we are years later now. Which is hard to believe, but also, of course, right. It just makes sense that we're connected for all of this time, even though it's hard to believe it's been so long. I, so I'm super excited to bring you and your story to a whole new audience because what I know about you and the way that you show up is that you're memorable. People are notice. People notice because you are super active on social media. You're out there telling your story, you're networking all the time. In fact, that's what you help other people do. And so I'm hoping that this will reach a few people who haven't met Lia Allen Are you ready for bold moves and brilliant leadership? Welcome to the Bold and Brilliant podcast, where powerful women share the decisions that changed everything. Today's guest is Lia Allen, entrepreneur, community builder, and high energy leader. With over 30 years experience turning vision into thriving businesses, Lia leads with heart, faith, and presence. And in this episode, she shares the bold decision that shaped what came next. Get ready to be inspired. Welcome, Lia to the Bold and Brilliant podcast. yet. So let's start back in the beginning and give us some background. I know that you came from a corporate background. You, you know, you've been in business for yourself for a long time, but take us back to the beginning and give us a little Lia origin story.

Lia: 2:34

Okay, great. Well, I'm, uh, I like to tell people I'm somewhat of an immigrant. I was born in South America and our family moved from Columbia to the United States. Um, I was raised in a very loving household and life was a little crazy. There was a lot of chaos growing up at some point. But you know what? We all overcome the challenges we have in our life, and you learn to move through that. Um, I worked in corporate for a long time. I, I lived in the Bronx and worked in Manhattan, so I did investment banking firms and manufacturing. I worked for a large, uh, um. What do you call it? They make clothes. They did, um, the fabric. Oh, okay. So manufacturing uhhuh. And so I, I worked through that. Then I ended up in the nonprofit sector. Loved my time in the nonprofit sector.

Tracie: 3:22

What was, what was the job that you were doing at these different companies? What. Department were you in?

Lia: 3:27

I typically was, um, the administrative assistant and executive assistant. I always had something to do with administration, so I got skills and then I used my skills. And what was interesting is in always, in every one of my jobs, I always moved up because my brain. Always, I always wanted more. Mm-hmm. I was, I got bored really easily, so I was always asking for more responsibility and taking things to the next level. I was never satisfied with whatever job it was that I had. Yeah. So that was kinda my makeup, that's how I did it. So I ended up in a nonprofit sector and we moved to Pennsylvania and I moved from the one nonprofit to the same nonprofit in Pennsylvania. Um, and that's when kind of life started to really take a turn.

Tracie: 4:14

Mm. Okay. Before we find out about that turn, um, I wanna say that that's why we get along so well, because we had like that innate ambition that just meant that you knew you could do more, you were capable of more, you wanted to do more because more was exciting. And, and like, why would you wanna just keep doing the same old thing? Exactly. So no wonder we get along so well. Yeah, that's exactly how I

Lia: 4:38

am. Exactly. It was fun.

Tracie: 4:41

Alright, so, um, okay, well let's just go right into, you said that life started to take a turn. What exactly, what do you mean?

Lia: 4:50

Well, so, um, I always knew that there was more for me and I was always looking for that. Um, and then I was working in the nonprofit sector and I was actually the assistant to the president of an organization and, um. It became a very toxic work environment, is the best way to explain it. I literally was physically ill from the job I was having to use my inhaler'cause I was having asthma attacks. It was, the stress was really high and I knew that I couldn't change the situation, so I had to change me. And so I chose, yeah, so I chose to leave that job. Initially I took a lower paying job just to get out, just to get safe and to heal a little bit. And as I was doing that for about six months, I realized I needed more, and that's when I decided to start my own business. So, um, okay. And so I jumped, I mean, I jumped right in. I got a computer. I mean, I started small, I had a computer, and I started typing papers and working with. Small businesses to do transcription and I loved it. But again, I kept mo, I kept growing my, my skills, if you will, and I kept moving and I went from typing and being an a virtual assistant, which back then they called it a secretarial service, right? To becoming a business consultant because I started working with the business owners and helping them decide what to outsource and how to outsource, and I became more that consultant.

