I fell in love with automation purely because we were out exploring the world, and I'd much rather be out with my kids exploring than change my laptop. So every part of the business that I could possibly automate, I have. And that's what led to teaching other business owners how to do the same because life's too short to be stuck behind the laptop.

Welcome to the Agency Hour Podcast, where we help web design and digital agency owners create abundance for themselves, their teams, and their communities. This week we're joined by Karen King, founder of GoldStar Pro. We dive into what it really takes to build a location independent agency without feeling overwhelmed. We'll be sharing Karen's story of how she made the leap to running her business from anywhere, why automation is the key to freedom, and how you can start leveraging AI to lighten your workload. I'm Johnny Flash. Stay with us. Hey Karen, how's it going?

Good, good. Excited to be here.

Yes, so glad to have you. So tell us where in the world you are, because I know you're just a world traveler and I know you're always on the move. So tell us where you are right now.

So right now we're in North Macedonia. Saturday we go back to Bulgaria where we've spent the winter skiing, and then April we're off to Mexico. So yeah, we've been traveling full time for nine years.

That is amazing. That is so amazing. So I know our audience will want to know like, how do you run a business and travel for nine years? Because that's like most people's dream, right? Like hit the slopes and maybe, maybe do 30 minutes or an hour of work, you know, later in the evening or something, and then you know, have fun. So talk a little bit about how that came to be and just what that looks like and everything.

Absolutely. Well, we uh I had a business, a bricks brick and mortar business back in Australia and uh cake decorator of all things. Um, and we were just living, you know, the Australian d dream, so to speak. We were doing everything that society said that you needed to do to um be happy. We had our two kids in school, we had a beautiful house. Um we realized one day that we we just weren't happy. Like we were tired of the sort of rinse and repeat, we call it our groundhog day existence now. And uh so we took a vacation and I read the start of the four-hour work week. And at that point, I learned the phrase location independence, and those two words changed everything. So we uh spent 2015 selling everything we owned, headed off into the world, and I decided, well, at some point I'd I'd launch a business. So we've done a few things over the years, but uh yeah, now we we travel the world, work, sort of, you know, rotate between work and play, so to speak. But this year's been really cool because Monday, Wednesday mornings, uh Monday, Wednesday, Friday mornings, I'm up on the ski slopes, and then I work in the afternoons and on on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So it's the freedom to live however you like.

That is amazing. I'm sure there's amazing skiing over there too. Here where I am outside of Washington, DC, it's like even if we travel for a few hours, it's like, you know, they're probably more like hills, you know. Um, I like the snowboard, so uh I'm just envious. That sounds amazing. Talk a little bit about um, you know, I know you're really into automation, so I'm curious, and I don't know the answer to this. I'm curious how much is automated and how much you have like team doing some things on some of those days when you're not working and stuff.

The uh the short answer is as much as I can possibly automate. Um, I I fell in love with automation purely because we were out exploring the world, and I'd much rather be out, you know, with my kids exploring than chained to my laptop. So every every part of the business that I could possibly automate, I have. And and that's what led to teaching other business owners how to do the same because life's too short to uh to be stuck behind the laptop. And uh, you know, for a lot of our audience, they're small business owners. They don't have massive big teams. And so being able to automate and get themselves out of the day-to-day running of the business is really critical.

Yeah, yeah. And I think, you know, I we run into those businesses as well where like they need help with their actual business, which is not what I do, right? I'm I'm helping them with their marketing and their digital marketing, all that stuff. But um, in terms of like, you know, me helping them get the right systems in place and all of that, that's like so far outside of like what, you know, I do. Um, so talk a little bit about, I guess, how um you help businesses, what kind of systems you put into place. Like, talk a little bit about what that looks like.

