In our very first two-guest episode, Michael Clements sits down with Hannah Walker, manager at WorkHub and Lisa Lujan, its founder. The trio chats about Tyler’s newest shared workspace and some of the benefits to coworking beyond coffee and affordable office space.
Show Episode Transcript
Manufacturing Leadership
Reimagining the Modern Workplace with Hannah Walker and Lisa Juan
Welcome to Manufacturing Leadership, a podcast for young professionals in and out of the oil and gas industry. And now here's your host Energy Weldfab's, Michael Clements.
Michael C.: What's up listeners, welcome to another episode of manufacturing leadership, I'm your host Michael Clements and we've got a great show planned. Today we have a couple of exciting guests, yes you heard me right we have not one but two wonderful guests on the show today. Our guest Lisa Lujan is a passionate leader who has an eye for opportunity; originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico Lisa brought her motivated mindset to Tyler in 1995.
Her latest project is WorkHub which is a skating ring / CrossFit gym turned into a shared workplace, WorkHub has been redesigned to draw hard-working professionals together in new ways and infuse their work day with productivity, innovation and networking. Her website beau will tell you she is the first to give, first to step out, first to not only see the gap but also the first to stand in on behalf of others, welcome to the show Lisa.
Lisa Lujan: Thank you, happy to be here.
Michael C.: Our second guest is Hannah Walker, she's been living in the Piney Woods of Tyler since 2005, and the first half of her career was spent in the nonprofit world which included the United States Peace Corps, Habitat for Humanity and Mercy Ships. In 2012, Hannah switch gears and joined the mentoring minds team where she worked in marketing for five years, when Lisa owner of mentoring Minds had a dream called WorkHub she asked Hannah to join her and this new mission was one that Hannah was thrilled to get behind.
Hannah now serves as the manager of WorkHub and is committed to making WorkHub the source for professionals to build community, connection and productivity in Tyler, Hannah welcome to the show.
Hannah Walker: Thank you so much.
Michael C.: This is our first show with two guests, so this is kind of an exciting time for all of us here today. So Lisa why don't you start off, tell us a little bit about your background.
Lisa Lujan: Thanks, as you mentioned I grew up in Albuquerque New Mexico and my husband is a schoolteacher, and in 1995 we decided to move out to Tyler, he's a bilingual teacher at the time and they needed school teachers out here and my father and mother-in-law lived out here and that's what brought us to Tyler 23 years ago. So we're happy to be here, it's been a great 23 years and we've been blessed to raise our children here and live here.
Michael C.: Well it's wonderful to have an entrepreneur like yourself here, and so Hannah how about yourself?
Hannah Walker: Let's see well my family's from Texas but I grew up overseas and I had intended just to be here for about one year, that's it and it ended up now being almost like 13 years and so Piney woods of Texas is now home. Yes, so I've really enjoyed working for mentoring mines and that's where a lot of like my marketing background got developed, one of my main passions is working with people and anything that has a missional background is absolutely wonderful for me.
And so if it doesn't have like a missional purpose then sometimes I'm like oh it's not worth it, but this has been such a fun blast to get on board with WorkHub and come from education into co-working and so we're having a good time.
Michael C.: So that mission-based mindset that you come by that honestly correct from your upbringing?
Hannah Walker: Yes.
Michael C.: So tell us a little bit about where you did grow up?
Hannah Walker: So I grew up in Japan, I moved there in 1988 and lived there till I graduated from high school, and because I had a citizenship here in Texas and the United States I went to Stephen F. Austin State University at heart and still a proud lumberjack, and after that I join the United States Peace Corps and served in Bulgaria for a full service for two years and three months and came back to Texas to continue working in non-profit and have a family here in Tyler. And it was just supposed to be a real quick trip, just be here for a year, get some experience and then move on and ended up spending the last 13 years.
Michael C.: Super cool. Yes Lisa, tell us a little bit about your first job?
Lisa Lujan: When I first moved to Tyler it was in the banking industry and then in 2002 as I mentioned my husband was a schoolteacher and he developed a product, of course at the time it wasn't a product it was a way to help those teachers on campus. He was the assistant principal at that time and we started a business called tax tornado, and he developed a flipchart that had the state standards on the flipchart in order to help them quickly access the state standards, plus build critical thinking into their lesson plans.
