Everything Coworking

This week I share my framework and process for hiring a community manager including:

• Job description
• Where to post
• How to easily weed out the duds
• Screening/interview process
• The offer letter
• Industry salary benchmarks 
• Training your new manager

Full show notes are here.

Steve King is a well-known voice in the coworking industry. He publishes the annual Coworking Forecast. He studies small business trends including the growth of freelancing and the gig economy. While studying the impact of coworking on business networks, he discovered that one of the important impacts of coworking is that it makes people less lonely. 

An excerpt from Steve's Harvard Business Review article:

"According to Vivek Murthy, the former Surgeon General of the United States, increasing numbers of remote and independent “gig economy” workers is one of the key reasons for the growing 'loneliness epidemic'. Murthy also points out that loneliness is much more than just a social problem. It’s also a health problem, 'associated with a reduction in lifespan similar to that caused by smoking 15 cigarettes a day and even greater than that associated with obesity.'"

...."Our research on coworking spaces show that these shared, member-based workspaces where remote corporate workers, startup employees, freelancers, and others “work alone together” can substantially reduce the isolation and loneliness associated with remote work."

Steve and I discuss his research and his bet that corporate lawyers will soon be telling HR to reduce their risk of lawsuits by handing out coworking stipends.

This topic came up in one of my Flight Groups this month - as a new entrepreneur, how do you know if you're doing the right things and getting enough done? No boss = no clear feedback loop. 

Probably one of the biggest mindset challenges of being an entrepreneur is doing less busy work and doing more of what matters.

This week we talk about a few ways to make sure you're working on the right stuff.

Full Show Notes Here

In this episode, Nick Clark shares his journey from signing traditional leases to partnering with Granite Properties to do a 30,000 square foot space in a large redevelopment, to developing his "Offspitality" approach to flexible office space, to buying a coffee shop to support that strategy.

Full Show Notes Here

In this episode, I talk to Ryan Hoopes, Senior Associate at Real Estate Services firm Colliers International. He also co-founded the firm’s global flexible workspace advisory practice.

Ryan talks through the evolution of the landlord approach to flexible workspace...and how we’re just at the beginning of an evolution of the landlord/flex workspace operator relationship.

Full Shote Notes Here

I met Jamie Orr last April on a visit to take advantage of some fresh snow at Heavenly Mountain on the south side of Lake Tahoe. Dreaming of moving to the mountains and working out of a great coworking space, I had to take a tour. After hearing her story, I knew she had to be a guest on the podcast because her journey touched on many of the same questions that my audience is trying to understand.

1. How do you test the demand for a market?
2. How do you succeed in a smaller market of say, 20,000 people?
3. What’s it like to buy a building and run a space in it?

Jamie shares many insights from her team’s experiences, including a pilot project ski-in-ski-out coworking space at Heavenly Mountain!

Full Show Notes Here

In this episode, I share highlights from the latest Global Coworking forecast by Emergent Research.

Overall, no major surprises, just affirmation that the growth in both supply and demand for coworking continues at a rapid clip - about 16% on the supply side and almost 24% on the demand side.

Looking for other industry data? Try these sources:

1. Industry Data Source: DeskMag annual Survey
2. Industry Data Source: Executive Summary for GWA Annual Survey
3. Industry Data Source: Instant Offices 2017 Flexible Workplace Market Review

Full Show Notes Here.

Full Show Notes Here

It’s the season of thinking about new beginnings and how to be a better you in 2018.

I read a book over the Thanksgiving break that I could not put down and I literally wanted to send it to all of my coworking friends. So I thought I should share it on the Podcast and do an episode on top 5 list of coworking books for coworking space owners, managers, etc. to read.

These books did not come out in 2017, nor are the ideas in these books are not necessarily new, but taken in the context of coworking, can help you think differently about your business, use better language to talk about your business and your “why” and to consider how you might do things differently in your business in 2018.

These books are all available on Audible as well which is a great app for buying and listening to audio books. Sometimes that’s the only reading time that I have. The trade-off is you can’t take notes and highlight sections that you want to go back to, but if it’s the only way to get through a book, I say make the trade-off.

Full Show Notes Here

This week, my guest is Nick Livigne. Besides the fact that we're both from Upstate NY and went to college in Ithaca, NY, I'm a big fan of the innovation he's brought to Verizon's real estate team. They're transforming underutilized real estate assets (both owned and leased), into collaborative workspaces focused on localized tech innovation.

Not only does this project bring Verizon authentic access to innovative teams, it's a marketing tool for its' brand "powered by Verizon" and the spaces are designed to turn a profit.

Nick shares their objectives, some of their learnings over the last two years, how they localize the spaces and what they look for in a local partner.

Full show notes here.