Finding Balance Innovation and Flexibility in the New Work Era

In this episode, we explore the evolving landscape of workspaces in a post-COVID world with co-founders Erin Scarlet and Mike Agerbo of the Fountainhead Network. Join us as we discuss the importance of flexible work environments, community building, and innovative solutions for entrepreneurs and small business owners. Discover how co-working spaces can foster creativity and collaboration while providing a balance between work and life.

Transcript

Got an idea that keeps you up at night or one that makes people laugh

>> Gelareh: Got an idea that keeps you up at night or one that makes people say that will never work?

>> Dave: Perfect. That's what we talk about here on Innovation Fuel. So let's get that conversation started. You know something, I'm excellent because I have such a strong community and I have a strong community of unbelievable people like you, Gelareh

Companies are trying to bring innovation back to the office without paying for office space

But I think Gelareh one of the things that I always considered like now we have this whole world, we have this whole world of post Covid. We have this element that Covid was that time where people were at home, they're working from their home and everything seems to be working fine. But now we have this drastic move where businesses are saying, oh, we gotta stop this innovation suffering, we gotta bring everybody back to the office and people are pulling up their heels, they're saying, no, I'm not coming back to the office, I'll get a different job, I want to have the flexibility. But I wonder, Gelareh is there an in between and in between where we can meet and still have that element of innovation and community building and elements that will help that organization still get the innovation they want and people still get the work life balance that they want and we can find that perfect chemistry matching piece without paying the rent.

>> Gelareh: Or lease for office.

>> Dave: Now without paying like yeah, paying for that rent or lease of operations or, or paying a very minimal cost. Does such a space exist?

>> Gelareh: Yeah, exactly. Yes. Some people do not have their own office because not only they have to pay the lease, they have to pay this. The BC hiders, they have to pay for Internet, they have to pay for parking, they have to pay for everything to just have a space to communicate or build a team around this, I mean around their business. But yeah, maybe there is something in between. Dave. Let's figure it out.

Post Covid businesses are trying to bring innovation back to office

Today, talking to Erin Scarlet and Mike Agerbo. Hello. One of my best friend ever, Dave Kieron. How are you today?

>> Dave: Well, I am excellent and you know something, I'm excellent because I have such a strong community and I have a strong community of unbelievable people like you Gelareh So but I think Gelareh one of the things that I always considered like now we have this whole world, we have this whole world of post Covid. We had this element that Covid was that time where people were at home, they're working from their home and everything seems to be working fine. But now we have this drastic move where businesses are saying, oh, we gotta stop this innovation suffering, we gotta bring everybody back to the office and people are pulling up their heels, they're saying, no, I'm not coming back to the office, I'll get a different job. I want to have the flexibility, Flexibility. But I wonder Gelareh is there an in between, an in between where we can meet and still have that element of innovation and community building and elements that will help that organization still get the innovation they want and people still get the work life balance that they want and we can find that perfect chemistry matching peace without paying the rents.

>> Gelareh: Or lease for office now, without paying.

>> Dave: Like yeah, paying for that rent or lease of operas or, or paying a very minimal cost. Does such a space exist?

>> Gelareh: Yeah, exactly. Yes. Some people do not have their own office because not only they have to pay the lease, they have to pay just the busy hiders, they have to pay for Internet, they have to pay for parking, they have to pay for everything to just have a space to communicate or build a team around this, I mean around their business. But yeah, maybe there is something in between. Dave let's figure it out today.

Co working is extremely important for young entrepreneurs, small business owners specifically

Let's welcome Erin Scarlet and Mike Agerbo the co founder and co owner of the Fountainhead Network co working in the studio space in Port Coquitlam, BC.

>> Erin Scarlet: Hi Erin.

>> Gelareh: Hi Mike. Hi Dave.

>> Dave: Yes, welcome to another episode of Innovation Fuel brought to you by University Canada West where we are here to do some differences. We're trying to connect you to those business problems out there and help you solve them, get you to know what the small medium sized businesses are like out there. And yes, before we get into today's conversation, very exciting, the studio space. You might have heard about studio spaces before and that element of being able to share working spaces. And we have the pleasure of having two wonderful guests here. The co founders, as Gelareh had said, the Fountainhead Network located in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia. Hello Mike. Hello Erin Welcome to our show. Tell us a little bit about you guys and what is the Fountainhead Network?