And that idea came about as I mentioned to help the teachers, but then when people started seeing it they're like oh where'd you get that, could I have one, you should make those and that's how the business idea was started and that was 16 years ago. And now we're in all 50 states and even international, and so mentoring minds is still operating and a great company that serves lots of students and teachers across the nation.
Michael C.: That's exciting, and mentoring minds is here in Tyler?
Lisa Lujan: Yes, it's based out of Tyler but we do have salespeople and employees all over the country.
Michael C.: Okay, wonderful. And just asking you Hannah so how did this relationship come to be, how did you get involved with Lisa?
Hannah Walker: When I was at mentoring minds we actually didn't get to work together that often, because they are owners and I was down in marketing and so we didn't have a lot of interaction. But always knew that Michael and Lisa had a heart for the community and they had their full-time jobs at mentoring minds but then they were constantly involved in raising money for the community, we had this amazing program called mind share and it was genius because they had this pot of money and then they would have employees of mentoring minds put in applications to support nonprofits that they were passionate about.
So they had this that we'd all come together and fill out these little sponsorships or grants to help support other missions that we were involved in, and so with that said I always knew that their character and their heart behind the work that they were doing. So anyway I'm working in marketing at mentoring minds and Lisa very gingerly starts telling me about co-working and asking my thoughts about some stuff and I read a couple articles, and she said hey I'm going to start this new company would you want to come work with me, and I had read this incredible it was like a newsletter about a co-working company that was really was talking about how these co-working spaces were changing community, the way that it was drawing people in and you had a prime opportunity to provide a space to really change lives.
And what Lisa had said to me and what really changed my thinking about what co-working could mean is she said people in Tyler are more isolated than ever, I want to create a space where people are known where they get good work done, I want to be the source of supporting, building not only the economy of Tyler but also bridging that gap where people are feeling disconnected, where they don't have anywhere to go, where they're trying to work and they're just not feeling like they're getting the support they need.
And so with that mission in mind I was like I want to get behind that, that's something that's powerful and desperately needed here in Tyler. And for the sheer fact that we're doing something in Tyler that most people don't know about, that it's really new for Tyler to be like on the edge of something new, it's really fun.
Michael C.: So Lisa what drove your passion because it sounds like it's your excitement that got her excited about this whole work about, I mean I've only been here about 30 minutes now and I'm excited about it, I think this is a very unique and wonderful place. So tell us a little bit, what got you excited?
Lisa Lujan: Well thanks, I mean whether you call it serendipity or a God thing I mean it's just the way things fell into place, so just to bring all these things together. So my husband and I happen to be investors and found ourselves owning a very large building, this 42,000 square foot warehouse so that's just kind of on the side going on, trying to figure out what we were going to do, trying to sell it. Well in the meantime a friend of mine shared a podcast with me it's called how I built this and it's just different entrepreneurial stories and I loved listening to it, I had been listening to it probably for eight months and just constantly hearing different stories about how Tom started or Spanx and just different stories and I'm always intrigued by it and hearing people's stories since my husband and I already our own business.
And when I heard the story of we work which is a national and now international co-working space I immediately fell in love with the idea, I was like co-working is something that is needed, it's estimated that approximately 40% of the workforce by 2030 will be working remote and I had experienced that personally because about 30 percent of our employees work remote at mentoring minds. And so I saw how that was true and how it changed things in a business, and how necessary it was for those people that are working remote to still feel engaged. And then the other part of my life, my nonprofit I'm on a board, I'm on several boards but one of my favorites is East Texas human needs network and what that nonprofit is all about is networking and bringing nonprofits together and communicating.
So for me it was those three worlds all coming together in a very special way that it brought community together, it brought people together, it allowed for a space to how people do their best work whether they're in the nonprofit world, they're working remote, they're self-employed which again that entrepreneurial side of me everything came together and I thought what a great idea, concept and I'd love to make it happen here.
This building was formerly a Skate Plex so people in Tyler that have been here for a while remember it as that, the building is very unique and then after that it was a gym and so it has some very unique amenities I guess you could call it. We have a walking track and stadium steps and I just felt like all of those things lend itself to an amazing co-working space.
Michael C.: For our listeners that may not be fully aware of what a co-working space is, can you give us maybe a rundown, a definition?
