Cat Johnson: 50 episodes of Coworking Convos

Welcome to a special conversation with the visionary behind The Lab and Coworking Convos™, Cat Johnson. 

First, let’s meet Cat.

At the helm of The Lab, Cat empowers coworking space operators and community builders to hone their brands, refine their content strategies, and enhance their leadership abilities. Her impact extends far beyond these roles, touching the lives of over 6,000 people who have participated in Coworking Convos, a virtual event series fostering learning, sharing, and connection among coworking professionals.

Meanwhile, Cat's podcast, Coworking Out Loud, delves into the profound aspects of coworking, content, and community, offering listeners a deeper understanding of these interconnected worlds. Her expertise and passion have also seen her teaching and speaking at various events across the US, Canada, the UK, and online. Her voice has resonated at GCUC, GWA, and many other prestigious gatherings.

With Coworking Convos, Cat has created a vibrant, monthly virtual series for workspace operators globally, emphasizing a community-focused, informal learning environment. Since its inception in October 2019, these sessions have drawn over 6,300 coworking professionals and featured more than 225 guests from the coworking movement. And Coworks is a proud sponsor — in fact, we offer a month of access to The Lab to all Coworks customers.

As we celebrate the 50th episode of Coworking Convos, we're excited to take you behind the scenes with Cat, the driving force and creative mind behind this influential series. Join us as we explore her journey, insights, and the impact she continues to make in the world of coworking.

Take us back to the very first Coworking Convos episode. What do you remember? What gave you the most trepidation? What were you most excited about?

It sounds hilarious looking back, but our big concern for Coworking Convo number one was how many people could actually participate in a group Zoom call before it fell apart. My guess was around twenty! But we’ve had more than well over 200 people participate in a single Convo, so my guess proved to be a bit low.

The thing that I was the most nervous and excited about—and still am—is that so much of Convos magic is created in the moment. We have a format that we follow, but it’s all about actively listening to our Convos guests, asking what I hope are thoughtful and relevant follow-up questions and trusting the moment and the Convos community. This means we’re all super-present with each other, which is the biggest challenge of Convos and the biggest gift of Convos.

Did you ever envision getting to 50 episodes?

Honestly, I never considered, when we started, how many we might do. But Convos has so far exceeded my expectations toward our mission to help coworking space operators learn, share and connect that it’s pretty unbelievable. Coworking Convos has gone from an experiment into a core part of CJ Co. Convos and The Lab, our marketing club for indie coworking spaces, are our primary projects.

What are some best practices you have adopted over the course of time?

We’ve taken a note from long-running tv shows to follow a format and build on top of that for each Convo. For instance, I always welcome everyone and have a short script to kick off the Convo. This consistency means participants know exactly what to expect and I can follow a proven format for the first few minutes when my nervous system is hyped up.

What’s the secret to a good panel lineup?

I spend a lot of time thinking about who I want to talk about the upcoming Convo topic. I’ve been in coworking for a long time so I have a long roster of friends I can invite to be a guest. So we have a lot of coworking pioneers who are part of the Convos roster. But I also like to bring in newcomers and people we haven’t heard from who are just quietly doing amazing things. I like to have one wild card for each Convo—frequently someone I haven’t connected with before—so we grow the guest roster with every Convo.

I also could not run Convos on my own. Every Convo we have several co-hosts and my co-host roster has included all-stars Amanda and Karina from CJ Co, Stormy from GCUC, Hector from Syncaroo and you!

What is a technical snafu you just had to laugh at?

Oh the usual Zoom stuff: someone takes themself off mute, or I forget to unmute, or my camera stops working for some reason. But nothing too crazy. The absolute worst moments—and there have only been two of them—are when someone starts trying to sell. I shut that shit down fast. I’m pretty nice, but not if you’re trying to spam my people. My highest priority is the integrity of our Convos community. Without that, we have nothing.

What do you love most about the Coworking Convos series?

The people, the people, the people! And that it’s been a fantastic challenge for me to be courageous, follow my vision, collaborate with guests and co-hosts and trust the moment and our global coworking community. And they’ve never let me down.

What are you excited to achieve next?

I’m excited to continue to grow Convos. It feels like I’m always talking about it, but I regularly meet coworking space operators and industry pros who haven’t heard of Coworking Convos. Which is a good reminder, as a marketer, that right around the time you think you’ve said it enough, people are just starting to pay attention. So I’ve got my eye on Convo number 100 and am so encouraged to keep growing our community of Convos participants, guests and sponsors.

Check out the lineup and grab your spot here!