133. 5 Tips to Successful Member Events for your Coworking Space
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
Transcription
133. Jamie Russo Shares 5 Tips to Successful Member Events for your Coworking Space
00:00:01 Welcome to the everything Coworking podcast, where you learn what you need to know about how the world wants to work. And now your host, co working space owner and trend expert Jamie Russo. Welcome to the everything Coworking podcast. This is Jamie Russo. I am your host. I am also the executive director of the Global Workspace Association and owner at Inner Space Co. Working and the founder of Everything. Coworking and 2019 was an amazing year for me at everything co working. So we launched three times the Coworking start up school.
00:00:42 So if three cohorts that air working on launching their co working spaces, many of them are well underway. Some already done and launched shoutout Thio Abigail Schilling, who just opened Medford Collective in Medford, Oregon. And then we also launched the Community Manager University. The first cohort started right before the holidays and is enjoying content, monthly content, monthly, Q and A's and a super active slack group. I'm really enjoying getting to know everyone, and we're having lots of productive sharing and learning happening, so there is going to be,
00:01:23 ah, lot more of that in 2020 So I have a really good topic today that I'm really excited about. And for those of you who like to read in addition to listen, I'm also gonna drop this on to the website as, ah block post. So I'll link to in the show notes, and you can find it on the blogger on the Everything Coworking site. It's a kind of a beefy one, and I mentioned a couple of frameworks, and so sometimes when you start getting into lists and frameworks,
00:01:53 it's easier just to get your eyeballs on and see it so you can find it on the website. If you want to grab that, I also have a download that goes with this, which I'll mention once we get into the context of that. But I think this is really relevant the beginning of the year we're all thinking about how do we better serve our community? How do we retain members? How do we welcome new members into our community In a more effective way, we've been talking about a lot of those things.
00:02:20 We had a week of monthly flight group calls this week, and I will love hearing what people are focusing on. Then we did a little lightning round at the beginning of the call to talk about what people learned in 2019 that they're taking into 2020 and talked about member events. What was most successful and what we want Thio get better at in 2020. So today's topic is five tips to successful member events for your co working space, and I come at this with some learnings from wins and losses in this area.
00:02:53 So I've now Rennick a working space for eight years and have had lots of time to experiment and do things that worked and didn't work. So I'm gonna share kind of the framework that I've come up with based on my experience and lots of input from all of the operators that I work with through my corky started school on the G W A. Flight groups, et cetera. So the topic of member events is always a hot one, because we know that those that play together a stay together. So our community manager University Group has been sharing member event winds are flight group has been sharing member event winds,
00:03:31 and I want to share some of that with you because I think it's really helpful, and again, I've kind of pursed it into a framework that I think will be helpful. But first, let's talk about why a member events are important and who will attend your member events. Why our member events important? Many of us created a co working space because we are passionate about helping our members be in community. We want to create a space where people can come together and ultimately form relationships and develop a strong community.
00:04:03 So some level of that will just happen when you put a bunch of people in the same space that have some things in common, right? So you know, you got a bunch of entrepreneurs or tech start ups or people who kids go to the same school or play soccer together like some of that. They're going to figure out on their own, and you're gonna have your natural extroverts that kind of work the room and help people get to know each other. But much of the process of creating community will need to be facilitated and developed over time,
00:04:34 through repeated interactions that build familiarity, trust, camaraderie, et cetera, and member events are one effective method for bringing your members together on a regular basis and facilitating those conversations and providing the right environment for people to redirect their focus from work to the people around them. So this is tricky, right? People are in your space for two different reasons, which we'll talk about it in a minute, and one of them is, well, we'll talk about it now. One of them is work, and one of them is creating connections.
00:05:07 And if you're an entrepreneur, or even if you're not, you can relate to that, you know, sort of push and pull of knowing that you should be doing both. But sometimes it's hard to find that balance. And so it's our job to help people kind of get out of their offices or their fuck seeds and come out and take a break from work and invest in building that community. So when I started out before, I kind of went on a little side tangent. Talking about is the necessity for,
00:05:36 like, repeated interactions that build community, and that's why we need to run member events on a regular basis. So I'm gonna give you a non co working example. If you listen regularly to the podcast, you know that I coach my daughter soccer team. And last year, so 2018 was my first year as a coach, and my daughter was seven. And she plays a y eso and she was in the U eight division. So in that division, there are no goalies, and there are no referees.
00:06:04 So it's just free spirited fun. Not if you're the coach trying t here team to pay attention at practice, but in general, So we practice once a week and we had a game on Saturday morning. There's no tournament at the end of the season, the environment super positive and just, you know, as you can imagine, not super competitive at that age. So parents would show up and stay for practice because at age seven he probably kind of feel like your kids not quite ready to be left alone on a soccer field for an hour.
