219. Adam and Zach, owners of Workspace Collective, share how their sales background has impacted their coworking success, and what they learned through opening a 2nd location

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219. Adam and Zach, owners of Workspace Collective, share how their sales background has impacted their coworking success, and what they learned through opening a 2nd location

00:00:01 Welcome to the everything coworking podcast, where you learn what you need to know about how the world wants to work. And now your host coworking space owner and trend expert. Jamie Russo. Welcome to the everything co-working podcast. This is your host. Jamie Russo. Thank you for joining me. So why do you want to listen to today's episode? I have an interview with two guests.

00:00:40 I love having two guests on the show. I don't do it very often. It's fun. I have Adam Ramsey, Ramsey and Zach Cox. They are the co-owners of workspace collective in Ocala, Florida, and they have a super interesting story. They started their first coworking space and building that was built in the 1890s. So it had a very sort of homey,

00:01:04 comfortable feel, but their mission is to help entrepreneurs learn and grow and thrive in a community. They opened in October, 2019, and pretty quickly opened a second location because they had filled their first location. So they doubled the size, opened about a quarter mile away, and they share a lot of details about their journey, how their spouses are involved, how they divide up responsibilities,

00:01:27 how their background in sales has been a big asset, how they train their community managers, their community managers are part of our community manager university. So Chelsea has been on for a while and Ryan just joined the team, how they're marketing their podcast studio, which I know will be interesting to a number of you and some of the things that they've learned moving from their first location to their second location.

00:01:51 So it's a great story. I hope you enjoy our interview. Welcome. I am here with Adam Ramsay and Zach Cox. They are owners of workspace. Oh, Kala in Ocala, Florida, which is near Orlando. And I am thrilled to hear their story. I have lots of questions for both of you. So thank you for joining me today.

00:02:14 I was looking at your, like your profiles on LinkedIn and coming up with lots of questions. So I thought let's, I think this will pull out some details. Let's start with, how did you get into coworking? What was the moment when you must've said to each other or who had the idea, how did you get started and then we'll walk through your journey?

00:02:35 Yeah, that's a great question. So we, Adam and I have known each other for a long time, worked together at my previous life in the payroll HR space. And we actually at the place where most guys come up with the grand ideas, the golf course, and we, you know, had him had, had mentioned to me that he was looking at this building in downtown Sanford.

00:02:57 And he wanted to, to help small business owners in, in, in a bigger way than what we were doing in payroll. And it was funny because I had just gone out to San Francisco and visited my sister at Salesforce. And if you've seen that new building, the top floor is really a coworking space. They've got free coffee and snacks. They've got awesome views.

00:03:18 You got free wifi. And I remember saying to myself like this, this is so applicable on the east coast. And a lot of these smaller cities that, that, that don't typically have this type of service. And so when Adam had mentioned that to me, I mean, I literally, I just started smiling ear to ear. I'm like, dude,

00:03:35 we have to take this idea and run with it. And so after, after that round of golf, we went back, we got our wives on the phone, like literally, like I get chills just thinking about it because we just got so giddy about it. And, and our wives jumped in. They were, they were a hundred percent on board with it.

00:03:53 And that's really sort of where the idea was born. That was Atomos out four years ago, roughly Four years Ago, about four years ago at this point. So Adam, how did you come across the idea of co-working? Well, we, we both worked in, in large buildings, like through our sales careers, and then they kept downsizing. These are like 40,000 square feet.

00:04:18 We went to like 17,000 square feet. Then people started working from home. And around that same time we were saying, wow, it seems like, like where's office space going. And then I had a friend who was involved with serendipity labs. He actually sent me a link of what it was. I had no idea what it was, the name I heard.

00:04:37 I'm like, what is this? And, and from there, it was when I kind of, we started to look at it and say, wow, like that would be really cool to do in more of a smaller or mid market, like a community where you can truly know your members and, and hopefully get them to work together if they want maybe even pass referrals back and forth.

00:04:55 And that's been our world in, in sales is, you know, referring people and taking good care of people and just being a good person in the community. And, and so, yeah, that's really kind of the first time I'd even heard of, it was my, was my buddy Scott, Sarah, and bringing it from serendipity. And we,

00:05:12 we still keep in touch all the time and we work together on a lot of stuff that we're doing to grow workspace collective. So pretty cool. So you guys had day jobs. Did you keep your day jobs or what does that look like today with the business? Yeah, we, we still have them. We still have them, both of our wives work really closely with us in the business.

00:05:34 So they're like the, we call them the brains. We call them the backend, we call them design. So they really did have to be on board. You're like, no, really this We're all in. Yeah. They're, they're, you know, they're kind of everything under the sun there. And then of course our community managers are amazing.

00:05:50 So we've, we've had to, you know, balance, but you know, when, when you're working more in an environment like this out of an office, we can do a lot of the things we do for, for regular work here in the, in the different spaces. So, you know, it's always a nice thing when you get to come,

00:06:08 you know, we're all working from home, but the days that I come out here, which are most of the days now, just because we're really, you know, in growth mode are always, are always great. I mean, I love hanging out with the family and being home, but I'm, I'm more productive here, hands down. I hear you.

00:06:24 So what is the size of Cola? Is it Ocala or Ocala? Yeah, it's Ocala. Ocala. Okay. Yeah, it is. It's a mid, it's a mid market. Metro, you know, it's a it's in between. It lies in between Orlando, in Gainesville. If you're familiar with Gainesville at all, you know, population is going to be smaller than what you would see in Orlando,

00:06:44 Tampa or Jacksonville. Ocala is in a big growth mode, but these, these mid-market cities are really underserved in this market. There really isn't an option, you know, downtown Orlando, downtown Tampa, downtown Jacksonville, you'll probably have 15, 20 different coworking spaces. When we opened up our first location, workspace, collective, nobody knew what coworking was.

