319. The Key to Success: Aligning Values with Your Ideal Customers in a Values-Driven Coworking Space
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Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space
TRANSCRIPTION
319. The Key to Success: Aligning Values with Your Ideal Customers in a Values-Driven Coworking Space
00:00:02,"Welcome to the Everything Coworking podcast, where every week I keep you updated on the latest trends and how toss in Coworking. I owned and operated Coworking spaces for eight years, and then served as the executive director of the Global Workspace Association for five years. And today I work with hundreds of operators and community managers every month, allowing me to bring you thought provoking operator,"
00:00:29,"case studies and inspirational interviews with industry thought leaders to help you confidently stay on top of what's important and what you can apply to your own role in the Coworking industry. Welcome to the Everything Coworking Podcast. This is your host, Jamie Russo. My guest today is Jen Luby, founder of Day House Coworking in Highland Park, Illinois. And the reason I had Jen on the podcast is because I wanted to get her perspective on running a Coworking business that is focused on some core values and she makes some business decisions around those core values."
00:01:14,"So I think one of the things that, you know, I work with our Coworking, Startup School students on is kind of figuring out the fine balance between creating a profit in your business because that's super, super important. You cannot, you cannot worry about values if your space isn't profitable and stay open. But balancing that with running the kind of business that you want to run and providing the type of experience and the type of environment that you wanna create for your members."
00:01:46,"And sometimes there is some tension around those decisions. So Jen and I talk about this. I've known Jen for a while. Actually. I think I heard of Jen on Instagram or somebody posted it somewhere and I saw back in the day, she said this was during C O d I didn't remember when it was, but they were offering gift wrapping services around the Christmas holidays."
00:02:14,"And I thought this was brilliant. And she thinks it was brilliant because it was probably during C O V I D and she said, you know, everybody's kids were home. Well, if you're a parent, I'm sure you're like me. I cannot, I'm like my, I've turned into my mother. I hide things in weird places. 'cause our house is not very big."
00:02:31,"So I don't have good hiding places. So I find weird places and then I cannot remember where I put things. So I'll be sitting there like the day before Christmas, trying to figure out where did I put that thing that I know that I bought and I can't find. So it would be my dream to get Christmas gifts or other holiday gifts if you don't celebrate Christmas delivered to the Coworking space."
00:02:55,"And then be able to wrap, have a glass of wine, you know, wrap with the other members, kinda make it a thing. Because inevitably I spend, you know, holidays, like birthdays, whatever it is, I, I usually wrap in the garage, which is, our garage is not fancy. I work out in the garage, so I'm on the floor in the garage with my wrapping paper and tape,"
00:03:16,"usually probably after my daughter goes to bed, which I hate because I go to bed really early 'cause I get up really early. So anyway, my point is, she was doing this thing that on the surface looks really simple and basic, like not brain surgery, not expensive, not hard to do, but like a killer in terms of addressing a pain point and creating value for members."
00:03:44,"And I love that. I think it's important to remember there are some big things that we can talk about doing to draw people into our space, like food and beverage, which I also think is important. And there are little things we can do, like wrapping paper stations that are so simple and yet are really compelling. And that really is just kind of a tactical example of what Jen and her team are focused on at Day House."
00:04:11,"She talks, you know, just a lot about sort of her community engagement. She does a lot with the broader community. She's in a smaller market, a suburb of Chicago. Her why around starting the space was really about being a mom who wanted time to get really, you know, good creative work done at home. And that being really hard with a little kid at home."
00:04:32,"So yes, she has experimented with childcare and has child friendly space that gets, does get used in monetizable ways and sometimes is not monetizable. And that's one of the examples that we talk about in terms of running a values focused business and not just, Hey, there's, you know, 200 square feet over there that's not being monetized every minute of the day."
00:04:57,"Let's convert it to something else. She has done that in cases, you know, and those decisions can be challenging. You have to be willing to experiment, be willing to say, okay, you know, this is underutilized. This isn't working. How I thought it was, what can I do that provides more value to my members? I also think Jen is early in her concept."
00:05:20,"So she opened in 2019 exactly a year before the pandemic hit. So I think we're gonna see some transition. And she has had a great experience in terms of growing membership post covid, more folks not commuting and wanting to get out of their house. She's also in a market that's kind of interesting. And some of you listening may be in a similar position."
00:05:43,"So Highland Park is a nice suburb on the north side of Chicago. And so I said to her, I was like, Jen, how do you get people out of their fancy home offices? And she's, oh yeah, you know, the folks at the Economic Development Center, I can't remember. It was some, some, a group like that said the same thing to me,"
00:05:59,"Jen, people have nice, you know, fa home offices here, why would they need a Coworking space? And she's creating that value. I mean, like the wrapping station is just, you know, one example, but they do a lot of other programming and, and member engagement. But I think it's, it's not easy and you have to,"
00:06:15,"you know, get savvy with your marketing. She's always been, she has a marketing background and events and so she's always been kind of creative around marketing, community engagement, et cetera. So I think this is gonna be a fun conversation. And I think Jen is sensitive thinking that I talk about Chicago too much. I am unapologetic about my love for Chicago."
