Why You Need More Vitamin N

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It’s no secret we live in a society where we are always indoors. Most people will leave their homes to drive to where they work (most likely inside) and then back home. A recent study has shown that humans will spend 93 percent of their time indoors. There is also a shift to living in big cities that have limited access to natural surroundings. There are countless other studies conducted about the benefits that nature can have on our health and well-being. 

There is just something so rejuvenating about spending time outside, whether that is in a forest surrounded by towering trees or on the coast with the waves hitting your toes. Spending time connected to nature grounds us and helps us see the magnitude of the world around us. I am sure that you have noticed this phenomenon, especially during the summer months when you are outside more or even on vacation. 

Author Richard Louv questions what he calls “nature-deficit disorder,” which is an alienation from nature altogether. He poses the question in his book Last Child in the Woods, “What could our lives and our children’s lives be like if our days and nights were as immersed in nature as they are in technology?” 

What can cause us to fall into nature-deficit disorder? That’s not an easy answer. The rise and continuation of technology in our everyday lives, urbanization, and fear of the unknown can all be traced to having an effect on why we are spending much more time indoors rather than out experiencing nature. Louv states that prolonged alienation from natural surroundings can have deep affects on our mental and physical states, especially in our children. Research has shown that spending more time connected to nature can help with depression, obesity, ADD, and can stimulate creativity. 

In his most recent book, Louv has come up with a solution for nature-deficit disorder: Vitamin N. This book details specific activities on how to connect more with the natural world around you. Louv also cofounded Children and Nature Network (C&NN,) which is an organization determined to get children and families outside. Through this nonprofit’s website, you can take a pledge to finding Vitamin N and offers support, tips, and more. 

It might not be practical to drop everything in your life and go live in the woods forever, but there are lots of ways to implement some Vitamin N into your daily life. Enter: biophilic design. If you have been around on our blog for a while, you might have heard us talk about this. It is about integrating nature into your already present environment. It is so much more than just putting a succulent on your desk—do that if you want, though! Biophilic design takes into account the whole space, whether that is your home, your office, or wherever you spend your time. 

Pieces that can be considered biophilic design are plants, water, natural light, even natural air flow. Ment was created with a biophilic design in mind. We have a little green in every room of our space, a huge skylight in the coworking lounge and more. However, your place of work doesn’t have to do the design for you, you can do it yourself. Open the blinds or the windows  in your office. Place some plants everywhere. Your eyes will shift to the green leaves and put you at peace. Buy some nature-inspired art to hang around. The best tip of all would be get outside! Take your lunch out on a bench, meet with clients at a restaurant with outdoor setting, or just go for a walk on your break. 

Our nature-deficit disorder that we might face may not be totally curable in an instant. It is something we have to work on every day. Taking into account the words of Richard Louv, begin to implement some of his tips into creating a life that is more green. 

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Using your Business Anniversary as PR

You say it’s your birthday?!

If you are reading this blog, you might be nearing an anniversary for your business. Whether it is one year (like us— I’ll get into that in a bit) or 50 years, any milestone is worth celebrating. If done right, your anniversary can boost your company’s PR through media coverage, word-of-mouth, and more.

A business anniversary is not just about getting a cake with the company logo across it, but who doesn’t love cake?! Still get the cake, duh. But, The Society for Marketing Professional Services really gets it. They state that business anniversaries can be used to really build up a lot of goodwill and brand recognition, and they describe it perfectly:

“Think of the milestone as a year-long celebration of the company’s longevity, and plan an anniversary campaign that strengthens the brand and promotes the firm and its mission. The target audience for the anniversary campaign could include employees, clients, prospects, potential hires, partners, and media influencers in the company’s target sectors. There are many marketing and PR activities that lend themselves nicely to anniversary promotion. Your goals, budget, and target audience will determine which activities best fit your company.”

Since we are only a year old, we are still learning and growing. We haven’t mastered any of these tips yet, but we found some really cool ways to build PR around our anniversary and we hope that we can all learn together.

It all starts with the planning. Think about what makes up your brand and what you want to highlight about yourselves. Planning should be done well in advance to make sure that this anniversary campaign can reach as many people as possible.

Social media is a great way to build your brand all year-round, but can truly be utilized during a business anniversary. We are using throwback photos from when Ment first took shape all the way until now. These types of photos can spark some nostalgia in some of your brand’s most loyal followers. This month on Instagram, we have been posting pictures of the construction of our space with a side-by-side of its current state. Events that celebrate the anniversary can also be posted and marketed in this way. Be consistent about posts and make sure they speak to your target audience.

Storytelling can also be used to generate brand involvement—people love that stuff. Detail how your business started with the idea and share how it grew and grew to where it is today. Highlight those people who helped along the way such as the owner all the way down the chain of command and thank them for their contributions. This week in particular, we are thanking those who have been with Ment since the beginning. Interview people who currently work in the space. Testimonies like these reach followers on a different level than just a normal ad.

