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 conversations with real people who've been there. Same with the London Writers Club. People consistently say they achieve more sitting around that table than they ever would working from home alone. Here's the thing: taking care of ourselves—mentally, physically, creatively—whilst standing up to all the chaos happening right now is so much easier when you've got people around you. The isolation will break you before the business challenges do. So what? Community isn't a nice-to-have for coworking founders. It's survival equipment. If you're building an independent coworking space and feeling the weight of going solo, my Community Builder's Email Engine shows you exactly how to build the relationships that sustain both you and your space. #coworking  #communityisthekey #coworkinglondon

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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 not hunting for another talking head they can already watch on YouTube, read in books, or hear on seventeen different podcasts. They're seeking something you can't get from content: genuine connection, meaning, and change through real human interaction. The real value isn't in who's on your stage—it's in who's sitting next to each other in your audience and whether they leave having built something together. The So What? Your event's success isn't measured by how famous your speakers are, but by how many meaningful connections happen between the people who show up. #coworking  #communityisthekey #coworkinglondon

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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 need. Your offer becomes crystal clear because it's shaped by real people with real problems. The folks who need what you're building will join. The ones who don't will stick around anyway—they're part of the community now. You end up with a space built for people who need it, not a space built hoping someone will want it. #coworking  #communityisthekey #coworkinglondon

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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 stories are the real, authentic vibe you can then share with the world. Forgetting True Hospitality: Hospitality isn't a £20,000 coffee machine. It's the simple, human art of making every single member feel seen, heard, and genuinely welcome. It’s the small things that make the biggest difference. Ignoring Inclusion: Be intentional about building a true community, not an exclusive clique. A space that actively welcomes people from all backgrounds is a space that will thrive. Having Messy Communication: Your communication must be crystal clear. Members should never have to guess what's happening, when to show up, or how to get involved. A simple, reliable process builds trust and engagement. Chasing Growth Over Quality: A room of 100 disconnected individuals is a failure. A group of 20 deeply connected members is a success. Always, always prioritise the quality of your connections over the quantity of your members. Ready to dive deeper and build a lasting community? We've created a free 5-day email course to help you avoid these pitfalls and build a community with confidence. 5 Biggest Mistakes Coworking Community Builders Make (And How to Avoid Them) Sign up for free here: londoncoworkingassembly.com #coworking  #communityisthekey #coworkinglondon

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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 promoting it. And you've got to keep promoting, constantly. In a way, you're always launching. So how do you avoid becoming another statistic? Three things I've seen help (no guarantees, but they're worth trying): Get together with other operators. Share war stories about what's working and what's bollox. You're not competing — you're all just trying not to go under. Watch your cash flow like a hawk. Boring as paint drying, but it's what keeps the doors open. Keep learning, but stay relevant. Not about AI on Mars or whatever magic's trending. What matters to you in the next 12 weeks? Stick to that. #coworking  #communityisthekey #coworkinglondon

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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 spaces for your Herman Miller chairs. They join because they're tired of working alone, crave creative collisions, and are desperate to escape the isolation of home offices. The magic isn't in your space — it's in the people in your space. So What? Stop marketing your amenities and start showcasing your community. Talk about your members to your members. Help them connect with each other, not just you. Your job isn't to attract everyone from the entire universe. It's to help the people already in your space discover why they belong there. That's where real retention happens. That's where word-of-mouth begins. That's where community transforms from a buzzword into your business model. #coworking  #communityisthekey #coworkinglondon

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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 anyone notice the difference? That's the problem right there. If "Megahub Coworking" could instantly become "Superhub Coworking" with zero changes to your messaging, you're not standing out – you're blending in. Coworking is becoming intensely personal. Your potential members are comparing multiple spaces in minutes, scrolling through near-identical websites. The more specific you can be about who you serve and how you serve them, the better you'll perform. Generic language = invisible business. Specific language = memorable choice. Your move: Go run the name swap test on your homepage right now. #coworking  #communityisthekey #coworkinglondon

