00;00;22;08 - 00;00;39;14 Unknown Let's go, Danno. We should probably do three more claps to episode 17 with Britney. Sofia. Hello. How are you? I'm doing well. How are you? I'm doing great. Good. So, yeah, we're going to be bridging the gap with Britney. 00;00;39;15 - 00;01;03;06 Unknown You run works for multiple locations, actually. Yes. We just happen to be in the Tacoma location at the moment. We have four locations right now. Four? Yes. When did you know that? When did four happen? I thought you had two for. So we have this one. We have Balad, and then we have Bellevue. And then we're opening another one in Bellevue. 00;01;03;08 - 00;01;27;28 Unknown And that is going open in March. Why are you leaving us for King County so often? It's just where we have a relationship with the landlord. So that's kind of how it works. So to give you a background of who Britney is to us. Yes. A year ago, when Brian and I became brokers, when we were looking for, well, we thought we were going to work from home that long, that lasted. 00;01;28;04 - 00;01;47;24 Unknown Yeah, maybe. And we said we needed to find something. So we drove around Tacoma. We looked for all these shared workspaces. And I think you were the third one. We The third or fourth one we looked at. Yeah. Yeah. No, no offense to the Wells Fargo building, but that you saw. Yeah. The vibe in there stunk. We looked at the Pioneer Collective. 00;01;47;24 - 00;02;08;10 Unknown That was kind of cool. Yeah, but it was in a basement. Yeah. And then we came in here. Over here by the coffee shop. I can't remember what it was. The Pioneer Collective. That was the Pioneer Collective? Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, we knew that when we met you, we were home. Yep. Yeah. Yeah, We walked in here. We're like, Oh, my God, this place is amazing. 00;02;08;12 - 00;02;31;04 Unknown Yeah, There is a vibe in here. There is energy, there's light. And it was just like, ran over. Like, we're pitching ourselves. Like, are you kidding me? This is it. That's amazing. Yeah, to hear that. I mean, I think there's some great spaces in town. They all kind of have their own flavor, their own price point. It just depends on what your business is, what you're looking for. 00;02;31;07 - 00;02;48;19 Unknown Um, yeah, but there's definitely great options in Tacoma. So you've grown since we came here? Yeah, Like when we came here, the third floor was there. You owned it, but it wasn't really. I don't think you had any occupants in the get go. No, we. We didn't know we got. We've been up there, I guess about a year now. 00;02;48;21 - 00;03;10;20 Unknown So yeah, we did the Tacoma expansion and then we've done I think we had Ballard when you guys were here. You did? Yeah. And then. Yeah, the two in Bellevue. So how many total offices do you have available in this location? Available. So we have almost 50 offices in this building. Okay, that's cool. Six right now. Six. Six open. 00;03;10;21 - 00;03;35;14 Unknown Yeah, but 50 spots to. To rent. Mm hmm. So we're pretty full. And I love being here. Like, the vibe here is so cool. You're always amazing to work with. Yes. You on a percent. Again, when. When we met you, it was really. We knew we were home. We knew that we were going to be here. Um, I don't think we'll ever leave here. 00;03;35;21 - 00;04;00;15 Unknown No, we'll never leave either. We're going to be here a long time. Yeah. The cool thing for us about this place and, um, is. Is is really being able to grow, You know, even if you're full, We know that, um, there will be spots available because their turnover does happen every once in a while. I mean, yeah. And we can grow into other spaces. 00;04;00;15 - 00;04;18;29 Unknown And not only that, you have shared workspace, you don't even have to rent an office. Tell us about that. Mhm. Yeah. So, well, I mean we start with a virtual office plan, so if really you just need a place to get mail and maybe hold a couple of meetings a month, 75 bucks a month. That is so affordable. 00;04;18;29 - 00;04;47;11 Unknown Yeah. Really. Yeah. And then if you want to like come in and work every day and just sit in the open spaces, grab a desk, sit on the couch, whatever, 199 a month and that's 24 seven access. So you can also use this as a business mailing address. You get access to the conference room. So it's like our whole thing is like if you want to start a business, we want to be a resource that is reasonable for you to have like a professional place to work. 00;04;47;16 - 00;05;07;02 Unknown Yeah. Before when Ryan and I were talking about leaving, I was looking at this class office space. It wasn't I mean, it was hardly much bigger than, than the space we now, but it was a triple net lease. They wanted $21 a square foot for the year. It was going to pencil out, you know, all in with all of the expenses going to be like 2500 a month. 