Meet our team: Ben Taylor-Cohen – Centre Manager – Birmingham

In a new feature for the Headspace blog, we meet some of the members of our fabulous centre teams with a little Q&A, beginning with our Birmingham centre manager, Ben Taylor-Cohen

Question 1: How long have you worked for Headspace?

4 years. I began working for the company six months before we opened the building so there was a point of contact onsite to help manage the refurbishment and deal with local enquiries and pre-launch viewings.

Question 2: What does your role involve?

As a Headspace centre manager, it’s my responsibility to ensure the smooth day-to-day running of Headspace by creating a fun and welcoming environment for the clients each day and keeping the space looking 10/10. I also make sure I am continuously engaging with people, promoting the events and building relationships with clients so they feel a sense of community. In addition, I’m responsible for ensuring the Headspace team members are also doing everything we can to keep clients smiling and engaged.

Question 3: Headspace is all about ‘Inspiring Spaces for Creative Minds’. Can you tell us who or what inspires you?

The two most important people in my life, my children, Maddie and Leo. They are what makes me get up in the morning and want to work hard. Maddie has just been accepted into a musical theatre school and I couldn’t be any prouder of her – seeing her perform on stage, singing, acting, and dancing is every inspiration I’ll ever need! Here is to the next West End star! And, as for Leo, I’ll be getting him into a pair of football boots as soon as he takes his first steps!

Question 4: In terms of creativity, what’s the most creative thing you’ve ever done, or the most creative idea you’ve ever come up with?

One of the most creative things I think I have ever done is complete a house renovation and garden landscaping project with my partner (and YES, I got my hands dirty myself with the garden renovations as I did some of the work, haha!). We purchased the house and completely changed the colour schemes, created a gorgeous room for Maddie and a cute nursery for Leo, as well as a complete renovation of the garden.

Question 5: Headspace spaces are all unique. What would you say makes Somerset House unique?

As a multi brand centre I think the most unique thing about it would be that we have Headspace clients being able to move between brands to suit their needs. Some clients have started in Headspace and then grown to take larger space on the BE Offices floors, and vice versa. It also gives our Headspace clients the opportunity to mix with clients from the other brands at the events we run.

Questions 6: What has been the most surprising thing about working for Headspace?

A really nice surprise has been how close friends I’ve become with some of the clients. By engaging with them every day, you build such strong relationships, and you find yourself chatting to them about how their family holiday went, or how their little one got on in an exam or how their wedding plans are going etc. Headspace is a work space that allows clients to feel relaxed and find a homely welcome feeling to being at work – a home away from home.

Question 7: Tell us about your most positive coworking experience.

We have a coworking client called Leila (who runs a company called Promise PR and Creative). Being a Headspace client is her first experience of having office space, and she has really gone from strength to strength, meeting other companies in the building and working alongside them in projects together.

Question 8: What makes working in coworking space so different from working in a traditional office environment?

Having a little more flexibility and sharing workspace with companies that you don’t work for gives our co-workers a sense of community to share ideas, work with each other and take advantage of networking opportunities.

Question 9: What would you say to anyone who is thinking of giving coworking a try?

It’s a great opportunity to meet other businesses, be part of a community and a fantastic stepping stone for any new or small business when looking to broaden working from home!

Question 10: In your centre you have managed workspace, serviced offices and coworking space, what differentiates them?

The completely different types of businesses who occupy the space. From big blue chip corporate companies like ASOS, to online tech companies and finance companies in our serviced space to start-ups who are less than one year old in our coworking space. We have such a fantastic mix of people, companies and personalities which makes working at Somerset house so great.