Break the chains from your desk, and build a life of freedom "Out of office"!

Have you ever thought about just ditching it all and travelling the world instead?  

Life on the road, instead of chained to your desk answering emails and struggling with social media?

I know I have ☺

But how about travelling the world WHILE building your business?

Wait – is that even an option?

Kate is proof that it is and whether your ideal life includes travelling the world, or just getting away from your desk more, and enjoying your hobbies or family, this is the episode to help get you there.

We’re talking about how she built a business that allows her the freedom to chase summer around the world each year, and how you can build a business that supports your passions and truly design your life to fit you.

Ready to create the life you dream of, with your business?

Build a business for your lifestyle FREE download: https://www.nzoutofoffice.com/build-a-biz-for-your-lifestyle

Book a call with Kate here: https://www.nzoutofoffice.com/site/contact#calendar

Free ebook for business owners to understand when and how they should delegate in their business to free up their time: https://www.nzoutofoffice.com/site/free-ebook

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Have you ever thought about just ditching at all and traveling the world instead life on the road instead of chain to your desk, answering emails and struggling with social media? I know I have, but how about traveling the world while building your business? Wait, is that even an option? Well, Kate is proof that it is, and whether your ideal life includes traveling the world, or just getting away from your desk more and enjoying your hobbies or your family.

This is the episode to help get you there. We're talking about how she build a business that allows her, the freedom to chase summer around the world each year, and how you can build a business that supports your passions and truly design your life to fit you. Are you ready to create the life you dream of with your business?

Then let's get into it.

Kate McGregor is with us today And Kate is on a mission to help entrepreneurs get more time out of the office She's a dedicated world traveler and business owner and firmly believes that working hard doesn't mean being tied to your desk or office Now Kate developed her very own [00:01:00] life by design as a digital nomad serving businesses while following summer around the globe

Thank you so much for being here today, Kate. You're welcome. Thank you for having. I'm so excited to talk about this with you today because the two of my biggest passions are travel and entrepreneurship together at last. I love this. You have an interesting story. I mean, how could you not with that intro?

Can you tell us, a bit more about how you got to this amazing place, where you get to chase summers around the globe and earn a living to. Yeah, absolutely. And like, let me start by saying that this, this wasn't even in my hemisphere five years ago. And I started doing a little bit of personal development work back then.

I had been working in some really busy, industries, back in where I'm from New Zealand and I spent 10 years in the UK as well, working. What would be perceived to be fun industries, but really long hours, no weekends, no life really, travel industry event, industry conferencing industry, and then moved into project world a little bit.

So I[00:02:00] was bit burnt out and started a bit of a personal development journey and kind of came to the conclusion then that, I love summer and I don't love working all the hours and I love flexibility in my life and travel, obviously. So my, couple had a different couple of coaches at the time business and life coaches.

And we got to the point where it could be possible. They believed it could be possible for me to travel the world summer to summer, and have an online business to support myself. Yeah, so I kind of started from there. and from the first, I just kind of took the leap, I guess. I did some project work for six months of the year and then the other six months of the year, I, Traveling and incorporated pet, sitting, pet in house, sitting into my life to kind of help me with pay for accommodation and things while I was on the road and began tampering, I guess, in different kind of business models, then to see what I could do online.

 and I found myself in 2018 sitting in a, a beautiful house in Guatemala and Antigua [00:03:00] Guatemala, looking after two cats for a New Zealand family, ironically, and realized after about two weeks there that this was it, it was happening. I was. Living my dream without kind of realizing or even really believing, yet that I could do it and, and it was happening already.

So yeah, that's where it kind of started. It makes it easier to believe when it's actually happening. Isn't it, it just kind of snuck up on you. Yeah, I think I like that's one of the points I, talked to is. But like, trust your instincts, go with the instincts. And, even if the belief isn't there yet, and you know, it was literally right there in my face.

I was living it and I still, to that point, hadn't believed it was happening. And probably took me another couple of months to realize, I will say though at that point, I wasn't earning an income online to support myself. But I had put other measures in place by. Working six month contract work at home and then taking the time away and having the pet to incorporate.

So that's when I started sort of dabbling in the business model, online business models. I [00:04:00] started, with network marketing, which actually for me became the massive personal development growth factory, that I never knew I needed. And that's kind of where, where everything that's sprung from then.

