175. How Mindset and Process Sold Out the Offices in This Tucson Coworking Space That Opened During a Global Pandemic

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175. How Mindset and Process Sold Out the Offices in This Tucson Coworking Space That Opened During a Global Pandemic

00:00:01 Welcome to the everything co-working podcast, where you learn what you need to know about how the world wants to work. And now your host coworking space owner and trend expert. Jamie Russo, Welcome to the everything co-working podcast as usual. This is your host, Jamie Russo. I'm so glad you're here today. This episode is going to knock your socks off.

00:00:38 Today's. Guests are two powerhouse C-suite women who met in Tucson and decided they want to do bring community focused coworking to downtown Tucson's oldest neighborhood, Gina and Katina were students in our coworking startup school programs. So over the last year and a half or so, I've gotten to know them, but was really looking forward to piecing together their whole story and hearing more insights about their journey today.

00:01:06 They are also members of our flight group program and their community manager. Alex is in our community manager university program. Here's why I think you'll enjoy their story. They took on a passion project of redeveloping, a downstairs downtown historical landmark that most people called a tear down while they were thinking about buying the building. They did not tear it down. They resurrected it,

00:01:31 and it is now a lawsuit. Prima works and events. They started their business with an MVP space, a 1500 square foot space that allowed them to learn how to attract their ideal members and how to operationalize their business before building out their flagship location, which was across the street. And they talk about why this worked so well for them. They learned along the way that their ideal community avatar isn't someone that does a certain type of work or lives in a particular neighborhood,

00:02:04 but that the common thread across their members is more about a value system. They hired a rock star community manager that takes ownership of the space so that they can still run their other businesses. They're super involved. They do coaching, they do advising. They have their own clients. They're very involved in the local community and supporting local entrepreneurs. So Alex,

00:02:27 their community manager really runs the show and they talk about how that works. And then they have worked together to stay positive and focused even while opening a coworking and event space in the heart of a global pandemic. And I think you'll be inspired by their mindset. They've also remained intentional and goal-focused during this crisis and they sold out all of their offices in less than 60 days.

00:02:55 And now have a waiting list. It doesn't hurt that Katina is an EOS implementer, which is part of the traction process. So I can't wait to share their conversation with you. If you are working on opening a coworking space. And you're curious about the coworking startup school, you can learn some details and join me for a free master class three behind the scenes secrets to opening a coworking space.

00:03:24 If you're working on starting a coworking space, I want to share the three decisions that I see successful operators like Gina and Katina make when they're creating their coworking business, the masterclass totally free. It's about an hour, which includes Q and a time. If you'd like to join me, please register at www dot everything, coworking.com forward slash masterclass. And if you'd like to learn more about the community manager university program,

00:03:50 that last supremace community manager, Alex is a part of, you can get the details at everything co-working dot com forward slash community managers, and now onto today's conversation with Gina and Katina. Aye, I am so excited for today's conversation. I have two very special women as my guest today, and I could talk to them for hours. So I thought I would bring them on and get started.

00:04:20 I told them I was drafting my list of questions and afraid I was leaving out something juicy because they both have incredible professional backgrounds and have a wonderful story to share about their coworking journey. And so I'll introduce you, but first I want to say thank you for being willing to come on. They just recently opened their space in the middle of a global pandemic.

00:04:44 And whenever I reach out to guests and say, will you come on and tell your story? I'm just waiting for everyone to say, no, we don't want to share a story right now. We don't want to talk about, you know, it's a stressful time for everyone and, but we all need to continue to hear each other's stories and how we're managing and how we're keeping a positive mindset.

00:05:06 So I really appreciate, let me introduce my two guests. So I have Gina<inaudible>, who is a fractional CEO for growth minded entrepreneurs and companies and Katina Kohler, EOS implementer, and Vistage group share. Those are their titles. They're going to walk you through their incredible professional backgrounds and they are co-founders of lots of prima works and events in Tucson, Arizona.

00:05:32 So thank you both for joining me today, Today. Thanks Jay. Thanks Jamie. It's great to be here. Thank you, Jamie. This is really a full circle moment. Gina started following you and then turned me on to you and you've been our guiding light through this journey. So we really appreciate this opportunity with you. It's wonderful to connect and I thought I've heard pieces of your story and gotten bits and,

00:05:58 and I thought, you know what? It's going to be a real pleasure to kind of put it all together today with both of you. And so let's start tell us, you both have day jobs and you decided to open a coworking space. So I'll let you kind of dive in, tell us your story, tell us about, you know, kind of your backgrounds,

00:06:17 your day jobs, how you know each other, and then how Los DiPrima came to be go for it. Well, I'm going to let good Tina tell us about how we met because she tells that story better. I am an operations professional and over the last 20 years have worked with a number of CEO. So I'm a fractional COO, which means I provide strategy strategy and exact execution expertise to entrepreneurs who want to scale and folks who want to become CEOs and then Katina.

00:06:55 And I also jointly facilitate them a mastermind here for early stage companies. We're just getting ready to kick off our third round. Our third cohort starts in January, so we're real excited about that. I'm married and I've got two bonus kids and four grandkids and ranging in ages from eight to 23. And my husband and I love living in Southern Arizona. It's just one of the most amazing places ever Despite the,

00:07:26 the record heat wave and lack of rain. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. Despite that. But other than that, it's awesome. I'll do a little humble brag for Regina. She's also has really strong financial acumen and high emotional intelligence as well. I call her the COO is Swiss army knife. So she left that out. But I think that really helps to define who she is and what she does.

00:07:54 And my why comes from my goal to meet people where they are in their journey personally and professionally, and to help them achieve their best life, whatever that means. And however they define it. And so I do that as a Vistage chair, which means like facilitate peer to peer group advisory for CEOs and key executives help these really talented people who were relating companies make better decisions longer term.

