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Critical Mistakes In Weekly Newsletters For Community Builders And Coworking Space Owners - And How To Avoid Them

Over the last few months, I’ve been asking community builders in the coworking industry how they handle email newsletters. Before we get into it, most of you know I’ve been madly in love with emailing articles and updates for around twenty years. Being in love does not mean I get it right every week; it is a slog. If I had to choose one thing to keep, it would be my email list. Email is the backbone of my communication strategy and the most valuable asset in my community-building journey. (

My Journey to Finding a Realistic Productivity System (And Why It Matters)

Make your ideas happen every week.

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My Journey to Finding a Realistic Productivity System (And Why It Matters)

This week, our new Community Builder cohort discussed the system of capture. We gave the cohort people a way to calculate their 'existential overhead' and decide how and where to use their energy. What is the System of Capture? This may sound elaborate and wordy, so let me explain. Choosing what to focus on, what to do first, and what to do next is a lifelong challenge, particularly for a creative, ideas-driven person. The stress of forgetting something is an ever-present challenge for peo

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How Can We Navigate the Noise: Can Self-Awareness and Focus Guide Our Journey?

A lot of time, more than I care to admit, goes into thinking about what to do and what might happen and too much of what I think might happen never happens. Which means there is a lot of not happening — happening. Last week, I shared Rachel Aaron's 2k—10k book in my weekly email to the Creator Write Club. Rachel is the author of 31 books at the time of writing. But a few years ago, when she had a baby, Rachel found that all her writing time had disappeared. She had a few precious hours wh

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Do good community leaders hang around with other good community leaders?

Do good community leaders hang around with other good community leaders? Why is hanging around others who do the same thing you do necessary? When we talk about the London Coworking Assembly, we talk about community leaders. Everyone most active in the London Coworking Assembly is a community. They are not just running a coworking space; they have a freelancer community, a podcast, an event, something based around activism or some other informal community. They're all people who are helping

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How do I start an email list for my coworking space?

The best thing you can ever do for your coworking space is start an email list as early as possible. But don't start an email newsletter because no one wants to sign up for your email newsletter. Something on your front page that says join our email newsletter either says you want to sell me something or you’ll send me news. Either way, I'm not quite sure what's coming my way. I've been emailing people nonstop, probably many of you, for over 15 years, and every email is different. And I've

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Is your coworking space a place of productivity, OR is it a social club?

What is your balance between 'doing' community and 'doing' work in your coworking space? For many, like myself, the primary reason for choosing a coworking space over working from home is a mental health necessity. I need to have a connection with human beings. But wherever I go, I have to know that I will get my work done. I'm a card-carrying member of the neurodiversity squad, and I need help concentrating. So, if I'm going to sit in your coworking building, I need to know I can get my wo

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How can you make more of an impact by working with people in your coworking community?

How can you make more of an impact by working with people in your coworking community? Who do you work with? Where do they live? How can you engage with them? But what type of impact would be significant in your geographical area or the community you serve? Can you do something to generate some ideas with some of your members? What type of impact would they like to make collectively or individually that you could operate in your business or help them achieve? Have a brainstorming session,

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How do you help your coworking community members best?

How do you help your coworking community members best? One of the most valuable things you can do for the people in your coworking space, Makerspace, Flexible Workspace, or Neighbourhood Workspace—however you are 'self-identifying' this week—is to connect with them. You must be genuinely curious about other human beings, actively listening to them and asking thoughtful questions. So you know when to say: "Oh, look, Maddie over here does this, Bob is working on this, and Sangeeta is looking f

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How do you practise the coworking value accessibility in your coworking space?

How do you practise the coworking value accessibility in your coworking space? Many people think you have to redesign your coworking space, and it costs millions of pounds. But Dom, from the Purple Goat Agency, who was on our London Coworking Assembly panel at the Workspace Design Show London panel last month, explained it like this. When you do a few things around accessibility in your space, you'll get people in. When you do that, you'll learn how to accommodate them and the reality of the

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So, what is the coworking value of collaboration?

So, what is the coworking value of collaboration? The easiest way to think about it is collaboration over competition. The other way to think about it is what we can do together that we cannot achieve alone. In a coworking environment, collaboration saves time, money, and energy. Do this by running a coworking space where you encourage members to connect and brainstorm together. Academic and commercial studies have consistently found that 80% of business referrals come from people sitting n

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What do people understand by the word coworking?

What do people outside our coworking community bubble understand by the word coworking? Most regular human beings need to learn what a coworking space means; as an industry, we have a lot of audience education to do. When I say coworking, I also mean shared workspace, neighbourhood space, community workspace and all those good terms. I adore the word coworking and what it means. But I also know my understanding of that word and what people feel will happen when they eventually get to a cowor