185. How a Community Manager for a Niche E-Commerce-Focused Coworking Space in Atlanta Shaped Her Own Unique Role

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185. How a Community Manager for a Niche E-Commerce-Focused Coworking Space in Atlanta Shaped Her Own Unique Role

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 Rousseau. I have for you today. An interesting interview with a community manager in Atlanta. She is in a unique niche coworking space,

00:00:44 and she also has a fairly unique role. So I think you're really going to enjoy listening to her talk about her role and how, how she serves members beyond the traditional community manager role and a little bit about the niche offerings of the space that they're in, which has allowed them to retain 100% of their members through COVID. So I hope you enjoy the conversation before we jump in with Trina.

00:01:12 Kay. If you are working on opening a coworking space, I want to invite you to join me for my free masterclass three behind the scenes secrets to opening a coworking space. If you're working on starting a coworking space, I want to share with you three decisions that I've seen successful operators make when they're creating their coworking businesses. The masterclass is totally free.

00:01:37 It's about an hour. If you'd like to join me, please register at everything. coworking.com forward slash masterclass. If you already have a coworking space and this episode, has you thinking about your community manager, the profile of a successful community manager, the hats that they wear, how to structure your team weekly meetings so that your community manager is focusing on the right projects to move the business forward.

00:02:04 Training community managers, documenting processes. We talked about SLPs in the episode today, I've created a private podcast feed just for you on this topic. I'm super excited about this app. It allows me to create podcasts that don't go to iTunes, but show up in your phone as a podcast. So they're really easy to listen to. You can subscribe to the feed and get the link to add it to your phone in your podcast player at everything co-working dot com forward slash C M podcast.

00:02:37 And the feed will show up where you listen to your podcasts. Okay. Let's dive into my conversation with Trina K community manager at e-comm spaces in Atlanta, Georgia. Okay. Thank you for joining us today. So I have with me special guest, Trina, Kay. We're not, we're not revealing her last name. That is her Trina K, like Prince or that's her stage name and her real life name.

00:03:04 So Trina is in Atlanta and is the community manager for e-comm spaces. And she said something that intrigued me in our Facebook group and I reached out and I'm super excited to hear your story. So thank you for joining me today. Thank you so very much for having me. Yeah. So, okay. Let's talk about e-comm spaces for a minute so we can set a little context and then we'll talk about you and your role and,

00:03:30 and all that good stuff. So you're in Atlanta. Are you downtown tell us, like, give us a little visual of where you are and what e-com does because it's a little bit unique for our coworking space. Yes, for sure. Okay. Well, we are downtown. Well, we are in central Atlanta, so we are literally like five minutes from downtown in about a 15 minute ride from the airport.

00:03:54 So we're like centrally located in Atlanta. And what we do is it is quite different. We specialize in e-commerce businesses. So our coworking space is specifically for e-commerce businesses. When we first started, we were a general coworking space, but the fun thing about our space is we are also connected to a fulfillment center called relay shop spaces. So both businesses are in one building,

00:04:26 but they're two separate businesses. So the owner, Mikey Rae, she had this concept of, Hey, people who sell products online, we would love to have a hub where they can do everything that they need to do in one space. So we have private offices here. We have our open coworking space. We also have a content creation room. We provide a lot of services,

00:04:56 product photography, social media management, literally everything, a person who is running an online store needs. We have that here for them somehow our way through either a service or a membership. I love it. So give me, give me an example of one of your members. Like what do they sell and how do they use this space? Okay. One,

00:05:23 well, I'll tell you our first member, our first member here is a company called wrap a lock and they have a hairstyling tool. So the tool is used to create curls in your hair or your locks. And they have a private office and they use our fulfillment services. So for people who don't know what that is, that's basically when you have a website and someone orders a product from your site because we have all their inventory stored in our warehouse.