Tracie: 6:16

Yeah. So when you, when you left that nonprofit, was it that the company was doing bad things or was like a relationship like with your boss or with other coworkers, like one-on-one relationship problems?

Lia: 6:29

Yeah, there was a relationship with my boss at the, my old boss who loved me. We had a great relationship. And then he left. And then left. The boss came in. Got it. And I think I was part of the old regime, so he wanted, sure. He wanted to clean house, which I totally get, but he couldn't just let go of me, so he just decided to make my life not very happy.

Tracie: 6:49

Ooh. Yeah. And unfortunately, that's a story that you know, we have heard over and over and it's not anything that we would wish. Anyone For sure. I was just curious if it was like a values alignment with the company that became a problem, but really it was like that day to day. Yeah. Picky pokey like, ugh. It was like I could do

Lia: 7:10

no Right at,

Tracie: 7:11

yeah, that's no day. So I just

Lia: 7:13

didn't, and I realized that, that I couldn't change him and I wasn't gonna, and there was nothing I was doing wrong. So it was time to leave. Absolutely. It was just absolutely a simple decision.

Tracie: 7:23

Well, and what's so great about your nature of knowing that you are ambitious, that you can move forward and go after new things and try new things that you're adventurous. Mm-hmm. You know, people who are not adventurous would really struggle with making that choice, because making change is scary. Mm-hmm. But when change is exciting. It's a lot easier to stand up for what you need for your, I think, yeah. Oh, absolutely. That's, yeah. That's probably again, why both of us kind of can embrace that change is good philosophy, not change just for change's sake, but in that growth perspective. So, okay. So I love this for you because that makes me so happy that you were able to see that it just, it was the right move for you and you just took it.

Lia: 8:12

Yeah,

Tracie: 8:12

right. That's similar to when I left corporate. I was just like, you know what? I wanna make this change. And I just took, I didn't plan ahead and have all this money saved up and like all the things they tell you before you leave corporate and start working. For years I didn't do any of that. I just left because I knew that it was the right thing and I knew that I could succeed. Eventually doing something. Um, exactly. And hopefully it was what I was doing was on the right path. So it sounds like you had a similar, similar feel. Yeah.

Lia: 8:38

And I became really resourceful, you know? Yeah. I, when I left the job, I had no health insurance, which was a little scary for me. Yeah, same. So I ended up finding a part-time job that working nights from five to midnight that gave me health insurance. Mm. So I worked all day on my business. I worked from five to midnight. Um, on a job that gave me health insurance.'cause you do what you gotta do to make it right. Right. And it didn't take me long to, that our business was growing fast enough that I didn't need to do that anymore, but I had to make that sacrifice.

Tracie: 9:11

Yeah. I love that. I love that you started with the transcription, you know, secretary of service, whatever.'cause it lines up with Paula so nicely too. Paula Allen, of course, who, anyone who's listening to this, you may also know her. No relation. Mm-hmm. Um, but there's such, there's such that tie in. So again, no wonder, you know, there's a, a camaraderie there and a common kind of history. Okay. So, and how old were your kids at this point?

Lia: 9:37

So I have now a 26-year-old and a 23-year-old, and that is actually another part of the bold, you know, you talk about bold action and taking Yeah, yeah. So, um, when my son was six years old, he became very ill and we had to make a choice. And one of the choices was to take care of him. We had to pull him out of school, and I chose to homeschool both my boys at that time. So I had a thriving business. I actually had a meeting, I had an actual office with a conference room, and I was like, okay. Shifting gears again, you know, it's all about just, alright, so when you

Tracie: 10:10

left the corporate job and started your business mm-hmm. Did you not have them yet? Was that before they were born? No, no, I didn't have. Okay.

