Exploring Themed Coliving: A Movement Transforming Home and Community

Imagine waking up every day in a sanctuary tailored to your passions, surrounded by people who not only share your interests but inspire your next big project. That's the transformative world of themed coliving spaces Gareth and Daniel dissect this week. Forget the traditional trajectory of solitary living; we're showcasing how communities built on collective passions—from entrepreneurship to culinary arts—can profoundly enrich lives. These aren't just homes; they're incubators for collaboration and personal growth, where your neighbors become your tribe.

As we peel back the layers on the value of immersing yourself in an environment that resonates with your lifestyle, you'll be treated to tales of concrete utopias where boundaries between work, play, and home blur into a seamless tapestry. Whether you're a creator looking for your artsy enclave or a sustainability warrior seeking an eco-conscious cohort, our conversation illuminates the multifaceted benefits of thematic living. It’s a discussion that goes beyond bricks and mortar, delving into how these spaces offer a platform for both short-term flexibility and long-term stability, enhancing quality of life in the process.

But what does the future hold for coliving spaces? We navigate through the potential of ColivingDAO—a decentralised network that's set to revolutionize communal living. Join us as we explore the symbiosis of residents' and operators' benefits in this niche ecosystem, where increased engagement and strategic partnerships are just the tip of the iceberg. Themed coliving isn't just an alternative; it's a movement reshaping our concept of 'home' and 'community' in the most vibrant sense. Don't just listen—step into a realm where your living space amplifies your life's chorus.

Transcript

Daniel: 0:02

All right, welcome everyone to yet another episode of Coliving DAO Insights. This is your co-host, daniel, and I'm joined today, as usual, by my co-host, gareth. Hi, gareth.

Gareth: 0:13

Hey Dan, I'm really excited to get into the theme this week. It's going to be a fun podcast.

Daniel: 0:20

It is going to be very fun because today, just like you said, the theme, it is going to be very fun because today, just like you said the theme, in fact today we'll be speaking about themed coliving spaces and we'll see in a moment exactly what that entails. But let's start by describing something that I see very, very often, and it's a very common idea. If you look at the usual escalator in terms of property, in terms of home dwelling, when people are young it's kind of normal after leaving home, after leaving their family, to go and live with friends or maybe go and live with students, go and live with strangers, random people. The whole point is normally, when someone doesn't have a lot of money to afford a place on their own, they go and live with other people. Then, as they progress on the property ladder, they usually think, okay, now I've got enough money to afford a place for myself, and gradually whether it's buying or renting, the concept is the same Living alone is usually considered as something as a higher status and higher benefit compared to living with other people.

Daniel: 1:28

So in some way, shape or form, we somewhat evolved this idea in our society that living with other people is more of a nuisance is more of a drawback.

Daniel: 1:40

It's more of a necessity for people that cannot afford to live alone, rather than a benefit. What we want to do today is we really want to challenge this notion. We want to challenge the fact that living alone is more desirable compared to being surrounded by other people. And the whole point of this is that if you tell me, hey, you're going to have to share your personal space, you're going to have to live with people that are completely random, you know nothing about them, you know nothing about whether you'll get along with them. You'll have shared passions, common interests with them, then I understand this value proposition, which is hey, how about you get the opportunity to live with people? And these are not just random people. They are people that have a potential. You don't know for sure, but they have a potential to effectively add value to your life because they are people that share something significant with you. This is a very different value proposition, right, gareth?

Gareth: 2:49

Yeah, exactly. And so this week we're going to look at themed co-living and the value of living in a community versus living on your own and we've spoken before about you know how community and co-living spaces really adds an extra dimension to living and co-living. And so if we look at themed co-livings, we're going to take that one step further and focus on okay, what kind of themes could or do exist already in co-living? Dan.

