As a freelance professional, I have the opportunity to work from home and many other places with a good wifi, nice coffee and an inspiring ambience. Office nomadism is part of the characteristics of my work and also a source of inspiration for the reflections on communication that I share through my newsletter. Which is why, I have taken the habit of sharing photos of where I’m working from on my Facebook and Instagram pages. I shared one today as well (8th of August 2019), but today my workspace was more special than other times.
My Office Today
It has been a special day (yes everyday is, but today has something more). Today something I wanted and needed took shape.
A bit of background: as you might know I work freelance and I have children which means that juggling the work and family time is always an interesting challenge. So much so that sometimes it gets frustrating
A few weeks ago I shared this frustration with a friend who is also trying to work while having children and we briefly dreamt about having a space where we could work while the children were taken care of. We needed flexible hours and childcare, a free and close by space.
My friend and I started researching possible solutions: babysitters, nannies, childminders, etc. And as we did that, another professional joined the club. Now there were three of us.
We decided we needed help, so we headed to the library and met a local councillor, business experts. We wrote a questionnaire and shared it on social media: we needed to find more people in our situation.
The results?
- We came up with the idea of creating pop-up sessions of co-working with childcare (which means we temporarily occupy one space like a bar or pub and work from there)
- An investor reached out to have a chat
- Local businesses made themselves available
And today, despite being vacation time, despite having promoted the pop up with just one week of notice, despite not having any social media account of the project, today we successfully ran our first pop up session in a beautiful pub in London. We had a full house!
We made this happen in less than a month
How?
- We T2E, talked to everyone! I made a video about this, saying it’s amazing what you can achieve by just sharing what you’re doing with whoever you meet
- We asked questions to our customers (listening is communication best-kept secret)
- We focused on thefinal aim and forgot about all the fluffy decorations (we needed a space, childcare and people to join and our efforts went there only)
So today I want to send you the ball of positive energy that came from this experience and invite you to use what you have to make your needs and dreams come true. Make a plan for your dreams. Get ready physically and emotionally, connect and make it happen!
What do you want to get done by the end of September?
Share it in the comments. It only takes a minute and it will give you clarity!
Hugs
