You Can Do Hard Things ft. Gina Schreck

On this week’s episode, Jana sits down with Gina Schreck, a nationally recognized speaker and marketing strategist turned founder of The Village Workspace, a coworking community designed to challenge the traditional office environment.

Gina takes us into the moment that changed her trajectory, the night before signing a 10 year lease and putting down over $200,000, when her husband told her he didn’t think it was a good idea. At 55, with retirement on the horizon, the decision wasn’t just about business, it was about risk, timing, and trust in herself.

What followed wasn’t a perfectly strategic move, it was conviction. Gina chose to move forward, fueled by a deep belief in her vision and the confidence she had built through years of entrepreneurship. Just 10 days after opening, COVID hit, turning an already high stakes decision into a test of resilience and adaptability.

This episode breaks down:

• How confidence is built through accumulated experience, not certainty
• Why big decisions often come down to conviction, not consensus
• The reality of risk at different life stages and what it really means to bet on yourself
• How taking consistent action, even in uncertainty, can carry you through fear

Gina also shares how she navigated doubt, scaled through crisis, and ultimately built something more meaningful by leaning into her “only I” perspective and why the ability to do hard things is the foundation of every successful decision.

Where to find Gina:

• linkedin.com/in/ginaschreck
• TheVillageWorkspace.com
• gina@thevillageworkspace.com

Where to find Jana:

• https://janaaxline.com/ 
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/janaaxline/
• Instagram: @unstoppableleaders
• TikTok: @jana_axline 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

And you know, when people say, How have you been in business? You know, now I've had my own business for 35 years, but how have I been able to be successful? It's just I show up every day. And there's gonna be days when you are wanting to curl up in the corner and cry, and oh, I have no idea what I'm doing. I don't know how I'm gonna make payroll, or I don't know how I'm gonna pay these contractors. And yeah, every business that you're in, you have those moments where you're questioning, what am I doing? But it's it's the waves. You know, you have those down moments, and then you have the moments of, I'm a rock! It's so good! Of course you are. Collect those experiences because when you're in the down times, you you have to be able to say, there's always a good time that follows.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

Today I'm here with Gina Schreck, who's a nationally recognized speaker and marketing strategist who has spent her entire career helping organizations build brands, grow communities, and show up more authentically online. Today, she brings that same philosophy into the physical world as the founder of a co-working space designed to challenge the traditional sterile office environment. Thank you so much for joining us today. I'm very excited to be here. I love chatting with you, too. So I just want to dive right into it. So take me to a moment where you faced a decision that would change the trajectory of your life.

SPEAKER_00 1:31

Gosh, I mean, the one decision, there's always so many little decisions that come up to this one. We had all the little decisions were pivoting from marketing and opening a coworking space. And this was all 10 days before COVID. So we had no concept that there would be a reason we shouldn't do it. Everything was, yes, we should do it, we should do it, we could do it, we could do it. I knew I could fill the space. I was confident. All of those decisions were easy. Then the night before I was to sign the 10-year lease and have to put down $217,000. That night, my husband came to me and said, I want you to know that I don't know that this is a great idea. And I'm having a hard time sleeping, and I'm having heart palpitations over this. And this is the night before I was supposed to sign this the lease. And I just looked at him, basically he's saying, You're killing me. You know? And I had to decide, do I do I scrap this whole thing? He didn't want me to do this. He said, at our stage in life, and at that time I was 55. He said, at our stage in life, I don't know that this is a wise thing for us to do. And I remember going to bed that night thinking, okay, I waited too long. I should have done this 10 years earlier. When I first had the inkling of the idea, I should have done it then. I went to bed thinking, my ship has sailed, I'm making a bad decision, he doesn't want me to do this, what do I do? And I woke up the next morning with a greater sense of resolve that I need to do this. And I think that was the one decision. It was it was such a big decision to go with what he wanted me to do versus something I just felt deep down. And I still to this day tell people, I'm not saying you should take what your spouse says, your life partner, and say, it doesn't matter. I mean, you you know, but I it was just that decision of really feel and I said to him, I'm going to do whatever I can to reduce the risk to us again, 10 days before COVID.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

Okay, well, let's let's back it up a little bit. Before you, what were you doing before?

