323. Tricia Teague, Founder of Soar Space. on Small City Coworking and Leveraging Technical Assistance Grants
Resources Mentioned in this Episode:
Everything Coworking Featured Resources:
Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space
TRANSCRIPTION
323. Tricia Teague, Founder of Soar Space. on Small City Coworking and Leveraging Technical Assistance Grants
00:00:02,"Welcome to the Everything Coworking podcast, where every week I keep you updated on the latest trends and how tos 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. Thank you for joining me today. I have another special guest for today's episode, Tricia Teague. She is the founder of the Trep School,"
00:01:02,"short for entrepreneur and so space in Danville, Illinois. And you are gonna be interested in this episode I think for a few reasons. If you're in a smaller market, the population of Danville is roughly 28,000. And Tricia is also kind of a multi-passionate entrepreneur. She has a number of businesses, so Coworking is one of the things that she does and it supports program that she runs for entrepreneurs,"
00:01:35,"local entrepreneurs that is funded by grants from the state. So if you're interested in any of these aspects of Coworking, this is going to be a great episode for you. Tricia is fantastic. I have known her for, I mean at least a year now. She's been a part of our com Well, she's been, she started in our Coworking Startup School and then she put her Community Manager,"
00:02:00,"Paula Young in our Community Manager University. So I've gotten to know both of them and she's been kind of slow and steady on getting this Coworking space open, doing all of her research, doing all of the things as we encourage folks to do in our framework. And she shares kind of her approach to that. So she's been hanging out with us for a while."
00:02:23,"She just opened in June, had a big ribbon cutting right after losing power for five days, which she talks about a little bit in the episode. And Tricia also, I was working on a project for some really small communities in Colorado who are interested in figuring out how to make co-working a part of their community as a resource, what that might look like."
00:02:48,"And I, Tricia was kind enough to come on and share her story. So Tricia runs a program that is funded by grants from the state. And in the podcast she shares how that works, what that looks like for her. She shares what her other business is about and kind of how the Coworking space fits into it. How Paula, her Community Manager fits into both of her,"
00:03:11,"all three of her businesses I guess. So you'll get a sense of what that looks like and her passion for her small town. So she grew up there and she left for a long time, had a corporate job, and then went straight into entrepreneurship and moved back to her hometown and is really passionate about supporting a diverse range of local entrepreneurs. So you are gonna love this interview with Tricia Teague here."
00:03:45,"Okay. I am here with Tricia Teague, who is dialing in with her fancy microphone 'cause she has her own podcast and her own Coworking space in Danville, Illinois. And what a gorgeous background. It's so bright. Thank you. It matches your logo. You're so branded right now. Yes, I'm very branded. You're totally showing me up. I gotta work on this."
00:04:06,"Thanks For joining me. So I'm, It's my pleasure. I'm so excited to talk to you. 'cause you, you're like a multi-passionate entrepreneur and you're operating in a smaller market. Oh, I was gonna Google the population of Danville. Do you know it off the top of your head? It's just under 30,000. I know. We've had population loss in the last census,"
00:04:24,"so I think it's somewhere between 28 and 29. Oh, you're losing people. Yes, we are losing people. Okay. Okay. So let, we'll start with a little intro to Tricia, but then I do, I do have a related question about your multi-pass. Okay. So you just opened in June officially. Yes. Congrats. Thank you."
00:04:41,"I did find you were like, we're open and I Googled and I found your like ribbon cutting and all the big announcements. So exciting. Yes, yes. Very exciting. Although there was a major power outage, there was a derecho the night before. Our, our complex was one of the only places in town that had power and the power was out citywide."
00:05:04,"Like I didn't have power for five days at my house. Wow. It took wow. So literally like, we were getting messages the day of like, are you still gonna do this? And I'm like, yes, we have power. Oh yeah, we have, right? We have power. We're cutting that ribbon. We're opening. Yes, yes."
00:05:18,"So it was kind of crazy As is business, so Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. And you, you worked on the opening for a while, so you were part of our Startup school and Paula, your Community Manager. It's been in our Community Manager University program. So yes. You like, okay, so tell us, wait, so the,"
00:05:40,"the side question I have to ask before I ask about your background is, is the article said you're also an alderman. Is that true? Yes. Yeah. Yes. I am also an alderman in spare time. What? Yes. I'm also an alderman and now vice mayor. So you're, Wow, okay. Yeah. You're in it. You're in in It."
00:05:57,"Yes, I'm definitely in it. Okay. I don't know why, but yes, I'm in it. I'm a glutton for punishment. You are. Okay. And you run the TREP school. So tell us about your professional background, Danville, how that fits into your life. The TREP School, why the Coworking space and what kind of, I'll,"
00:06:13,"I'll dig in from there. Okay. I'll start with the Danville part first. I'm a Danville native, born and raised here. Moved away when I went to college. Thought I'd never returned, was gone for over 20 years, but came back about 10 years ago, just over 10 years ago. So, and the TREP school, I've always been passionate about entrepreneurship and helping small business owners."
00:06:40,"And I've had friends who, or and acquaintances that were small business owners who were always asking me for assistance. You know, lend, lend them my expertise and experience in education. And it just made sense to, for me to pursue this. 'cause it's the thing that I like live for, I love entrepreneurship, I love helping entrepreneurs. And what we do is we provide coaching and consulting and educational services to entrepreneurs."
00:07:13,"And we have a program that that's state funded right now that gives us the ability to offer those things locally for free. And we also give them cash. So it is an amazing opportunity and it's a way for us to get paid, but still do everything for free and help everybody. So it's a win-win. And you now host it in the Coworking space And I do now host it in the Coworking space."