After I finished network marketing, a couple years later came outta that business. And by that stage was helping people to, promote themselves on social media, via attraction marketing. So helping people with, with their online marketing people that have businesses. And that's probably where my business, started making money to support myself.

And then I found myself back in New Zealand when the pandemic started, And that kind of gave me a bit of time to start growing my business. And it sort of all went from there. Really . That's amazing. And it's, it's something I think is so important that we, we miss at the beginning stages of our business is, is really taking a step back and going, okay, well, here's my idea for this business, but here's what I, what I'm passionate about.

Here's what I love. Here's what I want my life to look like now, how do I make that part of the plan? And we, we [00:05:00] don't, you know, we start out and we go, well, as long as the business is successful, I'll figure out a way to take. Are all, you know, whatever the thing is, we'll fit that thing in, instead of making it like an integral part of that plan, which you did, which is amazing.

Yeah, absolutely. And when I, I just thought about this the other day now my travel and my lifestyle is the default. I might stress about where I don't know the next client or project is coming from, but regardless I will be getting on that plane and going to where I'm going, because that is the plan and everything else fits around that now, which I think is such a great place to be rather than the, the other way when I was stuck in.

Corporate world and, could barely even take my four weeks holiday year that I was allowed to take. So. Well, and especially when you're starting a business, you know, you're so busy quite often that all of the, the things that you're passionate about, if they're not part of your business, they take a, they take a backseat, right.

There's, you know, I love to travel, but if I'm in, if, if that's not part of my business then, or not part of that plan, then that's gonna get set aside until I have time to do it. [00:06:00] So I kudos to you. Let's talk about how other people can do this.

Maybe their passion isn't travel, but maybe it is. how does someone else, get into a place where they're really, they're building that, that passion into their life and they're, and they're getting away from their desk more for whatever that might happen to be.

How do we start with that? Yeah, I think, it was a long journey for me and, you know, the success doesn't happen overnight. That was four years in the making for me to eventually go full time in my business in, April last year. So just over a year ago now, so that took four, four years of

having. I guess for me, it was having the backup support as well of still having a job. So rewind four or five years ago. the first stages for me was finding flexibility, I guess, in what I could then in the air. So I had a job in corporate world still and I moved that front instead of a permanent position.

I moved into a contract position and took a six month contract. So just finding the places in the industries, I guess, that have that availability for. If, if you can[00:07:00] and then the other part of that flexibility plan was starting to get, pet sitting in house, sitting, jobs locally, where I was living.

So I would go and pet sit and go to work during the day. This is, you know, back in the days before we were working from home. And that sort of started to build up my flexibility in terms. And cash flow actually, too. So I actually eventually gave up my flat that I was renting and I was a full-time pet setter at home.

And went to work, earned some really good money doing contract work and then did that for six months and then went traveling overseas. So the, the online business model, as it is. I actually wasn't even a part of that initial stage. So I think for people, for new business owners, it's finding what you can step by step little by little, 

full-time pet in house sitting is no longer a part of my world. I still do a little bit of it, but it's not full-time for me now. But it was definitely, a step to start. the other thing, I guess when I started my personal development was what that I, Incorporated. And to help me [00:08:00] was, is a model called life by design.

So this is where I was talking about before. It's about putting what we call the big rocks. So the things that are important to you, that you're passionate about, that you must have in your life, regardless of what else is happening. Adding them into your calendar and your schedule, little by little making sure there's some of it each week, each month, to make sure it's gonna happen in the planning stages and then filling in all the other bits around it.

 For people that are really new and still figuring out which, which kind of business or business model. It's so much more available to people now than what it was even five years ago. But definitely like you say, having your own business and you have to be passionate about what you do because it's, it's such a rollercoaster journey.

 To have that vision, to stick to that vision, you need to be passionate about it and also be open to, the ups and the downs, the rollercoaster along the way, like I say, mine's had. Four or four different iterations of what my business was. So my business name is out of office and that I've had that business name the whole [00:09:00] time.

No matter what I was doing because out of office was the end goal, right. For me and for my clients, giving people more time out of office. So, very cool. Yeah. So even when I was. Network marketing. I was in a lifestyle and travel club. So out of office suited really well to that. When I was, helping people with social media marketing out of office suited well to that as well.