SPEAKER_00 3:47

So I had a marketing, a marketing agency. I was speaking about marketing, I was um helping people really establish their authority and helping people understand what you are an authority in? Get out there and create content around that. And so I know how to market a business. So that's where my confidence came from I know how to fill the space. I've already gathered a community of people that believe in this idea. And so I had this marketing agency. We had 12 employees, we were looking for office space. And that's what got me thinking, well, maybe we should do one of these shared workspaces because we had toured a bunch of them that were very corporate y, they were very sterile, feeling very quiet. Nobody's really talked to each other. They came in, they they did their their work. And we went and looked at them. I was like, I this isn't, we would get in trouble here. We would get in trouble for being kicked out. And I just thought, okay, what is it that's missing? And we kept going and touring and then sitting down saying, what did we love about it? What did we not love about it? What would we do different? And the more we talked about it, we said, maybe we should just start our own space. So that's where the idea kind of snowballed.

SPEAKER_01 4:55

And so what was your vision at that time for the space? Not what it is today, but uh very different today.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

Yeah, six years ago, uh, it was, I really thought we would attract all marketing. Really where the idea came from 10 years earlier, I was speaking at an event in Indianapolis. And there's a place called Developer Town in Indianapolis, and it was a they had taken an old carpet warehouse, and inside the carpet warehouse, just this big open warehouse, they had put tiny houses, which were basically tough sheds. Every tough shed that was painted like a house. They had little porch lights and little porches, and every office was a tiny house inside there. They had painted the floor black to look like a street. They were riding bikes. I left that. I came home so buzzed. I was just like, this is what we're gonna build in Colorado. Theirs was all developers. So all web developers, app developers. I came back going, we can do this with marketing. We'll we'll attract all marketing, blogging, app development, web developers, SEO, and every little tiny house would be something to do with a creative in marketing, branding. And so that was what I thought when we opened. That's who we would attract. But that wasn't who we'd attract.

SPEAKER_01 6:10

So I want to talk about your vision a little more because I I remember when before, I think before you signed the paperwork, or maybe it was right after and you you had started the build-out, but we chatted and you you were saying all of these other co-working spaces are so masculine. So it wasn't even just about the noise, it was like sterile and masculine and yes.

SPEAKER_00 6:31

I mean, people ask me, what does it mean to be female focused? Because it, you know, it I always say we're a female-focused co-working space, a workspace. And people say, What does that mean? I said, That means we have plants that are alive. It's we have plants that are alive. We have people that sometimes bring their kids in here with them to work, and nobody gives them an evil stare. It means that we have a nap room and a mom's nursing room and a um we have a gym here. I mean, I always say this whole space was a selfish endeavor. What is it that I wanted in my workspace? I wanted a nap room. I wanted a gym so I could work out here and not have to drive somewhere else to go work out and then come back to work. I wanted a place where there was big community space, like a big kitchen that you sat around and talked to people. And and that really, I again thought this is gonna attract only women. Men are not gonna want to come in here and have kids here or a dog, you know, walking around. And what I found was so fascinating to us at in the beginning because everybody we talked to, the women were like, this is where I'd want to be. What I learned about a lot of women is women would love to always have a workspace where they come to, but women don't want to spend money on themselves. And when it comes down to should I work at home where I can take the kids to soccer and come back, or should I spend money on having an office somewhere, women will sacrifice what they feel like they need for their business because they feel like they need to be at home as well. More men are willing to spend money on an office. And that's just the reality when you look at coworking. Men will spend money not just on an office, but a bigger office. More women will go into small office. I only need this little tiny space. And the men are saying, no, I need more space. And I find that fascinating because I go, why do we do that as women? Why don't we say, yeah, I need a bigger space so I feel at home. I feel comfortable. And there are several women in here that that do have bigger offices. They even, there's one woman who has an office that has her desk and then she has a small desk because sometimes her son has to come in when he's off school, snow days, whatever. And so, you know, you do see that. But men would walk in and they would walk around, and every one of them say the same thing. I love the energy in here. I love the vibe in here. They can't put their finger on it. It's not, it's not a pink Barbie space, you know. Like some co-working spaces that are female focused are very pink. This is very home feeling. You've got plants, you've got green walls, you've got it's just a feel that people feel comfortable. There's lots of artwork in here, paintings, and and so the men would walk in and go, I love the vibe, the the energy. They don't know how to say it feels like a woman designed this.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

Yeah. Yeah. So let's let's think about the stakes for a moment, because you got a few things going on. So you you owned a social market, uh social media marketing company. Right. You had a team of 12. You married your husband. You're you you haven't mentioned it, but he's very much kind of a fractional CFO type.