>> Mike Agerbo: Fountainhead Network. We're a co working space but we're way more than that. Co working is extremely important for young entrepreneurs, small business owners specifically. They create amazing relationships that can carry on pretty much throughout their entire careers. What sets us apart from other coworking spaces is our media niche. In today's times, media is essential for all businesses. You're not going to survive if you don't know how to promote yourself on social media with video, with audio, with any kind of promotion and with all the platforms that there are out there now being free essentially unless you put ad spend on it. There is so much free promotion available out there for these small business owners and entrepreneurs that really not all of them have taken advantage of. But young students, or just students in general learning about this, they know how important it is for these entrepreneurs and small businesses to gain traction. They need it. So we put two and two together. We have a couple studios where the businesses as well as the public, anybody needing the studios, we have businesses that they can come in, use our studios to promote themselves, and do basically what they need to do to survive in today's times.

>> Erin Scarlet: Yeah, we foster people here with their ideas and their creativity. Most coworking spaces include meeting room time in their memberships, which we do, but we throw in podcast studio time in our memberships to give people that, you know, creative space to feel like, hey, I have the space. Let's. Let's try it. You know, you gotta start somewhere. So it's just nice to have that space available for people to. To experiment and, and try. Because your. Your first one's never gonna be perfect, nor should it be. You need something to start with to know where to improve. And like, even if you take a look at our podcasts, we have PO Community and Bec. You go way back. Our first ones, you know, they needed some work, but we grew you. You fine tune, you marinate all of your. Your ideas and. And make it even better. Got to start somewhere.

>> Dave: I, just want to let the audience know because we're more of a voice show, so we're not seeing the background here and in the background here of the audience. And actually, I had the. I was very lucky yesterday to go visit the Fountainhead network and actually do a little tour. I didn't invite Gelareh Didn't tell her about it. Damn, I should have. But we're looking at Aaron and Mike, and they have this beautiful setup and it's a beautiful studio for their podcast, but also they have as a green room, which is really exciting. So I just wanted to bring that to you listeners out there.

>> Mike Agerbo: Yeah, it's definitely something that we're proud of, especially where we're at in the Tri Cities. Nobody was doing this before we did it. We hear it all the time with just people that use these places. They'd always have to go downtown Vancouver or something for a place like this, and it costs you an arm and a leg. Needed to bring it closer to where people actually live now.

>> Erin Scarlet: Make it an affordable space.

>> Mike Agerbo: Yeah, affordable. And I mean, we want to make it accessible to students and affordable for students because other places, especially in downtown Vancouver, they don't think of that. They wonder why they're not getting business. Well, you got to be able to actually have these people come to your space often and use what you have. And, you know, it be not so heavy on your wallet.

>> Gelareh: My husband used to rented some of this co working space and it was lovely, beautiful. Before COVID everything has changed and people have a lot of office, spaces that their home office spaces.

Networking saved us and I think it's saving a ton of businesses

So what is your unique offering for other people that's coming to you and who's your main audience?

>> Erin Scarlet: You've seen with your students that marketing and media are the main courses people want to take. People want to be seen. There's so many, so many ways to broadcast this, but basically it takes about seven touches to get a customer to trust you. And they're actually saying now that podcasters are getting more reach and converting, you know, clients faster than influencers now, which I think the podcasting community is actually taking over the influencer community there as well too. It's a bit of an invasive time that we live in now where people call you, they can text you, they can message you on LinkedIn, Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, app everywhere. Right. So it's just, you feel like people are trying to get a hold of you in every single way. Right. Whereas if you're podcasting, people will find you organically. Right. And they'll be able to, you know, actually, you know, decide that they want to hear what you have to say versus that, hey, I sent you a message, or hey, have we been in contact? And it's just like, where did you message me? I don't know. I'm at home with my kids.

>> Mike Agerbo: You know, you ask like, who, like our clientele is a lot of parents that like working from home. During the pandemic, we had a skeleton crew of people. We unfortunately got the keys to this business. February 2020. So, being a 7,000 square foot co working space, trying to build community and get people in here, obviously we had a very minimal crew for the first two years of existence, but working from home doesn't work for everybody. It really doesn't. Even the people that like it. We're finding we're starting to gain traction with people that just need to get out of the house a couple days a week. We have membership that can go from part time to full time. So you don't have to like fully commit. You just come in here, you get to work with the community. There's industries like that are represented for like pretty much any industry. You can Imagine we have people that are here and you don't know about, like if your company or yourself can work within an industry until you meet these people and realize they can collaborate quite easily. What our customer base is like, it's so vast. It really can be anybody. We've even had members that have physical locations. But it's that networking, it's networking that huge for us. That's how we survived really. beside, besides, you know, obviously the, the funds we had to come up with to keep open for two years of craziness. We had to survive with our networking online and kind of put our name up there. Networking saved us and I think it's saving a ton of businesses and business owners.

