349. Sam Pickering Shares How Incendium Has Partnered with IWBI to Launch a Coworking Version of the Well Certification
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349. Sam Pickering Shares How Incendium Has Partnered with IWBI to Launch a Coworking Version of the Well Certification
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. I have not recorded an intro in a little bit. I have just been kinda posting these episodes, but I wanted to say hello."
00:00:57,"It is already June. How wild is that? I hope you all have a list of things you want to do for fun this summer. I hiked the Grand Canyon Rim to Rim last week and I cannot stop thinking about how glad I am that I did that. I don't take time to do a lot of like friend trips. We do some family travel for sure,"
00:01:23,"but it was a highlight. I have not done anything that fun and rewarding in a a while and I'm super inspired. I'm not like a bucket list kind of person and now I feel like I need to do that, so I'm looking for my next adventure. It just worked out really perfectly. A friend of mine who I've known for a very long time wanted to do it and she invited three of us."
00:01:50,"So I knew one of the women, I did not know two of the other women and I did get to know one of the women over Zoom, but the fourth one was like an late ad. We weren't sure if she was gonna come and can I tell you, she turned out to be the best member of the group. And I say that only because the original three like kind of similar personalities,"
00:02:17,"totally type A we like hustle, walked through the Grand Canyon, let me tell you. So the fourth woman, she just was so fun. She had games for us to play. Let's see, we did, you know, name songs with three word titles, name songs with women's names in them. I like to ask questions like, it's your last day on earth."
00:02:43,"What are your three meals? We told our life stories, we just, we got a lot done in 12 hours. It was incredible for anybody thinking about doing it. I think this is really interesting. If I could make one business analogy, I'm gonna do it here. I'm not sure it holds a hundred percent, but I think about this a lot."
00:03:02,"Okay, so I was really concerned about being like fit enough to do that walk. You have to be fit enough, you, you know, you have to be active, you probably need to hike. I don't do a lot of hiking. We did do some training. I didn't do a ton of training, I have to confess because the training is like go for a four hour hike and if you don't have anybody to go with you,"
00:03:25,"it's hard to talk somebody else into going for a four hour hike with you. It's boring. So I did one three hour like walk in San Francisco and then we live at the top of a giant hill. So I did a couple of like walk all the way down to the bottom and then walk back up another, you know, route just to kinda get that practice because it is harder mentally,"
00:03:47,"you know, you're going in properly physically you, you go straight down and then you sort of do some rolling hills and the canyon and then you go straight up with some switchbacks. But it's pretty, it's pretty intense. But I would say my business analogy is that I have two things I wanna mention that are sort of business related is that really it was about the fundamentals."
00:04:09,"It was about staying hydrated and eating enough carbohydrates along the way. And if you mess that up, just the basics of that, every mile you have to make sure you're drinking enough and eating enough then you simply wouldn't finish, you wouldn't be successful and it didn't matter like how many days a week you do CrossFit it, you know, it didn't matter how many miles you run every week."
00:04:33,"I had, we had an Iron man in our group. The nutrition was so critical. I was really kind of surprised by that 'cause I don't do a lot of endurance stuff and so I don't have to deal with that. But 12 hours and it was never so hot that I felt like I was gonna melt. It will get like that for sure in July."
00:04:53,"But we went May, whatever I can, 29th I think it was. So the Canyon has only been open for a couple of weeks and it's cool. At the beginning it was 47 degrees when we started, no it was 45 degrees, it was 4:47 AM when we started. So, but it then it gets, you know, pretty hot and I think it was about a hundred degrees at point later in the day,"
00:05:16,"but it's just the duration of your time outside and I'm a total sweater so I just thought, you know, every ounce of liquid just goes straight out of me. So you really, really had to force yourself to just focus on hydrating. And we had like Gatorade endurance formula and I have those little like goo like energy bites because after the, you know,"
00:05:37,"first few hours, there's no way you were going to eat solid food. So you just had to be really focused on that. And we actually had one of our group members passed out about a mile and a half before we were done. And that was pretty nerve wracking because it's pretty hard to get someone out if they can't walk out. So you,"
00:05:56,"you, you just, you have to get those things right. And I think, again, back to my business analogy is I see a lot of operators thinking about a lot of sexy aspects of the business and it's not about the sexy parts, right? And again, it's not about like being the most fit in the canyon, it's about the basics,"
00:06:17,"the nutrition and running your sales funnel. And every time I talk with operators and kind of poke around into their business and how they're operating, oftentimes it is that they're, they're just not quite focused the right way on the fundamentals and making sure that they're hitting industry benchmarks in terms of profit margins that they're running their sales funnel really tightly that they've got their team dialed into sales funnel processes."
