Collective Rise: Community-Centered Business with LaGina Harris - EP 057

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What does it take to balance profitability with meaningful impact? In this episode, I sit down with LaGina Harris, social impact entrepreneur and founder of The Us Space in Houston. LaGina shares her journey of creating a community-centered business designed to support and empower women entrepreneurs. We talk about the importance of building intentional spaces, the role of mentorship, and the challenges many entrepreneurs face with isolation. LaGina also opens up about her transition from non-profit to for-profit, the balance between profit and purpose, and her vision for the future of The Us Space. This conversation is all about how community, collaboration, and adaptability can help us rise together in business while creating a lasting impact.

Episode Takeaways:

• Community-centered businesses can thrive on both purpose and profit.
• Networking and mentorship are essential for entrepreneurial success.
• Profitability and impact can coexist when businesses are built with intention.
• Safe, inclusive spaces foster true collaboration and reciprocity.
• Adaptability and continuous learning are key to building sustainable businesses.
   

Key Insights:

“Community-centered business is hard because you stay mission-focused on people the whole time. But the truth is, you can build revenue and sustainable models while being deeply committed to the community. It doesn’t have to be either-or—it can and should be both.” — LaGina Harris

“When you put community truly at the center, you can build something that serves both purpose and profit.” — Rachel Anzalone

Connect with LaGina Harris:

• The Us Space
• LinkedIn: LaGina R H.
• Instagram: @_theusspace
• Facebook: The Us Space
  
  

Connect With Me:

• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: @RachelAnzalone
• Facebook: Rachel.Anzalone
• LinkedIn: RachelAnzalone

Question for Your Reflection:

How could building stronger connections and community transform the way you grow your business?

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Remember: Your pleasure is your power. 💫

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Transcript

LaGina Harris (00:00)

If we’re being real, look, community-centered business is really hard, right? A lot of people push me to try to make this a non-for-profit. Anytime I said things around community, around women, and the natural rebellion in me made me start looking into non-for-profits and who they normally push non-for-profits to. And if you look at it, a lot of people tell women and black women and women of color, oh make that a non-for-profit. Look, I'm a giver. I really am, but this is a for-profit business. 

I think that that's one of the unique things about community building is you stay missioned toward people, toward community the whole time. And then you build out revenue and business models and everything. But with a very clear understanding that being community focused doesn't mean you have to be like broke or poor or not generate revenue.

Rachel Anzalone (00:59)

Hello and welcome to Pleasure and Profits. I'm your host, Rachel Anzalone, and I am so thrilled today to introduce you to LaGina Harris. LaGina is a social impact entrepreneur who is redefining what it means to build a truly community-centered business. With more than 15 years of experience in business, academia, and philanthropy, LaGina has become a thought leader in the future of work and community building. As the founder of The Us Space, located in Houston, Texas, LaGina has created something remarkable. A woman of color focused collective that goes far beyond traditional co-working to build genuine collaborative community. But what makes LaGina's approach so unique is her intentionality in everything that she does.

From the five pillars that guide every business decision to the way she's designed spaces where different doesn't just survive, it thrives. LaGina is also the co-founder of Melon in Minds, focused on mental health and community, and runs LeRae Infinity Media, where she amplifies voices through storytelling and podcast production. She's a positive disruptor, which, as you'll hear, is exactly what community-centered business requires.

What I love most about LaGina's work is how she proves that when you put community truly at the center, not just as customers, but as co-creators, that you can build something that serves both purpose and profit in powerful ways. And she's doing it all while challenging the system that would push women of color into non-profit boxes instead of recognizing them as the innovative business leaders they are.

I did something I've never done before for this episode, which is I packed up my bag and I drove to Houston and I interviewed LaGina in person inside The Us Space. It was such a pleasure to be in the space that she created to get to feel the energy of the space and connect with some of the members and really experience something unlike any co-working space I've ever experienced before. I'm so thrilled to have gotten to connect with LaGina and to count her as part of my community going forward. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did. 

Welcome to Pleasure and Profits, LaGina! I'm so excited to be here in your space, in The Us Space. So before we dive into our conversation about collective business in general and community-based business, tell us a little bit about what was the inspiration for this? How did this space come to be? And what does it mean to you and the community?

LaGina Harris (03:23)

Yeah, well one, thank you for coming in person. This is so cool. I'm glad you made it in safe and I think you're going to see a lot of us doing this because we're like literally in this space.

Rachel Anzalone (03:33)

Yeah, we're in the space. There's people walking around. There's all kinds of stuff going on.

LaGina Harris (03:36)

Yeah, I started business, I think how anybody starts it where you're like, oh well, I need this or I see a problem and I think I have a solution. And for me, I didn't even realize that I was creating solutions to problem I had versus like things I do in the community, which are like, partying with a purpose and raising money and having events. And I thought at first I was creating an event space and I was not.

I was creating The Us Space before I knew it by name and by identity. And when you think about going into flex third spaces or what people call co-working spaces, they in design kind of look like this, but not exactly in feeling and in intentionality. So that's kind of like high level how this all started.

Rachel Anzalone (04:28)

What do you think sets The Us Space apart from other co-working spaces?

LaGina Harris (04:32)

I know a lot of stuff sets it apart. One, my magic one is like we say catch TUS vibe, right? There's just a different vibe in here. Yeah, I don't care who you are. Anybody that's walked in here from one of my friends dad, he's a grandpa, he walks in, he's like “Oh, yeah, like it.”

Yeah, you know, “When are we having a jazz night?” you know, all the way to like our target audience, which are women that are leading teams, that are entrepreneurs, that are women of color, that are really sustaining and bootstrapping their own businesses. Those are the kinds of things that set it apart as the intentionality and the smell, the cleanliness, the idea that you can, even that deep breath you take, right? It's because you can feel it. And so the idea that business can be done without all the mundane obstacles that come from the outside world, you’re a business owner. And so in here, you have the opportunity to be that business owner, to be that leader.

To get rid of some of the stigmas or the things that weigh you down and stop you from doing that on the day to day. And so that's really important to me. And those are one of the things. And if you think about it from the analytical standpoint, we are an economic development, business hub, a driver, an innovator, a stakeholder in the cities that we're working in. So those are some of the things that I really feel like drive us apart from like the heart to the business, from the head to the money.