00:07:06 I never heard a good news, bad news, right? Lots of opportunity. Lots of education to do. Yeah. Lots of, lots of education. You know, friends, family are saying, are you sure this is crazy? You know, blah, blah, blah. And we literally were in, we do it to this day. We give the first day free.

00:07:23 People can come in, get a feel for the space, get a feel for what we do to try to connect people and see that we're we're member driven. We really want to make sure the member experience is, is, is, is great. And, and, you know, it's taken really a year and a half, two years to get people to understand what coworking is here.

00:07:42 And fortunately the, the community has really embraced it. It's been, it's been really, really cool to see, And we're it's you have good, good type, well, bad timing, 2020, hopefully. Good timing. Now, although Florida has been a little more moderate in closures and, and whatnot. We won't talk politics on the, on the podcast,

00:08:04 but I, so it hasn't gone live yet, but I interviewed mark Gilbreath about the GSA award. I don't know if you guys heard us talking about that. You know, the GSA has said we support flexibility and I don't know how many government workers there are in Ocala, but I have to think like the smaller markets, this is, you know,

00:08:27 sort of their time mark and I we're, we're laughing. I think episode number 80 that I did was like, is suburban coworking a thing, right? Or smaller market. And to your point, there's still so much opportunity in smaller markets. I think, you know, markets like a Dallas or, you know, you could maybe argue, have been a little over supplied,

00:08:50 although I think that's probably shifting, but markets like you are. So I want to hear you opened your first space. Tell us about kind of your journey. You opened the first space, which is sort of a unique property, and you've already opened your second space, which online looks totally different. So I'd love to hear kind of who you wanted to serve.

00:09:11 You've alluded to that a little bit and how you pick that first location and then we'll get into, you know, the impetus for the second location. Yeah. So the first location we were so nervous when we opened up that first space, it's only 3000 square feet, super nervous. Didn't know what we were getting into. You know, the, the,

00:09:33 the mission was to help, help small business owners, right? And we weren't really wanting to go the next step and see, make sure we could do whatever we needed to do to, to help them survive and succeed and grow and thrive and et cetera, et cetera. The house that we ended up getting the commercial space is built in 18 90, 90. It's,

00:09:53 it's, it's a really cool space, but it was absolutely trashed. There was a lot of work that kind of went into the design and the thought process of how to fit what we wanted to do in there. And you know, it really, it turned out great. We have some private offices, three, three private offices. We have one shared office.

00:10:12 And then we have like the living room area that we do the dedicated desks. And first come first serve in the living room in the living room. And people really, really, really loved the space. The, the fall process again, was we want to serve the, the entrepreneurs, the freelancers, and, and we had a podcast studio, right?

00:10:35 When we opened, we thought there was a big market from north of Orlando. There was no place to record a podcast studio unless you were in somebody's garage. And so we hit that marketing pretty hard when we opened. And once people got in and saw the space, it started to a light bulb, came on like, oh, you know, I can now have my allotment of hours in the conference room or podcasts,

00:10:58 and you're going to teach me how to do it. Like, why don't I just mess around and see, see what happens? It's funny because when we first opened that one, Adam and I were like, Hey, the only way we're going to be able to do this is if we started on podcasts, we have to get in and start playing with the equipment.

00:11:19 So we did, we did for a long time, for like six months, we were recording shows weekly. We didn't end up posting anywhere. We've got all this, all these shows like listening, listening back on it now. I mean, it's, it's, they were like hour long shows and it was really just us rambling about anything that we thought was funny.

00:11:37 You know what I mean? But that whole podcast, we really kind of took off too. We ended up getting probably eight to 10 different companies that were doing some type of podcast recording in that space. And it ended up giving a lot of, a lot of marketing value for the rest of the building. People would come in for that. And then they'd see,

00:11:59 oh my gosh, I can actually work from here. And that's sort of where it took off. You know, we, the reason we opened up the second space is because we were tired of telling people no, and we really, in our business plan, we thought we'd fill up the 3000 square foot space, the original space, and, you know,

00:12:14 nine to nine months, nine to 12 months, we ended up filling up the majority of that space and about three. Wow. And so we, you know, tired of saying, no, we're going to open up a second space. Didn't think it was going to be Ocala. I thought it would be a surrounding area. And the demand was so high that we,

00:12:33 we, we ended up looking for a new space and that's where we opened up this more it's right. Downtown, much more industrial. And it's almost, it's two and a half times the size 7,000 square feet. And it has a completely different vibe, not really on purpose necessarily, but the two spaces attract different types of personalities, which is cool.

00:12:53 Right? You don't, some people want to work in that homey sort of comfortable environment. Correct. And then you come over here, you're right. Downtown. You could walk to everything much more industrial, much more open. And, you know, we've been able to maintain sort of memberships at both space because they're, they're unique in their own, their own vibe.

