335. Dr. Christina Hansen Cohen: Pioneering Coworking Spaces for Mental Health Professionals
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TRANSCRIPTION
335. Dr. Christina Hansen Cohen: Pioneering Coworking Spaces for Mental Health Professionals
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. I am here with Dr. Christina Hansen Cohen. She is a licensed clinical psychologist and founder of Therapy Suites in Edina, Minnesota. And Christina, I am super, super, super excited to get an update."
00:00:56,"We've shared updates over email, but we started working together, I was trying to think, March-ish of 20 20, 22. Two. Yes. And then launched at the end of that year, roughly soft launch, beta launch furniture delivery. Yeah, we, we opened our doors January of 23 and then had our official opening in in the first week of April. April,"
00:01:21,"April 5th of 23. Yeah. So it was like Literally Almost a year. A year. Yeah. From concept to doors opening. It was a whirlwind. What'd you say? It Was a whirlwind. Totally. A whirlwind. Yeah. Your process went pretty smoothly because you were still, you had not signed a lease yet. You're still looking for locations."
00:01:43,"Right. I feel like you got a really good deal. I talk about you to other people about what's possible because you, they paid for your build out most. Most of it. Most Of it, yeah. Yeah. Except for the, the upgrades that you wanted. Yeah, I mean our auto, we paid about 25% of it. Okay."
00:02:06,"Which, well, so let's zoom out. So talk a little bit about your professional background and then your moment of, I would like to make a shared workspace for others like me. How did that happen? Sure. So I began in my own private practice in 2011 and I worked, I had a practice in Florida, which I still have. And I had a psychologist working under me for a very short amount of time and said to him like,"
00:02:36,"look, you can work for me for a year. I'll help you build your practice and then we'll share office space and expenses. So I literally did that until my husband and I decided we were gonna relocate back to Minnesota, which was home for me in many ways. That's where I went to college, grad school. My entire family was, so it was time to go home."
00:02:57,"And so obviously like left that, because I didn't need office space all the time. And I went and rented an executive office suite for when I'm down in Florida. And I wanted something similar for up here because post covid, we all are doing, what I would say is hybrid. We see some patients online and we see some patients in person, but nobody's doing a hundred percent in person and very few practices are doing a hundred percent online."
00:03:26,"Some patients just really like to be seen in person. And so, you know, down there I have an executive office, which is desk in three chairs. It's fine because they do forensic psychology down there, so it can be a more business relationship. But up here I'm doing more therapy and you really just need a couch and chair. It needs to be a comfortable environment."
00:03:48,"And so I kept looking for Coworking spaces or office spaces that offered that that I didn't have to happen, have 24 7 and I just couldn't find it. So then I decided, okay, you've gotta look for all the time office space. But when I looked at what was in my budget, it was like basement office space. It was grungy. It was dingy."
00:04:09,"Like they weren't going to update it in any way. Like I remember one place going in and every wall was a different color, like it looked like a preschool. And I was like, am I allowed to paint the walls? And they were like, no. I was like, I, I can't. And I live, you need to know a little bit about Edina."
00:04:29,"Edina is a very upper crust community. They have a reputation of wanting finer things in life. And so I wanted an office space that matched that mentality and it was just really hard to find that would be in my budget. And so I literally had spent from August of 21 until April of 22 looking for office space. And so what had happened was in March of 22,"
00:04:58,"I had gone to look at an office space that I really liked, but realized if I did that space, I had to build my practice and like hire a bunch of therapists underneath me to pull it off. And I was like, oh, I just didn't want the liability. I didn't want the risk of it, any of that. And so I was really torn."
00:05:16,"And so then I was like, okay, why isn't there a Coworking space for mental health professionals? And I literally was driving home from that office space and I can see myself, I can see the road I was on and everything and I was like, you do it like you've always done things for yourself. Why are you asking somebody else to do this for you?"
00:05:38,"And it like clicked. And I know second, like no minute later had the thought and I called my partner and said, I have this crazy idea I need you to talk me out of. And I literally vomited on him and I said, tell me it's crazy. Tell me to find an office space and get over it. And he's an entrepreneur as well."
