389. From Side Service to Scalable Revenue: How Christine Tosi Built Spoke’s Mail Business
Resources Mentioned in this Episode:
Everything Coworking Featured Resources:
Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space
TRANSCRIPTION
389. From Side Service to Scalable Revenue: How Christine Tosi Built Spoke’s Mail Business
00:00:00,"Welcome to the Everything Co Working podcast where every week I keep you updated on the latest trends and how to's 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 thought provoking operator 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."
00:00:41,"Welcome to the Everything Co Working podcast. This is your host Jamie Russo. Thank you for joining us. Today's guest is Christine Tosi, Co founder with her husband David of Spoke Coworking in Tucson, Arizona. Christine has participated in a number of our programs including our Operator Membership and our Management Agreement course. But I asked her on today because she was in our last cohort of the Mailbox Moneymaker Challenge and had some awesome wins which she shares with us today."
00:01:14,"And she also just had shared that one of the reasons she joined was because increasing her mail revenue, putting some focus on their virtual mail services was on her list and and she just needed the accountability and knowing that somebody was there to get her unstuck and it really worked for her. And she shared that one of the big wins they had was updating their pricing and their landing page on their website."
00:01:40,"They had something up but it wasn't optimized. And that's one of the big things we do in the class is that oftentimes we have our own website and we spent some time on it and then we walked away from it and we haven't spent much time optimizing it or revisiting it. Maybe you put up a virtual mail page when you first opened and then you just sort of left it and you haven't gone back and created optimized pricing or optimize your landing page for conversion."
00:02:08,"So that's one of the things we do in the program. And Christine Spoil Alert created some really compelling packages which you can see on our website. We'll put the link in the show notes she has four packages. The top one is super premium, the second from the top one, spoiler alert is priced at $195 a month and she is only they're not doing any focused marketing, just taking organic leads to the page."
00:02:36,"But they have several members at this level and $195 a month is what a lot of you are charging for full time coworking and these folks not that she doesn't want to see them, but she does not see much of them. But they get an awesome bundle of benefits that you probably can offer as well, so worth checking out. She also shared that she had some huge wins with referral partners."
00:03:00,"She from one Referral partner got 50 new mail clients in a few months. So also another huge win, not guaranteed for every participant, but you never know until you try. And we just demystified the whole process and we're with you to help you operationalize, set up your SOPs, review your landing pages. Actually, for this cohort, we're building landing pages if Christine's website has to happens to be custom built by her very tech savvy husband, David."
00:03:30,"But if you're in WordPress, Squarespace or Wix, then we can build out our recommended landing page format for you. So registration closes this Friday, June 13th. If you've been on the fence, listen to this episode with Christine and make the investment. You got to join by Friday though. We kick off on Monday with our kickoff call and we promise not to take up your summer Fridays. But it's the perfect time to put some focus against this program and start building, because you can't build those leads until you optimize your offering and put some focus against it and then you can see some real wins."
00:04:09,"So a huge thank you to Christine for sharing her story. Aside from her mailbox stories, she and her husband David own their building and they're about to open a second location on a management agreement. So just tons of nuggets that Christine shares with us. You're going to love this episode. So without further ado, here is Christine. Welcome. I am here with Christine Tosi, co owner at Spoking in Tucson, Arizona."
00:04:38,"Christine, are you Tucson born and raised? No, no. Wisconsin actually. Wisconsin. Yeah. So much cheese head. Totally. And now your summers are hot, hot, hot. Okay. How did you end up in Tucson? Oh my gosh. That's a very long story. Basically, my husband and I, after high school, we moved to Morocco for a while. We love the desert. Okay, that's a twist I didn't expect. I know. Wait, is David your high school sweetheart?"
00:05:11,"Yes. Oh, my gosh. Wow. Yeah. Wait, so how long, how many years have you been together? Now that would give away my age. It would be okay. You don't have to answer that question. But you're in business together now, so you must still like each other. So that's positive. And your daughter has a desk behind you. Yes. So it's really family. Okay, so Morocco, you love the desert."
00:05:33,"You were both used to winter. We didn't want to shovel snow anymore, you know, so we went southwest as far as we could until we found somewhere that we liked. We tried out Phoenix. It was just a little too big for us, and so we ended up here in Tucson. Okay, very cool. And. And you ran a business for many, many years, which is how you came to own the building that Spoke is in."
00:05:57,"Yeah, that. Right. Okay. And did you run the business together? We did. We actually bought the business. It was appointment reminder software, and we built that for 16 years, and we actually sold it just a couple of years ago. So we're all in on coworking. Yeah. Okay, so you had the building, you had this business. Tell us the. The birth of Spoke. So. Well, we had the other business and we needed a space, and it's."