00:06:37,"I, those were, you know, some of the best years of my life for sure. So I love that city and I love all the friends and experiences that I have from living there. And she, we also discovered we lived kinda down the street from each other probably when we had our daughters. Our daughters are roughly the same age. So anyway,"
00:06:55,"I think you're gonna enjoy this conversation with Jen and if you're experimenting with kind of some value-based decisions in your business, we would love to hear from you. Enjoy the episode. Welcome. I am here with Jen Luby, founder of Day House Coworking in Highland Park, Illinois, which is, it's like a half hour north of Chicago. Jen, Depends on the time of day."
00:07:20,"Yes. Anywhere from a half hour to, you know, five hours. I know. Which, which brings opportunity to those running Coworking spaces in the suburbs, which we'll get to in a little bit. Okay. So I'm so excited to have you on. We have, we've known each other for a while now and met in real life fi Did we only meet real life at Juicy in Chicago this year?"
00:07:40,"Yes, In April of 2023. Yeah, that was the first time we met in person. It was crazy. Yeah. Thank goodness for conferences. Thank you, Liz. Yeah, Andy was easy for you. It was in Chicago. Liz should do Chicago again. I I'm just gonna put my vote in for you. Probably would, could use a trip though,"
00:07:57,"You know, every now and then it's good. But I, it's, I have to admit it was so convenient to just zip zip on down. And you brought your team member, remind me of her name. Yeah, Jessica Erickson. She's our community engagement Director. Yeah. Perfect. Okay. Which we're gonna talk, we're gonna talk about Coworking and running a values driven business,"
00:08:16,"and I love the fact that her title is Community Engagement Director. Okay. So let's talk a little bit about Day House. How long have you been open now? So we opened four and a half years ago. We opened in March of 2019, which means that we celebrated our first anniversary in March of 2020. And we all remember that that was,"
00:08:37,"it was pretty funny. We had a, this beautiful luncheon for all of our members. And I remember making an announcement like, Hey guys, there's like this virus thing that's in the news. I don't know if you have to cough, make sure you turn away and, you know, go wash your hands. And literally the next day the world shut down."
00:08:53,"So. Ouch. Okay, so for those that don't know, Jen Luby, tell us your Coworking story. How did this come about? So I was sitting at home, I remember this very clearly. It was March of 2017. And at the time I was working as a freelance writer. I was also an editor and I did some event producing for some popups."
00:09:16,"I, I was one of those people that if I had had a business card, it would've needed to like fold out multiple times because I, I was just, you know, doing so many all the things and I'm working from home and I remember I was trying to write an art, write an article, and my daughter at the time was three."
00:09:33,"And she's playing, I'm at the kitchen table, she's playing in the family room with Peppa Pig on. And she keeps coming over to show me things, ask me things, tell me things. And I thought to myself, I think she's coming up to me every 45 seconds. And so I set the timer on my watch, the, or the stopwatch on my phone."
00:09:52,"Mommy, 47 seconds, mommy. 42 seconds. Okay. I'm not going crazy. This is why I can't finish a sentence. Right. And, and around the same time, one of my friends was having the exact same problem and I had just moved to the suburbs about two less than two years prior after living in the city. Well you lived in The city and I guess I never pictured the,"
00:10:18,"the Jen Luby of downtown Chicago. Yeah, Yeah. Well I was in Wicker Park for 10 years. Oh yeah, that was, we Must've been neighbors. Is that kind of crazy that we didn't, 'cause we were in probably this Ukrainian village right before we moved. Oh My God. Yeah. We were north in Ashland. Yeah. Every, Everyone who's not from Chicago right now is two now Is like,"
00:10:36,"why are you talking about this? I know, that's so funny. Yeah. Maybe we worked in coffee shops nearby and our daughters are almost the same age. Right, Right. Yeah, exactly. So I'm sure we were both pushing strollers and like past each other's Eyes probably. Yeah. Okay. Anyway, 45 seconds anyway. So 47 Seconds. Yeah,"
00:10:53,"exactly. One of my friends was going through the exact same thing and I started to think, well there's gotta be something around here that is, you know, I'm, I'm maybe family friendly ish that, you know, if I need to bring her I can. Or you know, maybe barring that, maybe it's just a place that I really vibe with."
00:11:10,"And I started to look around for Coworking places and I could not find anything that was like what I was looking for. And like I said, one of my friends was having the exact same problem and I was thinking, okay, well I know what'll be easier than just putting up with it at home. I know I'll open a Coworking space. That'll be easy."
