Re: [Coworking] Building Community

[Joel Bennett- Veel Hoeden]

+10.

Love this, Alex.  It's the heart of the matter... community can't be done
in "ones", it's can't be "strategically planned" on paper, and it can't be
done in a vacuum.  It's chaotic, wonderful, messy, energizing,
time-consuming, and quite often a meandering path of surprises. It's not
about the *do*, but the *be*.

Thanks to all of you who are focusing on community in what you do!


Thanks & God Bless,

Joel Bennett
Veel Hoeden

On Mon, May 22, 2017 at 11:15 AM, Alex Hillman  wrote:

> Hey Lisa!
>
> Community building feels most elusive when you're getting started because
> you want to *do* something. You want to *start* something. But like you
> said...you want it to feel natural, not forced or fake.
>
> The counterintuitive answer is that the community you're looking for is
> all around you. It's people. They're already there, already doing things!
>
> Step one is to meet them where they are. Get curious. Don't start
> something new of your owngo look for *any*where that people are
> already gathering. And focus on getting to know who they are. It's a lot of
> one-on-one work. It feels slow at first. That's normal.
>
> Then, as you start to get to know people, you can start to notice patterns
> in what you learn about people. The things they do, professionally and in
> their free time. Where do they hang out? What kinds of lives do they live?
> What goals do they have? What do they enjoy the most? What do they enjoy
> the least?
>
> Looking for patterns gives you the opportunity to start bringing people
> together
> 
>  in
> ways that feel natural, and require SO much less effort than workshops and
> network events.
>
> The last step that I mention in my most basic community building playbook
>  is to lead by example. Sometimes
> all people need is someone else to step up and say "that's a great idea, we
> should do that together." That's where you can be the catalyst.
>
> Just remember that the *temptation* is going to be for you to do
> everything. And yes, you'll need to take the lead on some things.
>
> But successful, sustainable community building is more about noticing
> things that are about to happen and encouraging them than trying to
> pressure-cook things into existence. :) Make sense?
>
> -Alex
>
>
>
>
> --
> *The #1 mistake in community building is doing it by yourself.*
> Better Coworkers: http://indyhall.org
> Weekly Coworking Tips: http://coworkingweekly.com
> My Audiobook: https://theindyhallway.com/ten
>
> On Mon, May 22, 2017 at 11:58 AM, Lisa Dimond 
> wrote:
>
>> Hello!  My name is Lisa Dimond.  My family and I opened ecafe, a
>> coworking coffeehouse, in Overland Park, KS, in October 2016.  Here's our
>> website (which is a work-in-progress):  www.ecafecoffee.com.  We also
>> have another website, www.visitecafe.com, which is in the process of
>> being merged with the coffee one.  Originally we thought we needed to be 2
>> separate entities, but we are now presenting as one.
>>
>> I mainly run the coffee shop portion of our setup, but I am starting to
>> take over the coworking space as well.  I am really interested in how to
>> build community in our space.  Everything I read talks about building
>> community as one of the top priorities in a coworking space.  I just don't
>> know where to start.  I need specific examples, please.
>>
>> Do I hold workshops?  If so, how do I go about finding them?  Do I charge
>> for them, or make them free?
>>
>> I want to hold networking events, but don't know where to start.  I don't
>> want them to be stuffy and fake; I want it to feel natural.
>>
>>
>> --
>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
>> "Coworking" group.
>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
>> email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
>>
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "Coworking" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
> email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
>

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
"Coworking" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email 
to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[Coworking] Re: What to do about hyper competitive coworking atmosphere...

[Steve Floyd]

Oren is one of my Facebook friends and he has been a member of the Content 
Strategy group I founded since 2012 
- https://www.meetup.com/Dallas-Content-Strategy/members/12671412/ - but I 
suspect it's the whole "yesterday's darling is today's villain" kind of 
thing. It doesn't matter what I do, unless I am funding something that 
relates to their sphere of interest, very few of the late 20s early 30s 
crowd cares to engage. They know who I am. I am the guy they want to take 
out. 

The reality is, I have been actually running profitable companies, paying 
for the livelihoods of my wife and child, building a family, speaking 
nationally at conferences (https://www.slideshare.net/axzm) and you know... 
actually doing, not just talking about it with my buddies. 

I literally do not have time to go to some obscure startup mixer across 
town to play politics with a bunch of 20 somethings. 

I see it in their eyes when I run across some of them though. 

They want the nice car. They want the family. They want a successful agency 
/ consulting career. They want national speaking gigs.

And if they don't, then they see me as the version of success they don't 
like or want to see fall to the waist side.

I know at least 1/3 (if not half) the startup scene has jumped into web & 
digital marketing consulting (a space I have been in for over 14 years) and 
that is definitely where some (if not most) of the hyper-competitiveness 
has come from IMO. I've heard outright lies and a-typical positioning in 
the community (who I do not depend on to pay my bills) that basically talk 
a lot of trash about me and are just outright haters. 

Like I said, I have never done business with any of them (although I am 
sure I might have fired a few of them / or their friends for 
non-performance at my agency over the years). 

If I can call a spade a spade - I believe a good portion of Millennials in 
the south (as I have observed) have built this little meritocracy where 
they create a false reality and sphere of influence. All their buddies (who 
have nothing but time on their hands - because they aren't actually working 
on the two consulting accounts they have) say they are the best at X and no 
one really knows any better, so people reinforce that narrative because 
"community". 

