CAMP Coworking

five books that changed my life and my business - a post from megan hunt of princess lasertron

At CAMP we have an ever-growing library of inspirational books that people can curl up with on one of our comfy chairs when they want to take a break. There are five particular books that have been so influential to me that we give them out for free to CAMP visitors who are looking for some motivation. Here are those books and my words about why they are the greatest.

The Martha Rules by Martha Stewart
Martha is truly the original H.B.I.C. and in our modern times one of the true revolutionaries in business. The Martha Rules is a book targeted toward entrepreneurs, but Martha’s wisdom is equally applicable for anybody seeking to identify their passions, turn on their creativity, and live a more beautiful life.

The Art of Non-Conformity by Chris Guillebeau
Chris Guillebeau is a friend to me who inspires me by living an unexpected, unconventional life that brings him joy, happiness, and success. In his book he reminds us that nobody is going to give us permission to live our best lives, and nobody is going to tell us what that life is. The hard part about being happy is that you have to figure out what it is for yourself. But the easy part about process is that nobody else can tell you that you can’t have it. I love the common sense, practical advice, and the friendly voice.

Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
Rework is a great book to pick up when you need a quick espresso shot of motivation, or a reminder of how to do the damn thing after a hard day at work. There are cute ink illustrations that begin each new section, and the table of contents makes it easy to browse through the short chapters. There is a great sense of humor and emphasis on new business axioms like “meetings are toxic” and “the longer something takes, the less likely it is that you’re going to finish it.” It’s a great book to read if you are into working lean and feel yourself being bogged down with day-to-day minutia.

The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber
This is the first book I read when I decided to start a business in 2005. It was recommended to me by my creative writing professor who now owns a cat hospital with his wife in Arizona (of all things). The E-Myth is a classic, popular business book that serves as a practical guide to business problem solving and finding your strengths at work. The most important and practical point Gerber makes—the “E-Myth”—is that entrepreneurs often discover that running a business doing what they love is often not what they expected as far as workload and responsibility. Reading The E-Myth helped me consider my business plan realistically before diving in.

Poke the Box by Seth Godin
This is the newest book on my list and it’s all about what has been intuitive to me since I started my business—that we all want to fit in but to be more successful than your wildest dreams you have to do something different. This book addresses your fears and excuses that are keeping you from taking the first step, and then takes your initiative and shows you how to carry through your actions to a meaningful conclusion—hard work and a rewarding life.

If you have any others that you recommend I’d love to hear about them so we can add them to the CAMP library.

xo
meg

Princess Lasertron is a bridal designer, writer, and speaker who works with over 300 brides each year. Visit her studio at CAMP Coworking and follow her at Lasertron on Twitter!

Jump on the Interstate: Five reasons to commute to CAMP

One of the most common concerns we hear from coworkers before they take the plunge into coworking is that CAMP, located in North Downtown, isn’t a convenient drive from West Omaha or South Omaha or wherever they are commuting from. Find out why our CAMP commuters are glad they made the trip:

1. In a coffee shop or a smaller workspace, distractions are everywhere. But with 2,000 square feet at CAMP, you can have a phone conversation, bring a client in for a meeting, or even take on an extra employee or two without the anxiety of disturbing those around you. We have the space to allow you to work at your best alone or with your team—whether it’s sitting at a desk, in an armchair with your headphones on, or on a comfy couch with a cup of Starbucks coffee.

2. A short commute to the office—20 minutes or less—can lead to more productivity and results in your work. If you’re jumping on the interstate from West Omaha to spend the day at CAMP, use the travel time to focus on what you want to accomplish and prioritize your tasks that day. If you’re self-employed or work from home, you will notice the difference in focus and productivity that comes from working in a supportive coworking space as opposed to a home office. A recent Gallup study showed that the happiest people and most productive workers get eight hours of social interaction every day. We have trouble finding time to be social when we are always working, but at CAMP you can have both.

3. With a full-time membership, you have the flexibility to work any time you want. If you like to beat the traffic, you have the freedom to come in early to work or head out later and you’ll never be bounded by business hours. You can also get to know your fellow night owls and early birds in the building—there is always someone buzzing around.

4. CAMP’s North Downtown location is close to everything you already want to be a part of. Just steps from Blue Line coffee, the Hot Shops art galleries, Film Streams cinema, great music venue The Slowdown and the new TD Ameritrade Stadium, home of the College World Series, you don’t have to feel like you are missing out on Omaha’s cultural offerings. Commuting to CAMP puts you in a great environment to engage with customers, and you always have the opportunity to take in a show or go out to dinner after a long day.

5. At CAMP, you can benefit from the creative energy and professional resources of everyone else in The Mastercraft, where we are located in suite 119. Dozens of major players in Omaha’s entrepreneurial scene are located here, including web and graphic design companies What Cheer, Secret Penguin, and Grain & Mortar, Birdhouse Interior Design, photographers Minorwhite, cinematography studio Torchwerks, TACKarchetects, community engagement evangelists MindMixer, and more. The full list of current tenants is on The Mastercraft website, and there are even more amazing tenants coming in soon (but we’ll let them make those announcements themselves). Our community here is open, collaborative, and always willing to lend feedback, advice, and even a skateboard lesson or a frisbee match.