00:06:48,"So you gotta get the basics right or else you're not getting outta the canyon. And then my other one was just like community related and how fascinating community is, and I'm relating that to my four folks that were in the, you know, in the group and how diversity of like personality type is so critical. Again, I think the woman who she was like the BUN one really lighthearted,"
00:07:13,"you know, always kind of coming up with like our next topic to distract us. She was just like the perfect ad and her partners showed up at the end with snacks and the best corona I have ever tasted in my whole life. I literally sat down and ate half a block of cheese and crackers and to Corona like right away. So it just reminds you like it really takes all types of personalities to make things,"
00:07:39,"to really make things great, you know, to really optimize. And so you want that for your community, however small or large it is. Okay. Anyway, so today onto the podcast we have Sam Pickering and he is with innium, which is a consulting group that is part of the instant group now. And he runs their sustainability practice and I'm super excited to share this with you."
00:08:04,"I have to confess, I interviewed him like a month ago and I lost the recording and I have never had that happen to me in 450 total podcast episodes across the podcast. I've never like lost a file. So I'm still not entirely sure how it happened. So he was kind enough to do it again this morning. So Sam, but I am so excited about what he's up to."
00:08:29,"You are, I think most of you're gonna be pretty excited about this. So they have a sustainability index, which you'll hear about. And then the thing that I think you'll probably be most excited about is they've partnered with the International Well Building Institute. We have had them on the podcast but like 1 million years ago. It's been so long. And they have a really rigorous certification process that a couple of operators have been through,"
00:08:54,"which I talk about in the episode. And it's just a lot of work and it's expensive and you have to get the landlord involved. But Sam and his team have worked with IWBI to create like a tighter version of this framework that applies to Coworking spaces that allows them to really focus on kind of the core aspects of this certification that are more in their control."
00:09:18,"And that can make a really big impact. So it's totally approachable and there may be some expenses incurred, but the idea is to not incur tons of expenses and to make it so that you don't have to hire a consultant to be in compliance with this framework. And so his team will be like the validation team to check for operators to make sure that they are doing all the things to help,"
00:09:42,"to help them be compliant. So he's piloting this program in September. He's got a bunch of operators he's been working with to kind of stress test the way they're approaching this. They're gonna run the pilot and then they'll open it up more broadly. So well is really, you know, all about creating wellbeing and the, you know, kind of boxes you wanna check in order to be a really healthy,"
00:10:06,"great place for people to work. And Sam mentioned this, you know, stat that was talked about at a recent summit that he was at, that we spend like 90% of our time indoors, which is depressing, but if you wanna spend it indoor, you know, if you do spend it indoors, whether you want to or not, you want the place that you spend it in to be really good for you in terms of lighting and plants and air quality and all the,"
00:10:29,"you know, snacks that you have access to, all those things. So I think this is gonna just be a really great way for operators to evolve and stay really connected to what the end users need and want out of a workspace. And certainly it will help attract corporate clients if that's who your audience is. But even if not everybody wants, you know,"
00:10:51,"a space that is really great for their wellbeing and this provides a framework to do that. We can do things that are really intuitive to us. But this will provide a framework and a, you know, a, a public badge to help you demonstrate that you are in line with the things that that add up to a well workspace. So without further ado,"
00:11:10,"here is Sam Pickering sharing what that partnership looks like and the Coworking version of the well certification. Okay. I am here with Sam Pickering who is the A director at Ince Dium Consulting, which is part of the instant group. Sam, thank you for joining me again. I have to confess, this is our second recording so Sam gets a huge high five for doing this."