00:05:57 We also get that ping when a customer makes an order and we pull the items off of the shelf and package it and send it to that customer for the business. So that's Because you offer the, you do the actual fulfillment. So the customer doesn't have to get up from their desk, pop out to the warehouse and I get it all or the,

00:06:19 the owner. Okay. Wow. Okay. Interesting. Yeah. So in the same way that people order from Amazon that's us, we, we are the people who are actually the, yeah. So for our co-working space members though, so, you know, they don't have to go outside for such a service. Like if they need to check their inventory,

00:06:42 if they have a, a, like a vendor show or something, they can just grab their inventory from the back and keep going. Like, it doesn't have to be a separate service if they want their products package a certain way with the particular tissue and all of that, like we handle all of those services for them. That's one of the many services that we,

00:07:04 I love it. And if they need a product shot or they can grab something, go to your content creation studio, take the photos. Yeah. Do the things. Our first member rep a lot. They utilize the space beautifully during COVID. We renovated the whole entire space. All of our walls were playing white and we had to shut down because of COVID.

00:07:30 We just didn't know, you know, what to expect. So thankfully my Erie, she took it upon herself to revamp and give the space and entire make-over. So now literally every wall in our space can be used for a photo or video op opportunity. So you'll, we'll be casually working in this space and someone might just jump up and take a quick,

00:07:56 cute Pape that you can just post to Instagram. Right? No, I love that. Right, right. Cause that's one of the challenges of taking social media photos. You're like, well, my background is not right. Or it looks the same all the time or I love it. I love that. She's like some people stress eat during COVID.

00:08:12 She's like, I'm going to paint and style the space going to work. Yeah. So how long has econ been open as a space at all? And then when did you kind of re reformat? The space opened in 2017, but the owner, my RA, she had been doing her. Okay. I don't know if this is too much, but she started from her apartment.

00:08:46 Okay. We love the stories, so yeah, whatever you want to share, we're in Good. She, she is, she is French. Well, she's, she's from Guadalupe and oversees big companies like Walmart and target. They don't ship overseas. You know how we have the convenience of just ordering stuff online. They don't do that. So she found that loophole.

00:09:10 And what she did was she created a business where overseas consumers can purchase these us products and they get sent to arguous address in being, she being the middle person, sends it to them internationally because she's already from there. So she kind of knew. Yeah. She's like an exporter. Yeah. Okay. Yes. Okay. So she was doing that on her own?

00:09:39 Yes. I think she's, I don't know exactly. I want to say maybe 2014 or 2015. She did it for a little while before she got this space. But once she got this space, like I said, we have seven rooms for private offices. So she was just at first just trying to get people into our offices. And then once people start realizing like what we actually do here it's it was just,

00:10:09 It's been great. No brainer. Yeah. I mean, I love the niche space for that reason. It's like, you're exactly right. For certain people. Right. Instead of being maybe right. For a lot of people, you're exactly right. And so you just have to get in front of them in front of the right people. Correct. So we have some members like myself who do not have an e-commerce business.

00:10:33 We're like grandfathered in, but anyone else who comes in, they have to have an e-commerce business in order to be a member Of our community. And that motivates Me. So I'm actually currently trying to figure out like, what am I going to sell you? The only person here without an e-commerce this, this it's crazy, but it's motivating and exciting.

00:10:58 So, So do you, how do your members interact with each other? So before COVID we have a very kind of like family friendly ish atmosphere here. Like a lot of people when they come in, they always say, Oh man, the vibe here is so good. Like we're courteous, we're friendly. We have a happy hour. Every Friday after this interview,

00:11:29 it will be happy. Happy hour time. Every Friday from five to 7:00 PM. We, the coworking space members, we buy wine and our members can casually get it out of the fridge. Or if I'm here, I will definitely bring it out and start encouraging people to have a social drink. But everyone just comes out of their office, brings their out in this kind of like in the coworking space,

00:11:57 the main space and just casually working. It's a great time for people to bounce ideas off of each other. Hey, I know you did a Facebook ad. How did it go? What did you do? Oh, you, you met this photographer who did that for you? Like we exchange a lot of information, but since COVID, It's not statement,

00:12:19 I hear you. Yeah. I know. Hang in there someday. We'll we all thought it would never last this long, but someday we'll get back to that. Yeah. I love that. Do you do any special pretend pre COVID, post COVID, any special programming to kind of besides happy hours to help like sort of specific content or you mentioned the Facebook ads or photography,

00:12:48 do you support, support that programmatically or do you kind of let it happen organically? So before COVID we would have guest speakers come. So it used to be like Wednesday. We would, people come into the space and we find out what they do. And if it matches with what we do, we offer them like, Hey, would you like to teach a class here?