00:06:28,"It was built out of COVID I mean, I feel like a lot of coworking businesses kind of have the same story, right? Where we had another business, we needed a space for it, and so they just. We couldn't find exactly what we needed, and we still kind of didn't at that point. It was more like we found this awesome building for our space and our business, but we did not have enough people to fill it."
00:06:52,"And so we're like, okay, what do we do next? Next logical thing. Start our own business. Right. Start another business to fill the space. Yeah. And did you know you were going to buy the building? Was that the original plan? No, I mean, we were first looking for somewhere to lease, and then we were looking for somewhere to buy. It was all. We were all over the map."
00:07:11,"I mean. Yeah. And then we just. I fell in love with it. It was kind of funny because we were looking at like the MLS sheet or whatever, and I was like, I really like this one. I think we should look at it. I think we should look at it. And my husband was like, no, it's out of our price range. It's out of a price range. A couple months later, he was like, you know, I think we should go look at that building."
00:07:32,"You're probably used to this. You have an idea. He catches up, you know, down the road. Yeah, no, I mean, it's. It was awesome. I mean, once we saw it, it was basically built to our specs already. So we just needed to kind of give it some finishing touches and it was ready to roll. Okay. But then you had to invent this coworking business. So did you."
00:07:53,"Were you aware of coworking or how did you know, like, this was an option to fill? Yeah. We were aware of it because we had looked around here in Tucson and everything was downtown. Nothing was kind of on the outskirts at that point. And we lived pretty far out, so. Because you like the quiet. Yeah. Okay, so you're aware of it and you're like, okay, well, we're gonna do it in this location."
00:08:17,"So you spun. So what year did you open? 21. Yep. It was late in 21. Yep. Okay, so. And you're already onto the second location. We are. Which was kind of a bit of a shock for us. Approach to us. Okay. Yeah, yeah. And he was like, so are you guys thinking of expanding? And we kind of were like, well, no. Right. But if you're like thinking about downshifting, you're like, we sold the business."
00:08:51,"We only have one business left. Let's like hang tight. We own the building. Yeah. And I mean, he just said, you know, well, we basically told him, you know, if. If something came along that fit our needs and, and was a good fit for us and, and just, you know, if the deal was right essentially, then, then we would make it happen. And the broker actually was from Picor and Picor is the building owner and manager and everything of the space that we're moving into as well."
00:09:24,"So, you know, he kind of had an in. And so we kind of had an in. In. They were like, yeah, you know, we'd love to have you. They came and saw our space here. They were like, we love what you've done with the place. Can you come do it over at our space? And it's like, okay, sure. Let's. Let's give it a shot. So that's kind of where things are at right now."
00:09:42,"And it's super exciting. They just started construction like last week, so the demo and everything, y. And it's, you know, it's going to be much bigger and it's just, it's really exciting and fun. So. Yeah, yeah. This. I. Because I looked at your, you know, the, the deal and I feel like this went magically easily and quickly. I think so too. Yeah, I, I mean there are operators listening who are like, I would love to do a management agreement and it's really complicated."
00:10:16,"And usually an owner, because I do this for owners run an RFP process. Like then you're competing and these guys were just like, nope, we like what you're doing. Come on in. And they're doing the turnkey, they're doing all the build out updates for you. Right. You're not. No capital from you. Yeah. Basically everything is just it's just swimming along, I should say. Yeah. So, okay, how many square feet is the first location?"
00:10:46,"Do you still have the original company? You sold the company? Are they still a tenant or is it all as. They're actually virtual mail now? They've done, yeah. As of like last month, so. Okay. Yeah, funny. They're maintaining the address. Okay, so the whole. Is the whole building coworking now, the original space? Yeah, the whole building is coworking now. It only took like a year for us to ramp up and then we were full and have had a wait list ever since."
00:11:19,"So things are great in that regard. And that's kind of the other impetus to, you know, open the second location. We're like, well, we already have a waiting list. We might as well move this people over. It's not that far away. Yeah, but, yeah, so everything is. And it's like 9,000 square feet here. And the new space is going to be around just over 13,000 square feet. Okay, perfect."
00:11:40,"Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, how are. So you own the building in the first location, which comes with all sorts of duties and requirements. Are you looking forward to not owning the building in second location? Like, how do you feel about that? Yeah, we actually are. There's. There's a lot that comes with owning a building, and I'm glad it's the size that it is. I don't think I would want anything bigger."
00:12:07,"Yep. I also don't think I would want anything smaller. Dealing with things like insurance and things breaking, everything from electricity and plumbing and the homeless people and the trash that they leave behind. And, you know, those are kind of like the negatives of owning the building. Of course, there's a bunch of advantages. You know, we're like growing equity and nobody can kick us out. Yeah, yeah. Nobody can raise your rent."