Yeah, the the background, my background is training and development and coaching and course creation. Uh, and I, when we started traveling, I started building websites for people. And that led into teaching people how to build their own website, which led into automation. And what I realized was that most small business owners are just so completely overwhelmed by the tech side of their business. And instead of helping them, it's actually holding a lot of them back. Um, so we about four and a half years ago, we launched Gold Star Pro. Uh, and we essentially help business owners not only simplify their business and their tech tech stack because it's all in one instead of needing, you know, four or five different systems, but we teach them how to use it. And that's that's my passion is coaching people, giving people the skills that they need to be able to jump into their business and and make tweaks instead of having to pay out, you know, huge sums of money and and still really not know what's going on in the business, which is where I was, you know, 10, 15 years ago. So we uh we do a lot of coaching um and and giving business owners the confidence to be able to grow their business.

Love it, love it. So um talk a little bit about in terms of I guess what the I mean, I'm sure there's lots of layers, right? Like there's the there's the website or the funnel or the text messaging and all of that stuff. Talk a little bit about some of those pieces that you've kind of connected together.

Absolutely. So the the beauty of the platform is it's now a true all-in-one. There's very little outside of Zoom, there's there's very little that um small business owners need outside of the platform. So from websites and funnels, email marketing, automation, um, courses, communities, document signing, you know, the the whole package is there. And for most business owners, initially it's probably a bit more than that than they need. But the beauty of it is it's such a such a good package. It's so capable of uh doing everything that, and it's at a price point that if they start, even if they're using 20% to start with, they're essentially paying what they're paying for one platform elsewhere. But you know, instead of having to pay for the second, third, fourth, and fifth package, as their business grows, they can uh they can just use the software that they've already got. And on top of that, they're learning a skill set that grows with the business. So instead of needing to learn five different systems, they build skills on top of skills, which is much easier for people that are typically overwhelmed by the tech side of business.

Yeah, I love that. And and for those that aren't offering some kind of tech stack or whatever, this is a great option. How much support do you have to provide? Um, I'm sure there's some, you know, getting them up to speed with it and all. But once once someone's been using it for three, six months, like do you have to provide a lot of support or not not really.

So we have 24-7 live chat. Um, and so they they look after a lot of our customers, uh, but we also offer live coaching calls as well. So we find that the majority of our business owners use that a lot in the beginning as they're growing their business. Um, and then after that, they've got our community and then our 24-7 live chat team who are just phenomenal. So it certainly makes for small business owners that are typically not techie, when they are struggling, they know they're in a place where they can um ask the questions.

Yeah. What are some what are some things that you're seeing or that you would recommend like for agency owners that might be listening to this or freelancers? And, you know, maybe they've dabbled with Chat GBT or a little bit of like AI, but where are you seeing some of the opportunities to like leverage AI more or automation uh to connect things that maybe like people are still doing in an old school kind of way?

Absolutely. I think just simplification in whatever way that makes sense. So for us, we're we're teaching a lot of just basic Chat GPT for our customers. It's about what are they trying to do and how do we make that easier? And for a lot of them, it's just content, um, or it might be you know, mapping out plans for their business or whatever the case may be. And so every agency is obviously going to be different, every business is gonna have different needs, but it's finding the tool that's gonna make the task easier and and making it really simple for people to be able to use.

Cool. I love that. Uh, what are what are I I know some people are resistant to um change, right? Like we're resistant to trying a new tool, to doing it a new way, uh, to like a tech tool that we haven't used before. Like, how do you work with I because I imagine some of these business owners have to be like, yes, my way sucks, but I I really don't want to like have to learn something new. How do you how do you help people like overcome those those fear of the new tech kind of thing?