SPEAKER_00 9:29

So he's going C O O C O O. Yeah, he's a COO. He was at home advisor, which is now Angie. Yeah. And then went to health grades, and now he's at Vivax, always a COO.

SPEAKER_01 9:39

Does it temporarily like to go help them launch?

SPEAKER_00 9:42

Okay. Well, he does. His goal is always go in, help develop and get processes and build the company to sell. Yeah. They get it ready to sell. And they got it to a point where they sold, and then he gets recruited usually to another. But he retired in between each one, going, okay, I'm John. And then he gets recruited somewhere else. And so, yeah, so he's busy doing that, which he started at Vivax just. He said, I'll be here six months. I'll help you guys get processes in place and get everything established. And they didn't have an executive team built out. And he ended up now that's been 10 years. So he's still there.

SPEAKER_01 10:15

Yeah. So but both of you, I mean, to summarize, were successful. And so you really had ness no necessary reason to pivot. Correct. You could have kept going.

SPEAKER_00 10:24

He kept saying, why, why do you feel the need to do this? I did feel such a calling to I love the idea that I create environments that attract people to come in and do their best work. I love to create environments that inspire other people. And I look at the space differently than I don't just sell offices. I want to create environments where people come in and feel inspired. We have nonprofits in here, we have creatives in here, we have software companies in here, we have associations. I mean, the the variety of businesses is so fascinating to me. And I love learning about their businesses, but also just to see what is it that they're looking for in space and how do we create different zones that you can work in and be more inspired. So to me, that's just the fun part of what we've done in here. But yeah, I didn't have to come in and do this. And my husband kept saying, What do you? And I again, I didn't know how big this was going to turn out when we started with 10,000 square feet, which sounds big, but it's very small. And where we started was, you know, okay, this is very doable and enjoyable.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

Well, but let's talk about the stakes there for a minute as well, right? Because you obviously you had this vision, you did the research, you came to a space that had to be leased and built out.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

Built out completely.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

And how long was that gonna take?

SPEAKER_00 11:49

It took us seven months. Um, and it always takes longer than you think, but we signed the lease in June and we opened March 2nd. So, you know, it it took us seven, eight months to get it.

SPEAKER_01 12:02

So it was a quite a commitment. Like it wasn't like, oh, we'll start we can we can iterate and start making money. It's like, no, I have to put all this money out and then to see personally put 500,000.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

Besides just the signing the lease and putting down two hundred thousand for the lease, we had to put in five hundred thousand of the million dollar build-out. The building owner did a 50-50 split with us on the build-out. So we put in 500 and that and again, that's where Kirk was having heart palpitations. Right. 500,000 in your mid to late fifties between and the two of us, he's six years older than me, and he's like, We're not in a recover wealth stage. Like, we need to we need to go into this of why are why aren't we looking at retiring? Which we have looked at. And now six years later, I still don't know that I'm there. But that was a big decision to, okay, we're gonna, we're gonna put this money in, and it's gonna take us a couple years before we recoup it. Again, all of those decisions were made before everything shut down. And yeah, when when we realized, wow, there were spaces closing their doors, going out of business, we continued to grow during COVID, not as fast as we had anticipated, but we never closed our door. We open we were open every day. But those few months of panic of saying, wow, the decision I made could have totally ruined us financially, you know.

SPEAKER_01 13:26

Well, but I mean, I think even without COVID, you still had a significant risk in that you had to outlay half a million dollars personally plus a 10-year contract, which I'm sure that's what it was with a personal guarantee on our house.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

You know, when you sign your first lease, they're not just gonna say, Oh, yeah, we trust that you're gonna pay a 10-year lease here. You know, you have to personally guarantee for the first five years we had a personal guarantee, which legally, I don't know what that I mean, it it basically says they can get in line to take your to try to sell your house to pay off your you know debts. But it's still a a big thing when you're having to put that going. Ten years, and we were at that time paying $25,000 a month in rent. Now we're paying $70,000 a month. You know, we expanded, and so it's a bigger to expand was even another scary moment of what am I getting myself into?

SPEAKER_01 14:19

So let's let's flash to the point where you're you're up in the morning and you're supposed to sign the lease that day, and your husband just said, I don't think you should. I don't think you should.