00:13:15 So not necessarily a quarter mile oh, super Close, Super close. So there's super-close I do. Yeah, we do. And we've, we've actually, we're, we're talking about if we can find the right one, getting a golf cart, so members can vote. Right. But you, we current, we currently lease them both. We, we,

00:13:44 we really will be buying every property moving forward and we really want to buy both of the properties that we're in. It's just, we haven't worked that out yet. And that is part of the plan and part of the vision and the goal as we move into new markets is to be able to, to own the real estate and then have workspace in there as an awesome tenant and just bring a great place where we can,

00:14:03 you know, where we can serve the members. I mean, that's, that's truly the goal. And the long-term goal is to get, or really not, not even that long term, but to, to really be able to help about 2,500 members in the next four to five years, you know? So that would encompass other areas of Florida, but probably eight to 10 spaces to,

00:14:22 to get that. And we think, you know, the sooner we can do it the better, and you talk about like us and being able to, you know, to help people like that, is it, I mean, we, the business we were in, we sell so many clients of ours. Cause we worked with kind of smaller startups for the most part.

00:14:40 They go into business, I mean, six months a year. Yeah. Most of the, you know, 50% of that is, is, is money, capital revenue. I mean, to go into a space and have to pay all those things. And, and we know if we can eliminate that part and get them in here for, you know,

00:14:53 our starting coworkings 1 99 a month and we give a ton of amenities with it. Like they can get all that stuff and then launch their business. Our, our motto is work, grow, thrive, and we just want businesses to like, eventually, Hey, maybe they're going to get big enough to where we can't serve them anymore. And then they've got to move to their own spot and we're going to be high five and on the way out,

00:15:13 like, great, you did it, you started here with a little office, you graduated to the big office and now you're, you know, now you're moving on doing bigger and better things. And that's like, that's why we do it. And that's, what's fun about it. Well, if you own the building, maybe you can move them upstairs.

00:15:30 The interesting thing about people moving out is, you know, you talk about sort of the, the value of what you can do for them at the early stage, but then they're like often running. They don't want to take time out to build out a space and do the construction and furniture is. So do you do any offer sort of any coaching or support services to the early stage folks or in the plans?

00:15:56 It's, I'd say right now we definitely do. I mean, we, we do it probably more informally than formally where, you know, we're definitely don't at this point, we're not charging anybody to do any of that kind of, we just, we just really try to connect people with, you know, use our expertise in business to say, Hey,

00:16:12 here's how you would, you know, if you need help setting up an entity or you need help with it with an incorporation in Florida, we can, we can help you or at least point you in the right direction. But being able to, to refer them to the sphere of influence that we have in the community, to be able to say,

00:16:26 Hey, you need a good CPA. Like these would be your best three to go to, you know, based on what you're looking for. Or, Hey, we might have a contact over here that is a restaurant customer and they are looking for something like you guys let's make the introduction. So we just go and Zack, there's nobody better at this than Zach.

00:16:43 Like, this is what he's built his career on. But he, he will go in and meet someone and quickly find out a lot of people will say, oh yeah, I'll hook you up with that person. And then you don't hear anything. You handle livers, all referrals. And you know, I've kind of learned that from him over the years,

00:16:59 because he's been, you know, a top salesperson at several different companies. It's like, if you do that and you take that kind of time to help the members, I mean, they're going to remember it. We're going to tell so many people and then they're ultimately going to be successful. That person that you referred is more successful. And that's how we've built our business before this.

00:17:16 And that's how we want to continue to do it as we, as we grow. And sometimes it's about just being exposed to people who are successful. Right? You talked about the businesses that fail. Like sometimes it's like a mindset thing. I was even, we talked in our pre-chat about, you know, I've been looking for a coworking space, it's a good fit.

00:17:35 And sometimes I think, you know, when I'm at home, it's a card to get into like CEO mode. You know what I mean? Like you gotta make tough and you gotta like it. So I have to like give myself a little pep talk and I feel that's one of the reasons I need to get out of the house and why I think it's so important that people do is because you need to be around other people who are in that mode,

00:17:58 right. Making things happen. Do you know being productive in that Headspace? Well, you know, it's funny, Adam sort of hit on it. One of the things we didn't anticipate was the, what was, who was going to be attracted to this type of environment and different industries, different ages, different backgrounds, but everybody has that general work,

00:18:19 hard play hard mentality. Do you know what I mean? Correct. Everyone, everyone here feeds off of the success of each other, you know, so you'll see, you know, whether it's a new law, a lawyer that we sent, one of our first accounts that signed up and she started with just conference room space and virtual mail. And she sort of upgraded.

00:18:40 And every time we see her, she talks to us about how happy she is, that we were here for her when she first started, otherwise she wouldn't have been able to make it work. And the other members in the space sort of gave her the confidence that she was on the right path. And they were going through the same struggles, you know,

00:18:55 et cetera, et cetera. And Adam hit that on the head. Like we're huge on connecting people. Like we, it's more than just our hashtag on any of our social always is more than just office space. Right? And it's because we really want to go, you know, Malcolm Gladwell talks about connects being a connector and that's huge. I've always taken that to heart.

00:19:15 Like I want to do whatever we can do to connect people. If you want to meet with the mayor of Ocala, awesome. I'm going to make that happen for you. Or if you want to go and you want to talk to the chamber of commerce, economic development council, you want to go talk to the, the performing arts center. There's something,

00:19:28 there's some value there let's make that happen. Let's make it happen in our space. And everybody, you know, everybody sort of, sort of wins. So, and, and people responded to it. So I'm curious, hopefully this isn't a super challenging question, but you to have that competency, which I think is critical to success, right? The stickiness that comes out of what happens and feeling like there are people who care about me.