Yeah, and now doing what I do, helping online businesses. Get more time out of office which we all need, especially new entrepreneurs, you know, we we're the ones that can maybe least afford to do it. but we need it. We need to step back. Yeah. Yeah. And there's that, funny mean that you see everywhere.

That's like I left my nine to five jobs so that I could work 24, 7 in my own business, which is, is very true. We sometimes it can become the other way, you know? So passionate about what you do. And, I definitely found that during one of the lockdown during the pandemic in New Zealand was I was working from home anyway, so that, you know, when the lockdown was good, it wasn't much different for me.

But obviously, I mean, I couldn't go to the gym or coffees or [00:10:00] meet up with friends. So I literally found myself working all the hours that I was awake, cuz apart from going for a walk around the block, A day. and I actually had to stop myself there and, figure out some other hobbies that I could do, from home to stop myself working, just being in front of the screen, really 12 hours a day.

it was hard. It was hard to, create those boundaries for sure. When, you know, there were no boundaries for, for a while there so, so let's talk about the business side of it then.

You're big on, on nicheing and staying in your own lane. You wanna talk about that a little bit? Yeah. Yeah. So that was a massive part of my business, model in the end. Around the time that the pandemic began, I was working, part-time, that's another way that people can do at least in their hours.

So I was helping some friends with their catering business working 25, 30 hours a week for them. And while I was built, still building my, at the time, social media, Marketing business, when the pandemic hit, and I couldn't work. And so four of my friends, and so I was home for the lockdown. The first lockdown I went right into my [00:11:00] business and that's when I had some business coaching.

I've had business coaching the last three years, but that's when I started working on, right. What is this business? What, what am I doing? It was very broad at the time I was helping, I had basically become a virtual, a. Helping people with sort of anything that they needed. So, I learned the value in kneeing down and, that's when my business really took off.

So I, did some work to figure out what of all the things I was doing. What was I enjoying the most? What kind of clients did I enjoy working with? And, From there, what then, where my service is gonna be. so to start off with, I niche down to pro providing social media marketing, like content creation and scheduling.

Businesses and also then Kajabi. So Kajabi is an online course platform, which, basically exploded during the pandemic due to everyone having to move to an online situation. That is actually not why I niche I niche before that happened, but, but that's definitely helped my business and. I think the important message for people is by not offering [00:12:00] all the services and, coming down to knowing either your niche industry.

So the niche clients that you wanna work with, or the specific niche task that you do for people, At the start, it feels like scarcity. Like you're going to turn people away that because you don't do this other job, but actually what it does is it makes you so, aligned with what you're doing, that everyone knows you and knows what you do.

It also makes you very referable to other people as well. So everyone knows me now as Kajabi, Kate. Especially in New Zealand, 99% of my clients are in New Zealand and I am the go to person basically in New Zealand for anyone that has Cajabi. So, that's really, really helped me. I no longer offer the social media services side.

So I, I did the next step and niche down again. And it's an everyday, like an ongoing journey. I'm still needing like, I'm starting to niche down into certain clients as well. And, and yeah, and based on what I enjoy and, the demand that's out there, but still what I enjoy doing. That's amazing and you're right.

It is counterintuitive. Especially when we start out, we think, [00:13:00] well, I want more customers, so I have to sell to everybody. But what happens is you, you can't speak to everybody because it's, it's just too many people and you get niche down and you can speak in their language and you can talk about their specific problems.

And it's so important. And it's tricky thing, even to convince people, you have this conversation when, when someone's starting a new business and they're adamant that they really wanna offer all things to all people, I think it's a, it's a really important piece for your own.

Mental health as well. When I was offering all the services, I was working all the hours because I was trying to keep up, not only with clients and client inquiries and client work, but also all the different platforms, like when I was working on people that work on social media. No, you're having to keep up with all the changes all the time.

on Facebook, Instagram, everywhere. Yeah, so once I. I literally only have to focus on what Kajabi's doing now. Like I, I have, and it's made me a lot closer to Kajabi the people that work at Kajabi as well, because that, that is my interest. That's what I need to know about because I've become so niche, they reach out to me, to ask me [00:14:00] questions and surveys about what the customers need.