We're kind of fortunate in the sense that by the time they get to us, they've tried a lot of other systems and it's not working for them. And so we've created a solution, not only in the software, but in the space that we provide for them. So the support and everything that comes along with that. Um, but we make it easy for them. And and that's, I think, the biggest thing is when change is involved, so often it can be really difficult and it pushes people outside of their comfort zone. So we do a lot of sort of follow-the-leader type training where they literally watch me click this button and they click it. Quite a few of our users have said, Oh, I've had to go out and buy a second monitor just so I can put you on one screen and uh and and watch the, you know, use the software on the other. So just whatever we can do to make it as easy as possible for them so that that that overwhelm. And I think that's what a lot of people are struggling with, is just just sheer overwhelm. And when it's changed to something else, it's just more overwhelm. So simplification, and that's obviously where automation comes in, but also huge support.

And do some of your solopreneurs have like maybe an office manager or somebody on their team that can also that does some of the things that need to be done, like creating the social media posts or whatever?

Absolutely. Yeah, a lot a lot of our users have their VAs, um, number of online business managers, things like that. So yeah, I mean, it's it's a real mix. Um, but I what I do see is that a lot of our customers, they they want to learn the skills themselves. Maybe they don't want to ultimately do it all, but they want to have an understanding of of what it is that's happening in their business. So if they need to make a tweak on their website or jump in and make a change somewhere else, they have the skills to be able to do it.

Love that. And then if they need support beyond that, they can always use something like E2M, like a white label service, where if they just need someone to create their social posts or whatever, they could, you know, hire them to do uh some kind of uh, you know, service and then kind of use a platform like what you're talking about to you know send out the posts or or manage the website or whatever, right? So there's a lot of different options there. Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, they don't all want to do it themselves. And for small business owners, they're they're typically wearing so many different hats. So again, simplification, giving them the confidence that they can do it, but then yeah, showing showing them how that they can you know make it as easy as possible.

Yeah, yeah, love that. Um, talk a little bit more about um, I'd like to circle back to kind of how we were talking about like traveling and being a business owner. Because I know uh obviously I coach a lot of agency owners in agency mavericks and just talking to other business owners and stuff, you know. I think, and I don't know if this is like it's probably I don't think it's just an American thing. I think it's a struggle like in other parts of the world. Maybe maybe in America it's worse. But um, you know, there is this like I don't know if it's a badge of honor to like go on vacation but have to work or whatever, but it's like there's far too many people that like go to the beach and then they have their laptop and like their kids or their family are out playing at the beach or whatever, and they've got to like go back and like do the Zoom calls and do the messaging with their team, and like it's just not really, I don't think what anybody envisioned the vacation would be, but they've kind of like it's become the bad habit, you know? And so um, obviously, with you having been traveling for nine years, like there is a balance, right? It's like you want to be fully present on the ski day or the whatever sightseeing or whatever you're doing. Um, but then you also have to like find some little, you know, piece of blocks of time where you can do work and stuff. And um, I think most of us do that pretty poorly. Um, and so I would love to just kind of know from you like some tips, tricks, things that you've kind of found to help make it so that you're not just like thinking and doing work all the time while you're traveling.

Yeah, absolutely. And and it's it's something that I've had to learn. It's something I've I've really had to work on because I love what I do. And so it's it's really easy to get caught up in that. Uh and you know, then, then, you know, have mum guilt and all of those sorts of things. Or on the other hand, it's really easy to go out and be enjoying the travel or the you know vacation or whatever so much and be torn because, hey, you know, I'm meant to be running the business. So I think there's a couple of things. First of all, really blocking my time well. Uh, you know, I have select days where I have calls with clients or um, you know, prospective customers, whatever the case might be. And then I start the week by blocking out certain time for certain activities. So for me, this year, this is our second year skiing in Bulgaria. And last year, I didn't ski nearly as much as I wanted to because I was, I was literally feeling like, you know, we were really growing the business and I was spending a lot of time working on the business. And by the end of the season, I said, you know, I just haven't had the time skiing that I wanted. So this year we blocked out Monday, Wednesday, Friday mornings, and I work around that. So it it really is about prioritization and choosing when you work. And, you know, for me, Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays, I might end up working later into the night, maybe doing some calls or whatever I need to do a little bit later in the day. But quite often, you know, we'll come home from skiing, we'll we'll stop on the way home and have some lunch and do what needs to be done. I've had the time with my family, and then I can sit down. And that's when my daughter goes and does her learning and my husband jumps in and you know edits videos and all of those sorts of things. So it I think blocking the time has been a really, really important thing because that way I can do both. I can work, I can enjoy time with my family and sightseeing and whatever the case may be. And you know, I'm not, I'm not feeling guilty at any point. And I've got an amazing team. So I've got a really, I've got a small team, but they they love what they do as well. They know what they need to do, they've got ownership over their parts of the business. And, you know, they report back to me. So I'll I might finish skiing and I'll have a couple of messages, but they they know what they're doing and uh and I have to trust them to do their part in the business as well.

