Got it! So - it's a real challenge to tell people what something is that they've never seen before. When you lead by talking about shared space, no matter how much you talk about community people are going to think about what they know related to offices. It's like that thing where I tell you DONT THINK OF A PINK ELEPHANT and you can't help think of a pink elephant :)
Even in 2016, most people in most places have never heard of Coworking: http://dangerouslyawesome.com/2014/10/what-to-do-when-people-dont-understand-coworking/ Meanwhile, before you have a community, it's hard to point to a community that's GOING to exist...because it doesn't exist yet. So the best starting point is to talk about the problem. The question you need to ask is, when people can work from anywhere, why wouldn't they just work from home in their underwear for free? The answer, of course, is loneliness. Feeling isolated and disconnected. Describing what a Coworking space IS is kind of like describing what a restaurant is to someone whose never seen one. Why would I pay for someone else to make me a meal when I have a kitchen at home? So talk about what it's like to be lonely and isolated. Tell your own story. Learn other peoples' stories and tell theirs or encourage them to tell them on their own. In every interaction, find ways to highlight that loneliness, and then remind people that the easiest way to fix that is to come together. And then help make it easy for THOSE people to come together. Do that before you start looking for space. Go to events together. Host your own events together. Work together. Play together. And then when people realize that being together is SO MUCH BETTER than being alone...a membership to a place where they can come together anytime they want starts to make a lot more sense. But understanding who these people are, and how they feel isolated, is really the key to starting the right conversations. Good luck - give it a try and let us know how it goes :) -Alex On Friday, February 26, 2016, Ehmandah R. <ehman...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi Alex! > > I've explained it as a shared space. Freelancers and or entrepreneurs > working together yet independently...a community. I think most people > think of it as a place to rent offices. > > On Thursday, February 25, 2016 at 4:06:27 PM UTC-8, Alex Hillman wrote: >> >> How are you explaining it now so we can guide you in the right direction? >> :) >> >> -Alex >> >> On Friday, February 26, 2016, Ehmandah R. <ehma...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >>> Need help friends. I'm having a bit of time explaining what a CoWorking >>> space is. People aren't grabbing the concept. >>> >>> -- >>> Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com >>> --- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>> Groups "Coworking" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>> an email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >>> >> >> >> -- >> ------------------ >> The #1 mistake in community building is doing it by yourself. >> Join the list: http://coworkingweekly.com >> Listen to the podcast: http://dangerouslyawesome.com/podcast >> > -- > Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Coworking" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','coworking%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com');> > . > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- ------------------ The #1 mistake in community building is doing it by yourself. Join the list: http://coworkingweekly.com Listen to the podcast: http://dangerouslyawesome.com/podcast -- Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