Hannah Walker: So co-working is flexible shared workspace, the industry has been around about 10 years and what it provides is a space for people who are either retired, working for home or working in a busy office or perhaps they are song writers, poets whoever it may be needing a space, an affordable space to get work done or to build community or have meetings. So flexible shared workspace provides all of the amenities and needs to run an office, if you don't have the capital to able to open up an office or maybe you're tired from working from home, our space takes care of all the headaches acquired with running an office.
So let's say you're a new company, you don't want to have to go out and get a copy machine or you can't afford a high-speed Internet or maybe you've been working from home and you're just tired of being by yourself or maybe your kids are at your house as well and they're just bugging you to death and you need a space that you can focus. So we have all kinds of members that come from different backgrounds, we have retirees so for shared workspace is pretty much what you hear in the name it's a shared space and it's basically like a gym membership for professionals.
So everything is month-to-month there are no contracts we try to make it as flexible and easy to be here as possible, bottomless coffee, we've got conference rooms, so everything that's in that membership is designed to make it as easy and affordable as possible for people to be successful in their businesses or in their endeavors.
We even have retirees who have been spending most of their time in Starbucks and this is a much more cost effective way, you got your bottomless coffee and your monthly membership and you can collaborate and impart knowledge in your retired life to younger people who are trying to get going. With shared workspaces they're all very different, every co-working space that you're going to run into has a different vibe, we visited several co-working spaces in Dallas and we kind of picked from the things that we loved that were the best from all of them.
And I will say that we haven't run into one that has quite as large as ours, and also with the daycare going in in September and the gym we actually hitting some major need areas that most co-working spaces don't have, so pretty unique so Tyler's ahead of the game even in that aspect which is fun.
Michael C.: Yes, whenever we did the tour here earlier I definitely thought you're ahead of the game. I've been a couple in Dallas myself and there's nowhere else I can go walk around the facility and get a mile and while I'm on the phone.
Hannah Walker: Yes, well we really we want to encourage that whole work-life balance and that was great for thought on Lisa's part to see the potential to try and create that balance where you're not sanitary all day long, that you really are integrating movement and activity and then collaboration and community into one space which is not easy to do.
If anyone has ever been in an office situation often you're sitting there all day long getting interrupted, there's not a lot of space to move around, maybe go find a little pocket that's more like we've got that pergolas space and just as changing your environment can also change your focus and how you can be more effective and creative in the work that you're doing.
Michael C.: With all these great amenities and all these things here, how does somewhere like WorkHub compare to renting an office or leasing an office, what is your overhead, what are you looking at difference wise?
Lisa Lujan: It's a great question. It's so much more beneficial because you have one fee a month, you have your membership fee and that's it. So everything's included your utilities, Wi-Fi, coffee, copy machine, your gym membership, everything's covered and there's no long term.
Michael C.: So there's no running out to get toilet paper, hand soap, I got to go get paper for the printer?
Lisa Lujan: No absolutely, and so to me that would be very appealing. My husband and I when we started our first business we worked out of the home for our first three years and it was great, but sometimes it got difficult.
One of my favorite stories I always tell people is our daughter at the time was two years old around that age and the UPS driver came to the door and she just wrapped her arms around him and I was like okay sweetheart, he's not family because it would get hard to distinguish those lines of business and family and work in the office, so for a lot of people being able to get out of the home and separate things it's very beneficial.
Hannah Walker: One of the things that we like to emphasize is we've got all these amenities and that's wonderful, but in reality our main focus is using our space as a service to members, like if we're not doing that then it's not really working, we're not actually doing our jobs. So when we talk about space as a service where you're not only just saying here let us run these things for you and make your life easier, but you're also in a sense making sure that you're listening to their stories, what are their needs, how can we support them, what kind of lunch and learns or what kind of connections can we help make them have so they can move forward or grow in their areas.
And so a lot of times people look at the amenities and that's the main focus but it really isn't about that it's more about the people, the people that we serve, the needs that we're trying to help support because all of us come from these variety and backgrounds. I mean you know she comes back from working with a lot of nonprofits, so we have a lot of experience in learning how to study people and figure out like what is it they need, how do they communicate, where are they stuck.
And a lot of times you can get so focused in on like the minutia of fixing things and providing making sure the coffee's fresh and that's wonderful, but that's not really what it's about and a lot of people you can go and maybe hire people to do that for you in your office, but you really come here because you want to make good connections with people, because you see value in the others that are in this space.