00:07:37,"Yes. And that was that kind of the trigger, like, well I, I've been running this program, I need a place. What was the moment where Tricia said, I'm just start, I'm, I need a place. I, I love Coworking. I love the Coworking, the idea of Coworking and what it does for entrepreneurs. I have attended events and networking sessions at other Coworking spaces in other cities."
00:08:00,"I knew it was definitely needed here before I moved back here. When I was in corporate and working from home, every time I came home I struggled trying to find a place to work. I remember doing releases. I used to be a platform product manager. So it'd be a weekend I'd be in town and we're doing a release and I'm in the coffee shop hoping that the wifi holds up."
00:08:23,"Trying to be on these calls with my colleagues all over the world and thinking, man, we need something different. So I knew it was needed and we were renting space from someplace else. So me opening a Coworking space just because I saw the need in the community and I knew I could do it well and do it right. 'cause there are other people who have started Coworking spaces,"
00:08:51,"but they weren't necessarily done well or right. And I knew my target market 'cause I am my target market, but I also was, I'm providing services to my target market. So I'm like, I'm going to do all the things that I tell them to do. I'm gonna do my market research, I'm gonna interview them, I'm going to ask them all of the questions and,"
00:09:13,"and make sure that I have all of the things that they need. So it just so happened that with the funding that we have, you know, it gave me an opportunity to leverage that to our benefit to be able to open the space, provide space to our graduates, so, and have, and have some of those costs go back to the state because,"
00:09:37,"you know, we're providing the service as part of the program. So can you talk a little bit about what the grant funds and how did you kind of find this, I'm sure there are people listening who are like, wait, hold up. You're doing what? Yes. Yeah. Tell us what you can tell us about that. Okay. So the state a the,"
00:09:59,"the state agency, which is the, I don't know if any other state has this, the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority. It's an agency. What they are doing is taking cannabis tax dollars and reinvesting them in community communities that are hardest hit by the war on drugs. Cannabis is legal in Illinois now. So this is a way for them to reinvest all of the tax proceeds back into those communities where the war on drugs really decimated those communities."
00:10:30,"And where I live in Danville is one of those communities. They have five target areas that they wanted to focus on with this economic development was one of them. I stumbled across it, to be quite honest, I was looking at the grant opportunity for another reason for youth development because I'm on a nonprofit board that focuses on youth. Of course you're, and as I,"
00:10:54,"and yes, I'm, I'm way too busy and when I was reading it, I was like, oh, there's economic development in here. Oh, this is interesting. And then I started reading more and I'm like, wait a minute. You're Connecting some dots here. I could, I could create a program. And I had gone to the Kaufman Foundation,"
00:11:14,"used to do an event called Ship Summit. And I had gone to Ship Summit. I had heard about all these wonderful things that were happening in other cities all over the country. And I was like, wow, I wish one day I could do all of these things. So I kind of had in my head already a list of, if I ever had the opportunity,"
00:11:31,"here's all the things that I would do. And the opportunity presented itself and I said, okay, here's my chance to do all of the things that I wish I could do. I think it's really interesting insight. 'cause I remember when you told me about this, I was like, what? What? Yes, yes. So yeah, you, I mean,"
00:11:47,"you never know. I'm not sure like there's something actionable there, but be, you know, keep your eyes open. Would, would you say there's something actionable in terms Of Absolutely. Absolutely. I feel like if you are in a, a state, or even if you're keeping track of federal, wherever there might be funding, where people are looking to fund incubators,"
00:12:09,"entrepreneurship centers, those types of things, then it's an opportunity to use that to create a Coworking space and a, a space that provides not just space as a service, but all of the services in the space. Yeah. Yeah. So yes, the, we have space, but we also provide workshops and education and, and training and, and all of the other services and amenities that we offer."
00:12:39,"Basically those become part of the service that we provide our graduates. So one of the wonderful things about how we structured it, 'cause this was not in the original plan, the Coworking space was not in the original plan. I was just out here providing services and there was also a part of me that felt like I needed to step up because I was writing these big checks for my graduates and people had won our pitch contest and whatnot."
00:13:03,"Like, oh, they're signing leases and they're getting this big equipment. And I'm like, well, I need to do something else now. So I needed to keep up with what they were doing and, and you know, push the, push the ball forward a little bit. So it just so happened we were, we were in a office, a small two person,"
00:13:24,"well we had like three offices that were like adjoining. And my landlord, my lease was up and my landlord was like, you wanna move? And I was like, I'm not moving unless you have a space where I can have class and I can have office and I can have meetings. And she's like, well, I think I'm gonna have a space."
00:13:41,"I just kind of said that haphazardly, very flippantly. I did not expect for her to show up with a space. And so I walked into the storefront, I'm like, I think I can make this work. And then it just so happened a few months after we moved in the, there was a, a law office next door. They were moving out,"
00:14:04,"he was retiring. So we took his office, which then gave us offices and made it all one big adjoining continuous space. And so, you know, it provides us the opportunity to provide a lot of services. And then the other thing that happened as a result of us having the funding with the grant, it just so happened that the same week that we got the keys,"
00:14:31,"the state came to us and said, Hey, we have more money. Could you use some additional funds? Yes, I can always use additional funds. Hey, I am interrupting this episode for any of you that are thinking about, or are already working on starting a Coworking space, which would be 2024 at this point, if you're just getting started,"
00:14:57,"I wanna make sure, you know, we have updated the format of our Coworking Startup School. We are now running it live. Although you don't have to attend live. You can get all the content and resources and the roadmap without attending live. But we think that is the absolute best way to get the support that you need and build your own Coworking community as you're getting started."