Rachel Anzalone (05:59)

Yeah. Do you feel, you said that, you know, you identified that there was a gap, but you didn't even know really what that was. You just sort of started building and then it turned into this. What is it that's the unique gap that The Us Space fills in this community in Houston?

LaGina Harris (06:16)

Yeah, I mean, when I started, I didn't know what I was doing. But when I identified that I was going to be doing what wasn't named The Us Space at the time, I did customer discovery and all of the good jazz you're supposed to do, because I am a nerd. Oh my gosh, I'm such a nerd. And in customer discovery, like one of the things that really came about, especially when you're thinking about the model of the functionality once you're in The Us Space is the isolation, right?

People start businesses, they start them at home, they try to post on social media, they get the one customer that's not their customer because they don't understand what's going on. And so I started baseline with customer discovery and I asked, you know, what do you know about what people call co-working? What are your biggest challenges? And one of the big ones was isolation. Another one was resources, how do I find them, right?

I think we're in this age where there's so many things that you can find out. You don't know what you need to know. Yeah. And what another thing I identified is, a lot of times, people that are opening up businesses is the largest rate in the country that may not have that pipeline to generational wealth, to generational knowledge in entrepreneurship and small business ownership. They, they're sold this playbook that is not true, girl, snatch that away, rip it up and tell you to do you and understand that once you do your research, once you become that expert, that thought leader, outside of knowing that you need to know your numbers and know that you need to know your mission inside and out, there's a driver and it's you. And I think that's one of those big things when you go back and look at it.

Rachel Anzalone (08:06)

Yeah, it's interesting. I have had a lot of conversations recently with women entrepreneurs in particular who, many who've been in business for a long time and so much of their business was built on relationships. Yeah. And then we've moved into this era where it's, you know, of the social media influencer. And then of course, during COVID nobody was in-person. 

And so all of sudden these people who built their businesses almost effortlessly just by like, these are the groups I belong to, are my friends, this is how it's growing, suddenly are finding like they don't know what to do because they don't want to be a social media influencer to like try to get revenue in the business that they built 10 years ago, you know? And also that we're all working at home and we're being sort of fed this stream of information of like it's all the things you could do online when… a lot of what we need to do is just show up and have conversations with each other.

LaGina Harris (09:06)

Yeah, my favorite thing to say on my large LinkedIn following is show up, show up, show up. Yeah. And it comes in different ways in business. You know, a lot of business owners I talked to be like, “Oh, I'm introverted.” And I'm like, cool. I'm introverted too. Nobody ever believes me. I'm an introvert extrovert. Um, I could be at home all day without people and be okay with my life. Right. But showing up in your business means that you have your ownership business persona. Showing up for your business means that that algorithm that's not working for you maybe be your own algorithm and show up to networking events and do the one on one connections because you know, I don't know how many degrees we used to be apart 10 years ago, but like we're literally negative 10 apart now. Like somebody knows somebody we knew three people I think collectively when we talked the first time. Yeah, so it's those kind of things.

Rachel Anzalone (10:02)

Yeah, and there's so much in those relationships and then there's so much in finding the path that's right for you. And you spoke throughout the playbook and do you, do the thing that's you. And for so many people who are introverts, we sort of have this idea we have to show up to an event and we need to meet 30 people. And they need to be all right. And so I know I felt that way when I first started. I'd be like walk into a room full of people and be like, my God, I can't do this. And at some point it shifted that I'm like, “Oh I just need to meet one person. My whole objective of this event is to meet one person who I really connect with.” And then it's a different game. Then you're really just being yourself.

LaGina Harris (10:44)

It's a way different game to be yourself, but I think you have to practice being yourself in those situations, I'm just like looking up because it's like one of those things that you really have to bring down and imagine and do, like anything else. And one of my favorite things to speak on is the power of networking. Call it networking, the real breakdown. And I talk about when you go to a conference, meet three people. When you go to a networking event, meet one person. Because again, that degree of separation is like not there anymore.

Rachel Anzalone (11:19)

Yeah, and you just start to slowly build those relationships for them. You meet one more and one more and suddenly you have community that's really aligned instead of a huge community that's superficial. Something those us introverts don't love. Prior to you opening up The Us Space, one of the things that you did that involved community organizing was art shows.

LaGina Harris (11:45)

I did. Oh, you did look me up.

Rachel Anzalone (11:49)

I did. Am I making you cry or are laughing at me?

LaGina Harris (11:51)

No, it's my allergies. They're like horrible.

Rachel Anzalone (11:55)

Oh no, don't bring up the art. I thought we were having a moment.

LaGina Harris (11:58)

I’ll probably cry.I cry all the time.

Rachel Anzalone (12:00)

It’s okay. So you were organizing art shows. What spurred that on?

LaGina Harris (12:06)

So I used to work in higher ed. My master's degree is in higher ed. And I lived really close to the college that I worked at. And one day I was like sitting in my living room and I started watching Bob Ross.

Rachel Anzalone (12:20)

I love Bob Ross. Gotta love him.

LaGina Harris (12:23)

And I was like, I can do that. So I like looked up all the stuff I needed. I ordered it and I started painting. Prior to that, I've, I've been some type of creative my whole life, ceramics, writing, being really dramatized through poetry and the woes of the world, all these things. 

Anyways, I was also working at a bar at night and when I was painting, I would show some of my patrons, my regulars, I'd be like, hey, look at this. And they're like, you did that? Wow, you should share it. And I was like, okay, yeah. And Austin has a pretty cool art scene. And so I started going out and being like, hey, I wanna like hang my stuff in your coffee shop or I wanna be at an art studio. And people are like, well, we have this artist. And it was very pretentious at the time. I don't know if it's like that now. I'm speaking my truth.

And so I was like, well, f this. I've got my own damn community and the bar I was working at a lot of the people I knew were like hair and makeup artists and all this stuff. And I was like, what are they doing with their place night after they close? So my first pop up was at a salon. And then my second one was at like this, like aesthetic studio where they did lasering and all this different kinds of stuff. And then my fourth one was somewhere, and that was the theme is like, I would do pop-up art shows. And I realized because I was in higher ed, I did a lot of philanthropy work in non-profits. And I worked at a bar where I met so many different types of people as my art, my people, my art shows became like these, these social events where people from all different backgrounds were coming together around my art, talking and meeting each other. 

