Nicola Anderson’s Post

🔔 Did you get your community builder ticket for the next London Coworking Assembly event yet? ⏰The Community Builder Ticket is only available until midnight U.K. time TONIGHT then the price doubles. (Check your email you'll have a link from us or Luma) We have the day's plan, but you, the attendees, will co-create the questions and workshop content in the lead-up to the day. 👍That is what makes this a Forum and Bar Camp - not a lecture. Digging into that combination of community building, revenue making, and local is where the fun and the money are in the London Coworking Assembly. On the 17th of September. Part one:  Jon Alexander, the author of "CITIZENS: Why the Key to Fixing Everything is All of Us" - to make these ideas even more spreadable. Part two: We'll move to a nearby 360 Workplace location for a co-created interactive workshop on designing a coworking space to cater for inclusion and neurodivergence. 💚 ➡️ Community Builder Ticket 😎Some of you will buy this ticket because it's cheap and low-risk, and you are super welcome to do that. ➡️ But we're looking for people who don't have £500 + booking fee to spend on a conference ticket but are working to make their dream community building dream happen. ➡️ We're looking to make it super affordable for you, folks who fly in from other countries, to join this community. ➡️ And to make the event economically accessible to those punched in the mouth by the U.K. cost-of-living crisis. ✅ Where to get your ticket? 🔵On Linkedin head to -> London Coworking Assembly Or 📩 Check your email. You'll have a link there if you have been before. ⏰The Community Builder Ticket is only available until midnight U.K. time TONIGHT then the price doubles.

What’s easier to sell? A half-eaten banana to a starving man? Or a juicy Sirloin Steak to a man who’s just eaten? Sales is not about the product. It’s about the market. And the market is nothing more than the minds of your customers. You’ve got a genius product. But no-one’s buying it. Don’t waste time messing around with the product. Get to work on your prospects minds. My local fish and chip shop sells a large Haddock and Chips for £7.50. My local gastro pub sells: “Beer battered Isle of Wight Haddock with minted pea puree, triple fried chips & tartare sauce”. For £17.50. You’re eating exactly the same thing. But the gastro pub has made you believe their version is exclusive. This isn’t any old chip shop Haddock. We only use Haddock caught specially on the Isle of Wight. And so you pay double. It’s works in B2B too. Regus rent shared workspace and offices. WeWork create an experience where people and companies come together and do their best work. Bottom line? They both rent desks. But we pay a premium to go to WeWork. Because they’ve made you believe that their rented desks are part of something exclusive. Tech founders, this bit’s for you. You’ve created something that will put a dent in the universe. But people aren’t queuing up to buy. And the phones aren’t ringing. Don’t start tinkering with the product. Start tinkering with your prospect’s minds. Don’t build more features. Build great messaging. Or let us to do it for you. DM me and let’s have that conversation.

What are the best types of events to run in your coworking space? The ones that are easy to organise - those are the best! Of course, this is at the top of my mind this week because European Coworking Day is coming up, and everyone's talking about what to do. I keep telling people you can do anything from two people having a cup of tea to Foo Fighters and Stromzy playing live in your car park. But do something straightforward for you to organise. The best thing you can do is get members to organise events. They have the imagination and will do things they want to do, and you don't have to defragment your brain on event content while running your coworking space. ❌ But don't ask members to organise an event because you can't be bothered. ✅ Ask members to organise it because they're part of the community. If there's no involvement, there's no commitment, that builds connection, meaning, and change within your coworking space. My Scrum Master co-host Emily and I are running an event prep sprint in preparation for the mighty European Coworking Day at the London Coworking Assembly! Join us next Tuesday for Event promotion and optimisation - head to London Coworking Assembly to RSVP. 📩 Sharpen your coworking edge in 2 minutes a day. Subscribe to Bernie's Better Things for a daily, no-fluff, no-pitch newsletter—the link in my bio. Have a remarkable day. Be careful out there. It is a jungle.