00:06:33 And as a matter of fact, last year I had a parent. Firemen carry their kids off of the field during practice because she had, ah, major meltdown during a scrimmage. So that was what was happening last year. But during games on Saturday is the parents and the coaches were, you know, pretty commingled. The coaches stood right next to the parents. There's a lot of, you know, enthusiastic cheering and encouragement. One family every week was in charge of bringing the healthy snacks. You probably know how this goes,
00:07:03 but inevitably, after the game, someone would bring doughnuts and we'd hang out and catch up and eat doughnuts and drink coffee and talk about what was going on. So this happened every Saturday and practice. So the parents were practice. We chitchat at the end and then again on Saturday. So these two like repetitive interactions that happened over the course of I don't know, 12 weeks, and we had such a great time getting to know each other than at the end of the season. We had a pizza party and the kids all signed a card and got me an Amazon gift card,
00:07:32 and we ended up inviting a bunch of the parents that we'd never known before to our annual holiday party, and we still socialize with many of them. So this year things got a little more serious in the U 10 division. So now we have goalies and the parents sit on the opposite side of the field from the coaches, and there are three referees for every game. So things are intense. And I think they separate the parents in the coaches because I guess probably this is the division where parents start getting the interfere a little bit more and they feel a little more competitive and,
00:08:06 you know, maybe try toe over, coach the kids or interfere with the coaching or the raft. So the parents are, like, really educated to sort of keep to themselves on the side of the field and practice their kids air now like 8 to 10 years old. So the parents dropped the kid off and roll out to run their errands, words that sometimes even arrange a car pool. So there were parents we simply never saw. So we also played on a turf field this year, which is kind of fun,
00:08:34 but they didn't allow any snacks or beverages except for water. And, of course, the kids could have Gatorade. So that meant there was like no socializing over, you know, granola bars and orange juice at the end of the game, so The girls at this age are really rewarding to coach because they're sort of over that phase where they get carried off the field because you've had a breakdown at the end of the day and, you know, they pay attention, they wanna learn skills. But at the end of the season,
00:09:03 I felt significantly less fulfilled than last year, and I couldn't put my finger on what it waas. So one day literally it came to me and it was the lack of community that we built with the parents. I mean, last year I saw them constantly and we made friends, and we're still friends with some of them. And we made friends because we saw them repeatedly and we got to know them, you know, through practices and games. And this year I mean, I knew the names of all the parents from sending them email announcement,
00:09:34 and I knew whose kid was who and you know, But that's about it. We didn't get to know them in any sort of deeper way, and we definitely didn't make any new friends. There was no pizza party at the end figure. It was just a really different experience in terms of the community that we built as coaches, and I thought when I was writing this, you know, if this year's soccer season was a co working space, I'd probably go find a new one. Now, I'm not gonna stop coaching because the community dynamic is different.
00:10:04 You know, I coach for a different reason, but I miss the days where you could coach and make friends with the parents.
00:10:12 So member events are important back to co working because they facilitate that interaction and that consistency that we required to build relationships.
00:10:23 You don't build relationships over like the occasional, you know, handshake or had not when someone picks up their kid or you see them at the,
00:10:30 you know, waiting in line for coffee at the co working space, we get to know someone were in a situation that forces interaction or encourages interaction.
00:10:39 And then when we do it again in two weeks and again in two weeks, at some point we get beyond the So what do you d'oh and we get more into?
00:10:47 So what you working on? Do you outsource your social media? Can you tell me about that? How do you find good engineering talent or even how is your ski trip last week.
00:10:56 You build that familiarity and you move on from the basic small talk. So member events are important because they help us move along the continuum of building community.
00:11:07 Who will attend You remember events. This is an important one, and we talk about this. It comes up,
00:11:13 you know, across the board in Community Manager University calls in my flight group calls, and the answer is not everyone.
00:11:22 Do not get discouraged as you start working on your event program or if you've been working on it and this is happening.
00:11:30 If you have a small turnout at some event or even all of your events, you might start thinking our members just don't want events.
00:11:36 I have gone down that path, and it is almost never true. Never say never. Someone will tell me for sure.
00:11:43 My members do not want events I've tried and tried. They don't come. Each of your members is human and wants some form of community.
00:11:52 But you may have some true introverts that just want to feel the presence of community and may not attend your events.
00:12:00 They may want to feel as though you are creating community, and they want to see those events on schedule,
00:12:06 but they may never show up. You also might have onto burners, business owners even, you know,
00:12:12 corporate users that are just busy. They have an intense roll there in high growth mode, and they want to,
00:12:19 but they can't prioritize your member events, so it may simply take you some time to figure out what resonates with your members in order to get them to show up and also to recognize,
00:12:30 not everyone will come. So remember two things about attendance at your events, your members air paying to be a part of your co working space for a number of reasons.
