What Is An Escapepreneur™? The Story Behind the Word "Escapepreneur™" and Why I Created It

An Escapepreneur™ is a person who chooses to escape the ordinary and build a passion-based business that gives them the freedom to live an extraordinary life on their own terms. The term was coined by Karen King, an Australian entrepreneur who in 2016 sold her business, her home, and almost everything she owned to travel the world full time with her family. Where most people wait for someday, an Escapepreneur™ decides to stop waiting ™and start building a life they actually want — now. This is the story behind that word, and why it exists.

You didn’t land here by accident.

You’re probably tired.
Tired of hustling.
Tired of starting and stopping.
Tired of wondering if you’ve somehow missed your chance at the life you wanted.

You’ve done a lot of things “right.”
You’ve built a career, maybe a business, carried the load for everyone around you.
From the outside, it looks fine.
Inside, it feels… off.

You want more freedom.
More choice.
More days that actually feel like your life, not just groundhog day.

For years, I was in that same in-between place.
I was striving to build a better life... but never quite getting there.

Always waiting for someday... when I'd finally "make it"!

Until one day I decided to stop waiting and start living my dreams... now!

I didn't want to wake up at 80, look back at my life and regret my choices.

That’s where the word Escapepreneur™ came from.
This is the story behind it, and why it matters for you.

The Drawing That Woke Me Up

My wake-up call came on an ordinary day.

My daughter was three. She came home from kindergarten, bounced over to me, and handed me a drawing she’d made.

It was bright and messy and beautiful in that way only kids’ art can be.

At the top, with help from her teachers, she’d written:

“My mum’s favourite thing to do on the weekend is sleep.”

I had a very successful cake decorating business at the time.

I was working long hours, six days a week.

By Sunday, I was exhausted.
My body hurt.
My brain was done.

So yes. On the weekend, I slept.

But reading that sentence on my daughter’s drawing broke me. And tears started streaming down my face.

I realized that while working so hard to build a life we'd enjoy someday, I was missing out on everything that I already had.

And it was in that moment, I realized I wasn’t happy.

I was missing time with my kids.

I didn’t have any energy left to actually enjoy the life I was working so hard to build.

I was tired of the groundhog day existence... the same day on rinse and repeat with little time to actually enjoy the life we were living.

surely there was more to life than this?

That drawing was the first crack in the “everything’s fine” story.

The Plane, the Blank Page, and a Question That Changed Everything

Realizing that something had to change, we booked a seven-week vacation.

A chance to reconnect as a family.

A chance to breath again.

To have some fun!

I thought it would be a break.
It turned out to be a turning point.

On a flight from Bolivia to Peru, I opened a book I’d been meaning to read: The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss.

In the first chapter, he asks a simple question:

If money was no object, what would you do with the rest of your life?

I stared at a blank piece of paper.

Nothing came out at first.

I realized I couldn’t think of anything because I was completely out of touch with what I loved.

I had no hobbies.

No real interests outside of work and being a mum.

My entire identity had become “business owner” and “mother,” and there was no space left for me.

Eventually, two things appeared on the page:

• Travel.

• Help people.

That was it.

I kept reading and came across a phrase I’d never heard before:

Location independence.

The idea that you could build a business and a life that weren’t tied to one place.

Working on your laptop from anywhere in the world that you can access wifi!

That phrase flipped a switch in my brain.
I realized I didn’t actually want “more success” in the way I’d been chasing it.

I wanted freedom...

Freedom to rest.
Freedom to be with my kids while they were still little.
Freedom to choose where and how we lived.

On that plane, my life quietly changed direction. And I didn't even know it!

From Cake Business to Worldschooling Central

Of course, an idea is one thing.

Changing your whole life, and going against everything society says you should do to be happy is whole other thing.

When I told my husband I wanted to sell everything and travel the world full time...

He almost fell over.

His first question was completely fair:

“What about the kids’ education?”

At the time, our kids were three and ten.

That’s when we discovered a new word: worldschooling - educating through travel. Learning from the world instead of just from a classroom.

The idea felt impossible and obvious at the same time.

So we did something most people thought was crazy.

We spent 2015 selling the cake business.
Selling our home.
Selling almost everything we owned.

In January 2016, we headed off.

We didn’t fully know what we were doing.
We just knew we wanted a different kind of life together.

I was blown away by what we’d stumbled into.

The freedom.
The joy.
The time with our kids.
The way our days suddenly felt like they belonged to us.

At the end of our first year, as we celebrated Christmas in Nanjing, China, (with our tiny little tree and Santa Photos with some random guy in a store dressed as Santa) it hit me that for the first time in my life I felt like I'd TRULY lived.

12 countries, incredible adventures, spending less than we'd spent living a "normal life" in Australia.

I wanted everyone to know this was possible. That there was a different way.

And that’s how Worldschooling Central was born.

At first, it was a way to introduce the concept to other families.
Over time, it grew into something bigger.

In 2019, we spent the year building Worldschooling Central into a company that hosted guided traveling communities in incredible destinations around the world.

We hosted two trips that year, to Indonesia and Egypt. And it was truly incredible.

So in 2020 we planned more trips - 8 trips with families all over the globe.

The first, In May 2020, to China.

And then Covid hit.

Almost overnight, travel stopped. The world shut down.

Worldschooling Central, as we had designed it, esentially disappeared!

We had to pivot... quickly.

The Launch of Gold Star Pro

When travel shut down, I leaned on another part of my skill set.

For years, I had worked with small business owners, helping them with systems and automation.

So I went back to that.

But this time, I saw it more clearly than ever:

Everything was too complicated.
Too many tools.
Too many subscriptions.
Not nearly enough support.