00:12:34,"Yeah. Right. You control the whole experience. You control the door access. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But we're excited to not have to worry about, like, janitorial and, you know, person in suite A wants the air conditioning set to whatever, whereas the person across, you know, right next door doesn't. We have nine units here, and I don't even know how many they're going to have in the other space."
00:13:00,"But I don't AC units that I enjoy. You have nine AC units? Yeah. Wow. For 9,000 square feet. Yeah. Because it's Tucson. Yeah. Yeah. That's crazy. Okay. Yeah. And it's summer right now. I don't want to see your electric bill. Okay. So just because people listening always like to know, so you're using Nexus. I know this because David posted in the Facebook group. What do you use for your door access?"
00:13:31,"Are you making any tech stack changes as you move to the new location or sticking with. We use ubiquiti for pretty much everything and I, I don't really understand the ins and outs of it. We also have like, David's the IT guy. Right. That's his specialty. Definitely. He's trying to automate everything and just use AI for absolutely everything. And it's really cool to some. I'll have to have David on the podcast separately warn him that I'll be pursuing him."
00:14:00,"Yeah, there you go. Too funny. Okay, so you're. So you're generally happy with what you're using and you're going to kind of duplicate your tech stack when you move? Yeah, Exodus has been working really well and we're firing up the second location with them. Other than that, we just kind of use, you know, like all of the Google things and yeah, everything else that's simple, you know, like zero and I don't know, gusto and whatever else."
00:14:25,"You know, I know zero business stuff. My bookkeeper was just selling me yesterday. She's like, I think you need to move to zero because QuickBooks is raising their prices and I don't have any, you know, I don't need any advanced functionality. So. Right. That's on my list. There's always that stuff on the to do list. Was I going to say and you. I had a tech stack question that I was going to ask, but now I can't remember what it was."
00:14:52,"That's okay. I probably don't know the answer. I know. Perfect. Yes. All the Google things will come back. If I think of it, the. Okay, we talked about you owning the building. Okay. Tell us what your team looks like and how. What will that look like as you expand into a new location? I know your daughter's now on the team. Yeah. You said your son helped with some Canva projects."
00:15:16,"Yeah, yeah, we've. Our daughter has been on the team pretty much since the get go. She likes to say that she's the one that designed and decorated the entire place. She definitely helped pick the color scheme. She would design eye furniture and everything, huh? Absolutely. Okay. Yeah, yeah. So she's been part time. She's also in college full time. And then our son helps out a little bit with Canva from time to time and social media, so he enjoys that."
00:15:43,"And then we hired somebody pretty much right from the get go as one full time community manager to be kind of upfront and run things day to day. That still allowed us to continue. We travel a lot. Good. I love to hear that. Okay. Yeah. So that allowed us to continue that, which was wonderful. And then for the new location, we're figuring we'll have to have at least one full time and another part time in the other location as well."
00:16:10,"So one full time, one part time in both locations we think will be perfect, but we kind of have yet to see. Yeah, that sounds about right. Yeah. And I. They'll be happy, I bet, to have a team and then you have like a little bit of backup when you're out of town. Yeah. And they can transfer from location to location as needed. Yeah. So close. Yeah. What's your most recent trip?"
00:16:32,"Oh, most recent. I can't remember this past weekend. We just started planning for the summer, which is going to be eastern Europe, so Poland, Czechia, Hungary and. Yeah, very cool. All over there. Yeah. Very nice. Because one likes to leave Tucson in the summer. Yeah. Yes. How do you handle. Because I'm guessing business is a little cyclical because lots of people leave Tucson in the summer. Do you."
00:17:00,"How do you hand handle people who are like. I want to pause. Is that a problem? Do people request that? We get requests from time to time. Most we've just had requests from people that have had more health issues where, you know, they can't come in because of some health issue or something. And so we're totally open to that and we'll cause their membership. We haven't had too many issues."
00:17:21,"Knock on wood. It definitely is cyclical. Summer is our down time. But this year seems to be doing really well, so. Doing well in that you're getting new. You're mostly full in the original. Yeah. And we're continuing to get leads, which I kind of didn't anticipate for the summer. That's kind of usually a slow pipeline. Yeah. Yeah. Got it. Tell me about your product mix in the first location and did you make any changes except more of everything in the second location product mix offices."
00:17:54,"Oh, yeah. Versus, you know, flex space, versus meeting rooms. We're really focused on suites and private areas. Okay. I like to think that we're kind of introverts and we probably attract introverts, but yeah. So we're really focused on those private areas or semi private areas. Even our dedicated desks have like, they're called pony walls. So they're like, you know, four foot high walls around them. Okay. Yeah. Although I feel like how many dedicated desks do you have in the first dedicated desks in this space we have 10."