00:11:29,"That'll be easy. No problem. I'll do that. Yeah, yeah, Right. Totally. So do you know what you did, you know there was a thing called Coworking when you started looking? I did. Okay. Yeah, I did because I had seen it living in the city. Yeah. I had known about it then and I just started going down the rabbit hole of research for almost two years and talking to a lot of great mentors like you and reading all the things I could get my hands on and listening to all the podcasts,"
00:12:00,"like the Everything Coworking podcast. Yes. And the more I got into it and the more I, I realized how wonderful the people are in this business, it, it just, it really, it sucked me in big time. And then two years later, almost to the day day house opened up for business and we opened up with members already signed up."
00:12:23,"We did a lot of pre-sales and that was just a, a wonderful thing to have people there on, on day zero. And they hung in with us during the pandemic because they wanted to see us make it. And so now we have almost a hundred members. 70 of the, about 70 are in person coming here on a regular, semi-regular basis."
00:12:48,"And then another 30 are virtual. Got it. Okay. So Covid obviously interfered with best delayed plans. Oh sure. But tell me, yeah. Are you working on starting a Coworking space in 2023 or even 2024? We want to make sure you are set up for success. You hear me talk about this a lot. The biggest mistakes made in Coworking businesses are made before you ever open your doors,"
00:13:21,"before you ever sign your lease, your lease, your product mix and ensuring that your real estate deal and your offers align with your ideal future members are everything in terms of making sure that you set your business up for success. We can fix your marketing and your paint colors and your bathroom fixtures anytime, but we cannot redo your real estate deal or your product mix."
00:13:49,"We can, it's just really expensive. So we wanna help you get all of that right and be among the Coworking space operator operators that are sleeping well at night because they sign the right real estate deal and they know that their business is set up for ongoing sustainability and set up to meet their financial goals. So we'd love to have you join us in the Coworking Startup School."
00:14:12,"We cover getting started with your real estate search and signing your lease and picking your product mix and more. If you already have a location, over half of our members are already building owners. You can get all the details of what's covered in our program at Everything Coworking dot com slash start. So, so tell us about you. Well, maybe we should start with what's with the pineapple."
00:14:42,"So your logo is a pineapple and it's based on the values that are sort of create the foundation for your business. So yeah, I'd love to hear you talk about those values and then maybe we can back into who are your members and you know, why do they come? Yeah. Our values are so important to us. They really drive everything we do."
00:15:00,"So, and it's funny that you said what's with the pineapple because if you scroll down to the very bottom of our website, day house Coworking dot com, you'll see it says what's with the pineapple? And that is a, a historic symbol of welcome and hospitality. And so that ties into our first value of three, which is Welcoming Day House is a very welcoming space."
00:15:22,"We have staff on site nine to five Monday through Friday. We aim to just really embrace the spirit of hospitality and thinking about what people need. Number two is that we are holistic in how we support people. So we think about, you know, what does this person need, not only from a business standpoint, a professional standpoint, what do they need from a personal standpoint?"
00:15:45,"Now obviously we can't serve everyone's every personal need here. However we do provide that safe space, that foundation, that serene space for where people can be themselves and be holistically themselves. A great example is, for instance, a lot of our members are parents. So we have Halloweens coming up. So we do bulk candy orders because how many of us have gone to Target on October 30th and just stared at the be the bear shells?"
00:16:15,"And you're like, well I guess it's kind of Candy corn this year. So we'll do things like that. You know, we do knife sharpening before the holidays. I just, I kind of think about my pain points. Yeah. And I think about what I need and then we'll float it out to our members and be like, Hey, are you guys interested in this?"
00:16:31,"And if the response is positive, then that's something that we'll offer. So welcoming, holistic. The third thing is that we are woman forward. We are not woman exclusive. 40% of our members are men. But we do consider the needs of women when we are trying to make decisions. So that's like the Halloween candy. 'cause who's buying the Halloween candy for the most Part?"
00:16:52,"Totally. Wait. And the holiday gift wrapping this, I always remember this about you 'cause I think that's my pain point. I was like, oh my God, that would be amazing. Why doesn't everybody do this? Yeah. So we started a holiday gifting station actually I think our first year Or, or it was, you know, it was in 2020."
00:17:07,"So when people were kind of coming back, kind of not that's what it was because the kids were at home and it's, I can't wrap presents because they're here. So come to day ask wrap your presents here. And it was such a hit that we turned it into a year-round amenity because again, you know, Target's gonna have to give me some residuals 'cause I'm,"
00:17:29,"I'm gonna mention Target again, but you're running a target, you're getting the Barbie doll or the Legos or whatever for your kids' friends' birthday party. And then you have to wrap it. And we have that here. Not the Legos, but the wrapping thing. Totally. Although that's not a bad idea. Right. Stocking the Legos and the Barbies. Okay."
00:17:48,"So you had you, if I remember correctly, when you started sort of child friendly, talk about what was your vision for that? Yeah. Can kids come to work? What was your vision and then in real life with Covid sort of interfering and then now what does it look like? Yeah, so when we started, I wanted to have, you know,"
00:18:09,"in the perfect world drop in childcare, nine to five every day. I realized that not everyone would need that. And also you need to have economy of scale. You need to have enough demand to be able to pay a babysitter to be sitting there all day, like a gym. And so then we scaled back and we were like, okay, well let's see what people need and we'll do it for those hours."