00:08:18 And I also work with Gina in that forum, which is early stage entrepreneurial peer to peer group, which is a fantastic group of growing minds. And then I'm an EOS implementer. So that means I have the privilege to help companies identify their vision, align their plan and their team to execute on it. And then I do executive coaching and together Gina and I also do VIP days with CEOs who want to Uplevel and really accelerate in their growth and also known as strategy planning.

00:08:49 But VIP is just much more attractive. Like the Swiss army knife. I've got A husband and currently fostering five kittens. So you might see an appearance here later. How old are the kittens? Do you know? We think about nine weeks at this point. Wow. Babies, five weeks when we got them, the plan was to vaccinate them and adopt them out,

00:09:14 but they had some bumps in the road. So we were helping them on Tina. I don't know if you know this about me. I grew up on a dairy farm in the middle of nowhere in upstate New York. And so my dad was always bringing home kittens and who knows what they lived in the barn. So that was fine. He, they didn't come in the house and crawl over a sun on zoom calls,

00:09:35 but we look forward to seeing them if they show up. Okay. So tell us your, how you met story. So Gina was actually presenting at a CEO group that I was participating in and I was really struck by her intelligence and her pragmatism. And she was actually presenting one of the books that she had written. And so essentially I found her on LinkedIn.

00:09:56 And then also I would say I started stalking her. And then because I really, she spoke to me in a way that as a former CEO, I was always looking for that partner and it, it really connected for me, her strengths. And so we ended up meeting and interestingly, as we were getting to know each other, we were sitting at the table,

00:10:21 what would be become one of our mutual clients. So this, so it was a really serendipitous conversation overall, but it's been a couple of years. And yet it seems kind of forever in that regard, For sure. You know, we both have a strong background, this background from B spending time and Wisconsin and Minnesota, actually my roommate from San Francisco Katina work with when she was in college.

00:10:48 And yeah, we found that out when they came to visit a couple of years ago. I mean, just, just bizarre. We were meant to, we were meant to hang and Katina's been, I think you hear sometimes you hear a lot of horror stories about business partnerships and Yeah, I recommended them all the time. I'm always telling people don't do that.

00:11:09 Bad idea. Never goes well, thank Totally thankfully Katina stuck with me, but she didn't give up on me. But I think having somebody that, that you're really aligned with and that works as hard as you do, it's just hard to find. And it's worked out really, really well. I think for us both so far, and it feels like I've known her all of my life at this point,

00:11:37 you know, so it's been awesome. And it was, and which is why it was easy to take the flyer when she said, Hey, why don't we start a co-working space? Okay. Tell us how that conversation went. Clearly, you're both very integrated into, you know, your backgrounds, CEO, COO, you know, and then integrated into the local business ecosystem.

00:12:02 But what made you say, yes, let's, let's start a co-working space. Exactly. And we are so complimentary to each other. And there was a point where both of our facilitation businesses, if you will, were growing rapidly and we needed a dedicated space that we could have brand consistency and all of the user friendliness that we needed to have really high performing meetings.

00:12:35 And we just weren't finding it going from space to space. And so we made a move into a leased space, which was absolutely phenomenal, beautiful space, tried to buy that building, but it wasn't for sale at our price. And so then we found another space that really was probably a tear down, but it was a huge attractant because we had gotten to know this beautiful neighborhood called Barrio VA ho in our leased space.

00:13:06 And we really fell in love with it, the members of the community, the walkability, the access to amenities, the convenience of downtown, but B being really close to the interstate. And so when our broker showed us this tear down, my Rose colored glasses were tempered eventually by Gina and the GC, but not until after we'd made the plunge. So we were committed.

00:13:34 And during that window of time, we also found a space for lease kitty corner or caddy corner, depending on what part of the country you're from. And we dove in to that, and that became our MVP. And so it was a great place to beta, but I'll, I'll turn that over to Gina. So I had this kind of wild vision and Gina was like,

00:13:56 probably what are you thinking? And then let me operationalize this and make it happen. That's that, That was our favorite. That was my favorite line. Well, let me see if we can make this cash flow. Like I like did like a bazillion cashflow statements, really simple ones. They weren't really complicated, but Katina neglected to mention, as we started looking for a lease space and we actually put in a couple offers that just did not work.

00:14:23 And then they, and thankfully they didn't work because that's, I'm a big believer that what ends up being, what you get is what was supposed to happen. We also did. We probably looked at easily 30 to 50 properties here in town, including one, which we affectionately called the death March, which was like July, middle of July. And it was like 115 degrees.

00:14:46 And our real, our broker at the time was walking us from place to place. Like we couldn't drinking enough water, but it was also in a time when there was a lot of folks with opportunity zones, laws that went into place. And so all of a sudden all these amazing buildings got purchased. And so when we stumbled upon loss of promo,

00:15:07 my husband's was one of the people that thought this should be torn down. I mean, we had heaves, you know, we had like concrete heaves because we're, we're a, what are they called Catena? Like there's some sort of underground river thing that's underneath our building or something. I don't remember what that's called. And so, yeah, we have all kinds of interesting things.

00:15:27 And there was a cat that we were feeding. There's a theme here with the cats couch and some cats That Tina was feeding on our way, but It really Became a labor of love. I think in terms of seeing this building restored and seeing how many people in this neighborhood it's, I think this will be one of the most proudest moments of my life in terms of this building,

00:15:54 coming back into the neighborhood, we literally get at least one person here a week that comes by to say, my parents worked here. My grandparents worked here when it was a tortilla factory. Cause I don't think we mentioned that it used to be a tortilla factory. So yeah. So it's a real part of the local history. I love that. Do people come in and want to tour around just to,

00:16:16 just to see. Yeah. And they also want to know where are the tortillas? And we literally get phone calls from people wanting to buy tortillas. It's something that needs to be on our to do yes. There are no tortillas here. Yeah. There is no tortillas here. Although in the time of COVID, maybe this is one of those opportunities that might present itself.