Michael C.: Maybe the amenities that get you in the door or get you here to look at the place, but once you've actually signed up and you became a member it sounds like it's the networking and the collaboration that you find that you actually enjoy the most. It may not even be the walking or the presentation area or the multiple conference rooms or the workout facility.
Hannah Walker: Event centers or any of that, those are all cool but absolutely I think we first getting started I've really prayed about having them like oh Lord we want these charter members, we want these amazing charter members, people who are going to set the tone, those people that are going to have that spirit of collaboration and community who are those people that are going to join us before our Grand Opening and kind of set the foundation to say this is who we are and what we're about. And we have the most amazing charter members and they were from all walks of life, and we had writers and designers and project managers and all kinds of people that were the first people to join us before the building was open and lawyers.
And those were the people that basically communicated from everyone joining since that this is who we are, this is what we're about and they've been really instrumental in helping introduce other people to the space, and providing that very sense of like hey we're together, we're sharing the space in tandem, we want to know more about you and so those first people are imperative and we were so lucky we didn't handpick them they just came and they were just like the perfect people to put the space into motion the way we hoped.
Michael C.: So as you all were beginning and getting started, how are some of the conversations going back and forth about the amenities you all would offer here to your members?
Lisa Lujan: We again had a very limited budget, so we kind of took this space for what it already had and then just put the twist of co-working into it and it's just worked out great. I mean when people walk in it has been one of the funnest things, because especially if they knew it as the Skate Plex or the gym their mind is just blown on just how different it looks. I guess one of the biggest compliments is I've heard over and over how calm it is, that it's very relaxing, that means a lot to me I think we hit the kind of vibe we wanted.
And just again to touch on what you and Hannah were just talking about it has been so great to see some of the and I hate to even say networking, but just the conversations and the people meeting each other, just today we had two new members and one of our charter members introduced himself, I mean just overhearing their conversation and how things were going and how much they've enjoyed it, it's just been great to see those relationships starting to develop and for our members to take ownership. And we remind them all the time this is your space, and we want it to be what you want it to be, so we're all constantly asking for feedback and want everyone to feel like it's there's space and to make it what they want.
Michael C.: Give me a description here for our listeners of what the environments like here on a daily basis, what is it like on a on a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday what's it like in the heart of the week here?
Hannah Walker: So it can change from day to day, some days we have a lot of meetings like our conference rooms are a huge pool for the Tyler community, we have very affordable conference room spacing. So like today let's talk about today, so we had multiple meetings and different rooms getting used. We've got people spread out in the open like the commons area, they've all got their headphones on and their laptops up and they're drinking the Texas State of Mind coffee that we serve, which is the registered state coffee of Texas by the way, it's very delicious.
And we've got this background music that's low just to kind of make sure and get this kind of ambient noise to make it easier for people, sometimes if it's too quiet that can be unnerving. But you walk around you'll see people that are walking the track and listening to you know they've got their ear buds and their working quietly and then we also have people that are in the chat booths and they're either recording a podcast or a video cast or they're having a private conference call.
Then we have people who are hanging out in the hospitality hub making coffee and hitting on that Starbucks machine and getting their lattes and stuff and sometimes if you come in at 5 a.m. you'll see people working out and getting their jog in or lifting weights and so. And in the evenings we have agency meetings, different companies or nonprofits who are meeting, who are collaborating and brainstorming on how they can do their next fundraising session or training their employees, so it's busy.
Michael C.: So as far as like a conference room space goes and having groups use your facilities and is that something where one individual gets a membership and they're available to bring a whole group here, how does that work?
Lisa Lujan: Not necessarily, because you don't have to be a member to use our conference rooms. So as a member you get so many credits or hours per month, but outside businesses and individuals can use our conference rooms any time, so it's just an hourly rate.
Michael C.: Really and how many different membership levels do you all offer?
Lisa Lujan: We have 4 different levels as far as memberships but we do offer drop ins, so if you wanted to drop in for the day and sit in the Commons you could or you can drop in and sit in an office for the day if you need to. We also have this really amazing business center and we haven't covered this yet but we have two locations, we have a smaller location that also has private offices and three conference rooms and an event space, so there lots of flexibility in the type of space that you may need.