00:18:33,"And come to find out, this is gonna shock everyone listening, what people say they want and what they actually do are two different things. Did you know People are so complicated, So complicated. So, you know, it turned out there wasn't a whole lot of demand for childcare in our area. Most people kind of have that already taken care of and figured out."
00:18:56,"But what they do need are school day off programs. And in case of emergency, they want to know that this is a place where they can bring their seven-year-old and their seven year old can sit on an iPad. It's not like we're no children are allowed. That's not at all what we do here. We do have certain, certain policies in place."
00:19:18,"So like your kid, your three-year-old can't run around screaming, like that's not okay. But we do have a room that they can go into that is pretty soundproof and it's also fun. And then when we do things like happy hours, we'll make sure that our kids' room is available so the kids can go play in there, which is adjacent to our kitchen so that adults can stand in the kitchen and talk and,"
00:19:40,"and have a cocktail while the kids are playing in the next room. So again, that like at Home, but not at home, it's like better Than being at home right home, like at home. Yeah. So again, that has informed the way that we design the space to make sure that it's, it's, it's it's allotting for that kind of movement without interrupting other people."
00:20:02,"Yeah. And when you talk about kind of values-based decision making, that room takes up real estate. Yeah. That's not really monetized, but it's important for you to keep that as an amenity. Right. You've talked about that you do get some use, if I remember correctly, therapists will use it for, so you have found ways that it, it can be sort of monetized during the day,"
00:20:25,"but yeah, I kind of like that it was example of just saying, look, it's important to me to have this space and offer this as my me to my members. So no, I'm not gonna build offices in it. I'm going to leave it as an, as an amenity space. Yeah. It's a very attractive room with lot, lot,"
00:20:40,"lots of natural light and a, a attached bathroom and it's right off the kitchen. It's, it's pretty much got its own private entrance because there's a kitchen entrance that's our member door, it's right there. A lot of other people would look at that room and be like, oh my God, if nothing else chop it up into two offices. Yeah."
00:20:58,"You make so much money. But I, I'd, I'd rather provide that service to the community. Yeah. Okay. So what does the like school off day program look like? Depends on the day, depends on what people want. If it's a longer weekend, a lot of times people will just go out of town. But if it's the weird like Wednesday off or something like that,"
00:21:17,"like The professional development days for the teacher, whatever. Exactly. What Exactly Or teacher conferences. My, my daughter just hit middle school. Is yours in middle school yet, or not yet? She's in fifth, which before our district is elementary. Yeah. And the happiest day of my life was looking at the calendar and be like, oh, we don't do conferences anymore."
00:21:36,"They're not weeks on end of one o'clock dismissal. Yeah. We got that, you know, In the middle of the day. Yeah. Yeah. So again, we'll pull people, we'll see what they need. We have done something as simple as just opening up the room for open play to hiring. There's a, a company called the Slime Sisters and they're,"
00:22:00,"they're like these two high schoolers that come and teach slime class. Like That's brilliant. Making slime. Yeah. So we'll just Put a tarp down and you know, the kids sit in there and make slime and then they have a snack and then they play and that kills three hours. So totally. Generally it's, it's stuff that is generally like three hours is about the max."
00:22:23,"Yep. To be hanging out in a 300 square foot room. It's Good. But I love it because it's like a play date and mom or dad can keep working if they, if they need to finish it up and not feel guilty being at home, like ignoring the child and, right. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. It's simple. I mean I think that's,"
00:22:41,"that's kind of what I love about what you're describing. I mean, a, you're very engaged as an owner. You work out of the space, you're there and you, to your point, so yeah, I'd love to hear you're in the suburbs, which before Covid was like, Hmm, can this work and post covid, you know, a little bit more of,"
00:23:00,"you know, Coworking should work in the, in the suburbs. Who's your ideal customer in, I mean, your suburb is different than other suburbs, you know, no two suburbs are the same. But yeah, talk about kind of your ideal customer who's a no-brainer for a day house. Hey there, I'm interrupting our discussion to ask you when is the last time you audited your member onboarding process?"
00:23:30,"Probably it's been a while. We are covering that topic in our Community Manager University live training this month. Now I can assure you that this is not the first time we've talked about member onboarding. In this program we have over 40 training modules that we've run live and are recorded in our learning hub. We have checklists for onboarding, we have automated email series for onboarding."
00:23:56,"We've got it covered. But what I find is this is one of those topics that you cannot revisit often enough. It's so critical for success. So we're running through some case studies revisiting our checklist and having a great discussion with our global group of community managers about how to onboard members for success and retention. So if you've been thinking about adding your Community Manager to the program,"
00:24:23,"this is a great time to do it. Also coming up, we are doing a Google Business Review contest for the month of May. So if you are not averaging two to three new Google reviews per month, get your Community Manager in the program. We are going to make sure that they ramp up their reviews and that we get them in the process of getting consistent reviews every single month."