Daniel: 3:20

Yes, exactly, we'll be seeing the exact themes as well in a few moments. Before we do that, let's delve into this concept a little bit further, because I think this idea of being alone is somewhat glorified at many levels, not just if you think in terms of long term living with someone, but also on a short term. If we think about hostels versus hotels, that's a very relevant example. When you can afford a hotel, probably the inclination would be hey, let's go to a hotel, I'm going to have a space just for me and there's a lot of advantages. Agreed, hotels have a lot of advantages compared to hostels. However, there's a couple of things that you will get in a hostel that you will normally not get in a hotel, namely community, making friends, meeting other people to share adventures with, and so on. So certainly there's a lot of limitations with that, unless we're talking about a themed experience, which is the whole point of today's episode but it starts to be clear that there's some advantages to having people around. So what we're really looking to understand is what makes people around you being an advantageous instead of be a problem, something undesirable that you want to move away from. So there has to be something to differentiate, because why not get the best of both worlds? Imagine if there was a hotel with all the advantages of the hotel but also the opportunity to meet people where you can jump on shared adventures with and I had great experiences in hostels where I could meet people and go sightseeing together, go partying together and so on. However, typically in a typical hostel it's a little bit random. Maybe you have very nasty roommates and they might actually ruin your holiday as well. I'm sure a lot of people had this experience too. So we're going to analyze what would really make the difference, and the whole point is very, very simple. If I go on, let's just look at something that is not necessarily dwelling accommodation in this case, but simply meeting people. If I go on a meetup website or any sort of event page really, so some of the most popular could be Eventbrite, meetup and so on.

Daniel: 5:49

I see there's a lot of events that are called social events and it's typically a couple of hours or an evening in a bar or something of that nature, and the value proposition is come, make friends and spend some time with like-minded people and the word like-minded is very interesting because when all I know about the people around me is that they're like-minded. How do I know that they're actually like-minded? Like-minded entails there is something in common with me, but you don't know me. It's just an ad. So how do you know that those people are going to be like-minded with me? But you don't know me. It's just an ad. So how do you know that those people are going to be like-minded with me?

Daniel: 6:29

Now, a very different value proposition for an event would be hey, this is a gathering for, for example, fitness enthusiasts, crypto enthusiasts, or maybe tech, ai, or it could be we can name a lot of different things cooking enthusiasts and so on. So there's a lot of different themes which we'll be discussing today as well. Now, if I have something like that, all of a sudden, you don't even need to use the word like-minded anymore. I see that there is a common theme, common passion, and if I go and spend an evening with those people, I know I'm going to have at least something to talk about with them, which makes a whole lot of difference. So the same concept can be applied to living together as well. So, gareth, how does this concept extend to the idea of co-living?

Gareth: 7:20

Yeah, thanks, dan, and yeah, this is a great point that you make. You know that idea of come and hang out with like-minded people, we see that a lot and it's a common thing. That's written in co-living ads and marketing, but you just don't know. It's very random and we happen to be neighbors, which was quite cool and and we did have a lot in common, but that was just by pure, pure chance, right when we lived in a co-living and there were other people who had very, very different interests and personalities.

Daniel: 7:52

Exactly, and you may argue that it was probably not pure chance. There was a little bit of an intelligent design in how some community managers were effectively. Some community managers were effectively pairing up next door neighbors and all sorts of things, which is something that can be done as well. But how about choosing a theme for the entire community or even part of the community? I mean, we can talk about the idea of having a community with different themes. Imagine a very large living space where every floor has a different theme, and so on. So that's also a possibility. But, gaurav, let's explain what would constitute a theme and why would this effectively present a lot of benefits compared to either having completely random neighbors that you don't know anything about or even living alone, because we're mentioning something very specific here. We're saying having people around is not just a necessary evil to save a bunch of money. It's actually a resource. People around can be a resource and it can be an advantage if they are the right people. So what makes these people the right people?

Gareth: 9:04

Exactly so. If you think about themed co-livings, there are kind of two ways to break it down. One is by timeframe, and so you can go from, like, short term to long term. We've already discussed some of that and we'll discuss a bit more today. But a much more useful framework might actually be to divide it into professional or personal themes, and by that what I mean is you could have a co-living that is focused on bringing together, you know, a professional interest group or members of a certain profession or members of a certain industry, so that you get really good alignment in your professional life where you live and there's a bunch of examples that we can go into there. Or, alternatively, you could focus a co-living theme more on personal themes. You know aspects of of those things that, um, people are interested in outside of work, so like hobbies, sports, um, common interests for fun things rather than the professional side of work, social side, the social aspect of people's lives, and so you can really split the theme into that big bucket between professional or personal. Dan.