00;05;07;02 - 00;05;26;15 Unknown And I was just like, there's just no way like you're signing some crazy long, probably minimum of two years. Yeah. Yeah, that's. That's wild. Yeah. Yeah. And then that's probably not even Oh, it was triple net but yeah, I mean yeah, here you get you don't have to worry about paying the internet bill, you know, to worry about the trash or the electricity. 00;05;26;15 - 00;05;51;12 Unknown Like we take care of all of that. So it's amazing printers here. You can print stuff. The podcast booth is here. Yeah. You can sign up with Dan and Michael. Yeah. And start your own podcast show like we've done. Yes. The Triple D dynamic Dimarzio duo. It's like Guys, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives sort of thing. So, Brittany, you've told us a little bit about works for Who Are You? 00;05;51;13 - 00;06;18;10 Unknown Tell us about Brittany. Who am I? Wow. It all started on a spring day, and they. Well, so I grew up in San Diego. I've lived in Washington since 2015. So you're not you're relatively speaking, you're newer to this area within like the last ten years. Within the last ten years, Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Um, I'm. My family moved up here. 00;06;18;10 - 00;06;38;26 Unknown My stepdad is Navy, so my family came up here a while ago, and my mom was always kind of like, Move up here, move up here. And, you know, she works in the building. Yeah, with her all the time. Yeah, I'm in her. It's really my office. But, yeah, she does, like, come up here, check it out. And I kind of had done all I wanted to do in San Diego, and I grew up there. 00;06;38;26 - 00;07;00;14 Unknown I lived there till I was 30. So. So yeah, I came up to Washington and worked a few different jobs and just kind of started to get my foot in the commercial real estate. Um, I worked for some other co-working spaces in town, and then the owner of this building approached me and asked me if I would be interested in starting my own company. 00;07;00;17 - 00;07;25;25 Unknown And that's awesome. That's a dream come true. Absolutely. So he basically was my he's my investor and he's like, you know, I'll I'll give you what you need. I'll provide all the money. You tell me what you need to get these spaces open and get them profitable. And he has like 18 buildings between Kirkland and Port Orchard. So I just really. 00;07;25;27 - 00;07;43;25 Unknown We fill space. Yeah. Also, the spaces that you have up north are also our buildings that he owns. Yes. Mhm. So when's Gig Harbor coming. He doesn't own anything and give her. Yeah. Let's get. Oh that's us. But he. Well yeah I would tell. Can we be or can we partner with you and Gig Harbor stuff in the future. 00;07;43;28 - 00;08;07;29 Unknown Oh okay. Good. But I have considered like finding space over there and just signing like a commercial lease under our company because I think it would be amazing. I think it's needed There. It totally is. Yeah. I mean, there's some, like, all our dingy, dark executive office suites I've looked at. Those just aren't very good. No. Yeah. Bad vibes. 00;08;08;01 - 00;08;30;19 Unknown Bad vibes. We want good vibes. Yeah. So you have gone from like working in the shared workspace to now running your own business in the shared workspace. You're also investing in real estate too, right? Yes. I own a home in Arizona. Wow. That's awesome. Do you Airbnb it? No, I have like a permanent tenant there, so that's cool. 00;08;30;19 - 00;08;49;19 Unknown Yeah, it's very cool. So since we a lot of what our podcast is about is homeownership, Do you have any advice for people wanting to jump into real estate? But I think like when I went through the process, things that surprised me or that I was like, Oh, I didn't know that honestly. Like, people need guys like you. 00;08;49;21 - 00;09;09;03 Unknown I had a really great mortgage broker, and she literally held my hand through the entire process because I was scared. I was like, I've never done this before. This is so much money. And she would call me a few times a week and be like, okay, this is where this is what I need from you. And she just made me feel really secure and comfortable. 00;09;09;03 - 00;09;32;27 Unknown So communication is really important. Oh my gosh, I'm so huge for especially a first time homebuyer, right? So just having a really communicative mortgage broker I think made the process a lot easier. That makes a lot of sense. Yeah. And communication. We've get that from you, too. It's like when Ryan and I were checking out space, you your communication was top notch and that was also a part of the decision making process for us. 00;09;32;28 - 00;09;55;21 Unknown Yeah, like just the lack of follow up from other people were like, Yeah, don't get a good feeling about that, right? Because if they're not following up with you and you're not even a paying member yet, I like, but I mean that's the best you're going to get is right out the gate. Yeah, yeah. Uh, tell on that note, tell everybody how they can find you if they're looking for space. 