00:24:54,"So these are just some of the things that we cover in our program. We would love to have you join us. You can get more information at Everything Coworking dot com slash Community Manager. Yeah. Anybody who is a remote worker for a large corporation, 70% of our members fit into that category. We do have business owners and freelancers, but most people are working remotely for a larger corporation."
00:25:21,"And I think that's true of a lot of suburban spaces. And then, you know, anyone who is just a parent who's looking for community when you're in that, I would say thirties to fifties, maybe prime working age sandwich generation. You know, you're also, maybe your parents are aging and also you have to go to the target to buy Halloween candy on October 30th."
00:25:53,"So people who are in that sandwich generation, We have a lot going on and need Yes. Need other people who are So why do you think people, so these folks, presumably Highland Park's a nice suburb, they probably have home offices. Why do they come to day, why do they come to Day House? What gets them kind of out of their home office and Yeah,"
00:26:12,"That's a great question. And actually that's something that a city official said to me when, when I said I wanted to open up, she's like, you know, people have big houses, they have offices. And when you're looking for that comradery during the day, you know, you're, you're not gonna be able to talk to your, your big viking stove."
00:26:31,"It is not very good at making conversation. So you're looking for that comradery. You're looking for a reason to get out of the house and you know, it's, it's all the same stuff that we've all heard about from Coworking. You're looking to, you know, dismantle is isolation and loneliness and even if your house is big, it's still distracting. And it's still isolating."
00:26:53,"Yeah. So have you noticed a shift? I mean you were only open a year before Covid, which is tricky. I remember talking about this with you being like, a year is not like you're still Yeah. Like really figuring so many things out and then boom, you know, COVID hits, which was a giant setback. I mean, especially you were in Illinois,"
00:27:11,"lots of, you know, shutdowns and kind of conservatism around like being in public spaces. But do you, do you feel a difference like pre covid, post covid around like the remote worker, like sort of the interest in in Coworking getting out of the house? Absolutely. Okay. Absolutely. I mean, that demand has just gone up just like it has all over the country."
00:27:36,"And you know, even during Covid, I think like a lot of Coworking spaces, we were open to our members. We weren't open to the public, we were open to our members because we do offer virtual mail, which makes us an essential service. Yeah. So people were coming here and they were just distancing themselves. We had a, a group of folks that were here almost every day."
00:27:54,"They sort of went feral and formed their own colony with their own rules and norms. So That's so funny. Yeah. But this became like their, their their their lifeline to the rest of of the world. So I, I do think that there covid was just an accelerant and, and there's so many more people working from home now and that's, that's what people have seen around the world."
00:28:19,"Do you see folks with stipends yet? Like companies paying for their membership? Yeah, we do. Yeah. There's much more of that than there was before Covid come on in. Yeah, I love that. I mean, Chicago for anybody who doesn't has a like, crazy amount of traffic. It's a really, yeah. And, and I, I don't,"
00:28:39,"I mean I, I don't commute there anymore. It used to be just, I lived in the city and went north. So I guess that was kind of a typical commute and I mean, blah, I I it's awful. Yeah. It's totally awful. Although that must be, but the interesting Thing is reverse, I don't know, there's traffic everywhere."
00:28:55,"It's so much. And so yeah, There was the reverse commute really isn't a thing anymore. Not a thing. It's, no, I was just thinking, I dunno, Whatever it was like, I mean, maybe it's 10 minutes faster Yeah. If you're going inbound in the morning and outbound or no other way around outbound in the morning, inbound in the evening."
00:29:12,"But again, the non Chicago folks are, are like, what? Why are you talking about Chicago traffic again? Yeah, well just that, you know, it's a city with a tremendous amount of traffic. So even though you're not far just thinking about those remote workers and just the increased happiness around avoiding that commute. Right. You know, mean they,"
00:29:31,"maybe they wanna go in, they could take the train a couple days a week, but just to avoid that hassle and the time suck of sitting in that traffic. Right. And it's just such a higher quality of life rather than being gone 12 hours a day. I mean, my husband worked, works working downtown and he would leave at 6:30 AM come home at 6:30 PM Right."
00:29:49,"And it's not like that anymore. And that's true for so many households. Yeah. And your quality of life is just so much more improved. Yeah. When you don't have to sit in traffic or sit on the metro, which is our suburban rail system. Yeah. And you can just be home faster. And that's, as we, you know,"
00:30:09,"as we hope to grow and expand and as we're looking at different properties, we'll always be looking at places that are close to where people do life as opposed to there's so much in real estate right now in your class A buildings over by the highway on the fringes of town. Oh, you can walk in Bar has a lot of that. Yeah. I mean so does in Atlanta."