00:19:55 So you have a growth plan and you already have two locations and there are two of you, but you have a team. How do you transfer like some of your sales and connection skills to your team? Yeah. That's and that's something we think about all the time. And, and so my, my background in the sales side is sales leadership. And so I've,

00:20:16 I've worked, you know, so I think, you know, when we think about our team that we have with our community managers and our wives and ourselves, and kind of, we all have a, I think a little bit of a niche that kind of compliments each other. So, you know, I know how important it is to build a culture around your,

00:20:30 your team. So, you know, when we think about growth and not being able to like, you know, okay, the next location we'll be able to be here four days a week. Right. You won't be able to make all those connections. Yeah. And so we're, you know, we've got, we've got, even at this point of where we are,

00:20:47 we have some top drawer candidates that we've interviewed that were a little bit out of our scope at first, but we know that we've got a great relationship now. And we know they're going to be the one as we grow someone that has the same mindset, has the same vision that we have. And then it's a matter of getting the growth and then plugging them in and then slowly,

00:21:07 you know, building that team around those folks. Cause because yeah, we don't want to, I mean, there'll be no way with 10 spaces that Zach and I are running around making referrals. Right. So, but we'll have to do a lot, a lot with the community, a lot with networking and then just, and be able to teach and develop them and make them feel comfortable with that skill.

00:21:25 You know, number one for our, our, our, our community managers is just like the service end of it. Right? So, you know, we have to teach some of the sales, but that's easy. We we've been doing that forever. We can teach them sales, we can teach them, follow up. Number one is, Hey,

00:21:39 are they a good person? Is this someone when you're interviewing them that we would want to have at our home, having dinner with the family living room, we can do that. We know that we get that good vibe about it. Then we can teach them everything else and develop them up to the way that we want to. Nobody's perfect. But the other thing is like,

00:21:56 if you're not letting them be authentic in the way that they go to customers, then it's not going to feel right either. So we've done a great job so far with our, our hiring. I know it's, it's tough, right? And it's sometimes a gut choice, but it's all about bringing the right people in to compliment what we're doing. And hopefully we can do a great job.

00:22:16 I know it's going to be tough. Like that's probably gonna be one of the hardest things we face as we grow is the people aspect of it. And it's, it's tough now to find people. I mean, our, our last interview for here, we interviewed while we, we sourced about 70 good candidates, we interviewed 15, we hired one.

00:22:33 I mean, it was, it was a tough, a tough, tough decision. But through that, what a deal that legwork. Now we have these other candidates that we can call on when, when we need, and that that's, it's a lot of work, but it will pay off for us as, as we continue to grow. Yeah.

00:22:51 And Jamie, if I can add to that too, like we, you know, it's, it's sort of a lead by example mentality, right? Our, our community managers are learning through what they're seeing through Adam and through me, the importance of networking, the importance of following up with people, the community manager university that you have is like, it's,

00:23:09 it's worth its weight in gold. Being able to kind of get the background from, from the operation standpoint. And then also getting, you know, just picking up word tracks. Like Adam said, it's about being authentic, but hearing how Adam or I will go about connecting somebody with whoever they want to connect with, or, you know, maybe it's just a birthday card who one of our members,

00:23:29 or maybe it's their kids for soccer game, or maybe they're a Gator fan and they want a Jersey. These are things that we, we go sort of above and beyond with our members to make sure they know that they're, they're appreciated. They're welcomed. And you know, and, and Chelsea who, I think you've talked with a little bit, she picks up those who one of our community manners,

00:23:46 she picks up those and takes the ball and runs with it. And our new community manager, Ryan does the same thing. And I have to lean on Adam big time for that piece. Cause I'm, I'm not in that sales leadership role. So the interview process I'm foreign to it. I mean, he's looking at me like, like I've got four eyes sometimes with some of the lessons,

00:24:04 but that's sorta part of the unique aspect of our team is each one of us, including our wives really brings something unique to the table that have allowed us to really grow at a fast pace. Yeah. So Chelsea is very impressive. I can tell she, she gets on our community manager calls and I can tell she's fantastic. And I ask about,

00:24:26 you know, the sales piece and the connection piece, because it's easy to teach a lot of the other aspects, right. They're more objective. And that subjective piece, especially when you get someone who's not as experienced just in business and in life, right? Like you guys have a lot of reps doing this. And so I'm always, you know,

00:24:47 curious about ways to help the community managers kind of develop in that way. So yeah, they're lucky to have mentors. If we didn't have that sales background and Adam, you can pop, you can back me up on this. If we, if we didn't come from that environment, it would be much more challenging. You know, we, we,

00:25:04 you know, I'm, I'm 17 years into a sales career. Adam is probably 20, 21 years in. And so that has made the sales aspect, the connecting aspect, the getting in front of people and, and putting yourself out there aspect of much easier, you know, that would be, that would be challenging if it wasn't for that. Yeah. A hundred percent agree.

00:25:25 And I suspect you could be very helpful to some of your members at some point, maybe we'll get to the point where you've got sort of the growth down and you're, I could see you guys doing something with sales in terms of reaching members. But yeah, I can tell you guys have a lot you want to accomplish, so, Hey, I just wanted to jump in really quickly before we continue with our discussion.

00:25:54 If you're working on opening a co-working 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 opening a co-working space, I want to share the three decisions that I've seen successful operators make when they're creating their coworking business. The masterclass is totally free. It's about an hour and includes some Q and a.

00:26:18 If you'd like to join me, you can register@everythingcoworking.com forward slash masterclass. If you already have a coworking space, I want to make sure you know, about community manager, university, community manager, university is a training and development platform for community managers. And it can be for owner-operators. It has content training resources, templates from day one to general manager.

00:26:45 The platform includes mini courses that cover the major buckets of the community manager role from community management, operations, sales, and marketing, finance, and leadership. The content is laid out in a graduated learning path. So the community manager can identify what content is most relevant to them, depending on their experience and kind of jump in from there. We provide a live brand new training every single month for the community manager group.

