176. Behind the Scenes with a Rockstar Coworking Community Manager

Resources Mentioned in this Podcast:

Everything Coworking Featured Resources:

TRANSCRIPTION

176. Behind the Scenes with a Rockstar Coworking Community Manager

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 coworking podcast. This is your host, Jamie Russo. I am the CEO of everything co-working and the host of your podcast. I can't wait to introduce you to today's guest Alex Biddle.

00:00:43 If you're curious about what a successful community manager profile looks like, how they contribute to the business and how they manage their time, keep the earbuds in this episode is for you. Alex Biddle is the community manager for Los Suprema works in events in Tucson, Arizona. At the time of this recording, she's been in her role for about a year. And during that time helped the team launch their flagship location during a global pandemic.

00:01:13 If you missed last week's episode, I interviewed the founders and owners of lawsuit Prema and they share the story of how Las Suprema came to be. And a little bit about their background, and we talk about their coworking journey, and I thought it would be really interesting to also bring on their team members so that you could kind of get a sense of what the team looks like,

00:01:39 how they interact, what hats they wear, et cetera. I know as co-working space owners, we're always trying to figure out how other people are doing things. And if how we're doing things is the best fit. So you have a chance to get a peek inside of their business. Before we dive in, if you are working on opening a coworking space,

00:01:59 I want to invite you to join me for my free masterclass three behind the scenes secrets to opening a coworking space. If you are working on starting a coworking space, I want to share the three decisions that I've seen. And I've seen a lot of them successful operators make when they're creating their coworking business, the master class is totally free. It's about an hour,

00:02:22 which includes Q and a time. If you'd like to join me, please register at everything. coworking.com forward slash masterclass. And speaking of community managers, I have something new and exciting to share and involves a new technology. If you have a coworking space already, and this episode, has you thinking about your community manager, the profile of a successful community manager,

00:02:50 the hats that a community manager wears how to have structure in your weekly meetings so that you can get your community focused on the projects that move your business forward. Things like how to train a new community manager and get your business processes documented to make future transitions less painful. I've created a private podcast feed just for you on this topic. I'm super excited to launch this.

00:03:19 It's the first one that I've done. You can subscribe to this podcast feed at www dot everything, coworking.com forward slash C M podcast. The feed will show up wherever you listen to your podcasts, but it's not available to the general public. This is a new service and it's super fun. And I look forward to doing more of these since I know you love audio content,

00:03:49 I thought this would be a great way for you to digest content on a specific topic. So you can grab that content@everythingcoworking.com forward slash C M podcast. Okay. Let's dive into my conversation with Alex. Welcome. Thank you for joining us today. I am. I always say this, but I'm always excited about my guests in particular today. I have Alex Biddle.

00:04:16 Who's the community manager for lawsuit, Suprema works and events in Tucson, Arizona, Alex, thanks for joining me today. Thanks so much for having me, Jamie. So this is kind of a special episode because I interviewed the founders and owners of Los Suprema on the last episode. So if you're listening to this and you haven't listened to that one, they really nicely tell the last Suprema story and introduce Alex A. Little

00:04:45 bit. But I was sharing with Alex when we were chatting that I haven't done a lot of community manager interviews. I run a program called community manager university. So I know a lot of them, and I'm really passionate about this group. And I find that a lot of folks who are starting a space, or even you have a space, just have that sort of interest in knowing,

00:05:05 getting to know like, what is a profile of a community manager? What responsibilities do they have? What are they like? What makes a good one, all those things. So I thought it would be really fun to have some operators and folks that I know are really great in their role. And Alex, Gina and Katina can not say enough, good things about you and having you on the team.

00:05:26 So I'm excited to chat. Also. I know you from the group, but I don't really know your story. So I was writing up our questions and I thought this is going to be fun. I get to hear Alex's whole story. So thanks for joining me and for being willing to chat with us today. Yeah. I'm super excited to be here,

00:05:45 Jamie. Thanks for inviting me on the show. Yeah. So tell us about your coworking story. And I want to weave this into, you know, kind of personal about Alex, but how did you discover Coworking and how did you become a community manager? Yeah. Great question. This is probably going to be one of the longer responses that I,

00:06:08 I brought a coffee. Anybody else can grab a coffee or a wine? Yeah, go grab a coffee. So I just, I moved to Tucson a little over a year ago and I was working remotely at the time. And since I was new to the area, I moved here with my fiance, but I was new and I was looking for a coworking space so I could build my own community and friend group here.