00:16:40 You could, you could resell tortillas For listeners who are wondering like the value of creating an MVP or a leased space. I really am an advocate of it. It gave us so much to test from marketing to prospecting, to floor planning, to events and attraction reputation branding on a much smaller scale at a very consumable budget. We were able to beta all of those important factors prior to the main lots of Premal launch and that space we affectionately call a Nexo because it's the annex next to Lhasa Prema and I'll,

00:17:31 I'll turn it over to you. But I, I think it's for anybody who's contemplating it, it's a wonderful opportunity at a low risk to test your, your vision and your dreams and operations. Yeah. I completely agree. I, I I'd made a note of that too. I mean, Katina has one of her, one of many things that she's done is she was in property development for a number of years.

00:17:53 And so when that came on the market, just about the same time as we were getting ready to close on loss, Prema, you know, she's like, it would be great to have quote unquote, like a leasing office, you know, or some place to operate and also to keep an eye on construction because there is something to be said from being able to just run across the street.

00:18:12 And, and that was her idea. And at first I'm like, okay, but what was awesome about it had three offices, three offices had a great little courtyard and we actually built it. We, we, and we actually did some events there and we were able to, I think we were full right before we were at capacity, right before,

00:18:35 right before COVID hit over across the street at the little space. And it gave us, we started getting mentioned. One thing we didn't talk about is when we started this coworking journey, there was only one real coworking space in town and Tucson was grossly under co-worked at the time, it was a large space, but it was in and it was, but it had been up,

00:18:58 it had been really a real estate kind of a play when property wasn't that great that downtown wasn't that hot. And interestingly enough, last is it been over a year, year and a half ago, they decided to shut down. And it's kind of one of those things where all of a sudden there's no coworking. And then lots of people decide to step into the coworking space.

00:19:22 So now we have half a dozen really viable, fun, unique spaces, including what we're doing and having that little space allowed us to play in that market and to get a reputation and to attract members and to figure out who our, our avatar was. Hmm. Gina. The, what was the lease on your, your annex? And do you still,

00:19:46 do you still have the car? Yes, we do. We have it for one more year? Correct? Was it, yeah, we haven't for one more year, we've had it for two years now. Well, two years, this was winter and then we'll have it for one more year. Yep. So it was a tea. It's also a nice hedge against construction time because when you exactly,

00:20:05 when you redevelop a building, that should be a tear down who knows how long that might take. Yeah. And it wasn't very big. It was 15 hundreds. It's about 1500 square feet, I think, plus a courtyard plus actually some storage space, which is really awesome. That's where we, our bike, our bike lot is. And so interestingly enough,

00:20:28 Huh? You didn't do a big build out when you moved in. No, we didn't do any build out at all. It was, you know, worked her magic or her decorating magic. And she did. I think that's the key because I love the MVP concept and all of the advantages that you mentioned, the trouble people get in is spending too much to get into that space and not being able to right.

00:20:53 Sort of manage the timing and get out when they need to. So I, I love it. You learned all the things that you would learn running a larger space. It's like, I think this is like going to business school before you've worked. Like it's so much, you have so much more context when you've done it. Even if you haven't done it exactly the same way that you envision in the larger space.

00:21:13 So, so you'll give that up when the lease is up likely I think so. I think we haven't, we haven't worked through that yet, but that's, it's definitely on the table one way or the other. We haven't figured that out. We've got some time to work and there's a lot that's going to happen in the world in the next few months.

00:21:30 So we'll see. Right. Don't make any decisions right now. Right? Yeah. Important point when you move into a neighborhood and you start to make significant improvements, it begins to attract others as well. So lots of is at a really high profile coroner and ideally the lease or will sign a lease with someone else or sell the building to someone else who wants to continue to build on what that beautiful neighborhood has to offer.

00:22:01 So we were early to it, which has more risk, but when you start with an MVP, you begin to know and understand those things and really work through that ideal client avatar that you taught us about. That was incredibly helpful and how that changed over time. And we can talk about that later. Well, I was just going to segue into that.

00:22:21 I'm curious because you sort of tested, but you were one of the early spaces and now you mentioned there are a number of other offerings. Has your ICA shifted over time? Yeah. Talk about kind of who you serve today and if that's different from who you set out to serve Gina, you want to tackle this one? Okay. Sure. I think originally we,

00:22:46 our original ICA was someone was a freelance, a freelance slash small business person that was maybe in the digital space that had a, that loved downtown. That love Bari of a VAO. I mean, that's like one of the number one reasons people want to be here is because of this, where we're at it's so walkable, it's so quirky and fun and relaxing it's it's well,

00:23:17 except for all the construction that we've had recently, it's really an awesome neighborhood. It's like Katina and I often will walk and talk our clients through the neighborhood. And that's really, you know, and you see the same dogs walking by with their masters and sometimes with their masters sometimes without it's just really awesome. And, and so I think that was our original idea and who showed up,

00:23:41 were people similar? We have some of those, we have digital marketers have online. We have digital marketers. We have online business folks. We have, we just have a bigger variety. And one of the things that struck me when I was thinking about this, we have a lot of variety of clients, but their value set is about being in an aesthetically pleasing environment.