00:30:31,"So does it Dallas. I mean there, you know, any major city has has that. Yeah. Right, Right. But again, that's not a good fit for us. Yeah. Anything that is that far away from the schools and the homes and the grocery stores and has such a huge parking lot or a big parking garage you can't run in and out with,"
00:30:51,"with your five-year-old who needs to change into her ballet stuff and get a snack and get going again. Which totally, we, we have a crew here that does that. I, I remember you mentioning that. I mean, again, I think that's like another just like very cool aspect of having a really, you know, you're serving such a localized community."
00:31:10,"We need a day house. I, my daughter has gymnastics for three hours and I was just thinking, you know, I have some stuff I wanna get through, I need to write my website copy. And I was like, okay, I could do it tonight. And then I'm like, I don't wanna do it at home because I know I'll lose energy."
00:31:26,"Or I'll be like, let me finish the laundry. You know, or whatever. It's just, and a lot of it's just that like the energy thing and then I was like, okay, where can I go Panera? There's no, You know, so your members can pop over during those like downtime and sit and read a book or they can do some work or,"
00:31:47,"I still think too, I know you and I have talked about this, like the sort of social club aspect of like really making it home. I, I don't know. I still think we're gonna get there at some point. Yeah. Well, and, and just being a welcoming space, being a homey space. Somebody actually complimented us on our,"
00:32:04,"on our water glasses today. They're like, it's so nice that you have these pretty water glasses instead of bottled water. It's, well, we're just, we're trying to be more sustainable honestly. Yeah. We, we try not to use zero. We try to have zero, what are they called? Plastics that are one-time used plastics one Time not to do One-time used plastics here."
00:32:24,"So that's why we have the, the nice water glasses. But, you know. Thank you. Yes. It does seem homely, doesn't it? Totally. Okay. So let's talk about expansion. You're looking at other kind of similar markets where you can serve a similar customer. What will you do the same? What will you do differently in a,"
00:32:43,"in a new location? Yeah, So I've been thinking about this a lot. And we were recently touring a building that we were considering, and it still might be on the table. And as I was looking at it, I was thinking, okay, how, how are people going to use this space to their best advantage so that they can incorporate it into their lives?"
00:33:04,"We're really lucky where we are right now because we've got a big free parking lot right outside of our door. But it's not so massive that, that it takes you forever to cross. It's like the perfect size. And it's near downtown. It's in downtown Highland Park. So I'm, I'm looking at this other space going, well, you know, the parking's a little tricky here because you gotta park kind of down the block and then if you're like carrying a baby and your laptop and,"
00:33:29,"and all that, that's a schlep. And you know, then the sidewalks are icy and I don't know if this is gonna work. So this is where, you know, working with an interior designer and architect comes in handy, but just really thinking about how do we serve our members, first of all and their lives. And then on a secondary level,"
00:33:51,"how do we service guests, event renters, people like that. 'cause that is important to me as well. Yep. But it, it always comes back to how do we service our, our members and how can the building do that? I was, that's really Thoughtful detail and I, I mean I, I'm always thinking about what makes a space work,"
00:34:13,"what makes it not work? And it sometimes it's like really subtle things like that. And when you're searching for space, you're probably going through this to some extent. Like, you get emotional about wanting a space to work, but you're like forcing those hard questions. Like, okay, let's picture winter day. Yeah. Which Chicago has plenty of and you know,"
00:34:33,"and what does that look like? And does the parking still work? I I mean that, that's getting into the, you know, kind of getting into in deep into the member experience. But that's the kind of thing that would make your members potentially just stay home. Right. Which you want it to, right? Yeah. Right. And and the other thing is we really want people to feel cared for when they come here."
00:34:55,"That is the number one thing. And that goes back into being welcoming and, and the hospitality aspect. And it's hard to feel cared for and welcomed when you're walking into the lobby of a class A building and you've got to go up four flights in the elevator and it's just not the same feeling as walking in the door and that your friends are all there."
00:35:17,"It's like, cheers. Totally. You know, and the, there's fresh baked banana bread, which we do on the regular. Okay. Jessica does on the regular. Not me. I cannot take credit for that. You know, it's just that, that, that feeling of caring comes through the door. I suppose it would be possible in the class A building that we're talking about,"
00:35:37,"but it should be a lot harder. Yeah, I think that's probably right. Ca So I, I was in DC for the G W A conference and touring some spaces and Cain Wilmont and I went into one class a building and we wanted to tour the space and it was like on the sixth floor or whatever. And the security in the lobby was hardcore."
00:35:58,"Yeah. We were not getting, we had to, we were not on the guest list, which I get Right. There's reasons for that. Totally. But to your point, we're sitting there scheming, like, how do we get the name of the manager so that we can get into this place? Right. And not that she wasn't welcoming, but it's just a totally different vibe,"
00:36:19,"you know? Yeah. There wasn't gonna be any, you know, wrapping station in the Rights In the kitchen. It's a, I mean, it's a more corporate vibe and for some people that's, that's what they need. You know, that might be what their clients expect. I know that there are people that have come to Day House and been like,"
00:36:35,"whoa, there is way too much wicker and plants and Right. You know, shenanigans going on in here that my clients would hate this, But, but the people that's fine. Come in and love it. Know Yeah. Who they are. Okay. So back to the, okay, so you're being very careful about sort of member experience. What else are you thinking about in a new location?"