00:15:23,"So we've split the Coworking, Startup School into two phases. And we've been running phase one, which we call validate your plan. And we really, really want folks to clearly know their numbers before they commit to a lease. We even have folks that already own buildings that are going through phase one to make sure they get everything right before they actually commit to their layouts and start construction."
00:15:50,"So phase one is really around knowing who your target customer is, making sure you have the right size of space that aligns with your goals, and then figuring out your product mix, your floor plan and your pricing, and then putting that all together so that you have a pro forma that you can take to the bank, as they say literally and figuratively."
00:16:17,"We also have pitch deck and business plan templates and we run these workshops live. So you're actually, we have prep work that you're doing offline as homework. We try to keep that pretty reasonable. We want you to be able to complete this work and make a go no go decision. And if you have draft floor plans and things that you're trying to like finalize and take to contractors or get plans approved on,"
00:16:42,"we want you to be able to do that pretty quickly. So we run this across five weeks, which gives you a little bit of time to catch up on your homework. And we run live sessions with live coaches so that we can get your questions answered and walk you through as we go. But you're work shopping, you're doing the work on the calls,"
00:17:01,"unless you've already done some of the work and then you're getting feedback on that work on the calls. Again, you don't have to come live, but we've designed it so that you get expert support and again, you meet others who are going through the same process and we do it pretty quickly. So phase one, validate your model is running our next session."
00:17:22,"We have scheduled to start at the very beginning of January, and that's a ways away if you're listening to this when we just launch it. So you can register anytime and get the content immediately so you can start working on it. If we have enough folks register, we will move up the live date. So we like to have a little cohort that we can run through the pl through the program."
00:17:45,"So if we get folks who are registering, then we can move up the date of the start of the first live session. We've set it for the second week in January. So to get more details on that, go to Everything Coworking Everything Coworking dot com slash start. Now back to our episode. So then we got all of the furniture. So,"
00:18:15,"Okay, I was trying to remember, I knew there was something about the furniture in there. Yes. Yeah. Yes, yes. So then we used that. I bought a receptionist desk, eight cubes room divider so that if somebody wanted to rent our classroom space Yeah. It, it separates it out from the rest of the open space. And we could have two different things going on at the same time."
00:18:38,"So I bought like $30,000 worth of furniture so that that was funded. That was funded, that was 100% funded. I was looking at your website, I was like, it looks great. And I could tell Right, you got the training room. I mean there were some things that, that looked like they required some investment. Yeah. And then the place that we used to rent from,"
00:19:02,"they were, they decided to sell their building. So I bought all their tables and chairs. So basically all the tables and chairs, I was always u already using for class. I just moved them. Ah, perfect. Okay. So, so, okay, so what happens if you lose the grants? Is the business still sustainable? What happens if I lose a grant is then that my graduates would have to start paying for their memberships because I did give them memberships free of charge."
00:19:32,"And that's one of the arguments kind of, you know, that I made to the state. I'm doing this, I'm, I'm getting this space, but all the graduates get to come here and use the space. And a lot of them do. But I think so, I mean obviously I know I've got some marketing that needs to happen to get our dollars up to the point where everything is self-sustaining."
00:19:55,"Yeah. So it's not self-sustaining yet, but it's on its way. Well, and you just opened, and also that's kind of a phase two for you because your phase one is we're we're, we're selfsustaining right now because this is our model. So you'll, you know, sort of do some what's like, like risk management for the the what ifs."
00:20:17,"Yep. Yeah. I mean, I love your example. I'm sure maybe some of the folks that go sign leases need their own space for some reason, but also some don't. Right, right. So you're looking at the inefficiencies of folks like committing to these long-term, long-ish term term. You know, I don't know what real estate looks like in,"
00:20:37,"in Danville and they don't have each other anymore and they don't have you, so. Right, Right. Yeah. Right. I mean they, they love it here. Yeah. And the where, the place that I'm at now, when I signed my first office lease, which was God, almost 10 years ago now, it was a three year lease."
00:20:57,"Right. Lot can happen in three years. Right. That's, Oh my gosh. Getting started. Yeah. So, and there's not a whole lot of space available for a person who's just getting started and wants to open an office. There's just not a lot of offices available. That's nice. Look how beautiful your space is. It's colorful, it's got you."
00:21:17,"You did some, I can tell you did some work on it. It looks really professional and modern. It's downtown great location. Yeah. Across from the courthouse. Yep. Yeah. I mean you just can't always do that in your own space. Yeah. And then we have so many different, you know, like every other Coworking space, I think we have so many different amenities."
00:21:38,"You know, we've got the copier, we've got fiber, we've got a receptionist, you know, we, we've got so many different things to offer people that all they have to do is just walk in with a computer and sit down. Yeah. So it makes it so much easier for them not to have to worry about the stress of, well now I have to go and find a desk and I gotta find chairs."
00:22:02,"And if you're spending time on that, that's time you're not getting customers. Yeah, exactly. And right when you're coaching you're like get the sales worry about Exactly. About the rest of it later. Exactly. Right. And yet to your point, like you, you didn't have that to, to offer, are all of your, the members of your program local or are some of them remote?"
00:22:25,"Most of them, 99% of them are local. Okay. So the way that the program is written right now, when we, when we reapply next spring, which we know we'll have to do, it's possible that we might expand it and then I just have to figure out like what that looks like in terms of them and the, and the space."
