Business Innovators Radio - The Inspired Impact Podcast with Judy Carlson-Interview with Gina Schreck, Author, Speaker, and Owner of The Village Workspace

Episode Date: October 9, 2024

Gina Schreck is an author, speaker, and owner of The Village Workspace. She is a wife and mother of 4, investor, and philanthropist. LinkedIn selected Gina as one of the top 24 B2B marketers to follow in 2021, and last year Fox News selected Gina as one of the top 4 Remarkable Women in Colorado. Gina left her corporate job in 1995 and never looked back. At the age of 60 she says she is just getting started. Helping others take their dreams off the back burner and overcome the fear to go bigger is her mission today.https://www.instagram.com/GinaSchreckhttps://www.facebook.com/gina.schreck/https://www.linkedin.com/in/ginaschreck/https://thevillageworkspace.com/*********************************************************Judy is the CEO & Founder of the Judy Carlson Financial Group. She helps her clients design, build, and implement fully integrated and coordinated financial plans from today through life expectancy and legacy.She is an Independent Fiduciary and Comprehensive Financial Planner who specializes in Wealth Decumulation Strategies. Judy is a CPA, Investment Advisor Representative, Life and Health Insurance Licensed, and Long-Term Care Certified.Judy’s mission is to educate and empower her clients with an all-inclusive financial plan that encourages and motivates them to pursue their lifetime financial goals and dreams.Learn More: https://judycarlson.com/Investment Adviser Representative of and advisory services offered through Royal Fund Management, LLC, an SEC Registered Adviser.The Inspired Impact Podcasthttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/the-inspired-impact-podcast/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/the-inspired-impact-podcast-with-judy-carlson-interview-with-gina-schreck-author-speaker-and-owner-of-the-village-workspace

Welcome to the Inspired Impact Podcast, where dedicated female professionals share how they inspire impact every day. Authentic stories, passionate commitment, lives transformed. I'm your host, Judy Carlson. Welcome to today's episode of the Inspired Impact Podcast. I am so excited to introduce you to Gina Shrek. She's a friend and she owns the village workspace. I want to welcome her today. Thank you so much.

It's exciting to be here with you. Yay. So, Gina, why don't we just start by having you tell me a little bit about your journey, where you started, what inspired you to pursue the path you're on? And how has it allowed you to do what you're doing today, which is quite magnificent, in my opinion? I always say, you know, like many of us, I have a very squiggly path. And, you know, I'm always a believer that everywhere we are, every position we've held since, you know, we started working, prepares us for something. And, you know, I started out in sales, gosh, in my 20s in the personnel industry.

But that taught me sales and relational sales and how to build good relationships. relationships. And that I became a regional manager. I then got to do training for our organization. I got to go and I had a five state region. And so I would train all of our customer service, all of our sales, all of our marketing. And I realized I love the training part. I decided, you know what, I'm going to start my own training business. I had no qualifications. I always say, I think Steve Martin had a great quote once. He said his his greatest gift was, naivete and just being so naive to how unprepared and unqualified he was to do all the things he has done. And I say, that is me. I have always said I am completely unprepared and unqualified to do the things I've done, but I've always been a curious person and just said yes to things. And so I started my own business in 1995 doing corporate training for sales and marketing. And during that time, I had this training business, and my husband and I, he had quit his job. We both did this.

We got into the telecom industry. We did a lot with every single cable company in the United States at that time. And it really was through a relationship I had with somebody back then. It was Jones Interkable that was here in Colorado and became Comcast. But literally, we trained with every single cable company. doing their sales and marketing because they had this new competitor coming out, which was satellite dish. And so did that.

And then I had a contract with IBM doing training up in Boulder. And then that led to 22 locations doing leadership training. And in that training, we were using some really cool technology, this 3D immersive technology. And it was like playing video games, but you would log in as an avatar. And your avatar would then train. And we were doing soft skills training, leadership training, communication training, marketing training, but in this virtual space to an audience all over the globe. Well, I was just trying to research.