And that's where that kind of party with a purpose, one of the non-profits I used to work with, that was their vibe too. And so I would just do these events. And then I started doing like one for me and then one for a group of people, whether it was women or the LGBTQIA community, which I cringe at because everybody's just my friends.

You know, I was like, let's do this friend group and then this friend group and we would do art shows. And so all of a sudden, not only I didn't even know that I was an artist, then a visual artist and then an art curator. Yeah. And then an event planner. And then I was bringing in sponsorships. And so this whole time, like I'm building this skill set all through being stemmed of working at a bar.

Rachel Anzalone (15:02)

That's fantastic. I think sometimes the most interesting paths are the one that you don't plan. Just sort of let things unfold and then you end up in a place like this.

LaGina Harris (15:13)

Yeah, yeah, my whole life. Like my parents had clear rules, like make some good grades, do no harm, try things, you know, be a kind person. And I mean, after that, they let me freestyle. 

Rachel Anzalone (15:26)

That's awesome. Yeah, good parenting.

LaGina Harris (15:30)

Yeah, sometimes. All the time actually, they’re great parents.

Rachel Anzalone (15:32)

Yeah. And so you're curating community sort of just naturally through your friends and the people you knew at the bar and the work that you were doing. Yeah. And so, how did that then evolve into a community space for business particularly?

LaGina Harris (15:54)

Yeah, really good question. So when I stopped working at the college I was at, the university I was at, I started working in another non-for-profit sector, a chamber of commerce in Austin, and I slowly started catching the entrepreneurship bug. 

And my dad passed in 2018. And I did the whole thing where, know, you don't do any drastic movement for a whole year. The biggest thing I did is I asked my mom to come live with me. So she's living with me in Austin. We're doing our thing. And then finally I was like, ‘cause I already wanted to move to Houston. So when I moved to Houston, I was like, I'm gonna be a full-time entrepreneur. And I jumped head first into it, right? And I really started formalizing and trying to verbalize what The Us Space was before it had a name.

And then somebody was like, well, you need a business plan. And one day I sat down, I said, father and dad, you know, heaven, whatever. I'm like, give it to me now or I'm done. Like, tell me. And my ADHD ass was like, sat down and wrote a 24-page business plan that is now like the framework and the playbook for what I'm doing now. And then the next step was I was trying to get into, I Googled and looked up you know, businesses and how you do this and came up with accelerators and started talking to people that were program managers of all those. And one lady was like, well, you're not doing anything because you don't even know who your customer is. customer deiscovery came about and I was like, I don't want to talk to anybody about this. You know, like I'm like, I know what I'm doing.

Rachel Anzalone (17:32)

You're like, it's I'm too afraid or I'm too it's uncomfortable. 

LaGina Harris (17:35)

It’s uncomfortable. We can say scared, you know, I talk about being going fearfully forward because you're so bold. You're so courageous. I'm like, no, I'm scared every freaking day. Like, I'm just you just figure it out and you keep moving forward. And I'm blessed with like family that also understands entrepreneurship. So I have a little bit more runway and I take that proudly and also wear that with the ability to support my community. Like whether it is through The Us Space or just the general business community. Yeah.

Rachel Anzalone (18:11)

Yeah. And so with the idea in mind that you were building something that was community focused, what were the considerations actually before that? Tell me what a community centered business means to you.

LaGina Harris (18:26)

Well, if we’re being real, look, community-centered business is really hard, right? Because you have to decide from the beginning. One, a lot of people pushed me to try to make this a non-for-profit and to be really clear, that was something that came out of a lot of people's heads any time I said things around community, around women, and all of these type of things.

And the natural rebellion in me made me start looking into non-for-profits and who they normally push non-for-profits to. And if you look at it, a lot of people tell women and black women and women of color, oh make that a non-for-profit. Look, I'm a giver. I really am. But this is a for-profit business. And the interesting thing is when I wrote my business plan, I also wrote in a foundation that directly supports The Us Space at some point. And so, you know, in the next two, three years, that's something I'll lean into. 

But I think that that's one of the unique things about community building is it's hard because you stay mission toward people, toward community the whole time. And then you build out revenue and business models and everything. But with a very clear understanding that being community focused doesn't mean you have to be like broke or poor or not generate revenue.

That's one of the things. Another thing when I think about community is collaboration and partnerships. So The Us Space has five pillars. And one of the ones that I really lean into is partnerships. Like 70% of the stuff in here is through partnerships. It's self-funded, but when I say self-funded, I mean, through our community, like the community, our membership fees, people bringing stuff in here, even like this came from one of our members' mother's hometowns in Mexico. And he brought it back for The Us Space because he was like, oh this reminds me of home and this space reminds me of home. And so there's stuff like that. There's stories like that all in here, right? 

So when I think of community, I think of stuff like that. I think of being able to walk around in here with your shoes off and still be considered a professional, right? Yeah, I consider community having a safe space to get it wrong. I consider community being able to laugh, cry, cuss, smoke, drink, whatever you need to do to be a human and be supported in your business. So that's community.

Rachel Anzalone (21:06)

It's interesting what you said about non-profits and being pushed into that. And sort of one of the things I'm super passionate about is having worked for many years with women entrepreneurs who are very heart focused. Like that's the people I've surrounded myself with. That's the clients I've ended up working with are people who are really passionate about making a difference in the world. And sort of this story that they, that we have been sold, that that is a model.

Yeah. And there's a different model. That's where you make money. Yeah. Where you're profitable. Yeah. And that the two don't intersect. I just first I think it's complete bullshit. Yeah. And I think it's a way like the example that you gave to keep women sort of playing in this smaller space and being in this sort of like, oh you'd be the nurturer and take care of things and we'll be over here taking care of like making the money and yeah, you know. And one of the things that I'm really excited about right now is finding models like this, that are marrying the two together. Like we can be a community space, we can collaborate, and we can support each other, and we can be together, and also we can make money doing it, right?

 LaGina Harris (22:17)

Yeah. I mean, two things I want to be clear about is one, often tell people that like if you have a non-for-profit, non-for-profits are businesses and they do make money. I mean, a lot of them are very profitable. I mean, look around was like eight or nine years ago when there was that big old thing about how much CEOs and non-profits making a large one. Making some good money with your donation dollars, you know? And so there's that part of it.