Create & Bitch at CAMP #1

On the second Friday of every month, CAMP hosts Create and Bitch, a casual time for people to drop in and bring their own projects in and make stuff! Created by Courtney Gill Zurcher of Inez Gill, our first event last week was a great success and a few dozen ladies and gentlemen came by and enjoyed tea provided by The Tea Smith and a long night of crafting, making art, and collaborating!

Here are a few photos:

If you’re interested in coming to the next Create & Bitch at CAMP, swing by every month on the second Friday, bring $3 for treats and drinks, and have a seat next to some of the most creative and fun pals in Omaha!

Coworking breeds success: Downs Design + Image Made = Grain & Mortar!

Year-long CAMP Coworking tenants Downs Design and Image Made recently announced their merge to form Grain & Mortar, a brand strategy and design company. In mid-October they’ll be packing up their 800 computer monitors and moving just down the hall from CAMP to their new workspace in the Mastercraft Building.

Image Made was started by Michael and Kristin Dekay in 2008 after the economy left Michael jobless. The couple set off on their own business journey, with Michael handling the design and development, working in Wordpress and designing print materials, while Kristin managed the client content by writing copy and providing photography. They came to CAMP in July 2010.

Downs Design was a small studio started by Eric Downs to offer creative print and web design for other hardworking small businesses (like Princess Lasertron!). With a focus on partnering with companies with have a passion for the power of great design, Downs built his portfolio and grew his company to a three-person operation in the last year while working at CAMP full-time.

We are so excited about the birth of Grain and Mortar because everything about the two companies—right down to the way the merging happened—exemplifies the spirit of collaboration, creativity, and support that coworking is all about. As a simple handshake and agreement, the DeKays and Downs say they believe that they are each benefiting equally, and their clients have the most to gain as they are now able to combine all of their creative resources to offer design work unparalleled by any of their competitors.

According to their new company website, “Grain and Mortar” symbolizes the Midwest values of hard work, honesty, trust and reliability—four characteristics that the G&M team carries in spades.

So, who’s on the team?

• Eric Downs, Creative Director / Owner
• Mike DeKay, Creative Director / Owner
• Kristin DeKay, Operations Director / Owner
• Liz Hunt, Art Director
• Joshua Goodell, Web Developer

Congratulations again to Grain & Mortar! We will see you down the hall!

Badassery at Work: our coworking talk at Meet the Pros

Meet the Pros is a two-day event sponsored by Omaha’s American Advertising Federation chapter to connect design students with local experts representing a wide scope of careers in design. This year’s February event featured workshops, keynote speakers, student portfolio reviews and lots of one-on-one time between area professionals and the next generation of design talent here in the Midwest!

CAMP co-founders Megan Hunt and Eric Downs were invited to deliver a keynote talk about how coworking is changing the way people work, and what a typical workplace may look like in the next 5-10 years as coworking concepts continue to become more accepted and pervasive in mainstream corporate environments.

The talk? Badassery at work: Collaboration, creativity, and coworking.

One thing we talked about was what we have learned working at CAMP in the past year—here is a list of some of the lessons we shared with the students:

Marshmallows shoot better when they’re soft, but hurt more when they’re dried out.

• Investing in some extracurricular activities for your workspace is well worth it. You might be surprised when you take a break by throwing a frisbee, riding a scooter, or shooting marshmallows at a pal that your downtime turns into something productive. Bouncing ideas off of each other and collaborating to think of new solutions to frustrating problems is an everyday occurrence in a coworking space.

You can do whatever you want at work.

• One of the reasons so many employees in corporate America are so disengaged is because mainstream employers haven’t accepted that there are many “working styles” that lead to the greatest productivity for different people. A space like CAMP is a great once-a-week retreat for a group of coworkers who flourish in a social, collaborative work environment. CAMP has hosted small teams from several of the country’s largest companies based here in Omaha, and each of those teams experienced not only productivity, but happiness and satisfaction which resulted in an increase in overall morale. In other words, not everyone works well in a desk, and why should they? Coworking spaces empower employees to be in charge of their own style of getting things done.

We want to impress our peers.

• Put simply, we work harder when we are surrounded by people who are working hard. When one of us is working late, everyone is motivated to put in a little but of extra time or effort into their own projects. 

Despite working in different industries, we have more in common than we think.

• At CAMP, we have had coworkers with all kinds of jobs—a multitude of graphic/print/web designers, computer programmers and developers, apparel designers, reporters and freelance writers, lawyers, accountants, photographers, marketing experts and consultants…the list goes on and on. Although we work in different businesses, we share our triumphs, challenges, and solve problems together and everyone benefits. Hooray!

Entrepreneurs need support.

• One of the reasons we go into business for ourselves is to make our own rules, but over half of entrepreneurs abandon their first businesses because they aren’t prepared for the emotional and financial commitment to making a startup succeed. One of the ways to beat those odds stacked against you is to surround yourself with people who have gone through—or are going through—exactly what you are, and people who are willing to share their network of support with you. With coworking, that’s exactly what you get—a sounding board when you develop a new idea, a support group when you need to commiserate, an advisory board when you’re ready to take a leap, and a drinking buddy to go out and celebrate!

The talk at Meet the Pros was a great opportunity to connect with students and people about to enter the workforce. We’re eager for the creative industries to adopt coworking principles—it will increase morale and improve the quality of life of so many creative minds.