>> Erin Scarlet: I'm actually really impressed with that question because it, it's so neat the people that are in here. I want to use our facilitator exchange program as an example to. So a lot of startups we're starting up to try to get to know people, try to grow their business, try to, you know, have that foundation to grow on. Our facilitator exchange program is say you're a, you know, you're just starting a virtual administrative, you know, virtual admin. You're in a virtual admin and you need a website, we have a web developer, you need a branding photo shoot, we have photographers, we have brand designers. Everybody in the space, every resource you need in one community resource, right? So it's so rewarding. And our facilitators, for example, the ones that we've given them a membership in exchange to help us grow our business. So for example, they'll either work front desk for us, and they get 24 hour access, podcast, studio hours, meeting room hours, and they get to grow their business, meet the community, use each other's resources. And it's just so essential to growing the economy that way, you know, and just lowering startup costs and everything for people, it's just, it's really amazing to see. And we honestly, we have a digital marketer on our team, a video producer on our team, we have graphic designers on our team and we provide them the space to grow their businesses while they help us grow ours. And then they are also resources for everybody else in our community as well.

Co Working has become very popular in the last little while. How do those businesses bring in clients and people

>> Dave: One of the things I think, you know, to relate this back and I, and I hear the community, community, community, community come out here a lot and I think, you know what the typical are probably our typical listeners are used to is they're listening. They're probably used to these Big mammoth element of the WE workspace. Can you articulate the difference between what we work is and what you do completely differently?

>> Erin Scarlet: Yeah, actually, it's one of my favorite ways to separate us from the giant co working in, like, I don't know, quotations, quotations. It's all a lot of those indust. Straight to private offices and the revenue per square footage. In that sense, that is the smart way to do it. But it's also not a way to build your brand or your economy. So, like, in our space, we have collaborative space. So we have hot desks and dedicated desks. So we're all in a collaborative area filled with teams working together, people doing phone calls, sales calls. It's just. It's a healthy environment to see people doing their work next to you. It makes you more productive. And then you actually have that chance to, you know, meet people in our lounge and whereas, like, other spaces, you locked in your private office, you maybe see people at the water cooler, which is super awkward. Whereas, like, we have an amazing lounge and collaborative workspace where people can enjoy coffee together and just, you know, actually it works as, like a coffee shop too. So, like our lounge, people go, and instead of meeting with a client at a busy coffee shop, they'll meet in our lounge. Quieter, more professional space where you don't have to, like, race for outlets or try to get that wi fi connection. Right.

>> Mike Agerbo: So, yeah, yeah, the. The big industry, like we works, the, I don't like dropping names. I won't drop names, but they. They went with the trendy name of co Working. That's. That's, how I look at it. Co Working has become very popular in the last little while. He's been around outside of North America for a long time, and people understand it more outside North America. As soon as it hit here, it was like the corporations had to grab onto it. There's been office and rentals forever. Like, it's never. It's never not been a thing. But how did that. How do those businesses grasp on to bringing in clients and people? Again, they have to call it co working, but it's not.

>> Erin Scarlet: Also, I want to trace back to my seven touches as well, to get to know somebody and to convert that, you know, lead into a client as well. So you do need that trust, right? And here when you meet each other every day, you see each other working together every day, you're talking about who you're working with in the space. It's that trust comes so much more naturally than, you know, a Zoom meeting, for example, or a phone call even, which, which I, I do believe in phone sales. I think it's still a really useful resource for, for business owners. But to be in that space, to see each other every day, see each other working together, you already know that they're, they're trusted, you know, and so you gain that trust immediately with your, with your clients and with your community.

The best thing about coworking is that there are so many different styles

>> Gelareh: You brought a concept of design and amenities you're offering to your client when you're saying that everyone is talking on the phone to me is like a very crowded place. Can you a little bit explain about your design and amenities and how you serve it specifically to your client?