00:06:00,"And he's like, it's brilliant. What is it gonna cost us to do that? And I was like, I don't know. I just had the idea like, I don't know what I'm doing. I said, maybe there is something like this. What do I know? And so I got off the phone with him, drove home, I think I picked my kids up,"
00:06:16,"whatever I'm doing my thing. An hour later he calls me with like a whole market study showing that nothing like this exists in Minnesota. He Had the full business plan for you. He did. He had found three people who do it similarly, but not like I do it nationally. And he had found you and he was like, here's your business."
00:06:36,"Or a random friend in Florida who had been, yeah, Startup. He, one of his businesses that he had owned was a repossession company. And this guy turned his repossession office into a Coworking space. And so anyway, like he had it all figured out and he was like, here's who you contact. You want me to call them? And I was like,"
00:06:54,"holy moly. Like that's the thing about him when he sets his mind, it is done, done, done. Now stuff that he doesn't wanna do, we'll talk about later, but it's so true. And so I was like, oh my goodness, okay, we can do this. And so then I did a market analysis. I looked at,"
00:07:08,"you know, how many licensed mental health professionals there were in the metro area, like how viable would it be? All of that. And it just like, everything kept making sense. And I was like, oh my goodness. So I remember I was literally flying to Florida for a consultation call and my Flight got delayed, but you were so gracious to take my call as I was literally getting my rental car."
00:07:36,"And so we're talking as, and I can still like see myself at the budget counter talking to you and you were so gracious to me and we set something up and the rest is history. I know. And you were moving and grooving. I mean, it takes some people years to get these off the ground. I mean, I think you got a little bit lucky you knew what you were looking for."
00:07:54,"You'd already been looking for office space. Yes. So you ended up, you have a beautiful space in a building that was being, was, was it just a, was the whole thing being redeveloped? Yes. Yeah. They had redeveloped the main floor and one floor just for more model than anything. So I got into a great building. The cool thing is one of the,"
00:08:20,"well, two of the building owners and I went to the same college, so we connected over that. And I like to think that connection helped me get into this space. Yeah. And it just like, everything just clicked. Not to say that there weren't roadblocks or difficulties or things like that. You know, anytime you're an entrepreneur and you're starting a new venture,"
00:08:43,"you have lots of paralyzing moments, sleepless nights, moments, you wanna puke moments, you wanna get hired by somebody else and forego it. All of that happened, like, not gonna lie, don't wanna paint this rosy, you know, happy Disney picture. 'cause it was not, so yeah, I mean there was lots and lots of scary moments."
00:09:06,"So talk about some of the things that were important to you for this space, given who you serve. So you, and talk a little bit more in depth about who your ideal member is. Hey there, I am jumping in to share with you a free live training we have coming up on February 15th called Four Ways to Fund a Coworking Space in 2024."
00:09:28,"It's 2024. And you know, there's more demand than ever for your Coworking vision. You wanna create your first Coworking business or you'd like to add a new location. But interest rates are crazy town. SBA loans same. And lenders look at you like you're the abominable snowman when you say you wanna do something in the commercial office sector. So what's a passionate Coworking entrepreneur to do when the going gets tough,"
00:09:54,"the tough, get creative, creative but realistic. Join my totally free masterclass and we'll walk you through four creative ways to fund your Coworking space. In 2024, I funded two Coworking spaces using creative financing and I work with dozens of operators every single month through my Coworking, Startup, School operator mastermind group and coaching programs who are finding creative ways to fund their launches and their growth."
00:10:22,"So come join us, find out what's working and what's possible. Join our free live training on February 15th. If you can't make it live, that's cool. We have a replay. Just register, save your spot. And that's the way you get the replay. But if you can join us live, you can ask all the questions you want and engage in the discussion in the chat to register,"
00:10:43,"open up your podcast player, click the details for the episode, and the link is right there. We hope to see you there. I Knew I wanted a space that was really professional, I think coming out of Covid. Finally, people were valuing mental health, like they do medical health. Yeah, Yeah. And I wanted to keep that momentum."
00:11:04,"Like that was very important to me. I always saw myself as an extension of medicine. I was trained in health psychology, child psychology, forensic psychology, and I really wanted the feel of the space to be on par with that. I always said, it's not grandma's couch. So many times you walk into these therapist's office and you're like, this is sketch."