00:13:11 Or would you interested? And we kind of bounce off of each other because a lot of these, a lot of times people have this knowledge and information, but maybe they don't have the space or the location to do such. So it's like, Hey, we have a space, you have the knowledge. Let's let's work this out. How can we do this together?

00:13:30 Maybe they'll let our members attend their seminar for free or for a discount. Or we might give them the space for free or at a discount. We just, we, we bought her like, we're a community. We, no one is trying to get over on anyone. We, everyone, we want everyone to succeed. So it's we have like a,

00:13:52 how can I help you? Kind of like that? Miss V Roach. Totally. I love it. Okay. So let's talk about you. How long have you been at econ? I have been here for two a year and a half. Okay. A year and a half. I've been here for a year and a half. Yeah. Tell us about you.

00:14:11 And what did you do before co-working Before co-working I worked for Uber eats. I helped launch Uber eats Atlanta here, and I was a account manager there, but I've decided to leave corporate. I had enough. And that's one of your Instagram t-shirts that? I love corporate dropout. That one of our members here that's his brand. Oh, too funny.

00:14:42 Yes. Does he sell A product or is it the shirt that he sells? This shirt is what he sells. He himself is an artist and he's also a community man. Like he just goes around to different neighborhoods in parks and just picks up trash. Like it's crazy. He'll have like seven bags of trash. He's just trying to keep the community clean.

00:15:03 And then he makes art and him and his wife run a very successful vending machine business. So they teach people how to start their own vending machine business. And they have their own vending machine business as well. Yeah. And he's an artist and he sells the corporate your about t-shirt Andy picks up trash in the community. Aren't people. Interesting. Yeah.

00:15:27 People Are so interesting. Okay. So Uber eats account manager and then you were a corporate dropout. Yes. I'm sorry. So when I got here, I started off in the warehouse, myself. My background is in logistics. I was in the air force, so I was a supply Everybody's. You're interesting. Everybody's interesting. Okay. Wow. Yes.

00:15:47 So with that, I started in the warehouse and I'm a very Morrell type person. So I'm the one who would always, I think I probably started happy hour in a sense, like, I'm like, Hey, we're having a good time. Let's chill, relax. And let's work. And my your'e noticed that, you know, I'm that kind of person I'm friendly kind of detail oriented,

00:16:11 like to schedule things, but also want people to have a good time. So she was like, you should start having events here and stuff. So then I started having events which turned into helping other people have events. And then because of my, like, I don't know what it's called, but I guess I had the personality to give tours and such.

00:16:36 So then she was like, okay, we don't, we're going to move you from the back to the com like I'm a pitcher Enneagram profile or something like that. Like you're not the warehouse girl. You're really. Yeah. She was like, no, and she's very good with that with noticing people's strengths in moving them, rather than letting them go,

00:17:02 he will move you to like, where works best. And that's one of the awesome things about her period. Like it's crazy. But yeah. So long story short, that's what happened. My personality moved me into a space to be more of a face for the space. And then she was like, okay, well, why you're here? I need social media management,

00:17:26 project management. And she wrote out like what she needed and we reviewed it. And I agreed. And from there I became a part-time community manager, which turned into, I don't know, like, like I said, it's, it's kind of 24 seven, so I don't have a, I don't work any particular amount of hours, but well, timeframes,

00:17:54 I work a particular amount of hours for the timeframe kind of window You need to get done. And yeah. So when you're not there, you, your members have 24 seven access. Do they kind of self serve and take care of things on their own? Yes, everything is very easy and accessible. And we have things written now in PE and everyone knows how to operate sufficiently.

00:18:22 And then the things that like, like I said, we have the warehouse, but that's not open 24 seven booking an appointment. If you need to do things there. But as the general coworking space, thank God we've been faithful enough to have amazing people join our space. No one is ever trying to do anything crazy here. We can trust people.