Any outsider (especially market leaders and incumbents) are a potential 
threat/enemy to the righteous and morally correct way of doing X. Really, 
it's just a self perpetuated hype machine to funnel opportunity back into 
their pockets, whether they can actually perform for their client/project 
or not. 

Because community.

I'm old school. 

Show and prove. 

Out teach the competition. 

Be it, don't talk about it.

I will be speaking at General Assembly in Seattle next month if anyone in 
the Seattle startup scene wants to link up 
- https://www.meetup.com/Content-Strategy-Seattle/events/240054897/


On Monday, May 15, 2017 at 10:59:44 AM UTC-5, Angel Kwiatkowski wrote:
>
> Have you talked to Oren Solomon of Dallas Fort Work?
>
> On Monday, April 24, 2017 at 12:47:41 PM UTC-6, Steve Floyd wrote:
>>
>> After slimming down my web design & digital marketing 
>>  agency, I recently turned my 4500 sq ft office 
>> into a coworking space  to share resources w/ 
>> other people I often work with. I just had my son and wanted to lean down 
>> and take the stress levels down a notch from the weekly (sometimes daily) 
>> Chinese fire drill of running an agency.
>>
>> In starting to reach out and network, I received a good deal of hyper 
>> competitive behavior from many of the leading community figures in the 
>> local startup and coworking communities here in Dallas. I get it, I am the 
>> new guy - but I've been running businesses in the area (Deep Ellum) longer 
>> than all of these people. I get the feeling that there is a tight inner 
>> circle in those communities and they push people out they don't like or 
>> approve of. I've done nothing to any of them - I haven't even had a 
>> conversation with most of them.
>>
>> Does anyone here have any advice of how I might overcome this competitive 
>> atmosphere?
>>
>

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
"Coworking" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email 
to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

Re: [Coworking] Building Community

[Alex Hillman]

Hey Lisa!

Community building feels most elusive when you're getting started because
you want to *do* something. You want to *start* something. But like you
said...you want it to feel natural, not forced or fake.

The counterintuitive answer is that the community you're looking for is all
around you. It's people. They're already there, already doing things!

Step one is to meet them where they are. Get curious. Don't start something
new of your owngo look for *any*where that people are already
gathering. And focus on getting to know who they are. It's a lot of
one-on-one work. It feels slow at first. That's normal.

Then, as you start to get to know people, you can start to notice patterns
in what you learn about people. The things they do, professionally and in
their free time. Where do they hang out? What kinds of lives do they live?
What goals do they have? What do they enjoy the most? What do they enjoy
the least?

Looking for patterns gives you the opportunity to start bringing people
together

in
ways that feel natural, and require SO much less effort than workshops and
network events.

The last step that I mention in my most basic community building playbook
 is to lead by example. Sometimes all
people need is someone else to step up and say "that's a great idea, we
should do that together." That's where you can be the catalyst.

Just remember that the *temptation* is going to be for you to do
everything. And yes, you'll need to take the lead on some things.

But successful, sustainable community building is more about noticing
things that are about to happen and encouraging them than trying to
pressure-cook things into existence. :) Make sense?

-Alex




--
*The #1 mistake in community building is doing it by yourself.*
Better Coworkers: http://indyhall.org
Weekly Coworking Tips: http://coworkingweekly.com
My Audiobook: https://theindyhallway.com/ten

On Mon, May 22, 2017 at 11:58 AM, Lisa Dimond  wrote:

> Hello!  My name is Lisa Dimond.  My family and I opened ecafe, a coworking
> coffeehouse, in Overland Park, KS, in October 2016.  Here's our website
> (which is a work-in-progress):  www.ecafecoffee.com.  We also have
> another website, www.visitecafe.com, which is in the process of being
> merged with the coffee one.  Originally we thought we needed to be 2
> separate entities, but we are now presenting as one.
>
> I mainly run the coffee shop portion of our setup, but I am starting to
> take over the coworking space as well.  I am really interested in how to
> build community in our space.  Everything I read talks about building
> community as one of the top priorities in a coworking space.  I just don't
> know where to start.  I need specific examples, please.
>
> Do I hold workshops?  If so, how do I go about finding them?  Do I charge
> for them, or make them free?
>
> I want to hold networking events, but don't know where to start.  I don't
> want them to be stuffy and fake; I want it to feel natural.
>
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "Coworking" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
> email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
>

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
"Coworking" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email 
to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[Coworking] Building Community

[Lisa Dimond]

Hello!  My name is Lisa Dimond.  My family and I opened ecafe, a coworking 
coffeehouse, in Overland Park, KS, in October 2016.  Here's our website 
(which is a work-in-progress):  www.ecafecoffee.com.  We also have another 
website, www.visitecafe.com, which is in the process of being merged with 
the coffee one.  Originally we thought we needed to be 2 separate entities, 
but we are now presenting as one.

I mainly run the coffee shop portion of our setup, but I am starting to 
take over the coworking space as well.  I am really interested in how to 
build community in our space.  Everything I read talks about building 
community as one of the top priorities in a coworking space.  I just don't 
know where to start.  I need specific examples, please.

Do I hold workshops?  If so, how do I go about finding them?  Do I charge 
for them, or make them free?

I want to hold networking events, but don't know where to start.  I don't 
want them to be stuffy and fake; I want it to feel natural.


-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
"Coworking" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email 
to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[Coworking] Re: Hi from Shanghai

[Mauricio Perez Capos]

Hi, Fan. I would love to take a look of you version of coworking.org. How 
to contact you? Add me on Wechat, my ID: maupercam

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
"Coworking" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email 
to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.