00:22:45,"But oh yeah, right now all of our stuff is local. That's just 'cause of the limitations for how the pro the grant is set up, you know? Yeah. So a hundred percent makes sense. No, and I love it. 'cause if you get to sort of, you create that local community and that local network and that local support base."
00:23:03,"Okay. So tell us a little bit about the folks that, that are in the program and take advantage of the space. What types of businesses are they working on? Oh, we've got all types of businesses. So I've got, there's one lady who actually rents a office here who, she's an aesthetician. She actually has a space but it's on the edge of town."
00:23:27,"She wanted to be able to be in town and then have multiple locations for people to come to. We've got some that are like, they sell food products. So I have one that does, she has a healthy meal service. It's called Healthy Prep. It's called Healthy Prep is the name of her business. We've had some nonprofits, we've had, I have one guy who has a RC racing track who's a graduated,"
00:24:00,"he actually makes little RC cars really, really cool. So all types bakers, let's see people who make hair products, body products, a couple of retail boutiques. Yeah. So all times A huge range. Yeah, A huge range. Several yogis. I've had lots of yogis. I have a couple people in transportation, so Truck one that owns a trucking company."
00:24:39,"So yeah, just lots of different types of businesses. Okay. And then your offices, you added offices, are those rented yet? We have one. One office currently rented. Two are available. One was rented for a little while, but then she left. So we have two available right now. I occupy one of the offices as well. So."
00:25:04,"Perfect. We only have three offices. But yeah, if the offices are all rented, then I, I know we're fine. Yeah. And I, I'll be honest, I haven't done, I know that I haven't done the promotion necessarily to really get in front of a lot of people. That's something that we're really ramping up like right now. So yesterday Sunrise Rotary met here,"
00:25:27,"they actually, they invited me to be a speaker and they said, well can we come to your space? Yes, absolutely. Perfect. Yes. My space. Yeah. So, you know, and there were people asking questions and then last night I was on a recording with our local PBS station recording a TV show about black businesses. And so there are a lot of people who are there who,"
00:25:49,"you know, are becoming aware of the space and the work that we're doing. And I've had people who were like, oh my gosh, if I lived in Danville, like be in your space and actually telling me about my space. I'm like, you have been to my website. So, you know, we're definitely looking to host a lot more events."
00:26:06,"We're planning to have a coffee talk in a couple of weeks with the local chamber to have people come in. So that's the type of thing I'm looking at is just bringing people into the space. People in, yeah. Yep. 'cause once they come in, they love it. And then we'll start hosting our own networking events here shortly. I'm just,"
00:26:24,"you know, trying to juggle dates and all my other responsibilities. Totally. So, yeah. How would you describe the awareness of Coworking in Danville? Slim to None. Pretty low. Yeah. Yeah. They, nobody knows what Coworking is and that's why I didn't even brand it as a Coworking space. That's why it's called Business Center because I feel like people can wrap their brains around that a whole lot easier."
00:26:46,"Yep. Totally. Okay. I love that. And there people who come here for that, they're like, can I come and make copies? Yes. Yep. So we, we, we have the best copy rates in town. I know that I, it's extremely competitive and there are a couple people who, when they need copies made, they come here and our members will be like,"
00:27:06,"you know, I have one who's like in a financial education and she had a workshop, so she was making tons of copies and my Community Manager was like, well you know, you are spending like a hundred dollars. She's like, yeah, but it's better than anywhere else. So, so yeah. And She doesn't have to stand at the, you know,"
00:27:29,"mail store or whatever and do it. Exactly. She can put her laptop in and sit down and Yeah. Do what she needs to do. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So related to Paula, so is Paula full-time? Yes, Paula is full-time. Okay. And she, is she dedicated to the Coworking or does she work on your other, what does her role look like?"
00:27:49,"She is, Paula is everything. I need her to be, I need one of those. Yes. Everybody needs a Paula, I tell my, I tell my students that all of you need a Paula, but not my Paula. So she does a lot of support in terms of helping me with the classes and stuff. Like she'll send out all of our announcements about workshops."
00:28:12,"She does all of our data recording of like attendance and stuff for our workshops and when our, so she does a lot of support for the, the program. So it's probably, I'm gonna say 50 50. Yep. Especially like, there's stuff that I'm like, I don't know, just ask Paula when the students, 'cause all of our graduates receive cash,"
00:28:34,"so there's a whole process that they have to go through to make their cash requests. Paula handles all of that so I don't have to do that. Yeah. So she does a lot. Yeah. But it's really intertwined. It is, yeah. The way you have the business set up is really intertwined and it allows you to sort of take a more like patient approach to getting the broader community involved."
00:28:56,"Absolutely. It'ss absolutely not so urgent for you. Like they need to know now 'cause I need them to pay rent. Right. Like you've got that covered so Right. You've kind of got a plan in place and Paula will help and eventually people will fig figure this out. And The cool thing is like when, you know as we, 'cause we're new and we don't know what we're doing."
00:29:17,"So, and when stuff comes up, you know, Paula does a tour and she's like, I need something to give them, I need a handout. So last week Paula made up these cards that just has a QR code on it to send them to the website and it has our address and then it has our, it has our tagline, which is Work meet,"
00:29:37,"grow. And it basically, it gives her something to hand them after they've come in. And so we had all of those for the people at Rotary two days ago. Perfect. Where it was like, here take a card, don't just take a card 'cause you're gonna be talking about our space. Take a few of 'em, hand them out. I love the card with the QR code on it."