00:11:25,"Do I even wanna leave my kid here? Do I wanna be here? I didn't want that. I wanted to be, you know, is one of my members said best. It is a medi spa without the waterfall. Yeah. And that's what I want. Love that. Yes, yes. So when people come into our space, it's very professional,"
00:11:45,"it's very clean, it's modern. The design I used is what's called Wabi-Sabi, which is a Japanese concept mixed with bringing nature in and kind of a modern Scandinavian furniture design, which was important because we are the land of Scandinavian in Minnesota. And so anyway, Wabi Sabi kind of has the belief that everything is on a continuum, evolves over time, life and death that things can heal over time and all that."
00:12:18,"So that concept just really spoke to me in the world of mental health. And so we have bits of nature with a modern clean design. Also coming out of Covid, I wanted furniture that was all wipeable, that anything could handle a bleach wipe. So all of our furniture is leather, fake leather, that type of materials so that we can wipe everything woods,"
00:12:44,"all of that. So it's super easy. And so what we created was eight individual offices that members can use to see their clients in person. Each office has a desk with a chair, another chair, a little table and a couch. They are all designed exactly the same so our members don't have to worry about which office they get. So if they schedule a patient last minute,"
00:13:09,"if they're in office four or they're in Office eight, it doesn't matter. On the flip side, you know, with their membership plan, they can book their office space out if they know they always want to be seeing clients. Tuesdays from four to eight, they can always be there. And then we have two telehealth offices that are just a desk with a chair,"
00:13:29,"some art white light so that they can get a good picture. And then we have a play therapy room and a conference room that seats up to 10 people for group therapy meetings, things like that. I actually just onboarded a member today and his main reason for joining was the conference room for groups. So that was great. And then we have the waiting room."
00:13:54,"We have it really completely self-help. So when a client comes in to see a member, there's a tablet, they check in on it all. We, the other thing was trying to find a receptionist app because being HIPAA compliant was important. So we found the receptionist and we have set it up so all we capture are their initials. So we aren't capturing any of their identifying."
00:14:18,"Interesting. Okay. Got it. And then that gets texted to the therapist and then the therapist knows their clients here. It gets really, That's perfect. So yes, it's really nice and user friendly. We also had to adapt, we use office r and D for our platform and we have to make sure all of our members know to at most only put in their patient's initials under the guest line or nothing."
00:14:44,"Okay. So that their patient doesn't show up on the iPads outside the rooms. Yep. Got it. Okay. So those are just some adaptions we had to make. But it's really user friendly because they literally, they have two apps they need to learn. You need to learn office RD for all their booking and billing. And then we use Open Path to get into the building."
00:15:04,"And so it gets 'em into the building, it gets 'em on the elevators, it gets 'em into the suite, and then they can send passes to their clients outside of business hours if they're seeing 'em outside of that. Okay, perfect. Which receptionist app did you go with? The receptionist? Super Easy. Oh, it's called the Receptionist. Okay,"
00:15:25,"perfect. Okay. So yeah, we, we tested a few of them and that one made the most sense. Yeah. And it's really user friendly. And the nice thing is on the receptionist app, we are able to put notifications to our members whether or not they have mail. So We just tell them they have mail and then they get a text on it and when they come in they pick it up and then we take the notification off."
00:15:52,"Okay. It's so easy. Do you include mail service in their membership? We do. Okay. Yep. So is, That's been our biggest difficulty trying to figure out the new USPS laws Mail. Is that not a migraine? It's really a migraine. It's a migraine, but a, it's, wait, is it Adam? Oh, my new assistant Aisha."
00:16:14,"Who, who was before that? Adam. Yeah, Adam. Yeah. Adam would get on her. She, he was in the Community, Manager University. He'd get on the call and be like, okay, let's talk about the mail thing. I have questions. Yes. Which is what we're there for. So, right, Right. Yeah."
00:16:28,"Aisha's just about to go through it. She just started last week. Okay. Well tell her if she's confused, get in the Slack group or send us a note or whatever. We have some good training on it, but, and we have a full FAQ doc. We have all the things, but yes. Well, I don't Think it's so much as us having the information."