How do I get in contact with other people using these tools? And there was this new thing that was coming out and it was called Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn. I was like, wow, you can find people in other countries who are using these tools that we were using. And I could have these conversations and we would get on tweet chats and we would get on podcast. So back in 2007, I was one of the early users of all these tools. And then companies wanted me to come and speak. Can you come and share how you're using this technology and what

you're doing in this space and how, what are these new things, Twitter and social media and all these things? So it's just saying yes and following the squiggly path of opportunity. You know, you say people always think, oh, this person was an overnight success at something. but it's just it's the people that walk in front of a hundred doors and you knock along the way and doors will open and you just walk in and then you keep knocking on doors even while you're in there and another door and it just kept leading me down this path so i became an early kind of user of social media i was a technical editor on the idiot's guide to social media i wrote a book in 2008 called twitter for business i wrote another book in a couple years later called social media doesn't work unless you

do. So I became really well known in the social media marketing space. Then companies like Hyatt Hotels started asking, can you just do it for us? And my answer is always, of course I can. Of course I can do your digital marketing for you by myself. And then I left going, okay, how am I going to do this? And I need to hire a team and train them. And we started writing content, editing podcasts and videos, managing social media. for large companies and built a team of 12 people. And we were looking for office space and we couldn't find one that we really liked. And I thought, you know, there's these shared workspaces.

Let's go look at some of those. So we walked in and we were like, oh, they're so boring. They're so quiet. Some of them were very broworking instead of co-working. There was just a bunch of guys working on computers. And we just didn't feel like this was our vibe. And so I jokingly said maybe we should open our own. and we were sitting in a coffee shop and we started writing down, of course, on a napkin of all the

different ideas that we had to open a co-working space and how cool it would be and what we would put in there. And a guy sitting at the table next to us, he leans over and says, I'm sorry, I'm just eavesdropping. I have to know, like, what are you guys talking about? This sounds amazing. So we start talking to him and he said, I have a friend who's a commercial realtor. I can introduce you to him. He can show you places to build something like that.

And I said, well, I guess why not? You know, why not? So I can't cost anything at that point to just go look. And so we started looking and one thing led to another and we ended up here in Centennial with 10,000 square foot space and we moved our team into that space and then had, oh, I think we had 24 other offices outside of our team's offices. And that, you know, we opened 10 days before COVID. So, you know, I've always been very familiar with adversity.

And I think some people, they come up against a challenge and they just retreat or say, I can't do it. And I don't know why. Again, it goes back to the naivete of just having undeserved or unwarranted confidence to keep doing things. And I think because we came from marketing, I knew how to market a business. And I knew to gather people together during COVID, we had already pre-sold about 10 offices before COVID. We opened the doors March 2nd.

So by March 13th, you know, we're hearing you have to close up. Well, we never had to close because we were a certified mail processing center. We took the mail for different businesses that were in our space. So we had to remain open because of that. And so I was like, well, we're going to come every day. And so other people were like, well, we want to come every day. I need a sense of normalcy. And they would come in and everyone went into their own offices.

So we had plenty of space to spread out. But we started doing things like, let's do a weekly Facebook live. And we would go live talking about how to market your business during this time. And how do you stay connected with your customers? And we would help our clients that were in here create content, videos, podcasts. We have a podcast studio. So it's just one of those times that was we took the challenge and we were just like, well, we have to keep going.

We can't. We signed a 10-year lease here. We can't. We can't not go. Little by little, people started coming in saying, I can't work from home. My kids are doing school at home. My spouse is at home. My dogs are at home.

I need a space. So we started getting full during COVID. So 2021, we were completely full to the point where we turned our conference. rooms that we had into offices because people were coming in and say, we need an office. And we kept saying, okay, we're going to have to expand. I sold my marketing agency to a group that was looking to buy a recurring revenue agency. And at that time, I was really struggling to do both. So I said, yes, let's make that happen.

So he bought the marketing agency from me and I looked at how do we expand. And DeVita had 40,000 square feet attached to our space. but they had all been working from home during COVID. So I approached them and said, hey, I noticed that you guys are not coming in anymore. Would you consider subleasing some of your space? And they said, oh, no, we're coming back. We're coming back. So we kept thinking, okay, we're going to have to move somewhere else.

We started looking at other locations. And then DeVita came to me and said, you know what? We're not coming back. We're not going to come back to the call center. And would you be interested in taking over the whole 40,000 square feet, which would make it 50,000? And I just was panic-stricken for a moment and said, oh, my gosh, there's no way. I could do 40, that what would I do with that much space?

And then that night, I just kept thinking, well, we could build an event center. A lot of events that are closed during COVID, and we would get calls all the time. Do you have a meeting space for 50 people? And our networking group is looking for a space. So I said, let me talk to the mayor. So I contacted Stephanie Pico, and I said, In the city of Centennial, where do people go for event spaces? And what's the biggest space you could do?