00;09;55;23 - 00;10;24;16 Unknown Our website is dot space, and you can request it. Who were on there? We also have an Instagram. It's at work for coworking. You can message me on there. I've been on it. Yeah, I, I have not. It's a little needs a little love but that's okay. Yeah. So the other thing I want to ask you is like the vibe in here, that's all this design working here is you. 00;10;24;16 - 00;10;45;19 Unknown Yeah. Yeah. We did not hire a designer. We just kind of shopped and, you know, perused Pinterest and picked things that we liked. And when I say we Dexter, the owner of the building, his daughter Jennifer, is kind of like my partner as well. She helps facilitate the spaces. So her and I really we've done all the spaces we've never hired. 00;10;45;19 - 00;11;02;22 Unknown It's amazing. So yeah, it just like we were talking about just the vibe in here, like that's so important, like being able to come into work every day and feel good energy where you're at. I think a lot of it has to do with how you set up the space and how you guys have put a lot of thought behind the design in the space. 00;11;02;25 - 00;11;22;01 Unknown I agree. And also I just think like I try and have a relationship with everyone that moves in here and I think that's a big difference. That's a huge difference. Yeah. Cause like if people come in and they're like, I don't like that Britney check them, they're not going to vibe here. You know? Right? If they come in and we have like a really great conversation and they feel inspired. 00;11;22;01 - 00;11;42;09 Unknown And I, you know, I offer any kind of help I can offer. Like I just feel like that sets the tone for just a good working environment, you know? Yeah, I totally agree with that. So if I look right and I want to get advice from you, so as we grow and build, we eventually want to acquire Space and Gig Harbor. 00;11;42;09 - 00;12;03;28 Unknown So what kind of things should we be looking out for when we're going to be trying to find a space and gig Harbor? I would just like put yourself in the shoes of the people who are going to be working there like us right now. Exactly. Okay. Like, and think about, you know, if you have open seating members, if you if you want to do like a dedicated desk situation just for the layout of the space is really important. 00;12;04;01 - 00;12;28;26 Unknown Mm hmm. Or even considering, like, is there room in this space to build more offices? Because that's what we've done here. And this whole row of offices, this whole mezzanine was totally empty when we got the building. Oh, really? This whole build out, we added 23 units in July of 22. Oh, wow. Yeah. So this is really a project that came from COVID. 00;12;28;28 - 00;12;53;12 Unknown Yes. In a way that kind of the necessity of needing a shared workspace environment. We walked in soon after. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Well, when we first we started, we open our doors in September of 2020 and like, starting a business with a shared space during what know and quickly, like our private offices sold out immediately. Who did. Yeah. 00;12;53;16 - 00;13;10;19 Unknown So I was like, Well, if this is going to be a viable business, like we have to have more offices and people love these small spaces, you know, as if we don't need any more than this. Yeah, I would tell the TARDIS we don't need any more than this. Yeah, right. There's so much you can do. Everything via Zoom. 00;13;10;19 - 00;13;43;01 Unknown You can do everything, um, remotely. And you and I share this, what, eight by 12 foot space. And it's absolutely more than enough room, and we could bring more people on. Um, you know, with the shared workspace down there, and even they could plug into our computers up here and just rock like you don't need more people, you know, it's replacing what we're going to build will replace what we came from like a 3030 500 square foot office. 00;13;43;03 - 00;14;01;18 Unknown We don't need more than our. Yeah. With it with a $20,000 a month lease or whatever. But yeah, we know that's crazy. So what, what do you see The future of office space. Do you see? Do you see kind of people? I have read in the media there's been a lot of talk of wanting to go back to filling these commercial spaces and having workers come into work. 00;14;01;18 - 00;14;22;16 Unknown Or do you see more of this thing trending forward? I think when you see those lines like in the news or whatever, you have to consider who is who's gaining with going back to work full time. I think a lot of company owners are in these long term leases and they have to justify the money that they're paying every month for these huge campuses or $20,000 a month office space. 