SPEAKER_00 14:30

So d how did you evaluate your options? I mean, it really was one of those feelings. My my options were I had two choices. I had to go through with it, which legally I could have gotten out of it, but at that point we had not signed anything binding. It was that day that I was going to sign that lease and put all that money down. And so to that point, it would have just been walking away from a deal saying, okay, we we've changed our mind. But I woke up feeling such a sense of, and again, what I had done up to that point was we had held events, we had gathered groups, we had had had our first kind of community built. And all those decisions to hold those pieces of it made me so confident in moving forward that I woke up that next morning. I said, I I have to do this. I just feel like there is a need in the market for, if not for anybody else, for our team to find a space that made us excited to come to work. That I I thought, okay, if for nothing else, I'll grow my team bigger and we'll take up the whole space. You know, again, I was naive thinking, oh, this is a lot of space to fill and build out. And we built out 34 offices, we built out four conference rooms, a little training room, and all of that was a big process. And I I remember setting up a little folding table during the construction. I would come in here and sit with all the contractors and be supervising everything. So it was just, it was um a really the decisions that led up to it though gave me the confidence. And I think that's that's another thing is just realizing all the steps you take through all the fear, because there was a lot of fear. What am I doing? Am I going to be able to make this work? This is a lot of space to commit to. Um, but you every decision starts stacking confidence and you start believing, hey, this is going to work, that I can make this happen. And I just think it's um when it came down to that day, I I told my husband, I said, I know that this is going to work. I know it's going to be successful. He didn't have all the knowledge that I had about the industry. I had spent so much time researching the industry and seeing the the growth that this whole industry was about to, you know, it was already growing, but it was about to um take off. He didn't really know what coworking was. He's like, I don't even get it. Um I'm trying to think if we work at that time had already crashed.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

No.

SPEAKER_00 17:00

I think it was still on the high that it was, you know, their model was completely flawed on just go for market share instead of profitability. But they're they kind of made a name for coworking, but my husband, hey, Kirk didn't know. He's like, I don't even know what this coworking is.

SPEAKER_01 17:15

And so obviously our listeners don't know, but your marriage is very important to you. You've actually written a book on marriage. So we've been married 34 years and very happy. And so how like basically you're saying, do I choose between my dream or my husband? And I mean it's not like that was how I felt that night.

SPEAKER_00 17:32

Right. I felt like I'm saying, I don't care what you think, I'm gonna make this decision. One of the things that kept going in my mind is how many times we had made decisions. Well, how many times he had made decisions that I was informed of but not deeply involved in that were huge financial decisions. One of them was we had moved to Chicago for a job he was recruited to. We rented our house out, we sold everything because we didn't have room in a in a place in Chicago. We bought an apartment in Chicago. I mean, all those decisions were made and I went along with it. And one of the things I kept thinking of is if the tables were turned, would he make this decision? And I kept thinking he would. If he felt really strongly about doing something, he would. I don't know that I was ever opposed to one of his decisions, whether it was a new position, whether it was moving. I was never like, no, I don't want to go. I want you to know I don't want to go. So we were the tables were never completely turned, but it did cross my mind that if he were in my place, what would he do? He would have made this decision.

SPEAKER_01 18:40

And so what did that conversation look like then when you had to go and I did.

SPEAKER_00 18:45

I told him, I said, I really, I said, I want you to know I value your input and I value his. I mean, he's a brilliant businessman, and I value your input. I said, and I know in my gut, I know this industry and what I'm trying to build is going to do well. And the belief I have in myself is so strong. And he then was saying, I don't want you to think I don't believe in you. I do believe in you. He said, It's just such a big risk. I said, It is, but I'm gonna do everything in my power to reduce the risk and make this work. And the discussion two weeks after we opened was, now what? Now what? And I said, I'm not sure. Because we didn't know, you know, was this gonna be a month? We just didn't know. And then I'll tell you, less than a year into COVID, he said, this was a brilliant move. He said, it's he was so intrigued that people were coming in saying, I can't work from home. I need a, I need an office, I my kids are at home, my spouse is at home, my dogs are at home, all the things I'm in an apartment working now. And he said, Wow, that was such a brilliant move. And people always go, Wow, that was so strategic of you. I said, No, it had nothing to do with strategy. It was, I really felt this commitment and this passion of I I really want to see this community come together.

SPEAKER_01 20:03

And so what would you say drove that decision? Because I think maybe one other element that you have to touch on, and I know you didn't know it maybe necessarily at the time, but you actually let go your marketing company so you could go all in. So when you were in the moment of the decision, though, of I'm gonna move forward with this, what like how did you boil it down to whether or not I mean, I know you did a lot of research and all of that, but how did you boil it down to this is worth putting my retirement on the line, essentially, right? Like, because losing half a million dollars plus whatever more over.