00:12:40 They probably all really like the fact that you host member events. It's like just that mojo, a feeling,
00:12:46 a part of something that's vibrant and happening. But each member will have their own reasons for joining your space,
00:12:53 and attending member events may be number one on their list. Or it may be like number five on the list.
00:12:59 You can't control that, but even if it's number five on their list, they still may like the environment and to know that like this community building is happening and they may be a like they wanted to be there when they're ready to access it.
00:13:13 They probably are aspirational and thinking. At some point I won't have to work all day, and I will be able to participate and get involved.
00:13:22 So try to remember that And the number two. I didn't podcast episode with Steve King, who's an expert researcher in the Coworking industry,
00:13:30 And he suggested in our conversation, which was podcast episode number 69 that we might consider the 80 20 rule.
00:13:38 When it comes to member events, 20% of our members will be gung ho about events and attend most of them.
00:13:45 80% may never come or may just attend sporadically, so I know that you may have people who want to come,
00:13:52 but don't and don't be surprised when maybe even not the majority of your members show up to events. But we still do them because those that care really care and it makes a difference.
00:14:03 So we'll talk about this as we dive further into this topic. So here's where you might want to reference this on a block post.
00:14:10 I'm gonna go through five tips to help you develop a successful member events program for your co working space.
00:14:16 And even if you've been operating for years, it's worth reconsidering these tips and put your own flavor into them.
00:14:24 Maybe you have seven tips. Maybe you want to, you know, pick three of them. But hopefully there are some thoughts in here that help both folks that are just getting started.
00:14:32 And folks that have been operating a program. Like I said, I have been there in terms of thinking,
00:14:39 You know, my members are just too busy. They don't want to come to stuff, you know,
00:14:41 I give up kind of when I first opened my space in Palo Alto. I've talked about this before.
00:14:48 It was totally different than my community in Chicago. I really understood my Chicago community, my Palo Alto community,
00:14:56 at the beginning. It's shifting today, but was primarily, you know, male engineers. I'm in Silicon Valley in Palo Alto,
00:15:03 which is right next to Facebook and Google and Apple, and you know, all the startups. They're busy,
00:15:09 man. They're funded, they have kids at home. They got things to do. So they do not want to come,
00:15:17 you know, learn how to optimize their profile on Lincoln. You know, they don't wanna listen to How do I handle my small business taxes this year?
00:15:25 So they have some pretty unique needs, and I got super stock because I am not one of them.
00:15:31 Right? So I didn't get it an entirely different topic on you know what to do, who and you're not sort of part of the tribe of your community.
00:15:39 But I'll share some lessons about that as we get a little further in so five tips we're gonna talk about how often to host What?
00:15:46 The host Applying the kiss. Principle number four set clear expectations with your team and number five test evaluate and evolve your program.
00:15:56 So, first, how often to host member events? This is kind of one of my new favorite quotes.
00:16:01 Intensity makes a good story. Consistency makes progress. Is it actually a quote from the mill program that I follow?
00:16:10 And they put this up on instagram a bunch of times, so I'm gonna read it one more time.
00:16:14 Intensity makes a good story. Consistency makes progress. So I want you to set a goal to be consistent.
00:16:21 Try to host member events 2 to 4 times a month. But as we will get into a number three,
00:16:28 we're going to keep them really simple. So the frequency of your events may vary based on the capacity of your team,
00:16:35 of course, to plan and execute the events they take time for sure, the budget that you can allocate to member events.
00:16:42 But we're gonna talk about how to keep that simple and keep the budget low. The frequency that seems to work for your members again.
00:16:50 You don't want so many that people feel overwhelmed and like they can't attend and sort of frustrated that can't attend.
00:16:56 But enough that if folks have schedule conflicts, they're not missing the one event that you do for the month and they don't miss every month Hosting one member event each month may not be enough to create the repetitive interactions that people need to get to know each other and get comfortable and build relationships.
00:17:15 The other factor is it. Hosting only one event a month may not be great for integrating new members quickly enough.
00:17:24 So when you have new members, join you want those immediate connection wins. So if you don't have another member event for another month or six weeks,
00:17:35 then you may be missing out. You probably have some other methods for integrating new members of introducing them personally,
00:17:42 maybe setting them up with the buddy lunch, that kind of thing. But having them experience a member event where you've got a whole bunch of people in the same room connecting and have them observe the relationships that have developed can be really inspiring and reassuring for folks that are new.
00:17:58 So have them often enough that when you have new members, you know there's one coming up in the next week or two.