00;14;22;19 - 00;14;50;01 Unknown And I just think like that's probably not going to continue. It's not sustainable. It's not sustainable. It's not needed. I think we're understanding that there's a great balance needed between like flexibility and work from home, but also the ability to come in and connect with people. And I think hybrid, that's yeah, that's huge for us, like connecting with each other and connecting with all the people around here has been absolutely amazing. 00;14;50;03 - 00;15;15;20 Unknown I love even coming in alone, having the extra people around is is awesome and it's even better that they're not working for us or with us. Yeah, having the different businesses is really cool. It kind of takes that like office politics out of the office because you're not like, yeah, you know, hanging out with H.R. in the kitchen or whatever, you know, like it's, it's people who just work in the building that you can be friends with. 00;15;15;22 - 00;15;34;28 Unknown Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love the fact that there's, it's low pressure there. And I also feel a sense of camaraderie with all the other tenants in here because we're all grinding and hustling to try to build something. And I feel like we're in it together, even though we're not working. Like in within the same company. I feel like we're working together to build something. 00;15;35;00 - 00;15;53;07 Unknown It's just it's super neat. And like, even though this is my business and I run it like I feel like that too. Like I'm totally, like in the trenches with you guys. Like you are something, you know, trying to make it happen every day. So. Yeah, yeah, that's cool. I love coming over to your office and one of your drills. 00;15;53;07 - 00;16;12;10 Unknown Yeah. Yeah, I really do. You have tape, Britney? Do you got a wrench? Hey, Britney, you got a drill. I'm like, Yep, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Meanwhile, we're, like, pounding away on the walls, getting the blackboard set up. Are the tenants on the other side, Like, what is going on over there? Oh, don't worry. We're just put more holes in the walls, maybe more. 00;16;12;13 - 00;16;33;23 Unknown Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So what are as far as our space goes? So the third floor. Right. And I'll be able to plug into that for like social events and stuff. Yeah. Yes. So I mean it's hard to kind of convey to our viewers and our listeners, but the third floor, like we just have like a mezzanine area with like totally open concept between the first and second floor. 00;16;33;23 - 00;16;53;08 Unknown So it feels very open. And the third floor has this amazing space where we can have like a social mixers up there. Mm hmm. Yeah, yeah. It's different types of there. There's more light from the windows. It's kind of like a softer color palette. There's like, bigger couches. The sound is muted, the sound is muted because it has a drop ceiling. 00;16;53;11 - 00;17;09;21 Unknown Definitely like, almost like quieter and calmer up there. And it's this is kind of like the busy space down here. The cool thing is, is when we came a year ago, this place is actually better now than it was then. Well, that's good to hear. Yeah. From from the standpoint of like that third floor is actually really cool. 00;17;09;21 - 00;17;29;25 Unknown You have how many TVs up there? There's three TV, three TVs, there's cornhole portable or giant couch in the middle. Like, it's a great place to go up and just relax and be able to kind of kick back if you need that. It's a great place to have, um, I mean, honestly, how many you could have a party up there of a couple hundred people? 00;17;29;25 - 00;17;49;01 Unknown Probably. Probably. It's, yeah, it's that big. Yeah, I was. I always thought if there was ever a zombie attack works here would be a great place to be. And we're just. We could be chilling out. Yeah. No, it will. Yeah. Like, this would be a great place to be in a zombie attack. So where do you see yourself, ideally? 00;17;49;01 - 00;18;07;00 Unknown Like, if you. If you look five years into the future in this business? This is a really good question, by the way. Yeah. Where do you see yourself? Great question. So I think this is something that a lot of small business owners struggle with. We're like, you're so caught up in the day to day of running the business. 00;18;07;07 - 00;18;43;06 Unknown You're working in your business, you're not working on your business. So I'm like paying invoices, answering customer questions, like responding to maintenance staff, you know, the day to day minutia, exactly what's needed in minutia. And I really would like to remove myself from that and be able to focus on the direction of like the bigger picture direction of the business, like more locations, hiring, training, really like honing in on our brand and just cultivating more of like a culture of the company. 