Coworking Community Builder Daily

Don't go it alone when building your coworking space. Actually, don't go it alone when creating anything. I don't mean people need to work directly on your project—they just need to be around. Take the London Coworking Assembly. Members chat about everything from rooftop installations to coffee machines to member management. These aren't things you'd Google or find on Wikipedia. You need real conv...

The Celebrity Speaker Trap That's Hurting Your Events You're spending too much time, money, and energy chasing rock star speakers to wow your crowd. Yes, celebrity speakers draw crowds—I've worked at plenty of events where people queue to touch the clothes of famous authors and industry darlings. But here's what that doesn't do: build community. Post-COVID, when people show up to events, they're n...

I've watched this mistake countless times: someone opens a coworking space, then scrambles to find members. The smart operators flip this completely. They gather their community before they need desks to fill. Here's why this works: When you bring people together first, they bond. They get to know each other. They start solving problems together. Then you build your space around what they actually...

The five biggest mistakes that coworking community builders make. Building a thriving coworking community is an art. But even the best intentions can be derailed by a few common, yet critical, mistakes. Are you falling into any of these traps? Selling an Empty Promise: Don't sell the idea of a community before it exists. First, build your core group of members. Their energy, connections, and stori...

The harsh reality: 20% of UK businesses fail within two years. 60% don't make it past five. When you're opening your coworking space, you get caught up in the excitement — finding the perfect spot, kitting it out, getting all the kit in. It's knackering work. But here's what nobody tells you: opening is like launching a book. Writing it feels like the hard bit, but all the real graft comes in prom...

The Uncomfortable Truth About Coworking Spaces No one actually cares about your coworking space. Harsh? Maybe. True? Absolutely. Most operators obsess over the furniture, the amenities, that "perfect" coffee setup (which, let's be honest, is usually mediocre at best). However, what actually draws people in is connection, meaning, and the opportunity to find their tribe. People don't join coworking...

The Name Swap Test That Exposes Generic Coworking Websites Listen, we need to talk about your website copy. Words like "vibrant," "flexible," "leading," "seamless," and "built for productivity" don't actually say anything. They're the same language plastered across every coworking space website. Here's my simple test: Delete your space name and replace it with the name of a competitor. Would anyon...

Stop saying "Sign up for updates" on your website. We all have some version of it – "Subscribe for updates," "Stay in the loop," "Get our newsletter." It sounds like the obvious thing to put on your coworking website when you want email subscribers. But it's incredibly vague. When I see that on a website now, I'm thinking: How am I going to fit that into my life? What do I actually get? Will this...

"But Bernie, I don't have time to write a newsletter." I hear this constantly. And here's the thing - you're thinking about it backwards. Most people skip newsletters because they think it's extra work. But they'll spend hours crafting individual social media posts, Instagram captions, and LinkedIn updates. Here's what I've learned from direct experience: The hard graft of writing one newsletter p...

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The Representation Problem Most People Keep Missing I'm part of a coworking project that sends out a weekly newsletter and the surface, they're doing everything right – highlighting events, featuring community members, sharing success stories. It's solid content marketing. But here's what took me three embarrassing weeks to notice: Every. Single. Newsletter. Features. Only. White. Men. Week after...

The Business Ecosystem Nobody Talks About Every business person in your coworking space wants three things: a cure for loneliness, great espresso, and more business. Here's what most operators miss. Studies prove people hire based on proximity over internet searches. Think about it — we Google things because finding someone nearby feels like work. But when you're grabbing coffee next to a graphic...

The WeWork Trap Nobody Talks About Every week, another coworking operator tells me the same thing: "I want to scale like WeWork." Here's what they're missing: Your members didn't join for the kombucha on tap or the neon signs. They joined for you. I've watched brilliant, quirky, deeply local coworking spaces try to strip away everything that makes them human. They replace their hand-drawn welcome...