And then the other part of it is when you're thinking about business and moving forward in business, there's very clear avenues that you can take. But understanding what type of business you have is important. Like, you know, my uncle owns the barbecue restaurant we were talking about in Cibolo Harmon's barbecue. And it's technically a mom and pop, but he's been around for 15-20 years, and he makes sustainable income for his family. You know what I mean? He's not looking to franchise or anything like that, right? And then there's some people that want to franchise. They want to do C corps and they want to do series of funding and raising and do quick sell or scale and sells. So understanding what kind of business you want or what you're going for is a really good baseline as well. 

But don't ask me mine because I can tell people stuff all the time, but I'm out here just freestyling it with a clear plan.

Rachel Anzalone (23:46)

Yeah. that works. What's interesting, I think, is that works for some people. Yeah. It doesn't work for everybody. And whatever the factors are that determine that, seems to be for you that you can sort of just take the next step and the next step and the next step and things unfold in a really beautiful way.

LaGina Harris (24:04)

And it's the community though. Like if we go back to community, the other part of community that I have is I have some really, really great mentors. Yeah. Community. mean, we met through one of my mentors and a community member who's a founding triangle member here, Laurel. 

And the other thing that I was talking about, the number two is, you know, when we're talking about people that wanted to push me to the, space being a non-for-profit, I'm laughing because at the same time, one of my community partners, it's very aligned, has a company that is in the bucket of The Us Space and what we're doing is a for-profit run by white men and nobody ever, and I asked him when I was like, bruh, and he's like, no, he's like, don't you do that. He's like, whoever told you that? He's like, no, cause you know, when you're talking in community a really important thing is to be able to have true conversations with people and we have our closed door conversations and, know, people are like, don't do that. Absolutely not. 

I always tell people, not everybody has a right to an opinion in your business. All business, but business, you know, that's one of those other pieces of it. When you're thinking about those two things is not for profits, make money. Yes, but when I, clearly have researched and customer discovery and understand a model really got into it and then got, you know, my really cool group of mentors. And one of them is aligned with what I'm doing. And they're telling me nobody's ever told me to make this a nonprofit. And I'm like, why are they telling me? Yeah. So I look at myself and I'm like, is it my delivery? That's one. Or is it that it's me and you've decided where I'm supposed to go. And that's a bad idea to do with me.

Rachel Anzalone (25:57)

Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting when you look at like the having worked in the nonprofit world and then sort of curated these events and things that are really, you know, very like community focused and not necessarily like profit driven, that for people to then look at you and go, well, that's what you do. Right. Yeah. I think in this world of community centered businesses,

I remember, I think back to one of the very, very first entrepreneur events that I went to, I think it was maybe in 2009, 2010. I remember it was all women. There were a couple of male speakers and one of the male speakers was like, you all want to create a community. You want to make a community, but like, what does that mean? And he said it sort of mockingly of like, that's not a business. Making a community is not a business, which you know, okay, it's not if that's all you're doing. There has to be some model of revenue, right? There has to be something. But also that I think in response to things like that, the people sort of push in the other direction, which is I'm building a community and it's making me wealthy. 

Which I shared with you when we talked that in my search for somebody to talk about like, what is a community centered business? Yeah. And what's a model of it that's working? I had all sorts of conversations with people that where I realized how people define that is so different. There, you know, there's a hundred different versions of it. And some of those versions are, “I built a community and people pay me handsomely to be in it and therefore I'm successful.” And and in reality, it's not taking into account all of those “P’s” and your all of the “P’s” and your pillars. Yeah, like what what does it really mean to be a community?

LaGina Harris (27:55)

Yeah, I mean it it is challenging when that's not the model and I've been told to do it again other ways. What what you pay for in here, I say it's like a buy one get 12 free like. You know, you're you're paying for space and access the community comes with it I don't think that that's something that can necessarily be monetized and in my head right there has to be more to it.

Now I am trying to figure out how these people are doing that and monetize it in a way because I mean they are selling a community and people do pay a lot of money to be in those communities to say that they're part of the community. But this is physical space right and what we say is we're intentional innovative spaces and the space is physical it is mental it is emotional, 

And bridging the gap in resources for business because we always meet people that come in here or I meet people out in the streets and my team members meet people that are like, I didn't know about that or this or that. And it's very interesting because resources are constantly being created, but there's this disconnect between the resource and the people that need it. And it's because sometimes the people that are creating it have no business creating that resource for the people that need it. 

Rachel Anzalone (29:26)

Say more of that. 

LaGina Harris (29:27)

Yeah. So when I was in, I did one of the triple threats here in Houston. I did three different programs all at the same time as during COVID. It was probably the only time you could do this. They were all business accelerated programs. And I remember I was in one of them and somebody's like, well, why do you need that? We already have, you know, all of the co-working and he starts naming them. 

And I'm like, men, men, not funded by, it's cold in there, it's bl... And I'm thinking in my head, and he pissed me the hell off. And I wrote down as he's talking, because this is virtual, I have a big thing with internet gangsters, you wouldn't say that in my face, because I'd be staring you down, right? But I wrote, no more making programs, rules, and initiatives about us without us.

LaGina Harris (30:14) 

And so if I break that down, means it's like that “captain save-a-ho.” Like you can't come in and you can't go into a neighborhood. You can't go into a community. You can't go into a building. You can't go into somebody's business and say, I can fix this or I can help. And you have no idea what needs to be fixed and what needs to be helped or what they need. 

And even sitting down with somebody like we were talking about earlier, when you're talking to a client and they say, is what I want. And then you're like, that's not what that is, right? So even having those intelligent conversations and giving people the dignity to talk to them and not be like, hey, all you millennial Latina girls, this is what you need. Hey, black women, this is what you need. Hey, moms, you need this and you need a daycare attached, right? 

So when you think about that, I wanted a space to really hit the root, reflect that idea of don't make programs, rules, initiatives about a body of people without them. And it doesn't matter when you're talking about gender, race, religion, none of that matters. I'm talking about if a space moves in the community, the first thing we want to do is discovery, right? Because then we can be the foundational, the framework, the jump off, the lightning rod to what is needed for that community for economic development, for innovation, for revenue generating, for sustainability, for scaling. Clearly that's my passion, because I was in it. I'm so sorry.