00:27:13 We also host a live Q and a call every single month so that the community managers can work through any challenges that they're having or opportunities get ideas from other community managers build their own peer network. We also have a private slack group for the group. So if you're interested in learning more, you can go to everything, coworking.com forward slash community manager. So I'm curious about your partnership because I've seen partnerships fall apart.

00:27:43 People will come to me and say, they're looking for a partner and I'll, you know, sort of poke around a little bit and are you just lonely? Or you just are you, cause partner is a big deal, right? What are you trying to solve with having a partner? How do you make it work? What's the, what's the secret to this,

00:28:04 especially having your spouses involved, which is sort of another, but could be a complicating factor. Yeah. But that is, that is, that's a big one. Cause I know, and we've seen it with all the businesses that we've worked with over the years, like partnerships that, that fail and, you know, we definitely knew there's a, there's a risk with that.

00:28:25 We've known each other a long time. So I'd say for people that are going to have a partner, one communicate, all, everything. I mean, we have a, we have a text chain. We, we, we probably do 150 texts a day between us, you know, bouncing ideas off each other phone calls. We'll meet up on the weekends,

00:28:44 try to make it fun, but, but we're talking work and like, what's next. And so I'd say, you know, communication, if you can pick a partner that, that compliments you. I mean, if we had four people that were like Zach and I, we would have already failed, you know, so it would be sale sale sale.

00:29:00 We would have never collected any money from any of them. So I mean, our, our, you know, having people that compliment each other and just know, knowing that person, well, I think you've always gotta be willing to, you know, to give and take, right. There's going to be certain ideas. Like Zach's way more creative.

00:29:18 Cassandra's way more creative than I am. Right. I'm more like, okay, just, just like, like just let's do it, let's fit it in. And, and so there are certain things that you have to say, well, all right, let's do it. And when you do that, and everyone kind of gets to have their idea heard,

00:29:34 or sometimes my idea doesn't work, but it's like the finished product is awesome. So like when we get our heads together, the finished product is always great. Right. And then you learn new things from people that, that, you know, that are your partners. Cause I think, you know, I, I, in the, in the sales world that I've worked in and leading with people is that you work with a bunch of different people that all have different personalities.

00:29:56 So you have to learn how to, how to be okay with those things. But I think it makes you better. It makes you more unique. It's made us, it's actually made it a lot more fun. And to think if like Zach or I tried to do this on our own, I don't know how we'd do it. I mean, we definitely couldn't be working another job and running a coworking space.

00:30:14 It just wouldn't happen too much to do so. Yeah. So I think those are, you know, that that's kind of the foundation, but I mean, communication is, is just gotta be number one all day long. So I'm curious first base to second space. What were some of the things you learned from the first wait first? What was the timeframe you mentioned,

00:30:36 you filled up really quickly and the first base and we're like, okay, that's, let's do it. When did you open your first base? And when did you open your second location? We opened up our first location, October of 2019. We opened up our second location cause we've only been open three, three months. So we opened up a yeah.

00:31:00 W we, we just recently opened up our second location. Both took a long time to, to fruition, to, I mean, both projects. The, the most frustrating part about the second thing, the second location was all of the delays with materials and We're doing it during COVID correct? Correct. I mean, it was, we were, we are J a GC told us the same GC as the first one that we'd be open in March.

00:31:26 And I don't think we ended up opening until June. And It was like, wow, what are we doing here? You know what I mean? And we had already signed the lease and there was a lot, there was just a lot of turmoil there with stuff that should not have been so delayed. But, you know, you had asked about what the,

00:31:48 what the biggest lesson was from the first one, the second one, the opening, the first one, you know, sometimes there's ignorance is bliss. Right? We had no idea what, from an operation standpoint, what we didn't know, like how do you, what software are you gonna pick to run the back office? How are you going to utilize it?

00:32:05 How are you going to learn it? How are you going to teach the community manager that, you know, the first two weeks we opened our first space, we, we didn't even know how to take payments and keep it. It's funny that we were looking out when we first started like, oh, wait a minute. Yeah. We actually got to learn how to take a credit card or take an ACH or whatever the case may be.

00:32:24 So, you know, learning that process and then getting processes in place for inventory, for new ma you know, bringing on a new member for running the podcast room and teaching members, how to use the, or whatever the case may be. It opening the second space. I think we, it would have been hard to, to have to, and not know that,

00:32:47 you know what I mean, getting the second one open and already having the time to train the community manager and then opening up our book of processes really made that whole process a lot easier. And I, we really should thank you for a lot of that stuff. I mean, you're, I've been listening to your podcast, you know, now since we opened and there's so many gems in there that really have made our lives a lot easier that we just wouldn't have had,

00:33:11 if it wasn't, it wasn't for you. And so that probably for the most part, w would be the, would be the biggest thing is just the processes and the operations side. What did, did you make any shifts? So the second space is larger. What does the product mix look like? Their offices open space? Yup. So it's,

00:33:30 you know, product mix is pretty close. We have 18 private offices here. So as we were in build-out phase, we knew that the micro offices were going to be important to have. So we actually added a three even kind of further down after the plans were done to make sure that, you know, we had space for that. This here we have a day office,

00:33:52 which is nice. So it's one of the micro offices that we're, that we're using as a day. Actually, it's been rented out more as a week office. So, which is, which is awesome. And then aside from that, there they're pretty similar. The podcast studio here a little bit bigger, and we took it to the next level and said,

00:34:10 okay, we want to be able to give them a place to not only do a podcast, but record content for YouTube or trainings. So we have several different areas in there that you can turn cameras and record. We also have people on staff to be able to do the video and help and do editing there as well as if someone fully wanted like a full launch package took for a podcast,

