“There’s definitely the trust aspect... People would come because they’re like, ‘Well, Williamz says that someone’s going to be here.’” - Williamz Omope

Unreasonable Connection Going Live! London, February 2026.

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The entire day is co-created by the coworking community builders on the co-creation waitlist.

“There’s definitely the trust aspect... People would come because they’re like, ‘Well, Williamz says that someone’s going to be here.’”

In September, Williamz Omope told us about the radical principle behind his Job Clubs: no eligibility criteria. Just show up and get help.

That episode introduced the philosophy. This one shows what happens when you take it further.

Williamz has been running Community Connect events — a three-zone model that sequences people through a “look good, feel good” zone (haircuts, nails, styling, professional headshots), a health zone (blood pressure, diabetes screening, NHS talking therapists), and an employment zone (CV support, life coaching, business advice).

The sequence matters. You get groomed. You get photographed looking your best. And because you’re already there, already feeling human again, you let someone take your blood pressure.

The NHS practitioners who attended reported something they’d never experienced: engagement all day. Not one person. Not the usual empty room. They were, in their words, “literally overwhelmed.”

The mechanism is trust. Williamz has spent months building relationships through the Job Club. When he says “come to this event, these health workers are good people,” the community believes him. They show up. They engage with services they’d normally avoid.

For any coworking operator who wants their space to genuinely matter to the neighbourhood — not just serve the laptop class who already know what coworking is — this is the blueprint.

It starts with a job club. It builds trust. And then that trust becomes infrastructure you can deploy for outcomes far beyond employment.

London youth unemployment sits at 15.3%. In Newham, it’s 8.7%.

The Job Clubs are busier than ever. At Space4, they had to stop advertising after two weeks. Fifteen people showing up when they expected three.

This is what civic infrastructure actually looks like.

Timeline Highlights

[00:04] Bernie sets the stakes: “In London, youth unemployment is at 15.3%... In Newham, East London, it is 8.7%, which is way above the national average”

[01:51] Williamz on what he’s known for: “I am known for being a social entrepreneur... we specialise in employability support, access to health messages, digital inclusion”

[02:36] The disruptive philosophy: “We want to go against the grain. That’s how we want to be disruptive”

[04:58] The Community Connect innovation: “We added three zones... a look good, feel good zone, a health zone, and an employment and business zone”

[05:28] The golden sequence: “You’d get your haircut done, get your nails done, and then you go get your headshot done for LinkedIn... Everything’s free, everything’s accessible”

[06:25] The mental health breakthrough: “A talking therapist from the NHS... she spoke about the taboos and the cultural misunderstandings, and she really broke things down”

[08:57] The anti-performative principle: “Anything that we do is not performative... It’s giving real pathways and routeways to overcome such barriers”

[10:39] Why trust is the infrastructure: “There’s definitely the trust aspect... People would come because they’re like, ‘Well, Williamz says that someone’s going to be here’”

[11:53] The proof point: “We were busy all day. Normally... we see one person, if that, but we were literally overwhelmed”

[21:07] The demand they didn’t expect: “The first couple of weeks was so busy that we had to stop advertising... we were getting 15 people per session”

[25:01] The unlimited support promise: “This is a safe space for you to come back to. You don’t have a number of sessions... You can come here as much as you want”

[28:07] Redefining success: “Them coming to the Job Club, that’s a huge journey because they’ve made that conscious decision to come”

[32:05] Peer-to-peer magic: “When are you coming next week? 10 o’clock? Okay, I’m going to get there for 10:30. I’ll wait for you. I’ll keep a computer next to...”

Trust Is Infrastructure You Can Build

The September episode established the “no eligibility criteria” philosophy. This episode reveals what you can DO with the trust that philosophy creates.

NHS outreach workers know the problem intimately. They set up stalls at community events. They wait. One person shows up. Sometimes none. The communities who most need health services are the ones least likely to engage with them.

Williamz solved this by accident — or rather, by relationship.

When health practitioners attend Community Connect, they’re not cold-calling a suspicious community. They’re being introduced by someone the community already trusts. Williamz has spent months showing up every Friday, helping with CVs, teaching digital skills, treating people with dignity.

That trust transfers.

The NHS talking therapist who attended spoke about mental health taboos and cultural misunderstandings.

As a Black man with Nigerian heritage, Williamz understands the cultural tendency to avoid doctors, to “ride it out.” By hosting these conversations in a space where people already feel safe, resistance drops.

For coworking operators: this is the long game. You can’t manufacture trust overnight. But every consistent, dignity-first interaction builds it. And once you have it, you can deploy it for outcomes far beyond your original remit.

The Three Zones: A Model You Can Steal

Community Connect isn’t complicated. It’s just sequenced intelligently.

Zone One: Look Good, Feel Good. A barber. A nail technician. A stylist offering budget fashion advice. A photographer taking LinkedIn headshots. The haircut comes first — you get groomed, then photographed looking your best.

Zone Two: Health. Blood pressure checks. Diabetes screening. An NHS talking therapist. These services are placed AFTER the feel-good zone, when people’s guards are down.

