Alexandra, Betsy, Christine, Eric, Emily and Stefan met to 'explore' 6 different wines for our Blind Tasting Thursday evening. We started out with sparking wine and sniffed and tasted our way through 3 whites. We compared notes and enjoyed Eric's creative discoveries. Betsy was a little challenged battling a cold while sniffling away but as the most experienced wine person on the table still would find some aromas and even match up grapes. We experienced grapefruit, horse, pear, swing set, construction site. We gave points for our favorites, guessed grapes and prices and matched up some clues with our notes and revealed a cheap Chardonnay from California, a higher priced Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand and a $10 Riesling from Washington.

Eric brought delicious cheese for our intermezzo from wine tasting. After break we trained on aroma bottles and went on with 3 reds that all seemed oaky with berry notes. As we chatted a little longer they warmed up and got a little more exciting. We ranked, matched descriptions, most of us guessed low prices and were surprised about the results: a low end Pino Noir, a $15 Bourdeaux and a $10 Cabernet Sauvignon.

Emily's husband joined us for a bit and Betsy told us about her bitter business idea and some fun new educational courses in the works. 

Lots of laughter!

Members attending Eric, Renee, Carl, Christine, Betsy, Deborah and one guest, Tommy. After a round of introduction Betsy declared Tommy as "Business Hoarder". He buys businesses but does not sell, so technically 'hoards' them. A new business approach.

We talked about buying companies instead of starting businesses. Craigslist supposed to work to find local businesses on sale. So it's not only good to buy used furniture. Carl even found his wife on Craigslist. Yeah, Craigslist.

Carl shared some perks of the super rich. He sells high end wooden floors and let us dream about nice views and fancy interior designs.

Renee, a male-male romance writer reported 90 % of her readers are woman. Unexpected and interesting.

Deborah explained her services as retirment consultant and we all tried to define 'retirement'. 

Betsy shared some insights about her very interesting new project building an online course to teach High School students about financial responsibility. We discussed the future of College education for the next 5, 10 to 15 years. Most likely our kids will not attend College as we know it. 

Eric told us about his contract work as travel mediator and his passion for screen writing and acting.

Christine shared her ideas about an children e book series with location based information on specific topics and an app to activate location based learning.

We discussed the pros and cons of self-employment vs. employment. Employment often offers more resources but is also more restricted, therefore less creative opportunities. Self-employment is better for personal fulfillment but we don't always feel as accomplished with no one padding our back or giving us a raise. Another downside is the need to constantly market yourself which can be tiring and is often not the favorite thing of more introverted personalities and if you are passionate to work on your product and less on acquisition. 

Most of us could need some freelance marketers on our site to find new customers for our outstanding services and products. If you offer Communication and Marketing Services for small business owners consider joining us for a Meetup to make some contacts.

Tommy mentioned a theory about Walt Disney. In his creative process he played three distinct roles, each of which involved a particular type of thinking and action:
The Dreamer - the visionary who dreamed up ideas for films and business ventures.
The Realist - the pragmatic producer who made things happen.
The Critic - the eagle-eyed evaluator who refined what the Dreamer and Realist produced. As a sole business owner you have to be able to manage all 3 or build a team to balance these roles successfully.

We talked about Roth IRA vs. SEP (Self-Employment Pension). 

Betsy mentioned Udemy.com for online education.

As always, we talked a little about Tim Ferriss and how hard it can be to outsource work. Tommy mentioned not to respond to emails as a way to manage his time. If it's really important the other person will pick up the phone and call. Also, emails being less efficient for negotiation missing out on important facial expressions and body language. Betsy brought up another read The E-Myth Revisited about starting businesses and a quote about 'work at your business not in your business'.


We closed our Meetup on a conversation about business demands in West Seattle. With the real estate landscape changing fast over the last couple of months and more units and new people coming to West Seattle, Carl observed a high demand in private vacation homes in West Seattle. 

We brainstormed about a beer garden for West Seattle - with Tommy negotiating the space, Carl importing our tables and Christine managing - offering Microbrew Tasting, Schnitzel Buns and a great outdoor setting.

We covered a lot of topics and learnt a lot from each other. 

Our next Coworking Meetup is on May 1st from 12 to 1 pm. Come join us. It's free and fun.

We hosted our first Art Walk at Office Junction and Kelly, Eric, Emily, Stefan and Christine helped set up our beautiful space for the event. We held a reception on the first floor for Walter, our artist in residence. He joined us for his wonderful exhibit "Abstracts in Insects". Unfortunately he was a little handicapped shaking hands as he had a household accident the evening before and cut his painting hand. Nevertheless, he was very welcoming to all visitors.

Our member Renee stopped by with her husband. A couple of friends and business partners from Walter, Stefan and Christine came to admire Walter's and J. Conrad's work. 


Our neighbors at John L. Scott Real Estate also participated for the first time and we visited them to enjoy their great artwork and we welcomed them later back in our space. One of our guests (see below) very much enjoyed one of Walter's paintings. Congratulations on this great buy, Ron!

With our last Art Walkers arriving at 9 pm we moved our happening to the kitchen and ordered pizza for our helpers, artist, friends and guests. We had a lot of fun and lots of interesting conversations. Thanks everyone for coming!

Art Walk is the second Thursday of the month in West Seattle.
Our next on is on May 9th from 6 to 9 pm.

Eric, Stefan, Kelly, Christine, Michelle, Betsy, Renee, Wendy, Nathan, Stefan and Emily attended our Meetup.

Eric gave us some travel advice. Be aware, airlines are not responsible for checked bags. If you bring valuables, make sure you have them stored in your cabin luggage.

We talked about using Seatguru.com before reserving an airplane seat.

Kelly asked for help with CSS. Betsy offered to help as she wrote some books about Style Sheets and has an e-learning tutorial about it.

Emily tolded us about her new book "Myth Busted" that just got published with National Geographic Kids.

Michelle is a Communication Consultant and Twitter Expert. She works for Mail Chimp.  Mail Chimp offers a great email tool for Etsy Shop Manager.

Betsy shared news about a new project, an encouragement APP. The first one will be about Body Transformation. She is looking for a great APP developer.
She also just got a new project translating books to e-learning .

Nathan introduced himself. He is new to our Meetup and is a Software Engineer for Nook.

Amber is a Romance Writer and looks for fun giveaways for upcoming conventions. If you have an ideas, let her know.

We were talking about Tim Ferriss at the Meetup. We agreed he has some strong points, but experiences with outsourcing can be really painful. Finding the right, qualified people to do the job, reliable and cheap isn't that easy and takes up a lot of time. Betsy shared an interesting interview with Tim Ferriss after our Meetup.

Wendy is a Content Marketer and Video & Social Actioneer and looks for new clients. If you need help with your content, ask Wendy.

Thanks for coming!

Our opening day has been a great success. We got nice news coverage as
well as some friendly comments on West Seattle Blog on Sunday.
Link to blog post: http://tinyurl.com/wsojonwsb
Thanks for everyone stopping by yesterday!

Across our kitchen we set up a "Pay It Forward"-wall, where everyone
coming in can post something they want to give to the community. This could be advice, something home made, professional services, whatever you might want to give. Everyone interested leaves a business card in an envelope underneath the offering and gets contacted after 4/15.

We got fantastic art delivered and installed yesterday! The work of two local artists, Walter Scheirer and Jason Nivens, now grace our walls ready for our first Art Walk on Thursday 4/11 from 6 to 9 pm. So, mark your calendar. We will have a reception with free drinks and snacks.

Please let us know if you would like a tour or do a trial day. We are here most days from 9.30 to 3 pm and would love to show you around.