00:16:44,"I think it's just how uninformed our postal services here. Okay. That problem, that's Our dilemma. You Can't really help with that. But we appreciate it. Yeah. We need more moral support than anything because you know, all of our conversations and bringing forms in and things like that, they look at us like we have three heads. And they're like,"
00:17:05,"right. You're like, this is your form, it's your form, how do you do? And I'm like, yeah, we do. It's federal law. I know. Totally. Okay, so your lovely members, some of them are on your website, we'll link to your site in the show note, show notes. So is there any who,"
00:17:24,"who did you, is who you expected would use the space, who you got? Or were, are there some differences in terms of who you thought would be your customer? Yeah, so some similarities and some differences. I think, and maybe this was kind of my self-absorbed interest. I was expecting more like middle-aged mothers like myself who were trying to juggle,"
00:17:49,"keeping, you know, a job and their career and balancing and Picking the kids up and driving them to soccer and Yeah. Things. Yeah. And being, you know, an executive of their home and things like that. Yeah. So that's what I kind of envisioned. And I think that was our pretty continual conversation. But a, the majority of our members are honestly mental health professionals that are leaving an agency or a clinic and going out and starting their own practice."
00:18:14,"And that has been super fun. That has been so fun because there are all these new to private practice. And what I love is they pop in my office all the time with like just simple questions or business ideas and all of that. And the entrepreneur in me is just like getting filled up. Like it is exciting. I'm so thrilled to watch them lots."
00:18:39,"I watch them grow. Like I get genuinely excited. Like literally before I got on this, one of my members just got another accreditation. She had to pass a test and like I know she literally walked out of there and maybe next to her partner I was next when she texted, she's like, pass my exam. And I got it. And I was like,"
00:18:59,"like so excited for her. And so that has been really, really, really cool. We also have psychiatric nurse practitioners and that has been really fun. Like super cool people. One of our members, Carl started a really, really, really cool practice that's all about psychiatric care, but it's a membership program where people pay a monthly fee and then they have so many visits a month and,"
00:19:29,"and then he's now got a service too with a pharmacy that will deliver their meds straight to them. And so I just like, his business concept is so cool. Yeah. So, but your other members get to learn from that too. Yeah. Yeah. So it's been really neat. Like I love these creative ideas, you know, especially since Therapy Suites is one of them."
00:19:50,"And then, you know, we have such a variety of clinicians from doctoral level, like I said, psychiatric nurse practitioners. We have psychiatrists coming in May in March, and then we have master's level therapists and everybody kind of has their own niche to their practice. And it's been really cool to watch them like get to know each other and build their practices and consult."
00:20:18,"And truly it's a space where we practice what we preach. And it's been really neat to see that. 'cause so many times, like here's kind of the dirty secret about mental health therapists are nasty to one another. Oh, they're so cutthroat and mean Like competitive. Yes. Huh. And if you leave a group practice, like they just throw you apart."
00:20:39,"It is so against everything we teach, You need a therapy, you need a therapist if you need, if you leave your, And I think to myself like, are you kidding me? And so the cool thing here is, you know, we have modeled and we have created an environment where legitimately we support each other. We encourage each other. If something comes up that's an ethical question."
00:21:04,"Like every door is open to talk to you about it, not to intimidate you. Like let's work through it, let's talk through it. Let's figure this out. So it is a safe space. Yeah. Like the same way we've created a safe space for clients, we've created a safe space for our members and that is exactly what I dreamed of."
00:21:23,"Like it's happening. And I love it. I love it. It, I, it's incredible. I can't imagine it's gotta be a, just like a tremendous resource for, for practitioners who are learning to take clients on their own and how do they bill and how do they schedule and how, and you know, all of that. And you can tell them all the things."
00:21:43,"And you, that was your, you were your free download on your website was, was, was, yeah. We did all the things. You got your download app. Yeah. That, that's been really Cool. And so then another thing that we've done for our members is in the newsletter, there's a link to my calendar and I welcome them to schedule consultations with me to just build their practice and it's kind of my freebie to them."