00:18:47 If someone needs to come at one in the morning to shoot a really cool video shoot, we can trust that they will do that return to space, how it was and everything is all good. So yeah, I mean, it's interesting when you're building a culture at a coworking space, I mean a to set the expectation that like, look, we're a community,

00:19:10 you do your thing. We're going to teach you how to take care of the space. We're going to trust that you'll do that, you know, during the day or right in the middle of the night. And you, you know, have respect for the folks who were coming in for them in the morning, who may do the same thing. And,

00:19:25 and it sounds like you're not babysitting no, you're there to kind of support them in their work and help them get what they need to get done. Who makes them Coffee? We, I used to make the coffee, but now we got the, the cups. So people just make their own coffee. Right? Yep. That's always the, you know,

00:19:46 one of the high maintenance things, it's like, well, who takes care of this? It was literally The number one thing when we first started, it was the first thing on the list of duties. Like make coffee. Okay. Right, right. He called me first. Always. Yeah. Okay. So you mentioned because of some of your interests that you started kind of doing some other services for members,

00:20:12 you know, we chatted about that, but now that we're recording, share that again for everyone listening. No worries. So what I do is I am a lifestyle consultant in that is combining personal development with business services. So I'm like when someone needs business, I'm a project manager for them. Basically they, we brainstorm out all of the things that they need for their business.

00:20:37 We categorize it and then I start actively working on it. So not only am I the organizer, but I'm also, the person actually does some of the work. So it may be customer service. It may be forming them and organization chart. One of the main things I did here was write SOP, which are standard operating processes. A lot of people don't have that.

00:21:01 They start as a one person business and then business starts booming. And now they realize, Oh, I need to get my sister or I need to hire someone, but I don't even know in my head. So I start writing those processes for them. I try to get them when they first start their business so I can stay up on it. But sometimes I joined their team and then also as I help people with their personal development.

00:21:29 So oftentimes people are nervous when they have to do and yours have a lot of like head issues, right? It's yeah. People are nervous for interviews for shooting, making their own content. So I'm behind the scenes, just basically coaching them, telling them, you know, smile, your voice sounds good. Oh no, maybe not that head doesn't really speak French.

00:22:03 You know, just, just little personal development things, confidence. That's what I do. I feel like that was a big Gramble, but I help people show up for herself in their business in whatever way I can administratively or with their competence. I think it's, you've taken the role. Like I think there are, there's like a spectrum for the community manager role.

00:22:27 Like it can be as basic as hospitality. Like I make the coffee, I greet the guests, I handle billing all the way to you're like really integrated into their business. So you're, you have an interesting role of taking care of the membership and the space, but then you also kind of go deep and, and help people and show them, you know,

00:22:49 what they can do to be more successful. Correct. Yeah. It's super interesting. And, well, it sounds like, so you've kind of a part-time role, but you're there probably a lot because you're doing these extra. And so how do you handle with members communicating? You mentioned, you kind of were just doing this for awhile and then at some point you recognize the value and you're like,

00:23:11 I need to charge for this. So you sit down and kind of figure out a, an approach for like a package for them when you start working with them. Yeah. So everything has been taken case by case basis, but now, since I've been doing it for about a year, I kind of got a general idea of like what people basically need.

00:23:33 So I'm coming in with the approach. I'm still working on it, but it's literally a moment of just sitting down and having a meeting and finding out what exactly they need. I am capable of doing a multitude of things. So it's a lot of times it's just like a customized package. Right. You're having a commercial. Okay. Who are all the people that you okay.

00:24:01 Got all the people's names? What do they do? What time do you need to be here? You need a location found. I might do location scouting. I've even been in commercials. You're off screen talent. Yeah, I do. But yeah, it's crazy, but it's fun. Well, I think it's a really neat that you're able to carve time to do that because you build it's natural that you would build relationships with folks in this space.

00:24:31 Right. And so then they get to know you and they trust you. And then entrepreneurs off often just don't have access to like people like you who can see what they need and have the ability to support them. They may have that feeling like they need that and they don't know where to find it. And you're sitting there right in the space. Right.