We have a couple different agencies who are going to be using our presentation hub and they're doing not only just presentations but they're like having a party, and they're bringing in drinks and it's got cool creative lighting and so it makes it really fun.
Michael C.: As far as like you just mentioned you have a second location, is it very similar to this one, what's the feel at the secondary location?
Lisa Lujan: I would say it has a much different vibes, kind of more I guess you'd call executive suites so primarily private offices, it's much smaller it's about 7,000 square feet and it's located over on high tech which is near Paluxy and Shiloh.
It's a great place, we have a garage door that you can of course right now with the Texas heat you can't use it as much as we'd like, but you can pull up the garage door and have an open area when the weather gets a little bit nicer. So it's a great space, it just has primarily private offices so not as much open space.
Hannah Walker: Yes, but as a member you get access to both locations, so you've got almost 40,000 square feet of co-working space that you have access to as a member. And with us we don't have to be here to let you in the door, all our members have the access to scan in through their phones, we try to make it really easy for people to get in the building, we've got secured access and make it very safe with those security cameras and stuff, I don't know if people care about that but we try to make people feel very safe in the space even if you're working late.
Michael C.: Do you all have people that will stay here well after hours or get here well before 7-8 o'clock in the morning?
Lisa Lujan: Occasionally, we have it staffed 8 to 5 on Monday through Friday and 9 to 3 on Saturday, but I came by this weekend on Sunday to get a few housekeeping things done and I was happy to see several members here on Sunday working. And I guess that's one of our biggest things or biggest hurdles right now, it's just educating Tyler and the surrounding community what co-working is, and that how they can utilize it because I don't want it to be one size fits all and that it's just about work, because we've touched on it many times.
We just want it to be a great comfortable space to come and either get work done or to meet with friends, I mean you could bring your dinner over here and open up a bottle of wine this is your quiet space or it's just really unique you got to see it to appreciate it.
Michael C.: I would have to agree with that, you have to come see it to really appreciate it. And as far as like the businesses go, what is the business range, is it an individual to how many?
Hannah Walker: Anybody, I mean if you're a stay-at-home mom and you've been trying to write a book this place is for you, if you are a bank president who's tired of your staff bothering you at the bank this is for you, if you're a small business that needs a space to get your company going work for you, if you're a huge company and you're needing space, more staff office space then we're for you. If you're a poet and you like to have creative spaces to go and write songs and write poetry this is wonderful, I cannot emphasize enough there's so many little nooks and crannies we've got a library and a gaming hub and all these different little spaces for all types.
And even for you introverts out there, if you guys are thinking oh this sounds like a nightmare we've got space for you too that's away from all the action where you can kind of tuck away and be near the energy, but then still be by yourself and work on whatever it is that you have. So we truly have thought through all kinds of stuff, we're working on nap rooms so if you're working two jobs and you need a little nap between jobs you can come in and take a nap, we've got showers and all kinds of stuff so we make it very easy for people to be here. So honestly we've been asked that question many times well who's your target market, it really is anyone, students please come and see the space, retirees come see the space we really are open to anyone.
Michael C.: Yes, we even looked at an office that you said could house up to 15 individuals, correct?
Lisa Lujan: Yes, so we call those team suites, it's been just so much fun to see that types of companies that are already in here, so businesses that maybe there's staff fluctuates or they've just outgrown their space and they're looking for somewhere new and they haven't found that space, I think that's why the flexibility of the month to month membership is so helpful to so many, because you're not signing a long-term lease.
So if you need us for three months and that's great or you know just until you find a bigger, more permanent space or this might solve all your needs and you just have your team work out of here, so it works out great.
Hannah Walker: Well you know how companies kind of grow and fluctuate, so let's say for example you came in and you had an office for a team suite or whatever, and for some reason something happened and you didn't have the cash to keep that office, you can easily downgrade to a coffee shop membership until your cash flow is back up, I mean that's how flexible it is.
With everything being month-to-month you can make your memberships fit whatever price is most appropriate for your company or an individual, and that's what you really don't find a lot of in Tyler there's long term leases and you're kind of locked in for quite some time and maybe they don't provide all the different needs that you might have, and right now internet is so expensive you can't even get high-speed Internet for 75 a month and Tyler, so just for the sheer fact that a coffee shop membership covers that. We've had photographers talk about like bandwidth and they spend so much money trying to get high-speed Internet just so they can upload and download, so a space like this is perfect for people, creative types and designers who've got large files.