00:11:38,"One more time with me. Sam, how are you doing today? It's an absolute pleasure, Jamie and to do it twice just seems like a treat. Okay. Very kind of. You would if we, if we meet in person at some point I owe you a giant glass of wine or a beer or something. Okay. So the fun part of this is I so much enjoyed our last conversation because I love what you're doing."
00:12:03,"Can you just kind of give us your background, how you got to the role you're in and kind of talk about what your team is up to and and sort of the role you're playing for occupiers and workspace operators today? Very good. Well look, thanks again Jamie for having me on. Yeah. So yeah, my background, I've been doing sustainability advisory for,"
00:12:25,"for a long time, probably 16, 17 years before that I strangely used to fly helicopters in the British Army. I only bring that up and I bring that up quite a lot with lots of people I work with. 'cause I think sustainability people tend to have a bit of a stigma around them, which is unfair all around tree hugging and stuff like that."
00:12:43,"So my background, this is my second career and during that time I've seen sort of massive changes. But about eight years ago we set up Insignium Consulting, which was an independent corporate real estate advisory. So advising occupiers on their portfolio strategies, their supply chains, workplace strategy, target operating models. And I head up the sustainability side and we've continued to grow and then became part of the instant group about five years ago."
00:13:09,"And so my role now spans the two. So I do the advisory side, but more and more I, I look across sustainability and into the whole of the Insta group and therefore the sort of flex market and sector Coworking market, which is new to me but I've got very used to it and very familiar with it over time. So on the OC Occupy side,"
00:13:29,"we have for years advised them on two things. One is either taking a corporate strategy and we work for major global Fortune 10, fortune 100, but also FF two 50 businesses taking that corporate ambition and turning it into the reality of their office portfolio. And the reason for highlighting that is you'd think that was pretty common sense, but the reality is for a lot of these big corporations is that their emissions related to their office are actually quite small."
00:14:00,"But it's ultimate me where shareholders, stakeholders, clients and more importantly employees come and visit. And so you can never ignore it just 'cause it's immaterial. 'cause actually when you add it all up it's huge. So we advise them on that and then more and more we've started working at a board level to develop their overarching ESG net zero science-based target, whatever you want to call it,"
00:14:21,"their ambitions across it. And then we assist them by becoming an a sort of an extension of that client organization. And my team is now globally pretty large actually. And we, we then become an extension of client team working across the business and with their supply chains to deliver. So as we've done more and more of that, what we've started to work with is portfolios are changing ever since Covid,"
00:14:47,"I won't go into all that 'cause you probably talked about that quite a lot Jamie, but they are changing significantly. And so you're seeing a consolidation of corporates taking space but also a drive towards a more hybrid way of working. And that's not just flex or Coworking space that's also working from home and so on and so forth. And that has a major effect both positively but potentially adding more complexity to sustainability within an office portfolio."
00:15:17,"So as that demand has really driven towards that hybrid way of working, in particular Coworking, which clearly sits within our group focus, I, we as a business have really started focusing with operators in terms of what they can do, which is very much aligned to actually what occupies and therefore their own clients want to see them. And it's quite new for a lot of operators,"
00:15:41,"but there is without a doubt, huge desire to know where to start and ultimately make an impact. So I'm curious about kind of the the maybe the fo the fo strategic focus on ESG and then the, I dunno if execution's the right word. I do you see variation on that globally? I get the sense that the UK is really at least outwardly more explicitly focused on ESG as like part of their corporate,"
00:16:12,"you know, mission or values maybe is is a better word and that the US lags behind a bit. Is is that true or, or not? It's, it's probably, it probably is true. I mean the reality is we talk about the UK but really even though we have Brexit, we are still very much firmly part of Europe. And during that time,"
00:16:33,"if you ignore Brexit, you know the, the EU legislation's been driving this in particular in focus which is really around reporting and energy efficiency that has taken hold. So we've been doing that quite a long time. The irony is Jamie is that our biggest clients are all US corporates funnily enough. And so, and I've worked with them for years sort of,"
00:16:54,"you know, if I took two major technology organizations that I won't go into specifically naming them, but two of the largest probably in the world we've been working with for five or six years and they're actually leading the charge when it comes to decarbonization and the whole kind of social aspects, supply chains, diversity, all those sorts of things. But there's no two ways about it."