00:22:08,"Yeah. And it's, you know, I was a little nervous, like, would anybody like overuse it or anything like that? Totally respectful of my time. And it's been a really great way to like get to know our members and like create that connection with them so they feel not only connected to the space, but they feel connected to me. And you know,"
00:22:27,"down to the point that my assistant left in December and I, before my new assistant started, I had to go to Florida for three days for work. And I had two members that like I really, really trusted. And so, I mean, I trust all my members, don't get me wrong. But these two, I said, Hey, you know,"
00:22:48,"they were on the edge of like a five hour to a 10 hour plan. So I said to them, Hey, if you want use my space for this week. If you wouldn't mind covering the space to the day, use my office. No charge. Nothing. If you wouldn't mind just making sure the place is cleaned up, you know, snacks are filled."
00:23:04,"Yeah. All of that. And they both loved it. So. Okay. You hired Adam to be an assistant. Was he kind of the physical presence in the space? How do you handle, like are you staffed for guests and what does that look like from a, like if you Yeah, yeah. What, what's your sort of commitment we both to your members?"
00:23:26,"We both were Adam's hours were nine to two Monday through Friday. Okay. And he would be physically in the space. He was physically at the reception desk at the front desk. Okay. So when members guests came in, he would offer them something to drink, something like that. He would greet members. He also did all the onboarding with new members."
00:23:45,"Yeah. So he would get 'em all set up on the apps and everything set up from that platform. I did primarily the tours because I have control issues and wanted to make the connection with the therapist. If I wasn't available and somebody wanted tour, then I, he could do it. And he did great with it. It was my control issues and I just like really genuinely wanted to meet the people."
00:24:08,"Yeah. And in the beginning I was concerned 'cause I wanted to make sure people were the right fit and you know, we have very much an honor system in this space and I wanted to make sure that they were the personality for that. But then I just realized that kind of the way our structure is, it weeded a lot of that out. And mental health therapists are insanely honest people."
00:24:30,"So that helps. So are Minnesotans. So the combination, it just really wasn't a big deal. Hey there, I'm jumping in again this time. I am speaking to those of you that have, 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 Coworking space operators to create their own training and development material to support their community managers."
00:25:04,"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. 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."
00:25:35,"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. 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."
00:25:59,"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."
00:26:19,"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."
00:26:46,"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."
00:27:15,"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."
00:27:44,"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,"
00:28:13,"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,"
00:28:41,"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. But yeah, so he did that. He also did a lot of our tech."
00:29:04,"Yeah. Like as I probably said in the beginning, tech is not my strength and he got it. The joy of being a 20 something year old male and not stereotype, but really he did. And so like he did a lot of our setting up office r and d because the way it was set up, but Adam like figured it out and did a lot of like pushing them to fix things and stuff like that."
00:29:27,"He did so much advocacy for us. He did the Everything Coworking course, which really helped. He learned so much from that. So the combination of that, he really did work out so many of the glitches that come in the first year of things that you just don't expect until you're in the moment. Yeah. And he really did that. And You have kind of a unique use case."
00:29:47,"I mean you're making, we do work. It's not a hundred percent typical that a, so that a Coworking software would, would manage. Right. Yeah. I mean we don't have general desks. Yeah. We don't have open spaces. It's all private offices. Yeah. So you're real quick, your membership. So you have two, is it 2000 feet?"
00:30:04,"How many square feet total? No, we have 30, 3500, 3200. Okay, got it. 3,200. And you went through kind of what the space looks like. So nobody has a permanent space. They're buying buckets of hours. Correct. Okay. And you're, that's worked well. Have you made any changes? Yes. To kind of how the plans are set up?"
00:30:29,"We did add one more plan to 80 hours a month. Okay. So more a bigger bucket. Yeah. Yeah. The majority of our members are in the five hour bucket. And then what's interesting, five Hours a week or five hours a month. A month. Wow. Okay. And what they tend to do, what, what we've seen is the pattern is they buy in at the five hours a month and then as their practices grow,"
00:30:56,"they build up and they really like that security because their initial investment is low when they're launching. Which goes hand in hand of what I said, like keep your overhead as low as you can. And that's what they've done. And then as their practices grow, they increase hours. So, and we have our plan set up that it's a six month contract and they,"
00:31:18,"within that six months they can upgrade their plan. Then they start another six month contract, but they can't back down and plan while they're in the six month contract. Okay. Yeah. So it gives you a little bit of reliability but it still really flexible for them. Yeah. And they can grow as their business grows, which is amazing. Yes."