Yeah. And you're kind of implying without directly saying, but like, you know, I think business owners are constantly like, I have to be checking my email all the time. I have to be checking my messages, I gotta check in on Slack. And like you're not saying it, but you're kind of implying it that, like, hey, when you're skiing, I don't imagine you're like at the top of the run, about to go down, you know, and like checking your phone and replying to like your team or this or that. Like your team, your clients, whatever, they know, like, hey, if it's Monday, like you're you're not gonna get a reply from Karen or it's gonna be after three o'clock or whatever the thing is. Um, so we I don't want to just gloss over that because I think that is one of the like real challenges that people have, right? Is like, oh yeah, I I went on vacation, you know, quote, air quotes, right? And then they're like constantly, their mind is not with their kids and their family and what they're doing. They're like in a different, you know, they're they're thinking about all the stuff that's piling up while they're not. So talk a little bit about that because I I think it it's easy to just kind of go by that, but I think that's an important part.

Again, that's something that I've had to learn. And I'm I'm still guilty of that. You know, we could be sitting watching TV of an evening, and my phone's still there. Um, and and because customer service matters to me so much. And, you know, when we see an email from a customer, I want, I want a response to that customer straight away. Um I I've set the standards pretty high and my team are amazing at it, but there's still that that part of me that is like, oh, you know, I know it's 11 o'clock.

Not quite enough, right? Yeah.

Yeah. Um, and and in reality, it doesn't have to, it doesn't have to happen that quickly, you know, even if it's a few hours or one of my team is on the other side of the world to me. So when she's asleep, I can see the emails and and follow up and vice versa. And so our customer service is awesome anyway, but it's just that standard that that I've set for myself. But as I said, this year I've made the point of saying, well, you know what, I am skiing at this point in time and I really want to be present for that. I don't want to get to the end of the season and think, you know what, I I missed out again. Or, you know, my daughter's 14, nearly 15. My son's 20, he's back in Australia. And so I have limited time that, you know, she's here. Uh, so I really want to make the most of it. And that doesn't mean I get it right all the time. Uh, but you can only try and you can only do do better and better. Um, but yeah, there's certainly times where you know, this year I'm really blocking out my time a lot more. And so if one of my team members comes to me with something, then that has to find a time in the calendar. Because when we first started traveling, I was I loved the freedom of not having to schedule. Uh, but you know, my ADHD brain just jumps from one thing to another. And what I found this year is that I am blocking out time. So I know what my tasks are for the week. And I know that, you know, Monday mornings, I'm skiing. Monday afternoons, I've got these, these projects that I'm working on. And I factor in time for those things that crop up along the way. Um, but having that that organization and the time blocking has actually been a huge thing for me this this year.

Yeah, yeah. And I think you've also realized, which I'm realizing too with similar kids' age, that like it goes by so fast. You know, I mean, uh, my oldest is 18, my youngest is 14. I have four kids. Um, and it's, you know, it's just flying by. And I feel like the older my kids get, the faster it's going, the busier their schedules are, the, the more I have to like really work to have time with them because they've got a part-time job, they've got their friends, they've got all these different things, right? And so uh it's just that that you realize like, wow, I need to carve this time out or I'm gonna, I'm not gonna get it with them, right?