>> Erin Scarlet: Yeah, so great point to bring up. Some people do need that private space. The best thing about coworking is that there are so many different spaces out there and styles that you can really choose the one that works for you. And yes, we do have a collaborative space where people are on the phones talking to each other. We also have really amazing phone booths as well. So I always say you're more than welcome to take your Zoom meetings and your phone calls in our space, but if you prefer more privacy, you can hop into a phone booth or you can rent one of our meeting rooms with your meeting room hours. But yeah, it's really cool because, you know, you'll overhear a conversation and you'll be like, oh, hey, I heard you needed help with this. Or, you know, it's just, it's. You're not afraid to step on people's toes in our space. Like, people are welcoming of what everybody else is going through or, the struggles that they have, or they're just there as a resource ready to help. It totally depends on your work style. Everybody here has totally different work styles, which I'd like to add that we are a 24 hour space. So we do have some night owls. And we do that for people who have might have overseas clients or, you know, work during the day or go to school during the day. And they have a side hustle and they need that space too. So a lot of spaces out there are only nine to five. But yeah, we, we understand that this is a different world that we live in. Everybody is remote. You know, maybe the husband goes to work all day and at home with the kids. And then you need a productive space to get stuff done as well. Right. So we have lots of husband and wives, couples who switch off. And especially in the hustle culture that we live in now, unfortunately, you just kind of have to find time in the day. And that's why we, our 24 hour space is great for that. And if you need quieter time, evenings are quieter and you basically have a wonderful 7,000 square foot space to yourself.

>> Mike Agerbo: Yeah. Like a crew of three to five people if you like max five. But they're here and they, they all love it because it does. If you look at this giant space to themselves, we've offered different things too. Like we have a stage in our lounge. We've had a couple guitars so some people wind down that way. Like we have a couple members will just go up there, play some on their break, play some tunes when they're stressed. I know like one of our members always jumps up there when he's having a stressful day and just like zones out and plays and, and it's actually soothing to the people sitting in the lounge because it's actually somebody who knows how to play guitar. Playing it, it's just like it's going back to the community. Community, community. We have noticed. I noticed. I know Aaron has noticed the last few years when it comes to working alongside people has become more about like personal relationships more than ever. Obviously with a lot of the, the different industries that Aaron was talking about that we offer. You can go to Fiverr if you want and pay next to nothing. Good luck with that. And having it be actually efficient. You were talking about phone or like emailing, trying to figure out what you actually want. When you have a personal relationship within a community, it is so easy to get your point across, what you actually want. And it's so much easier to give that information to people and they'll get it like this. It's just like that, almost like a text syndrome. When you text somebody and it, they read it completely different than what you actually intended it to sound like. And like here you know exactly what it sounds like when you're talking to somebody and it just, it's healthy for these relationships. You, you get your point across and literally the stuff gets done quick.

>> Erin Scarlet: I know I always say, I always say there's, I've experienced this so many times, like especially during the pandemic when you're like, hey team, like we really need to tackle this one item on our agenda. Can, can we schedule a zoom meeting or something for it? Right? And then you schedule the meeting. Somebody you know, something comes up, you have to cancel the meeting. You don't get this thing resolved for like two weeks. You go to a co working space with your team, you're there, you're in the meeting room banging out in five minutes. You know, it's just. I feel like a lot of things can be so, like the productivity gets so prolonged with a lot of projects. And another thing I really like about coworking spaces and what a lot of other people really like is sometimes they might have an office downtown and they live like in the Fraser Valley or like the Tri Cities. They don't want to go all the way downtown to their community, to their office. Right. They want something closer, they want to save on gas, they don't want to be in their house, but they still want a productive space. The best part, I feel like there's. Everybody complains about office politics. It's, it's a real thing. Like Mike and I worked together for 10 years for a distributing company before we started the space. And you, you see it, you see the office politics, it's. Somebody's affecting your work. You can't get this done because somebody can't isn't doing this right. When you come to the co working space, there is no drama. It's like the best drama free environment ever. Because it's not. Nobody's affecting each other's work except being a resource to help them. It's so amazing to see. Everybody is wanting to help each other. Nobody's stepping on each other's toes, Everybody's working together like not in like the office where can't get each other's stuff done. Right. It's so cool to see. And that's one of the things I noticed after the three years being open is that we've never ever had drama in the space or office politics.