00:34:36 which would be, you know, a lot of people will go in and record, but they never get it out. Zach and I are two of those people. You're right. How do I, Yeah, it's a lot, but it, but it's a little, you know, I mean, you get a little nervous if you're putting out a podcast,

00:34:56 but this would take it from, from start to finish. I mean, intro music, editing, removing the ums, you know, the exit, the entrance and just everything to get them to launch it. Right. So, and then doing, you know, everything that goes along with that. So that's been a, an upskill from here. We just,

00:35:11 we just brought our, our first customer on there, which was really exciting. And we have our new community manager here. Ryan has a background in that video. So we're kind of combining his great service that he has with also this video side, which is just, just amazing. And like, we're just scratching the surface of this. So that's kind of a new thing here.

00:35:32 And then, and members can go to both to do that. Like, so our members in Fort king can come here and that, and vice versa. And then here, we also have a lounge, which we just didn't have room for in the, in the first base of the lounge. We have a Zack, Zack got us an X-Box in there Zach's contribution.

00:35:54 He is the Vivian. We've got, we've got foosball in there, we've got a dartboard. And then, you know, record player, just like a really cool area where you can sit and just chill out and not, you know, not work. So that's been, that's been really a cool ad. And then aside from that, though, our amenities are,

00:36:12 are probably what you see. I mean, we, we've got all the different types of, we always use local coffee brewers. So here we use Sweetwater, which is a local coffee brewer, and we've got, you know, we've got the French press. We do Nespresso, we've got beer on tap. So we offer the members of beer a day from a local brewery and then the snacks and all those things are included with all the memberships.

00:36:33 So I don't know, I always miss something because I feel like we do a lot and we're always adding something, but that's kind of the, that's kind of a mix we have here. And I think the members really enjoy it. Totally. You know, it's funny. I think people sort of downplay some of the amenities, sometimes the, even just having the Nespresso,

00:36:50 that's my other holdup from the fact that I, I don't have a favorite local space yet is right. My favorite thing in the morning is like my cappuccino and most spaces don't do it. And we always have the espresso machine. Cause it's like the easy way to execute on, on that without having the, you know, grinding, whatever. So I love it that because it's,

00:37:15 it's like the tipping factor for some people I suspect I'm like, I can't, I was like, well, I could have it at home and then go into the space, kind of pay the like five bucks or whatever it started anyway. Okay. I have two questions. What size are your micro offices? People want to know the details. So I have,

00:37:39 Yeah, we've got like, let's see three different sizes of micro offices. So the smallest ones are six and a half by seven. And then I think the next ones are like eight by seven. And then we've got these three larger ones, which are a little unique, they're narrower. So they're only like seven and a half, eight feet of wide,

00:38:01 but they go 16 feet and they all have their own windows. So when we, when we built out this space, we had, there were no windows on one side of the building and we needed the, the light to come in. Right. So we, we put all the windows down the whole side. And so that is the majority. We have eight private offices in there,

00:38:17 but three micros on that side. And, and those, those all sold. I mean, like, like I said, they also really quickly, I mean, there was no hesitation. People walked in it's I guess they just sold their selves. They walked in, they saw they're like, that's for me, I don't even need to ask you a lot of questions.

00:38:33 I want, Do you stage the offices? Are they just like, Yeah, no, we, we stage them. Well, desk chair, the girls, why to get came in and made everything look great right from the start. So yeah, at least one of the options was, was decked out with some other items, pictures on the walls,

00:38:55 things like that. And then some were just, Hey, if you want, what we give you, which is, you know, we do monitors chairs, file cabinets in the office and then desks in all offices. But we took, we took a lot of recommendations from the members that booked with us early for the new space. You know, some of them wanted to TV time.

00:39:15 So we came in on the weekend and hung TV. Some of them wanted, you know, maybe wiring in a certain place or they wanted, you know, the dry erase boards. And so we put those in for them just because they were our first members here. And we're always willing to, to, to do that kind of stuff for members.

00:39:31 I mean, it, it takes a little extra work, but I think to say, Hey, we'll just spend the end of the day and we'll go and do that for, I think it goes a long way. I've heard that as a bit of a theme lately, kind of the, like a little bit of customization of the space goes a long way in helping people feel like it's my space and helping with stickiness.

00:39:50 Right. If it, if it's the way they want it to be and it's, you know, decorated nicely, it's better than the home office. That's our thoughts. Exactly. Yeah. Okay. I love your small micro office is like desk and chair. Yeah. Yeah. And I think people get really nervous about really that's cause that's like 36 square feet.

00:40:12 Right. And we work does that model, but people are like, really, really that's like a closet or a phone booth. Right. And I'm like, no, no, no people cause the price point on it. It is good. And we all, the, all those have, most of them have natural light, but all of them have a door.

00:40:32 That's all that's glass. Right. So you can, you can get in and out. We've had some that, that put up a shade cause they just wanted to be able to raise it Laura. And we're totally cool with that. And Zach and I have worked out of those and like, I, it works great for me. I mean, the feedback we've gotten from members is like,

00:40:51 Hey, I love it. You know? And some of them are there as you know, some of them were there every day and some of them come twice a day and some are, you know, very rarely there and just use it for meetings. So yeah, we, we definitely, I think the micro office idea and going like more micro was something that we all heard on one of your podcasts.