Zone Three: Employment and Business. IP advisers. Life coaches. A CV specialist. Local businesses recruiting.

The genius is the sequencing. Nobody walks through the door thinking “I need my blood pressure checked.” They walk through thinking “free haircut.” By the time they reach the health zone, they’re already comfortable, already engaged, already trusting.

Bernie notices what’s happening underneath: people finding what they need rather than being told what to do. Agency instead of top-down life management.

The Space4 Story: Organic Growth Done Right

Williamz didn’t know what a coworking space was when he first walked into Space4 for something unrelated.

A conversation with Natasha, one of the founders, evolved into partnership. She explained Space4’s social value model — a cooperative workspace funded by Outlandish, designed to reinvest surplus into community.

Williamz arrived with a proposition: “Let’s just start a job club.”

There was apprehension. “Are people going to turn up?”

Within two weeks, they had to stop advertising. Word of mouth outran their capacity. Fifteen people per session when they’d expected two or three.

Bernie’s known Space4 for a decade. It’s had hard times, mostly circumstances beyond its control.

But it keeps putting itself together. Founders and Coders run programmes there. The community lunch happens every Wednesday. It’s woven into Finsbury Park in a way commercial spaces rarely achieve.

This is what “matter to the neighbourhood” actually looks like.

Measuring the Journey, Not Just the Destination

A young man challenged Williamz recently: shouldn’t success be measured by how many people get into work?

Williamz’s response reframes everything.

Yes, job outcomes matter. But what about the person who’s “really far away from that”? Are they failing? Or are they on a journey?

Coming to the Job Club is already a huge step. Making the conscious decision to show up, week after week. Slowly improving digital skills. Learning to attach a CV to a job search site. Building confidence.

These are all measurements of success.

The alternative — focusing only on job placements — creates perverse incentives. If you’re a recruitment agency with targets, you focus on people who already have CVs, who left work recently, who have master’s degrees. The quick conversions.

Everyone else gets forgotten.

Williamz is developing an app concept inspired by football’s “expected goals” metric — a way to track progress and motivate people who aren’t yet close to employment but are moving in the right direction.

Peer-to-Peer Support: The Magic Nobody Planned

The most beautiful thing Williamz sees at the Job Club isn’t the formal support.

It’s the relationships forming between attendees.

People start interacting. Helping each other. Making plans: “When are you coming next week? 10 o’clock? Okay, I’m going to get there for 10:30. I’ll wait for you. I’ll keep a computer next to you.”

Little networks emerging organically within the structure of the Job Club.

Bernie recognises this from freelancer meetups he used to run. The most important conversations weren’t the scheduled content — they were the informal exchanges about rates, about closing deals, about the things you’re too embarrassed to ask publicly.

This is what community actually is. Not programming. Not events. People choosing to help each other because they feel safe enough to try.

The Over-50s Feedback Loop

Not everyone felt served by the Community Connect event.

Some older community members felt it wasn’t geared towards them — too much focus on AI and young people’s concerns.

Williamz’s response: plan a mini Community Connect specifically for the over-50s. Age-appropriate health issues. Financial advice around pensions and insurance.

He’s bouncing ideas off over-50s advisers. Taking feedback seriously. Adjusting.

This is what “disruptive” actually means — not breaking things for drama, but listening carefully and responding to what the community actually needs.

The Easy Win Most Spaces Are Missing

Right at the end of the September conversation, Williamz offered direct advice for coworking operators.

Many local residents would never think to walk into a space like Space4 unless there was a specific, accessible reason — like the Job Club. The space can feel intimidating or irrelevant to those who aren’t in the tech or startup world.

The easy win: create genuine entry points for the wider community. Events that local residents feel comfortable attending.

By hosting a job club, the coworking space becomes a bridge. It brings in people who can then be introduced to other programmes, workshops, and opportunities the space offers.

This isn’t cynical marketing. It’s fulfilling the promise of being a community hub.

As Williamz demonstrates, something as simple as a job club can transform a private workspace into genuine public infrastructure.

🔗 Links & Resources

Williamz Omope’s Work

* Williamz’s company - WO Consultancy

* Williamz Omope on LinkedIn

* WO Consultancy on Instagram

* Finsbury Park Job Club @ Space4

* Space4 Website

* 🎙️How Space4 Coworking in Finsbury Park Creates Social Value with Natasha Natarajan

* Follow Space4 on LinkedIn for events and updates

* Space4 Eventbrite - Wednesday Community Lunch

Projects & Community

* Join this and other conversations with people in the LinkedIn Coworking Group

* Unreasonable Connection Monthly online gatherings for Coworking Community Builders.

* Workspace Design Show London 2026

* European Coworking Day May 2026

* London Coworking Assembly

* European Coworking Assembly

Bernie’s Projects

* London Coworking Assembly 5-Day AI Crash Course for Coworking Spaces

* Connect with Bernie on LinkedIn

One More Thing

Coworking brings communities together, helping people find and share their voices.

Each episode of the Coworking Values Podcast explores Accessibility, Community, Openness, Collaboration, and Sustainability—values that shape the spaces where we gather, work, and grow.

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