00;18;43;08 - 00;19;02;23 Unknown So I would like to have a kind of a higher level position, but you got to work in the trenches before you can get out. Do you do you guys have any ambitions for taking this brand to a national level or into major, major metropolitan markets elsewhere in other states? Potentially, we do, and we'd really love for you to be in all of your role. 00;19;03;01 - 00;19;21;17 Unknown So honestly, San Diego is next for you. And then maybe Austin, Texas. Who knows? Sky's the limit. It makes me I'm a control freak, so I would like I want to be in the spaces and seeing them all the time. And I think I would. I mean, I guess you just have to hire good people and trust them. 00;19;21;17 - 00;19;38;16 Unknown But yeah, I don't know if I'd want to go national. We'll see. Never say never. Maybe regionally. How about regionally? Absolutely. Okay. Yeah, we can do that. Yeah, we can do that. Yeah. Yeah. So Ryan and I, you know, as we've been talking works, has actually been in the forefront of a lot of our planning, believe it or not. 00;19;38;16 - 00;20;09;27 Unknown So we're taking what we're building, we're keeping our overhead costs pretty low, relatively speaking to other people that are in our industry. And we're able to reinvest that money that we're not having to spend on the overhead back into the business for lead generation and cultivating more loan officers coming on board with us. And so we're like, oh my gosh, if we can run lean and mean here and build a $10 million a month branch here, we should be able to do this and duplicate and replicate this in all these other markets we want to get into. 00;20;09;29 - 00;20;30;26 Unknown We're like, this is the model to do. It works here like people are working remotely. We can have a licensed location. Yeah, have minimal cost and just get up and run with it as a smart business. Yeah, it just makes sense. Yeah, I totally agree with that. So what other type of clientele give me like an idea of the types of businesses that are in here? 00;20;30;26 - 00;20;51;04 Unknown Is it just pretty much a wide array or is it like kind of a more narrow focus of the types of businesses? Definitely a wide array. So yeah, we have you guys. We have a lot of like business consultants. I would say if there's a theme, it would be like a business consultant. We have like the guy who repairs cell phones. 00;20;51;06 - 00;21;18;21 Unknown We have a lady that does permanent makeup. We have a few nonprofits in here. Um, this is in here. It really does. Yeah. I raised eyebrows with the event planning tab, and it has a barbershop like, you know, it's kind of all over the map, and I wanted it to be that way because I know there's a lot of people, even especially in, like the personal services industry, they have a hard time finding a space. 00;21;18;24 - 00;21;38;19 Unknown We can make it work here, then I'm all about it. You know what else I love about that is the level of diversity that this promotes. I agree. Yeah. So? So it's cool. Yeah, I think that's one of the unspoken things in my mind that's made this place really special is the cultural diversity and the background diversity of everybody here. 00;21;38;19 - 00;22;04;02 Unknown It's like, amazing. It's pretty wide. Yeah. And that's like, kudos to you guys for promoting that. Well, thank you. Everybody's professional, but everybody seems to have fun. Like it's a fun, professional place. Yes. Yep. And obviously we gravitate towards that. Yeah. No, right. And this is one of the things Ryan and I talk about, why we so we you know, we're in sales and it can like really wear us down sometimes. 00;22;04;02 - 00;22;22;07 Unknown But to come in here and to be able to be energized every day, it really helps us be better for our clients. So I think that's another thing that I've noticed about being in a shared workspace is that level of energy helps us with in our own business and then we're able to reciprocate that energy back out. So it becomes like this really great environment with all that. 00;22;22;09 - 00;22;39;14 Unknown That's really great feedback. That's exactly the kind of culture I wanted in the building. I didn't want it to be super sterile, tight, buttoned up, kind of like the Wells Fargo building always feels like a doctor's office, right? Yes. It's more it's worse than that. It's Ryan and I were like, we're like, kind of cringing. I'm like, What the hell? 00;22;39;15 - 00;23;02;19 Unknown No, I know. We were absolutely cringing. It was like, yeah, I just in the waiting, just getting in the elevator to go up was bad enough when you get to the floors in which they were showing us it was next level like stuffy, knowsley air. Nobody's friendly. And then we come here and we're like, Whew, let's go. Yeah, work done. 00;23;02;26 - 00;23;29;02 Unknown Yeah. Be able to be able to talk people and chill like that's the best suck. I think that should be our slogan. Yeah, that's a great slogan. Good work doesn't have to suffer. Yeah. And the other thing you spoke to and this is something Ryan and I have touched on frequently in our shows, is culture like you have created an amazing office culture here and you can't it's hard to replicate or duplicate that anywhere. 