00:41:09 And we said, okay, like I think Ashley was the one that there was like, we gotta have more, we need more, more those Tricky because they offices are expensive to build out. Right. When you look at your startup budget, you know, forma over the longterm and to your point, like you fill up so fast and so quickly,

00:41:30 which is So fast. I mean, they really sold out first and they are you're right there, you know, with the small offices next to each other, you have to worry about sound. That was a big deal for us. Like we had the soundproof above and beyond what you normally would do. I mean, that ended up costing us an extra,

00:41:47 probably 30 grand in the space, but it was what's it in spades because people need that privacy. And to Adam's point, you know, the first people that saw the people that signed up before we opened, we'd let them customize their office with paint, color, wallpaper, like whatever they wanted to, to, to, to make that space there's we did.

00:42:06 And it, and it really sort of helped, you know, get people to sign up before we opened. So I'm also curious about your podcast marketing, because I think a lot of space owners get on the podcast bandwagon because it sounds sexy and they think, oh, this is, you know, it'll be a great marketing benefit. And yet I talked to so many operators who are like,

00:42:27 yeah, it's kind of hanging out and nobody really uses it. And we might turn it back into an office are like doubling down on it. So what, what do you think is the secret to the success? Yeah, I think, I think, you know, you had said at the beginning of this conversation, it's about mindset and then same with the podcast room.

00:42:47 It's all a mindset. If you are thinking that it's failing, it's probably failing. If you talk about it and you be about it and you let people know what you're doing and, and again, you have people running stuff out of that. It makes it a lot easier for us. You know, again, we have a hundred things we want to accomplish.

00:43:03 We, we are, we have a script and we want to start doing some, some social advertising about a podcast launch. Again, people in the first space, it was all about giving you a space where you could record the content, but then it was up to you to kind of take it to the next level. And a lot of the people would come in and record it,

00:43:22 but then it would die because they didn't know what to do. And so here, I think if for your operators that around the country, if they have that in place, it's about focusing on it. Like, Hey, let's, let's get a script together. Let's do an easy, you can record the video with your phone. Let's get a 15,

00:43:38 second 32nd advertisement that you boost on, on Instagram or Facebook. And talk about your, about the capabilities in the podcast studio. We're fortunate with our new community manager, Ryan, that he really can take a lot of that video work and edit it and do all of it in house. But prior to that, you know, again with connections and people,

00:43:59 we knew in the area, we were looking to partner with graphic designers, you know, video editors, audio editors, and things like that. So we could offer a package, right. And so that was the vision with our new space, with a YouTube studio, one stop shop. All you have to do is come in and record content and we'll,

00:44:16 we'll take it from there. And so I, you know, my, again, my keys there would just be focused on it, push it out there. There's a, there is a need for that, especially if it's included in it's a value add in your membership and it's been working for us. Wait, you need to add somebody. Did you show notes?

00:44:36 My team member, Kristin was like, you owe me show notes for number two 14. And this morning I'm like, oh, I got it. It's like always the last thing I do. And I just, I need to figure out a way to, to outside. Are you talking about transcribing it? So we have a tool that transcribes, although there,

00:44:56 those are never perfect. Right? So Kristen will go in and kind of, you know, judge it, but just like the, sort of what this episode is about words. Sometimes it takes me forever to write those. So, So I've got a solution for that. Again, it's a connector. So I've got a, we've got a connection with a,

00:45:17 a court reporter that we've known for a long time that is sort of getting away from doing a lot of the court reporting. And they were looking for a way to sort of earn, earn some money on the side. And so we now have the ability to use her, to transcribe all of our stuff. And if there's notes on the episode or whatever else that needs to be done,

00:45:38 she can sort of knock all that out for us. That's such an interesting like transfer of skill, because that makes complete sense. Yeah. Yes. It's an interesting environment because as you know, with COVID, a lot of that court reporting work is being done, zoom or remote or whatever. So a lot of these people have more time on their hands.

00:45:57 And so we're, we're really excited about, I love that and it's created more creative work. I'm excited for her Totally content. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. Cause the other, the one other thing I really struggle with is, is I'm repurposing the content, right? I've so much podcast content. How do you get it into a blog post?

00:46:20 I don't have time to do it. So add that to your package, to, and the court reporter. I don't wonder if she would be, that would be in her skillset to kind of do both of those. I don't know. Well, and also think about like an e-book because you can repurpose your transcripts. I mean so much. Right?

00:46:35 Exactly. Yeah. That's how I feel about my content. You mentioned like gems, but they're kind of all over the place and we try to make those, we organize them for our paid programs, but okay. I'm looking at my list to see what else I we're coming up on time here. So, okay. I, I like to ask these because I think it's helpful.

00:47:01 So w for you guys, and we've talked about this a little bit, maybe for your full team, although you have such a very deem that you may have your bases all covered, but what do you guys find easy about the business? And what's harder, like, as you're thinking about, you know, maybe growth and whatnot, like what are the challenges that you talk about on the golf course?

00:47:26 Yeah, so, so easy. And we've already talked about a little bit, was the sales side, the sales side service side. It's our background, comfortable with it, you know, getting in front of people and connecting people always came second nature to us, teaching that and instilling that in our community managers is a little bit more difficult. But again,

00:47:48 you, you lead by example, we, Adam said, we want our community managers to sell their way. We want them to bring their own personality, come out and also give them, you know, like I had mentioned like a gift card or maybe a, a birthday card with a gift certificate or, you know, connect them to a local restaurant or whatever.