 Things like that as well. Yeah. So it's. It's nice just to have the one focus. , it's a great place to be. I know when I started my promotional products company, it was a very similar experience. I was, I was brand new to the industry, so I didn't know who my clients would be. I didn't even know who to sell to.

I didn't know who would be a good customer. So I was trying to sell to all different industries in all different clients. and it was very much the same thing. It was like, well, if I'm, you know, talking to travel agents, then I have to know about their business. And if I'm talking to ski resorts, I have to know about their business.

And it was exhausting. Yeah. Because you had to be all the things to all the people. And, and once I figured out who the ideal clients were, it just makes it so much easier. You can just become their expert, you know, absolutely. And I think like I was worried, the other thing I was worried about when I niche like that was, if I niche to just working with yoga teachers, you know, why would all the yoga teachers want to work with me because then I am working with their competition.

But people don't see it like that. They see you as the expert. And because you so [00:15:00] expert in one particular niche, they have so much more trust in you as well. Like they, know how to teach yoga. They don't wanna have to deal with their online systems and business and things and take up all their time doing that.

So they'll just hand it to you because they know that that is what you do. And I think, I think you have to just build that trust too at the beginning and that kind of situation, right? I mean, if, you have integrity and you come out of the gate with that every single time, and they know that you are not going to be copying their, you know, Site for someone else or sharing.

Yeah. You know, their information, as soon as that, trust is built, then it becomes a non-issue doesn't it? Yeah. And actually it is an ideal customer point of view too. What actually happens is they are actually all friends and acquaintances and they just all refer them, refer me to each other.

so that is the kind of client I want to work with rather than one that is scarcity minded. Yeah. That's a great, place to be. So other big part of this, that you talk about is having the right support in your corner, which I, I agree is critical in so many ways. So what does that, what does that look [00:16:00] like from your side?

Yeah. So for me from the start I mentioned before that I had some coaching. So like in personal development, I did some group work, with some personal development leaders through to start off with, through the network marketing and then local more locally in my hometown, with a leadership coach, who leadership coach Dole actually is the person who, introduced life by design for me.

So I guess I I'll credit him for everything moving forward. And also I've had a business coach in my coordinator for three, nearly three years now. The same business coach working one to one with her to start off with in a group capacity. And I'm back working one to one with her at the moment. So, so that's one side of it, I guess, having a coach.

And again, it's, , when you're starting out, that's not necessarily something you can afford to spend on. But there are options there for you. So in a group coaching situation, it's a lot cheaper. One to one coaching, and finding the right coach for you as well. There's so many different, you know, life coach, business coach.

My, my business coach now, is really great for keeping me [00:17:00] accountable. Keeping me away from shiny objects, looking at other, other people and other things, and other options. Her tagline is all about imperfect action, which is great for me. and she basically kicks people's butts. So, so she's perfect for me.

I guess the. People kind of groups and thinking about people in your corner are like, what, what groups are you networking with? What, what groups are you hanging out with on Facebook? And not necessarily for networking, but to support you and are they the right groups in your corner? And I think it's, really relevant to mention Facebook groups because, over the pandemic, you know, that has.

A massive part of everyone's lives. While we haven't been able to be in person with, our usual support groups, maybe so, yeah. So just, just knowing you're in the right place for accountability and business growth, the right support. Yeah. And the people that are cheering you on yeah. You're and so important to have that outside perspective, especially from a trusted [00:18:00] source.

I mean, you know, your, your family. Your friends, take it with a grain of salt, cuz they may not be your, if you're, if you're talking marketing, they may not be your ideal audience. Right. It's so hard to step back from your own, your own stuff. Right? You need that, that board of directors or, you know yeah.

I would love to have a board of decision makers. Like I'm terrible at making decisions in my own life, really, for clients easy, but in my own business in life. Not so much. So yeah. Having, having the people at your side and yeah, like I said, it doesn't need to cost a lot of money, just to make, but, but it's really important to make sure it's the right people.

Like you mentioned, as well, another way, actually, during one of the lockdowns, I joined a, a mastermind group, so it was an. Group of people from all different kinds of businesses and industries and with a, a person cheering and leading it. And that was really good too, when, while we couldn't network in person with people because, like you, I love entrepreneurship and business as well.