"Holland said Convene is able to make leases work because it offers meeting and event room in its location as a buffer against the narrow margins of essentially subleasing out workspaces. 'You’re selling desks for slightly more than you’re paying in rent to your landlord after signing the lease — for the meetings and events business it is totally different,' Holland said. 'It’s a hedge because the economics are so different for meetings facilities... … We build so much expensive hospitality infrastructure into our meetings facility that no one could ever afford to build in their coworking facility or their workplace facility. We can offer that and let our workplace customers tap into all of that wonderful hospitality infrastructure.'” - Brian Holland, head of real estate, on the difference between Convene and other industry providers to Commercial Observer https://lnkd.in/e7zxEAMs

“What’s our Fruit Water?” reads a sign above my desk at Tango's offices. It was a fun honor to write a guest post on friend Jeremy Utley wisdom-full blog Paint & Pipette (highly recommend follow). TLDR: Listen carefully & continuously to your members/customers; your most magical touch points may be hidden in plain sight. 🍓 🚰 > 🍺 -------- When I joined WeWork to lead Member Experience there was a C-suite level debate about removing Beer from the offering. Not only was it costly, but regulatory management was complex. The key question was: How much would the decision upset our members? Meanwhile, rather quietly, the Ops team was planning to remove Fruit Water [a cooler of water lined with sliced fruit, often in patterns] given consumable and labor costs. On the surface, it made sense. The money added up. After a round of member interviews & surveys, the message was clear. Unprompted, members cited Fruit Water as THE top feature they loved at WeWork, period. Not Beer (that barely registered). Not the cool events or even the beautiful spaces themselves. Fruit Water. A quick search revealed a flurry of Fruit Water photos shared on social. Meanwhile, we learned that the frontline Community teams, for whom retention was important, considered cutting & arranging fruit a fun creative outlet. All in, Fruit Water’s ROI was downright impressive. We kept the Fruit Water and gave the green light to remove Beer, at least from a member satisfaction POV (there were other factors at play). There are straightforward lessons here: 🍇 Don’t assume what customers love; listen first. I don’t doubt WeWork’s initial customer base gravitated to Beer, but that demo changed dramatically in a short period of time. 🍋 Shiny touchpoints that initially attract customers, aren’t the same ones that keep them happy. While Beer still had the “how cool” effect when members joined, its value disappeared on a day to day basis (much like those empty condo gyms). 🍒 Consider the full impact of one touchpoint - tangible & intangible. Cross-functional collaboration helps with maintaining holistic perspectives in a world where we’re zero-ed in on our own KPIs. The Fruit Water sign, however, is not there because of these takeaways. It’s there to remind me to look for Magic. The Magic a simple, delightful and differentiated touchpoint can generate. ✨ FWIW, I don’t believe that the person who implemented Fruit Water fully understood its impact. The larger task was to create an inspired vibe that felt decidedly not corporate. Of the many details that went into generating that unique vibe, this simple one punched far above its weight.

What’s easier to sell? A half-eaten banana to a starving man, or a juicy Sirloin Steak to a man who’s just eaten? Sales is not about the product. It’s about the market. And the market is nothing more than the minds of your customers. You’ve got a genius product. But no-one’s buying it. Don’t waste time messing around with the product. Get to work on your prospects minds. My local fish and chip shop sells a large Haddock and Chips for £7.50. My local gastro pub sells: “Beer battered Isle of Wight Haddock with minted pea puree, triple fried chips & tartare sauce”. For £17.50. You’re eating exactly the same thing. But the gastro pub has made you believe their version is exclusive. This isn’t any old chip shop Haddock. We only use Haddock caught specially on the Isle of Wight. And so you pay double. It’s works in B2B too. Regus rent shared workspace and offices. WeWork create an experience where people and companies come together and do their best work. Bottom line? They both rent desks. But we pay a premium to go to WeWork. Because they’ve made you believe that their rented desks are part of something exclusive. Tech founders, this bit’s for you. You’ve created something that will put a dent in the universe. But people aren’t queuing up to buy. And the phones aren’t ringing. Don’t start tinkering with the product. Start tinkering with your prospect’s minds. Don’t build more features. Build great messaging. Or let us to do it for you. DM me and let’s have that conversation.

