Interested in learning more about taking your community digital (and monetizing it?)
- Jessica shares Groundswell’s experience pivoting to an online, digital membership the second her doors closed. The digital membership levels mirrored her physical membership tiers, but added unique value to her members beyond the one-size-fits-all Zoom webinars model.
- How Jess knew where to start and how to act quickly to make a transition from physical to virtual.
- Why this is the perfect time to craft and test a digital membership
- How digital memberships can help you to serve more entrepreneurs without expanding your physical space.
- Why scaling doesn’t HAVE to look like additional physical locations.
Grab our resources at coworkinggoesdigital.com!
For the full show notes click here
If you are working on opening a coworking space, the single most important step you can take to ensure your success is to determine very precisely the profile of your target member. If you do that, and then make all following decisions based on that profile, then you are set up for success.
If you already operate a coworking space, your target member has been tested. This is a great time to ask yourself:
Have you attracted your target member or sort of a mish-mash of profiles? Are you happy with your membership make-up? Or is this an opportunity to clarify your target member and re-enter the market with a crystal-clear offering and messaging? Is your target member as profitable as you need them to be to make your business sustainable?
For the full show notes click here
Stew grew up near Seattle with a love of working on cars...but not outside in the driveway during rainy season....and storing all the tools was becoming an issue...so he created Stew's Self-Service Garage.
Stew’s Self Service Garage is your oasis in the middle of an auto repair desert. Fix your car yourself, save money, and Be Your Own Mechanic!
Stew shares his story, details about his business model and his plans for the future.
For the full show notes click here
This episode talks about:
Larry's case studies of the purpose-driven ecosystems he's helped to facilitate in Chicago, are some of the most inspiring stories I've heard yet around the significant outcomes that can be achieved by bringing the right communities of people together.
For the full show notes click here.
It's important to continue the conversation on the Coronavirus. Let's talk about:
For the full blog post that corresponds with this episode, click here.
Don is an OG in the coworking world. He co-founded COCO Coworking and Fueled Collective.
He's now working on select strategic projects, one of them being the Pro platform offered by LIquidSpace.
More large employers are embracing coworking, but they don't approach their space search the same way that small businesses do.
Someone in corporate real estate may place 20 teams across the country. They need a one-stop platform to find space for all of their needs vs. working one-to-one with independent operators.
LiquidSpace Pro aggregates independent operators, giving them access to the enterprise demand and making it easy for the enterprise customers to find great, local space for their employees.
Flip Howard ran a dry cleaning business at SMU out of an executive suite office. He thought that business looked a lot more interesting than the dry cleaning business.He sold that business to the guy that went on to create Tom's shoes!
Today Flip has over 20 locations and 70 employees, including several "lifers" to whom he credits much of the brands success. "The team is everything," Flip declared in our conversation. He shares his team structure both at the location level and centrally.
Flip also shares his experience surviving 2 recessions and a recent re-brand. He also shares his unique approach to winning in a crowded Dallas market.
For the full show notes click here.
When operators/owners hire Community Managers, they have often been running the space themselves for some time and get really anxious about replacing themselves with someone who cares as much as they do about the business.
One way to align interests is to create a bonus structure that rewards the community manager based on revenue, or memberships closed. On this episode, I consider the Community Manager role and determine what type of compensation structure aligns well with the responsibilities of the typical Community Manager.
Selling 5/10 Day membership passes can be dangerous to your coworking business...specifically your bottom line.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Why we are tempted to sell uber flexible memberships
- The math that makes them dangerous
- When there's a time and a place for very "light" membership options
For the full show notes click here.
Dan Zakai has been busy. He co-founded the first Mindspace location in 2014 and has grown the brand to 30 locations across multiple countries over the past 6 years.
He shares:
- His vision for the business as they opened their first location and how that's evolved
- How he thinks 2020 will play out for the coworking industry
- What it's like to operate a team across multiple countries
- How Europe and the U.S. coworking markets are different
- How they are leveraging management agreements to continue their profitable growth
- And more...