00:24:07 They're very community oriented. They're very Tucson oriented. They appreciate the fact that their coworkers are looking in on them, that our community manager who's astoundingly amazing likes to look on in, on 'em. And there's, it's a, it's a low pressure connectivity, but there's still that connection. And so that, I think what was interesting is we, our community isn't made up of any one kind of entrepreneur or person,

00:24:40 but they all have sort of that community value set. What do you think Katina? No, I think that's well said, and we also have a wider range of those solo provisioners and professional service providers than we had originally envisioned. So we have a lot in the mental health space, we're starting to attract attorneys and counselors and therapists. So in addition to that really digital connected professional it's expanded.

00:25:06 And I go back to emphasizing, I think it is our community manager. She has extraordinary, I think the exercise that you brought us through Jamie, to identify who that person is and, and really define that was extraordinary because we went through that exercise and that's who we ended up attracting. And in fact, she came through a couple of different people who said,

00:25:35 she's so highly recommended just from brief interactions that they had with her, but it comes back to this law of attraction. When you set your mind for just the best person possible for the opportunity they show up and you don't know who it is, if you don't know what you're looking for. So creating that was really helpful for us. And we also lucked out too,

00:25:57 in that we, when we started an XO, we had a young, another, like a part-time community manager who was very engaged in the community, Ashley. And she was just starting on her business journey as an entrepreneur. And she's just become an event. She's an events, professional community connectors. She does DEI work here in town and she's sort of a local organizer of all things,

00:26:24 pretty fun. And when we were getting ready to hire a F a permanent community manager, you know, we talked to her and she was really on the fence because she loved doing it, but her passion was starting her own business. Right. So it became the thing. And then right at that same time, Alex came to us as a remote worker and shortly thereafter became available.

00:26:50 And it just, everything sort sorta co and she had the ability to hang out with us before we hired her. And so all those things, but I think the idea of even having, like having an MVP space, having an MVP, you know, staff was super helpful for us. I think in terms of learning how to do everything as, since we were,

00:27:12 we were, we were owners, but we weren't going to be full-time operators. So I'm curious how much time. So Katina, you're not in Tucson right now. So not onsite. Gina, how much time do you spend physically at the space? I'm probably here one to two days a week. I try to be here less now because I think for a number of reasons,

00:27:38 but mainly because I think the space needs to have Alex. I want Alex to have as much ownership as possible Katina and I are. I like to think we're good leaders, but we're both strong personalities in a good way because everybody loves us. But I think it's important. And I really, you know, Katyn and I've talked about some really important for Alex to have a lot.

00:28:03 She takes naturally takes a ton of ownership of things. And I want her to feel like we have a lot of confidence in the confidence that we do have in her. I want, I want to show that at the beginning, when we were doing the opening, we were here, we were here. All of us were here every day, because every day we were hoping that we were going to move,

00:28:21 be able to move furniture in, right? Like is today the day we get to move the furniture pieces in, before the, we had the C CFO, we, we like, I mean, it was pretty hilarious actually putting stuff together on the street, on the sidewalk, putting furniture together on the sidewalk. I think it's an interesting balance to strike being an owner that has someone who's operating this space and really taking ownership because you are so invested in the success of the space.

00:28:55 And yet to your point, I have kind of probably a similar personality. I have opinions about everything, right? Like I have to let the people, you know, who, who should be in charge, be in charge. It's so tempting to walk through the space and, and, and have all the opinions and members when you have, you know,

00:29:15 women like you were so well known in the community. Well-respected for your professional backgrounds members, really, you know, when they learn about that, or you're the one doing the tours, for example, it's hard to, I think, step away from that, because of course you'll close to words, right? Like you're so compelling as, as humans,

00:29:36 but it's not sustainable for you to be in that role and to continue to do what you're doing. So at some you have to Let an Alex is tremendous. Alex is we've invited Alex to be on the podcast, which I'm looking forward to, but it's, it's a great journey to kind of figure out when, to step aside and when to let go.

00:29:55 Right? Yeah. Surround yourself by great people is the bottom line in, in every walk of life or wherever you're operating. And we've had that with Gina, including herself, but she also mentioned Ashley Larussa, Alex Biddle, Shane riser, who's who steps in for Alex, if she's ever out of town or vacation, our general contractor, Adam Lunquist,

00:30:20 I mean, just really extraordinary professionals. And so that's what has allowed us to compartmentalize our roles, but really early on, we, we understood the accountability chart from EOS and those respective roles and creating those swim lanes that are so complimentary. I do get in Gina's swim lane now. And then she lets me know, which is really healthy. But I think for anybody who's contemplating this journey of who's in it,

00:30:50 you have to clearly define those so that everybody organizes around it and then can align with it. Otherwise you can risk creating confusion and or multiple efforts in inefficiency. So I, I think that that is absolutely vital, but it starts with really great people and no exception to it. No, no negotiating against yourself Process, especially once COVID hit, you know,

00:31:19 Katina. And I probably have, I don't know between the two of us, like over 40 client member, folks, maybe, I don't know all most of them. So you probably have like, yeah. So, you know, w we have a ton and when you share, when you, when you're advising, so our clients were going through the same things that we were going through,

00:31:44 maybe not, I don't think everybody was moving into a new building, but, you know, they were going through this having to have a lot of the same challenges, you know, what was going to affect their income and their revenue. And so I think for me, I can't speak for Catena, but for me, it was like, you have to practice what you preach.

00:32:02 You know, I, I had to show up last spring, even when I really didn't want to some days, because, you know, we had stuff that needed to get done. And we had members that were ex we, you know, our membership, one of the reasons that we never closed and continued to open is that a number of our clients are,

00:32:23 our members are people that were part of essential businesses. And so they didn't have the luxury of working from home. They still had to meet with clients. Some of them had to meet with clients in person, and they were still delivering. We have a, of our guys, our support, fairly large well-known people out in the online space who were doing,

00:32:47 they were trying to help people. And so it really wasn't an option for us to not show up and for us to not take care of people. And so, again, it wasn't like we got to tell our clients one thing and then go do something completely different. I'm curious, we're still not sort of in normal times, but in terms of giving Alex ownership,

00:33:12 what is it that the two of you kind of manage or keep control of versus what, what Alex does? I think Alex is one of those examples of a community manager that wears lots of the hats, right? Because she had so much ownership for the space. How do you, you talked about sort of the accountability chart. What does that look like?