00:17:16,"I guess in Europe in particular, there's probably a more holistic and well it, it's kind of embedded in the way people think about stuff. But actually in the US there's a lot more money focused is it? In certain areas. Okay. Not holistically. So why wouldn't, I wouldn't be beating yourself up that your miles behind by any means. Yeah."
00:17:37,"It's just probably not as wholesale as it probably is in Europe. Yeah. Well and I wonder if sort of, you know, government regulation and reporting requirements supports that. I think right, sometimes we need the right, right, the right incentives to be doing the right things. So yeah, I was just, I was just curious and I know you were here for right after we talked last time,"
00:17:57,"so now we get to do an update for the IW BI conference. I know I'm not getting the NA name right. Maybe can you talk about what you're doing with, so it's the International Wealth Building Institute, you have a new partnership with them. Can you talk about what you're doing there and what the goal is and kind of what role your team will play?"
00:18:20,"Yeah, definitely. So what I might do is come onto that. What I did want just bring up in terms of operators, just something we ALS we've also launched about probably a year ago now is something called the sustainability index. And I kind of go back to that demand side IE clients and occupies and legislation 'cause you brought it up, which is an important part."
00:18:39,"So as we've been working with all these major corporates and I wanna say major corporates ranges from hundreds of thousands of employees down to sort of two or 3000. But as they move to a hybrid way of working, what we found at the end of the year building their carbon footprint was we without that could never get any emissions data, simple emissions data out of any of their flex portfolio."
00:19:01,"Yeah. Now it didn't really matter because it was immaterial and compliance hadn't called up. Well now that's becoming more material. The data coming out of that in terms of how they make quick and informed decisions on taking a space that data is now really important because they get audited on their carbon emissions like you do on your dollars or Euro your pounds around account."
00:19:24,"So what we wanted to, what I wanted to set up was something that was easy to engage with for operators, a good starting point around data and fulfilled the initial requirement for for occupies and their clients. And that's the sustainability index. So what we do on an annual basis, or we can do it on a live basis every month for every quarter we get all their invoices related to electricity,"
00:19:48,"gas, and any renewable energy supplies they might have. We validate that against the greenhouse grass, greenhouse gas protocol. And we then give them a sustainability data provider badge both on our website and their old own sales platforms. That allows ultimately clients to know that they will get data outta that site behind the scenes. We then give them a performance basis on how they can report back to occupiers and give them some ideas of what next."
00:20:16,"So next year we should, should see a reduction and so on and so forth. And that excites me because suddenly we can interact with thousands of businesses as we do already and we drive the sort of sustainability focus at a very easy cost effective and first step way. And that's, that gets me outta bed every day and as excited my team because in the end we're trying to make a big impact."
00:20:39,"What that then does is that differentiates sites and gives better choice metrics for their clients. Alongside of that, clearly the instant platform is all around photos, the space and all the great things, the location, the cost per desk. We're now solving the sustainability side, which for me is really important. The other bit that was missing is then wellbeing. And so the sustainability index was easy for me to do internally because is based based on a GSG protocol."
00:21:07,"It's not mine, it's just data. It's validated against best practice and covers that off. When it comes to wellbeing, I am no doctor and I can't prove, and I haven't done decades of research around well buildings, but the IWBI have. And so I've worked with them for a number of years. In fact, I used to be at CBRE before starting up in,"
00:21:29,"and when they started out I was actually on a, on a panel with the, the founder of Edge. And so what I wanted to do is similar to the sustainability index, was to say, look, we've got massive scale across the Insta group and this flex sector is growing wellbeing of, of the Coworking space is hugely important, but it's also the well standard is very complex and costly to interact with if you are an operator with one space."