00:06:32 So I went to what's called the Nexo. It was our, our little space that we had before Los Suprema open P is yes. I love that term minimally viable product. Yeah. So I went there for the day, met Gina and she allowed me to do a free like coworking week, a little trial week. And I absolutely loved it. It was really wonderful.

00:06:59 The next day I got a call that my company was having major layoffs, 30 positions in one morning, really wild. And I was working in the student travel industry, doing like community service and adventure programs for high school students in the company worked in like 17 different countries at the time. And this was pre COVID. This was pre COVID. So there were already like struggles and yeah,

00:07:29 it was, I mean, to me it was devastating because I love that company loved the people and I love that, you know, working remotely. It was great. So you were about to live the dream? Yes. Yeah, totally. I was. Yeah. So I have been in the position. I think that a lot of our members have been in and so I didn't go back to the space that week.

00:07:52 I messaged Gina. I said, Hey, it's not gonna work out right now because I was just laid off. But if you know of a good place to start looking for jobs in Tucson, let me know. I love that more people should use their coworking spaces in that way. I also love that you didn't ghost her. You were like, I'm not going to reply to her.

00:08:13 Nope, definitely followed up. But I felt bad because like I had gotten it on Monday. Right. I didn't, I think I followed up with her on like Thursday or Friday. So yeah, I probably, there's probably a couple of days I left her hanging and so I followed up and I remember this so clearly Gina said their loss is Tucson's gain.

00:08:32 Why don't you come in on Monday with your resume and we'll chat through some options for you. I love that. It was amazing. So I think that we know how the story ends, but before all that Gina was saying, go volunteer here, go to this like startup coffee, really like the startup scene in Tucson. She encouraged me to apply for other jobs.

00:08:54 And then at the end she's like also be hiring because we're opening a larger space across the street and we will need a community manager, community manager. I look like these are things that I love to do. And so it just worked out, we stayed in touch. I did apply for other jobs. You know, I had some other options here in Tucson,

00:09:16 but Gina and Katina, just really, they just, their whole spirit and really Compelling. Yeah. Are. Yeah. And so we, we did some like contract work in the beginning just to see if it was a good fit and it really was. And so I started working full time last December, and that's how I, I got into the coworking space and,

00:09:39 you know, we were working from a Nexo while we were opening loss of premise. So my introduction to it was really getting it off the ground and, you know, making lots of Prema happen. I always encourage owners. They they'll ask when should I hire a community manager? And I say, as soon as you can front of opening, because I think having that ownership over the process and being is,

00:10:07 is like, it's a lot of work. Right. And it's, it's intense and there's so much to do, but you feel so much a part of the process. And I would guess just really committed and excited and all those things versus sort of dropping in, you know, on opening day, you know? Yup. They really, they really included me in a lot of the decision-making processes and,

00:10:32 you know, I had, I played a large role in helping put the Ikea furniture together, making things happen and creating processes for the space that we're going to use now and for the future. So it does, they, the buy-in's there, you know, like I put a lot of work into it as well. And so I really want to make this place thrive.

00:10:54 Yeah. Had you ever worked in a co-working space before you moved to Tucson? I had not because I was, no, my coworking space was Panera when I was on, on the road. So I, my background's a little flowers, then they cut you off of the wifi, right? Yes, exactly. I wrote a blog post about it actually.

00:11:16 Yeah. How, but I relied on Panera because I was doing sales in new England and like all over. So I was in a different city every week and Panera was like, my one thing I could count on, they will have a spot with two hours worth of wifi now And not super loud coffee grinders in the background. Yeah. I had had colleagues.

00:11:42 I had worked at them before. And so that's why when I moved to Tucson, I was like, I really want to prioritize this right now. Yeah. We talked a lot about this with Jean and Katina, but last Supremo is, is right downtown. And they kind of talked about members being really invested in the community and kind of evolving the downtown and making it more vibrant.