00:31:37,"Yeah. Okay. So buckets of hours. So they reserve as they need to. Does and does Office RD track their hours or do they, is that an on the honor system? Yeah. No, they track it because they book their hours through them and then if they go over their hours and they get billed an hourly fee. Yeah. Like a,"
00:31:55,"it's like a Got it. Okay. So do you feel like, does your model require staffing? Because you mentioned you've got the receptionist staff. Like is it that you like to have someone there? What's, I think it's nice to have somebody to greet you. You know, like I said, we're kind of a many spa without the waterfall. So Yeah."
00:32:14,"When you walk into a spa field, somebody offers you something to drink, they have you sit down, your person comes out and greets you. So that's why I like it. And I think our members really like that to have their person, you know, be told, Hey, just check in here. What would you like to drink? That kind of thing."
00:32:32,"It just makes it a comfortable atmosphere. It's a, yeah. Higher end experience. And I noticed, 'cause we were talking about this before the call on your site, most of your clinicians are pri private pay. Correct. Not insurance. So anybody who comes in is paying out of pocket, not, you know, the Yes. The lower insurance rate."
00:32:51,"And so I was telling you, I'm having that experience. We have a family member that we're doing that for and we have to private pay and the office is not nice. And they're, you know, definitely not staffed. So I, I kind of love that experiential piece of it. Yeah. And you know, most single practitioners don't have receptionists 'cause it's not affordable."
00:33:15,"No. Right. Totally out of reach. So, yeah. And so this kind of gives you that Yeah. Upper edge compared to your Colleagues. Right. It's a great experience for their clients, your members. And to your point, I mean, they can have it's little as five hours a month, but still get all of these benefits of looking really professional in a beautiful building,"
00:33:36,"in a beautiful space. I mean, And I'll tell you like my greatest marketing is their patients. Because consistently what I hear as they're walking through the hallway with their therapist is this space is gorgeous. Yeah. This incredible Right. Of this space. I love seeing you here. And I'm like, yay. Thank You. Okay. So how are your members finding you?"
00:34:02,"Google and social media and word of mouth. Okay. One of the things we do do is for our current members, if somebody signs on that they referred, we give them a hundred dollars off for a month. So it's kind of a referral. They're paying for their own membership. So they, they like that, they value that. Yep. They really do."
00:34:25,"And it works out super well. So it's helped. So I am now on the board of Minnesota Psychological Association chair of their private practice division. So that's helped. And like last year we sponsored their annual conference and this year we'll do the same. And the coolest thing was like literally the week before that conference, it went out into the private practice division emails where somebody was like,"
00:34:59,"Hey, people starting out, you should check out Therapy Suites. I didn't even know this person. Know that it was, yeah. And so it just became wildfires to them when we showed up there. Like, everybody's like, oh, I heard about you in private practice division. Oh, I heard about you. And so that's kind of taken off."
00:35:15,"Wait, is that a listserv? Is that like a listserv? I remember when we were going through your marketing plan, you're like, okay, there's, And then I also, you know, I follow a lot of the social media groups for private practice and mental health practitioners and things like that. So when people are looking for office space, I post about It."
00:35:34,"Yeah. Okay. And so that's been a great way. And then the Google ads. So you're running ads? Yep, we are running ads. Yeah. 'cause I remember at the beginning we were like, well, other spaces like this run ads. Let's see. So Yeah, that's been our biggest expense. Yeah. And it's been really expensive."
00:35:52,"Yeah. But I think it's helped to fill our space. My goal is, you know, when we get full that we'll down, how dial it Down. Yeah. How much we're doing. Yeah. But for right now, we need it. Yep. And is Ruben running those for you? Yes. Yeah. Ruben Is okay. And he's amazing."