Lia: 10:18

Wow. Watching I had, no, I didn't have them. I, I had them afterwards. Yes. That, now that I think back on it.'cause I remember taking my young, my oldest son to. Chamber of board meetings and he, I sat him on the desk next to me in his little car seat while we had,'cause I was on the executive committee of the Chamber of Commerce. So,

Tracie: 10:37

you know,

Lia: 10:38

you do what you gotta do. I

Tracie: 10:39

love that. No, I love that. Especially, yeah, we call that baby in a bucket. Yeah, the baby in a bucket with me wherever

Lia: 10:45

you go. You know, I took him with me and people, you know, respected me that I had to do that. And so when I chose to homeschool, of course I had to pivot the business a bit, right? And so I just learned to, I sold off part of the business that I knew I couldn't do on a regular basis, and I just kept the clients that I could work with, and then they understood my story about how much time I had. And so I scaled it down at that point, and that worked fine for what we needed.

Tracie: 11:12

Well, and because homeschooling two kids and running your household, you know, partner, all those things, that's also a full-time job. As all of us know, those of us who have families and, and kids. Um, and so to keep your business going, I think is actually commendable at all. Right? Mm-hmm. The fact that you did like revamp it to fit what your life would allow as opposed to just. Letting it go because you probably, my guess is that you knew that you needed that to keep yourself excited and motivated as like a grownup.

Lia: 11:48

Yeah. Right. I did well and it was so much a part of who I was to, to, yeah. To just shut it off would not have worked. I just couldn't. And the other thing was I also knew that eventually I wanted to regear and re ramp up. And if I completely shut down, it would've been a whole lot harder than as if I was just kind of slowly brew. I was like on simmer, and then I put it up and boiled it again.

Tracie: 12:12

Yep. And so your, your kid was six mm-hmm. When you decided to start home. So that's first grade.

Lia: 12:19

Yeah.

Tracie: 12:19

Right? Yeah. So first grade all the way through high school. High school. Yep. Graduated both of them. And you kept a business running in the background. Exactly. And, you know, grow, shrink, whatever, just adapt to whatever. Because as they get older, they're kind of more on their own also. Exactly. Right. So, I love that. Okay, so, so when. So, and you said they're 23, like early twenties now? Mid twenties? Yeah. 23 and 26. Okay, so six, seven years ago. Mm-hmm. You started to see that they're on kind of on their own motor for a while. Yes. They're still at home and yes, they still need guidance, but it's not like you're teaching them all day long. Right. So is that when you started looking at. The marketing gym and all of the, the businesses that are kind of evolved into what you have now, or tell us, tell us how things started to change at that point.

Lia: 13:14

So as they became more independent and I was able to have more time to focus on the business, I started looking at what my, what I considered my brilliance, what would make the most sense for me to work through. And that's when the marketing gym kind of came about. And, um, I slowly started, um. Reconnecting with people and building some, um, business. And of course this all happened around, um, COVID, so,

Tracie: 13:40

oh, I just did, just did that math, of course, yeah. Five, six years ago. Yeah.

Lia: 13:45

And I started doing virtual meetings and I started doing a lot of virtual stuff when that happened. And I joined community groups because I knew community is a big part of what I do and who I am. In fact, when I first decided to homes. School. I tell this story, I was literally at my computer crying at three in the morning going, how am I gonna do this? I was like. Really at the end of my rope and my husband came down and found me. He said, don't worry, we'll make this happen. We'll work it out. And we found an or, uh, association for homeschoolers and I that Friday I went to a meeting and I found out that there were a lot of resources and there was a whole group of moms like me. So I just jumped in. So that was my next community. So I realized then that community is a big part of who I am. So when I was ready to relaunch the business, I just kept finding new communities like polka dots and all the different groups, because that's how I thrive is part of community.

Tracie: 14:43

Well, and really that's how people thrive, right? Mm-hmm. We don't, not everyone realizes that that's the case. I mean, that literally was the answer for what you needed. It also was the answer for what I needed when I started to leave corporate and work for myself. And like I lost my husband and I needed to learn how to navigate that grief. And, you know, that's, that's how we get through hard times is with each other. Exactly. Like full stop period. That's just the truth. Mm-hmm. And you know anyone who's like, oh no, I'm alone or whatever, I think they're really. Short changing what's possible

Lia: 15:22

mm-hmm.