Rachel Anzalone (31:51)

I know, I’m so excited now, I’m like, let’s go! Because what I hear you saying, and what I think is so exciting about it is that so much of what we've been fed about how to start a business is prescriptive. It's here's the steps. It's the blueprint. It's you know, I was having conversation earlier today with a friend where it was like, we're sort of fed all these things of like identify the hole in the market and then research what would people pay for this and sort of all these things. 

And there's this prescriptiveness to that that says that there's somebody who has the solution and they're going to feed you the solution. They're going to tell you what all your problems are and then feed it to you, which is how we've been marketed to. It is what capitalism is. It is like, you're not guess what? You buy this lipstick and you'll be happier. You buy this shirt and you'll be happier. 

What you need is all the things when what we as a society, I think have been like aching for, or at least a percentage of us, is like, don't tell me what I need. Let me find it and let me feel it out and let me like build it in an organic way. Let it emerge versus imposing on me what you think it is that I need to fit this definition of business and this definition of entrepreneurship. 

That we're at this point where everything the way business is going to look 10 years from now is very different from what it is now. And if we're following all those rules, then we never allow for that to evolve.

LaGina Harris (33:35)

Yeah, one of the things that I tell business owners all the time and that I stress is a big thing in business is learning yourself. And I remember being in this particular program and I was looking around and I was like, if I was a dude, if was a white dude, they wouldn't be having me sit here and do this shit. Like literally that's, I said this is bullshit. Like in my head, I said it out loud too, let's just be honest. Don't let me in your program if you don't want to feel like what I'm feeling because I think that's important too is like say how you feel, say what you need, receive what you need and throw out the rest, right? 

Like not everything that you're learning is going to be for you at every given point. Just like you were saying, that person didn't need business strategy at the time. That's not what they needed. They needed to learn how to write an email, right? So when you think about that kind of stuff, it's a juxtaposition between the two because you still need foundations in business, right? It's just like a toddler. Like you can't play a sport until the toddler learns how to walk, right?

Now some toddlers go from this weird crawling thing to straight up walking and some very slowly progress. And so I think that's the thing. I think there's something to be said about the toilet bowl spinning. You said something about it earlier when sometimes when people find The Us Space, they are trying to figure out the next step in scaling what they need to do. And so some of those things are quantifiable and have many playbooks.

Now, I think it's almost like encyclopedias. Let's go way back because you know, like so like we in our 40s girl, let's talk about it. Right. So like the encyclopedia, Britannica, as you remember, right, like collectively, you do not have to read them in order. But you need to read the volumes and understand pieces of them. That's how I see business because my whole ADHD brain, I was like, Oh, I like this one. Oh, I want to learn about LA right down.

And I'd pull things out. So you need the encyclopedias, but just because I learned how to do pitching to win a pitch competition doesn't mean that you need to learn how to pitch in that way when you probably need to learn how to write a grant, to grasp on the money. And then maybe another person's business, they need government contracts.

And they don't ever, ya know, this, the capability statement is the same thing as a business resume. Two different worlds. So just thinking of things like that is where my head always goes.

Rachel Anzalone (36:25)

I think that sort of circles back to what you talked about about there being resources and information, but the people who need them aren't necessarily getting them or not getting them in the way that they should be. And some that I think is, you sometimes you don't even know what to ask for. You don’t know what you don't know. And so it's a paradox of the world where there's so much information, that you can just get inundated and not have a clear understanding of which pieces of those are relevant for you or what the right question is to ask. You’re just like, you know, sort of being pummeled.

LaGina Harris (37:02)

Yeah, that's one of my favorite things about being in The Us Space like when we're firing on a day and there's people in here and somebody will have a question about somebody. We have a hashtag, it’s TUScollective because you could collect the deck in here. Like there's a marketing person and then there's somebody that does branding and then somebody that's like, say it like this. And then somebody pops in and they're like, do this here. And you know, and then all suddenly you're like, oh, that just saved me three weeks.

And one of my favorites was before we had physical space, before we even had our community within a community at our original physical space, we were virtual. And we started during COVID. I didn't have a COVID business, but I kept, I was toilet-bowling. And a group was like, just start, like just do a work accountability day. It wasn't called that at the time. We called it “get shit done.”

And it ended up being, it moved around hours, but it was during COVID. So sometimes we would be on from four to two o'clock in the morning and people are filling out things and trying to do pitch things and figuring out this and doing that. And one time, a really, really good friend of mine. Now she had just started. We had met online and I was like, come, you know, come to the accountability day, get shit done. 

And she came in and she's like, yeah, I'm about to do a pitch competition. And we're like, show us your stuff. She but, we're like, no, that's not it. And we're like, do this. It might be it. Moving it around. She comes back and she won $5,000. Boom. Community, right? Like I'm, I'm, I'm in sorority. I was a campus queen. People laugh. I laugh still.

Rachel Anzalone (38:44)

I actually, I don't know what a campus queen is. You have to tell me that.

LaGina Harris (38:47)

Oh, okay, so I'm a proud HBCU grad. I went to Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and they have them at PWIs too. like, you know, the homecoming queen or the queen of the school that goes around and does a lot of like the speaking engagements and all that she has. 

Rachel Anzalone (39:11)

You’re blowing my mind right now.

LaGina Harris (39:14)

And I was part of the court. I even went to like a tea party.

Rachel Anzalone (39:18)

I love it. My college experience was like I was working, I wasn't on campus, I just like did my classes and got out so I'm like I don't know what any of these things are. This is amazing.

LaGina Harris (39:27)

I didn’t live on campus. Yeah, I decided I was going to do all the shit. I was going to do everything. So I was a college athlete. I was a campus queen. I was in the Panhellenic Council. So I did secretary stuff. I also, I was just all over the place. I even got social probation. You know, I sure did.

Rachel Anzalone (39:55)

What is that? 

LaGina Harris (39:57)

I got in trouble on campus and I had to do community service on the school campus, which is funny because it actually led to my first job in higher education, because I took that opportunity, because my social probation was being one of the student recruiters at the school. So we would call the potential students and I'd tell them about the school because I was...

Rachel Anzalone (40:24)

That’s some good practice.