SPEAKER_00 20:36

It would be really hard to recover from. So I mean, this wasn't my first business, you know, starting a business. It was my first one that had overhead, like it does. I've all I I had the business that had employees that relied on a salary. We didn't have any overhead though. We literally all worked remote. So it was interesting because I think, you know, confidence is something that is not just you wake up and you have confidence. You I mean, I always say you can look at the most confident person that you know and they are they are lacking in confidence at some points. You know, we all are feeling that imposter syndrome. We all have, but because I had had two other businesses that I knew if I show up every day and I'm willing to do the work every day and I'm willing to work harder than other people are willing to work, I know I can make it work. It may not be as successful as somebody else's, but I know I can make it work. And I that confidence comes from all the other experiences I've had. So I always say, you know, confidence is just those little shreds of experience that stack up. And if we start paying attention to the times that we've done things well, what has worked out in our life, that gives us confidence to do the next thing. Every time you do something hard, every time you do something that's new and you succeed in that, you need to collect that in a bottle and carry that with you because when you face the next decision, you can look at This collection and say, I've done these things before. I've done hard things. I've failed and then succeeded after the failure. All of those things gave me the confidence during that decision to say, I know I can make this work. I didn't know. I mean, I look at it today, six years later, and go, I had no idea it would be as successful as it is today. At that time, I just thought, I know I can make this work. I know I can pay the bills, you know. Even if the one employee here is me doing everything, I will make it work. And I'm willing to do that. I was willing to do it. And luckily I didn't have to. But it was, it was just one of those decisions that it was, it was based on. I think we have to, when we have hard decisions, you know, we always make the pros and cons lists and we we try to analyze everything. But it comes down to, are you willing to go in and show up every day? And you know, when people say, How have you been in business? You know, now I've had my own business for 35 years between the businesses, and how have I been able to be successful? It's just I show up every day. And there's going to be days when you are wanting to curl up in the corner and cry and go, I have no idea what I'm doing. And I don't know how I'm going to make payroll, or I don't know how I'm going to pay these contractors, or I don't know. And yeah, every business that you're in, you have those moments where you're questioning, what am I doing? But it's it's the waves. You know, you have those down moments, and then you have the moments of, I'm a rock star. That's so good. Of course you are. And then the next week you're grilled up in the corner again. Collect those experiences because when you're in the down times, you you have to be able to say, there's always a good time that follows. And if I know that that is consistent, then I can ride out the hard times and say, you know what? Today I just have to tell myself I can do hard things. I've done hard things before. I can do hard things. And that became our mantra during the expansion because the expansion was even harder than that initial year. The first year was hard, but it was somehow magically fun. It just was this strange time of people believing in my vision. I mean, there were people who believed in the vision and they didn't even see walls yet. They came in and it was cement and tape. We taped with blue painters tape where all the offices would be, and we got people to commit to this is my office. And they wrote their names on the on the drywall before there was walls. And, you know, I look at that was a harder sell, but it was magical. It fed me because I would see people come in and go, this is exactly the type of community I need. And I mean, I had one mom who called me, and I still have never been been able to find her, but it was a day where I was really down during the construction. I I found out something was gonna cost like double what we thought. And I was just having one of those pity days of in the corner crying at my little construction table. And I was just like, what am I doing? I have no idea what I'm doing. And this, I got a phone call because we already had obviously our phone number was already live and we were already marketing and selling offices. And this woman named Tatiana called and she said, I want to be able to come in and get an office. When do you guys open? I said, Well, unfortunately, we don't open and now we're delayed until February. Supposed to open in January. And she says, Oh, I don't know if I can wait. I have a two-year-old and I need to get out of the house from, you know, where I was working. And I said, Well, if we open, make sure you come by and see us. I said, I I'm just not sure time-wise. And she said, I just want you to know, even if I'm not able to, thank you for building a space like this, because as a working mom, it's so hard. And she, when I hung up talking to her, I sat there and bawled because I thought, this is why I'm doing this. Like the decision cemented in even further.

SPEAKER_01 25:49

So it sounds like, I mean, really, the first principle of the decision is this isn't the way it has to be done. Right. And it was fueled by your I've done hard things, I can do more hard things.

SPEAKER_00 26:04

And I just think we have to, we we do have to collect those experiences because we tend to remember all the times we failed, and then we go to do something hard, and we're like, well, I don't know, because I could fail again. But if you collect all the times that you failed and then came out of that, you failed and succeeded, and we can somehow remember that. It's like we, you know, it's like any, you talk to any speaker, they have thousands of great reviews, and the one person that says you were terrible, that's all they focus on. And I feel like we do that in our lives if we don't remember all the things that we, the decisions that went right and and the decisions that were exactly the perfect timed decision. And when we can remember those, it does build that confidence to do the next hard thing.