Michael C.: My feeling just talking with you all is that you want to see businesses move in here and succeed, and then one of these days maybe get to see those businesses on TV or on the radio or hear about them, to me that's kind of the motivation, am I on the right path here?
Lisa Lujan: Absolutely, I mean that has been again one of the finest things is seeing the types of businesses. In fact, one of our members I mean he's a full-time student, he's working at a bank and he shows up here every night about 5:00-5:30 to study, to think of and working on a couple of business ideas. And so we have several people that already have their own businesses my husband is one of them, and they will come and mentor or we can connect them with somebody knowing what their knees are, who they would want to meet or who could help them.
Also I think we touched on it a little bit having some lunch and learns, so those will be business topics or we're introducing one at the end of the month called accessing capital, that's going to be through the Small Business Development Center at TJC, we're going to host that here so again we can help people connect with those topics that they want to, we just want to see people succeed. One of my favorite stories is one of our members, he was one of our charter members and he told us probably about two weeks after being here, he actually started at our high-tech location and then he moved in, he goes back and forth to both locations actually, but one night when he was leaving he said the last two months have been the most productive I've been for the past year, he said and it's been so great.
He says I love the space, I love what you guys are doing and I get so much done during the day that I'm able to spend time with my family at night, and for us that was priceless because to hear something like that, that's what we want, we want that work-life balance and it doesn't have to be all about work.
Michael C.: So what are some of maybe the misconceptions that individuals have about a shared workplace or maybe some of the questions you've had to answer and you're like no that's not what this is. Have you all had any misconceptions or people that aren't really I guess in tune with the shared workplace?
Hannah Walker: That's a good question because a lot of people say oh yes it's a co-working space, it's a what, what's co-working? There's no misconception, there is no knowledge most of the time it's I don't even know what you're talking about and I'm introducing a new word to the vocabulary. So when you describe it they're like so basically I just come in and I do stuff and I work on things, I'm like you can, you can read or you can do anything that you want, but a lot of it is just educating what is co-working.
Lisa Lujan: I don't know misconception, but a lot of people feel like oh well I don't need that because I have an office, but it's funny how many members that we have that have offices. And like Hannah touched on earlier, several of them come here to get out of their office because they say they get interrupted so much when they're there, that they can come here and have some quiet time and be very productive.
Hannah Walker: And they're like well why can't I just work out in my office, so when you're in a co-working space those people don't actually work with you so they're not going to be interrupting you. Everybody in a co-working space has the understanding that they're all here to work on whatever it is, it's very easy to be here and once you come and see this space you can see why, you quickly learn kind of like the culture and the mode of being in the space where everybody's very respectful and they do want to talk to each other, they'll sometimes chat and maybe say hey are you free, I want to talk to you about this or that or we can have a hey tell me more about your website, I would love to build a website, I don't have any idea how to do it.
So with the community trying to figure out like it's not just come in here and work and again we just keep hammering on that community part of it and that networking part of it, so a lot of the misconceptions I guess would say that it's strictly about the work and really it's more about the community part of it.
Michael C.: Also for this side, here you don't have to be a member, is that correct?
Hannah Walker: To use the conference rooms, if you want to be in the space and actually work you do need to be a member, but I would say and most people don't realize this and we keep putting it out there your first day is free, so if you're just not sure about co-working or maybe you're thinking this sounds crazy then you know what just come down here and you can work for free for a day, try it out and see if it's a good fit for you and hopefully you see the value for yourself.
Michael C.: Have you all had some individuals come in and try the one-day?
Hannah Walker: Lots, yes.
Michael C.: Have some of them stuck around?
Hannah Walker: A lot of them stick around.
Michael C.: Wonderful, that's really neat. Because this has been a wave across our nation a little bit, mainly in larger cities which grew up in Liberty City so anything bigger than Kilgore Texas is a big city. But over here in Tyler this is definitely a progressive city and they have a lot going on as far as bringing in new things, is this the entrepreneurs garage of the future?
Hannah Walker: We hope so.
Lisa Lujan: I think so, it's not just the entrepreneurs as I mentioned with my husband and I worked out of our home for three years, we would have loved to have had a space like this to come to, so it is a perfect solution for entrepreneurs.