LaGina Harris (40:24)

I was already a campus queen. I was this athlete. I was in the sorority. So I was the ideal person to be making this. So I went ahead and I did it. And fast forward when I'm living in Austin and I'm getting this job at this college and I'm filling out the university and I'm filling out the stuff. I said, you know, I did college recruitment because I did it. And in the interview, I just used that stuff and got, you know, so even even things like that, those alleged failures or the thing that at the time, was like earth shattering to me. It turned into opportunities. I don't know how we got there, but.

Rachel Anzalone (40:59)

I know, I'm like, where did we start on this thread? I don't know. We were talking about... This is what happens.

LaGina Harris (41:07)

Put it in the comments.

Rachel Anzalone (41:10)

Like where we got lost. Talking in circles. Okay, so let's talk about decision making and the community centered business. How does your placing the community front and center, how does that affect how you make decisions for the space or with the community members?

LaGina Harris (41:37)

Yeah, a couple different things. One, I’ve recently been told that it's just natural in me to be people facing community centered. It's just going to come out and everything I do. So I don't struggle with that. I tell founders, whatever your mission is, is how you drive your business. So I often say and have learned and I continuously learn, it's just business, right? And so that doesn't mean you're evil or it's ugly, but whatever your mission is, just serve it through business and everything you do. And that's a driver. So when I think about decisions for the community, for this particular thing, it's like, what do business owners need? How is this going to protect them or how is this going to expose them to something good? Is this partner aligned? What's our ideology and how does it work together when we're talking about expansion and going into different cities and what their needs are. 

Business ecosystems are communities. A building is a community. A city block is a community. And if you look at everything from the aspect of that we're all interconnected in some type of way, I don't care who you are and how different you think you are from somebody. I always tell people you should just sit down and talk to random people.

And you find these weird connectivities, it does not mean you shouldn't celebrate differences because that's also a cool thing about community. If everybody in here celebrates a different holiday, you could have a holiday like four times a month. You know? Isn't that so cool, right? So those are some of the decision-making things when you're thinking about community, like what is needed for a place like this in the middle of downtown? 

Safety is needed. So 24-hour access with locked doors with quick access that can be locked back. Parking is something that I'm always constantly fighting for and making sure it's tangible. Our target demographic is women. We've got different types of booties, heights, hips, knee problems. So even the seats and the chairs in here, I looked at all different kinds and sat in many different ones just to make sure that there was intentionality in the community that we're building because that is the baseline to make sure that business owners, leaders, people that are conducting and buying and doing commerce with small business owners can thrive.

Rachel Anzalone (44:10)

Yeah. And so do you take feedback from the community in some way? And is there any kind of formalized structure around administration or decision making? Or is it, do you feel like it's more organic? 

LaGina Harris (44:29)

What do you mean?

Rachel Anzalone (44:31)

In terms of like programming or changes you might make, additions, things like that. Do you have like a formalized structure where the community's involved in decision making or is it more organic where people sort of share their thoughts with you and you're sort of taking it in and steering from there?

LaGina Harris (44:49)

It's all of it. So even on our membership application, there's a spot that says like, what would you be interested in programming? So there's an opportunity there. We have one of our P's is programming. So we have member powered programming. So when a member comes on board and we're onboarding, we talk and it's like, “Rachel, like, what do you want to give back to the communities or is something you want to give?” 

Is it that your strategy sessions from members are 20% off or is it that you want to do a lunch and learn once a quarter and, you know, charge outsiders so that you have visibility and then leave spaces for members to do all that kind of stuff. So we support it like that and get to hear voices through that. Also, clearly this is a huge space and I'm walking around and my team's walking around and we do check-ins and talk to people just one on ones and then I have the Founders Triangle who really helped me expand and push forward with a space and work almost like a informal advisory board if you will that there they they tell me what they think. Often.

Rachel Anzalone (46:02)

Which is a great indicator that you have chosen people or you've brought in people who are committed to the mission.

LaGina Harris (46:10)

Exactly. A lot, you know, even at the top of the application form, there's a slice of the mission. So it's like, so when you join this community, so you know what's going on and you know what the drivers are. So that way, you know, our men or baby boomers, the white folks that join the really young people that join the millennial that join everybody is on the same page about this community and what we're doing and why we're doing it. And really a lot of it is around being very innovative with space and making it like when you were setting up, I'm like, do what you want. Cause everything moves around and it's for our convenience to be in here and do that kind of stuff. And I really like as a founder for myself, when I'm just thinking about business, one of my thought leaderships is like space revitalization and really engaging underutilized spaces, which is the space we're in right now, the 11,000, 10-11,000 square feet that we're in, that's what that was. The other side, it looked like 1980s had pressed pause in there when we got it. 

So even doing things like that in a place like the vibrant downtown Houston that is really working on revitalization and understanding what the future of work looks like is my jam. And that plays into engaging and doing stuff with the community. So it's a little bit organic. A little bit of it is very scripted in the form of an application, even reading Google reviews and looking at the comments people make and all that kind of stuff. And when people, after events, sometimes we'll send out, “Hey, did you like this? What do you want to get rid of?” 

I mean, the two biggest, I wouldn't even say complaints, but hey, can we make this better? It's always parking. Parking's a challenge in downtown. And then sometimes people complain about not getting in and we take pride in that because it's safety. And how cool is it to be in here and not have to always look over your back when a door opens? Because you know, when the door opens, the person that's coming through the door has access.

Rachel Anzalone (48:29)

Yeah, they've got their badge. They’re supposed to be here.

LaGina Harris (48:30)

They've got their badge or they've got, yeah. And so it lets you just get your head down and get into the work and get on a whiteboard and do some really strategic planning for your business.

Rachel Anzalone (48:41)

Yeah. What I hear you saying in terms of like, sort of the, community programming and stuff is that there's really an atmosphere of reciprocity and sharing, like what can I, what can I give to the community versus what can I extract from the community? And I think, you know, in my observation of co-working spaces I've been in, communities I've been in, that that is definitely a differentiating factor and also something that I believe has to be driven by you because whoever's the leader, whoever's the sort of, the creator, the birther of the experience, some of those leaders sit in an office and close the door or aren't in the space at all and would never walk in and just volunteer to help somebody or bring someone else in and say, hey, you know, this person over here, come on over, talk. We're talking about this thing. And that is a culture that you bring to it that I think is what creates the real community. It's not community in name, it's community in actual, tangible, physical experience.