So that was something that I just still needed to be amongst during that time, Yeah, it's so powerful. We had, mentoring [00:19:00] groups, a few months ago and we, we had people from all different, you know, we had Sandra was in the group and she's in roofing. And then we had, who does communications and I found it was so incredibly valuable because you have.

A completely different perspective on your problem. Everybody's bringing a different skill set and, even if, and, and especially if right, somebody's not in your industry, how great to get their insight and maybe they're coming from a operations background and they've got some really great insight on your processes.

Or maybe they've, I mean, it's, it's really valuable tool to get in in a month. Other entrepreneurs like. Yeah, cuz I think too, once you've, been in your own business for a little bit, you are very down in the weeds of your business. You know, you are in, in the daily operation and sometimes it can be hard to come back out and have that umbrella view of your, of your business.

And what, like for me, example, for example, right now, this is why I'm back working one to one with my business coach, because I'm starting to think about the next growth or move of my business. And, and [00:20:00] she's great because she's can give me the overview. She's very. Truthful to me and realistic as well.

And, but also I think for me, it's about, she knows how far she can stretch me. You know, she, she knows how to challenge me and push me. And when I'm in my comfort zone, for example, right now, I'm in. Nicaragua traveling, working online, but this now is my comfort zone. Like this isn't the norm for me now.

 So yeah, I can sit in one place and just have enough clients and enough cash coming in. She's like, what's next though? What's happening in five years, time what's happening in, which is really good. Yeah. To have that future vision. And, like I say, the life by design helps having those big pinpoints put in the calendar, for the next six months.

Is really good, but, yeah. Having someone to keep moving you along, pushing you along for that, , that's great is really important. That's great. And we touched on this briefly, but you are, you are a big believer that, Even if you can't see the end results that you can still make decisions on somewhat on instinct, Yeah. And instinct[00:21:00] is something, I guess you, if you don't already, then you really just need to learn to trust it as part of that journey. It's it. Yeah. Being such a big learning curve for me, like I say, when I was in Guatemala that first year of basically traveling summer to summer living the life before I even was ready for it, or knew that it was happening, yeah.

It like, even the day that I realized that that was happening, it still took me some time after that to go, okay, this is, you know, because the negative in your brain is telling you, but this is just, you're just traveling. Like this is you've, this is a trip you've done lots of trips before. And like, this probably won't happen next year.

How is this gonna happen? How, you know, I'd given up my house, to packed up my house to go away, which is what I do every year now. So I even right now, I have no idea when I, I don't even know when I'm returning to New Zealand, although it will be for summer. I don't know where I'm gonna live. Like, I don't have a house right now, but I know my instincts tell me it will work out because it has every other time.

Things will start falling into place and, the life by design can carry on, on track. that's great. So before [00:22:00] we, before we tie up here, I would love to know what is your best. Bit of advice for entrepreneurs just starting out their journey and it could be something somebody told you or something you've learned along the way.

What would you tell them? Yeah, I think what we were just talking about having the belief in an instinct it's, It's, it's really hard to tell somebody to do that. You know, it's such everything in business is such a personal journey. You can do all the online training courses and, have all the coaching and, listen to all the podcasts that you want.

This is what my coach would call shiny objects is when you're starting to do that, to find validation elsewhere. When you actually in your gut, know what, what you need to be doing. So it's, it's the tiny step by steps, like making the decision today for tomorrow, setting, you know, the, the plans and goals in place.

Not really detailed because you know, things change like who could have known a pandemic was gonna happen. But, having something there to look forward to something, to work towards surrounding yourself by those groups, and I guess, I have the belief that [00:23:00] business is 90% mindset and 10% of the skill that you have.

So, and this, this covers things like boundaries, personal boundaries, business boundaries, working with your ideal clients in the journey that that takes to get to their, the money mindset. That we never knew we had until we need to . And it's all part of that roller coaster that I, that I was talking to.

So yeah, the instinct in trusting your own gut is, is the, the thing that should be at the top of everything else that you do. Because I can tell you exactly what to do to have a successful business, but actually you need to have your own journey to get to that point. You can't. Yeah, you can shortcut it for sure.