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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 help me thrive or just survive another inbox flood? In a coworking context, coworking is already mysterious enough. So if you're going to ask for someone's email, be specific about the value. Instead of "Sign up for our newsletter," try something like: "Sign up for our newsletter and discover how our coworking space will help you be productive." Even better? Offer something concrete. On the front of London Coworking Assembly's website, we have a five-day email course called "The Biggest Mistakes Community Builders Make." Get it here - https://londoncoworkingassembly.com/ That's got us more subscriptions than ever because people know exactly what they're getting. The lesson? Be specific about the value you're offering. Your potential members' inboxes are already full – give them a compelling reason to make room for you. #coworking  #communityisthekey #coworkinglondon

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"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 pays off tenfold. When you write that weekly newsletter, you're not just creating one piece of content. You're building a content goldmine. Take that newsletter and break it down: Pull quotes for Instagram posts Extract key points for LinkedIn Turn insights into Twitter threads Use sections as standalone social updates Text-based platforms, especially those that love repurposed newsletter content. Add some images to your original newsletter, prep everything ahead of time, then schedule it all through @Bufferapp or CoSchedule. The So What? You're already doing the creative work for social media. A newsletter makes that work stretch further - much further. One focused writing session becomes 10-15 pieces of social content. That's not more work; that's working smarter.

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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 week, 3-4 white males are acciedently showcased as the face of "community success." And I say this as someone who fits that exact demographic – a middle-aged white guy who sees himself reflected in every story they share. Here's the issue: London's coworking scene is genuinely diverse. It's full of entrepreneurs from every background, gender, and walk of life. Yet this newsletter inadvertently sends a message: "This space is for people who look like this." The takeaway? Even well-intentioned content can create invisible barriers. If your marketing only shows one type of person succeeding, you're quietly suggesting everyone else might not belong. Want to build an inclusive community? Start by making sure your stories reflect the actual diversity of your space. Because representation isn't just nice to have – it shapes who feels welcome to join. What stories is your content telling about who belongs? #coworking  #communityisthekey #coworkinglondon

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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 designer every morning, that changes. When coworking members start doing business with each other, something shifts. It's not just "buying off each other" (though money does change hands). It's a business ecosystem that saves everyone time, money, and the exhaustion of endless pitches to strangers. Your job? Make the connections happen. Could be Tuesday breakfasts. Could be a Slack channel. Could be literal sticky notes on a community board. The method doesn't matter — the proximity does. The real magic: When your members stop Googling for services and start walking ten feet to find them. This is exactly the kind of community-building strategy we dive into in the Community Builder's Email Engine — where connection drives revenue, not just vibes.

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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 boards with corporate signage. They swap their owner's morning coffee rounds for an app. They trade their messy, beautiful community for a "scalable experience." And their members leave. Because here's the thing about authenticity that nobody teaches in business school: People don't buy homogenised spaces. They buy into the person who shows up every day, who remembers their dog's name, who built something that feels like somewhere. So how do you figure out who you actually are? Not with ayahuasca retreats or expensive consultants. You sit down—with yourself, with your team—and answer one question: "When the shit hits the fan, who are we?" That's it. That's your values. That's your differentiator. That's what people are actually buying. Your values will evolve. Your community will shape them. But they start with you being brave enough to admit what you stand for when everything's on the line. The bottom line: Your members chose your space because you're NOT WeWork. Stop trying to become what they're running from. This is exactly the kind of positioning work I help coworking operators nail in The Community Builder's Email Engine—where we turn your unique story into members who stay.

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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 work stuff. Facebook for events. Your coworking software for bookings. Before you know it, your community is scattered across seven different apps, and nobody knows where anything is happening. The brutal truth: You're not building community. You're building confusion. Start with email. Just email. Get a consistent rhythm going. Help members actually meet each other. Tell your community's story in one clear channel that everyone already checks. Once you know what your people actually use (not what you hope they'll use), THEN introduce other tools. But make email your spine — everything else branches from there. Because here's what nobody tells you: It's easier to put other channels IN your emails than to get email into those other channels. Your members don't need another app. They need one place where they know everything important will show up. So what? Stop fragmenting your community across platforms that make YOU feel productive but leave your members lost. Build the habit first. Add the tools later. This is exactly the kind of strategic simplicity we dive into in The Community Builder's Email Engine — where email becomes your most powerful community tool, not just another newsletter.

