Coworking With Iris

In this episode, I speak with included.co founder, Hector Kolonas, about the Sanitary Sanity campaign, why it matters and how coworking spaces can get involved.

What do periods, tampons and coworking have in common? About 1,000,000 human beings. That’s the average number of people with periods who will be coworking worldwide by the end of 2019.

The included.co network has partnered with Women Who Cowork in building a campaign to provide access to period products to every member of a coworking space, worldwide. Dubbed the Sanitary Sanity campaign, the goal is to empower coworking operators to provide these products in a cost-effective way and to display them openly, thus normalizing the topic of periods and making people with periods feel included in the space.

In this episode I speak with Katharine Chestnut, the founder and Chief Community Officer of Alkaloid Networks in Atlanta, GA as well as the Founder of the Atlanta Coworking Alliance. Katharine is a marketing pro with 30+ years of experience in face-to-face marketing, writing and mentoring. We spoke about how Katharine was discouraged before opening her space because the information she found all said that she would not be profitable, and then happily surprised to find herself hitting the black within her first few months. She talks about why you need to write a marketing plan and shares her experience on being a female founder in the coworking movement and launching the Atlanta Coworking Alliance.

Dr. Jamie Orr is a theoretical physicist, mother, female entrepreneur and co-founder of South Lake Tahoe’s first coworking space. Recently, Jamie has been leading the development of the new mobile-based coworking management platform, JellySwitch.

Jamie and I spoke about building a coworking community as transplants to a remote vacation destination, living life true to her values, building a community from scratch in a remote location, the challenges she has faced as a female entrepreneur and operator and her newest endeavor, JellySwitch, which allows operators to run their space in real-time from their smartphone.

Cobot is the oldest SAAS coworking software platform on the market. Designed by coworking owners to manage their space, it was designed to keep the members in mind since day one. I chat with Thilo Utke about the software, get the DL on functionality and get answers to your questions.

Kowrk provides a listing platform for shared work spaces and connects coworkers with over 100 spaces in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Cambodia. I talk with Founder, Honey Kathuria about Kowrk’s platform, the state of Coworking in South and Southeast Asia and the Future of Work.

The Digital Nest provides tech training, job skills and a safe community place to low-income youth ages 12-24. I talk with founder, Jacob Martinez, about providing these free services to 800+ members.

Building a good team is important for any business. Building a team who exemplifies your values and brand promise as a coworking space is crucial to your success and sustainability. In this episode I walk through my hiring process, breaking it down into manageable chunks to empower owners to build the best team for your coworking brand.

Ian Stock has been a coworking space member since 2008 and has provided legal services to coworking owners and operators. We will talk about the needs of start-up spaces, stock options, partner agreements and how to make those dreaded Terms and Conditions more friendly and collaborative.

The Global Directory of Women Owned Coworking Spaces was created by Laura Shook in Honour of International Coworking Day. We talk about creating this resource and why she thinks the Coworking movement has been largely driven by women.

I'm chatting with Cohere Madame, Angel Kwiatkowski about building and sustaining a small coworking space, DIY everything, and her latest project, launching a rehearsal space for musicians.