Definitely. And and one thing that I didn't appreciate, nobody really like people talk about, well, you know, they're 18 or 19 and they go off and start their own life. I guess it's been a little bit harder for me because my son's on the other side of the world, but I didn't appreciate just how different life would be once he had had gone. So yeah, he he actually left at 17, went back to Australia and moved in with my parents. He he was super independent and we thought, yeah, that's fine. And uh I I always joke with him now. I wish I'd said no for another year because that that's gone. Like it's it's time that you don't get back. And my daughter's cursing him now because I've told her, nope, you're not leaving until you're 18. I'm holding on to you for every minute I've got. So we really want to, we structure our life the best we can because we are working and we have to manage the business, and and that does require time, but we really do try to structure our life in a way that we can get the most out of it. And right now, she needs more community. And so come April, we're gonna head over to Mexico and start setting up a base there around community and uh, you know, just do whatever we can to really enjoy the time that we're all together because soon enough that that will be gone. They'll be off doing their own thing. And uh I just I I don't want to regret any of it.

Yeah, yeah, that's good. That's good. And there's so many, you know, you're talking about the time blocking. There's so many like little hacks that you can uh incorporate to make that work, right? Like whether using an iPhone or an Android, like there's focus modes and stuff, right? And so if there's certain apps that like clients message you on or team message you on, like you don't have to be in complete do not disturb so your friends can't reach you and your family can't reach you, you can put it in a personal mode or some other thing where those apps that are typically blowing you up with work, whether it's email, Slack, WhatsApp, whatever those things are, you can have those like notifications hidden. Don't show me the number of 23 things that are waiting for me and all that stuff. Um, and then it for me that helps a lot in terms of not kind of getting sucked into somewhere I don't want to go at certain times, right? And so, um, and then when I'm in work mode, then those notifications are popping up and all this stuff. And so I think there's a lot of like little things that you can do with your email, with your different apps, communication tools that um, and I think also just right setting client expectations and team expectations, right? It's like when We can't, you know, if if our clients don't know we're not available or or whatever, if we break our own rules and we're messaging them back all the time when we're not supposed to be, then we're kind of like setting ourselves up for failure in terms of like holding those boundaries, right?

Oh, absolutely. And and like I said earlier, customer service for me is just so critical that I I've really struggled with those boundaries. But it again, it's something that I've had to teach myself and enforce for myself as well. And I think we just need to identify what those things are. You know, I want to start my day. Uh I go, I get up usually 6:30, 7 o'clock in the morning, and I go walking for an hour and a half. And that is time that I still have night mode on or whatever the mode is that's uh that is turned on. But it means that I don't wake up to loads of pop-ups and and all of those sorts of things. Um but I think we just have to identify what it is that we want and then figure out how to make that happen. And one of the big things for me was finding an amazing team, empowering them to do the things that they're good at and appreciating that I don't have to do it all. You know, it's okay for someone else to clean up my inbox. It's okay for someone else to respond to messages from people in the Facebook group. And that's the only way you can grow the business effectively because it can't be you all the time. But I think as entrepreneurs and as business owners, when we're so passionate, where you know we we set such high expectations. And the reality is, I know for me, my customer service, even if it's 80% of my standard in customer service, it's still well above what a lot of people know as standard customer service. So, you know, you just have to find those boundaries and be comfortable with what you're gonna work within.

Yeah, and I think you were talking about the amazing team. That's so important, giving them the tools that they need to do their job, right? So I mean, like I know a lot of agency owners, they'll use something like WP Remote, where they can manage a whole bunch of WordPress websites from one dashboard, like super easy. Like just having the right tools in place, then make it so much easier for your team to get a lot done in a short amount of time and and you know, just serve more customers and have better support and all those things that you're saying, I think, you know, matter so much when you have the right tools and the right team in place.