00:12:05 And that part of who they serve is not just, you know, a certain type of entrepreneur or business owner, but people with a mindset that are just really passionate about community and connecting and supporting that sort of specific area of town. Can you talk about that a little bit? Yeah. I would certainly agree with that. I mean, the memories that we do have here.

00:12:30 Yeah. They are just like very invested in making Tucson a better place and they're invested in each other and we just happened to be in like one of the, well, it was intentional, not, we don't just happen to be here. We're intentionally in one of the most beautiful neighborhoods, God Barrio VA ho. And it's just a couple of blocks South of downtown.

00:12:53 And it's a really like vibrant, beautiful place where there are small businesses and whereas more small businesses are kind of popping up and it's, what's nice. Is that even being here as a coworking space, we have a lot of folks that go to lunch at the places around us that help support their businesses. And you know, our, our people in this space are like-minded in that way.

00:13:18 They want to support the small businesses and especially during COVID making sure that they last through, through the pandemic. Yeah. And it's been great, you know, while we can't do a lot of events right now, it's been great to just have those little small connections and know that kind of we're all in this together. I love that. So talk a little bit about your professional life before being a community manager.

00:13:44 You mentioned sales, what other kind of hats did you wear and how would you say that, you know, you were, were you prepared for the role or, you know, what transferred and what, what was totally new? Yeah. So my background is in the travel industry. I started as an adventure guide in the Dominican Republic. Yeah. And I've led like community service and cultural immersion programs for high school students and lots of countries and Vietnam,

00:14:16 Tanzania, Peru, Costa Rica, and Not being able to travel right now. I know It's really hard. I know. And I actually met my fiance while we were like working abroad. And so we both have this like burning desire to travel and yeah. But you know, we're, it's fun to invest in the community too after all that time. But w while I was,

00:14:41 you know, doing that, I fulfilled a lot of different roles. So after being a leader, a program leader, I was in a program manager working full-time for the company doing operations in the Dominican Republic. So I worked there for three to four years, and that would be during the summer. And then during the, like this academic year, I would be visiting high schools all throughout new England.

00:15:06 So like Rhode Island and North, you know, like Rhode Island to Maine, to New Hampshire, Vermont Sort of recruiting people to participate in your programs. So I went to different high schools every day, talked about the product, or talked about the trips and like the program and all that. And so that was primarily like sales stuff. That's when I was hitting up Panera,

00:15:28 like every day, this is just not the best. I feel like your role was a little bit analogous to the community manager. Not everyone comes with such so many transferable skills, but sort of people facing and community building and then operational. And It was funny. Yeah. It's really funny because I used to manage what we call base houses. Like I used to manage homes where,

00:15:56 you know, I, we would have like a chef and cleaning and, you know, like making sure to keep the space clean and how to like all cohabitate in a, in a, in a home. Right. So that was a big part of it during the operations. And then my last role at that company was actually a marketing role. So I was doing marketing efforts for like all of the,

00:16:20 like for scholarship programs and all like nonprofit type stuff that the organization did, fundraising campaigns and that kind of thing. Yeah. Super transferable, which is not always common. I love that. I'm not surprised that when Gina saw your resume, she was like, okay. So I won't pretend to let you get to know Tucson, but I have a plan for you.

00:16:45 It's funny, because I was like, how am I going to incorporate all these things that I did? I'm like, I don't know, like why, you know, where else would that would that work, but it works here. Yeah. What, so now, now, so you've been in the role for how long? A year? Almost a year already.

00:17:04 Wow. Awesome. So what would you say about the role feels like gives sort of easy and gives you the most energy? I should ask you before you answer that. Are you an extrovert? What's your kind of, I'm an extrovert. Okay. Yeah. So definitely talking to people. I mean, that's the, I love talking to our members.