00:29:58,"I, yes, I'm sort of anti flyer. 'cause I think people, some people really like bigger things to give out. I'd love that idea. Yep. Yeah. That was Paula's idea. So she's always coming up with things like, okay, I think we can, you know, what else can we do for this type of situation? 'cause we're constantly encountering something that we haven't had to do before,"
00:30:17,"but we know what we have isn't enough. So. Yep. Got it. Okay. So it sounds like you have daily surprises, but any, any big surprises since you, since you opened? Or maybe even since you started kind of the process in general? Hey there, I'm jumping in again this time. I am speaking to those of you that have,"
00:30:43,"are either getting ready to hire a Community Manager or who have a Community Manager and you would like to support their training and development. We know how challenging it can be for co-working space operators to create their own training and development material to support their community managers. And this is so important in terms of onboarding new community managers and supporting the growth of your existing community managers."
00:31:12,"And we're getting towards the end of the year, what a great holiday gift end of year gift to give to your Community Manager. So the platform is really around a couple of things. One is access to a community of like-minded folks. We have a very active Slack group with really wonderful questions that are posed every single day. And we find that's one of the biggest values."
00:31:37,"We have community managers from all over the world. And this is an excellent group of community managers that have invested time and effort into getting better at that role. And they are the kind of folks that you want your Community Manager to be by and hanging out with and they know their stuff or sometimes they don't and they ask questions and we help them out."
00:31:59,"So I am in the group, we have coaches that are in the group to support them. So we love when they ask questions for things they need help with because the other aspect of the program is really around helping them get resources they need to make their jobs easier and to learn things that they can use in their role to be better at their job."
00:32:19,"So we provide some done for you resources like Google business posts, detailed event ideas, et cetera, that they can just kind of grab and go and use. And we also provide monthly resources that add to our training library so they can do our certification. And then we have a lot of electives that help them kind of get better at all the things that that go with the role."
00:32:46,"So the, our community managers wear a lot of hats. So we break our content into industry knowledge for new community managers, community building operations, sales and marketing and leadership. So the leadership bucket is great for our more advanced community managers. We also have virtual office and digital mail training and coffee training for anybody who needs to know how to use commercial coffee brewers."
00:33:15,"So we have some of the, I'm just gonna give you kind of a sampling of content that we have. So in our community building modules, we have hosting your first member events, building community with budget friendly events, member events, swipe files, our sales and marketing modules. We have tour training, we have the training on the full Coworking sales funnel so they understand what that looks like."
00:33:44,"We have social media planning frameworks. We have, what else do we have? Three simple steps to an effective marketing newsletter. These are just some of our samples. Ooh. These are some of our best utilized topics. Demystifying the process of letting your Coworking members use your address for their Google business listing. How to close a tour operations modules, how to set up automations,"
00:34:13,"how to do a new member onboarding audit. Simple ways to use AI to boost your productivity. We have over 40 courses in the program. So we cover kind of higher level topics. And then we also cover things that are timely, like the CMRA updates, Google business updates, et cetera. So we get together monthly to do official training and we also host a best practice sharing call,"
00:34:41,"which is one of the fan favorites of the group and the Slack group. So if you have any questions at all about the program, don't hesitate to reach out. You can learn more and register at Everything Coworking dot com slash Community Manager. Now back to our episode. I think the biggest surprise is what I've found in doing my research, which is the number one thing that we need in this town is meeting space."
00:35:10,"Hmm. And I knew meeting space was important, but I didn't know how important it was. And then it's already proven out. 'cause we've had lots of people come in and say, oh, I want to use your space for, can I have a workshop here? Can I do some group stuff here? My church wants to have a ladies' day and we wanna get out of the church."
00:35:33,"My office wants to do, you know, a team building event, but we don't wanna do it at the office. So we become the second space for people to do those types of things. And that's, that's really helped us a lot. I am surprised that I'm not getting as much small meeting room bookings as I thought I would, but I think that those will come."
00:36:02,"But the big space Yeah. That's, that's been paying off. Interesting. Yeah. So I love that. I love that you did those interviews so you validated that or learned it and it aligned with what you needed in this space. So maybe a little bit of risk leaning into dedicating all that space to Right. Bigger meeting space, but Right. Small towns,"
00:36:25,"I mean, even bigger towns just don't tend to have that type of secondary space where you can sort of do whatever, you know, whatever. It's really super flexible. Yeah, I love that. Are you guys using proximity to manage your Yes, we are. Yeah. Okay. Wait and door, can you talk about the door locks? I feel like this was a big,"
00:36:45,"big topic for a while. It was, everybody likes to know about the tech. Yes. What we decided to do. So we have two doors because we have two storefront spaces that are next to each other. So our main doors, which is a double door, it's just open. When we're open normal business hours, the, there's a secondary door and that door we put a keypad on."
00:37:08,"And so we, it's not integrated with proximity in any way. We just have it keyed in. So we give them, we use their telephone number or it's not the entire telephone number, but a portion of their phone number is their key code to get in the door. So if you pay for night and weekend access, you can come in that door and then it works."
00:37:32,"We don't have a ton of people who pay for it, but we do have a few that pay for night and we can access. And we have had some who started off with just normal business hours and then decided to upgrade. So we're very happy with that. So Yeah. Okay. I love that. Any other kind of apps or tech that you're using in the space that you would recommend?"
00:37:54,"We use Microsoft Bookings for tours. So we just put a, but a button on our website that sends a calendar. It syncs up with Paula's calendar, but it also lets me know as well. So, and then I'm trying to think what else do we use right now, tech wise, I think that's about it. Proximity does, you know,"
00:38:24,"90% of what we need for it to do. We haven't had, we've had minor issues, we haven't had any major issues. So little things like Paula just realized that if we are making a reservation, you can't pay for it offline. But I know that they're planning to work on that. I saw that in a, Their Roadmap notification. Yep."
