I had the good fortune to do a mini-workshop at Outside the Cube in Mountain View this Friday thanks to Felicity Chapman, Founder and CEO of Cubes & Crayons and Outside the Cube. Outside the Cube is a place to work with other professionals in an open work space with the convenience of childcare (if needed). This is a great alternative to folks who work in their home and occasionally need to get out and work in a new office space environment. It’s simple solution: the convenience of leasing space to work in a very cool environment with other like-minded businesspeople.
What a relaxed and inspiring work space! I arrived early for my workshop and there were two other professionals in the work space while I got my handouts organized. Our workshop was in one of the available conference rooms, but I needed to make some copies before we started, so I walked into the general work space area first and looked for a copy machine which was readily available. The walls were beautifully designed with soothing and creative colors that really made you want to sit down for a full 8 hours and get some stuff done! I immediately observed that one professional had her computer set up at a workstation and was humming tunes while listening to her iPod. The other professional there was busy also working on a computer but helped me find the water and copy/fax machine. Soon, a few moms came in with children and were entering the childcare section of Outside the Cube, getting ready for a few hours of on-site work with the convenience of childcare. I felt energized by the open space and the feeling that the professionals using the workspace had come for a productive morning of work all the while co-sharing space with other like-minded professionals and entrepreneurs. The vibe was positive, the mood was productive and there was a lot of natural light in the co-work space. What more could you ask for if you needed to sit and work?
My workshop started at 10AM and it was a mix of consultants and entrepreneurs who were looking for new ways to increase the value of their marketing messages to existing and potential customers. We used several exercises from my book and because the workshop was fairly small, we had the opportunity to openly discuss how to improve the marketing messages of each business owner there. This was a great experience for me, since I had the unique opportunity to really coach some great Silicon Valley entrepreneurs on how to up-level their current messaging and find new ways to market themselves using online tools. The business owners in the workshop ranged from IT consulting organizations to virtual assistants to international business and marketing coaches and several marketing and communication consultants. All in all, it was a great workshop and I found that a lot of the attendees were feeling that they needed a new way to “re-position” their marketing message with the given economy yet hadn’t had the time to really sit down and do it!
Workshop attendees were impressed (as was I) with the one space and community feel for the Outside the Cube environment and CEO Felicity Chapman gave us some information about upcoming business workshops for entrepreneurs from coaching, business consulting help and even events for working moms and dads. She’s got it all! I highly recommend Outside the Cube for any professional who’d like a change of pace for working environment and is open to getting some creative juices flowing with other like-minded entrepreneurs or professionals. Hats off to Felicity for developing an outstanding solution for the 21st century professional!
For more information on Outside the Cube as well as to find out about their workshops and community events, visit: www.otcsf.com
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