The VA industry is doing a superb job of acknowledging how much VAs rock. We have members winning and being nominated for awards all the time. Congratulations to all VAs who are nominated or win awards, and thank you to those within the industry running those award programs! We had some new members at Coffee Club yesterday, and members who popped up for the first time in a while. Members shared their experience of actually leaving the house 😂 to go it a coworking space. In The VA Lounge, we run online Coworking Sessions, and attendees find them super productive, but also enjoy the working alongside VA colleagues aspect of it (missing that office banter anyone?). We discussed so much! Amongst other things we talked about packaging services, what being a VA Chief of Staff involves, how marketing does work when you actually do it 😂 One member was lucky enough to win a call (in the December Prize Draw) with the Hayley Hotline (a service available to members (at a discounted rate) and non-members) to discuss her business plans. She went away, put the plan into action, and had 2 prospective client calls straight away! We also talked about Lounge by the Sea, our first in-person one-day event, designed to help you fill that sales pipeline without feeling overwhelmed. Taking place on Thursday 9th May 2024 in Deal, Kent. We have a value-packed agenda and some fantastic guest speakers. Comment if you are a member and would like to take a look at the discounted booking link, or if you are a non-member and would like to go on the waitlist to be told when tickets are released outside The VA Lounge. 💡 TOP TIP 💡 When you have a discovery call with a potential client, use the questions they ask (about how working with you works for example) as part of your social media. When you have already answered those questions the discovery call then becomes about "selling" you rather than your services. This will make it an easier and clearer decision for your prospective clients as to whether they want to work with you (people work with people after all). Wanna try out this awesome community? You can still claim 30 days free membership (until 31st January 2024) and benefit from weekly online Coffee Club shenanigans, monthly (recorded) Skills Sessions, Coffee Club special guests (Lounge Bites), LinkedIn community group (our members are awesome, I may have mentioned that once or twice 😂), access to the Skills Hub (where all the recordings are), monthly Newsletter, and more! To claim your free 30 days just sign up here https://lnkd.in/eXCgwgyd or send us a message. You must sign up for your 30 days before 31st January 2024. #VirtualAssistant #VA #Networking

✳ Here we are! We are Crays! ✳ ✴ Our community will build its independent web3 culture; a global tribe! Hospitality, retail & coworking are crossing paths in more and more ways as the world embraces hybrid work & omnichannel shopping ✴ ➡ First and foremost, the Crays Club serves to build community. Initially, focused rather locally, then in the future, a global tribe.  Employees are community managers, friends, and advisors. ➡ We are not just changing a business model. We create feel-good places which can be best described as a fully automated, cozy hotel lobby or airport lounge. ➡ Our lounges will be the meeting points for a local & global community, in the heart of city centers, high street retail areas. A living room in the city. ➡ Our Crays community platform acts as an innovative, futuristic approach. From local communities to our Crays world. We believe in community & technology. ❇ The Vision ❇   ➡ Work, live & play under “one roof. Pay as you use & digital services in mixed use retail spaces. Working & living becomes a cultural global life with Crays’s properties as the hotspots for entertainment, art, fashion, tech & entrepreneurship. ➡ It's a world where new values take center stage, where work seamlessly intertwines with our personal lives, and where we're always on the move - whether as dedicated commuters, globetrotting digital nomads, or project-hopping enthusiasts. But this isn't just restlessness; it's a quest for the extraordinary. ❇ The Mission ❇   At Crays, we craft memories and breathtaking moments, fueled by our unwavering passion, authenticity, and integrity. We're daring. We dare to be different, to rewrite the rules, and to make a mark that's truly extraordinary. Step into Crays, where communication knows no bounds, where art, culture, and community converge. It's not just the sum of its parts, but a symphony of experiences that transcend the ordinary. Crays is your ticket to a world that seamlessly weaves together accommodation, event spaces, co-working faclities, and gastronomic delights.       Crays is more than a place; it's an electrifying, ever-evolving space that gathers people around extraordinary offerings and forges a unique community. We carve out an oasis where well-being, networking, and creative exchange flourish among like-minded souls, all while championing a sustainable, enriching future for both our environment and society. #retail #branding #crypto  #lifestyle #store #communitystores #life #experiece #futureofwork  #blockchain #web3 #futurism #innovation #strategy #culture #technology #NFT #physicalgoods #socialnetworking #work #inspiration #highstreet #phygital #commerce #lifestyle

For the last 7 years, I have been a student of the emerging coworking movement and today, #internationalcoworkingday '23, I launch a new, more public chapter of my coworking journey -- LOCAL Coworking (www.localcoworking.com). For me, coworking is about the magic of human interaction. In a coworking community, 2 + 2 often makes 5 because of the incredible people that share their lives and passions around the space each day. In 2023, coworking cannot simply be about selling space for laptops... really it never was, the headlines just made it seem that way. Rather, it has to be about a vision for how we connect the business and social fabric of our neighborhoods, cities, and regions. The coworking movement has to be about invitation and participation into authentic community moving forward. And, to that end, LOCAL Coworking will work tirelessly to amplify local, regional, and indy coworking brands around the USA and ensure that neighbors are able to find the community that best fits their goals whether they are a solopreneur, remote work, or leading a team of 15. Thanks to ALL of the friends and clients who have backed my often outlandish vision for building community through coworking and local community engagement over the last 3 years and to Zachery Eanes of Axios for covering the launch of the site (https://lnkd.in/gkV5mMWt).

It’s as much what you sell as it is how you sell it.