When freelance arts reporter and longtime Shareable contributor Cat Johnson first walked into a coworking space in Santa Cruz, California, she didn’t know what she was getting into. Neither did many of the people around her—the global coworking movement was in its infancy. More than a decade later, Johnson, an author, speaker, and coworking consultant based in Park City, Utah, has made coworking a way of life. 

While working at dozens of coworking spaces in multiple time zones, Johnson founded The Lab, a marketing club for indie coworking spaces, and Coworking Convos, a virtual event series to help coworking space operators learn, share, and connect. She also launched the Coworking Out Loud podcast, which explores coworking, community-building, and connectedness. 

Johnson has also devoted the last decade of her life to helping coworking space managers move beyond wifi and coffee to build community-centered spaces. “It truly, truly lights me up. Commercial real estate does not light me up—what lights me up is the humans within the building.” 

In her latest book, The Daily Co: 366 Days of Coworking and Community, Johnson shares one affirmation for building a coworking space for each day of the year. I spoke with Johnson about her work and the potential of coworking to help rebuild community in the post-pandemic world. 

Ruby Pratka: What first brought you into coworking? 

Cat Johnson: I worked in record stores for 20 years and started writing about music, which grew into arts and culture, which grew into writing about community projects, which led to coworking. Back in the early days, it was very much a movement. I realized, I don’t want to write about coworking—I want to be part of it. I started content marketing for coworking space operators. 

RP: What are some of the ways coworking has evolved over the past few years?

CJ: When I first found my way into coworking, there were probably a couple hundred spaces in the world. There are thousands now. It’s evolved from a pop-up thing into a major industry. But even with all of the razzle-dazzle of amazing, fabulous spaces, it’s still about what happens in a coworking space. That’s what separates coworking from office rentals.

RP: What inspired you to write a day-by-day book of community-building advice?

CJ: I wanted a place to put all the things I care about, in short snippets where somebody can just flip open a page, read a sentence or two—hopefully, it inspires some ideas—and then go about their busy day building community. This book is primarily for coworking space operators, but a lot of the content speaks to community builders at large.

RP: In the book, especially in the March section, you talk a lot about the pandemic. How did the pandemic transform coworking?

All of a sudden, cities were in lockdown and people couldn’t come in. Not all spaces made it. The ones that did, I think it made them more resilient. If we pull back to the big picture, the pandemic accelerated the remote work movement by 10 years. Now there’s this massive opportunity for coworking. A lot of people live in small towns where coworking couldn’t have been sustained before, but now with remote work, it can be. It was already a growing industry, and the pandemic really accelerated that. 

RP: How do you see the importance of building and rebuilding community?

My grandparents, in any given week had a church social, a bowling league, a poker night with friends, a golf league, the Elks Club. They had this really rich social tapestry, and that’s not where we are right now. There’s been a massive spike in loneliness and isolation since the pandemic. We have this digital-first culture where we’re everywhere all the time, and yet genuine connection is harder and harder to come by. I think coworking is part of the solution to that.

RP: What have you learned about how spaces can add that extra element of community?

The special sauce! I wish I could bottle it up and sell it—I’d make a billion dollars—but it can’t be bottled. An important part of it is understanding what your members are working on, struggling with, and working toward because that lets you create programming to support them. You can’t take what works in one space and put it in another space. It’s so specific to each space, town, community, and member experience.

RP: What do you want people to take away from this book?

CJ: I want people to read a blurb in the morning and be inspired. Being a community builder is hard, highly emotional work [that requires] a lot of multitasking. I want to give them a little support and remind them what they’re doing is really important, that it goes beyond filling offices. Even though they’re stressed because they have to fill those three vacant offices, there’s something deeper happening here.