00:18:03 So under the what the host section, we're gonna talk about a framework for creating an event calendar, and I think again I get on the struggle bus with planning ahead also,
00:18:14 But I've gotten into a really good routine with my community manager. She is awesome about thinking ahead. She loves to plan,
00:18:24 and she's kind of methodical. And so you know, she loves to kind of get events on the calendar so that she can put up an event calendar,
00:18:32 put our events in the newsletter and kind of let people know what's coming and also gives her time to plan for the supplies and what not that are needed for the events.
00:18:42 So let's start with what the host eventually, and if you've been operating for some period of time, you can do this.
00:18:48 Now you can survey your members to learn more about what they want. If you're just getting started, though,
00:18:55 you probably need to test some events and just adjust based on feedback and whether people show up or not.
00:19:02 It can be challenging to ask brand new members of a brand new space to tell you what they want to some extent,
00:19:09 they just want you to anticipate what they want, right. It's like the Steve Jobs thing with the iPhone.
00:19:14 He just knows nobody asked for the iPhone foot. They invented it and they figured it out. And then maybe based on some feedback,
00:19:21 they tweak some things. Unfortunately, most of us are not Steve jobs, so we put together a framework of types of events that you contest,
00:19:29 and then after a little bit of time, you could go back to your members and ask them for feedback,
00:19:34 and they will then have a basis upon which to comment to get. So we want more of this,
00:19:39 so we want less of that. So I would also, when you survey, ask what times of day work best for events.
00:19:45 If you start to test, you're probably gonna learn that pretty quickly because we can generally say that members will vote with their feet.
00:19:52 But it's worth understanding, you know, does what kind of time of day impacts their ability to attend.
00:19:58 For example, my community manager is so amazing that if I could, I would clone her and give you each one of her as Valentine's Day gift.
00:20:08 Although I can't do that. She hosted an event at 1 p.m. On a weekday. The turnout was not good,
00:20:15 and I suspected that it would not go well. But I didn't want to interject my bias into her effort to test because she's amazing and she should test.
00:20:23 And maybe I was gonna be wrong. So she tried it. But we learned, you know, people feel like they need to goto work after lunch,
00:20:30 and if we're not buying them lunch, then they're generally going to say no to a member event at that time.
00:20:35 You may have folks that don't do happy hours after work. You know, you may have a crew.
00:20:40 We do. Lots of parents need to go pick up kids. They're not going to stay after five to do some things we have to do our member events during the day.
00:20:47 Breakfast events may work really well for some people and not for others, you know, is your crowd the type that likes to come in early and do something before the workday starts so they don't feel like they're interfering with,
00:20:59 you know, client calls and meetings and things like that. Or do they show up at 10 o'clock and are never coming in for 7 a.m. You know,
00:21:06 breakfast did learn, so you'll get to know your community. So my community manager has put out a pretty good sample of event offerings at this point.
00:21:16 So what she's doing this month is surveying our membership for feedback and in the block post from the show notes.
00:21:22 I'm gonna put a link to the very simple survey questions she's using. She's just using a Google form,
00:21:27 which is free so you're welcome to borrow this survey. She also put together a Choose your own adventure member event planning tool for our community manager university members so they get exclusive access to the full grid with the event ideas in the how to use for every category.
00:21:45 But I'm gonna put the temple it with the grid as a link in the show notes that you can grab that.
00:21:51 So it at least can I give you some food for thoughts. So what needs again thinking about what the host don't think about?
00:21:58 What needs can your community events solve for your members? I like to think about member events in four buckets so one social to business growth,
00:22:08 three personal growth and four member appreciation. So social events, the first bucket, my include happy hours,
00:22:17 potlucks, barbecues, trivia. Our business growth events might include educational events such as leveraging linked in for your business on lunch and learn on accounting.
00:22:28 Ah, panel on how to raise money, et cetera. Personal growth might be speakers on parenting, bourbon tastings,
00:22:36 coffee cup ings, painted zip classes, that kind of thing and then the last bucket. Member appreciation events might be events that you host simply to brighten your members day,
00:22:47 give them an unexpected treat or delight and surprise them. So unlike social events, you are not bribing members to get them to socialize with other members.
00:22:58 This isn't no strings attached. Thank you. Moment. You know how you know if you do like a member breakfast once a month,
00:23:06 you really want people to Sydney breakfast. You're not just kind of your really annoyed when they grab their plate and go back to their desk,
00:23:13 right? So the free lunch of the free breakfast has strings attached. But the's air simple events that you're doing,
00:23:20 and it's totally okay if they grab it and go back to their desk, you just want to put a smile on their face.