00:48:07 They don't need to come to us for approvals on that. Like, I want them to be able to have the ability to do that on their own and understand the value that comes associated with that and the freedom that comes with that. And so I think that's sort of been sort of an easy transition for us and on opening the hard stuff, like we talked about the operation side for me,

00:48:25 especially, I am not, I'm sure you can tell I'm not a detailed at all. Like I struggle with that tremendously. And, and Adam's wife, Ashley. Like I know she hates me for it. I just, I I'm big picture and I can, I'll go after it. But, you know, learning the operations and learning how to use the software that we use and learning how to take payments and getting the processes is like pulling fingernails out for me.

00:48:51 And it's funny, we didn't plan with the four of us, right? Me and Adam and my wife, Cassandra and his wife, Ashley, we didn't really plan to go into different caveats of, of specialty. It just sort of happened naturally. My wife loves design and interior design and shopping and things like that. And she really, I mean,

00:49:12 she she's forward thinking. And if you've seen our, if you could have seen picture of our space, it really, that really sort of shined through Adam and I, you know, I'm five minutes into that numb my head hurts and I'm ready to like go and do something else. And Ashley is just, is excellent with finances and is excellent with keeping us on budget and processes and operations and things like that.

00:49:34 And you know, Adam and I are sort of the big picture guy and that's the operations and the processes point has been, has been the struggle for us, I think. Yeah. I think that the other thing with those that I'll just add to that as like, you have to have consistency with those processes and you know, it was nice coming into the new space because we have those built out.

00:49:55 But now there's things that have added on that we have to consistently do. I mean, you can't just go down and say, oh, we're going to do this and start there and go, go at it for a month or two and expect that you're going to get results. Like you got to keep at it, we've got to keep at it.

00:50:09 You got to keep, you know, keep advertising or keep, you know, I mean, we, we do guerrilla marketing and take, you know, we'll take our signs and we post them around the area. I mean, we still do that kind of stuff. So it's like, if you're doing those things and you just did it once, well,

00:50:22 you're not going to get results, but if you do it consistently, you know, good things eventually happen. Even if it seems like they're not, you know, they're not working at first. That tenacity is probably part of your sales background, which is such a huge advantage. I mean, you, you guys have gotten sort of lucky because right.

00:50:39 There's trade offs to any background. Right. But so you've, you've sort of created the full team. That sounds like it's pretty well balanced, which is awesome because right. You guys might be a disaster without operationally. That would be, well, 100%. We wouldn't be here. The folks who are super skilled at operations, like can give you your,

00:51:04 you know, manual, like, you know, on a silver platter, but aren't in, like, don't realize the tenacity that your sales funnel requires will also snuggle. So yeah, you guys are in good shape with the, the balanced team. And even if you, somebody, you know, decides to do something else, you know, at some point you,

00:51:25 at least you recognize that skillset and what you'd need to replace. Cause I feel like that takes a long time for people to kind of figure out and, and fill those gaps. So. Okay. What's next? Do you talked about kind of some growth? What are, what's your focus for the next year or two? Yeah. I'll tell you,

00:51:50 we, you know, so we're, we're looking at at spaces now, right? So we've got three different markets that we're looking at in Florida to grow again. We're going to stick in the mid kind of Metro type markets that we really feel will bring the most value. And so the goal is to, by the end of the year have had that next one open and then we've gotten a lot of interest from just friends and business associates that want to be a part of what we're doing.

00:52:16 And so we're, we're working through ways to, to bring some of those guys on from, from the investment of the real estate side, we'll still do the workspace side. That's super exciting. That's a whole new world too, that we're in, but we're running really fast that way, because we want to get to where, you know, 10 look,

00:52:34 eight, 10 locations is kind of where our head is at in the next, you know, three to five years. And then after that, we'll probably sit down and, or maybe go play golf and see what's next. But you know, the enjoyment we've gotten out of the members and hearing how much they, they appreciate what we're doing is like,

00:52:52 it really drives us. So we want to, you know, we want to continue to do it. And we know that there's places that, that don't have this, that need it, that want it, or that don't even know about it. And then we'll go in and educate them as to, Hey, this would be a good thing for,

00:53:04 you know, for you and your business. So yeah, that, that's it. We're going to probably continue to add things. You know, we we're always open to any ideas though. So as we hear things, I mean, we heard of people putting sleeping pods in their coworkings and they're like, we might do that. My wife wants to put the desk on top of the treadmill.

00:53:22 We might have that in the next space. I mean, we, we, we constantly have ideas and things that we want to do, and we're just gonna, you know, continue to not get too far away from the core business, which is the members and helping them grow and thrive. But also, Hey, if we can add something here that would be cool that no one else is doing,

00:53:40 like we're probably going to try it and see what happens, you know? So, yeah, so that that's kinda us and, you know, we're looking forward to the next five, 10 hour, many years. It is, but we're, we're looking to really, you know, do this as often and as much as possible. Awesome. Well,

00:53:56 thank you for sharing your story. You guys are inspiring and I've, you know, I love the details you share. Cause I think people learn a lot from your stories and, and what you've figured out and you know, some, some pretty quick growth, especially during a pandemic. I didn't realize you had just opened the first location like in October.

00:54:15 So you guys are moving and grooving. Well, please stay in touch. We'll have to have you back on and hear about the growth. Hopefully you can move the real estate process fast enough for your that's. That's usually the whole bump, right? Can you get it to go fast enough, Which you want to move. So, And we want to say,

00:54:34 thank you. I really, I mean, it's it, I don't know if you hear it enough, but the value that you have brought with, with your topics and the, the information that we've used from your podcast, since we started listening to you has been invaluable. It really has helped us a lot. And we were just super excited to be on the show and get to meet you,

00:54:55 you know, virtually today. And we're looking forward to staying in touch with you and, and, and see what happens next. Awesome. Thank you guys. Thank you.

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