Robyn Young was one of the first people to step foot into the Downtown Los Angeles Industrious location when it opened in 2016.
She had just left her job at General Assembly to start her own company. The early days of building her strategic creative planning company were off of a teal blue couch in the communal area. Fast forward to today, her company is thriving, she published her first book, and expanded to the Pasdena Industrious location with her very own corner office.
Watch Robyn’s full story
“I think the heartwarming part for me about Industrious is the way that it’s become part of that journey with me,” said Young, who is the founder and head of strategy at her company Young & Co. “I’ve built my business from just me and a few clients to now we’ve worked on over 70 brands in that time. I’ve really expanded my little brand world here and Industrious has provided a nice home for me to build within.”
Coworking, suggested to Young first by a friend, quickly turned into something that she loved.
“I didn’t start a company just so that I could work from home,” said Young. “I always intended to work outside of my space and the whole coffee shop thing was just a little bit not too dependable. It felt like somebody put Industrious in my lap right when I needed it.”
But what keeps her coming back is the people and warmth of the space. “It’s my second home,” she says. When she’s there, she sees friendly faces, receives welcoming greetings every morning and looks forward to special meetups. That has expanded over the almost decade that she’s been working out of Industrious. Now, she looks forward to her 12:30 lunch club, something that came out of a group that found themselves always eating lunch around the same time. Those connections have extended past the walls of Industrious, both in professional and personal ways. Young just attended a baby shower for one of the 12:30 lunch club attendees.
“It feels like they are my coworkers, even though none of us work together, which is such an interesting dynamic,” said Young.
She’s also found herself in a second group, which they dubbed the Mastermind group. Made up of a handful of people all from different industries, they check in on key areas including career health, community building, and relationships. They use a scoring system on how they’re feeling to look at things with a wider lens. The group holds one another accountable, provides suggestions, and helps build camaraderie.
And at the end of the day, that’s what folks are really at Industrious for – to have the tools that they need to succeed professionally. As the only full-time employee, she needs the right environment to ensure that her company is running smoothly. One of her favorite perks is inviting clients to Industrious and seeing how it builds credibility with them.
Young & Co. launched back in 2016 with a vision to disrupt the traditional branding playbook, crafting 360-degree brand ecosystems. The company works with everything from startups to scale-ups to help amplify it. This year, she announced her book “Build Your Brand Universe,” which borrows from the world-building principles used in gaming, music, comedy and film and applies them to brand-building.
“I love the idea that the workspace is evolving, but for me, Industrious is an evolution of even that,” said Young. “We all have our own spaces, we don’t necessarily have to be here at certain times, but we get to be here and still get the benefits that come from working amongst other humans.”
Watch Robyn’s full story.