00:21:58,"And I could easily tell you what the wellbeing is within an office space, but I haven't done that research as I say. So I needed a partner and to partner with, to use all their best practice to build a product and a rating system that allowed operators to engage with at a cost effective way that allowed to take the nuances out of not holding a whole building,"
00:22:22,"having limited control of certain things, but being rated on actually what they do control things like nutritional value of, of food they might produce, water quality, air quality, sound attenuation, those sorts of things. And so the idea is, is we can scale this massively. So this is where this partnership comes. We're still developing the product as it were,"
00:22:44,"the rating system at the moment. We're doing that collaboratively with numerous operators on a global basis from the Americas to Amir and then to APAC and ranging from the big ones to the single operators because I wanted to make this totally about the whole sector as opposed to three or four of the major players. It's had really, really exciting enthusiasm. Everyone's bought into it."
00:23:08,"And from the IW B's perspective, which this is a very new initiative, they are also hugely excited because it starts to scale well, buildings and and wellbeing and ultimately productivity of people within their space. So that's what the partnership is all about. Part of that was sort of a reaffirming our partnership, the summit that happened in Long Beach, which I never been to Long bench,"
00:23:34,"very nice Jamie. And then we'll be launching that towards sort of September onwards as we kind of go through pilot programs with various operators, both existing who we've gone through the, the development process with. But I'm hoping with more and more who want to join at this pilot stage. So, so yeah, that's where we are. With that, I'm interrupting for a second."
00:23:56,"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, 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,"
00:24:31,"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. 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."
00:25:10,"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."
00:25:37,"You can grab that training at Everything Coworking dot com slash masterclass. So, okay, I have a couple of questions back to the, the sustainability index. So those are factors that may not be controllable by an operator, but on the other hand the, and tell me how you look at this. Like in ESG terms, flexible workspace and hybrid working should be a positive if a corporation reduces their footprint on the assets that aren't being utilized,"
00:26:12,"right? I'm guessing like running air conditioning for, you know, three floors of a building where there are only people on one floor is super inefficient. So an operator could sort of win as a solution because they're, it's, it's really efficient, like high occupancy, you know, smaller floor print people, you know, either at home or in a space that's fully occupied."
00:26:36,"But how does an operator think about how to impact that index? Like when you give them feedback, what does that, like, what levers can they pull or, or is it just reporting, like what does that process look like? Like if an opera, if you, I don't know if you give them feedback in terms of like, hey, you know,"
00:26:54,"you, you're, you know, you're sort of on the lower end of efficiency, but the building's not very efficient. It's an older building, you know, whatever, the landlord's not willing to make improvements. Is that like a conversation you have or is it really more about reporting? I I mean the, the ultimately for the occupiers, the key bit is the reporting."
00:27:12,"They need data. Yeah, it's not gonna knock their whole sustainability agenda off kilter, but they need validated data. Yeah, that is an ES estimated more and more. That is one of the key corporate demands that real estate functions within a big corporation because of the compliance requirements get hit with I think why the, the focus on sustain on electricity and gas in particular."
00:27:35,"Those two are fundamental to anybody's net zero journey, which invariably is by 2030 because they make up the majority of the emissions. They're the first kind of what's called scope one of scope two, you need to reduce over time, but also for for operators, it's the stuff they pay for. And what I'm astounded by, I look at sustainability as a business driver as opposed to a green stick that that must do."
00:28:00,"And if you don't do it, you hug trees. And my, my sort of analogy of that is if you take a floor within a 14 story building and you are paying for that a portion per square foot, you've got no control or knowledge of what happens on the other 13 floors within that building. And those buildings, and I've seen this in numerous cases over the years,"
00:28:20,"could easily have data rooms that you are there for partially funding because they consume way more than you, but it's a portions per square foot. So commercially is the first thing, it doesn't make sense not to know what you consume. Now of course you might not be able to control the central plant on the roof, but you can definitely control how you operate your space."
00:28:41,"You can have air conditioning units that you can switch off, you can have better lighting, you can have better controls, all these types of things. So that's the first thing. It makes co commercial benefit to challenge your landlords. Say I want the data that I consume, I get the central plant, but I just need a meter that shows me what I'm consuming on my floor."