00:24:51 You're like an amenity. I am like an amenity. That's funny. I never thought of that. And the owner is supports sort of your role in the space, kind of doing both. Yeah. I mean, like she's an innovator, so she's like, if you come up with some crazy great idea, she's for it. Like she fully supports it.

00:25:13 I used to be a little kind of shy. Like, you know, I don't wanna, I don't want to overstep. I'll be watching somebody do something and I'm like, Oh, I want to help you so bad, but I don't. And she's like, no, tell them, Oh, y'all should talk to Katrina. She will help you get organized.

00:25:28 She'll help you do this. So I kind of got pushed in and then now I just take control. Like, Hey, I just wanted to let you know, I can do these things. If you want to, we can sit down and have a meeting. It's that simple. I mean, I don't know. Like I said, we all,

00:25:44 we, we get great people here. So I haven't run into any situations where it's been like, what? Like, it always just seems to work. And they're just like, thank you. And I'm like, thank you because I did all these great things. What's next for tomorrow. Like, that's how it is Nonstop. New. You have a really,

00:26:06 so people are always really interested in, you know, how do I find the right profile for a community manager? And people think like, well, hospitality is a great background. And I don't often run into community managers that come from hospitality. Like you, I would love to see like your profile. Cause you probably have this like right. Brain left,

00:26:26 like air force logistics, sort of process oriented, which makes you good, the SLPs and seeing what needs to be done. Then you're probably this more extroverted gives tours, you know, can do sales and marketing. And so you're a really blend. That's not that easy to find. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. The fact I'm actually introverted,

00:26:51 but yes, I'm actually introverted. And so that's where the personal development comes in, but I've done a lot of personal development studying how to communicate with people, how to not be so shy. Like I put a lot of work into myself, so I put on for the show, but I'd rather just be in my bed, but we might have to stop.

00:27:15 And my Netflix, like, that's what I liked, but Find the role to be really draining tiring. Like, do you need to like, you know, regenerate when you go home or kind of gotten used to it, it's a very outward role, right? You're talking to people and you're sort of on all the time. I remember days when I hadn't been in this space for awhile and I would go in to take,

00:27:42 you know, somebody was sick and I would manage a space today. I would want to like crawl under my desk. At the end of the day, I would be so exhausted from the interaction and I am 100% an extrovert. So, but even that would tire me out. So I always warn people like be careful, you know, hiring inner introverts can just be a mismatch,

00:28:03 but you're doing fine. Yeah. I don't know. Well, I don't know. People, people tell me that I'm an extroverted introvert, but what they really don't understand is like, I might do things like I might listen to meditative music before I come to work. I will ground myself before I come to work. I exercise before, like I have to get my nerves in my energy right before I come to work because of that.

00:28:31 And that's the one thing, like sometimes people come to the space or they seen my Instagram and they're like, Hey, TRIBE okay. And they think I'm this like personality. And I'm like, yes, What's happening. Okay. I had to get myself together, but, and I tell them like, I'm sorry like that, that might seem that way,

00:28:53 but really, you know, let's keep things cool and keep That's such a social media thing. Isn't it? I think that's super interesting because I would get the same. I would have the same takeaway from your social media. It's interesting how we, how that plays out, know what I love it. So you're kind of, you're aware and you're in charge of your energy and you make sure you do the things that get you,

00:29:14 right? Yeah. I think military helped me with it. Like you have no choice to interact with people or not. So that's what helped me, like if my Sergeant comes and says something to me, I can't shy away. I have to deliver whatever they need. So that's interesting. Yeah. What was it that made you join the air force in the,

00:29:38 in the, in the beginning? Actually, it Was literally prayer. I was at a point in my life where I didn't know what I was going to do next. And my friend told me about this book, the purpose driven life. And I read it. And afterwards I just had a very big moment where I have sent a super huge prayer out to God.

00:30:00 And it's clear as day I heard air force And I was like, what? Let me try again. Maybe you didn't hear me. It was a whole experience. I'm actually writing a book about my life and everything it's been crazy, but it was just an answered prayer. And I went, I just listened to the faith and went And it was the right decision.