00:23:25 So examples are like yogurt parfait bars for breakfast, Smoothie bowl afternoon. Break, an assortment of healthy bars that you set out next to the coffee bar on a Wednesday,
00:23:36 that kind of thing. So we like to mix these in for that group of members that we mentioned earlier that simply won't prioritize member events,
00:23:45 but we want them to feel like they're included in some way so you don't your members that can't get two events or just don't want to to feel like they totally can't be a part of the treats and the funds.
00:23:56 So the member appreciation events keep them simple but are a nice way to say thank you. So test member events across these buckets.
00:24:06 I'm gonna read the buckets one more time social business growth, personal growth and member appreciation, and figure out which ones resonate the most with your members.
00:24:15 And maybe you do a sample of all of them because you'll have members that resonate with members that only want to come to Happy Hour or members that only want to come to things that move their business forward.
00:24:26 So figure out what works. Talk to your most active members, you know, get survey data and just keep iterating your program.
00:24:35 But we're gonna talk about in a minute. So when you find a member event that seems to really resonate,
00:24:40 consider making it a signature event. So, for example, 25 North Coworking Mark Hauser, right tackle,
00:24:45 but a lot hosts a monthly pitch and catch event where members present business ideas or challenges and ask their colleagues for input and feedback,
00:24:55 and my flight group member shared this week a number of signature events that they're working on for 2020 that seem to be working well for their members,
00:25:04 accountability groups, health and wellness events. I mean huge range. It doesn't matter what it is, but it's something that they can repeat and used to bring their members together over and over.
00:25:16 And it simplifies. They're planning process, because once you do it once, you've got the formula down and you really know how to execute it really easily.
00:25:24 So a suggestion I will share regarding events. We talked about this a little bit on my flight group,
00:25:30 too. Let the person running the events pick the events that excite them now. This may not hold through 100% of the time,
00:25:38 but just try to think of it with this lens. So if it's your community manager, let her decent things that she enjoys and let her sort of put the flavor around what those events are.
00:25:50 Obviously, they should overlap with your members preferences, but no, it'll be an uphill battle to get a community manager to plan of an event that they care nothing about It's Beverly if they don't like event planning in the first place.
00:26:04 Now, just to take a moment to talk about our community manager and all the hats that they wear lots of hats,
00:26:09 right? So hopefully you have a community manager that's got that like, nurturing personality, and they want to bring people together and planning event to sort of just,
00:26:19 you know, works for them because it's part of how you build community. But some of them will not enjoy event planning,
00:26:26 and this will feel stressful. And this may be something you really want to screen for when you hire someone,
00:26:31 maybe a little case study, maybe a belittle. Tell me about a time when you had the organ high something and see how that resonates with them.
00:26:38 Because planning you know up to a member event a week can be a lot for someone who doesn't really enjoy that aspect and you is the owner.
00:26:48 That's probably way over your capacity to attend that many member event, especially if you have multiple locations not happening.
00:26:55 So I think that the community managers enthusiasm for events and the ability to, you know, promote them with authentic passion it is,
00:27:07 you know, at least 50% of the success of the event, if not more so. I would lean in the direction of letting him or her choose the events that they're passionate about,
00:27:17 even if you were unsure how they're going to turn out. My community manager loves games and crafts, so she's an artist outside of her world at inner space.
00:27:28 And so she the crafty thing probably falls into that one. Activity she's added in is an ongoing sort of Scrabble session where the member with the highest scoring words for the day gets bragging rights.
00:27:40 She keeps a little, you know, score, she publicizes. Who wins. She also likes to host,
00:27:46 like cupcake decorating sessions for the holidays. That one I was not sure about. I thought, You know,
00:27:52 I'm not sure this is gonna fly with our mail tech startup Heavy population, but who knew? We have a number of closet British baking show fans in this face,
00:28:02 and so that was a huge win and we have tons of social media photos from it, and it's just turned out to be a great activity for our community.
00:28:11 So she's going to do more of that. Okay, so number three in we're back to our framework of So we've talked about how often to host what to host.
00:28:22 So number three, we're going to apply the kiss principle. So it is not always the case, but most likely you will win with simple consistency versus hosting one big shindig each month.
00:28:34 So instead of going all out with your one big monthly happy hour or one big member breakfast, you're gonna blow your budget on that one thing because you're kind of bribing everyone to show up.
00:28:45 Try to do several events that are compelling but simple and consistent also our budget friendly. So we're probably not going to have multiple events a month where we're ordering sushi for the entire membership.
00:29:00 So we need to find something that works for our budget. So we're going to keep it stupid. Simple kiss kiss events are aligned with your members interests relatively easy for your team to plan and execute easy for your members to attend and budget friendly.
00:29:18 So it's entrepreneurs we love to use the mantra. We can do hard things we can. But not everything we do should be hard.