But you know, having these kind of convers listening to these kind of conversations and learning from other people's mistakes, but I definitely, it's not gonna avoid you from having your own mistakes and, and lumpy bumpy journeys. it's so true. It's so true. We can avoid the, the mistakes they made, but you're still gonna, you're still gonna make your own.

And I agree a hundred percent of the mindset because if you have the right mindset, Then you believe you can find the tools and the skills that [00:24:00] you need to do the thing. So yeah. Eventually you'll get there. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's the thing too, is, um, when we are starting out our own businesses, of course you need to learn some things, that you don't know everything about having the online business, but, 

Making sure it's the right resources that you're spending your time on. Not shiny objects to get the quick success overnight type things. So you've got some, a couple of great resources online.

Can you tell us a little bit about that? Yeah, sure. So I help business owners to get their sort of systems and processes, all put together and working for them so that they can have, less time, less tech issues, less time spent trying to figure that out, fixing things, or doing things manually themselves, and then more time out of office.

So if anyone is interested in having a chat with me about. Detangling their systems and processes, or even getting them set in place from the start then I have a free 30 minute call, on my website, it's called a Kodo call, which, because I'm from New Zealand, this is a Ted Maori word for a chat.[00:25:00] 

So, if you find that you can book that that's a 30 minute call. And the other thing, the other sort. Great piece that I have for people. It's just a really short read is an, an ebook, about delegation. So you'll get to a certain point in your business and, and even then it's, you know about the belief.

You probably need it before you realize that you need it, but delegation in your business is, gonna become really important in everyone's business, whether it's, delegating the tasks that you don't want to do in your own business or, requir. Other skills to join your business. So I have a little, little short ebook that's called ready, set delegate, and it just helps people to understand what and how they can delegate and when might be the right time for them to do that as well, because, delegation frees up your time as well, to get more time out of office.

Yeah. And usually the key to the, the next step of growth too. Right. If you're stuck and you're finding you can't seem to grow often, that's what you're missing is freeing up that time to work on your business instead of in your business for a change. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And it's the book I wrote after, my own, you know, [00:26:00] journey with it.

I always believed that I would be a solo entrepreneur work for myself. No one else didn't want to employ anybody. Didn't want to have to become a boss or deal with HR or anything like that. But that was quite a fixed mindset, that I didn't understand. All the, the scope and the availability to me, that didn't mean I have to hire anybody or be the HR person.

So, yeah. And it's just been, it's been a really big game changer in my business now. You know, I could actually on the top of my head, I couldn't even tell you. I think I have. Five people that work in my business now, and, and it's because I don't think of them as employees are literally team members that are helping my business to grow, which is really great.

 And they're far better than me at most of the jobs. So it's, it's been a, it's been awesome to have them on board. That's the key, isn't it? One year of doing my own taxes and filing them to decide, to bring on a bookkeeper and accountant. And that definitely was my first delegation in my business. Yeah. Yeah. So that's in my business. And then I also have, people that help me in my business.

I have a social media person that does my social media now, too, even though I [00:27:00] used to do that for clients that frees out my time, which is amazing. That's something that I held onto for far too long. And then I have others that help me with my client's work now as well, which, they're so awesome.

They're super speedy and, and amazing. And they come. Even better ideas and refreshed, opportunity and knowledge as well, which, is just something that I, I guess when you go into thinking who you need and the task that you need them to do, it's, it's, wasn't even on my radar that actually they could do even more for me than that.

yeah, no, that's amazing. Okay. So we've got both of those, on the show notes. So if you're, if you're listening on a platform that doesn't show the show notes, you can always pop over to one step empire.com. That's the podcast website one step empire.com. And we've got the links there to both of those resources, to the website for the call and to the ebook.

And, that's a great way to get in touch with Kate as well. So we'll have that for you on the show notes. Thank you so much for being with us Kate today. Uh, This is fantastic information for anybody and like say, you know, help them get away from their desk, help them build their, their [00:28:00] passions into their business, but all sorts of other great tips as well, just for building any business.

So I really appreciate you being on the podcast with us. Thank you so much for having me. It's really good. Fun. I love talking about business and lifestyle. we'll speak to you soon. Thanks, bye.