View the full show notes here
What's the goal of focusing on the right things in your coworking business in 2020?
1. Get more members
2. Keep more members
3. Make a bigger impact and meet your financial goals
In this episode, Jamie Russo provides a detailed walkthrough of the five things you can focus on in your business this year to get results.
1. Creating systems in your business that help you to consistently hit the fundamentals that drive your business forward
2. Training and developing your team so that you can work "on" the business while they work "in the business," and so that you can support their professional development and retain your strong team, longer.
3. Getting found first! Consistently focusing on local search will help you get found first so that you can get potential members through your door and wow them with your tour.
For the full show notes click here
Kevin Whelan's goal is to help coworking spaces get full, faster.
Kevin leverages his deep marketing and industry expertise to share his advice on how we can drive greater success by starting with the basics and following a consistent process in designing our marketing plans.
Kevin walks through his 5 step framework. We talk about the temptation to take the "fire, aim, ready" approach in our businesses and how that's sometimes OK if we circle back and root ourselves in a consistent process.
Make sure to access Kevin's interactive marketing plan worksheet at www.everspaces.com/plan.
Jamie Orr co-founded Cowork Tahoe in 2014. After buying a building, expanding that space and settling into life as a coworking space operator in South Lake Tahoe, a town of 30,000 and home to Heavenly Mountain, a Vail Resort, she decided that she wasn't satisfied with her abiity to serve her members with the coworking technology then available.
Drawing from her Silicon Valley roots, she decided to design and build a new app to suit her vision. She found a CTO in a Cowork Tahoe member (talk about serendipty!) and they launched the beta at the end of 2018.
In this episode, she talks about how her mobile-first app allows her to serve her members and gives her more flexibility as an operator, and how she's going out on a limb to serve the niche coworking operators that offer childcare services.
Some community evolves through serendipitous interactions. Most community is facilitated and intentionally developed. Hosting the right member events is one of the best ways that we can help our coworking communities develop meaningful, authentic relationships.
In this episode, I go through a framework for developing your member events program including when to host events and what to host in order to drive maximum participation.
For the Full Show Notes Click here
Javier studied mechanical engineering in college but after graduation went straight into the family real estate business and started a shared office space. Javier has been doing this for awhile but "old school" is the last phrase you'd use to describe the IOS team.
Javier and his brother left their HQ franchise after 10 years to start their own brand. Twelve years later, they now have 35 locations across Mexico and 20,000 members.
They publish their own magazine and they are the largest Herman Miller customer in Mexico.
The IOS brand specializes in delivering high-end workspaces, best-in-class hospitality and an authentic, connected community.
Javier reflects that ours is one of the most demanding service businesses. Unlike a hotel or a restaurant where a customer will have a few moments of interaction, the IOS staff has "hundreds of moments of truth each day" with their members.
We talk about:
Aine Rock, CEO at Healthy Living with Aine gives us some tips for kicking off the New Year.
We talk about:
- The magical space between hustle and flow
- Why entrepreneurs (and people in general) so drawn to hustle....and why we would be well-served to find more flow
- Some of the interventions/routines that Aine uses to help people integrate into their lives to be more balanced
- Morning routines to help find intentional balance
For the full show notes of this episode, click here.
Casey Godwin gives us a detailed walkthrough through the elements of a proposal for a commercial office space and his advice on watch-out points.
We talk about:
- The process of creating a proposal before going into lease negotiations.
- The elements included in the proposal
- The things the landlord will care a lot about and the things that you (the lessee) should care a lot about
- Casey’s recommended watch-outs based on his experience
- Common area factor, lease commencement date, abated rent, exclusive use, triple net vs. full service lease, signage, parking, security deposits and more.
For the full show notes of this episode, click here.
The guest in Episode 129 of the Everything Coworking Podcast guest is Kane Willmott, Co-Founder and CEO of iQ Offices.