Daniel: 10:19

Yeah, that's a very interesting distinction, because, if you think about that, a lot of people are already devoting their resources namely time and money primarily to actively going out and meeting people. They share non-professionals or personal interests with them. For example, if someone loves sports and it could be any sports, really let's say someone loves tennis what they would normally do is join a tennis club. Or maybe someone loves chess, they would join a chess club. Or someone loves cooking, they would join a cooking session, share a cooking session together. So there's all sorts of different clubs, and sometimes it's based on an activity, but sometimes not necessarily an activity. It could be philosophy, just debating different things. People can join a club based on common interests, whether they entail a physical activity, a mental activity or simply being together and hanging out, so people have already demonstrated that they're willing to invest resources in surrounding themselves with people that have shared interests. What's typically happening, though, is that this is something that doesn't happen in their home, or in the vicinity of their home as well, because usually people have to travel quite far. Especially if you look at big cities, people travel quite far, and if you look at smaller cities cities people sometimes travel to bigger cities just to meet people like that. So there's a major advantage in that now we're talking about passions that potentially won't be professional. They more relate to their personal life. But the same can be said from professional point of view as well, and course it all depends on the type of profession and what career plan someone has.

Daniel: 12:10

So I can imagine someone being a professional influencer, for example, instagrammer or YouTuber. They would definitely benefit from being around other YouTubers, instagrammers and sometimes having some masterminds, sometimes even just hanging out having fun, but knowing they have a lot in common because of the lifestyle they chose. And there's other professions, and again it depends on how passionate someone is about something, about some things that come to mind. Let's say, a corporate lawyer or an accountant. They may be very passionate about that, but also some of these professions a little bit more traditional professions, they usually have less commonalities among people that chose that profession. So a lawyer might not necessarily think that other lawyers have a lot in common with them outside of their professional life, but they might have some other hobbies. For example, a lawyer might be a bodybuilder, a lawyer might love cooking, a lawyer might love some other things and therefore it still makes sense for them to surround themselves with people, not necessarily to share a professional interest, but, in this case, a personal interest as well. Right, gareth?

Gareth: 13:15

yeah, absolutely, and you know, take one of those examples if you're really into bodybuilding but you're a corporate lawyer, you could choose to live in a co-living of other corporate lawyers if you want to really maximize your professional network. You know, outside of even your workplace you've got opportunities for networking, to advance in your career as a corporate lawyer. Or you could say you what. That's not for me. I don't want to be surrounded 24-7 by corporate lawyers, and you can understand why that might be the case for some people as well. But that same person might be a bodybuilder in their spare time, what they do for fun or at the weekends, and so it might make more sense for that particular corporate lawyer to move into a co-living where the theme is bodybuilding.

Gareth: 14:02

And imagine that. You know, you, the place where you live, there's events every week on nutrition and and fitness regimes and other people that you're interacting with on a daily basis to accelerate your progression through your bodybuilding hobby or your sport, and that could be hugely valuable because the amount of time and money that people spend on their hobbies and interests it can be huge, right, people are willing to travel very large distances to go to conferences where they can learn, you know cutting edge techniques or the latest knowledge in an area that interests them, one of their hobbies, and so if you have it on your doorstep when you come home after a long day at work, this is a huge advantage, because it potentially means that the fun part of your life is really catered for in the place that you live in.

Daniel: 14:59

Exactly so. Again, this really emphasizes the importance of choosing the right surroundings, because I think in our society and again, not only about living, but also on a broader scale, in terms of choosing a city to live in this is something that's usually overlooked. I remember when I was younger and I chose to move to a new city. Every time I moved to a new city, a lot of people were asking me oh, did you move, or are you going to move to that city for work? Are you moving because you got a job there, so you have to move there just because of that job? Or are you moving because of something that you already have, that is happening there and you can only do there? And my answer would usually be no, I'm moving because I want to be in that environment, then surely I'll I'll get a job, I'll make friends, I'll do this, I'll do that. But fundamentally, I understand that the importance of the environment usually tops the importance of other things and it's a good reason enough to live in a place. That's the thing that I don't see too often. And again, we spoke about how people choose a place to live as well. But again, this is only valid if there is a theme, and that's why we think that, for co-living spaces as well, we can identify different themes and different depth of themes which really can make a big difference in terms of value proposition. So let's talk a little bit more in depth on how this can happen, how themed co-living spaces can arise.