00:29:26 So things that we want our team to do regularly should have a simple cadence to them that makes them easy to repeat.
00:29:33 So that was a short one. But keep it stupid, simple. So number four set clear expectations with your team.
00:29:42 So, ideally, you want your team to be able to plan a member event calendar well in advance,
00:29:47 maybe work a month or two, maybe even 1/4 in advance, and execute on it independently. You can opt into attending the event,
00:29:55 but probably as we said earlier, you won't be able to attend all of them. And if you have multiple spaces,
00:30:02 you just will not need to be able to keep up. Can you imagine? Have Ear? Who was the guest on my last podcast episode with?
00:30:09 I think he has 36 locations. Can you imagine him trying to attend a bunch of member events not happening?
00:30:15 He has to rely on his team, so the key is to set clear expectations with your team. Make sure that member events own a spot on your weekly team meeting agenda.
00:30:27 Ask your team to present an event plan quarterly if you can do it and we're gonna put that grid template in the show notes and block post for you to grab,
00:30:36 set a budget for the month and let your team work their plans around the budget, let them make the trade offs and get creative.
00:30:45 I once had a community manager that was getting a little burned out, and she was becoming super inconsistent and hosting member events.
00:30:53 So we sat down and he said, Look, we need to pick this back up and I think she was looking for an easy solution.
00:30:59 She decided to order lunch. She did not run the lunch order by me. We had worked together for a long time at that point,
00:31:07 and we just got a little bit out of the habit of some of those like formal reviews. But I happened to log into the info account to look for something,
00:31:15 and I saw the catering order email confirmation and she had an order place that was roughly $30 a member for lunch.
00:31:24 It was a big bill, so I asked her to cancel it and find a more reasonable solution. And after that,
00:31:31 I've always reviewed the budget with my team because we need to keep our expectations aligned. So what should your budget be for your member events?
00:31:40 This is very personal. We talk a lot about, you know, what should we? D'oh! We had a Q and A call for my current cohort of Coworking startup school students and the kind of uniter this long tangent.
00:31:54 One of them asked a very simple question. Should I stock sparkling water and beer and you know other types of things for free?
00:32:00 For members, that is a hard one to answer. You can or you don't have to, but it really depends on your culture And what?
00:32:10 How you want to operate your business cane. Wilmot was a recent guest on the podcast. I used him as an example when I was answering this question.
00:32:18 He has, you know, serve high end spaces. He serves a demanding client, and hospitality and service are very important to him and his brand.
00:32:28 And he has a trail mix bar. I should have asked him about this on the podcast. Maybe we'll have him back on some time.
00:32:33 So he said it cost him an exorbitant amount of dollars every month at every location that he has test this trail mix bar.
00:32:41 Piece of people love it. People are busy, they're running around. They're running in that running out there,
00:32:46 visitors that can grab a little, you know, mug of trail mix and kind of tide them over,
00:32:51 have a little snack. And he said, It's just delights people. And so and he makes that investment.
00:32:57 And it's part of what he wants to deliver with his brand. So back to what we're talking about here.
00:33:03 Member events. What should your budget be? So it partly needs to be like what you feel is reasonable,
00:33:09 what you feel you can afford, and that's gonna feel different to every owner. So here, just some factors to help you get to that number.
00:33:17 Always remember that retaining members is much less expensive than finding new ones. This came up on our flight group called this week,
00:33:25 too. We were talking about what we learned in 2019 and one of my flight crew members said exactly that he was like You forget that retaining members is so critical because you're always looking for new members.
00:33:39 But if you lose a current member, you're looking for even more new members and he was talking about how in his mind and I won't say his name.
00:33:46 But thank you for sharing the insight. It was, you know, thought provoking. He said. Take care of your team first and they'll take care of your members And when they take care of your members than your members stay.
00:34:00 So anyway, back to our member event budget Retaining members is a less expensive than finding new ones and member events.
00:34:07 Dr. Retention, I don't have data on this, but people who play together stay together, and when you feel connected,
00:34:15 people are happier. We see qualitative evidence of this everywhere. So if you need to think about it this way,
00:34:23 think about your member events as a marketing expense. From a mental accounting standpoint, you're marketing to your current members to get them to stay with you because they love it that you treat them even if it's small and they connect with others and build those relationships which keep them in the space.
00:34:40 It's like my soccer example. If you don't feel connected, there's a hole, there's a gap, and you're gonna look elsewhere to fill it.
00:34:47 The second thought I would keep in mind when you're thinking about your budget is your brand and who you want to serve.
00:34:54 So mentioned this a little bit with the cane example in the trail mix bar, right, like he feels it really aligns with its brand.