The Most Controversial Thing I Said This Week I told a room full of community builders that email is the best community platform. Not Slack. Not Discord. Not Mighty Networks. Not whatever shiny app launched last Tuesday. Email. Here's why everyone got upset — and why I'm right: Every time you add another platform to your community stack, you're creating a crack. WhatsApp for quick chats. Slack for...

The Newsletter Frequency That Makes People Forget You Exist I have this argument every week with coworking operators about the frequency of newsletters. Here's the brutal truth: When you send monthly, people forget who you are. When you send weekly — even if they don't open every email — you stay top of mind. You're always in their inbox. Always part of their rhythm. Think about it like holidays v...

There's a brutal difference between writing TO your community and writing FOR them. Most coworking newsletters are announcement graveyards. "Yoga at 6pm! New coffee machine! Member spotlight!" It's an advert dressed up as a connection. I've written hundreds of these. They die in the inbox. Here's what actually works: Walk your space with a capture system — notebook, phone, whatever. But don't list...

The Platform Wars Are Missing the Point Everyone's chasing the shiniest community platform — Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, LinkedIn groups. Here's what actually happened with the London Coworking Assembly: We spent months bouncing between platforms. Members are split across Slack channels; nobody checked. Discord servers that felt like ghost towns. WhatsApp groups that buried important updates under 2...

Nobody wants your lame updates. Think about it. When was the last time you woke up thinking, "God, I hope someone sends me some updates today"? Never. That's when. Yet here we are, slapping "Sign up for updates" on our websites like it's 2003 and people still get excited about email. Your opt-in page needs to promise something specific. Something valuable. Something that makes someone think, "Yeah...

The "I Don't Want to Spam People" Lie Let's end this excuse right now. You're only spamming if you: Buy an email list Add people without permission Send garbage to strangers That's it. That's spam. Here's what's NOT spam: When someone types their email into your website and hits "subscribe", — that's permission. Not spam. When you send them valuable content from your real business, that's relation...

The performative era of coworking is over. No more bullsh*t. The cat's out of the bag. People are too close to real struggles—such as wealth inequality, global conflicts, and economic uncertainty—to fall for gimmicks anymore. Those free trials that hook nobody. The meditation rooms that are actually broom cupboards with rugs. The rainbow stickers in windows exclude actual marginalised voices. The...

The "Free Membership" Trap That's Harming Coworking Spaces I just witnessed something that gave me a headache: a brand-new coworking space offering 50 free six-month memberships to anyone who signs up quickly enough. Here's the brutal truth about why this strategy backfires: Free devalues everything you've built. When you give away half your capacity for free, you're essentially telling the market...

The moment you hit "compose" on your newsletter, something weird happens. You suddenly transform into Corporate Robot 3000 – all buttoned-up, businessy, and completely unrelatable. But here's what actually works: Write like you're texting your business bestie. Take Gemma and Caroline from the Breaker Collective. Their newsletters read like you're sitting across from them at a coffee shop, mascara...

The uncomfortable truth about business trust that nobody talks about: We all think people buy from brands. But here's what actually happens—especially in consulting, coaching, and community-based businesses. People don't connect with your logo or your company name. They connect with you. When someone joins your coworking space or hires your services, they're not thinking about your brand values or...

The Social Media Follower Illusion: Why Email Is Still King I saw something that perfectly illustrates why I bang on about email lists so much. A friend posted on social media today. They've got 4,500 LinkedIn followers—impressive, right? But here's the kicker: only 104 people actually saw their post. Now, if they'd emailed those same 4,500 people instead, with a typical 25% business open rate, ro...

Making Your Emails Feel Personal (Even When Sending to Thousands) One of the biggest challenges with email marketing is making it feel personal when you know you're sending to hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of people at once. Big companies like Vodafone, 3Mobile, and Apple do this really well - but the secret isn't to copy them. It's to do the opposite. The key: Sound like YOU, not like...