00:33:34 Whatever you're willing to share? Yeah, I think that's a great question. And I think about the book by one of the founders of Keller Williams and he wrote the one thing, and he talks about this world of like glass balls versus rubber balls and to know which ones are critically important. And so I see a lot of that. We had early on some challenges with permitting and the historic review process.

00:34:05 So I kind of saw some of those roles with those relationships and on the legal and the compliance side. And so I really tried to stay in some of those spaces and work with really incredible people and got counsel from a very talented attorney, Tim Kenny. And like I said, our general contractor, Adam Lunquist, and we worked with the 30 year resident,

00:34:26 Bob Lanning, who is an architect who lives in the neighborhood. And so you, you began to look at it broader in terms of stakeholder management. And then what is my, my small role in all of that. And then Gina helped to coach me through what I needed to stay out of then would have to remind me of what I need out of,

00:34:49 which is really good. She's like the agile Creek Jamie creep. And obviously Alex is completely capable. And if, and I didn't want to be in her way in any way, hold her back or present some sort of artificial, like hurdle or restriction. And so I've really just enjoyed watching, Oh, we lost it. I lost you for a second.

00:35:30 We lost you at enjoyed watching. Oh, I enjoyed watching. I enjoy watching Alex and, and the strength of their relationship And what they accomplished. Right. And so I was saying, I'll turn it over. Is my kitty chewing on my ethernet cord? Is that like, Yeah, that could be, it could be blocking the, I think for my expertise came in handy in the beginning in terms of one of the things that's Alex is amazing at is she's got really great left and right.

00:35:57 Brains skills. And so she, you know, when you look at this statics of the space and she really, she and Katina worked really well together, both in-person and remotely in getting the space pulled together. Not my expertise, not my, not my, what is it, not my wheelhouse at all. I can tell from Katina's background. I was like,

00:36:19 is that a real bag? Or is it is, I mean, it could be meeting in Katina could be meeting in her Jeep and it would look, it would look amazing. And so I just, I like to take the ride for that. I'll take, I'll be on that train all day with the two of them, especially because we had a lot of found objects and repurposed objects,

00:36:39 both from, you know, garden, everything from, you know, our plants and everything into the space itself. For me, what I focus on is, you know, I do the finance, the operations, I sadly do it, you know, a lot of our reviewing our contracts, all that kind of stuff. And then from more of a,

00:37:06 a longer term, I look at a lot of just how things now that we've gotten things pulled together. I look at a lot of efficiency, optimization things. I mean, I think that's just the natural nature of who I am in terms of strategy and execution. Alex is a very, as a community manager, she's a very collaborative person. And so I think Katina and I like to walk the fine line of being collaborative with her because she,

00:37:35 if she had her way, we would be here with her. She's not somebody that wants us to not be here. She would like us to all three of us spend all day together. You know, she's so collaborative, right? So that's been really fun because she really works hard to keep us informed about what's going on and making sure that things are pulled together in a way that the community.

00:37:59 So it's, it's been a real delight from that standpoint in terms of those things. I think that's why the three of us make a really good team. I think that's, what's been really fun. I've, I'm always thinking about the community manager profile because we ask so much of that individual, but also because of the sort of what's, I don't know what the right word is.

00:38:22 If it's irony, if it's like, oftentimes we hire these really collaborative community oriented people who get sort of the mission of the space. And then we put them at a desk by themselves and go, and it's like, they that right. Th they can collaborate with members, but they don't really have their own team on a full-time basis. So, and that's Super astute,

00:38:48 observation and Tucson was, is always a hard market in the summer for anything, even without a pandemic. Peop a lot of people leave for the summer for a couple months, not even snowbird, they just, you know, people they'll have another cabin or someplace else to leave. And this summer was no different. And because we were just pulling the space together and may,

00:39:10 when we were, when we open, a lot of people were waiting until after the summer to make office decisions. And so there were days here where we did have members, but they weren't here. And, you know, Alex was like, I want to, you know, there's all these things that she was hoping that she could do with that she was able to do in the small space,

00:39:29 right. That she had connections with people. And then we had days we didn't see people. And I think that was super, and I think anybody that's opening a new space that has a super collaborative community manager needs to be aware that that person needs people. And so you've got to help them make sure that they realize that's not them. Right. I think it's a hiring decision.

00:39:51 And if you hire sort of for that culture, community oriented person, you get that. And Alex is in my community manager university program. And that was one of the reasons that I started it. I mean, it's really part of it's about training and development and supporting that group. But part of it is right. We know they, they just are desperate to connect and so helping them build peer relationships and sort of have their own own coworkers.

00:40:16 One of the things to circle back that works incredibly well in between Alex and Gina and I, and our, and our stakeholder community is our shared set of values. And that was critical. So for, for those who are creating that ideal community manager profile, we really started around values and a couple of them are give first and greater good. And Alex's certainly in the embodiment of that and very community minded,

00:40:41 but it's that those values and the mindset of taking the high road and the long-term view through this challenging approval process and the pandemic and other obstacles that were in our way, just to be able to flex and adapt with a group of people, because, you know, you share a common core value set and you can get moved through anything potentially even in our darkest days,

00:41:05 when our CFO came hours before our temp expired, I still knew this team was going to be successful in it. Even when we got a violation notice for a mural that we had approved, I was like, we got this, like every single thing that came at us, we knew that we could work through it because the making sure that you're interviewing and hiring for values.