00:28:58,"And then within that, as I say, the lever you can pull are better controls, more efficient stuff, which invariably over the lifecycle of something that's five years, you'll get it back in in spades, especially in certain markets globally. The other thing I would say is the reporting back is hugely important. You talked about better utilization, consolidating those sorts of things."
00:29:18,"So of course when normally you look at carbon intensity or energy intensity per square foot, well if you then overlay utilization metric to that IE per occupant, it works out much, much better. And that's some of the analysis we've done and we've reported on is just showing the effect by actually having lots of people in one space, not all at the same time,"
00:29:41,"but consistently over a week. Especially when you now look at really it's a three day working week when people come to the office, there's a huge saving and a huge benefit. The other thing that is often missed as a benefit in a sales pitch to some of their OC occupiers from operators is lease lengths get shorter. Corporates come in, strip out what was there,"
00:30:03,"refitted out, strip out fit out the embodied carbon of furniture and carpet thousand partitioning is huge. Well, operators in Coworking space, different businesses sit on the same seat even if they're there for a week, a year, whatever it is, of course refurbs happen, but not the same frequency. So the embodied carbon piece, which is often forgotten in this discussion around real estate is a huge,"
00:30:25,"huge benefit. And so in that report, of course we say the levers, but we also talk about the ways you report this back your occupies in terms of some of the stuff you've done and therefore the impact. So the sustainability index, so do, do you, how, how does that work from an operator standpoint? Are they they part of the instant ecosystem like they're listed with you or is it,"
00:30:51,"and is there a benefit do you think of that? Like you mentioned sort of the, you know, the process of Yeah, te tell me Yeah. How, how does that work? Like are corporates looking for operators who are part of that and are reporting it and then so it's a benefit to be, to be doing that. Like do you think sort of eventually there will be some momentum around like yeah,"
00:31:15,"you have to, you have to do this to Get, and I think what what I don't wanna do is, is what I wanted to do is set up a way of differentiating products within our platform on a connected marketplace. And clearly there's a lot of development behind the scenes to develop the sort of the, the future of a connected marketplace. But this is a,"
00:31:35,"within our ecosystem, so it's differentiated on our space. But, but I didn't wanna, I didn't want to just hold it to that. This is, this is a, a badge as it were that they can use on their own operators can use on their own sales collateral to differentiate their space because, because it's, it's holistic now. There are plenty of badges out there and what I'm not trying to do is do lead or do brim or anything like that."
00:32:00,"Yeah, this is the simple data piece. Now over time what I'd like to do is actually benchmark performance, which we do behind the scenes, but I'm not, I'm not, I don't think the sector is ready for me to say one is good and one is bad. This is purely answering the question to drive demand, more demand to sides who've done this."
00:32:19,"So people can do this to set them themselves. Many people have already many people, many operators already report on it. This is just trying to build momentum across the sector that I passionately believe from a purely office perspective is part of the solution going forward. Yep. Got it. Hey there, I'm jumping in again this time. I am speaking to those of you that 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."
00:32:54,"We know how challenging it can be for Coworking 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. 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."
00:33:21,"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. 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."
00:33:50,"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. 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 help 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."
00:34:20,"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."
00:34:47,"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."
00:35:16,"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."
00:35:43,"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,"
00:36:08,"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,"
00:36:36,"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 forward slash Community manager. Now back to our episode. Okay, so then the, the well standard that's, it's pretty complex. I think,"
00:37:03,"and I did not look this up after our last conversation. I think work bar in Boston has one building that is well certified and then I think Amy King of good Coworking in Dallas, Texas is well certified. I'm not sure if there are any others in the US because it's such a big undertaking. Is the work that you're doing like, like to make that more approachable or is it the same requirements?"
00:37:30,"I So within the well standard there is something like 500 features that you've probably read from ranging from kind of nutrition to air quality Yeah. To water quality and then all those sorts of things. I sort of, what what we've done is we've worked with the IWBI team to make, what, what we don't wanna do is remove all the integrity. So you just make it easy for everyone."