Absolutely. And training them how, not only how to do their job, but how to come to you when they need your support as well. Because you can give them the skills, but there's always going to be something that comes up. And it's so easy as a business owner to do it yourself. And this is something I've struggled with for years. Like, you know, I, as I said, ADHD brain, it's so quick and easy for me when I just jump in and get it done. But that that doesn't help me in the long, long term. And so um I've got with my team, I've said to them, okay, this is what I want you to do. When you need my help, come to me with the problem, what you think the solution is, you know, what it is that you need from me, come to me with all the information so that I then don't have to stop what I'm doing and go off and do the investigation. You're the problem solver. You just need me, you know, you might need to run it past me just to make sure that you're on the right track. And then there's a lot of things like that that we turn into a playbook. And we've even gone as far as setting up our own AI bot for our internal team, which remembers all of the questions and answers that get asked. And so the team can then go to the bot and say, Oh, what happens when a customer wants to do this? And they don't have to come to me because we've already done that the first time.

Love it, love it. Um, as we wrap up, I know that um you're helping businesses try to escape the nine to five. And some of our agency owners and freelancers that are listening, they may already have a tech stack that they kind of help clients with that. But I know a lot of them do not have that. Uh, we are not like even in my own agency, I'm not trying to solve every business issue that my clients have. I I can help them with the marketing, but in terms of some of those other things, and um talk a little bit about kind of how you're helping small business owners escape uh, you know, the nine to five.

Absolutely. So we uh we've just recently launched the Escapepreneur. So this is going to be an incredible coaching program that not only gives them the tech that they need, but also the coaching and the skills and the strategy, um, everything. Uh so many programs teach strategy, but then sort of throw you in the deep end and say, well, you know, I probably recommend this platform and that platform. Um, but there's not a lot of tech coaching in there. And again, what we've seen and and how I guess the reason we launched was because there was such a gap from people feeling overwhelmed with tech and not having a place to go. So really excited to move down that path. But the other thing that I do love is that we have an incredible um partner program. We work with a lot of um coaches and and business owners who they don't want to do the tech stuff themselves either. They want a platform that they can recommend people to. Uh, and so we do a lot of work with partners who they might have a particular way that they're teaching. We help them build out different templates and of you know, funnels and workflows and all of those sorts of things. And then when they refer people to us, we can push all of those templates into their accounts. So I love that because it gives the business or the agency um, you know, somebody that they can trust and work with. And maybe even they can incorporate a little bit of training around Gold Star Pro inside of their agency. But it also means we can push those tools over and we can support their clients without them having to be the go-to tech person. Um, and that's been working incredibly well because most business owners just get so overwhelmed by all the tech stuff. So it's really cool to be able to partner with uh with people and just, you know, it's a win-win-win for everybody involved.

Yeah, I love it. So if I have the if I have a contractor, client, or a home fitness, you know, instructor or whatever the, you know, is and they've they need that help for their business, that's where um kind of what you offer would would really help, right?

Yeah. We've got one coach at the moment who she teaches a business strategy, uh, and she's got particular uh templates, funnels, and and workflows and sequences that she's developed as part of her uh coaching program. Uh and now so she refers people over to us. We push those templates into the account. She gets her um partner payment each month, customer is happy, she's happy, we're happy. It's uh yeah, it's an awesome combination.

Awesome. Love it. Karen, thank you so much for taking time off the slopes to hang out with us and and have a conversation and love what you're doing, love the inspiration for kind of living out your dream while doing your, you know, you're both. You're living out your dream and doing your dream, which is just amazing. So thank you so much.

Oh, thank you so much for having me.

Thanks for listening to the Agency Hour podcast, and a huge thanks to Karen for joining us. Okay, folks, remember to subscribe and please share this with anyone who you think may need to hear it. I'm Johnny Flash. Let's get to work.