00:41:35 For sure. I w I love that. And I, this was one of my questions was you guys, so you, when did you get your certificate of occupancy? You started moving in, We got our temporary in April, and we may or may not have had furniture in here before then. And, you know, and think about this. This is when everything was shutting down,

00:42:00 right. So the city, you know, the city was going to work from home as well. Right. I mean, and That's not something that they were set up to deal with that either. And, you know, the construction companies were going, you know, all these things were happening right at that same time. So I think I don't.

00:42:20 And then did we hit the permanent early April Katina that's yeah, right before it expired. Yeah. Folks in after that, but at it right at a slow, slow paces everybody's at home, and then summer hits, Despite all of those challenges. This is where it's comes back to the core of the team that you work with. We decided in the may time frame that you were going to create this impossible goal.

00:42:51 So obviously Gina and I do coaching, but we also follow life coaches as well. And one of the women that she turned me on to Brooke Castillo, and really talked about setting this impossible goal. So regardless of how bleak the outlook looked and the heat was coming, and the fires were burning, literally 130,000 acre fire in and around Tucson, we said,

00:43:13 we're going to sell out the offices. And Alex was like, let's do this and that 30 day timeframe that we had set forth, but it did happen. And she attracted the members in the community like we had talked about. And so I just want to emphasize for folks that if you're feeling worn down, you know, obstacles do not block the path,

00:43:36 they are the path. And I really highly encourage you to just engender that spirit and that mindset to just keep going, because your community needs you. There are people who need coworking space right now, moms and dads who are trying to figure it out at home with an abundance of children around them. And just, it helps everyone's mental health amongst other productivity factors and everything else.

00:44:02 And building community is key to avoiding isolation. So I, I just encourage you to keep going. If you're finding yourself blockaded by difficulty, was that enough for my SOPA? No, it wasn't. You know, what's funny. The funny thing is Jamie, as an, in March, when everything started, we had a, we had a big in-person event where we had out-of-town speakers the first week in March,

00:44:27 and then, you know, everything shut down and Katina's in my mantra was kept saying, someday, we're going to be on a podcast. And we're going to say, talking about all the success that we had, and we're going to say, Hey, do you remember that time? We started a co-working space. We opened a co-working space during a pandemic.

00:44:44 You know, I mean, those are the kinds of things that you have to put into your thinking in order to keep you to keep going. Truly, I believe that I love this discussion because I think this has been a hard time for folks. And there are people who either sort of get into the burned out. I can't do this mode or who keep going and look at it as an opportunity.

00:45:11 And I feel like they need a Katina and a Gina on their shoulder shoulders, you know, with that perspective, in that mindset, because it can be challenging for folks that even the setting goals, you guys know I'm hosting a 20, 21 planning session and you guys live in breathe planning. Right. But I think this is one of the things too,

00:45:31 is folks get into this reactive mode of not setting goals, because feeling like, why would we set them? We can't make them, the space is empty. We're in a pandemic. Why would we put that pressure on ourselves or on Alex, right. Why even bother and look what happened to you? Your offices are now full. You're building a waiting list for December.

00:45:52 So having that mindset of be intentional, keep trying, right. Maybe you don't do it in 30 days. What if you do it in 60 versus never doing it at all? Yeah. And a great anecdotal example of this is in also circles back to knowing where your swim lanes are was as we were talking about ideas for supporting the community in all of this difficulty,

00:46:15 not revenue driven, just community driven, and one of Alex's concepts, and Gina can crystallize this further, was to do this live cooking event. That would be virtually streamed. That would raise money for the Lolo Guerrera elderly housing. And in the back of my mind, I was like, have faith. She's got this, but I couldn't make the connection.

00:46:41 And then we had record turnout and it's great exposure for that chef. Great exposure for our kitchen. Obviously the fundraiser benefited the elderly housing community. It built Goodwill in the Barrio VA home neighborhood. Alex was a huge success. Gina was too in her hosting, but I have to say, I didn't get it, but I knew to keep my mouth shut.

00:47:05 And that, that's the important part of like knowing your swim lanes and your roles is just to, sometimes it's no way to be quiet, Love that. I love that story. So your space, well, part of the story of your space is beautiful courtyard event space. This was part of the vision and one of the revenue streams, which you have not been able to realize yet you have a gorgeous kitchen,

00:47:29 which I know. I remember when you started thinking like, yeah, we want this amazing kitchen where people, you know, event space, community gathering area, and then pan global pandemic hits and you can't use it. Gina, do you want to share just a little bit about that event? I remember when either you or Alex were talking about, I was like,

00:47:48 wow, What happened was is that for people that aren't from Tucson Barrio VAO is the oldest neighborhood in Tucson. And the homes, a lot of the homes here are mud Adobe, which if you're not from the West, you won't know what that is. I went to a meeting in Atlanta and I was explaining Adobe and someone raised their hand. They're like,

00:48:09 what, what is this Adobe? You speak of? It's how they made houses when we didn't have trees. And so a lot of our, this neighborhood's just, it's, they're all, a lot of them are redeveloped. It's just an amazing neighborhood. And there was going to be, we have a lovely elderly housing complex here that is in disrepair.

00:48:31 It needs some help. And so some neighbors in the neighborhood wanted to do a home tour in April. And everyone on these amazing homes said, yes, you can do this home tour. And then it had to be canceled. And they were trying to raise like $35,000. And we were just, we were going to be on the tour as, and we were just super disappointed because you know,

00:48:52 these, especially in COVID knowing elderly, people are trapped inside in Tucson, it was especially bad because it's the highest hot heat season. And so we started to Alex really wanted to do a fundraiser and our neighbor at the cornet, Sally Kane and chef moody, they wanted to help us. And so it ended up being a GoFund me thing. I think we raised like $4,000 somewhere in there.