00:18:30,"Okay. And then hot desks, we only have five. And that's kind of the open area. Interesting. Yeah. Do your dedicated desks sell well? Are they full or do you. They do. They're usually. That's usually the number one wait list besides the mini suites. So the smaller rooms with wait list for your dedicated desk. Okay. There are people listening who are like, tell. Why do you think that is?"
00:18:51,"Because dedicated desks are one of those products. Yeah, sure. You hear this on our calls. Like, some people do really well with them and some people are like, I can't sell one for the life of me. Any insight as to. I think it's that we have the. The pony walls. The walls. A little bit of privacy, I think, goes a long way. Yeah. People feel like they can take a phone call."
00:19:14,"People feel like, you know, they can have their own space and their own stuff and we'll have, you know, filing cabinets that are lockable and those sorts of things too, so they can decorate their space and. Yeah, so. Yeah. Interesting. And. And they. You feel like they can take phone calls too. Like it's kind of set up, so. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. It's really interesting. I'm just looking at photos on your."
00:19:37,"Oh, here's one on your. Oh, oh, yeah, that's a. That's great. What brand are those? Do you know what brand those are by any chance? Which ones are you looking at? I don't even know where you are. I'm looking. Well, I can only see part of it, but I can see to your point. It provides a lot of visual privacy, like the down. If. If you're looking at."
00:19:57,"Yeah, I think probably the downtown something or other from you line. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. Okay, got it. And cafe area. I just like to look around to see. And how's your meeting room revenue? Are you doing any more or less meeting room space in the new location? We're doing more, actually. One of the things that we're doing is working with the landlord, and the landlord is they're offering us their giant meeting room that we're going to be managing for the building."
00:20:30,"For the building. Yeah, yeah. So we have that as well as three other meeting rooms in our. In our space in our private area. And then we also have access to like their gym and covered parking, which is huge. Totally. Yeah. Yeah. So the. Okay, so there's a gym in the building. Yep. That's awesome. So tell me about your meeting room demand and what you're doing a little bit more of in the new location."
00:21:00,"I think this is one of those things. I went to the gwa, had a, like a one day event last week in San Francisco. And anytime Liquid Space presents, they're like, last week it was. There's been a 600% increase in like on demand demand. So meeting rooms, basically. Meeting rooms. But you know, so many operators don't have the opportunity to expand. They can change an office into a meeting room or a meeting room into an office."
00:21:26,"Right. But you get this opportunity to kind of, you know, just reset a little bit based on what you're seeing. So. Yeah. Yeah. Are you doing larger meeting rooms or tweaking anything? It's, it's kind of all across the map. So. Yeah, in addition to the, the build, the building manager offering us the, the one big meeting room. Yeah. They're actually, they've also like allowed us to expand into like other floors."
00:21:55,"So right now we're taking up the entire 17th story and then their big meeting room is on the 16th story. And then we also have a group that's coming into the sixth story which has a nice big meeting room for us that's going to be, they're going to be regulars, basically. They've already kind of signed the agreement and like they're supposed to move in this week. The whole thing is just kind of snowballing."
00:22:15,"It's incredible. And then there's another meeting room we talked about on the second floor that they're talking about building out for us. Yeah. So yeah, meeting space kind of going with demand. And I mean, that's the beautiful thing. It sounds like you have a landlord partner who really is thinking sort of opportunistically like, okay, we love what you're doing. We want this in the building. And how else can it benefit like other tenants or how can we leverage other space?"
00:22:43,"It's like underutilized. And they're kind of like, okay, what can we do with this? And if you get a lead that comes in, you'd be like, okay, you know, we don't have the right fit. Where can we put these guys? Which is dreamy. I mean, it's like really a best case scenario. Yep. Yeah. And at a smaller scale because we see like Tishman Spire, you know, institutional landlords kind of thinking this way."
00:23:03,"But it's not very common yet that you get smaller landlords. I mean, landlords that aren't like you guys who own the building. Right. You know, who have 17 stories and. Yeah. And are, you know, trying to figure out how to put flex in and that the broker really got it and wanted you guys in the building. Yeah, it's a really fun opportunity to be creative. Yeah, yeah. And I know the Post has done some of that, too."
00:23:29,"I know. You know, you. Yeah. And putting people into suites on other floors and just kind of getting creative on. On what they're offering. So do you do a rev share on the meeting rooms or how do you structure that? Yeah, everything is going to be some sort of a rupture. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sounds like you need to get that in writing. Yeah. Right now. I mean, it."
00:23:56,"It's. It's one of those, like, I could tell you, but I'd have to kill you. No, yeah, yeah, no, that's totally fine. That's totally fine. I was just curious, kind of in general, how they're thinking of it. It's like partnership and there's some sort of share. So are the meeting rooms bookable on Exodus? Like, you're using your platform to kind of extend into the building? Yeah, yeah, they're going to be."