LaGina Harris (49:52)

Yeah, I work really hard as a founder because even on that end, I did research and I've talked to other space and community owners around the separation of you as a founder and the community and the physical space. So I'm very mindful of me as a founder of The Us Space and The US Space having its own voice. Some of the stuff that The Us Space’s voices in is not necessarily my direct opinion or alignment. But when you're talking to community, getting feedback and they say what this space is, that is what this space is, right? 

And so thinking about that, some of the original language and the baseline and everything and the alignment definitely comes from me as the founder. But I like to think that as The Us Space keeps growing and expanding. My goal is to be like a talking head for The Us Space every now and then and go out and do some PR and everything else and just be a member and, you know, do my speaking engagements and stuff. But it's, it is very intentional in the brand and in the company voice that we have created. And when we sit down in our team meetings once a week and talk through that stuff and talk about how we can make it better and how we can talk directly to our members, our community, the people we want to engage and bring in without being salesy without over promising versus just letting this be what it is. 

Cause when you come in here, I, I like it. I love it because I created it for something that I needed and I needed multiple things. I needed the company and the business side and the conference rooms and the place where I can meditate and take a nap. And I needed someplace where I can go do programming and I needed someplace I can have fun and paint and do t-shirt press printing. And we're putting in a sound lab because we all need to do podcasting and do sound lab stuff. So you can literally run your business out of here and you can literally, thrive.

Rachel Anzalone (51:55)

Yeah. So you have been operating The Us Space for about five years, is that correct?

LaGina Harris (52:04)

So yeah, so 2019 when I moved here is when a space started like landing and formalizing. I also tell the story of like one day I was looking for something and in my drive I found like I guess my original white boarding session for an event space and that was in 2017 and it was I guess the route before the foundation of The Us Space had started.

And then 2020, I did the Get Shit Done. 2021, I did my bank account, LLC, seed money, if you will, winning that trifecta. I won one of the pitch competitions and got seed money. And then fast forward to 2024 is the opening of this space. So there's so many benchmarks. So it really depends on what they need for the story to cut me the check.

Rachel Anzalone (53:00)

That's great. Well, I feel like that's part of it. And this is something we have in common is there just are like iterations. Yeah. And when I look back, I'm like, oh, but I've been talking about the same thing for 15 years, and it showed up in like all these different iterations. But at the heart of it for you has been this, this space, this community, this. 

LaGina Harris (53:24)

Let's go with four years then. Four years. 

Rachel Anzalone (53:27)

Write that down.

LaGina Harris (53:28)

I'm like, we're gonna say four years. Yeah.

Rachel Anzalone (53:30)

What are some lessons that are some lessons that you've learned along the way?

LaGina Harris (53:33)

I've learned a lot. One of my favorite ones is the discernment of good ego and bad ego. Because people are like, you shouldn't have an ego. Yes, you should. You got to swag it out. So I talk a lot about good ego versus bad ego. Bad ego will stop you from going to another business owner that's aligned with you and asking how they do it and humbling yourself to follow them and understand what they're doing. 

I say that with the fact that bad ego will also not have you go research and be knowledgeable before you walk up to somebody and be like, give me your playbook. That's not how it works. 

That language thing that you were talking about, knowing the language of an industry, then you enter into it then you learn right from the ground up. I did a lot of that. I've learned that people see what you're doing and think that they can do it easily. And you take that with the humility that you're doing it well, right? And don't take that… 

Rachel Anzalone (54:35)

You’re setting a good example.

LaGina Harris (53:37)

Not even that. Like you just make it look easy. This is not easy, right? It's not. I've learned to trust myself a lot and stay with my true north, which is the mission of what I'm doing personally, and then the mission of The Us Space. I have learned to lean on community.

That's a big one. I mean, we could land there, right? Like I've learned how to lean on the community of family, the community of friends, the community of The Us Space, my personal mentoring bubble community, because when, what was it, in 2020, when my sister passed, my community ran this place. I was here, but my community ran it. So I learned stuff like that. In lieu of crying.

And I also learned that as a founder, there is the difference in being a founder and then turning into a CEO. And I am on my CEO birthing walk right now. And so that's really important because it's just a whole ‘nother level and I'm doing different things and I'm bringing on contracted people for a team and I, my, one of my favorite things is [SOPs]. I love a good standard operating procedure. They are the bomb, but that's also something you need when you're scaling. And so I, I am at entrepreneur university. I call it entrepreneur U, cause you're always learning, on this journey. And I constantly get humbled and sometimes you're like, whatever. And then sometimes you're like, okay, okay, I needed that one. So it's like this ebb and flow and every day you're like 90 % of the time I love it 80 % of the time I love it 20 % of the time I'm like what why where, you know.

Rachel Anzalone (56:34)

Yeah, it's such an important lesson for entrepreneurs. I think most of us start something because we have an idea where, know, we're creative, we're about something. 

LaGina Harris (56:42)

And it’s cute.

Rachel Anzalone (56:44)

And it's like, we're excited to do this thing. And so you can just do that thing, right. Whatever it is that you're passionate about, but then, and you can turn that into a business, but then running and operating a business is very different from that thing. And then scaling and growing a business in a sustainable way is different from operating, is different from the thing that you were excited to do to begin with.

LaGina Harris (57:08)

That is the perfect example of the founder to the CEO. It's like you've you found it, you find it. And then it's like, what do you do next?

Rachel Anzalone (57:18)

Is that what founder means? I found it! found it!

LaGina Harris (57:22)

I found it! And then next thing you know, you're like, somebody's like yes, I need an invoice. And you're like, invoice… how do I make an invoice? And you're like, oh my god there's like 80 different ways you can do that. And then that becomes a process and the next thing so it is it is a hundred percent a journey

Rachel Anzalone (57:38)

You're a founder, you're an operator, you're, yeah, they're sort of just continuing to learn and grow. And at some point it becomes more about developing your leadership skills than it does about operating. And more than it does about the thing that you do, you're naturally a community builder. You don't need to practice and learn how to be a community builder. You need to learn how to be a business operator. And then you need to learn how to…

LaGina Harris (58:05)

Teach people how to be a community builder for the brand, the company.