00:17:28 It's really fun. It's really natural and just like easy to do and to connect with people and like all different, you know, we have all different like professions and people here. And so that's really fun. And to connect others is awesome. I would say like the most jazzed up I get as when I do a tour and I'm like, they're totally our people,

00:17:51 you know? And we just know, and you know, then I'm like calling Gina and Katina and I'm like, Hey guys, like we had just have someone super awesome. They're starting this new, like wine company. And they were so happy. They wanted to hug me, but we didn't because it's, COVID, you know, so, I mean,

00:18:07 those are the times where I get really energized and I'm like, cause we're going to be serving this person, like fulfilling a need for them and bringing them into this awesome community. Yeah. You totally have the like sales is service mindset. You're looking for people who are a fit and connecting them to your community. And that sounds easy for you, which is great because giving great tours and converting is such an important role for the community manager.

00:18:36 What, so besides putting together Ikea desks, what is it about the role that like feels harder for you or like gives you less energy? Like maybe if you, if you could give it to somebody else you'd happily hand it off. Yeah. I think for me, like paperwork probably, you know, like going through Adobe sign, Adobe sign has saved my life.

00:18:57 Thank God. You know, it makes it way more enjoyable. But I think that it's like entering all the, like the, all the, just those little details, The like super detailed process stuff. Yeah. Yeah. And it's like, I it's, I just need to, you know, I just, I do it and it's fine, but it's not the part that I like usually get super jazzed about.

00:19:23 Yeah. That probably that maybe that, yeah, Totally. I think that's not uncommon, which is why I asked not to make you say, you know, not like an interviewer, what are you worst at? You know, it would take those questions and interviews, but I think that's the challenging piece about the community manager role is we drop a lot of hats on that role,

00:19:45 you know, operations, community, building sales and marketing, and you've done all of those things, but nobody like equally loves all of those things. Right. And so if you're a natural community builder and extrovert, and that's where you get your energy, it is no surprise that when you sit down like onboard a member and go through the 600 steps,

00:20:05 it just feels like, wow. You know, and I think that's hard about the role as you have to find, you have to decide. I, my advice is always like, decide what's most important to you in that role and hire for that. And no, they're not going to either love or be amazing at, you know, all of the hats,

00:20:22 but like you you're like I do it. Yeah. Automate and be willing to invest in technology to make that stuff easier because yeah. That's one of the it's. It is like pretty operationally intensive. The coworking business. Yeah, definitely. But I mean, if the worst thing about my job as Adobe sign, like really not, it's really not,

00:20:48 it's really not bad at all. So I'm curious, this may be a challenging question, but if somebody was hiring their first community manager, what two or three qualities would you tell them to look for in that person? Yeah. First thing that comes to mind is just like, must love the Muslim people and their stories. Yeah. I think just being able to learn more about members and follow up,

00:21:18 like, Hey, like, how has your kid's baseball game? Or like, how has that thing, like that was worrying you or, you know, really just like make those personal connections with them and show them how much you value, how much you value them. And not just on the surface, like sort of, I think of it, it sort of like dating.

00:21:37 Like you have to be really interested in the person and ask them lots of questions. Cause it feels so good when people are interested in you. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I have like a small, like a little love seat next to my desk and it's really nice. Sometimes members will, once we're talking, we'll come and sit there for a little bit and we'll chat more and get into it.

00:21:57 Yeah. It's really, it's really special. I, I really value those, those moments. I'll like stop whatever I'm doing To do that. I'm sure you occasionally have some therapy sessions with members. Yeah. Likewise, we actually have a therapist in the, in the space. And so sometimes I was really stressed when like the election was going on just,

00:22:18 you know, so much tension and it, you know, he was there to help. So it was really smooth. Nice. Yeah. Again, the diversity of the community. Wait, Alex, where are you originally from? I'm from Ohio. Yeah. All over. Where did you go to undergrad, Ohio state Buckeyes. I have This, I coach my daughter's nine and I coach her soccer team.

00:22:42 We are not playing games right now, but we have practice and there's one girl, Julia who comes every Saturday in her Buckeye t-shirt because I think mom and dad went to, went to Ohio state. My husband went to Notre Dame. So Yeah, the pride runs deep. Right. It's totally. Yeah. Well that's awesome. Back to the other tasks.

