Liz Shinn @ Ladies Work Remote: coworking community for women in Atlanta & D.C.
Do you work remotely? Find coworkers, minus the office! Ladies Work Remote is a coworking community for women. Currently in Atlanta and D.C., we meet in coffee shops once a week to cowork and network with other professional women who work from home.
How did you come up with your business idea? What inspired you?
I was working from home and new to D.C. I was lonely during the day, and wished I had the benefit of an office social scene. I started Ladies Work Remote to find other remote coworkers to meet instead of staying at home all day by myself! It changed my D.C. experience for the better, as it also did for Atlanta when I moved back home and started another chapter here.
What were you doing before this? How did it prepare you for the entrepreneurial life?
I’m a graphic designer, and this helped a ton with graphic communications. I was able to design our website, logo, business cards, T-shirts, and more. I really enjoy designing, and it was a much-needed creative outlet from my day job.
Do you have a fixed work routine? Is it important to have one? Any tips for our readers?
I definitely have more structure to my day working remotely than I did at first. On days I don’t meet up with Ladies Work Remote, I work from home in the morning so I can make breakfast and lunch. I venture out to a coffee shop in the afternoon for a nice pastry or a coffee – it gets me through the mid-afternoon slump.
What do you think is the biggest obstacle for female founders? How can we overcome it?
I think it’s tough to enter spaces where you are underrepresented in the upper echelons of success, and then imagine yourself being able to succeed too. In order to build the network it takes to reach these higher positions of success, networking organizations like Ladies Work Remote connect and support women as they grow and succeed.
Who is the one super successful person you look up to? Why them? Can you share their quote/ideology that inspires you the most?
Gillian Anderson, who is a phenomenal actress. The characters she portrays have so much insight on women – how we relate to society, and how society relates to us. It reminds me of a scene in The Fall when her character D.I. Stella Gibson explains why she doesn’t find the serial killer she’s chasing ‘fascinating’: “A woman, I forget who, once asked a male friend why men felt threatened by women. He replied that they were afraid that women might laugh at them. When she asked a group of women why women felt threatened by men, they said, “We’re afraid they might kill us. He might fascinate you. I despise him with every fiber of my being.” Her characters make you think.
For a quote from Gillian as herself, I like, “Be of service. Whether you make yourself available to a friend or co-worker, or you make time every month to do volunteer work, there is nothing that harvests more of a feeling of empowerment than being of service to someone in need.”