>> Mike Agerbo: And online really makes it seem like people are hostile against one another in the world today. It's somewhat true. But we with the co working space, what we've seen, we have political party members that work out of here from all ends of the spectrum, right. They come in and they get along with one another. When online we never see these two get along. And it's just like humans are very different, but we're more alike than we are different. When you have difference of opinion on different little things that in the last few years have been blown to crazy sizes of like what you're supposed to care about relationships you have when in reality these things didn't matter five years ago. Right. And, and we're seeing that with just the difference between our members. Yet they. We can have a Green Party member and a Conservative, literally, they talk politics with one another, have disagreement or a coffee with one another and laugh and actually enjoy each other's company, which from the beginning they don't think that can happen. Like they get here and they're like, ah, oh, one of them. And then, and then, and then when they actually are in a community together, it's like, oh, actually, yeah, we can disagree on this stuff and still get along.

>> Erin Scarlet: Yeah, such a healthy environment.

Dave: I think there's a crossover between work at home and family time

>> Dave: This is interesting because I want to highlight on something Gelareh and this is where my head is going in this moment. So, you know, we talk about community, we talk about the benefit of, online communities and how we can grow our business building, strengthening these online communities, building trust like you said, Erin, with building that trust with those elements. But this physical online this physical element of being able to connect people physically, it seems like a neat transition because we've gone from this element of COVID which everybody ran home and started working from the home office spaces. Now we have these businesses that are going to the extreme opposite and saying, everybody needs to come back to the office now because innovation is suffering. Maybe there's a co element, maybe there's a coexisting element of the balance between you need to be at your home office and the values you get with your family time to the extremeness of going back to the office in Vancouver whereby there's a crossover between. Are you guys starting to see some other businesses come into this space? I know you see lots of entrepreneurs coming into this space, but do you see these other businesses saying, hey, I'm not really ready to go back to the office, but I need a different space that may be more innovative and may help me with creativity?

>> Erin Scarlet: Yeah, there's. There's two points I want to mention to that. The first point being that we've had businesses buy just like a package of day passes. So hey, you need to get out of your house today. You have a great office set up. You. But you're starting to feel confined, you know, isolated and just want to be out around people that you can trust. You don't know who's going into like random coffee shops and everything or. Right. So you can go to a space with people that you know are professional and have that flexibility whenever you want. Right. So those are the flexible day pass bundles. Right. And then another thing I like to add is Mike and I did have a small chance to work from home at the beginning of the pandemic with our one and a half year old at the time, after I had the chance to sit there and try to make networking calls because we had the 7,000 square foot space. We couldn't go because I was experiencing seasonal allergies and my grandparents were in town and I did not want to kill my grandparents.

>> Mike Agerbo: We thought it was Covid. It was like, oh, is it Covid? So it wasn't.

>> Erin Scarlet: Yes. We stayed home and we were trying to do networking calls and I'd be upstairs in our office trying to make this networking call and I'd hear my son at the bottom of the stairs. He'd be like, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy! And I'd like feel so guilty. And I'd be like, I just need to make one networking call. Like trying to get an eight hour shift in was just so impossible. And then once we were able to head back into the office, it was like the most refreshing feeling. You know, I was able to have that work life balance where when I was at work, it was work. When I go home, I'm mom, you know, and that work, like to go home to home especially is such a refreshing feeling. Instead of living in your workplace 24/7 when you can't escape your work, when you, you pick up your phone after hours and always, you know, just, you know, disconnected from your family life. Right. Like, it's, it's so refreshing to have that place to go in a flexible way. So like our memberships, like, we have so many different memberships where like you could come once a week or three times a week or you know, five days a week, or have unlimited access. Right. So it just, it gives those people who like their workplace, like having a workspace at their home, but also want that sense of going home to home as well. Right. So yeah, it's, it's really neat to see. And so many people come from different places in their, their home and where they live. And it's just the flexibility. I think what you were saying, Dave, is so key in today's day and age, especially with digital marketing. That's a, a, business where you're working overseas with client, you can work wherever you want. Right. And you do need that flexibility. You need the after hours, you know. So that's why I see a lot of people still working from home too.