00:23:07 Yeah. Or the other, the other things that they should look for, my, my next app was like, no task is, is beneath this person really like, can do attitude, you know, willing like that willingness to do kind of whatever comes up because every day can be really different. That, and that's, it's another example of why that role can be challenging to hire for,

00:23:34 because look at your background, like you're a professional with, you know, a varied range of experiences. And so Gina's like, so we want you to build this community from scratch, but also you'll make the coffee and clean the conference rooms. Right, right, right. You just have to be like that entrepreneurial spirit of like, great. I'll do it.

00:23:55 And I'll take out the trash too. No, Totally. It's like, yeah, it's doing all those things. Like it's maintenance. And then it's also like thinking about how you can continue, continue to grow. So there's just lots of, lots of things that kind of fit under both of those categories. And then the last, I think the third one is the ability to,

00:24:18 to kind of like self-manage the, your tasks throughout the day to be self motivated and really, you know, kind of figure out your, your way to, to work that allows you to get a lot of stuff done. Like on your own time, I'm going to add these to my, my, I tried to create like screening questions. I have a little cheat sheet for screening questions.

00:24:41 I think these are really good. The self-manage one is so critical and I'm skipping the order of our questions a little bit, but I'm curious about how you kind of interface with Gina and Katina. They both run their own very successful businesses outside of Las Suprema. So I suspect you are on your own and have to make a lot of decisions and figure out how to prioritize.

00:25:05 Can you just share a little bit about what that looks like? Yeah. I mean, I use a lot of, I use two planners basically, but it helped get me through analog paper or their paper. Yeah. Well I have a Google calendar of course, too, that I map things out, but yeah, I have the best self planners.

00:25:28 So one is like a weekly planner that I can just jot down all the things that I want to get accomplished that week on. And then I have one that goes like it's a daily planner. So then I kind of take that list and prioritize my top three targets for the day. Like the big targets. I'm like, if nothing else gets done today,

00:25:47 like these are what I'm going to be focusing on. And then I just have my running task list of, well, it's like all those, like the little things, The things that you'll never be totally done with. Yeah. Yeah. Again, like going back to Gina, Katina being, you know, business owners and executive coaches, they have so many like tools in their toolbox and we've,

00:26:08 they've both like we've all worked together to figure out what, what works, you know, in the community manager role, we get interrupted a lot because that's the nature of it. Like I said, I love talking to people and I'll drop everything for that, but it makes getting some of those larger tasks getting those done a little more difficult. So what I,

00:26:28 what I do is break projects up into like itty bitty pieces. Cause you can do between interruptions. Yeah. And things that where I'm like, okay, I only have five minutes before this, this next appointment or a tour or something like, what is that little thing that I can just get done now? So I'm not like using that as buffer time.

00:26:49 Yeah. Yeah. How do you and Gina and Katina prioritize projects because Gina mentioned she's in the space a couple of times a week and I know Katina has been in Wyoming, so you're on your own physically in the space a lot. Yeah. Yeah. So we have a weekly call on Mondays that like sets our week really well. And we talk about like those,

00:27:17 you know, the big tasks then that's kind of transparent, like the things that we're all working on. And then usually I dive a little bit deeper with Gina she's like operations guru. So we'll kind of, we'll kind of chat usually at the beginning of the week saying like, okay, what are the things they really need to focus on this week?

00:27:35 We just kind of chat through like what we're both thinking in terms of like, this is kinda what I'm prioritizing and then she'll come with what she is and we kind of figure it out from there. That makes sense. Yeah. I am such a big fan of the weekly meeting. I think owners always wonder like, can I not be at the space all the time?

00:27:53 Yes. But you have to like, you know, do or die on that weekly meeting because otherwise it would be too disconnected and not, you know, you won't be aligned on priorities cause sometimes I'm sure they shift depending on what's happening global pandemic new. Right. It doesn't have to be as big as a global pandemic, but having that structure in place just to be super aligned and transparent.

00:28:18 So nobody's surprised like you can't have the owner that doesn't check in for three weeks and then it was like, wait, you've been doing what, that's not what I was hoping you were working on. Right. So I love the process and I know they're big traction, EOS process. Like we keep that Monday meeting, Like the same time, you know,

00:28:39 every Monday. So we're very consistent with it. And then if I'm really on my game, I send a Friday recap email to Gina Katina just like this week at Los Supremo. And I just let them know everything that happened. The leadership team newsletter. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. It's like, it's good preparation for Monday meeting for us to then go through our,

00:29:01 you know, our task list and our scorecard, like our KPIs. Yeah. I love that. The okay. Let's talk about, Oh, so kind of related to that before I dive into a couple of specific questions about what's happening at Los Suprema, if you could give us a pie chart of kind of what your week looks like, like what would the slices look like?