00:30:28 It was an interesting decision. Yeah. Although I guess, right. I mean, it's hard to know sometimes why was I called to do something? And sometimes it's not until later in life, I think that you're like, Oh, I see. Yeah, sure. It's hard to see ahead. You know? And so sometimes the behind. Right.

00:30:51 Okay. So I'm curious, sort of one of my questions is, you know, what about the role feels really easy to you? And is there anything that's hard for you? Okay. What's really easy for me. Hmm. I guess just, it's going to sound weird, but it's, it's easy for me to take on whatever these new experiences may be.

00:31:22 And that might be just because I think it's because I'm a curious person. I like learning new things. Like knowledge is power. So if it gives me an opportunity to learn something new, then I want to be on board on, especially when it comes to business and people making money. So just being myself, like I said, I can give the tours,

00:31:47 I can explain the business and I can do many administrative things, which is my jam because now I get to be by myself and just Be away. But what's Hard for me is when someone, once something of me, like, let's say maybe someone wants, say like a welcome book to their business. And they're just like, I want to welcome book.

00:32:16 And I try to ask questions like, well, do you want pictures? Do you just want words? Is there a color speaking? How much? Just do whatever. So now I spend time doing whatever. And when I present it, they're like, Oh no, that's not what I want. Okay. There's no right answer when they say do whatever.

00:32:36 Yeah. Yeah. Like, so that's, that's hard for me, like yeah. You know, because I can get what you want done. And then I'm also open to if you like my creativity. Cool. But if you want something specific, just tell me, it's, it's your product. You're paying me. Like, I want to give you what you want.

00:32:57 So that's the only difficult thing because you know, there's a lot of time behind creating. Yeah. Right. The thing for them to react to for it to right. Not be, not be right. Yeah. But it's nothing more than a simple conversation. And going back to the drawing board and then, you know, everything is fine again. So I don't know.

00:33:18 That's So I'm curious since you have such a unique role, maybe carve out the community manager aspect of your role. If you had to give us a pie chart of what that looks like, would the pie be biggest? And let's say not during COVID, since COVID times are different, but in normal times, how would the pie is look for community building operations,

00:33:44 sales, and marketing. The PI, I would say that probably about 60% was community managing before COVID because we used to have a lot of events here. So I was the event manager, or I was the person throwing the events and our community. Like I said, we're very close knit. So everyone was having all kinds of events and it was fun.

00:34:16 And then there's just all the, the admin that goes behind every single thing. Then I would say it was probably about 30% operations. Do do the social media. I do do the customer service. You do like billing and onboarding and offboarding members. Correct. And then for me personally, about 10% marketing, like, so I'm, I'm putting content out there,

00:34:45 but not really with like strategy and ads and such the owner. She does that. So it's more content based for me taking pictures of people in the space. Right. Being sort of the one to catch, catch the moments and yeah. Which I think is such a useful, nobody else can do that. Right. Well, unless you get members who are really good at that,

00:35:06 but right. So I'm curious about your structure with the owner. Do you sit down every week and kind of go through priorities? Or what does that interaction look like? So that you're on the same page. So before COVID, that is how we did it every day for an hour, we would sit down and, you know, she would, whatever project she's given me,

00:35:29 we figure out, you know, what's going on with that. It would depend when she would give me a project. I might just work on that. So instead of having that hour meeting every day, I use that time to work on the project. We would just meet, but because of COVID and everyone, since we are e-commerce fulfillment center with more businesses wanting to do e-commerce,

00:35:54 she has been pulled away from the coworking aspect. And it's more in the fulfillment center. Like she's back there, hustling and grinding and packing and shipping and everything with, with her team. So at first it was just her. Now there's about seven, eight people. And this is since COVID. So now I try not to, you know, bother her.

00:36:21 Cause like, I'll, I'll keep this going. Yeah. Yeah. That's, we're not super trying to get more members. Cause I mean, at the end of the day we are, you know, it's kind of scary. Like there is COVID out here, but we still, yeah, No, you're totally, that's a struggle. Lots of folks are having right now.

