342. Mindset Matters for Coworking Entrepreneurs: The Power of 50/50 Thinking
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342. Mindset Matters for Coworking Entrepreneurs: The Power of 50/50 Thinking
00:00:00,"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 a thought provoking operator,"
00:00:26,"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. We're gonna do an episode today that's a little bit different from what I usually do,"
00:00:54,"and it's a shorty getting ready for spring break and then GCUC, although I have a review on iTunes or Apple podcasts I should say, that says I talk about my personal life too much, so I'll leave it at that. Speaking of reviews, it is Google Business Month for our Community Manager University. We're hosting a contest to see which Community Manager can get the most reviews this month."
00:01:21,"And this is really just to get them in the habit of how to ask for reviews, getting automations in place to get new reviews every single month, getting templates in place that they're really comfortable with getting QR codes in this space, et cetera. So it's really just to like get the machine oiled so that they get really used to getting reviews every single month."
00:01:44,"But we make it fun by doing a contest. So if your Community Manager is in the program, that's what we're doing this month. We're talking about all things Google business, not just reviews, but how to keep your posts up to date, how to respond to feedback, how to make sure your listing is totally complete, what to do if people are illegally using your address for their Google business listing themselves."
00:02:09,"So it's pretty comprehensive. We've broken it up into five minute chunks. We're trying a new format. Anyway, speaking of reviews, I happen to pop over to Apple Podcasts to look at our reviews and noticed that, aside from the guy who thinks I talk about my personal life too much on anonymously. By the way, we do not have a lot of current reviews."
00:02:30,"So I am walking the walk this month. We don't have a Google business listing, but Apple Podcast is a great place to leave a review for us. So if you are an avid listener or even just started and wanna leave a review, it is also a great way to help others find the podcast. So that would mean a lot. You can,"
00:02:50,"I think you can do it just by opening your podcast player. If you listen on Apple Podcasts and clicking into the review section and then leaving one or, or do it on your desktop, we would greatly appreciate it. Okay, so today we're diving into something that's not just close to my heart and something that's on my mind these days, but probably for you too."
00:03:12,"If you've ever dared to dream big, and if you're listening, you're probably a pretty big thinker, whether you are an entrepreneur or not, I am talking a little bit to my entrepreneurship of folks today, but the message will apply to you whether you work for someone or have your own business or are working on starting your own business, if you've ever dared to think big and dive into the deep end of entrepreneurship."
00:03:38,"And Coworking, we're talking about the rollercoaster ride that comes with being an entrepreneur, the ups, the downs. And why believe it or not, embracing both the ups and the downs is the secret sauce to not just surviving, but thriving in life and in this industry as well. And this comes to mind because I think we, you know, we all have ups and downs,"
00:04:02,"and I think it's really important to talk about them because I think most of us think that life should be 100% easy, and that the goal is to get to 100% easy when it's never gonna be that way. That is not reality. And one of the reasons that I love co-hosting a podcast with Giovanni Palini, if you're not a Flex Uncensored podcast listener,"
00:04:25,"is that he, every time gets personal with our guests and they'll talk about things that you know are hard for them, things that are going really well for them. We get a really good balance of that. I'm probably less good about asking about the hard things to my guests, geo dives right in and will ask personal questions and just tends to draw those things out."
00:04:45,"And I think it really humanizes life and entrepreneurship and you know, trying to do new things that have never been done before, which a lot of our guests are doing, which a lot of you are doing in your own way and in your own communities. So this concept is inspired by Brooke Castillo. She is the owner of the Life Coach School, and I love listening to her podcast."
00:05:10,"I love mindset work in general because as entrepreneurs, our minds are often challenged, right? So she has this brilliant take on life being a 50 50 mix of positive and negative experiences. And when I bring that up, it might sound sort of obvious, but again, I think most of us operate with this subconscious sense that we're working towards a perfect life,"
00:05:38,"100% positive that doesn't exist. So we just have to roll through the 50% that's not that great and get better at managing our brain through that. I'm interrupting for a second. Are you working on starting a Coworking space? I often emphasize how important the planning stage is. You've heard me say most unrecoverable issues happen well before you open your doors, and they are related to the size of your space,"
00:06:11,"your real estate deal, and a few other things. If you think you are going to pick your favorite Coworking space and reverse engineer what you think you see happening in there, and then pick your own paint colors and your favorite furniture, you are in for a surprise. This business is really about making the right fundamental decisions that align with your individual personal and financial goals."