00:29:26 Do you spend most of your time on operations, marketing community building? Yeah. Okay. So I'm when I thought about this, I kind of actually pictured a peace sign so we can picture it like the peace sign in the circle. I think I spend the two bigger sections on operations and then sales and marketing, especially with all the cleaning right now with COVID right.

00:29:51 That's a big, you know, that's big. And then the smaller, like the little smaller part is community building. However, I would say I weave community building in throughout almost every day. Like there's those little things that I'm doing every day to connect with members and to connect them to one another, but people are like, so zoom fatigued. And so we,

00:30:15 you know, it's just like, I get it. I'm also a zoom fatigue. So it's, it feels a little like I'm out of touch if we're, if we're planning a lot more zoom events for our members in particular. So we, we were doing some things, but we're, we're trying to, it's like more of like, you know,

00:30:36 it's Halloween, like here's some treats on the kitchen counter, like help yourself type of thing of having like a big costume party and like, Yeah. Although you have some outdoor space, you've done a little bit of kind of member socializing outside. Yes. Yeah. We have. And I would say something that we do pretty regular is like just kind of grabbing lunch together outside,

00:31:01 like we'll get takeout or people who pack we'll pack their lunch and we can gather outside. And some folks, you know, will gather in small groups do that. We've done a storytelling event outside. Yep. That was, that was nice. Yeah. And we were hoping for more, but now with the COVID cases, just rising a lot, we're trying to be as diligent as we can.

00:31:26 I know, I know a lot of folks are trying to be really creative about how to engage members around the holidays. It's usually such a time of gathering and being thankful together. And yeah, it's not the same over zoom or Slack or anything like that. Although I love to share your story. You hosted a pretty creative virtual event. You guys have a gourd.

00:31:49 So you open, I mean, tell a little bit more of your story. You, you moved into your larger space during COVID, but had some success eventually filling it to talk about that process a little bit. And then I'd love you to share your story. You have this gorgeous kitchen and you came up with a creative idea for a cooking event during COVID.

00:32:08 Yeah, definitely. So yes, we did open in may, may one of 2020. So, you know, it was, yeah, it was an adventure. Like in back in February we had half of our offices reserved, you know, and we were pre-filling and you know, we're on a roll. We're like, gosh, we're going to be totally sold out by March or like at the end of March,

00:32:36 whatever. And then COVID hit and about of those folks DRA backed out, you know, which is understandable, you know, all different, broad, different reasons. And yeah, it was, it was tricky. It was tricky, you know, finding the right way to market and, and to get open. But again, at the same time our heads were down.

00:32:58 I mean, we like, because we were focused, like we were getting the space physically ready and figuring out all of the, like the operations. Yeah. And we're figuring that out kind of as we went. So it was lower here in the summer, especially because in Arizona, a lot of folks will like typically travel somewhere to beat the heat.

00:33:19 So it's, it's just a quieter time in Tucson anyways. And now, and, and since then, like as soon as August hit, we had lots of interests and all of our offices are reserved and we have a waiting list with some folks on that waiting list for January. So that's, that's an exciting place to be in we're we're so grateful for,

00:33:43 for Tucson. Like it's been awesome to like have a safe place for people right now. It's really been like, it's definitely been a silver lining of, of the pandemic. Like what is, what has come out of it, at least for us in coworking here, But also for your team to kind of have that positive mindset of saying, well,

00:34:03 let's set a goal and see if we can do it right. Instead of being super intimidated by half of your wait list, you know, kind of backing out like saying, okay, let's refill and see what we can do. And it, and it works. Yeah, definitely. I think that's definitely an attribute of our team. It's a strength of our team.

00:34:23 We never let us let it discourage us or like, okay, this has happened. Like we're going to take a deep breath and we're going to figure out how we're going to figure out a way around it because that's what we're here to do. So that's been, that's been good. And then you mentioned the event that we did, so yes, we have a full kitchen.

