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 coworking space are very different.
For example, my friend ran a 15,000-strong online Facebook group for freelancers in the UK.
Every so often, they asked:
What do you understand by the word coworking?
Many people would say:
“That’s where white tech-bros go to get their work done; it’s not a place for me.”
Many in that Facebook group are parents and females who identify as ‘freelancers’—not ‘business people’—and are not into craft beer and hustle culture.
They’d feel really out of place going into a Tech-Bro environment.
I don’t feel comfortable in a Tech-Bro environment, either.
Whenever someone starts getting jacked about their hustle culture or doing what they love, I run the other way.
Most coworking spaces I know are not full of jacked-up Tech Bros or Sir Alan Sugar fans.
The average age of coworking space members is between 35 and 40, depending on who you ask.
I saw a gorgeous video of a coworking space the other day – the people who run it are amazing.
BUT
Their video was all “nice white middle-class people” with perfect teeth and green juices.
Ask yourself, who is not in my coworking space?
And
How are you presenting what you do?
And what coworking does for people.
