Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Brandon Still. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Brandon, thanks for joining us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard

In 2017, I had no intention of opening a coworking space… let alone helping others open coworking spaces.

I had just launched my own business and all I knew is that I needed to get out of my house, and a coworking space would be a great solution to my needs.

I reached out to a number of existing spaces, I reached out to local brick and mortars, and I heard the same story over and over: “There’s no need for a coworking space in your town”.

I heard everything from the town is too small, too family-oriented, and too rural, to it’ll attract unwanted people to the city, it’ll compete with existing businesses, and it’ll create parking issues.

Well. If you want to motivate me to do something, tell me I’m wrong and that it can’t be done. We launched and opened at the end of 2018.

Since opening, I’ve learned a lot about the coworking industry. I’ve learned a lot about entrepreneurship, especially in small towns. And if they would ever ask, I’m pretty sure I could tell you all the reasons that WeWork is failing while boutique coworking spaces are thriving.

What separates our efforts from the industry norm is that we don’t look for entrepreneurship in the traditional areas. We are not looking at urban centers and trying to compete with high real estate prices, other spaces, and a way of life that caters to younger demographics (the average age of an entrepreneur is 44 and there is a direct correlation between the success of an entrepreneur and increased age).

We work in small, historic, “Main Street Towns”, throughout the Midwest that offer a family-friendly community, affordable housing and offices, good schools, and work to create small, but impactful, coworking spaces that become the hub of a larger entrepreneurial ecosystem that positively affects everyone in the community.

We believe that by encouraging and supporting entrepreneurship in these towns we can create a better way of work and a better way of life and greater chances of entrepreneurial success than those who focus only on large cities and urban centers.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

The Integrated Life Company launched in 2022 as an expansion of our two existing companies – one a consulting company and one an owner and operator of coworking spaces.

Over the past several years, it has become evident that there is a clear and growing need for establishing entrepreneurial resources and spaces in small towns throughout the Midwest. This work often falls on the already overworked shoulders of city managers, DDA directors, Chamber of Commerce boards, and existing business owners – all of whom already have a full-time job.

The Integrated Life Company works hand in hand with these community leaders to create and execute a plan to establish and grow entrepreneurial ecosystems in these towns and create a positive effect throughout the entire community.

While much of our work focuses on launching coworking spaces, it also includes coming up with plans for vacant buildings, marketing business opportunities on behalf of a town or building owner, planning and executing community events to drive awareness and foot traffic, and establishing small business owner educational and networking groups.

We measure our success based on how we can positively impact someone’s life. We had the opportunity to work with hundreds of business owners and entrepreneurs and we hear often how someone was planning on quitting before joining a coworking space, how someone worked up the courage to leave a job that made them miserable after experiencing one of our workshops, and even how people have moved in order to be closer to the heart of the entrepreneurial communities we help establish.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

Ishmael is a book that has greatly impacted my entrepreneurial thinking as well as my overall view of life. While on it’s surface, Ishmael is not a book about business, reading it through the lens of a small business owner can leave the reader with some remarkable and reassuring takeaways.

A key theme throughout the book is the idea of interconnectivity. As small business owners and entrepreneurs, I believe that collaboration and considering mutual success are critical to long-term success. There have been numerous times when maximizing my short-term success to the absolute fullest could have been detrimental to the success of another small business. But by recognizing that and taking the time to work together we can create the opportunity for even greater mutual long-term success.

Another theme is challenging cultural norms and assumptions. This has been huge in my entrepreneurial thinking. I had always been led to believe that innovation, entrepreneurship, and business success were found in the “big city” – New York, Chicago, L.A., etc. And it’s not to say that those cities aren’t hubs of incredible creativity and success, however, it was a life-changing realization that a small midwest town of 900 people could also be a hub of entrepreneurial success.

This leads to perhaps the most important takeaway for me – redefining what success means. Yes, financial success is important and for me, always a part of the goal. But there are so many factors that are involved in creating a successful life and when I made the decision to redefine my personal success based on more than income and what I can buy with it, I was able to find more meaning and joy in my work which translated into more meaning and joy throughout my entire life.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

A huge lesson that I had to unlearn was the idea that only young people could take entrepreneurial risk, start a new business, or make a major career change.

I consider myself fortunate to have embraced entrepreneurship and owning my own business at an early age. I can still hear people telling me “do it while you can” or “better get started before you have kids” or “you’ll need more stability when you’re older”.

And the mainstream media loves to share the stories of businesses that started in dorm rooms and 18-year-old millionaires. Those stories are a lot “sexier” than the story of the person who climbed a corporate ladder for 20 years, saved for years to launch a small business, made $30k or $40k for the first several years and eventually quietly retired at 60 a self-made millionaire from owning a trucking logistics business.

All of this led me to the notion that entrepreneurship and innovation were only for younger people. In fact, when I launched my first coworking space I geared all of the marketing towards people under 30 (even though I was older than that myself).

My years working in the entrepreneurial community have completely destroyed the idea that startups, innovation, and entrepreneurship are only for the young. In fact, if I had to, I’d argue that the reverse is true, and if you want to find truly innovative thinking look to those who have more life experiences!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.integratedlifeco.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/integratedlifeco
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/integratedlifeco
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/89816943/
• Twitter: @theilcompany
• Youtube: youtube.com/@integratedlifeco

Image Credits
Erica Kratt Ilze Lucero