00:49:17 And it was so much fun. I was not actually in Alex did the hosting. I was the one running around with the camera running around. So I, I mean, I was The worst came virtual. So he was cooking in the kitchen and people, he could repeat it. They're signed up. We gave them the recipes in advance and it was a Saturday night early COVID nobody was going out anyways,

00:49:38 there wasn't anything open. And we had people cooking along with us, and then we repost it. And I mean, Katina, you guys, you, the, Michael, did the cook along with cook along with you didn't eat didn't he cook too? Or he did the recipe, right? Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, it was really fun and we got to do it.

00:50:00 We got to Chris on our kitchen, chef moody was a huge hit. He was the most, I mean, we, and I have a friend that's in the media industry and she's like, Oh my gosh, you need to start doing, you have, you know, food network, great cooking at, of promo. And I'm like, we had so many other things to do.

00:50:20 So I know we'll do another one, but it was a really, it felt like it was, it felt like it gave people hope in kind of a dark time, you know? And so it did a lot. It did a lot of things. I mean, it helped us for sure, but I think really we got so much people were so happy that participated in it.

00:50:40 And that, that felt for me personally, it felt great. Yeah. And so authentic. And so creative, I feel like that too was the time when everybody's like, just get people on zoom and just, you know, yoga and coffee and, and you guys came out with this really creative sort of authentic to your space and your neighborhood event.

00:51:00 That just was a big hit. So that's yeah. Exciting. And probably part of your mindset of powering through. So your offices are full now and you're building up your waiting list for the end of December. Can you kind of talk about your mindset going into 2021? We're we're going to be full on January. Again, we, we had a temp kind of a cool thing.

00:51:24 We, we have a hotel going up nearby and their go team. Their startup team is a housing out here, which I think is a good thing for anybody that's in the coworking community to not knock that opportunity with small corporate teams. These are our folks from the hotel are awesome. They're they're so going to be, there's such great neighbors already, which you would not think of from a corporate hotel,

00:51:52 but there are really a collectic mix of people. They love. They wanted to be here as opposed to being in a different space in town, because they love the idea of it being quirky and fun and walkable and all the things of the neighborhood and it's allowed them to be in here. So that helped us a ton. It's there. It's funny,

00:52:09 again, they're not our ideal client from the traditional, but from a values, how they show up in the community, how they engage with other members they're such are, they're such our people. I, I w I do want to pause on that for a second, because I think it's such an important learning. I think not that Tucson's particularly small,

00:52:28 but at the time that you opened, you were one of the only spaces and you could have just said, well, we're for everyone. Like, we're just for anybody who doesn't want to work at home, which I think is sort of the out that people will take and say, well, I just need some small percentage of everyone working at home to come work here.

00:52:45 Does it really, I don't have to think that hard about who they are. You did the exercise, but then it turns out that it's really a mindset. It's a, you know, that common thread is not about the fact that they meet clients, are they, you know, are online. You know, they they're digital, they do digital work.

00:53:04 It was, you know, what you described about the passion for Tucson and the neighborhood in particular and sort of that value, which I think also makes the community really sticky because they recognize that in each other. And I'm sure you've had turnover and we'll have people come and go. It's not like you can get rid of that. But there is, you know,

00:53:25 they're not Going to space shop around town as new ones open because they recognize what they have in, you know, with a common value piece, which is so important to people. So I think I love the way you talked about that, because we try to get really specific about in my exercise, like, what do people do for work? What do you know to help you make decisions about your space,

00:53:47 but it's really can be a mindset thing. And I think that's really powerful and it's okay if someone goes somewhere else, because they're not your people, it's this shared values set and having this ethos of the longer view with this community building perspective as a priority. And I think that's important because you then really hyper focus on those types of people in a and attracting them.

00:54:16 And, and then that's what, that's what comes along. And I think it's the ethos and the aesthetic and the values that really, and obviously Alex, that really gives us that glue the building as it was a tear down, which has now been raised from the rebel is like a a hundred year success story and this gym. And I think that's a value basis that attracts certain people and not others.

00:54:51 And so for, for those listeners, I think you, to your point about the discipline of doing the exercise, but really thinking about that, because it becomes your North star and helps you to make better decisions. And, you know, I think something else that's really, community's been high on our Katina's on my list when we didn't even have this feeling about even having a space yet community and showing up.

00:55:17 And the couple, there's a couple of other spaces in town that have a similar alignment as us. And we refer back and forth and, you know, without, without hesitation, the S you know, the, the three space, three or four spaces that we do that with, because somebody needs to land somewhere. And if it's going to make somebody's life easier and better and more,

00:55:42 and create more value for them and the community right now, that's super important. And it sounds like a little pie in the sky, but I'm telling you that kind of stuff at the end of the day, the reason that it works is because it creates the right alignment. And it also creates it's a good, it's a good investment from a value proposition from,

00:56:01 from a financial value proposition to operate that way. Otherwise I would do it anyway, but it's easy to do when you get rewarded for it as well. Yeah. Awesome. From a place of abundance, there are enough people who need what you're offering to be able to refer to others. And speaking of which I interrupted your 20, 21 story There,

00:56:26 our goal, our goal is to, To start having events this next year, to be robust. And in having a full space that is safe, where we took being safe. We took Arizona. Wasn't quite as early as other places, maybe on jumping on the COVID compliant bandwagon, but we opened being a masks space before mass we're in Arizona. And it attracted people that were like,

00:56:56 I want to be, I have to go to work. So I need to be safe. So that's who we attract. We attract people that are invested in being safe when they go to work as safe as you can possibly be. And we want to do that with events as well. We're getting small weddings. We have a large court outdoor outdoor courtyard,

00:57:14 which is going to be an amazing, it is an amazing space, but it's going to be an amazing space for really small, you know, socially distance events over the next year. We have, we have, we just got our pretty close to getting our first wedding booking for next October. And they're like, yeah, we're not going to be any bigger than 30 people,

00:57:34 you know? And so it's, it's having that be robust as important for us, because I think it's the space that was supposed to be a parking lot. And it's a courtyard. It's an amazing courtyard. It's the best use of that space. They kept the planning commission kept wanting is to make a parking lot. It had its destiny and you need to did for sure.