And she said, you should build 100 person or 150 person space if you're going to build one. I said, okay. So we built a 200 person ballroom, 250 person training rooms, a lot of different meeting spaces. And that has been the best decision that I accidentally made because we are like there's so many meetings that take place here, which is a big part of our market. So, you know, these opportunities keep opening other opportunities. And I tell people, it's like driving in the dark. You can't see ahead two miles, but you can see ahead two feet, you know, 20 feet. You're driving and you're just able to see a little bit ahead.

So you make a decision. But then when you get there, you realize, oh, now I'm going to turn right or I'm going to turn left or I'm going to go straight. And I think in life, sometimes we stop driving because it's too dark or the decision is unclear. And I say, just keep going because there's going to be another opportunity that's going to present itself as soon as you move forward. And action gets rid of the fear. So just taking action starts you down that path of planning. And yeah, it's been amazing.

And now it's been almost, well, we opened in 2020. So it's been for almost five years. And it's amazing. And it's been great. And we added a whole wellness wing. to the space with massage therapists and chiropractors and physical therapy groups and physicians and lots of therapists. So, yeah, my journey has been in no way planned.

In no way did I go to school for commercial real estate or marketing. And it's just the squiggly path that prepared. But I look back at every step prepared me for what I'm doing now. So it's, I love it. Yeah. I mean, and just the common theme of knocking on the doors and then even though it was initially closed with DeVita and then not many months later, they come back to you and look at the door that opened for you at that time. Right. And I had almost given up on that fact of expanding here and we were looking at a space in Lakewood in Belmar.

And we weren't going to close this one. But we thought, well, let's keep this one small and let's open another location. And which is still in my mind of going, you know, that's still a possibility is maybe next year we look at expanding to another location to have one up north. And everyone I meet, I say that because I'm putting it out there. So someone, and I've had people say, oh, I know someone who has a building that they have, no, it's empty. And they're looking for someone to come in. It's 30,000 square feet. You know, those are the type of things that when you have an idea for a business or something you're wanting to do, tell people.

Tell people what you're doing because someone's going to know someone that you need to know to make that happen. Right. So I know that you've made huge differences in people's lives. Can you just tell us a little bit more about the artwork inside the village workspace and a little bit about that story? Yeah. We have several charity partners here at the village. And, you know, one thing we saw during COVID is the mental health of a lot of people really. I mean, it hits home every day here that we see people saying, I'm very isolated. I'm either a solopreneur and I feel like I'm failing at my business or I feel like I'm not making a difference. I feel like I don't have a purpose in what I'm doing. and we love, number one, we just love, those people in here, they just, they plug in, they belong, they feel celebrated, they feel when you have a bad day or you lose a client, you know, other people, like, we see that in your face when you walk in the door, we're like, sit down, let's talk, what's going on?

We're going to help you. We're going to get you pump back up. And one of the groups that moved in here early on, it was in the end of 2020, maybe early 2021, Freedom 58 and Love Justice. And this is an organization that fights human trafficking. And they were trying to figure out they needed a U.S. base. They're actually based in Nepal. And they fight human trafficking. They literally are on the ground at bus stations, airports, borders,

where they are watching for the signs of people trafficking young kids, women, sometimes men, and they're looking for signs that they're trained to watch for, and they will go and confront these people, and they'll swoop in with a team that confronts them, and then they will attempt to get the person pulled out of that situation, and then either reunited with families or rehabilitated back into schools and work systems, and they do a lot, even here locally, with organizations. There's one called Beautiful Feet here locally that, sadly, trafficking is not just something that happens in other countries.

It happens right here in our state and under our nose. And so they were looking for a space to have their U.S. headquarters, but it was during COVID, and they were still not sure how big of a space they needed. I said, you need to be in here. And part of their way that they raise awareness is every time someone is pulled from a trafficked situation. They write the story up of what happened. They take pictures.

They have everything documented. Well, then one of the members of the owner of Freedom 58, which is the foundation that funds the other organizations, Freedom 58 is run by a former Bronco, Denver Bronco player Bob Swenson and his wife Libby. And Bob said, you know what? We should include art. like what if we commission an artist to tell the story, but they need to mask the person's identity, because these people have already been sold once. We're not going to sell them again.

And so they commissioned a few artists. Well, lining, these are very, I mean, their artists are selling paintings for $100,000, $40,000, very high-end artists. And they asked, would you paint a couple of these pictures? for us. And they were so blown away by how things came out, so beautiful and so moving. And the artist would paint their interpretation of the person or the situation. So it's, you don't, you can't tell who it is. And, um, and they're not for sale. They're just to raise awareness. So they would go and start doing talks, but they would show the pictures and the imagery of, you know, G.B. Road in India is a place where there's so many brothels and all these young girls are brought in and young boys.