Tracie: 15:23

For themselves and for the people in their world because, you know, humans are just, we're designed to be connected to other humans. We

Lia: 15:33

weren't,

Tracie: 15:33

you know, the only people who are are true loners are like, I always just say it's the Unabomber. Right. Look what happens when you decide to isolate yourself into nowhere. Mm-hmm. It's become a crazy psychopath.

Lia: 15:47

Well, and I, even if your community's only one or two people, you still need humans in your life. It doesn't have to be a huge community. Now, I happen to be an extreme extrovert. So the more the merrier. But even if one or two people in your circle of influence can make a huge difference.

Tracie: 16:03

Right? Yeah. People who even are introverted, who are just like, I can't, like my husband, we always joke about like he's done too much. Peeing is kind of the phrase that we use and he's in, but he's in two bands. He loves being around people. He just has to do it in short bursts of time. Yeah. And you get rest in between. That's all. And rest in between. Exactly. And recharge and however feels good to you. I, I tend to be kind of, uh, on that fence these days mm-hmm. Where I wanna be with 50 people and then I wanna hang out by myself Exactly. For a little while and then I'm back at it. Right. Yeah. I love that. And, you know, so to this day. We always see you. Like I said, a lot on social media. You're at this meeting of 50 people and this meeting of 40 people and this meeting of 20 people. And then the one-on-one and one-on-one and one-on-one and one-on-one. Right. Always connecting and always learning about others, helping to highlight them. Mm-hmm. And that's really how I see, you know, we have similar superpowers. We wanna be able to connect people together. You hear what they're doing. Oh, that rings a bell. I wanna connect you to this other person. Um. And so talk a little bit about your like networking process. Mm-hmm. Since that's what you do with your business, helping people with their networking and how to build their relationships to grow their business. Talk a little bit about your personal networking process. So people can get an idea of kind of what a day or what a week may be in Lia's life looks like. Yeah.

Lia: 17:34

So a week in the life of Lia is filled with lots of meetings, but I am the business development arm of our business, so that's what I do. Um, I love connecting one-on-one to, so for me, networking is just part of the equation. And most people, when they think of networking, they think. Of a big meeting room like BNI, which I'm a member of BNI for our painting business. But I also love polka dots and all the other groups that I'm in, and I try to do one-on-ones because just'cause you show up to a room doesn't make mean people are gonna remember who you are and what you do. You get up, you do your 32nd commercial, and then the next person does it, and the person who. Listening already forgot your 32nd commercial. If they're not really engaged. So my goal in networking or my philosophy of networking is that it has to be a deep, not a deep, it has to be connection. It's not just showing up. Just'cause you're in a room doesn't mean you're going to get business. And if that's your focus, I want, my goal is to teach people how to have real conversations. How to have real connection. First of all, you have to know who you are. What you're doing and who you're doing it for so that you're in the right room. So my goal is to teach you to be in the right rooms, saying the right things, and then having a plan so that when you start meeting with people, you're ready, you're prepared. And when you're prepared, no matter where you are, you can get up and say what you need to say. People are gonna go, oh, that person knows what they're doing.'cause when you walk in with confidence and clarity, everything else falls into place.

Tracie: 19:11

I love that. I love that. Yeah. I have this feeling that like, you know, you walk in the room and people are like, oh, and they might like get a vibe, like a, an energy check. Mm-hmm. But it doesn't mean they're gonna remember your name exactly. What your business is. They might be like, oh, I, I suck her. Mm-hmm. Before, but they aren't gonna remember the details. Exactly. So you have to take it to the next level to get those details cross across the conversation. Yeah. I love that. Yeah. Awesome. You know, and as you're talking, and you and I have been connected for a number of years and I've been following, I'm thinking to myself, how do I show up? What do I say when I'm in the room? And, you know, and what it is for me personally is, uh, variety. Like, sometimes it's super clear and I'm just in that zone. Mm-hmm. And sometimes I hadn't maybe had a thought beforehand and it just kind of. Drops outta my mouth and it's not really clear and it's not really, um, like intriguing. Yeah, right. So yeah, the skills, that's the thing I think that a lot of people forget is that this is a hundred percent a skill based issue, right? Just because you're new in your business doesn't mean you can't learn the skill. Just because you've been doing your business for 30 years doesn't mean you can't hone the skill to have more clarity and conciseness and. Alluring attraction.