Run a special on your product or service to commemorate this occasion. For instance, Ment is having a free coworking day and beergarden on June 14 to celebrate our one year anniversary. This is a great way to get people into the space and involved in what we do here, and hopefully keep them coming back again and again.

While it is important to focus on the past during an anniversary and dwell upon how you got to where you are, it is equally important to take a look into the future. Take note on what you as a business have done in the past and decide on how you can be better in the future.

June 13 marks the one year anniversary of Ment Cowork. We are so excited to have reached this milestone. It has been wonderful to serve Bowling Green in this way and cannot wait for what is to come!

Happy birthday to us and to you as well! ?

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coworking space bowling green

Vulnerability in the Workplace

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Vulnerability and workplace are two words that do not usually mix. The former, a flowery word that concerns itself with feelings and emotions cannot fathom intertwining itself with the hard corporate world of deadlines, investments, and structure. Thus, people seem to hide their emotional selves while at work and bottle them up until they go home for the day.

However, I don’t subscribe to that school of thought. Being vulnerable in your workspace can be the best thing for you. Being open allows you to really, truly connect with coworkers or executives on a deeper level. Every single person has feelings, whether they choose to show them or not. The ability to feel is what makes us humans on the most basic level and what separates us from every other creature on this planet.

Acknowledging vulnerabilities can lead to a more productive and proactive work environment. Being emotionally intelligent allows coworkers to connect deeper, to form lasting relationships, and in turn, get more done. Taking a moment to see emotions, talk about them, and move on really shows strength and humanity.

On the flip side, hiding emotional vulnerabilities can wreak havoc at a place of work. People may hide their feelings because they don’t feel adequate or that their emotions do not matter, but bottling them all up will only lead to a bigger explosion down the line.

Opening your emotions at work will bring about more growth and learning. Vulnerabilities allow for a sense of humanity within a workplace. Genuine connections can blossom once you become more open with yourself and others in your space. Creating vulnerable and intentional conversations can foster true connections.

Being vulnerable applies to leaders as well. In my opinion, the best bosses are ones who connect emotionally and are willing to be vulnerable. Not that an executive needs to be crying all the time or asking too many personal questions, but maybe being open to those things (aside from the crying.) Stepping back as a leader allows other’s ideas to shine and employees to feel more connected, grounded, and engaged in their work.

Egos are nowhere to be found in a vulnerable workplace. Once you take down your personal guards around whatever you might be feeling, your ego will naturally see itself out. Putting your ego aside allows more room to listen and take from others. You have room to acknowledge other people’s ideas and to attach your’s to theirs. Egos can get in the way of a cooperative work environment.

Vulnerability is so important that the coworking industry as a whole has made it one of their core values. Ment has taken that and ran with it and we created our value nourishment based on their tenant of vulnerability. We believe as a space that we are here for your highs and lows. We strive to be expansive and inclusive and to nourish the souls of everyone who walks through our doors.

As a space, Ment wants to make ourselves as comfortable as possible to allow for open conversations. Our lounge has comfy couches, a skylight, and plants to create an environment you want to be in. Our library is color-coded (seriously, I am obsessed with it so come check it out) and organized to allow for better workflow. All the colors in our space are neutral as not to distract, but also to create a calm and reassuring environment.

The moral of the story is simple: being vulnerable allows all the good things about humanity to shine through. Bringing feelings into a work environment is tough, I get that, but it allows people to bring their whole selves to work and not leave a portion of themselves at home. Start by taking a moment to genuinely ask a coworker how they are. Not some quick small talk to start the day, but intentional curiosity about that person. Get to know them on a deeper level, know their families and their history. Begin to foster a vulnerable environment.

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How Do You Define Your Values?

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From the first time a potential customer hears your company’s name, they are subconsciously analyzing what makes up that company. Things like why are they here? what do they do? and what makes them stand out? are among the questions that wrack a consumer’s brain and this is all before they consider buying your product or using your service.

In this day and age, consumers are getting online and researching all there is to know about a company before applying for a job, eating at their restaurant or even just getting a haircut. The decision is made before they step foot into your space. Your online presence and your brand convey something a good review just cannot say: your values.

It is important to define a company’s values in a language that is plain and simple so that customers can grasp them, but complex enough to define your entire brand in just a few words. Values allow the potential consumer to really take a glimpse inside your brand and see whether they align their beliefs with yours. Today, a company’s values are just as important as the first sale and it is imperative for a brand to have them and use them well.

First and foremost, a set of values identify a brand to its consumers. It shows the company in a favorable light and provides the customer with all that the brand is and wants to be. Values clarify what a firm stands for, and if they have a great set of values compared to a competitor that has lax values, (or none at all) I know I would choose the one with the clear values backing their brand.

Values allow a company to have something to fall back on in light of a difficult decision. If a conflict arises, a company can look to their values to answer there question. If one of their values is honesty and they are knee-deep in a scandal, it might be best to tell the public the truth.

Ment has been focusing on defining our values recently and we thought we could share our process with you in hopes that it could help your business maybe do the same.