00:38:48,"On the roadmap. Yeah. Yep. What did you build your website on? I like it. It's very simple, very straightforward. I didn't actually build it. I have a marketing person who knows everything for me, so she probably did it on WordPress. But it's pretty, it's pretty, I I think it's a great balance of just simple and clear,"
00:39:08,"but really nicely designed. I have, people ask me all the time about websites and I mean, you probably know this, it's like you can spend a fortune on a website that's not great. Yeah. So, Yeah. Yes. And I mean, there was a lot of handholding and back and forth. And I'll be honest, I also gave her the heads up,"
00:39:29,"like, I'm gonna have you make some changes. 'cause I needed to be aligned with how StoryBrand recommends that we do websites. So there's certain things that they're minor at this point. But I wanted, I'm a stickler for, I'm not gonna say perfection, but close to it. So, you know, I want it to be better. I'm always making things better."
00:39:48,"So, but I felt like it, it is sufficient. It does what we needed to do. There's some minor things that I feel like we need to change, but, you know, it is, it's, it is definitely very welcoming and engaging and it, I think it pulls people in And, and super clear. Which is probably, that's probably the story brand influence that I'm seeing."
00:40:07,"I was like, yeah, I just get it. It's really easy, simple. And no, I'm not confused at all. I'm not burning any extra calories on your website. I did a lot of rewriting 'cause I am a writer, so I, I did a lot of rewriting. Like, no, it needs to say this and we need to put,"
00:40:22,"you know, we need to position the customer as the hero, not us. And all of that. 'cause yeah, that is definitely the StoryBrand influence. It's not about us, it's about the customer. And you'll get, I was very, very picky about wording, So I know, and it's really hard to outsource that. I was just telling somebody my,"
00:40:43,"I have a new WordPress website that is done except the copy needs to be finished. And the website company offered to do the copy, but it's like a major undertaking to train someone to write your copy. I was like, well, I'll just mean at that point I'll just do it myself. Which has not happened yet. That's like the thing that keeps getting pushed off of my calendar."
00:41:06,"Yes. Anyway. Yes. Okay. So I'm curious for, for other people listening, you, you're, you're work, you do a lot of things and you're, you're really engaged in the community. You have a lot of things you're passionate about. You have another business I think that we haven't talked about related to your podcast that you're hosting. How do you,"
00:41:28,"so how, how do you manage, how do you manage multiple businesses? Like what's your kind of like, overarching approach to figure out how do I do all these, these things? I wanna say the short answer is, I don't know. I'm still trying to figure it out. No, so we are, we have kind of created a brand that provides,"
00:41:54,"the term that government uses is technical assistance. We provide technical assistance to other businesses and the other business that we have, the Canna Tripp podcast. 'cause in Illinois when cannabis became legal, we became one of the technical assistance providers statewide to help people applying for their cannabis business licenses to help them actually navigate that process to get their license and have a legal business."
00:42:26,"So I think one of the things that I do is it's important to be able to have help and have the right help. So if like on the cannabis side, I am not the architect any longer on that. I have a chief cannabis officer. She is amazing. I love that title. Yes, she, well. Is she the subject matter expert?"
00:42:47,"When you say arch, like what, what is her? Okay. She, she's a regulatory, That's not your background. You, You No, not at all. Specialize in technical assistance. Right. Yeah. Helping the, helping businesses in general. She specializes in, in highly regulated law. She's an attorney, she's a regulatory attorney. And so,"
00:43:06,"and she understands cannabis laws and so well law in general because she's an attorney. And so she kind of took over and ran that program, which gave me the opportunity to focus on the program that I have locally. So we are able to divide and conquer and it really helps us be able to do that. So that's part of it. And I think the other part of it is just finding whatever methodology works for you in terms of staying organized."
00:43:36,"So I have a, a sheet of paper that's, that I use as a planner. It's, it's, it was a, I used to buy this business planner and I loved it, but there are elements of it that I didn't like and I refined it and I made it my own. So every week I print this thing off. I have,"
00:43:55,"here's all the projects I'm working on, here's stuff that's coming up soon. Here's stuff that I'm waiting on other people. Here's what's urgent, here's what's important, here's what's not important here. I'm making notes of my wins for the week. All of those things. And I have all that in front of me every single week. And that's what like,"
00:44:14,"keeps me moving forward. Now sometimes stuff doesn't move, I still haven't put it together ACRM for, you know, managing all of the leads and everything that we get here in the space. Like I know I need to do that, but there's so many Other Paul. Right, right. Eventually Paula will do it, but I know I have to put together that infrastructure Yeah."
00:44:37,"For her to be able to do that. Well. So it's, it's one of those things where it's like I have all of these things come up and you have things come up urgently. You know, it's like, well I didn't know I was gonna have to provide this data to the state next week. Mm. But they just sent an email saying,"
00:44:54,"Hey, can you please give us this? And now I gotta do that, which means I'm not gonna do this other thing. Yeah. But as long as I've got it in my list and in front of me, I can manage all of the stuff. So that's one of the things that I do. Just, I have my own ways in which I manage myself that just,"
00:45:12,"you know, makes, makes things work. And there's some things that I do hand off. Like I don't run payroll anymore. Paula does. Yep. And you trust her. How long has Paula, that Paula, is Paula new since the Coworking space? Or was she No, she was here before that. So she's been here two years. We actually applied for a,"
00:45:29,"which is one of the reasons why it happened so early. We had applied for a grant that paid for her training. Yeah. For Community. Manager. That's, I know, I, I think I remember being like, okay, she sure she can enjoy and, and you Right. You guys like, well pre-launch. But it's great. Yes."