SPEAKER_01 26:49

So were there points, and I I kind of already think I know the answer to this, but were there points where beyond just the maybe the moment of confidence, but just circumstances or whatever was going on, that you're like, maybe I made the wrong decision. And can you touch on a few of those? Almost.

SPEAKER_00 27:06

I mean, I would say at least weekly. At least weekly, I would say, wow. And mostly it's during the build-out phase because you're dealing with so many unknowns and so many variables that you have no control over. The contractors that don't show up or don't do the right job, or they I mean, luckily I was here in the space while they were doing the work because I would see something and I would say, wait, that's not supposed to be there. Why are you putting a phone booth right next to our reception desk? Was an example. But there were so many days I would go, I have no idea what I've I have no construction experience. I have no commercial background, commercial real estate background. And there were days, so many days, that I thought, I just don't even know. Like, but what I had to do was to counter that feeling of the insecurities, I had to stay in research mode. I literally every day would listen to podcasts like How I Built This with Guy Roz and hearing the stories of other founders where they struggled and they made bad decisions and then they had to come out of it and make good decisions again. And I would listen to podcasts, I would listen to there's a couple co-working and commercial real estate podcasts, I would read blog posts. I had to surround myself in a bubble of I need to continue feeding the knowledge. I need to grow this bait, this knowledge base, and I need to feed my brain with positive messages of this is a good decision. All these other people were struggling and they're now doing really well. And so I think sometimes we've also, when we're feeling unsuccessful or unsure of ourselves, we feel very alone in those decisions. And we're probably the only one that screwed up and made this decision. And I'm sure anyone else who made this decision is probably bankrupt today. We don't seek out, okay, what are the times that people made this decision and they're doing really well? And hearing their story, because I'm a firm believer, if somebody else can do it, I can do it. And when I was having to go out and, you know, say, okay, I'm gonna have to pay this person $80,000 to get this done, and I thought it was gonna be $40,000. I I literally one day said, there are people who make these decisions every day. This is not new. Like there are people who do this every day. I need to also surround myself with people who make doing the impossible seem like a Tuesday morning. I need to, I was also surrounding myself with people who were, at that time, they were all my peers in the space that I was in. But I had to find some new groups that I could put myself in where there were people doing bigger deals, signing checks for a million dollars, not $200,000. And when you start sitting in those rooms, you start seeing, oh, my decision was very small. They're making that decision with what seems like a great level of confidence. Where does that come from? Well, it's because they signed the $200,000 deal before and they signed a $500,000 deal, they signed a million dollar deal. So the next one, every one gets easier because you've done that, you've collected the experience. And I think when I started hanging out and putting myself in the rooms and going to conferences with people who had not one location, they had 10 locations. Then I started saying, wait a minute, if they can do that, I'm willing to show up and do the same work. I'm willing to work hard. Of course I can make that happen. And I just think we need to stay in that mindset of am I continuing to stay sharp in my industry, learn as much as I can, and see other people doing the things that I'm trying to do. Makes a huge difference.

SPEAKER_01 30:26

So correct me if I get the timing wrong, but I believe you opened and the next day the city shut down for COVID.