Hannah Walker: These days a lot of people are wanting to change environments, they want to have the option to change space like if you've been working in your office you know right now people want to have that flexibility, they want to have options and then it's no longer this is my cube, this is my desk and I'm going to spend the next 30 years here. People are changing their jobs, their fields they want to have the ability to choose where they work and how they work, and so larger cities are seeing this and as Lisa mentioned the trends are moving in this direction, companies are starting to offer stipends to employees to work in spaces like this to change it up, and even mentoring minds is allowing their staff to come down here and work.
In the research that we've done with people who work from home and work remote, there are very few people who work from home and are super productive, there's a lot of people who work from home and they get distracted, they get isolated, they start to get unhealthy, they're not as productive and so for an employer's perspective co-working is a solution to that problem already because you can give people the opportunity to go and be around other people, to get re-energized, to make you put your clothes on and look professional and go and be in a space with other people and have good coffee and work on your project or whatever it is.
When somebody's productivity and health goes down that ends up costing them more money, and so they may be working remotely initially and that might be saving them some money or having them work out of the house, but in the long term if they're like most people they get isolated and they don't do as well at their jobs, so this co-working industry steps in the gap right there to provide that flexibility that a lot of people really need.
When you have more choices you want to apply that choice in your work life as well, and so even in our space that's why we have so many different areas where you can sit and move around, like you're not just stuck in your one little spot and we've strayed away from that quite a bit just to allow people to move.
Michael C.: Well it sounds like you'll have an excellent game plan, you have a wonderful facility here and from the looks of a chat some wonderful members already it was really neat, we walked around the track earlier and I got to see some of the quiet areas and one thing I really took note of is there were computers and cups and there was stuff out where someone was working, but they felt more than comfortable walking off and leaving it.
I noticed that right away, I mean that's got to be wonderful to be working in a shared workplace, you may not know the person next to you but it seems like there's a trust factor here, there's a level of conduct that you maintain, tell us just a little bit about how that all works in a co-working space.
Hannah Walker: So start off we have 36 security cameras in the building just to help people feel more safe, so when you're open from 5:00 a.m. to midnight you want to make sure that people feel as confident as possible about the space that they're in and so also when you join we cover up some guidelines and things. But it's not even a large hurdle, everybody wants to feel like they can come back here and work and so they're protective of each other and each other stuff and we try to make sure that we look out for them as well, so everyone's kind of looking out for each other and they definitely feel comfortable in the space especially since we have secured access.
No one can come in off the street and just start walking around, like you have to be invited into the building or let into the building by one of us or a guest, so already people feel very safe and I don't know if that answers your question.
Michael C.: Definitely. Yes, that was really a neat aspect, there's not a whole lot of places you can go anymore and just feel comfortable leaving, I know you can't go to Starbucks and leave your stuff just lying down on the table.
Hannah Walker: That's true.
Michael C.: So I would encourage our listeners out there if you're an entrepreneur, an individual or just someone looking for an individual workplace in the Tyler area this is a wonderful place here at WorkHub. And Miss Lisa and Miss Hannah can you all give us ways to connect with WorkHub?
Lisa Lujan: Yes definitely, visit our website it's WorkhubTyler.com.
Hannah Walker: You can find us on Facebook and Instagram as well @WorkhubTyler and you can call us at 903-730-6158 anytime, schedule a tour and we'd love to come and show you around. And we have lots of events coming up, we've got some happy hours and some lunch and learn and so if you were this morning just to kind of pop in and just check us out on your own terms, then feel free to come to some of our events and everybody's welcome.
Lisa Lujan: Our events are open to the public or most of them, there's a few private events that are just for members, but the majority of them are open to the public. Most of them are free to members, but outside individuals can come and join us and for usually a small fee.
Michael C.: Terrific. Lisa and Hannah thank you, I really enjoyed doing this show with you all.
Lisa Lujan: Thank you for having us.
Michael C.: Yes ma'am. So let's thank guests Lisa and Hannah for being on the show today, as well as our wonderful producer Gabby Sims and you the listener. Please like, review and share our podcast, we are available on all the major podcast platforms or you can simply go to our website EnergyWeldFab.com/podcast your comments are how we improve our show and we enjoy hearing your feedback.
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