00:57:57 And have you, have you replaced of, go ahead, Katina. Sorry. No, please. No, please. Oh, I was just going to ask about your, your hotel team. That's departing, have you replaced them when they leave in December? We're on the process. We have got a couple people on the waiting list. We have a couple more spots that we need to fill.

00:58:17 We're starting our hard push next week with advertising and looking for folks there. They don't have their certificate of occupancy yet. Right. So they're like, don't, don't kick us out until Exactly. So we're just, you know, we're, we're being supportive, but, you know, January, I think I attended a webinar either through you that said,

00:58:41 you know, January in the beginning of fall is the T the two best times to fill your space. So we, weren't going to make a big push to be full in January as well. Gina, I also wanted to ask you, this is kind of a technical question. You talked about keeping your space safe and the, your business owns the building.

00:59:02 So you can make different decisions when you don't have to work through a landlord, but you did an HVAC upgrade due to COVID. Can you just talk about that a little bit? Katina's the one that did the research on that. So inspired by, I forget the name of the professional that you hosted. Oh, probably Mara, was it? Yeah.

00:59:23 Yes. And she walked people through protocols and compliance. And so I extrapolated those best practices, shared them with Alex and Gina. And then one of the things is that I don't know how it came my way, but it was to add some UV lighting to our HVAC system that takes care of different dust and pollen, but also certain bacterias. And so we upgraded that and we added many of the features that she had suggested.

00:59:58 And we actually have clients who are adopting some of those best practices, because they are seeing that it's working at LASA Prema. And so they're embracing it as well. Our goal was to do as much as we possibly can and to be as compliant as we to follow the compliance and to continue to honor that and to make sure that with our best intention,

01:00:21 people have the safest place that they can go to. And the peace of mind to go work there every day, We had a distinct advantage that this building is freestanding. And so, and it may be over a hundred years old, but we've got five brand new HVAC units on the roof, right? So the, the guts of our building is,

01:00:41 you know, the plumbing and everything, all that's all brand new. So that I think was it's it was not cheap, but it turned out to be a really great blessing when w it was not hard to retrofit. Our, the HVAC in comparison was not, our retrofit was less than $3,000, which in the whole scheme of things is very small,

01:01:03 right. In terms of what it's been able to do. And it turned out we're, we're less, we're about 50 miles from the border. And so the border patrol play a huge in Homeland security is huge down here in Southern Arizona. And it turns out that it's the same systems that the border patrol are putting into all of their facilities, because they have people coming from all over the place they're trying to protect their people.

01:01:28 And so our HVAC guy just happened to be installing those systems all over the place. So it worked out to be a really fortuitous event for us, for sure. And I think it also underscores the importance of continuing a really healthy relationship with your general contractor, because when you need those specialties in those retrofits, they know the industry so well, and they become your go-to.

01:01:51 And so I, we loved our general contractor. His aesthetic is amazing spending time with him is incredible. So it's all fantastic. But then you get the value added bonus of everyone that all of the experts that they know. So I would say, however, you can keep that relationship really constructive. Yeah. You want your team of professionals on hand for when you need them.

01:02:18 So I have kept you For about an hour, and I want to be respectful of time. I knew this might happen because you have so much to share. So I just want to kind of wrap up on your co-working journey. What has been most rewarding so far? That is a great question. And I know I had to prepare for that for we're going to be doing a strategic planning and goal setting and mid January this year,

01:02:44 because this time doesn't permit it right now, I think it is synthesizing the vision with the operations to meet the needs of the community, and to see people connect and add value in each other's lives in a way that maybe they wouldn't have done without the coworking space. And to me, that is so rewarding. And it's a validation of why you went through everything that you did because of what they can now create together and,

01:03:14 or the benefits they bring to each other's lives. So I think that's, for me the most rewarding part. Yeah. I actually wrote this down because I wanted to remember. Cause I knew that I would forget is that I think for me, it's like seeing so many different people come together in a time when so many people have to stay apart. And I think that,

01:03:38 you know, like I said, come last February. I wasn't quite sure we pre COVID even. I was like, yeah, I'm not so sure about this. And I think knowing feeling really passionate about having to show up on Saturday to do stuff, because we had people that needed us. And it's part of it's part of who we are. And I think that in seeing the people be here now in a very relaxing working,

01:04:06 it, it's an amazing feeling to know that we're creating more value for all the people that they're touching as well. Wonderful. Thank you for sharing your experience, Gina and Katina. It was a pleasure to get, to hear your story and your experience. Thank you for making the time. Thanks so much, Jamie. Thanks for what you're doing for coworking.

01:04:25 It's really important. Well, thank you, Jason. I'm sorry I interrupted. Go for it. Oh no. I was just going to say it's exactly, you know, getting to, to meet and spend time with people like you is, is my why also. So I appreciate you back. You have been so influential on our journey and we appreciate you so much and it's so needed for this community to continue to grow and thrive.

01:04:51 So keep up the fantastic work. Thanks to both of you.

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