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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 vs weekends. Planning a big annual holiday? Massive upheaval. But weekend trips? Easy. Natural. Part of life. Here's the kicker: I genuinely care about a newsletter creator. Smart person. Great content. But I literally forgot to include them in a project listing all my favourite newsletter writers. Why? They publish monthly. I give a sh@t about this person's work, but because it shows up once a month instead of weekly, they've disappeared from my mental landscape. The catch? If you go weekly, you can't phone it in. Every issue needs to deliver. However, that pressure makes you better — with more ideas, tighter lists, and consistent value. Monthly newsletters are comfortable for you, forgettable for them. Weekly newsletters are work for you, memorable for them. Choose accordingly.

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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 listen for what you want to say. Listen for what THEY'RE already talking about. The conversation happening by the coffee machine. The problem was mentioned three times this week. The small victory that made someone's day. That's your newsletter content. When you write FOR your community, you're tuning into their frequency, not broadcasting on yours. You become the person who gets it. Who sees them. Who writes the thing they forward to their partner, saying, "This is exactly what I was thinking." The Shift: Stop Being a Bulletin Board. Start being a mirror that reflects back what matters to them. And here's the kicker — the more consistently you do this, the sharper your radar gets. Weekly publishing isn't about discipline. It's about staying in sync with your community's rhythm. This is precisely the kind of community-first approach we dig into in The Community Builder's Email Engine. Because announcements don't build community. Resonance does.

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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 200 unread messages. The uncomfortable truth? Email won. Every time. Not because it's hip and cool.. Not because it has emojis, threads, and reactions. But because everyone has it. Everyone checks it. Everyone knows how to use it. Your Discord-native members might love their server. Your WhatsApp crew might be chatty as anything. But when you need to reach everyone — from the 22-year-old developer to the 55-year-old consultant — email is the only common ground. Start there. Build trust there. Then ask where they want to hang out. The best community platform isn't the one with the most features. It's the one people actually show up to. So what? Stop chasing platform perfection. Start with what works — email — then let your community tell you where they want to go next.

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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, I need that." For the London Coworking Assembly, we stopped the vague "updates" nonsense and replaced it with this: "The 5 Biggest Mistakes Coworking Community Builders Make When Starting a Space" Specific. Useful. Solves a real problem. Result? More signups in the first month of 2025 than the entire previous year. Fifty people in two months might not sound massive, but for a small organisation, it's a significant achievement. That's transformation. Stop asking people to sign up for updates. Start offering them something they actually want. Your move: Look at your opt-in right now. If it says "updates" or "newsletter," you're bleeding subscribers. Fix it today. This is precisely the sort of strategic email positioning we thoroughly explore in the Community Builder's Email Engine.

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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 relationship building. Not spam. Stop using "I don't want to spam people" as an excuse to avoid email marketing. It's intellectually lazy. You know the difference between permission-based email and actual spam. The fix is super simple: Put a signup form on your website Use double opt-in (they confirm they want your emails) Tell them it's okay to unsubscribe anytime Send them stuff worth reading That's not spam. That's respect. The word "spam" has become this throwaway excuse for people scared to show up in someone's inbox. Meanwhile, your competitors are building relationships, sharing value, and making sales. You want to avoid spam? Don't buy lists. Don't add people without asking. Everything else is just fear dressed up as ethics. Tomorrow: I'll show you exactly what to put on your website's front page to get permission the right way. This connects directly to why independent coworking spaces need Educational Email Courses. When you have permission and send value, you build the trust that turns subscribers into members. That's exactly what we master in the Community Builder's Email Engine.

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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 superficial "community" events feel hollow. None of it sticks. Here's the brutal question every coworking operator needs to ask: If all your gimmicks disappeared tomorrow, would you still have a community? Or just a shallow shell with good wifi? Because people can smell authenticity from a mile away now. They're tired of being sold to. They want to belong somewhere that actually stands for something. Your members don't need another ping pong table. They need a space that sees their humanity. That creates a genuine connection. That acknowledges the world is messy and says: "Let's figure this out together." The coworking spaces surviving this moment? They're the ones who never relied on gimmicks in the first place. They built on values. On real relationships. On showing up consistently for their people. The rest are about to find out what happens when the performance comes to a stop.

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