SPEAKER_00 30:33

Yeah, 10 days. We opened March 2nd and the 13th, I think, is where everybody was like, okay, there's this thing going down. What did you feel in that moment? I literally was so confused. And I was actually speaking at a conference. I was in Atlanta the day that the news was. So I was still speaking as we had the coworking space open, and my two daughters were working with me. So they were here, which again, I was paying three salaries on no income, you know, yet. And then I was speaking at a conference, and I came back from one of the breaks that we had, and somebody was spraying all the chairs with Lysol. And I was like, What is what are they doing? And they had just heard there was some virus, and we have to spray everything down. I remember coming back going, wow, what is happening? And this is probably gonna last a week or so. Let's see what's gonna happen. Once we started realizing it was more serious, then I just started having the feelings of, okay, what have I done? Are we gonna have to close completely? And then a couple months, you know, go by and I start hearing news of co-working spaces closing, going bankrupt, um, saying they can't make their payments, they can't that, you know, they can't stay open, literally not just closing their doors temporarily, but going out of business. And I I heard one woman doing a Facebook Live and she had a co-working space here in Denver, and she went on Facebook Live, and I was, I happened to be watching her. I think I was in this room, and I was sitting down watching her talk about her closing, and I remember I didn't even know her, but I sat here and I cried because I just thought, oh gosh, is this gonna be me? Like she's having to close her doors. Very different. Her setup was she didn't have any private offices. She had all open space. Well, if you had a co-working space with open space during COVID, you couldn't have people in there. We had 34 private offices. People went in, closed the door, kept their distance. We were able to have distancing and people, it was, I mean, we always say this was our little sanctuary of normalcy. Then we'd leave and realize, oh, there's a pandemic out there. But it was interesting because it was such a strange time and it did, it brought up all the fears. And the only thing that I've learned to do when you have this crippling fear to do is to continue taking action. If you just keep taking action through the fear, it suddenly brings you through the fear. And so the action we took was we started meeting with every one of our members that were here saying, let's do a Facebook live in the cafe. We're gonna do every day, we're gonna do a Facebook live called Remote Life. And we're gonna have you share from your business expertise what can people do while they're working remote. And we just started focusing on how do we help every member in here keep their business going during COVID. And that action made me feel suddenly like everything was fine. And I went back into the mode of let's just help people market their business. And that action got me through that time because then I just never, and then we just kept having more people come in. They're like, I was watching your you guys on and I saw that you guys were here and I need community. I can't be home alone worrying about my business. And that growth, even in the tough months, made me realize, okay, we're gonna be fine.

SPEAKER_01 33:40

So sometimes when we face decisions, obviously we say yes to something, but it ends up meaning that we have to say no to a whole bunch of things. What did you end up having to say no to?

SPEAKER_00 33:50

Was the marketing agency. I sold it in 2021. So almost a year later, um, I realized this was growing at a pace that I could no longer juggle both and had to really. I mean, I just loved what was growing here. And to the point where, I mean, it's weird, but there were days where I'm like, I don't even want to go home. It was so just energizing to be around other entrepreneurs, around other small businesses, that we were all in this together that I would leave going, this is like feeding my soul, that it was easier to say, okay, I need to look at letting go of this other business. That I opened this. And there was a guy who I had been in talks with for a couple of years who wanted to buy my business. He owned an SEO and web development company and he wanted to buy it before COVID. And, you know, a year into having this space, I thought, wow, I can't do both. And I'm I'm now neglecting my marketing business because I'm so entrenched here. And so I contacted this guy that wanted to buy it and I said, Hey, are you still interested? And, you know, he was at a different place financially because of COVID, because he was had some commercial properties that were suddenly not doing well. And um, so we kind of started working through some ways to do that over a period of time. And but it was, yeah, yeah, I had to just say, okay, I loved this business, but it was time.

SPEAKER_01 35:12

And so for our listeners, when you when you face the it, when you had the idea of this could be done differently, how do you think you could help listeners kind of end up in that same space when they're looking around in their world? It is interesting.

SPEAKER_00 35:26

You have to look at what truly makes you different. And from the marketing perspective, we used to ask our clients that all the time. If you look at most websites, they all say the same thing. Everybody's the best. Everybody is great at what they do. Um, and and they think they're so unique and so different. And it's like, oh, yeah, go look at 10 competitors. You probably have the same words on your website. And what we have to do in our space is we have to say, what is the only I statements? Only I, in co-working, brought the unique perspective of I was a small business owner, I was a female, and I was looking for a space that felt more homey. So only I brought the unique perspective. And yeah, is there somebody else that has that? Probably. But we, if we start with that, only I, what is the uniqueness that you bring to your business? Maybe it's past experience, maybe it's the your career that you had before that helps you. Like I still believe only I, I meet with every one of our members and I tell them anytime you you want to meet with me one-on-one and let's strategize on your business. I'm here to help you grow because when you grow, you need more offices. And to me, that's a unique perspective. I'm not here to just sell offices. I really am invested. And our team is very invested in the growth of their business. So I think too many times in business, we think we're unique and we're just like everybody else. And it's really discovering what is it that makes me different or it makes me approach my customers with a different view or even a different set of experiences that can help me help them.