00:36:08,"He is amazing. I know. So smart. We love you Ruben. Yes. He's so smart. I can't get over it. I mean, I think He, he think we're smart. I love talking to Reuben because he and he is so chill, isn't he? So like Yeah, he's so, it's such a, like a calming. He does,"
00:36:23,"he's he's smart And calm and Good chill energy. Yep. Yeah. Good, good. Yeah. I, I knew he wouldn't steer you wrong if it wasn't gonna work. Yeah. You'll be able to dial that back. Okay. And the beauty of your model is that it is pretty scalable. I remember when we were looking at your numbers we're like,"
00:36:39,"I mean, you could, because of the bucket of hours. Yeah. You could have a lot of members with a lot of utilization. And the fact that your clients would see patients, do they see them on the weekend too? They have access to the space. They do. We created a spreadsheet that allows us to track our plan and how many hours are available."
00:37:02,"Yep. And I only, I only did it for like nine to six, Monday through Friday. Knowing full well that therapists are seeing people in the evenings, weekends, stuff like that. Yeah. And then I subtracted 40 hours a month from that. So that there was also flexibility because I never wanted our members to feel like pigeonholed. Like, this is the only space I can get,"
00:37:22,"or this is the only time I can get. Because I think that's one of the things that sets the suites apart from other office spaces is they aren't stuck only like Mondays from one to six or something like that. If they're sharing space, like they can be in here whenever they want. Yeah. It's open 24 7 to them. Not that they're seeing clients at 2:00 AM unless maybe they're seeing somebody in another country."
00:37:43,"But that way they have the flexibility to go with their schedule. And I think that's what Coworking is all about, is that flexibility. Yep. No, a hundred percent. I love this model so much. I think it's such a clear need in the marketplace. And I mean just even sort of the stories that you've shared about your members and you know,"
00:38:03,"how they're growing their businesses and connecting with each other. It's a unique, not every, you know, not every operator wants to have a niche space, but I think there's a lot of value in that too. Where again, your members are so different, but they have some commonalities around their business models, which may it, you know, really fun for you to kind of tie those together."
00:38:25,"Do you do member events? We do. We do quarterly happy hours. We only do it quarterly because we don't really want to be a strain on our members. Yeah. But we want our members to have a social event. So it's like usually Thursday, five to seven, something like that. Super easy. Our first floor is kind of like a Coworking space,"
00:38:47,"which is really cool In the building. It has. Yep. Yeah, it has Booth, It has like this long table with chairs has this great fireplace outside. We have a fire pit and a bar. It's just, it's a really great space. And so we host it down there in the evening and we can rent that out for free. And so I'll just bring in food from somewhere light."
00:39:09,"I'll have like either wine or a signature cocktail or something. And then non-alcoholic drinks. And we literally just hang out and chat. This year I sent out a survey to the members just to see if anybody wanted like a holiday party. And everybody was like, no thanks. And I was like, great, me neither got Enough going on. Yeah."
00:39:27,"Right. And I felt the same, but like wanted to honor our members. Yeah. But I love that you asked and you're like, no, Paula. Yeah. And then we asked them like, Hey, if we get together like January, February, would you wanna do like some type of service thing or just hang out? And the majority voted a service thing."
00:39:43,"So we actually have our next happy hour in February and the end of this month. And we are doing a service project where there is an organization called Claire Housing, which is permanent housing for people who are HIV positive. And they have like single family homes for people who need more services to apartments for people who live more independently. And they create a welcome basket,"
00:40:07,"which is essentially a laundry basket or bigger filled with like all the things that they kind of need for starting an apartment. And so we're gonna put together one of those. So we just put together an Amazon wishlist to send out to members and members can purchase what they want. It all gets delivered here. And then that night we'll put the baskets together,"
00:40:26,"have some cocktails, have some food, and just hang out. I love that. Yeah. So it's really fun. Okay. So you've made it through year one, almost. Holy cow. What's, what's untapped for year two? Wow. Becoming profitable. There's that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean the joy of having people at smaller plans means that it's smaller income."