00:35:01 It's a special, unique offering, and it's something he wants to deliver. There's a brand in Denver,
00:35:07 and I need to try to get them on the podcast. They cater to business owners that are already fairly successful and in growth mode,
00:35:15 and they take member appreciation very seriously. They feel like this is one way they can really take care of their members and help their members feel special.
00:35:23 And like this is a place that gets who they are and aligns with, You know where they're at in their life.
00:35:29 So they keep member preferences on file, and they'll surprise and delight their members in a unique way every month.
00:35:36 So, for example, they'll hand deliver a morning latte with a single rose to remember that loves coffee and flowers that is not directly expensive.
00:35:45 Lots and one rose will not break the bank, but it does take more staff time to execute on individual preferences so that's kind of a unique approach.
00:35:54 It's also not community building, obviously, but just an example of something kind of far end on the,
00:36:00 you know, attention to detail spectrum on the other end of the spectrum, I think, is sort of the pizza and bagels mentality.
00:36:08 This is sort of, you know, forgetting that member events, Dr Retention, and then we want to make them special.
00:36:14 And this is sort of being in that place of wanting events to be as inexpensive as possible. So,
00:36:21 yes, they are cheap, and people generally will respond to free food. I'm gonna get on my soap box for a minute.
00:36:28 Here. I want you to consider your responsibility to help your members stay healthy and manage their energy as entrepreneurs.
00:36:38 The thing we never have enough of is time, right? And if we lose time cause we're sleepy cause you just gave us a bunch of carbs and fat,
00:36:47 that's not helpful. So your members air not going to do their best work after eating a bunch of pizza for lunch.
00:36:55 I know it's cheap. I know it's hard to find healthy options, which is why I would advocate don't make all of your events,
00:37:03 free food if it has to be inexpensive and you end up with pizza and bagels if community meals are a goal.
00:37:11 Because food certainly draws people in and creates conversation and sort of gets people to sit down and chat, try the potluck approach.
00:37:19 Not for everybody. I've had Big fails with the public approach myself, but lots of people do really well with it.
00:37:26 Try a community salad bar day where you bring the greens and protein. Ask your members to bring toppings or do taco.
00:37:33 Tuesday, a couple of our community manager university community managers, mentioned this type of theme you bring like the beef in the shelves or Burrito day or whatever.
00:37:43 And then members bring toppings if you struggle with potlucks. The other thing that people love that is easier on the budget and can be healthy is like a barbecue.
00:37:52 I don't burgers and hot dogs may not be but chicken. You can grill chicken and make salads and that kind of thing that tends to go over really well also,
00:38:01 you can only do that when it's not too hot, not too cold outside. So work those in as you can If you struggle with potlucks and healthy meal options.
00:38:09 Air out of the budget, consider just sticking to snack breaks or happy hours or events that aren't totally centered around food.
00:38:15 And, of course, the occasional pizza break. My team is really funny, so they know how I feel about this.
00:38:21 And I think sometimes they want to hide it from me. They were like it was National Donut Day.
00:38:26 We brought doughnuts. That's it. You might be angry, and we don't care with National Donut Day like it's fine once in a while.
00:38:34 It's totally fine. But I feel that way because, man, if there's a donut on the brake table next to my cappuccino,
00:38:41 I'm having it. And it would be hard not to and, you know, an extra 500 calories every few days.
00:38:48 Not good for anybody. Okay, Number three under budget considerations. Sorry, there's a lot here, which is why I said you might want to grab the block post version of this.
00:38:59 I'll put the transcript Lincoln there, too. What do you need to spend to get members to attend?
00:39:05 It may take time, but with some experimentation, you should be able to find events that our budget friendly but are still compelling your members to break away from their work and socialize.
00:39:18 So if your membership just simply doesn't respond to your simple budget friendly efforts, then you might need to bribe them and make your events less frequent in order to manage your budget.
00:39:29 So after testing, if all else is not going well, you might have to go back to that monthly member lunch where you're bribing them to show up.
00:39:38 Ah, couple of thoughts year, if you do this again, depends on your brand, and you know how you want to deliver.
00:39:45 But I've been in that seat of buying lunch for everyone, and it's painful if you do it often and people will come.
00:39:53 But you know, they want R S V P, and then you're running out of food or you order a lot of extra and then they don't come.
00:40:01 So I would just be super clear with people we want to treat you. We want to order lunch.
00:40:06 You need to have an r S v p in order to come cause we're managing food and budget. Can you get member events sponsored people asked this all the time.
00:40:14 I think it's easier when you're first opening, especially if you're new to a community. We remember who recently opened on the East Coast,
00:40:22 and she was just saying today how many of her events are being sponsored? The refreshments are she's like,
00:40:28 but that is not gonna last forever. So you totally can. But a couple of things, typically,
00:40:34 sponsors are more enthusiastic about sponsoring when you get really good attendance to your event. So this may mean opening to the public and not just doing member event.