Daniel: 16:37

And then Garth, you can share some examples as well, but if we look at a very basic level of co-living, so let's start from what we call self-selection. So if someone creates a co-living space based on the amenities that they have in that co-living space, they can imagine that they will naturally attract a certain type of people and not another. So just because it's a co-living space, they can imagine that they will naturally attract a certain type of people and not another. So just because it's a co-living space, we share facilities. There's already a little bit of self-selection there. Like people that don't want to interact with others at all, they probably won't go there in the first place anyway. So that's a little bit of a first element of self-selection there. A second element of self-selection, again specific to the amenities if there is a co-working space, that place might attract people that work remotely because the co-working space would attract them.

Daniel: 17:26

If a co-living space does not have a co-working area, then it might be a little bit less likely to attract people that work remotely, which usually has some level of indication about the lifestyle those people have, even though, as we'll see, it's not necessarily too deep and it's the same with everything. So if there's, let's say, for example, a music studio, there could be content creation area that could be appealing for people that create content. Or if there's, a lot of sporting facilities, that could be more appealing for people that like sports, and so on and so forth. So the first level is really self-selection, which is partly by design when the amenities are designed, but partly it's also a little bit left to its own devices. So it's not really driven by specific marketing. Driven by specific marketing, a higher degree of like-mindedness, so to speak, or a higher degree of having a theme, is the idea of having a theme that is not necessarily too exclusive.

Daniel: 18:30

For example, digital nomads. We see a lot of co-living spaces that mention that they carry for digital nomads. So this space is not for everyone, it's only for digital nomads, so you would not expect a lot of people there. And again, they may or may not exclude people that are not digital nomads. That's down to their community management system, but fundamentally, what they want to do, they want to attract people that work remotely.

Daniel: 18:53

Now, of course, digital nomads have something in common on a very basic level.

Daniel: 19:00

It could mean that their lifestyle is a little bit more dynamic.

Daniel: 19:04

It could mean that they don't have to spend a lot of time commuting all sorts of things. So there's certainly some things in common, but again, digital nomads can have very, very different professions. Someone could be an entrepreneur, so having a very entrepreneurial lifestyle. Someone could be a entrepreneur, so having a very entrepreneurial lifestyle. Someone could be a content creator. Or someone could be simply working in a corporate and doing the exact same job someone would do from an office, except they do it remotely because the company's allowing that. What this means is that, again, there can be a huge spectrum of different, not only professions but also different personalities for people. And again, so this is a little bit more of a superficial level of theme, and then we can move into much stronger themes and much stronger themes. We can make some examples. We made a couple of examples already before, but the best way to do that is Gareth, do you want to mention some real-life examples of themed communities and then mention what other examples of potential themed communities could be.

Gareth: 20:09

Yeah, sure, let's dive straight into some themed co-living examples that already exist out there in the world and then we'll talk a bit about some of the ideas that people have come up with for themed co-living as well, to just give you a bit more of a flavor of what might be possible. So wellbeing is really a big theme and a big interest that's developing in people as they look to balance their lives, and I think this generation in particular are looking to build a bit more balance into their lives and looking at how they can support their health and well-being. So there's a number of themed co-livings that tend to be more on the short-term end of the time spectrum. You know their pop-ups or their short-term co-livings more like. They're very similar to well-being retreats in many cases. Some of them do a bit longer term as well, but there's one example called Innate, and they do conscious and entrepreneurial events that bring together people to do things like meditation, yoga, breath work and ceremonies to improve well-being, silent retreats and so on. And so we're seeing a real trend in well-being co-livings, certainly on the more short-term, end-of-the-time spectrum. And then on the other end, there are loads of great ideas for co-living's. Um, one in particular is like an artistic retreat, where the co-living doubles as a place where you can bring together creatives in an inspirational environment to do like art workshops, gallery sales, collaborations with artistic cultural institutions, and really that would would be. You know, you could call that an artist's co-living. That's quite an amazing idea for a co-living space.

Gareth: 22:07

There are also lots of people who are postulating that eco-friendly co-living spaces would be a great theme, but that would be more for people that are actually interested in that, probably as a profession, in sustainability, for example, where people are interested in green design, eco-friendly, zero waste living and ways of of bringing you know furniture and and resources into co-living that are upcycled, for example, and so that's another great idea for a themed co-living to have environmentally conscious sustainability professionals or people that are really into that in their spare time and interest. And then on the more exciting end of the spectrum, there are adventure seekers and extreme sports themed co-livings where you can imagine a group of people that are really into whitewater rafting and they want to go and do a lot of whitewater rafting in a place that has great spots and rivers for rafting, for rafting. Then a co-living located in a position somewhere in the world that caters for that interest would be really good. Equally, you could have skydivers, base jumpers, skiers, snowboarders, you name it any type of extreme sports where there's a really strong alignment and a personal interest, and we're starting to see some of them pop up out there in the world. That's not just theoretical anymore.