00:37:51,"Of course we don't wanna do that, but we wanna make sure that the features allow for the nuances that are outta control of the operators. That also means that you don't have to spend potentially thousands of dollars on consulting fees upfront to get yourself in a position to actually provide evidence to make sure you've tipped off a number of features to achieve a rating. And the rating is just a blanket rating."
00:38:18,"It's not somebody as good, somebody as bad. This is, there are a number of features, I'm not gonna disclose how many they are 'cause I want people to sign up to the pilot and, and launch it properly, but there are far, far less than 500, let me tell you. They are therefore the data required to prove and validate us to validate it far simpler."
00:38:38,"And so what I'm trying, what we've tried to develop is, is a rating system that allows any operator to do it without external help. Yes, they might have to spend some money on some testing, but one would hope that anyway, things like air quality is a good example, but therefore it turns into hundreds of dollars per site as opposed to some projects that I've worked on new builds and big refurbs,"
00:39:04,"which tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. So this is where we are looking at a scaled approach to this, which feels to me Jamie really exciting to be honest, because as I say, the demand for it is huge. Why would you have your headquarter buildings with wellness and lead that and then Coworking space, you just go, well best of luck."
00:39:24,"I hope you're productive in that space and it's good, good, good air quality. So, and also I found with operators that everyone really cares about wellbeing. They get that productivity in the office space is hugely important, but actually they've never had something that provides some boundaries and focus for them backed up by medical research, which says by doing this equals this in terms of human health."
00:39:47,"So, so yeah, I feel hugely excited. But Yeah, I, yes, I remember after we talked last time, I just kept thinking about how, to your point, I think most operators want to be aligned with those values, but Right. They don't know where to start. And the IWBI, you know, full scope is really intimidating and,"
00:40:10,"and unapproachable. So I, I think it's incredible that you're doing this and I think there's gonna be a lot of excitement around it and a lot of demand. I I, I think most operators will want to, right? And when they're starting, I mean, they could really look at that, the, those that list of criteria and design around it,"
00:40:28,"right? And, and sort of have an easy on ramp, maybe not easy, but an approachable on ramp that your approach is gonna really help them accomplish. So I, yeah, I think it's, it's really, really exciting. And then people who'd wanna do the right thing are gonna have Yeah. A, a way to and, and work with,"
00:40:50,"you know, I mean, I mean even just thinking like, and working with their designers and their architects and just all the, you know, from, from the start and not have to sort of backtrack and, and, and make updates, but can do it right from, from the beginning and then say they're, they're aligned with a standard that's Yeah,"
00:41:09,"I think, yeah, and it, it helps at that fit out stage for certain things, you know, if you take noise attenuation and stuff like that Yeah. And lighting levels as an example. But yeah, there are then elements like nutritional value of food offerings, those sorts of things, which actually flow into the operational side as well. And yeah,"
00:41:26,"and it's not, what we're not trying to do in the IWBI are brilliant, this having really got to know their team, they are phenomenal. What we're not trying to do is, is be totally prescriptive and remove choice and experience and those sorts of things, but it, it is just highlighting the key things that sit within the control of the operators that actually have an impact of the productivity and the health and wellbeing of people."
00:41:50,"And what was really fascinating about the summit is there are a huge amount of academics that attend that summit. And you know, you've got deans of Harvard as a good example. We had Richard Carni who was the 17th surgeon general of the us And, and some of the points that were brought up are fascinating. So one is we spend 90% of our time inside."