Rachel Anzalone (58:12)

Yes, you become a leader of the community builders.

LaGina Harris (58:15)

Yep. And that is part of the value proposition of The Us Space. Because that ecosystem building, that community building, creating that pipeline of the founder and helping those founders figure out what type of business owner they want to be is really cool. Really cool.

Rachel Anzalone (58:34)

Yeah, you're helping them figure out who they are. 

LaGina Harris (58:41)

Yeah, The Us Space is. For sure.

Rachel Anzalone (58:44)

That's fantastic. I love it. What's next for you and for The Us Space?

LaGina Harris (58:48)

Yeah, a lot. The Us Space is moving and grooving and we are at a scaling point right now. So what's happening right now is we are looking for locations two and three and four.

Rachel Anzalone (59:03)

In Houston or in other cities?

LaGina Harris (59:05)

Yeah, TBD. Where are we going? What are we doing? I'm open. did a lot of space prospecting last year and talking to potential partners. So we're starting to move forward with being the grounding, the lightning rod, the place where people can start businesses and supporting cities, municipalities, counties, even higher-ed institutions where business owners can do their post program accelerator, business competition, growth, where people that need to understand more about business and get business education can be. And it also works as a pipeline, right? Because if people start there, then they're going to stay in those communities and help grow and everything. So we're expanding. That's what's next.

Rachel Anzalone (59:56)

That's exciting. 

LaGina Harris (59:57)

And that's why I have to be a CEO and understand processes and do all that stuff. Because that's where we're, that's where we realistically are right now. So hopefully this becomes our flagship location. And then next time we talk, we can… 

Rachel Anzalone (1:00:10)

We'll do it in your second location

LaGina Harris (1:00:11)

Yeah, in the second and the third one, I'll be like, girl, follow me.

Rachel Anzalone (1:00:14)

We'll do a re-visit.

LaGina Harris (1:00:16)

And so right now we're open to and talking to partners to go to different cities. I would love to see The Us Space, uh, not only in Houston and the greater Houston, a little web for, cause the city is freaking huge, super huge, but I would love to see, um, The Us Space in San Antonio and in Dallas, even my hometown of San Angelo, uh, looking at Chicago, Tulsa, Durham.

All these places we've been where there are some really cool business owners and business things happening. And, you know, small business ownership is the backbone of this country. And there needs to be more support that isn't cookie cutter and is focused on like intentionality and the future of work and space revitalization, because we have so many beautiful buildings that could use that support. And so that's, that's our goal. That's our purpose. That's what we're here to do is to be that for many different ecosystems, many different businesses, many different cities and groups.

Rachel Anzalone (1:01:22)

Awesome. It's my belief that for businesses to be sustainable for the long term, that we have to have the right mix of impact, profitability, and pleasure. And so we've talked a lot about impact, and we've talked about profitability. What do you do for yourself to make sure that the experience is enjoyable and that you’re having, that it's a pleasurable experience of being an entrepreneur?

LaGina Harris (1:01:49)

I created that in the framework of this place. So like, yeah, so one of my favorite places to be is in the wellness area. And on the other side, take a quick nap, like you're in the middle of the city, but you jump on a beanbag and turn on the lights and the, what is it, the star lights or whatever and listen to some music or watch Netflix and chill, right? Stuff like that. Being able to walk around and sometimes just being in community of other business owners and sometimes look up and people looking at you, you done for the day? Let's all sit down and have a glass of wine, stuff like that. I love movie nights. I like taking walks. I love a good nap. Like I said, I really like napping.

And just breaking bread with people, I really enjoy socialization. And also, you know, I go home and I like just being alone in my room and chilling. So looking at stars, stuff like that. Yeah, I keep it simple.

Rachel Anzalone (1:02:56)

I love that you've built it into this business that is very impact focused. But you know, we've talked about the requirement, the need for it to be profitable as any business should be. And that you have built into it this aspect of like, and I just get to be in a space I love. And how you know, and enjoy every day, every, every experience of it.

LaGina Harris (1:03:18)

Yeah, and when you get tired of sitting at your desk go sit in a chair or get in a rocking chair or you know go lay on a couch on the other side or take a break and go make something. Like all the aspects of my ADHD brain are in here.

Rachel Anzalone (1:03:34)

Everything's being nourished… 

Rachel Anzalone (1:03:36)

Yeah, and even the smells in here and the fact that there's always like some music playing on this side. There's usually like music with lyrics and on the other side we do lo-fi so, all of the things you could think about in here. If you need really traditional office space, there's desks and you can geek out like that. They're standing desks, thanks to our partnership with Veri and all that stuff. Or you can go all the way nontraditional and just go get a work table and drag it around and do what you need to do and take a whiteboard and drag it around. So there it's so versatile because it, but it's all by design and intentional for the people that are the community in this space.

Rachel Anzalone (1:04:14)

Awesome. Last question, how can people find you, connect with you, find out what you're doing and when the next Us Space is opening? Not to mention your other business and the other things that you have going on.

LaGina Harris (1:04:23)

Yeah. So for The Us Space, everybody can go to The Us Space.com. can find everything if you want to. Excuse me, if you want to peep out the space, there's virtual tour tours on our website and on YouTube. If you want to see what we're doing in real time, you know, we'd be on the gram, LinkedIn, you know, all of those things. We love partners. So people that want to partner with us, we're doing a space activation during the time of AfroTech. And we want to do more of those in the city where we open up a space for people that are at conventions because the convention centers, the 12 minute walk from here. And so we want to open this up as a house for people to use during their conventions and conferences.

Rachel Anzalone (1:05:12)

If you're in Houston, look up The Us Space.

LaGina Harris (1:05:15)

Look up The Us Space. Yeah. Yeah. And then for me personally, LaGina R. Harris, can type it, Google me and I come up or you can go to LinkedIn and engage with me. I love engaging with people and being a connector in some type of way.

Rachel Anzalone (1:05:32)

Awesome. Thank you so much… I was gonna say for being here, for having me here with you and for taking the time. It’s been such a pleasure.

LaGina Harris (1:05:41)

Yeah, this has been fun. I love this setup. I love what you're doing and I look forward to supporting you.

Rachel Anzalone (1:05:46)

Thank you so much. And Thank you all for listening. Until next time, remember your pleasure is your power. Take care.