Gareth: 23:48

Another great idea is for a culinary exploration hostel or a co-living that is themed around food and dining. So, for example, you could have cooking classes, food tours Maybe it's in a place where the local cuisine is particularly strong Places like Italy, dan, maybe Japan, higher up on the spectrum in the culinary masterclass and skills and that would be amazing. Foodies and food entrepreneurs that would be a fantastic idea for a co-living. If you're a foodie, imagine going to a place that was a foodie co-living you get to immerse yourself in amazing food. Yeah, and there's a few other specific examples I'm going to go into of ideas. But, dan, any reaction to that?

Daniel: 24:38

Yeah. So this makes a lot of sense because again, when we talk about being like-minded, we want to know why someone is supposed to be like-minded, and again, it doesn't have to be one specific interest in particular, but it could be the way people describe themselves, their personality and so on. I mean, even being entrepreneurial doesn't mean someone has to necessarily be a multiple business owner and an accomplished CEO. Having an entrepreneurial mindset already shapes the way some people think and therefore for many people it's nice to be surrounded by people that way. If someone wants to have a co-living space themed in a professional way, then it makes sense to have something even more specific than that and say not just entrepreneurial, but why not a specific niche of entrepreneurship or a specific level of success as well, and so on, so anything can really be decided. However, what I wanted to mention as well is this idea of short-term versus long-term also has an impact, but we can see that the theme can happen either way. So you mentioned innate great example of, so to speak, conscious communities. So people that want to spend a few weeks or maybe a month or two doing meditation, yoga and all sorts of things, effectively get the ability to be there, and it's a little bit like an extended retreat in a way. So rather than having a one-week retreat, people have a one-month retreat, maybe less intense if they so wish, but with the opportunity for bonding even further. And we don't need to go on holiday or quit their job while they do that, because they can actually still work in that period. They have enough time. If they work remotely, they have enough time to do so.

Daniel: 26:26

And then we have a similar theme, but on a much longer timeframe, which a good example of would be NSOL, which is an upcoming community in London, based in London. And what's interesting about En-Soul is that it is a themed community about consciousness, and there's certainly a lot of overlap with meditation and yoga, which is part of the activities that they're proposing to have even on a daily basis. And some of the people behind En-Soul effectively already had a very large co-living project before jumping into Ensole I mean before proposing Ensole and that was not really a themed co-living. There were some suggestions of making it themed and so on.

Daniel: 27:15

But ultimately it's interesting to see how some operators moved from non-themed co-living and then came back with a new project that is actually themed co-living. So this really makes us think that, hey, there's actually advantages for operators as well. So we've been talking about the advantages for the people, but certainly the people that live there, the residents, but there's certainly a lot of advantages for the operators too, and we can mention those in a moment as well. But, garth, do you have any more examples that you wanted to share about themes or themed co-living spaces?

Gareth: 27:52

Yeah, there's an interesting one I found called Nine Co-Living, which is in Tenerife, in the Spanish Canary Islands, and it does market itself as a place for digital nomads, but it also seems to be a bit of a surfing-themed co-living and, for obvious reasons, in the Canary Islands, if anyone's familiar with them, there's some amazing surfing opportunities there and the place is a magnet for surfers from around the world. So that would be really cool. That would be something I'd be into, a surfing co-living. We have some other examples of theoretical projects as well. There was three amazing ideas for co-living communities as part of the Davidson Prize.

Gareth: 28:35

This is an architecture prize in the UK and a couple of years ago. Three of the finalists were really interesting ideas and the first one was responding to the brief. Well, they were all responding to the brief of whether co-living models can help tackle an epidemic of loneliness in the UK and whether our current notions of home are congruent with the 21st century, whether our current notions of home are congruent with the 21st century, and so that was the brief and we spoke about how co-living combats loneliness before and again. That leads really into this theme of what's the value of community. But anyway, so to focus on the three ideas. One was a community housing model in rural co-living in the countryside and the idea there is to cohabit in a rural community, and the project there focused around revitalizing rural communities and minimizing the use of the dependence on cars by making a self-contained, self-sufficient community. So that's a really cool idea. Another one is called Communiversity, which is combining co-living with an educational enterprise. In this case they looked at what if people lived together and learned social entrepreneurship skills, how to build small businesses that would build a small ecosystem of businesses that would service a community Commun, businesses that would service a community communiversity. That's a really interesting idea.