00;23;29;02 - 00;23;51;14 Unknown Like it takes like everybody in that office environment has to be part of producing that culture. So that's what's also amazing about this place is the culture. I always say culture comes from the top and you are the top of the space. Yeah, because you don't really have you don't have control over who you're interviewing and who you're bringing in, and you're not really interviewing them for a cultural spot. 00;23;51;16 - 00;24;17;00 Unknown But like you said, if they don't like you, they're probably not going to come here. If they do like you. With most people, I can't imagine anybody that doesn't like you. Yeah, they're going to come here and it's just going to work. Yes. Yeah. Well, I think there are some people who might want this. That is I don't know if intimidating is the right word, but more polished maybe. 00;24;17;02 - 00;24;33;04 Unknown And that's kind of just not the vibe here. Yeah. Yeah. Or. Or more. I noticed that the Pioneer Collective, I think it's what it's called. I felt like there was more like software type people there that could just kind of put their heads down and program a go slam or Red Bull, you know, I kind of got that vibe there. 00;24;33;07 - 00;24;52;24 Unknown Yeah, but this is more of a let's go. Yeah, it's more collaborative. It's there's more energy. Yeah. You know, there's noise, there's people doing things, there's people laughing, there's, you know, things going on. Yeah, I didn't want it to be like. And it's seven days a week. It's not just, Oh, yeah, we've come in here on Saturdays and Sundays were like, is this like a monday? 00;24;52;24 - 00;25;16;09 Unknown And here is what is going on, right? Yeah. There's like, Whoa, this is great, you know. Yeah. And I think too, like in the northwest this time of the year can get really gray and blah for a lot of people. This is really help me because I mean, I don't know if I, if I technically have seasonal affective disorder, but I think a lot of us like kind of get down in the dumps when it's gray and rainy and dark all the time. 00;25;16;12 - 00;25;35;12 Unknown But you have so much natural light in here. It's like coming in here to work, even if it's raining outside. I'm excited to come in because it's just I know the environment's going to be good. Yeah, there's good lighting here. Yeah, that's really important. G Money's grown great. Yeah. He's our money tree, as we name two worlds. Plenty of natural light in here for G money. 00;25;35;15 - 00;25;55;11 Unknown He loves it. Yeah. Super happy. Yeah. Yeah, We were joking because he got G. Money was taken into, like, a production recording for some advertisement or commercial or something because we left him out to get some stuff. And then he went from the third floor and they came back and out of the conference room on the second floor as like chased him around the building for two weeks, were. 00;25;55;13 - 00;26;24;02 Unknown And he, he like grew like three inches at the time. I mean we missed out on that. That was that was good. So funny. Well, Brittany, do you have any final thoughts for people looking to maybe jump into the shared workspace? Final thoughts? I would say if you're thinking about getting out of your house or maybe starting a business, definitely come to a place like this because like you said, it's energizing, it's inspiring, it's affordable. 00;26;24;02 - 00;26;39;20 Unknown There's really no reason why you shouldn't at least come visit and check it out. Yeah. And like all our agreements are month to month, we don't nail anybody down for any long term anything. So so they could really just start with just the most basic membership and start from there to get a feel for it and go from there. 00;26;39;22 - 00;27;02;02 Unknown Yeah. If you don't like it, that's all good. Well, thank you for coming in and sharing all your experiences with us. Yes, my pleasure. And maybe we can do a couple of video shorts of our office space and put them on our channel to check it out. Awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Awesome. Thanks so much, Brittany. You you guys can catch our show on the podcast platforms. 00;27;02;02 - 00;27;13;08 Unknown Apple, iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, intercom. Yeah, they're they're all there. They're all there. And you know what, Brian? Today is another great day. It's another great day.