00:24:18,"We. We started kind of rolling that out and building those pieces and parts. We'd still need to go to the landlord's team and explain to them how they can log in and do it if they want to, because I think they still want to maintain the ability to log enter the. The bookings for some of their existing tenants. Interesting. Okay. I think at some point they're going to roll it all over."
00:24:40,"Yeah, they're not going to want to manage it, so. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's. That's very cool. And I mean, it's just an example of, like, most landlords maybe can't even conceptualize, like, how that would work because they don't have those tools for booking. It's all very manual. Well, you call the property manager and they write it down, put it in the spreadsheet or whatever. You know, there's no booking platform, so, yeah, you know, to us, that's, like, really obvious, but."
00:25:12,"Yeah, I love that. Okay, tell us about your mail business. So you did the Mailbox moneymaker challenge in the fall, and you. You had. I think you already had your cmr. Remind me your status when you joined. Oh, gosh. I don't. I know. If you can remember, I think we had our CMRA and we had maybe one or two kind of clients. We had not ruled out any sort of a landing page."
00:25:39,"We had not rolled out any sort of aggregators or anything. So we hadn't signed up with them. So the timing was perfect for us because that's Kind of what we wanted to learn about was signing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what I was thinking about your tech stack, because now I remember you have a custom website that David built. Oh, yeah, yeah. Because I remember, like, looking at the landing pages and being like, what is this built on?"
00:26:03,"You're like, oh, yeah, we build it. Okay. Yeah, yeah. And that's basically what he's completely rebuilding from the ground up so that it can be all done via AI. So you just put in a prompt. It's really cool. He's like, you just put in a prompt of, you know, like, add this to my website. And then it goes. It's so neat. Seriously, I cannot wait. Yeah, this guy is gonna probably."
00:26:28,"Yeah. Come up with a lot of business ideas. Yeah, yeah. Oh, this is. Yeah. Even since the last time I looked at your website, it's totally different. He must mess with this all the time. Yep. Too funny. Okay, Now I'm just looking at the photos. Okay, so. Okay, so your mail business. So you. You got the CMRA set up and then you added. Did you add referral partners?"
00:26:55,"Yeah. So, yeah, we refer to them as aggregators, but, yeah, we added Ipostal, Anytime Mailbox, and then Opus actually reached out to us. And then we also had already had a relationship with Alliance Virtual Offices, so that was more of an enterprise agreement. And then they approached us as well, to sign up with them. So. So we've got pretty much everybody, and we're just going to kind of see where things go."
00:27:23,"I think it's really dependent upon where you're at and what the need is in the community, so. Right. It's really hard to predict. Yeah. Where you'll get leads from. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And so we figured we might as well just try them all and we can just bounce from any of them if we need to. For us, Ipostal is huge. It took about three months for them to kind of ramp up, but we have over 50 customers, I'd say."
00:27:50,"Wow. Yeah. Dang. That's so interesting. Yeah. And to your point, that probably pays to not be downtown. Like, you're serving a market for them that's probably underserved. Yeah. What percentage of them are local versus not local? You know, I would say it's probably like around 90 are local, actually. Wow. Do they come? I was surprised about. Totally. Yes. Like, why don't you just get your own mail? Right."
00:28:20,"Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. Okay. And I see that you've got the grid on the website. Very nice. And you're so your starting package. At least your organic package is 55. Yep. Are you getting any takers on the premium package? On the premium we have probably around 10. Nice. We haven't really done any marketing other than having that page up. We don't really do a lot with like socials and or Google AdWords or anything else."
00:28:51,"It's just that organic leads. Most of your leads come organic. I should have asked that. So yeah, you don't have to run ads and you're not doing social. Yeah. Everybody listening is jealous. But you know what, I love to share like happy good, like going well. I mean you're not without challenges, right? For sure. Yeah. There are things that you're trying to figure out. But. But yeah, I love like this just a great example of like when you get a good location in a good market and you build the right product."
00:29:21,"Yeah. Then it works. I mean you do have your virtual mail up on your website like nice and prominent. You've got your good, better, best pricing. And the premium package is $195 a month which I love. And now I remember you did some, you did some really fun creative benefits perks. You've got your EV charging which is brilliant. Like I just love that you have some of these, you know, fun add ons building listing."
00:29:51,"So are you doing Google business listings for any of these packages? We are doing it only for the one below. So it's going to go. Got it. Yep. Okay, perfect. Yeah. The street address, all the. Yeah, yeah. Okay, great. Member pricing for suites and meeting rooms. Yeah, yeah. And we're tossing around the idea of actually doing just a Google listing and no mail. So that's something that we're wondering about."