Small business owners were drowning in tech.

Out of that, Gold Star Pro was born.

Gold Star Pro is where I began working with small business owners to build their business inside one all-in-one software, with a level of support I hadn’t seen in the tech world before.

We grew through referrals.
I looked after my customers.
They told their friends, family, and audience.

Four years on, we were still traveling as a family.
My travel passion was still there, but it was sitting in the background.

I realized something important:

I didn’t just want to help people run a business.
I wanted to help them launch one that actually gave them freedom.

I wanted them to have the freedom to choose how they lived.

That’s when it clicked.

Worldschooling Central showed me what a freedom lifestyle could look like.
Gold Star Pro showed me how much people needed simple, supported systems.

I wanted one umbrella where all of that could live together.

Escapepreneur™ Definition (Official)

Escapepreneur™ [es-kape-pruh-nur]
A person who chooses to escape the ordinary, and turn their passion into a business that gives them the freedom to live an extraordinary life they love.

Escapepreneur™ is the term I coined for the person who wants a freedom business that supports a real, grounded freedom lifestyle.

Not just “an entrepreneur.”
Not just “someone who wants freedom.”

Someone who looks at her life and quietly thinks,
“Surely this is not all there is.”

What It Really Means to Be an Escapepreneur™

Let’s bring this down to real life.

An Escapepreneur™ is:

A person who chooses to escape the ordinary and build a business that gives them more freedom in their everyday life.
Someone who is done living the same week on repeat.
A person who decides to stop talking about “one day” and start taking simple steps now.

It’s not about quitting your job overnight.
It’s not about “leaping and the net will appear.”

It’s about asking:

What if my business could support a life I actually love, instead of just adding more chaos to the one I already have?

Being an Escapepreneur™ looks like:

Choosing one clear freedom business instead of juggling five ideas.
Building simple systems that work on tired days, not just ideal days.
Letting your passion matter, without sacrificing your sanity or your income.
Putting freedom and peace on the list, not at the very bottom of it.

Freedom Lifestyle vs Escape Fantasy

There’s a lot of noise online about quitting everything and moving to a beach.

That’s not what I mean when I talk about a freedom lifestyle.

A real freedom lifestyle is quieter and more grounded:

Having enough control over your time to rest when you’re tired.
Being able to say yes or no without panic.
Doing work that feels like you, inside a business that actually fits your life.

A real freedom business doesn’t demand every ounce of your energy.
It supports the life you want outside of work.

That’s the heart of being an Escapepreneur™.

Who I Created The Escapepreneur™ For

I didn’t create The Escapepreneur™ for “everyone who wants freedom.”

I created it for you if:

You’re in midlife, and your life on paper looks fine.
You’ve started or half-started more projects than you can count.
You feel embarrassed by all the things you haven’t finished.
You’re tired of shiny promises from people whose lives look nothing like yours.
You’re scared you’ll wake up in ten years and realize nothing really changed.

You’re not lazy.
You’re tired of trying to build your escape on top of a life that already drains you.

Being an Escapepreneur™ is about changing that pattern and building your own version of a freedom lifestyle on your terms.

Why the Blog Is Called “No More Somedays”

This blog, No More Somedays, is where I write for you as the person you are right now.

Not the version of you with the perfect morning routine.
Not the version of you who has everything figured out.

You, today.

Here you’ll find:

Honest stories about what this really looks like in midlife.
Simple, practical steps instead of complicated strategies.
Calm, grounded encouragement that you are not too late.
Real talk about money, time, energy, and freedom without shame.

My goal is not to flood you with more ideas.

My goal is to help you choose.

Your Invitation

If you’ve read this far and you feel a small “oh…” in your chest, pay attention to that.

You might already be an Escapepreneur™.
You just haven’t called yourself one yet.

So here’s your invitation:

Start seeing yourself as the person who gets to choose differently.
Let go of the belief that you are behind.
Commit to one simple freedom business path that feels honest for you.

No one is coming to rescue your time for you.
But you also don’t have to burn your whole life down to change it.

You can escape the ordinary in small, steady, practical steps.

That’s what an Escapepreneur™ does.

And from here on, you don’t have to figure it out alone.

Frequently Asked Questions About Escapepreneur™

What is an Escapepreneur?

An Escapepreneur™ is a person who chooses to escape the ordinary and turn their passion into a business that gives them the freedom to live an extraordinary life they love. It is not about quitting everything overnight. It is about building a business that supports a real, grounded freedom lifestyle — one where you have genuine control over your time, your income, and how you spend your days.

Who coined the term Escapepreneur™?

Escapepreneur™ was coined by Karen King, founder of the Escapepreneur™ brand. Karen created the term in 2016 after leaving a successful but exhausting cake decorating business in Australia to travel the world full time with her family. The word captures the decision she made — and that she helps others make — to stop settling for ordinary and start building a life worth living.

What is a freedom business?

A freedom business is a business deliberately designed to support your life rather than consume it. It generates income without demanding every ounce of your energy, and it gives you genuine flexibility over when, where, and how you work. For an Escapepreneur, the business is the vehicle — freedom is the destination.

What is the difference between an entrepreneur and an Escapepreneur?

A traditional entrepreneur builds a business to grow it. An Escapepreneur™ builds a business to free themselves. The goal is not scale for its own sake — it is a life with more choice, more time, and more days that actually feel like yours. The business exists to support that life, not replace it.

What is the Escapepreneur™ community?

The Escapepreneur™ community is built around The Escape Club, a membership for people who are ready to stop talking about someday and start building their freedom business. Members get access to coaching, support, and ESC Hub — an all-in-one business software platform built specifically for online entrepreneurs. Together they provide everything needed to go from idea to a business that actually runs.