In this episode, we talk about:
- Why brokers can be a lead source for coworking spaces
- Kane’s background as a broker
- An overview of IQ Offices
- How Kane got started and where he is today
- The WIFM for brokers sending leads to coworking spaces - Why should a broker choose to work with a coworking operator instead of creating their own brand within their building?
- How to find brokers and develop relationships with them - When brokers are not a fit for your space
- The core elements of creating a broker program for your space
For the full show notes of this episode, click here.
The guest in Episode 128 of the Everything Coworking Podcast guest is Melanie Marconi, Co-Founder of VIDA: Make Life/Work & Co-founder of BDI Development Group.
We talk about:
- Her coworking story and background.
- Who she sees as her ideal member.
- Her unique approach to offering drop in childcare at her coworking space.
- Her advice for those also looking to offer these services.
- Her biggest challenges when it comes to balancing her work and personal life.
For the full show notes, click here.
The guests in Episode 127 of the Everything Coworking Podcast are Greg Copeland and Mercedes Howard. They are directors on CORT’s Strategic Business Development Team.
We Talk About:
- The brands of furniture they recommend for coworking spaces.
- Their expert opinions on if you should buy or lease furniture when it comes to your coworking space.
- They also answer questions around space planning, removing furniture, and the benefits of leasing furniture.
For the full show notes, click here.
Everything Coworking Featured Resources:
Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space
Creative Coworking Partnerships: How to negotiate and structure management agreements from the landlord and operator perspective
Resources mentioned in this Podcast:
The guest in Episode 126 of the Everything Coworking Podcast guest is Jessica Oldani, President of Oldani Entrepreneurial Law P.C.
We talk about:
For the full show notes, click here.
The guest in Episode 125 of the Everything Coworking Podcast guest is Bryce Hill, Community Manager for Office Evolution in Denver, CO.
We talk about:
- His background before joining Office Evolution.
- What led him to join Office Evolution.
- The mission of Office Evolution and why they are unique. We discuss everything from the memberships they offer to the assorted tasks they use to build community.
- How his role looked when he started at Office Evolution and how the role has evolved over time.
- What a typical day or week looks like for him.
- What he considers to be the hardest part of his job and the most rewarding part of his job.
- The advice he has for other community managers in order to help make them successful.
For the full show notes, click here.
The guest in Episode 124 of the Everything Coworking Podcast is Jennifer Easton, Vice President of Marketing at the International WELL Building Institute.
We talk about:
- She explains what WELL it is and who it aims to serve.
- What new and exciting things are going on at WELL.
- Why their CORE Certification sets them apart.
- What Wellv2 is and how an improved building can help people thrive.
- How my own coworking experience as remote staff for IWBI, from the perspective of someone working in wellness, helps me relate to their mission.
- The "high impact" areas of WELL/wellness strategies coworking spaces need to consider.
- Why building owners will find it beneficial to pursue WELL.
- The building owners who are eligible to apply for the WELL certification. In our industry, we talk a lot about building owners shifting their perspective on their assets from commodities that attract people to long-term leases to activated platforms for tenant engagement. She shares why this shift in the expectations of the contributions that an office building makes to its tenants is creating demand for the WELL certification.
For the full show notes, click here.
Today’s guest is Lorena Solis, Regional Manager of IOS Offices in Mexico in Guadalajaro.
- Her background before she joined IOS OFFICES and explored coworking.
- What motivated her to join IOS OFFICES.
- What IOS OFFICES is. She shares everything from the size of their spaces to the unique things they do to help boost member engagement! She also touches on their ideal audience as well as their practices for staffing offices.
- What her role looked like when she started and how that has evolved over time. She also shares the responsibilities she had when she started and how her role evolved over time.
- What a typical day in her life or week look like for her current role in IOS OFFICES.
- What she considers to be the hardest part about her job.
- The most rewarding aspect of her job.
- The advice she would give to operators hiring their first community manager.
For the full show notes, click here.