00:45:46,"Because like I said, I feel like you have this great mentality of being able to man, like it's not urgent and an emergency. And again, like I can't pay my rent if this doesn't happen. And, and a lot of pressure you're just like, yeah. Yeah. And it sounds to me like one of the things you have, which I'm working on,"
00:46:04,"is like, oh, you invest in planning. Like Yeah. I, I think that's can be really hard for entrepreneurs. Like I think I operate a lot on like, just go, just go and just keep doing stuff and I'm trying to train myself to do what you do, which is like sit down and really invest in the time. Like,"
00:46:23,"this is what I'm working on. And it's hard 'cause I got stuff that I planned two years ago that I still haven't executed on yet. Okay. So it's not, it's not a perfect process. It's Not a perfect process at all. 'cause I've got like, books that I started, I started a book on grants and Writing. Yeah. It's alm it's like 90%."
00:46:44,"Wow. 80% done. And, but I shifted focus 'cause I was like, oh, I can't finish the book 'cause I haven't closed the grant yet. So, so then I closed the grant. So I'm like, okay, now I can go back and finish the book. But at any rate, like there was all this stuff on the list,"
00:46:59,"like, I'm gonna open the Coworking space and I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna do that. I opened the Coworking space, but all the other stuff has not been completed yet. But it's okay because you also have, I think part of being entrepreneurial is understanding that other opportunities are gonna come up that you are not even aware of. And you gotta take advantage of 'em when they happen."
00:47:18,"Yeah. Right. Some things you have to say yes to, some things you have to say no to. Yep. It's constantly making choices, which can be hard. Yep, absolutely. Right. Absolutely. Our entrepreneurial brains wanna pursue all the things. All of the things. Yes. And some and knowing like a yes is not a right now."
00:47:35,"Yes, I'll do this later. Yeah. There's some things that are good ideas, but I'll put 'em in a parking lot and I'll, I will pick them up, but it won't be right now. And when the time is right, they will come back around. And I'm experiencing that right now. Yeah. So, yeah. So it's, it's,"
00:47:54,"it's always very interesting. It's, and it's never a dull moment. No. I, you know what, somebody, somebody, I was listening to a podcast the other day, I think, where they said, oh, people talk about entrepreneurship as, as a roller rollercoaster, which I still think it is, but they were like, it's also like a whole amusement park."
00:48:12,"Like the, you know, just like a lot of different things happening Yes. And different choices you can make and Yep. Every day is a different day. Yes, Yes. There's so much you can do. Which, which do you want to do? Yeah. And which will make you throw up and which will make you feel like, oh,"
00:48:29,"that was amazing. Right. Sometimes you might feel like you're gonna barf the question for you. 'cause I know this is always a hot topic and like any advice or perspective you would give to someone who's in a smaller market like yours where people just don't know about Coworking, but they have a passion, you know, like yours to bring this to the community."
00:48:55,"Any words that you're still just, you know, getting started and learning yourself, but any words of wisdom that you'd share, Do your research. Understand who, who your ICA is and what they want, what their pain points are. And figure out how you can solve those problems for them. Because I can guarantee you, like nobody is, well I can't say a guarantee,"
00:49:18,"but I don't think anybody is looking at Coworking and going, oh yeah, I wanna be the place where people can go to make copies. But oh, I, I totally love that. Right. That's such a great insight, Rick. That's bringing people in the door. Right. But I'm like, if the, if the main copy place, 'cause the main copy place here closes at three 30 Huh."
00:49:38,"And people know it and it and it irks them and the library closes at whatever time the library closes. Or you know, as long as I'm competitive with those two places and I know I am. Oh yeah. I know I'm gonna get people and if I can, and it's funny 'cause a copy guy was like, you guys are gonna make a boatload of money."
00:50:05,"You are only charging how much. So I, but I know it solves a problem. I know it's, it's a pain point for small businesses in this town. I need to copy something or I need to print something and I don't have any place to go. Okay, well then come here. And if that gets people in the door and if that,"
00:50:28,"if that helps me pay for if the copier pays for itself just 'cause of that. Right. It's like a, it's like a marketing awareness tool, which I love. Right. Google ads makes no sense to you. So what's your lever? The copy machine. The copy machine. That's right. That's right. Because I have people who are like,"
00:50:47,"I'm not interested in any business but I will come here to get my copies made. So, so I think it's really about understanding what, where the holes are in your particular town and in your market and making sure that you can fill that gap. Because at the end of the day, your business is to solve a problem. That's it. That's it."
00:51:11,"Totally. What do you think about the potential of mail, like address services and I think it's huge. We already have customers. Like we, I've got customers from places I've never even heard of and I've never Wild seen them. Wild. You're like, who wants an address in Danville, Illinois from wherever somebody does. Right. Yeah. Right, right."
00:51:34,"I've never seen them and they still haven't received any mail here, but I receive payment for them every month. But I think it's huge. Like one of the things, it's on my list of things that execute is reaching out to all of the people who put in the DBA information that gets published in the paper. Yep. And then saying to them,"
00:51:57,"Hey, you can use our address because if you are a handyman or you know, whatever, a a plumber, you know, whatever type of business that you have, it doesn't require you have a physical address but you don't want to use your home address. Like we are your spot, you are our people. So we're, we'll we are definitely putting together a campaign to start pursuing those folks to be able to receive stuff for them."