00:34:46 We have a beautiful outdoor space. Like we're fully equipped to be your events, your events space in town. And so back in, back in may, it came up like cooking classes came up on our team. We had, we had someone who is an, a, her, her world is events and she was contracting with Las Aprima. And I,

00:35:08 I think it came out of a meeting with her and Gina and Katina about a cooking class, a virtual cooking class. And I was like, that's brilliant. Let's do it. So we have, like I mentioned before, we have some great small businesses here in our neighborhood. And so I got in touch with one of the restaurants you have are they're amazing.

00:35:30 Have a great chef. Does he have, he would cook, be the, the chef to instruct us. And then I got in touch a little cafe and market, if they would sell grocery bags with all the ingredients that you need for the cooking class. And then on top of it, we were like, let's make this a fundraiser. You know,

00:35:50 let's, let's fundraise for someone in our neighborhood that needs it. And there was going to be a home tour fundraiser around the neighborhood, raising funds for elderly, an elderly housing complex. And that was canceled due to COVID. So they really were lacking crucial funds. And so we did a fundraiser, we raised almost over like $3,500, I want to say.

00:36:18 Yeah. And, and we did a live cooking class and it was so much fun. It was so energizing. We did the cooking class from our kitchen and we had about 60 people tuning in and we recorded it. So it's been sent out, you know, it's on YouTube. If anybody here wants it, let me know, Check it out,

00:36:40 give us the link for the show notes. So we'll put it in the show notes for you. Totally do that. Yeah. Because I I've made it sense and it's like such a good recipe. It's it was steak with chimichurri sauce. Like Roman mashed potatoes roasted. Bevies just like really delicious. And chimichurri sauce has like changed my life. So,

00:37:00 Oh my gosh. We are also big chimichurri sauce fans. Totally. Which I think we learned in a cooking class at some point in Chicago. Yeah. That's great. So your, so your community watched along and sort of cooked along if they want to do while the chef cooked from your kitchen. Yeah. It was hilarious. We like had him on a mic,

00:37:18 Gina and I are like, kind of moving the cameras and then I'm on zoom, like answering people's questions. Like how long does it take those need to be like totally done yet? Like what should I do? And so I'm asking the chef, like, how do we do this? You know, to them, it was just like really energizing.

00:37:37 It was really fun. And it was all for a good cause to and supported, you know, all the businesses here in our community. Yeah. Not the kind of thing you can do every week, but I love how creative that was. It was fun. Yeah. So curious marketing right now. What is, you mentioned your offices are full with a waiting list.

00:38:01 What are a couple of marketing tactics that are working for you? Yeah. So this is funny and this is a tip that I actually heard from one of your previous podcasts, like way back. I think it was like last year that someone from Colorado had posted on Craigslist and that was just like another part of his checklist of what he did. And so I was like,

00:38:26 well, we might as well, it's like $5 and add, we'll try that. And it is so funny how many we get through Craigslist. And I mean, and these are folks who are like, I never go to Craigslist, but I thought that I might as well give it a try. Like I've also really never looked for coworking spaces before.

00:38:48 So it's, it's kind of funny. It's like been a really funny thing, but that's been one of our biggest drivers and then Google, you know, just like Google ads has been successful for us as well. And so I think with both of those, like having a really good website, like a clear website, good photos, like has a lot of the good info there.

00:39:11 I think that's been a, a helpful marketing tool as well. And Alex, you have a consistent newsletter. How often do you send that out? We do weekly. Yeah. We do a weekly newsletter. And then we'll typically do event reminders. If we have, we do, what's called Blasa Prema lunch, basically our virtual lunch and learns right now that we do biweekly.

00:39:35 And so then we'll, we'll send out like event reminder emails. Yep. And that goes out to members and non-members yes. Yeah. Everyone in our community. Do you have a sense of whether, do you feel like your newsletter generates leads? I think it does. You know, we've had a couple, we have one member here who discovered us through the cooking class then got on to the mailing list and she's like,

00:40:06 yeah, I've always seen the newsletters and then came in. So yes. She's not the only, she's not the only person. Yeah. I think it does, but I think we're still getting more. I think we still get more qualified leads from the folks that are like actively searching and find us on Google or Craigslist. Yeah. Yeah. Not everyone does a weekly newsletter.