>> Mike Agerbo: Extend on like the, the businesses, like maybe trying to get their, their employees back to work in the office. I, I think, think we, we've seen a bit of that with people coming into, into the space that are like, maybe it's a middle ground. But I think what's happening more in our industry is the, basically a lot of these companies looking at their own leases, wondering, should I bring my staff? Half my staff is working well from home and half is working terribly. Like, I, I, I'm someone that believes that there's like, I, I think we're going to start seeing the statistics of actually one, we can blame Covid on what, how people's work ethics are. Like, they could, A sales team that's working from home could be like, it's Covid, right? Like it. And then two years after the pandemic, if you're like, it's still Covid. It's like, no, it's because you're working from home. You're not doing enough work. I feel like a lot of the bosses are like, okay, well, I don't want to make my, my people that are actually really comfortable from working from home that are doing well there. I don't want to force them back to the office and make them angry. Maybe I let my lease expire or I done with our lease and allow give like almost like just put some money away for if my staff wants to work at one of these places, if this is beneficial to them or home is not good for them. So we're seeing like, like, like, almost like clusters of companies, like where people come in with like a couple people. this is what works for them. Their office is actually not going to open and then some of their staff is working from home still.

Fountainhead Network offers co working spaces for entrepreneurs and students

>> Dave: What is the future of co working spaces? Like, what is the future for you guys at the Fountainhead Network? Where do you see this going? Where do you see this? Do you see this as multiple opportunities?

>> Erin Scarlet: There's so many. See, the thing is, is our business is so many different things that we, we absolutely want to grow. We see the different needs in, in businesses and entrepreneurs that, and with students, especially in these spaces where, where they can meet, you know, potential, you know, employers here as well. Right. They can meet potential employers. It's such a resourceful space to so many different extents. Like, we have four parts of our business really. We have our co working, our rentable resources like meeting rooms and event space, and we have our media production with podcasts and brand stories and and yeah, networking. Like, got a network to, to find your future, to know what you like to do, to see what other people do in that industry. Because you don't know. You could go to school for it. Yes, you learn everything, you love everything it's about. But until you're in the physical workspace seeing how it operates, you don't know. Right. So it gives students and entrepreneurs a chance to see where they want their business to go and where they want their career to go because they see people actively doing the job when they're surrounded by that.

>> Mike Agerbo: Yeah, like for us obviously, like we want to, we want to grow, we want to expand. We think our model's very practical in today's times and beneficial to entrepreneurs and small business. We know how tough it is financially for a lot of people. It feels like an entire middle class is being wiped out in Canada right now. So like we want to be in different areas for people to know that these kind of places exist. You don't want to spend thousands upon thousands of dollars on your own lease when you can become part of something like this. We're a family run business. We've been open during the pandemic. Obviously it's been pretty rough financially on us last few years. So like there's limitations obviously. We'd love to talk if possibly to investors, people that see our vision and see what we're doing and see the difference in us. It's not just like investing in wework, like trying to, we're trying to make a difference. Make a difference is actually like if there's anybody that came from small business is small businesses. Startups that have become ultra successful, they know how important these kinds of places is. So we're hoping to like spread the word, get people like that to know about us and try to grow this into something bigger. I mean we're one location. Every, every business starts wanting to be more than one location in the future. Why would you begin if not? We definitely got a few speed bumps along the way in our tracking of where we wanted to be at this point we're seeing it grow, we're seeing the snowball effect, but it's still, there's limitations. Being a family owned business, it's interesting.

>> Erin Scarlet: To see where we started because when we moved in in 2020, after February and March happened, we're like, okay, when do we have our soft opening? When do we have our grand opening? Is it ever going to open? Basically took our business plan and threw it out the window at that point. And then it was really cool because we got that opportunity to see the world change in how they work. So yeah, it's, it's nice that we were able to actually, you know, curate the space to the new world as well. Right. And we know that people see our vision too. Everybody who comes in here, they say we needed a space like this in the tri Cities. You know, this is such an amazing resource. People need this we see it all the time too. We, it's especially rewarding when you see our members outgrow us. That's our goal. We want our members, our entrepreneurs, the small business owners to outgrow us. They, we want them to use us as that stepping stone to make them into what they've always dreamed of. You know, so we've had real estate teams come in here and, and they're like, thank you so much. We were able to, you know, get ahead in the real estate market using your space and we finally can afford our own office space. Right. And we'll still come back for your networking events and stuff like that. And it's just, it's. That's the most rewarding for us to see is to them, to see them save on their expenses but at the same time grow their business. Like you can't do, you can't do that anywhere else.