00:30:25,"Probably be like a part time office plan. Right. With something more to it. Yeah, no, I. So I love that and I love like the what can we experiment with somebody? I can't. Maybe it was the office R and D guy. I moderated a panel last week and he was like we all have to be scientists and just like experiment with things and be open to the data because sometimes what we think will happen doesn't happen."
00:30:48,"You know. But I love the, the Google package with part time private office package. Because to your point, like maybe people aren't thinking like I need a mailing address but they know they need the market. They really just want Google. A lot of them. All that has site. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. That's one of the things we used to make people do is have the dedicated desk Y or."
00:31:15,"Or higher. Yep. And then oops. I love the plan. Yeah. I love this. Do you know how many members you have at the 295 plan? It's not a ton. I would say maybe around six or seven. But still, I mean that more than a lot of people's working memberships. These are, like, pretty light users. I would get. You don't see a lot of them. Not that we don't want to see them."
00:31:47,"Yeah. And Tucson's kind of still sort of, I guess, considered like a small town. Yeah. We're not. We're not Phoenix, we're not la. So for us to be able to charge these prices, it feels kind of lucky. Totally. Like you're getting away with something. Yeah. But we'll put the link to this in the show notes for anybody who's not in Tucson who wants to borrow this. But I love all the creative amenities."
00:32:13,"This package is so creative. And that's what I love about. Well, I love about the mailbox challenge is just like, you know, challenging people to think about. Well, you know, how do I think out of the box and offer some cool things that people might find useful? Like this one's got printing in it. Like just some of the things like, oh, yeah, people might actually use this stuff."
00:32:31,"And the EV pricing and the credits. I mean, you just bundled in a lot of good stuff in here. Yeah. That will probably, you know, feel worth it. So. And you'll offer the same packages at the new location. Yeah, except for when I drop the first one, actually. Ooh. Yeah. Because it's such a prestigious space. Okay. The. The new address is sexy. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm assuming you haven't listed it yet because you're still under construction, but it'll be interesting to see."
00:33:03,"But it's probably good because you're probably thinking like, well, how do we not cannibalize? And so going like, more premium on the second one with a better location. I like that. Yeah. We actually have our CMRA over there and we have a couple of customers over there, so. Yes, I gave you an Air High Five. That's. Yes, Air High Five. We have. We've already got, I want to say four or five suites sold out already, and then also, like a couple of virtual customers, so."
00:33:33,"Okay. And we haven't even done our website yet. Right. Amazing. So. Okay. So. Got it. I love that. So you're. Are you. Are you actually generating revenue from those? We are. Yeah. So that's the other thing the landlord is doing, is allowing our customers to hang out. There's a bunch of suites available in on the 12th floor, and so all of our customers are plopped there for a couple of months until everything."
00:34:00,"People you've actually sold to, they were like in a holding space. Yeah, yeah. For us and everything. Yeah, It. I mean, you already own the building, so you were so in control. You haven't had like the lease mentality, which I also feel like is very lucky for you. But to feel like. So in partnership with someone, like. Yeah. What's the challenge? We'll just make it work. Yeah, you can use."
00:34:23,"The floor is awesome. I mean, when you sign a lease, the mentality is just so different. It's like maybe you can talk to the landlord, maybe not. It's like this arm's length sort of deal and you're working through the brokers and the brokers don't want you to. It's just totally different. And you don't have any sense that, like you can sit on the same side of the table and, you know, make the pie bigger for everyone."
00:34:48,"So dreamy. And I mean, I can't even ask you for your pro tips on like, how to get these relationships because this one just kind of be a great operator and get a little lucky. Yeah, yeah, yeah. How big are your. You're calling them suites? Private offices, basically. How. What size are they? I honestly don't know. No, somewhere around 100 square feet for, like standard. Sounds about right."
00:35:18,"Like a one to two person office. Yeah, yeah. That's mostly what we're focused on. That's what people in the area seem to really like and kind of go towards. And we can, you know, we can do things where we sell a bundle of them for a team or whatever and they could just be all in the same area and. Yeah, yeah. We also have some team suites, but they're more like in the new space."
00:35:40,"I think they're around like 400 square feet. Oh, okay. So the true teams. Yeah, yeah. And the landlord thought nothing of building out these hundred square foot offices. That could be a hurdle too. Right. When you look at the floor plan, they're like, wait, what? You need how many. You know, how many walls and H vac and. Yeah, so, yeah, luckily a lot of it was built out already the same way that we wanted it."
00:36:03,"Just similar to here. Looks second gen. Okay. Yeah. And the offices were kind of already the right size. So when you say construction, it's more like upgrades. Tweet. It's not a full or. Okay, so. Okay, so originally the space was like 1980s lawyer vibes. Okay. Crown mold, dark wood, crown molding, you know, just gorgeous for the 80s, right. And we were like, you know, just take down the crown molding, change the doors so they're not the dark wood, those sorts of things."