00:52:23,"And then I think the other piece is, 'cause I've run into this personally, is if you get a lot of packages and you wanna have a secure location so that a porch pirate doesn't come get your stuff. Yeah. Just send it over here. Send it. Right. And come by and get it when you can get it. Yep. Yep."
00:52:43,"Another just simple problem solver solver that gets people in the door. Yep. Absolutely. Yeah. And we're open till five 30 on purpose. So when you get off work, I noticed that on your website. I was like five 30. So Paula, you have Paula's staffed just staying until five 30? Yep. Most of the time. And if she's not here,"
00:53:00,"I'm here. Okay. And every now and then my mom helps out to, to be our extra staff person. Even though she pays, even though she pays for a membership. Wait, you made mom join? She, she was the first person to join. She wanted to join. She was actually in another space. She could not wait until I opened."
00:53:19,"Oh. Does mom have a business? What does she do? Yes. My mom, my mom sells Mary Kay. So she's been selling Mary Kay since I was a child. So she was working out of another space. The space ended up being sold and it also was unmanned. So it got really dingy. And so she's like, when are you opening?"
00:53:36,"So she was one of my first members There. Oh my god mom. I love it. Wait, so how does, what does she use the space for? She'll, she'll have her people come pick up product from her here. She will actually do facials here sometimes. Okay. She'll meet with her team here. Yeah. She, she makes tons of copies."
00:53:56,"Right. That okay. That's a Right. Of course she does. She Makes tons of copies. Also, you Could also get product shipped there 'cause maybe she doesn doesn't want product to go home. Yeah. Right. Yep. So she is here a lot. And now she's also like our standin receptionist. So if I'm not here and Paula is here by herself,"
00:54:17,"or if I'm here by myself, I'm like, Hey, can you come be here for, you know, whatever couple of hours just in case one of us has to use the bathroom. You know? So she loves it. She thinks she works here, but she she does it, but she thinks she does. I love it. I love it."
00:54:33,"So, yep. And she pays for, she started off as just a regular member, then she upgraded to the after hours access, which I don't even know why she pays for that. 'cause she has a key now. But whatever Mom's in charge. But she's paying. I love it. Yes, yes. So, yeah. Yep. So,"
00:54:52,"but yes, she's had several, she's done facials here in the middle of the day. So sit in a cowork area case recently and somebody was doing nails and I was like, I kind of love that. Like just whatever, you know, And the esthetician that has an office, she's like, you know, can I have clients come in? Absolutely."
00:55:12,"Sure. Yep, yep. You know, you can have 'em cut, you know, make sure that they come to the second door if it's after hours and she's like, I'll have 'em sign in. 'cause I know that that's one of your requirements. No problem. But even that use case, you said she has her own space, but you're right downtown."
00:55:28,"And so for her to be able to say, yeah, I can do either location is, I mean, again, simple but solves a problem. Yep. And her office that she's in is big enough that she has the table, you know, the treatment table there. Yeah. So You don't need much space, you just gotta be able to Yeah."
00:55:46,"Yep. So she'll, she'll do treatments and you know, and she's a graduate of program. Yesterday we were talking about, you know, what kind of programming we could do for like a small business Saturday and you know, popups and things of that nature. So there's definitely, Oh, I love popups for your space. Yes. So there's definitely other stuff that we're talking about,"
00:56:08,"you know, putting together and Yeah. And creating events around. Yeah. No shortage of ideas. Okay. Paula, thank you for Tricia. What did I just put Paul? I have Paula in my brain because it's Okay. Paula. Yep. Thank you for taking the time to do this. I'm so excited. We're gonna have to have you back on in like a year and just talk about like what's changed and Yes."
00:56:30,"Yes. 'cause there's so many other things. Let's get Started. I know. Yeah. There's so many other things that we're planning to do with the space, other programs that the state has coming out that we know our space will be perfect for. So yes, definitely all of the things. Wait, this is a tactical question, but where, what's the resource?"
00:56:48,"Like if somebody's like, where do I go look for these grants? Like are they Googling or is there a database where, where do people look for their state? So I would say if your state has a Department of Commerce, 'cause for us, department of Commerce and economic opportunity is probably the main location for people to go to define information. There's that."
00:57:10,"And then the state of Illinois has what they call the catalog of state financial aid or assistance. I forget what the A stands for. And every grant from every state agency is on that website. So they put the list out every Friday and I'm on the list. Oh. So I just look and see what are the new things that are okay, what's coming down the pipe."
00:57:33,"But the Department of Commerce, they're the ones who really want to put, you know, infuse more money into the economy of the state. So your local Department of Commerce would have a lot of information, probably most of what you need. So that's probably the best starting point. I love it. Okay. Well, you have a lot going on,"
00:57:56,"so thank you for taking the time to do this and sharing your nuggets. I'm sure you've been an inspiration for folks listening. Oh, thank you so much. I, it was my pleasure to be here, and thank you for all that you've done to keep us all educated and, and keep our spaces going, because I promise I'd be still scratching my head trying to figure this out if it not,"
00:58:18,"if it had not been for Everything Coworking School. You're such a good student because you show up to the calls, you ask the questions, you, so you're, you're an MVP of the program for sure. Oh, Thank you. Thank you So much. Love it. Okay. Thanks, Tricia. All, all right. Thank you. Thank you for listening to today's episode."
00:58:34,"If you like what you heard, tell a friend, hit that subscribe button and leave us a rating and review. It makes a huge difference in helping others like you find us. If you'd like to learn more about our education and coaching programs, head over to Everything Coworking dot com. We'll see you next week."
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