Gareth: 30:06

And the third one was it called it Takes, a Village designed by an outfit called Childhood, which focuses really on affordable childcare by building a co-living model for families, but really that is focused on having amazing spaces and educational and social opportunities for children. So you can imagine having 10 families together in a co-living like that where all the kids have these amazing adventure spaces and green spaces, blue spaces to go and explore. You know how kids love to climb up trees, go and look at insects, look at things swimming around in the ponds. We all have great memories of doing stuff like that Imagine a space dedicated to the children. That makes it a lot easier for the parents, and we spoke about that before as well. So three really interesting ideas One on revitalizing rural living as a theme, one on education and social entrepreneurship and one on making a space that's great for childcare for families, dan.

Daniel: 31:08

That's brilliant. These are great ideas and I'm sure we'll see them come to fruition very, very soon in the near future. And what I really want to emphasize is some people might have an objection here and think wait a minute, I don't have a lot of free time. So if I work all day, I don't have a lot of time when I'm home. So what's the point of surrounding myself with people that are like-minded if my time is very limited anyway and I hear and see that point I realized in my experience living in co-living spaces for many years is that having very little free time is actually one of the main reasons why I want to live in a co-living space, Because I understand that if I'm in a pop-up co-living let's say short term, for a week or a month I want to have a little bit of free time on the side so that I can take advantage of the activities and the events rather than just be there and miss out on most of the experience.

Daniel: 32:06

But for a long-term co-living space being extremely busy, what it means is that not a lot of time is left for social activities, bonding with people and so on, and especially in a big city like London, and this is true in a lot of other big cities as well. Commuting takes a very long time. So if I want to have some extracurricular activities for example, if I want to I don't know play chess, do boxing, go to the gym, be in an art club or you name it, really, if I want to do any of that, it would take me even more time to commute and do that, let alone the capacity for bonding with people. Every time I go to an event I will probably see different people, especially in big cities. Sometimes maybe I can recognize a familiar face, but most of the times, if I go to a drawing class, for example, I can go and draw and enjoy the moment, but it's going to take me time to commute and it's going to take me some planning to make that happen, and I will probably see new people every time, and even if the same people, the opportunity to bond is is limited because when the event is over, everyone's gone.

Daniel: 33:20

However, if I live in a space where there's really like-minded people, plus there's these events around, the common interest that we have as a themed community, then I can really maximize the benefit of that very little free time that I have in that particular scenario. So what this means is living in a non-themed community or, even worse, living alone, will really take this opportunity away, and this is a massive opportunity cost there. So I can see that for people that want to get the most of their life, it becomes almost a must to be in a space that allows for this dynamics to arise and for these things to happen. So a massive advantage for people that are kind of on the fence, thinking hey, actually I'm busy, I'm better off being by myself, Not really Quite. The contrary, and in fact I was able to make friends in a place like London where it's not that easy to really nurture long-term connections and bond over a long period of time because the city is so dispersive. All the activities are scattered across the city. I was able to make strong friendships even with a very busy schedule because I was in a co-living space. Now I was in a large co-living space, so even sometimes the lack of themes was a little bit offset by the fact that there were a lot of different people. So I could find my little themed co-living space within a broader co-living space.

Daniel: 35:00

But having a theme makes it even easier to bond and makes this possible even with the small co-living spaces, and what I want to mention is that this advantage really translates very nicely into advantages for the operators as well.

Daniel: 35:17

I know that for a lot of co-living spaces it's kind of difficult to market and attract residents, especially for new co-living spaces without a lot of branding and this is not even unique to co-living, but it's true for every type of product or service out there.

Daniel: 35:34

Really, it's a lot easier to market to a specific community, a specific target market or target audience, rather than having to market in a very broad way. So if someone is marketing four walls and a nice landscape, there's probably a lot of alternatives out there. There's always going to be a cheaper alternative, there's always going to be a more convenient one, and the co-living space is competing with a lot of co-living spaces offering pretty much the same thing. However, marketing for a very specific themed community might be perceived as more effort in the beginning, but in reality it's a lot easier because one can create a message that can resonate with that specific community and therefore a lot of people will want to live in that space. So, Gareth, what can we say in terms of advantages for operators when it comes to having their co-living community themed?