SPEAKER_01 36:59

No, I think that's really important because you're right. You uh you obviously got inspired by seeing another uh uh sorry, not podcasting, a co-working um space where they had it was more personal and whatever. But it was, but but you then you added the you component and and where I I've been feeling that with myself as part of our ecosystem, we uh launched a bookkeeping company with CFO insights and and everybody, well, there's tons of bookkeeping companies, and what are you gonna do any differently? And what and and what really hit me was that yeah, but I've scaled a business. I know the managerial accounting insights that are relevant to to a small business owner versus your CPA. They just know CPA, they don't know what it takes to scale a business that's that's you know operationally different and and I do. And I I think that is a hugely important thing.

SPEAKER_00 37:54

And you bring the unique perspective, you know what it takes to sell a business. Because, you know, I always tell people when I sold my other business, it's interesting when you go through the process, you realize the first time I was not ready when I met with a broker and they told me, Oh, yeah, you can't sell because you're the only salesperson and you're the one that meets with all the clients, and you're the one that it's like, oh, you have nothing to sell without you in the picture. And now I bring a different perspective of every business should start their business with the intent to sell. Even if you never sell, start it with the intent to sell because you will build a different business and you will focus on profitability and you will focus on debt ratios and you know, just all the things that when you when you first are building a your first business, you don't think you need to so you bring a unique perspective, you can help educate your clients on their business financials.

SPEAKER_01 38:43

Yeah, and I think that that finding that missing piece of, well, yeah, this business model exists, but what do I bring to it? Because that's that's the real It's the only I statements.

SPEAKER_00 38:54

And I I just used to tell our clients, just what makes you unique in this business? And then do you really feel the pain of your customers in a way? I mean, still to this day, I will walk around our space six years. I still love going and sitting in different parts of our space and just working for the day there and watching how people use the space. And I can't remember the guy's name. He worked for Ford. I keep wanting to call it Murphy. His last name was Murphy, but I think it was um, he has a different last name. But Murphy's arrow is I'm gonna call it that. It's the arrow on your gas tank. You know, when you look at your gas gauge in your car, there's a little arrow that tells which side of the car your gas tank is on. And it was that was created by a guy who was driving a company car at that time and he pulled up to get gas and didn't know because it wasn't his car. He got out and it was on the wrong side, and he said, We need to put a little arrow, and that was discovered because he felt the pain of his customers. And I love to go sit in these different parts of our business. So I I sat just a couple weeks ago, I was sitting and on our wellness side, somebody was sitting there waiting for their appointment with a chiropractor, and they're just sitting there and they said, Do you happen to know what the Wi-Fi password is? And I said, I do. It's I should work here. And then I looked around, I was like, nowhere over here do we have our password. Over here, it's all in the cafe area. And so I went back and I was like, we need little signs made. So it's like looking at your business every day, not just when you first open, but every day with fresh eyes to go around and say, How do my customers experience my business? Where are the pain points? Is it hard to do business with you? Is it hard to make payments? I mean, how many times do we try to pay an invoice and there's nowhere on an invoice that's just click and pay? It's like, how do they want me to pay this? You know, or call your own phone number after hours and see how frustrated it is. It's just like, do we ever experience it from our customers' perspective? And I just think I love that concept of touch points. From the time people pull in our driveway, they see little fun signs that are inspirational sayings when they park to our bathrooms. There's stickers in the bathrooms that are funny or magnets. And I look at every one of those touch points as something that makes us different. And it makes the customer experience wow. This is um it exceeds their expectation. And I just think that's another thing that can help set people apart as they're wanting to start a business. What makes you different? Where is there a need? Go experience other competitors and just see what I would do different.

SPEAKER_01 41:32

Well, so this is gonna be a hard question. What's one thing you'd want people to take away from our discussion today?

SPEAKER_00 41:39

You could do hard things. You could do hard things. You could do and you know what? People do hard things every single day that seem impossible to us. And even today I still look at it and go, there's still people doing such bigger things that are that seem impossible to me at times. And I'm like, what seems impossible today should just be an everyday thing. Yeah, we can do bigger and harder things.

SPEAKER_01 42:01

So, Gina, if people wanted to learn more about what you do or follow your work, where can they find you?

SPEAKER_00 42:06

I'm on LinkedIn just at Gina Shrek. Um, I'm also, you know, the Village Workspace. You can contact me, my email, you know, Gina at the Villageworkspace.com, our website's the Villageworkspace.com. And you got some books on Amazon too. I do have a few books. I did write a book about my experience of pivoting and going through from marketing to co-working and the process I went through of making these decisions. Yeah, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 42:32

Well, thank you so much for being a guest today. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 42:35

Very fun.

SPEAKER_01 42:35

And to our audience, make the decision, act on it, be accountable, and until next time, stay unstoppable.