00:40:44 Unless you have a really big space and have a lot of people, then those eyeballs are gonna be valuable.
00:40:50 So again, if you don't, then you're gonna wanna open events to the public in order to get better attendance to compel your sponsors.
00:40:57 Sponsors may be interested in direct exposure to your community, so this is great flick. Lawyers were accountants who can get business from your members once your members know,
00:41:08 like and trust them so that if they get the ability to, like introduce a lunch and learn, share their knowledge somewhere and just become,
00:41:18 you know, more familiar to folks than they will get business, and that's worth a lot to them.
00:41:22 So maybe a sponsor gets to do a personal intro during a session. Or maybe a sponsor can benefit from getting insights from your members.
00:41:29 Maybe you have a unique community and someone will sponsor like a female only community or another niche. And there are folks that just wanna understand that group.
00:41:39 They want to spend time with that group, and so giving them access to your community can be helpful to them.
00:41:45 Or maybe they have a corporate mission that aligns with yours and your membership or your content or your event Siri's.
00:41:53 It can work. I don't hear of it happening a lot, but I do hear of circumstances where you can get an ongoing event,
00:42:03 serious sponsored or get a grant or that type of thing. People definitely do it, so it may just depend on your unique circumstance.
00:42:09 It cannot hurt to try. So my last suggestion in the framework is test evaluate and evolve your program,
00:42:19 and this can take some energy. When you feel like things like are not going great, it's easy to let them slip to the back burner,
00:42:26 which is why I think the beginning of the year when you're super excited and optimistic and have tons of energy for the year ahead is the right time to get a system in place that will help you stay on top of your event program and consistency will pay off.
00:42:42 So develop a schedule that you commit to test for, like, 1/4 and consider running events that run across those four buckets we talked about earlier,
00:42:53 which are social business growth, personal growth and member appreciation. So run those for 1/4 and then probably you'll have enough feedback in data points to know what's working.
00:43:04 What doesn't work anytime you test something new. Doesn't matter if you're not a new owner. Have you been doing this for a while?
00:43:09 But you're gonna test something new, give it some time cause you got holidays. Get school schedules the time of year.
00:43:15 Lots of things can impact member attendants. So I mean, my example of hosting an event at one o'clock probably full of out of this,
00:43:23 like we knew, that was probably evidence that wasn't gonna work. But if you get low attendance, give it a little bit of time before you totally rule something out as an event for your members and make sure that your team is excited about the plan.
00:43:37 Have them develop it if possible, and you want them to have some ownership and want to execute it.
00:43:44 And make sure that the content, of course, overlaps with the needs of your members but overlaps with the personal passions of your team as well.
00:43:53 And again, you may choose to help the events, especially in the first few months, but you're gonna want your team to be able to roll on their own,
00:43:59 so make sure they're choosing things that don't require you to be there. And then, in terms of evaluating,
00:44:06 make sure your team makes notes in a shared document after each event, ask them to schedule a little bit of time,
00:44:12 like right afterward, next morning to make some short notes about things like what went well, what did not go well,
00:44:20 what should we do differently next time? Did this seem to be the right time of day to host this event on a scale of 1 to 10 10 being the highest?
00:44:28 Should we host this event again? So it'll help you to take notes. You don't forget after a couple of months,
00:44:33 some of the details in some of your recommendations. Okay, I'm gonna wrap it up again. You confined this underthe e blawg on the website and under the show notes the show notes anytime you listen to the podcast are going to be at everything.
00:44:48 Coworking dot com board flush episodes forward slash the number of the podcast. This one will be 1 32 I would love to hear from you if you're willing to share what member events have you hosted that have been home runs?
00:45:05 Send me an email at Jamie and everything coworking dot com or pop into the Facebook group and join us.
00:45:11 You can get to the Facebook group by going to everything coworking club dot com or just search for everything.
00:45:17 Cool working when you get into Facebook and tell us what works for you because I think having ideas sometimes is thehunt burnt.
00:45:25 One of her flight crew members mentioned this week that they I was like, what member events were doing there pretty new.
00:45:31 And he said, You know, we get really nervous about happier. You know, everybody just kind of standing around,
00:45:35 not talking each other cause everybody's new. So he's like we thought we needed to facilitate. So they did some celebrity charades.
00:45:44 I mean, daring, right? I love it. So if you've tried something that you love would love to hear it jumped on the Facebook group Or send me an email and I will talk to you next week.
00:45:56 Thanks for joining us on this episode of everything co working. Be sure to click the subscribe button so you can stay up to date on the latest trends and how to until next time.
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