Gareth: 36:31

Yeah, well, so the really obvious advantage for operators, dan, is when you have a very strong theme, you know.

Gareth: 36:38

Let's take an example, let's say you are in the Canary Islands and you have a surfing co-living as a theme, then surfers are really going to want to live there, right?

Gareth: 36:50

And if you have the best co-living space in terms of a physical space in that location, there's going to be very high demand from surfers to come and live there.

Gareth: 37:00

People, maybe professionals, that want to live there for three months, six months or a year or long, you know, long term, because they are professional surfers and and so what you have there is a big demand for the spaces, probably over subscription, right, and so if you're the operator of that surfing themed co-living, you don't need to spend anything on marketing. It's all word of mouth through the surfing network. So you have no marketing costs and the attrition rate is potentially low as well, because people want to stay there for long enough to get their surfing skills up. They want to take advantage of all those waves that they can ride to really get their surfing skills up. Two huge advantages, right, low, low marketing budget um, you know, the community does the marketing for you and very low costs in terms of turnover, having to get new residents in and out, bureaucracy, paperwork associated with, you know uh, residents who are leaving, and then getting the new ones in as well. So huge advantages in terms of just money and cost.

Daniel: 38:08

Very big advantages indeed, and I can mention one more the community management is going to be a lot easier as well, because having a community that is like-minded, truly like-minded, so centered around the theme, makes it a lot easier to decide how to manage it. So, for example, whether it's just personality and the managing personality, interactions and so on, but also choosing events. So I've seen communities where it's very difficult to choose events that everyone attends. In fact, there's many co-living communities where, on the average event, only 5% or 10% of the people living there attend and that means there's extra cost in having to put up more events to serve the same number of people and having a much harder decision-making process as well, upsetting some of the people in the community thinking, oh, I don't like any of the events, all sorts of things. So it's actually harder to manage a community that is not themed. It's much easier to manage a themed community. Also, the value of having people there can make partnerships easier. For example, if I have a co-living space, I can find a sponsorship partner or a service provider. Sure, what could that be? Maybe food and drinks, like things that everyone does. But if I have a specific community let's keep this example surfers. I can partner with the service providers product providers, manufacturers, brands and so on in the surfing space, and it's a lot easier to show value for the partnership. So it just becomes a lot easier to do business as well. And the bottom line is and this is my opinion, but I think right now it can feel like a little bit of extra value or a bit of a luxury to have a themed co-living. I think in the future it will become almost a necessity simply to exist as a co-living space. And that's because right now the co-living I think in the future it will become almost a necessity simply to exist as a co-living space. And that's because right now the co-living concept alone is already quite disruptive, relatively new, and therefore a lot of people think oh, I'm doing a novel thing, I'm going to a co-living space. Some self-selection is in place, as we mentioned as well, so co-living spaces can still survive without a strong branding around the theme, but I think in the future it will be next to impossible.

Daniel: 40:25

Imagine having so many co-living spaces around the world. What would make someone want to go to your space as opposed to another? It will become extremely difficult to market, and one way to visualize that if there's any coaches out there, for example. I know the very same thing happened in a lot of different markets, surely, and an example could be coaching. I know a lot of digital nomads are coaches, so a lot of already enough as a brand saying, okay, hey, I'm a coach, I sell services. Let's say a life coach, for example.

Daniel: 41:17

Someone being a life coach would already get clients. Brand like just being a life coach. It's next to impossible to get clients unless they couple that life coaching brand with something more specific. So either they cater that for a subgroup like being a life coach for single dads, being a life coach for divorced women, being a single coach for insert the theme that you prefer or by doing pretty much the same things but not calling themselves life coach, right, so they can use different names. But again, the bottom line is the same. They are choosing a theme and branding the type of community. So effectively they are in a way turning down or turning off a large number of people. But the people that are not turned off by that, they're going to be extremely attracted to that value proposition.