00:36:56,"Yeah, Member experience. Gosh, it, that is like the, the most important thing Yeah. Is the member experience. Of course you want something that's a good size, you know? Yeah. For us it's over 8,000 square feet. A lot of Chicago landlords are not yet open to the concept of the partnership agreements. So that's, that's a harder sell around here."
00:37:22,"But frankly, How is the, we've talked about this a little bit, but commercial office space in the suburbs where you are, is it hard to find or are the landlords experiencing some pain but they're still not willing to do a management agreement or, yeah, it's, is it hard to find space? Little of both. Honestly. It is hard to find the amount of space in the type of area that I'm looking for."
00:37:49,"And sometimes those are owned by folks that are, you know, it's more of a family old school, you know, not really looking for the amount of risk that you would need to do for a mem A partnership agreement. Yeah. Yeah. Even to sign, there's a guy in our Startup school who I met at the conference, which was super fun and he's having a really hard time."
00:38:16,"He wants to take a lot of space and I won't give details about his model, but he's got a slightly unique model and he wants 20 to 25,000 square feet. And he's been looking for almost two years. Yeah. And he's even, so now he's looking at a sublease, which is pre-built out. And I know you've been looking at some layouts that are kind of like,"
00:38:34,"we don't require a lot of construction. And he's been kinda looking for that too. But he said he's getting pushback on being a Startup, even though there's a fair amount of sublease on, you know, space on the market. And the landlord is, you know, he has no history. You at least have history now, so you're probably come off as less of a Startup,"
00:38:53,"but not quite. Right. You're still not getting them to turn the corner on the management agreement Right down probably a little bit more time. Yeah. And I just haven't heard of, of many, many landlords in the Chicago area doing it anyway. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and it works better with larger spaces and you're gonna have more upside if you sign the lease,"
00:39:10,"so. Right, Right. It might be fine. That is working out that way. Yeah. I'm curious about event space. 'cause that's kind of one of the topics that, you know, it's, it's a different business model to lean into. Do you do, does your, do you do that in your space now or is that kind of something new you wanna expand on in a new location?"
00:39:28,"To Some extent, truthfully, we don't have the amount of space that I would love to have. We get requests all the time from people who would be excellent partners for us. You know, really wonderful associations and I i organizations that I care about and I would love to be able to host them. And we can't because of our conference room sizes."
00:39:52,"And this is again, where the membership, where the member experience comes in because I could, and I have in the past when we had fewer members could have an event in our downstairs open work area during the day and just tell everyone to work upstairs. But number one, we have too many members now to really make that comfortable for them. And number two,"
00:40:13,"I don't wanna kick out our members. Yeah. You know, again, it comes, they, they are the most important thing to me. So it's one thing to be able to say yes to an evening event, but most of the events we get requested for are during the day and they want 30, 40 people and we just can't do that."
00:40:32,"So that's absolutely something I'm looking at with future places. And also how can they, how can the, how can the spaces be flexible so that it's not, let's say 700 square feet just sitting there empty, waiting for an event happened to be chopped up. Yep. Got it. Okay. Can you talk about Jessica's role? So she has a very specific title focused on community."
00:40:56,"How do you kind of look at her role? I think there's a lot of tension around, you know, you talked about likes super important to be staffed member experience, well, you know, making people feel welcome. I'm guessing she plays a significant role in that. How do you manage sort of the tension of like the admin, you know, that goes into running a Coworking space and her role as being community focused?"
00:41:18,"Yeah. I think that's something that a lot of people focus or, or deal with. Yeah. So I'm very lucky in that I've known Jessica now for 14 years. We met in 2009. She used to work for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in donor and volunteer engagement. And I was on one of the boards and we became friends from that point. And she was,"
00:41:43,"she had left the c s o, she was looking for new opportunities. I sat down one night and I was thinking about what would my ideal Community Manager look like? What attributes does this person have? And I started to write it all down and I got down to the bottom of the list and I thought, huh, that sounds just like Jessica,"
00:42:02,"but you know, she's got like something else going on. She's interviewed for this other job and it's probably gonna work out well then it didn't work out. And I said, I have an opportunity for you. And so she came on before we even opened. So she's really been here since, since the beginning. And because of all that, people say,"
00:42:24,"don't work with your friends. But I think if you can be very open with them and say, this is, this is what brings out the best in me. This is what turns me into, you know, mean Jen, and likewise. Tell me about your Mean Jen. I don't buy it. Oh, okay. I'll ask your daughter. My 10,"
00:42:42,"my 10 year old would would say differently when I take away her iPad. Yeah. So being, just having that really open dialogue was putting at us at a huge advantage. Being able to talk like that. That said, I know that not every working relationship has that, so that's a huge advantage for us. But she does take care of a lot of the admin things,"
00:43:04,"but where she really shines is the community service. And she's so good at connecting with people, and so good at making people feel welcome. And she remembers details about people. And I think that if you are going to have a staff space and you have somebody, and if the comm, if the customer experience, the member experience is important to you,"
00:43:25,"it's, it's most important to have somebody who excels at those soft skills and, you know, get a va for the admin stuff, I think, or do it yourself because you gotta, you gotta nail the customer experience. Yeah. And again, the, you know, when you're competing against the home office, I think, I mean, it,"
00:43:46,"we, we were talking a little bit, you know, in, in a pre-chat about unstaffed spaces, which I think is, is interesting. And I had a, we had, we have somebody in our, our operator mastermind who runs Unstaffed locations and it seems to work really well. And I, but I think it just depends on who your ideal customer is and what that looks like."