00:36:39 They, you know why you want to replace members that left. And yet a lot of folks are kind of holding on new members because it's a challenging time to bring new people in. Yeah. Fortunate for us. No one has left. Everyone has stayed since COVID no one has left. And if anything, more people have just been wanting to come back in,

00:37:03 but we were a lot more cautious than we. Yeah. So now my time is more, I do get to work remote more now because we don't have everyone who's here. They pretty much know the gist of what's going on. I only meet them when we have a new member and I need to onboard them and show them the ropes. Okay. Yeah.

00:37:27 Unless they book a service. I'm sorry. Enlist. I was just kind of curious, are you setting an expectation with members that they should only come in when they need to? Or how are you, I'm always curious. You're in Atlanta, things are different, all parts of the country, as you know, in terms of how people are handling it.

00:37:44 Yeah. Yeah. We are still, like I said, we, we just thankful that we have amazing people here. Everyone kind of seems to be on the same accord. Like we all know there's, COVID out there and we're not trying to, I don't know, bring danger to anyone else. So fortunately, a lot of our members are kind of introverted too,

00:38:12 so we don't really do a lot of stuff outside of the space. It just works out that way. Yeah. I bet you can't wait to get back to your events and bring people together. Yeah. Do any of that virtually, do you have a Slack group or a Facebook group or anything you've done to help people communicate when they're not the space?

00:38:36 So no. We just communicate via email and word of mouth. Like I said, because it's e-commerce here. Everyone is really just operating their, their services. Like they're just trying to find the best way to work, work, their marketing and their sales ads and such. And I don't know, it's like a push pull. Like people say they want to have,

00:39:05 you know, a gathering, but do we really don't know? So we would, there's been talks of having like a community check in, but then no one has really followed through. So I don't, I think everyone is happy. I think everyone is just happy to still be connected to the space, happy that the space is still open and operating and everyone is respectful of what they're trying to do with their business.

00:39:36 So it's a lot more work and less play. I know. Right. Focus on getting through and that'll shift at some point. Yeah. And I think that's probably part of your role too, is right. To sense what the community wants, correct know when it's time to bring back happy hour and get everybody kind of co-mingling together. So well, Trina,

00:40:01 we've been chatting for a while and I don't, I don't want to keep you over time. Your story is really interesting and unique and I appreciate you sharing your role and you know, your perspective and your story and your space. And I think it's, it's interesting that totally unexpected that you've had such a great member retention through this time with the, you know,

00:40:22 a unique, slightly unique model. And I think that's a learning for some of us, right? That the more niche spaces, you know, people need what you do. Yes. So that's a great business model to have and they need what you personally do. So, you know, you've also kept busy. I think a lot of community managers are struggling.

00:40:41 People aren't coming in the space and you know, their role is really focused on supporting folks when they're in the space. If you've got this unique role that keeps you busy, no matter what. So I love, I think you've probably got some wheels turning for sure. For me, you have, so Trina, I'm going to put your Instagram in the show notes,

00:41:05 any the com space linked to e-comm spaces. Anything else you want me to share? If folks are interested in following you? I don't know for the, for the, I would just like to say for the other fellow community members, I would really encourage them to reach out to their members and just ask them, what do you need right now? What do you need right now in this time of business?

00:41:28 And from what they say, if that community manager can help them, then offer them their services. Don't do it for free, but offer your services, see how you can help, you know, find ways for yourself to stay busy and employ. Because at the end of the day, all of these business owners need help. We all need help as people.

00:41:52 Yeah, We do. We need each other. I love that message. Perfect. Awesome. Well, Trina, thank you so much. It was great to meet you. And Trina's info is in the show notes. If anybody wants to find that the show notes are on the website, somebody recently was like, what's a show note. And I was like,

00:42:08 Oh right. Not everybody knows what show are. It's just a little summary of the content that we covered with links to any resources or people that we talk about on the show. And you can find it on the everything co-working website, go to podcast and you can find the episode. And that's the show notes page. So Trina, thank you. I look forward to staying connected and following your journey.

00:42:32 Thank you so much, Jamie. I appreciate this opportunity. And from the e-com spaces team, we just thank you so much just for allowing us to share our business with the world. You are welcome.

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