Daniel: 42:10

So again, it's a basic marketing concept. It works perfectly in co-living as well, and I think it will become more and more relevant. Again, it's my personal opinion. I think it's going to become more and more relevant as co-living proliferates as a new concept. Very soon it will no longer be considered disruptive, new. It will be not necessarily the norm, but certainly something we've all seen or heard of or experienced. And that's why, if you're an operator or prospective operator, having a themed co-living is definitely something we'll look into. Having a themed co-living is definitely something we'll look into.

Gareth: 42:42

Yeah, absolutely, dan. So the themed co-livings are the future of co-living most likely, right? Because it offers that way to differentiate if you're an operator. So if you're listening and you're a co-living operator, you want to be a co-living operator. Themed co-livings are a really powerful way to differentiate your brand and this is a nice link to.

Gareth: 43:03

So how is all this relevant to co-living DAO and what we are doing here at co-living DAO? How are themed co-livings going to map onto what we are doing? And the amazing thing about co-living DAO and I know that we're always you, you know we're here to blow our own trumpet to some extent, but the amazing thing about co-living DAO is we're not just one co-living community. We have the blueprint that enables a federation of co-living communities, multiple co-living communities in multiple locations around the world and and each co-living community in that federation is its own company with its own identity and, potentially, its own brand. And so the great thing about our model is that we can have lots of different themed co-livings. We can have co-livings that are focused on the professional side, as we mentioned before. So you could have a co-living of corporate lawyers. You could have a co-living of corporate lawyers. You could have a co-living of Instagram influencers. You can have a co-living of people that are in the shipping industry why not? It could be anything. And then, on the personal side, you can have co-livings across the Co-Living Dial Federation. You could have a surfing co-living, you can have a mountaineering co-living, you can have the bodybuilding co-living that we mentioned before. We have lots of brands coming in supplying residents with bodybuilding, nutritional products and bodybuilding fitness regimes and all kinds of partner programs, and so you can really encompass the whole spectrum of themes of co-living in the co-living dial federation.

Gareth: 44:44

So if you want to, if you want to set up a surfing co-living, you can do it in the co-living dial federation. We'll give you the blueprint, the launch pad. Connect you to investors, connect you to potential residents and you can make it happen and you can have your own brand as well. But the beauty of it is that you're forming a part of a much bigger community of other co-livings running on the same blueprint, on the same Web3 blockchain foundation that enables all the amazing benefits that we spoke about in previous podcast episodes. So how cool is that to have a federation and, as a resident, a potential kind of digital passport to move from one to the other.

Gareth: 45:25

So if you want to go away for a month to a well-being meditation retreat, co-living if there's one in the co-living dial federation could be very, very easy. Just to go and slot in there for a month, keep your room in the place that you live in and come back to that in the original co-living dial in the place that you live in and come back to that in the original co-living dial community that you live in long term. So it starts to really unlock the short term and the long term benefits and access to all these different types of themed co-livings to suit the stage of life that you're at. How does that sound, dan?

Daniel: 45:58

Yeah, that's great because it really offsets any potential downside of being in a themed community, namely the fact that some people may be thinking okay, but I still want to have inputs from people from all walks of life, I still want to meet different people and so on, not just being limited to one type of thinking only. And yes, although even in the themed co-living space, you will still be exposed to a lot of diversity, because having some passions in common doesn't mean everyone will think exactly the same way. But I definitely hear the point. How about having some exposure to completely different people too? And that's exactly what we do here at Co-Living DAO.

Daniel: 46:35

So creating this format where people can choose who they want to spend most of their time with, but still have the opportunity to hang out or even live for a while with people that belong to different themed co-living spaces, so that, effectively, they get the best of both worlds. So that's what we're creating here at Co-Living DAO. And again, just before we wrap this up, for everyone who's been listening, whether you're a prospective operator, a prospective resident or a current one, you definitely want to stay in touch with us. So reach out if you have anything to share or simply subscribe to this podcast and we'll be back next week as usual, gareth. Any final thoughts about themed co-living spaces?

Gareth: 47:26

I think we've covered it, Dan. Themed co-living spaces are the future, I think, and the Co-Living Dial Federation really enables lots of different themed co-livings to be part of the same community, which is pretty amazing. That's all from me.

Daniel: 47:40

Exactly so the advantages of a themed community, while being part of a larger network that allows for having inputs from people from all walks of life, plus all the other benefits that we mentioned in the other episodes as well. So great to have all of you here, everyone, and what we'll do. As usual, we'll be back next week, so stay tuned, stay subscribed and we'll be back with you next week. Outro Music.