>> Mike Agerbo: Not to mention the members that like, literally the only reason they're not here anymore is because they physically can't be like moving across the country or stuff. But the, some of those members keep basic memberships just to support the community or be part of even our virtual community. Like, they see how beneficial it is literally working across the country or even in some parts of people moving out of the country, wanting to stay connected with these people that they've gained personal relationships but also professional relationships with. It's been like, it's drastic. It's actually crazy to see people that like, we don't know about all the projects going on in here. Right. We have our own stuff going on. So when we see just like two different, basically companies that work within our space talking and it's actually about working together, it's really awesome that it organically happens without us pushing it.

>> Erin Scarlet: I have a really quick note to mention too, is small business owners and entrepreneurs are different people than 9 to 5ers as well. Like Mike and I, like I mentioned before, are, almost 10 years at a distributing company together. We are. Our lives were totally different before we became business owners. Like, and once we became business owners, especially during the pandemic, a kid. So we became parents and business owners at the exact time. our, our friends felt a little more distant from us. So they didn't understand our struggles. They didn't, you know, they, they, they thought, oh, you have a business and a family, like, you should be so happy. And what are you stressed about? Things are going to be amazing. Right? But they don't, they don't see what's going on in the background. Right? And then the isolation of COVID and then having the space. Other entrepreneurs who have kids, who are business owners, who can completely relate to what you're going through and your struggles. That's what people come here for. The, the. You can, you know, you can still be going out with your friends, but they'll never understand, like, your life like other business owners do. Right? So. And they all have their own resources and systems that have helped them.

>> Dave: That.

>> Erin Scarlet: That's helped us learn and grow, that's helped them m. Learn and grow, and those are the resources you really need.

Start a podcast. Even if it's just for you. It helps you with public speaking

>> Dave: This is the perfect segue we've come toward, towards the end of our show here. And because you're talking about challenges, Erin, I want you guys to cope with a challenge. We need a challenge that we can throw out to our audience.

>> Mike Agerbo: Start a podcast. No matter how introverted you are, extroverted.

>> Erin Scarlet: Even if it's just for you.

>> Mike Agerbo: Even if it's just for you, it helps you with public speaking. It helps you with everything. I'm a... I don't know what to call me. I'm a complete introvert if I don't know you, but I'm like an extreme extrovert if I know you well. So, like, literally I do for a living, like here, podcasting with people and, interviewing businesses and business owners. I. When I don't know somebody, I'm scared, like, crazy about, like, social anxiety. But doing this has brought me. I've done over. I've done hundreds of podcasts now. It's brought me out of my shell. It's been the way to make people know that I'm a business owner, if that makes sense. I'm, a big follower of Gary Vee.

One piece of content can literally build your business

The content is king. Get it out there. You might think that your content is not being watched by anybody. You'd be amazed with what can take off and what actually can build your following. If you're just posting three pieces of content a day on your page, one piece of content can literally build your business. One, one popular piece of content. If it gets picked up and hits an algorithm that it can literally gain you followers views on all your other content. So put your content out there. You have no. Like, it literally can be the saving grace of your business. Even if you're like a plumbing company, like, you don't know if you're a plumbing company, you put a podcast, some plumbing, people listen to you, all of a sudden you're huge on that end. You never thought that was a thing built your business.

>> Erin Scarlet: There's thousands of podcasts out there, but there's still so many niches that.

>> Mike Agerbo: And there is no definition. Yeah, there's no definition of a podcast. Yeah, there's no definition. So you literally, a piece of media that you put out, it can be video, audio, you can be talk show. Like, we have a kind of a talk show set. They don't call them talk shows anymore because it's not popular. It's, it's called the podcast. If it's online. Right. If you're just putting out, like, a bunch of clips from different shoots, you can still call it a podcast if there's audio to it. Like, it's crazy. I think people just think of, like, Joe Rogan. That's. You got to be just like that. If you. And you're going to be intimidated bringing guests in all the time. No, literally anything. Is a podcast. What you're comfortable with. Start with that and just do it. Make it. You'll. You'll be just. Yeah, start.

>> Erin Scarlet: Just do it.

>> Mike Agerbo: Just do it. Don't sue me with that.

>> Gelareh: Nike also. No, that's great. It was great. That was really awesome. Thank you.

Big ideas don't grow by themselves. Share and let's fuel the next one together. Innovation Fuel is produced by JPOD Creations

Big ideas don't grow by themselves.

>> Dave: Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Share and let's fuel the next one together.

>> Gelareh: Innovation Fuel is produced by JPOD Creations. Find out more about the show at theinnovationfuel.