00:36:40,"But then they were like, okay, well you also want to do this. And you know, and there's a lot of glass elements as well. So, you know, we were like, can you, can you keep the glass and just rip out the wood around it? And they're like, sure, sure. And then they're like, no, you know what, we're just going to replace the whole thing. So we're getting like basically like Florida, like 8 foot high, new glass panels and things and all the new doors and."
00:37:07,"Okay. They're just, they just doing a lot of it. Yeah, yeah. I mean, again, it's. There are times when that investment doesn't make sense, but if you're already pre selling and you validated the market and your product works, then yeah, it's worth it. I mean, they, they own it. It's. And yeah, I mean, there are so many advantages to the asset owners of, of doing this space and it's their investment forever."
00:37:34,"Right. Versus a lease where just like when you did your space, it's like, well, it's your build out. You own it for as long as you own the building. So everything you do has like a clear ROI to it. Yeah. I feel like I have a unique perspective by owning the building and that kind of like the landlord needs to. Yeah, yeah. You respect that mentality because you already have it."
00:37:55,"You're happy to not own the second one, but you understand, like how they're thinking about those decisions. Yeah, that makes complete sense. Yeah. Okay, real quick, back to the mailbox challenge. Yeah, definitely. One of the things you mentioned was that, you know, it was on your project list and you mentioned like liking the accountability and you were one. Were you, were you our winner or were you of the."
00:38:19,"So we did get a leaderboard. I remember you always being at the top of it. Yeah. And Christine would show up to the calls and. Yeah. I mean, talk about the accountability, if you will, and just sort of like, you know, you probably could have figured some of these things out on your own, but, you know, the benefits of going through it in a cohort and kind of having a time frame."
00:38:38,"What was helpful for you. Yeah, honestly wasn't pushy at all. It was a gentle pushiness. And then the, the winning. Apparently I've, I've never won anything or even tried to win anything, so I don't even know what took over me. But yeah, I Mean, I'm so busy with everything. Everything is moving so quickly. I really needed the deadlines to get things done. The biggest thing was probably the webpage and having that, that was so cool."
00:39:09,"All of the feedback on that was just amazing. Yeah, I hear you. I mean, I operate that way as well. Like I have to pay for something and have deadlines in order to. Not every time. I mean, I'm not saying everything, but it is hard to be an entrepreneur. Right. Because you have so many. I mean, you've done this for your whole career. I mean, a lot of your career."
00:39:29,"Yeah. You have to be really self driven and really focus on the things that need to get done. And sometimes you just have to like pick the thing you're going to focus on and then have some external help with focusing. Yeah, yeah. And then, I mean, you joined the live calls and we had a great, just a great community in our last cohort. People were really. I made friends and I'm still communicating with some of them."
00:39:52,"So I think that's just awesome. Yeah. And you joined our operator group and get on our monthly calls and. Yeah, there's just a lot of. I feel like that's like an unexpected benefit that, that people have, but it's. Yeah, that's also part of it is like, well, how do you do this and what problems are you having? And. And I remember you did have a challenge like the."
00:40:10,"Which also was so helpful for us to. And I have to give Kim Lee the credit. And Kim Lee is going to be on the podcast soon too. She's like a total pro at operationalizing mail. I'm like, you know, big picture, but. And we help our community managers, you know, get into a lot of details and we get a lot of challenges that show up in that group."
00:40:29,"Like Oregon, you know, there's state by state, you know, restrictions. But you had something where you had a client who's trying to use your address and it wasn't like it didn't match the bank. I can't remember. There was something like wonky. Yeah. Yeah. We run into stuff like that all the time where a client is trying to use our address. Either they don't have permission to use our address or they're like, they don't have your permission."
00:40:54,"Yeah, our permission. Like, we'll find people on our Google listing. Yeah. And it's like, wait a minute, we didn't tell you you could use our address. We have people walk in our door looking for a company that isn't even here because they borrowed it. That's so much harder. I mean, almost impossible now with the video reviews, but definitely some hangover people who were able to somehow figure that out."
00:41:18,"Yeah, yeah. Or they'll just put our address on their website. Totally. We found a couple of businesses that are just doing that. Like what? I've never even heard of you. Yeah, yeah. Google your address and you might be surprised at what comes up, which is one of the benefits of having a virtual address. But totally. Anything. Let's see. Anything that surprised you about the challenge that you didn't expect."
00:41:47,"Let me think. Surprised me. Maybe just your competitive spirit. Yeah, my competitive spirit definitely did surprise me. I know. Well, you never know what's going to happen when you, when you gamify. Have you ever used Duolingo? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I listened to a podcast with the founder and they did not start out. That was like, that's one of the inspirations. I don't use it, but my husband and my daughter use it and they are super into like not losing their streak and yeah, they've just done an amazing job."