00:42:11,"So well, buildings are fundamentally important. And what was really interesting is the CEO of the asthma and allergens institution, he looks at basically overseas in the US about a hundred million people who suffer from allergies was just saying that the effect of climate change, whether you believe in or not, it doesn't really matter. And we don't need to have an argument about that Jamie,"
00:42:31,"if, if you want to argue or not. But, but the realities in forest fires and increased pollen can, all of these sorts of things are really affecting not only people in the office space, but also children in education. So, well buildings in terms of the changes to atmosphere and, and, and climates that we're beginning to see and, and you in particular see it far more than we probably do in the UK as an example,"
00:42:57,"is huge. Hugely important. And so that's the bit that I found fascinating was actually private companies, public companies and academia coming together to solve what is quite a big macro problem. And I think for Coworking, again, I go back to that net zero sort of solution to a degree within corporate real estate. I think, you know, Coworking space as it grows,"
00:43:19,"this is gonna be more and more important for them. Yeah, Yeah. It's such a good point. 90% of our time inside I should start recording podcasts with guests outside mandatory, outside recording. Yeah, Exactly that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, although to your point, I used to do a little work with a company that was focused on health and as I,"
00:43:41,"I had, you know, had never learned much about asthma. I mean, indoors can be a really important solution to, to those triggers, right? To your point, like the poor air quality that's outside is harder to control bigger, you know? Right. Big, bigger changes needed there, but that people can know, they can come inside and have good air quality and access to plants and,"
00:44:04,"and even, you know what, it is funny, the, I think it was Nick, it might have been Nick Clark, somebody, I think it was Nick who is the CEO, he is the founder of Common Desk who was bought by WeWork. And I remember him saying once that their most popular snack was Pop-Tarts. Like that was their best selling snack in all of their spaces,"
00:44:26,"which is, you know, funny, not funny. And so it might help people sort of give them the framework of, of like, you can offer, you know, fun things, but you should have Right. Like kinda, you know, kind of tick the healthy, healthy choices box and not only offer Pop Darts. Yeah. And I think also,"
00:44:44,"you know, explain why, I mean I, you know, we, we all live our own lives in however we do it. And, and people can make choices. And I, I think that's what we're developing is a sort of flexible rating system that that doesn't sort of spoil up. But I think over time we will see that this is more important."
00:45:01,"But as I say, I mean the, the interest in the well rating has been huge. And the thing is, it is powered by the IWBI, we have just partnered with them to do it. So it, as I said right at the outset of talking about it, it's, it's not ours, but just in terms of the scale that we have and the operators we can sort of influence."
00:45:24,"That's, that's why it's hugely important and, and works both sides of the partnership. But I think the other thing for me, which it goes back to why I started with the sustainability index, is if what I want to do and what I feel our responsibility is as, as instant group is to drive more and more demand to Coworking space because it is a growing sector and it's what clients want and therefore this transparency gives better surety when making buying choices,"
00:45:53,"especially when we see more and more growth in this space. So I, I personally feel we have a responsibility to start setting some of these boundaries and differentiating this sector as a whole. Yep. Okay. So pilot in the fall and then you'll keep us posted on how that goes and then a broader rollout once you kind of tweak the, the process."
00:46:16,"Yeah, and I think what we'll be looking at over the next month is we're just finalizing the product, what then looks like landing pages and stuff like that. And then we've got so far probably 20 operators that have been really involved, hoping all of them will sign up to the pilot piece. And then we'll be asking others who want to sign up before kind of the fall to sign up and be part of the pilot piece."
00:46:38,"And then we'll probably go for general availability sort of end of October. And we are planning sort of launches both in the US probably starting with New York, then London, and then over in, in Asia, probably Singapore and Sydney. So that will be by the end of the year, which now I think about it, Jamie seems quite tiring, but yeah,"
00:46:56,"exciting. Totally. You got a lot to do in the next few months. Yeah. Speaking of, thank you for taking the time to do this and share this. And I would love for you to, you know, come back when you have kind of some updates and you want some broader visibility around how the pilots go and when you're ready to kind of broadly sign up operators."
00:47:14,"I, I agree with you. I think there's gonna be a lot of excitement. I think this is really wonderful for the industry. You know, our industry is just evolving and growing and still, you know, finding its way and figuring out how do corporate, how does corporate demand fit into the, the product, you know, and what are they looking for?"
00:47:33,"And I, so I help, I, I think things like this will really help to sort of shape the future and, and give folks some insight into, into what's ahead. So thanks, thanks for all that you're doing and for taking the, your, your second slot for walking us through it. Thank you, Sam. Pleasure. Thanks so much."
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