00:44:03,"And yours wants that hospitality, that feeling of connection. Someone to say, I love your shoes. Yes. I was talking about how much, if you're watching on YouTube, Jen always has the most fun glasses on. So you get to go to work and people compliment your outfit and you know, you've a, you have a reason to show off your,"
00:44:21,"your style and that stuff all just, yeah. It matters when you roll it up. It Does matter. And, and it's, it's also just all about having someone who's there, who's listening to conversations. And so that, that's what happens with Jessica. You know, she, or, or, or myself or we have another staffer, Heather,"
00:44:39,"who works for us part-time. Whoever's sitting there at that front desk always has their antenna up and is listening. And when they hear somebody saying, oh, I'm, you know, I'm dealing with X, Y, Z and 90% of the time it has nothing to do with work. It, it's, it really is like a personal issue. Something,"
00:44:55,"I don't know, they need a new landscaper maybe then we're looking to our front desk staff to, to say, oh, hey, you know who you should use. We've got a member who's a landscaper, or, oh, you know what, somebody else was just complaining about theirs and they found a new one. Let me connect you guys. So just that,"
00:45:13,"that continuous passing back and forth of information, it's almost like we're, we're weaving this tapestry together and we're, we're passing the, the threads back and forth and makes our community really strong. Yeah, Yeah. No, and I love that about operating in a smaller community. I'm curious what, okay, so we, this might be one of our wrap up questions here."
00:45:37,"Sure. What is, what does your role look like and what does your day-to-day look like as the, as the owner of the business? Oh, That's a great question. I wish I knew other duties as needed. So I, you know, I'm, I'm in charge of the big picture. I happen to really love finance, so I'm constantly looking at our numbers,"
00:46:00,"where we, where we've, where we're going, where we've been, and using that to inform decisions. I, I also, I live in the community, so that's helpful for me because I can kind of see what's going on in the community and keep tabs on that. For instance, when Comcast goes out, I can hop on one of the local Facebook groups and say,"
00:46:25,"Hey, if anybody needs to come in and get some work done, here's a coupon code for Day House today. So being able to keep tabs on the community. 'cause Jessica lives an hour away, so obviously she can Oh Wow. Does she come every day? She does. Wow. You know, she's so awesome. Well, almost every day."
00:46:44,"Yes. So that is, is part of my duties just because I'm, I'm here. But yeah, it's, you know, it's, it's probably a lot like what other founders do. Just the, the top view, the where do we wanna go from here, how do we wanna grow? Yeah. I was gonna say, and you're spending some time pursuing growth and kind of engaging in the broader community,"
00:47:06,"looking for opportunities. Right. Marketing, I know you have a marketing background. The, okay. Anything that I haven't asked about that I should ask about Day House or Coworking in general? Well, we talked about values, which is really my, my passion point. That's, that's, that's where the good stuff is. I, you know, I think it just,"
00:47:32,"for me, it's, it's the member experience. It's everything that was in that book that we've all read Unreasonable Hospitality, and it, it's just about how people feel when they walk in the door. And we want them to feel cared for and we want them to feel that good energy. And I'm, I'm always so flattered when people say that they feel it."
00:47:52,"Yeah. I was gonna say, I love how you've articulated just some of the things you do and think of and are anticipating because I started listening to that book again, because I think sometimes it's hard to think about what, what does hospitality look like? How does it actually play out? What does it mean? And it's some of the simple things you're talking about."
00:48:14,"Oh, there's a day off from school coming up, what, you know, that's gonna be a pain for our members. What do we do? Or there's a holiday coming up, you know, how can our members use some help with that? So it's the little things and just anticipating and we can make such a big difference. I do have to say we were touring,"
00:48:31,"I can't remember which one it was. We were touring Coworking Spaces last week. One of them had a manicurist on site Love. I was like, Sign me up. It was like a member benefit. I was like, what's happening in the conference room? Why are there nail polish out? Yeah. So That would Great. Put on the list."
00:48:49,"Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, I, yeah, I thank you for sharing a little bit of kind of the behind the scenes on how you think about the experience you're providing and kinda how that, you know, plays out in your business model. And we look forward to watching your, your journey and your expansion. Thanks Jamie. My pleasure."
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