00:40:30 Do you, you feel like the frequency is important to touch base weekly? I think so. Especially because we do bi-weekly events and we, I like to share a lot of just like fun things. Like the top of my newsletter is always like things we love this week. Like this week. I know I, I, my subscription to your newsletter,

00:40:54 it goes to our team account, which I don't always check. And sometimes I'll go in there and poke through and I've read a couple of your, you know, what we love this week. And I'm like, Oh, these are so fun. Yeah. I mean, I definitely got inspiration from the skim if anyone reads has that come to their inbox.

00:41:11 But yeah, I just, like, I like to share, you know, business tips and like health and wellness tips. And sometimes we'll have like a big feature article, like our big feature, you know, like, Hey, we're running a special this week. That's gonna be the highlight of the newsletter. And other times we just kind of do a little like storytelling,

00:41:30 but whatever we do, we always just want to make sure that we provide value for the people here. And I think it's a really great way to stay in touch with people right now, since we can't do all the events and things that we want to do, it's a way to communicate and bring people together. I love it. Okay. I'm going to finish up with you are a member of our community manager university.

00:41:52 What would you tell someone thinking about that program? Yeah, well, I'm very, very grateful for it. I, gene assigned me up right when I became a community manager and I was just so excited. I like dove through all the content online right away before we even opened last Suprema. So some of it, I didn't have all the context for so great.

00:42:16 I mean, just being able to go at my own pace and to access all of the different learning modules and content online was great. But I think the, and those resources are always there to go back to. So I think I've watched the one on like commercial mail receiving agency, like 10 times as I got that set up. But the best part to me is having the Slack group,

00:42:41 the online community, because, you know, you have folks all over the world who know what, like they know they have context for what you're going through and what you're doing. And it's such a great place to just bounce ideas off of one another, you know, I'm like, what does the signage look like you guys for during COVID times? Or like,

00:43:01 how are you doing, I don't know, how are you doing XYZ? And someone always answers and chimes in it. And that's been really helpful. Yeah. I love how, how active the group is. Yeah. They're really engaged because I think, yeah, everybody's problem solving, you know, all the time and trying to figure things out. So I always love our Q and a calls.

00:43:22 I think we have one this week. Actually. They do. Yeah. And the calls, the calls have been great too. And I've really enjoyed recently really enjoyed the training calls for folks out here that don't know, they're like very specific to a certain action item, like onboarding emails or, you know, a member success path. And so those have been really great because it's like templates that we can pretty much plug and play,

00:43:47 you know, for community managers having to wear so many hats like we've talked about and have such busy schedules, having those templates just like save so much time and energy and it's, it's awesome. Well I'm, and I'm learning from you guys. I'm always listening. I think you were talking about member onboarding. Somebody was, and so let's try to get a little bit ahead of where,

00:44:09 you know, what folks are thinking about it to be helpful and provide those plug and play so awesome. Thank you for sharing that, Alex. It was so great to hear your story and have you share your experience at loss Suprema and you know, best of luck managing through the next few months and you know, w we'll get there. I can't wait to,

00:44:32 you know, recheck in and see photos of your outdoor events. You have that gorgeous space and that'll be an exciting addition to the community. So, and we'll share in the show notes, we'll link to Las Suprema and the Alex's profile. And also we'll share your cooking session. Well, yeah, yes. Especially as the holidays come up, everyone it'll be a good meal to have to impress your roommates if you're not,

00:44:57 if you're not traveling. Yeah. I'll also link to last Suprema on social and you should totally subscribe to their newsletter and follow them on social. You guys do a great job with your marketing. We'll give you kudos for that a hundred percent. So I love to share great examples, so awesome. Thank you, Alex. Thank you so much, Jamie.

00:45:19 This has been a blast. Really appreciate you having me on today.

For the full show notes of this episode, click here.

Want to join our coworking conversation in the Everything Coworking Facebook Group? Find us here!

Looking for a specific episode? Go to the episode index here.

Jamie RussoComment