First off, we sat down and did our research. There are five existing core values for the coworking industry: Community, Openness, Collaboration, Accessibility and Sustainability. While these values are ones we uphold as well, we felt there were different words to describe how Ment feels and how we want it to feel for others. Therefore we pulled up our handy dandy Google search and began looking for other words that stuck out to us but still fell under the five industry values. There were many (a lot) of -ment words that we pulled out and as you will see we kept a few of them too.

We wanted to really harvest what we were trying to do as a coworking space and then provide that to the members and the community of Bowling Green as a whole. With this, we landed on four core words that we ended up realizing they cultivated the image of a plant growing into a garden.

Take a step back and think about what makes up your brand, what makes it stand out, and what you want to convey to the public. Those qualities are what will make up your values. Proceed then to share them on a website, blog, or on your social media accounts. Your values will allow you to dive deeper toward your customers and provide a more personal approach to business which will result in a brand that will last through any recession, any hiccup, and any mistake.

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The Luck of Your Office

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Hello again! It is Emily back this week with another blog post!

As you might now, our monthly theme for March is all things g r e e n—whether that is becoming more sustainable, making more money, or St. Patrick’s Day. Last week, we focused on the importance of being more environmentally friendly and even employed the help of our friend The Lorax! In this week’s post, we are examining The Pros and Cons of Coworking and how that can make a better bang for your buck and help you thrive. 

When working in a coworking space, you are exposed to all kinds of people and businesses you wouldn’t normally be exposed to. For instance, Ment houses a magazine, a lawyer’s office, a mortgage company and more. Many of those people wouldn’t cross paths if it wasn’t for their connection to Ment and we call that luck. We strive to create a community that members want to be a part of. Our members can network daily in the office and due to that community aspect, coworkers have a 50% higher chance of getting more clients or jobs.

Interested in making more g r e e n? Coworkers have reported higher incomes that those who might work in a more traditional office. We all love more money, so who wouldn’t want to get in on that? Coworking spaces have been popping up rapidly all over the world at a rate of more than 16% a year. They originated around 2007 with 14 coworkers and in 10 years time, there were 14,000 around the globe, with an expected 30,000 by 2022. It is one of the fasting growing industries and rightfully so. Our author states that it is because it has “the holy trinity of WiFi, coffee, and camaraderie.” On a serious note, coworking allows three major workplace trends to shine, which are the independent workforce, startup culture, and the third being corporate organizations looking for creatives in out-of-the-box ways. 

People who work in coworking spaces feel as if their work has more meaning. People feel they can bring their “whole self” to work, which is eliminated by the lack of office competition or politics. Working amongst people who have their own goals will in turn strengthen your personal ones. Members vibe off of each other, allowing each person to grow. 

Here at Ment Cowork, we feel honored to be creating this serendipitous atmosphere here in Bowling Green for our members and love that we get to be a part of their lives. We love that we can help them grow and achieve their professional goals. Ment offers a work environment that allows people to become the best version of themselves. And we feel pretty lucky to have those opportunities. 

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Minimalism in Your Workspace

Written by: Emily Jones I  Follow her on Instagram @emilyjones232

First off, let me introduce myself! My name is Emily and I am a brand-new intern here at Ment Cowork. I am in charge of the social media accounts for us and this is my first time on the blog!

Since I have started interning at Ment, I have really noticed how much impact my desk space really influences my mood and productivity. I never put that much thought into how much weight an organized office space can hold. I know that not all amazing work comes out of beautiful spaces (talking to you, Apple) but if 42% of workers believe that the design of the office space increases productivity, it must mean something.

Our fascinating read this week from Forbes finds Millennials Care Most About Workplace Design, and as a millennial, I definitely agree. But, you don’t have to be a millennial to feel this way.

Our monthly theme for February is office-crush style—finding how you love to work and living that fully.  My office-crush style is minimal, bright, and organized. For my own desk, I have very few things on it: some pens, a calendar, a notebook to jot down ideas in, and some hand lotion for my exceptionally dry hands.

A lot of clutter and papers can really drag down my workability. According to the Forbes article, 62% of workers feel the same way. Try a file organizer or utilize those drawers on your desk, it might help you in the long run.

Find time for yourself throughout your work day. We talked a couple weeks ago about the importance of breaks and those really boost your productivity. Taking time to enjoy your cup of coffee or getting up and walking around the office for a minute really helps to regroup and getting the creative juices flowing again.

Make comfort a priority. Employees want to feel comfortable and happy in a workplace environment. They want to be able to feel like they aren’t stuck. Comfortable chairs make all the difference. Your mind isn’t focused on your discomfort from the chair, it can now be focused on producing some awesome content and getting the job done!

A happy office is a productive one, and implementing a few of these easy changes can really boost efficiency and workplace morale. Find your office crush style, start designing your office in the way you love, and maybe your boss will thank you!

 

I have really enjoyed writing for the Ment blog today and I hope you found my voice comforting and encouraging!

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