00:06:40,"So we wanna help you avoid the mistakes that a lot of operators make in planning and launching that can really set you back in terms of time and finances. So we have got your back. We have created a free training to help you really get behind the three key decisions that we think are the most critical for you to get right when you're designing your Coworking business."
00:07:07,"The model, not the colors, the model. And these insights come from years of operating, designing the model for two different locations, and then my work with hundreds of operators as they work on their businesses. So grab your spot in our training class. You can watch it anytime it's totally on demand, and start your Coworking journey with confidence and the right strategies in place."
00:07:34,"You can grab that training at Everything Coworking dot com slash masterclass. So I started thinking about this concept and how it plays out for us. And you know, the brave folks that are listening to this podcast, it's tempting to think that once you've opened your doors, it's smooth sailing. Or once you hire the perfect Community, Manager, life will be perfect again."
00:07:57,"Or once you get your second location up, everything will be 100% amazing or you're totally full, et cetera. But the reality is that it's never going to be perfect. It will always be 50 50. So here's the thing, expecting to feel good all the time, expecting every day to feel like a big win is like expecting to sail through life without hitting any waves."
00:08:22,"So not only is that unreal, run realistic, but it also robs us of the growth and the resilience that come from navigating those times and appreciating the journey. So I always, I say this to myself a lot, that which doesn't kill us will only make us stronger. I don't know where that quote came from. It's an old one, but it's kind of like that."
00:08:45,"So, you know, the best life is about 50 50. And so is this journey that we're all on to be entrepreneurs or to be, you know, know best in class at the work that you're doing in your job. I think, you know, not, not, I wouldn't say especially true, but Coworking is a pretty new industry, so we're still learning a lot about how it works."
00:09:08,"I did a recent podcast about hospitality and Coworking, that's such a big theme. But what I talked about in that episode is that there's no playbook for doing hospitality and Coworking, right? That you, you sort of know it when you see it or feel it. I think we're more sort of feeling it to some sense now. And most of that is like,"
00:09:27,"you know, your experience that you have when you walk into a space and how you're greeted and then you, you sort of, the community piece. I think hospitality is harder to tease out. So I guess my point is we're doing hard things and we're creating new things, and that's not easy. And so that's gonna feel really hard and we're gonna feel like we're not that good at it sometimes."
00:09:48,"So give yourself some patience and a little bit of wiggle room because if you're not having a good day or you experiment experimented with something and it didn't work, you know, that's the 50 50%. Not amazing. But think about the joy of the journey and the fact that you get to work on something that you're really passionate about and that makes an impact out there."
00:10:14,"So there are days when everything clicks into place and you might feel on top of the world, and then there are days when nothing seems to go right. But if you embrace this idea about 50 50, both for you and your team, right? Because sometimes I think it's important to remind ourselves, and sometimes it's hard to be good leaders for our team when we're in the negative side of,"
00:10:37,"of the 50%, or we exude this idea that it should be a hundred percent amazing all the time. It's not gonna be the case. We're gonna have challenging members, we're gonna have conflicts with members. Members might have conflicts with each other. You, you might lose a big chunk of members, you might have a month that's not great for revenue."
00:10:56,"You might have an event that doesn't go very well. There are lots of things that can, you know, be challenging in our business that might be hard for you. It might be hard for your team to get through. So I'm not saying 50% of your initiatives should not work, but you know, we're, it's, it's, it's a good sort of rule of thumb to keep in mind that it's really about the journey and enjoying the,"
00:11:22,"the great 50% and the, and to really just normalize that we're not going for a hundred percent great all the time, right? That, you know, half of life is harder than we'd like it to be. And that's just how it is in training our brain to kind of get used to that and still be, you know, happy and healthy and functioning through that is something to work on."
00:11:45,"So I just wanted to kinda drop in and talk about mindset for a little bit and remind you that hard days are normal, tough days are normal, and so are those days when you get to celebrate and you feel like things are going really well. That again, is the rollercoaster. I guess if you think about the visual of the rollercoaster half, you know,"
00:12:03,"50% up, 50% down, 50% up, 50% down. Okay. That is literally it for today. So we'll see you same time, same place next week. Thank you for listening to today's episode. 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."
00:12:31,"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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