00:40:55,"Yeah. But we're heading there. We're heading there. A big shock was that the taxes on this building doubled, which ultimately affected us. And my rent went up a good amount. And that was a little, The building got reassessed after? No, No. There was some taxes that got approved. Okay. New. And so probably slight reassessment,"
00:41:20,"but then Okay. A big jump in an educational tax, which, you know, I support, but Ouch. In theory you support. Ouch. Yes. Ouch. Yeah. Yeah. So that was really hard when that bill came last month, you know, had the money for it, whatever. But when you start to see yourself inch closer to green and then take that step back,"
00:41:46,"it was like, oh. Oh, okay. So definitely getting profitable. We're heading in a great direction. Like I said, we've got 28 members. I have two tours coming up. Two more people starting in March. Maybe three more, two more that I know about off the top of my head, but it might be three more. Maybe I'm wrong."
00:42:06,"So yeah, I mean we're heading in that direction, but that's my biggest goal. And then I think we are looking into adding continuing education classes for our members. Because our goal is that literally they can just be a one-stop shop to get all their courses that they need for their licensing renewals. So that's our other goal for 2024. And then, you know,"
00:42:31,"big goal. 'cause I always have like a realistic goal and then a big goal. And my big goal is that by the end of 2025, I'll be paid off for what I loaned therapy suites. And then, you know, as soon as we're paid off, we're already vying where an X location will be. So Yeah. Yeah. The model repeatable and I,"
00:42:52,"what We're kind of trying to figure out is, do we do like two flagship offices? Like one here in Edina, which is just west of Minneapolis, kind of a Minneapolis office, and then one in St. Paul and then throughout the suburbs do like smaller satellite offices? Or do we do flagship offices everywhere? I definitely think like this office, this office is perfect for Edina."
00:43:17,"I don't know that I will do one this big at the next location. I think I can do smaller, which I learned through this process. I think I will make the offices slightly bigger. Oh, bigger, interesting. Smaller. Yeah. But I mean that's part of the learning, right? It isn't anything that's deterred people from membership. Yeah."
00:43:40,"That's what I would say. Yeah. But I think, you know, lessons learned, what would I do next time? Yeah, Yeah. And being really thoughtful about how a different market might be slightly different. Right. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And so I think I'm gonna look for a space that's like on par with Caliber. You know,"
00:43:58,"one of the things we have in this building is a gym. We have e-bikes that our members can use. And a lot of our members use the gym Like, oh wow. Interesting. Huh. And it's, it's great because our gym actually has towel service shower. Yeah. Okay. So it's like really all inclusive. So they can come in Yeah."
00:44:17,"Do their appointments and then all the machines gym on the way out. Yeah. Bluetooth To their apps. Nice. I remember this was kind of a bougie building and I was like, yeah, you were like, no, I have to be here. You can hang out with Ali Love on Peloton, on our treadmills, so, or Maddie, whoever you prefer."
00:44:39,"So yeah, it's been really cool. Well, congrats. Thanks. You're on your way. It is, it is. We're we're heading there. You know, when I look at a year ago to now, I definitely am breathing now where then I had to sometimes hit my face and go breathe. 'cause it was scary, you know, signing that huge lease saying I,"
00:45:00,"Yeah. Starting a physical location is very scary and stressful and That my building owner believed in me. Right. This was a totally new Yeah. Concept, new idea. And for him to trust me in this space and to spend that kind of a money on a build out Yeah. Is something that, yeah. Hadn't existed before, was huge. Which is actually a really,"
00:45:20,"you know, big point. Which is, I mentioned this at the, at the beginning of our conversation, you mentioned sort of you're getting close to profitability and paying off your loan. You did, you know, you paid for furniture, nice furniture, and you paid for some of the build out. But not paying for the full build out is such an advantage because you have a really nice space."
00:45:41,"So that dollar per square foot would've been high times 3,500 square feet. So you are not paying that back. It's not yours, it's the landlord's space. You didn't buy it, it's theirs. And they funded most of it, which will pay off in the long run. So yeah, keep That next. And I don't know that I would've been able to afford to build Yeah."
00:45:59,"Such new space if I had not had that. Yeah. So huge win. Huge win. Yeah. In the long term. And he was thrilled because I kept our office suite on par with the rest of the building. But Yeah, So I kept the professional flow. Yeah. Wonderful. Okay. I can't wait to check in with you again in a year."
00:46:19,"Yeah. Come see us in 2025 when we're launching the next one and I'm having to consult you again. Perfect. Thank you. Thanks. 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."
00:46:43,"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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