00:42:20,"Yeah. It's total side note, but they did not start out with the gamification, but like the really short chunks with the, you know, the streak and the incentive really gets. Gets. Keeps a lot of people engaged and keeps people into it. Yeah. During, during my birthday, we were out of town and I was just sucked into Du Lingo. I was like, I went in the other bedroom. I was like, hold on, I need to win against yourself or other random people online."
00:42:49,"Yeah, I don't even remember. Totally. It's funny. Okay, what are you. What are you most excited about with the new space opening? Oh, I love decorating. Okay. So your daughter gets. It's a gene. I think so. Yeah. I'm really excited. You don't hire. Do you outsource any of the design or you just do it all yourself? We do it all ourselves. And then our. Our daughter did all of the painting and all of the artwork."
00:43:19,"So we actually bought her canvases and she does all of that stuff. That's amazing. Like the artwork, like on the wall in the hallways. Very cool. Yeah. Maybe she should start a business of selling art to the office members. She's given some to some of them. She's even taken like some of our customers logos and made paintings out of them, which is really cool. To decorate their space."
00:43:45,"Yes. And other people like certain sports and stuff. So she'll use like the team colors and make art for them specific. And I feel like you should add that should be an Add on to your suites. Oh, there you go. Yeah. And then is she studying art or what is she. No, she's math major. That's so interesting. Wow. Like, right brain, left brain. Okay, so it sounds like maybe a mix of you and David."
00:44:12,"Like. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Yeah, too funny. Awesome. Okay. Anything about your business that I should have asked about that I didn't? Oh, gosh, I don't know. Yeah, Yeah, I mean, we're really excited about the. The new product that David's building and. And the new website. So, you know, that's going to be really exciting. And then just building up the new space and I can't wait to meet all of the new people that come in."
00:44:39,"We're wondering how different it's going to be because over here it's kind of a more casual, like friendly family atmosphere. And we plan on keeping that atmosphere, but at the same time, it's like, it's a corporate building and it's known as being a corporate building. So we anticipate a lot, you know, like, oh, gosh, we have to dress up now some of those, like, totally. Which you don't."
00:45:01,"But your first location is. It's single story, like in a kind of a retail plaza is that we're actually more residential. We're surrounded by a lot of homes. Oh, okay, cool. I saw your drone reel, but I couldn't. Totally. Your new toy. No, it's actually one of the, like, kind of like famous, I guess, photographer, drone people, whatever. BG Boy Photography is a friend of ours and he actually is going to be a virtual mail member and he's doing, you know, it's."
00:45:38,"It's a swap. Right. So we do a lot of swapping of things, which is really cool. Like, I get free massages. Sign me up. That's awesome. I saw that you. So you have a masseuse as a member? Yeah, we have a couple, actually. Yeah, I love that. Yeah, I think. So we give them a discount on their space and I get a massage. I'm okay with that. So do you."
00:46:01,"I mean, I know you don't do like a lot of formal marketing. Do they find you like, they find you and they. They think to ask, like, can I do this year? It was kind of one of the ideas when we first bought the building. Okay. Was like, we need to have a massage. You know, like, oh my gosh, we could have a massage therapist and maybe they can get members and."
00:46:20,"Yeah. You know, and then maybe we can get some massages. And now it's just kind of snowballed. Like, I get a massage every couple of weeks. I don't want to brag about it, but it's amazing and I love it. So if other people out there can do stuff like that, where they can find a business that fits a niche that helps them to do what they need to do."
00:46:42,"Yep. Yeah. Will you recruit one for the new location or are you just gonna promote the existing one? I don't know. You need to have a certain kind of licensing, so. And it's specific to the building. Okay, interesting. So I have to see if the landlord is open to it. I assume they probably will be, but I don't know for sure, so. Yeah. Yeah. And it was a headache to get."
00:47:05,"I mean, we had to do, you know, fingerprinting, FBI background checks, all that stuff just to get the license. Okay, Got it. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. Awesome. Well, thank you for telling us about your business. And I will be pursuing David, so warn him, but I'll give him a heads up. I know. And congrats on the new location. And wait, so when is it slated to open? We don't know yet."
00:47:32,"We've been waiting and, like, with contractors to get even a schedule, we anticipate August. Oh, good. So they said, you know, like around 12 weeks max, which again, is hilarious because doesn't everybody want to open in August? Like, back to school time, everybody, before the holidays? Yeah, that would be perfect if that lined up and you're already pre selling, so. Yeah. Awesome. Okay. We'll keep us posted. For sure."
00:48:03,"Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Thank you, Christine. Thank you. 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. 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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