Lia: 20:37

Right. Well, it's interesting'cause most people who know me now cannot believe that there was a time when I was afraid to walk into a room and have a conversation. Yeah, I bet. The per, yeah. I was the person who was standing on the wall not talking to anybody, waiting for the meeting to end so I could get out of there. And it took me a quite a few years to learn how to do what I do and it took somebody at to mentor me and teach me how to do it. So I have a heart for people who are. Feeling that way, overwhelmed, not showing, showing up at their amazing self because everyone has that inside of them. It's just helping them find that.

Tracie: 21:14

Yep, absolutely. A hundred percent agree. A hundred percent agree. Yeah. The, you know, the fact that they're there to represent their work in themselves, like what a leap of faith to just show up.

Lia: 21:28

Yeah.

Tracie: 21:28

So just a little bit of tweaking gets you to not only show up, but show up. In a way that people remember as opposed to just be like, oh yeah, I don't remember making them. Which, you know, that happens. Mm-hmm. And you know, you have to find that way to just be like, you know, a strong handshake or you know, a big, I don't know, a fun catchphrase or whatever. Yeah. Whatever it is. As long as you know how you're showing up and can like plan for it. Exactly. Then you're ready to go. I love that. Okay, my friend. Um, so what's next for Aaliyah? Now? This is a podcast, of course. It's gonna be evergreen. Mm-hmm. Um, we're here in 20 mar uh, the end Halloween actually, day 2025. I don't know when people are gonna be listening to this, but let's say what's next? You know, in a year maybe we'll listen back to it and see what happens. What's next, Julia?

Lia: 22:23

I'm excited. So I actually, today I've been working on the outline of my book. Um, so that is very exciting. I've, I've got quite a bit already written for it. So my book is gonna be hopefully coming out in, uh, the early part of next year, at least getting it to a, a publisher. And I am, um, tweaking my speaking skills'cause I would like to do more presentations and talk to more people because I believe that I can help a lot of people. So that's my goal, is to get in front of more people to help them find their brilliance. And shared their brilliance. Amazing, amazing, amazing.

Tracie: 22:56

So anyone out there listening, if you know of someone who needs, like the skills it takes to make relationships grow your business, Lia's your gal. This is who you wanna talk to anywhere on the planet. Maybe there's things that even like for if you're sleeping, when Lia's Well, Lia never sleeps. She's awake from like 5:00 AM to midnight every day. Uh, but not, hopefully not working 20 hours a day, but close because I know that I see you at the end of 12, 14 hour days sometimes, and you're still, you know, mostly energetic and ready to go. But, you know, we were talking just the other day in a, in a separate meeting about. Trying to reach new people, looking at new audiences. And so I'm really excited to see what that's gonna look like. And so for people out there listening, if you think that you need to build relationships to grow your business or to make sales or to, um, expand your reach and whatever that looks like. You're gonna wanna check out Lia, uh, we're gonna make sure all her contact information is in the show notes, of course. And, uh, she wants to help you build those relationships and have the skills that's needed to make it easy and fun. Yes, because it is easy and fun once you have the confidence and clarity around it. Lia, I'm so thrilled. This was a great conversation because you know, there's even things even after knowing you for over two years now that I learned today. So that's always exciting to me. I had someone who knows both of us, listened to some past, uh, episodes of interviews of other people, and she's just like, I learned things that I didn't even know about these people, and you met them from me. So it's always fun to, to get to. Have the stories unfold with fresh ears and eyes. So I'm excited for that. Thank you so much for being on the podcast and everyone out there we will see you again on the Bold and Brilliant podcast.