And the painting is this blue and black buildings. It's just the buildings. And you can see shadows in the buildings. But that's how the artist depicted that area. And so they're very powerful. And so Bob was telling me about these paintings. I said, where do you have them? Where are they?

He said, well, we bring them when we do talks. And I said, but where do you keep them? And he said, well, they're in a storage unit. And I said, you have beautiful paintings in a storage unit. And he says, yeah, I mean, we have 120 of them, 140 of them. And I said, I have a lot of walls that need art. What if we do a trade? I want to house you guys here and have you be our focus charity partner.

And we display the art here. And then we invite the city and we invite corporations. and we invite groups in to tour and see the art. And so it's a really cool partnership. But there's so many. I mean, we also have a suicide woman who does suicide prevention work. She has an office here. We have another group called Jana.

You are not alone for moms struggling with postpartum, depression, and anxiety. So we have some really wonderful charity partners here in the village. And I love helping other people who want to do good. But they just don't know how to plug in. Right. And all you do is introduce them. And you say, here's a group you can get involved with today. Like you can get involved, whether it's financial, whether it's volunteering, whether it's helping them spread the word.

Yeah. No matter where your heart tugs, there's a group here. So it's been such a wonderful blessing to see people get involved in things. Like we just had that event. You were at the popcorn and pairing. Right. Mac Humphrey is a mortgage broker and he is here. He's a lender and he wanted to do something for the charity groups.

And he said, what if I do an event every quarter? I want to sponsor it, but I want to highlight a different charity each time. And I said, let's do it. Let's do it. We'll provide the space. You do everything else bringing people together. And so that's been really fun. Wow.

When I talk about inspiring impact, Gina, how far can you keep going? Oh my goodness. Well, I mean, it is one of those things we all, I think it's one of those things we all have more to do. And there's bigger work to be done. And sometimes it can seem overwhelming. But when you start talking about things you have a passion for, you will always find others who connect and want to be involved and suddenly the load gets lighter and you start moving forward going, wow, look at all the things that were, you know, making dents in all these areas and helping people raise money. I mean, raising awareness, raising just the volunteer army that it takes for some of these groups

to do what they're doing. And I do think it's one of those things I've just been so, I mean, it's been so interesting to see my journey through it. And I mean, I recently wrote a book called Changing Directions and Starting from Scratch because people are always going, did you come from like, what's your background? How did you do this? And there's not another co-working style space in Colorado that's both of wellness and work and meeting space.

Right. And definitely not the size that this one is. And I go, I was just delusiness. to think I could do it. And, you know, and I think sometimes we have ideas. And all of a sudden, I think if you hang out with people who are doing bigger things than you, you start seeing that the impossible is so doable. Right. And things you just thought you could never do are, oh, wait, we just got done doing that. You know, so it's great because we inspire each other. Wow. And you've just received with open arms all of the opportunities that have come your way and

the impact and the help that you're giving to so many people and the awareness. Wow. As we wrap up here, Gina, we could keep talking. I know we just really love chatting with each other. So what would be some ways that people could get involved, contact you, become part of what you've got going at the village. workspace, all those kinds of things, even getting your book. Yeah, my book is, you can find it any bookstore or on Amazon. It's just called Changing Directions and Starting from Scratch. You can pretty much just search Gina Shrek and you'll see a lot of the places. But I always encourage people, come by the village, just walk in and do an art tour on your own, self-guided. Or Libby's usually here to help answer questions and show you things. or just come in and say, hey, I want to know more about the nonprofits that work in here

and different organizations. So you can kind of see, is there something that you want to plug into? If you are feeling isolated and that, you know, that people just don't get you, that you feel like I don't have the support. I'm wanting to do something bigger, but I feel very alone. Come in here and I want to sit down with you and I'm going to plug you in somewhere. Definitely. Wow.

Well, this has been so amazing. another female professional finding their way and their circuitous route, squiggly line. I love that. So thank you so much, Gina, for your time, for inspiring the people that are going to be listening. And we're just really excited to get this out and out to people. It has been a wonderful conversation, and it's an honor to be on here with you. Thanks so much, Judy. Thanks, Gina.

Thanks so much for joining us for the Inspired Impact Podcast. To listen to past episodes, please visit theinspiredimpactpodcast.com.