nothin In 9th Square,  A Freelance Community Gels | New Haven Independent

In 9th Square, A
Freelance Community Gels

THoams MacMillan Photo

For months Mason Rabinowitz was unhappily working from home, where in his solitude he resorted to talking to his cat, Buckamuskineer. Then he joined the Grove, a new coworking” space on Orange Street.

Now Rabinowitz not only has people to talk to. He’s poised to launch an idea that will help freelancers like him use their powers for principles, not just for profit.

Rabinowitz (pictured) is one of 15 people who pay a monthly fee for the privilege of working at the Grove, a new venture in the Ninth Square that provides a workspace for solo entrepreneurs and independent contractors who might otherwise be operating out of coffee shops or their homes. It’s part of a recent movement known as coworking, which aims to provide solitary freelancers with the benefits of communal office space.

Some of those benefits are logistical: wi-fi, a copy machine, hot coffee. Others are more intangible, like companionship, networking, and mutual support.

Those intangibles are a focus of Grove founders Ken Janke and Slate Ballard. In the two months since they opened the coworking site in a downtown storefront on Orange Street, they’ve offered more than just coffee and copies to their 15 members. They’ve organized events to help members and others create personal connections, refine and share their ideas, and find collaboration and encouragement for their ventures.

It’s a process that is about more than just work. For some Grovers, it’s been a process of transformation, with the Grove environment and events acting as a catalyst for personal growth.

For example, Grove members gathered on Friday for the third in a four-part event series called Story Lab, designed, according to Janke, to answer the question: What is the story you’re telling with your life and are you happy with that story?” For an hour starting at noon, Janke led a dozen participants through a workshop that was part life-coaching pep talk and part entrepreneurial strategy session.

Events like Story Lab — along with the collaborative environment fostered at the Grove — have inspired Rabinowitz and others to work toward projects they might not previously have taken on. Rabinowitz is developing a plan that will connect non-profits in need of marketing help with freelance copywriters and marketers who want to work for a cause they can believe in.

On Friday at noon, the 33-year-old was settled in a comfortable chair in a carriage-house meeting space behind the Grove.

For an hour, with a MacBook and projected PowerPoint slides, Janke led Rabinowitz and others in a discussion of the creation of a personal story as a means of shaping the course of one’s life. Participants spoke of deep alignment,” sacrificial ambition,” and convergence.” They touched on Joseph Campbell’s idea of the monomyth” as it relates to the original Star Wars trilogy. Janke talked about the personal inner conflicts” that can hold someone back from actualizing his or her epic” story, like hearing a mental voice of your father saying that your worthless.

Janke illustrated some of his points with examples from his own life. Six years ago, the now 45-year-old had been living in Dallas when he felt called to move to New Haven, buy a house in Fair Haven, and raise his children in the inner city,” he said. That journey required him to overcome some significant challenges and conflicts.

Moving my wife to New Haven and buying a house without her seeing it created a conflict,” he said.

Janke was chasing his dream, and it’s paid off. I am in my sweet spot right now,” he said.

Janke (pictured) later filled in the details of his journey to the Grove. After 25 years in non-profits, he moved to New Haven, where he has close and supportive friends, and began community organizing, he said. He helped start the Chatham Square Neighborhood Association. He started a non-profit called Groundworks, which led to the creation of the Grove.

It’s all part of his controlling idea,” Janke told the group on Friday. That is, his value” plus his cause,” which determines the unfolding of his story.”

My value is transformation,” he said. My cause is stewarding dreams. … I steward the dreams of others.” Hence, he created a co-working facility, to have an environment in which he could help others to collaborate and transform, he said.

Janke closed Friday’s session with the assignment of homework. He asked participants to determine their object of desire,” identify their value, cause, and controlling idea, and answer the question of how my character must transform if I am to live my story.”

Wined Down Wednesdays

Moments later, after the event broke up, Rabinowitz was bubbling over with enthusiasm about the Grove and its workshops.

I know it must seem like I’ve drunk the Kool-Aid,” he said as he spoke about how much the Grove has helped him in just a short time.

Rabinowitz said he joined the Grove just a couple of weeks ago. Before that he had been working out of the apartment in the Smoothie building that he shares with his wife and cat, Buckamuskineer. (His wife named the cat, he said.)

I talked to the cat a lot,” he said.

Immediately upon walking into the Grove for the first time, Rabinowitz said, he could tell it was different from other coworking sites, like the one he’d been to in Seattle. The difference is the personal attention and investment by Janke and Ballard and the friendly collaborative environment, he said.

Rabinowitz said he especially enjoys Wined Down Wednesdays,” when Grovers knock of at 4:30 p.m. to drink wine and talk about how their work is going. People share advice and offer up their expertise, he said.

I feel really connected to the people here and what they’re doing,” he said.

It’s reinvigorated his interest in his job, Rabinowitz said, and inspired him to do more with his skills. He said he’s looking forward to an upcoming Grove event, Ideate 80. It’s a kind of group brain-storming session designed to help people flesh out their ideas and get them moving.

Rabinowitz said he plans to introduce a concept he’s been working on that would connect freelance copywriters like him to non-profits looking for marketing help. He said he knows that for-profit marketers are interested in putting their skills to work for a good cause, but it’s not easy to find an organization that is working on the cause that inspires the marketer. Rabinowitz said he aims to make that process easier, and the support of the Grove will help him do it.

I really feel lucky,” he said.

Members like Rabinowitz and Kubarych pay a monthly fee for use of the Grove, which is open 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday to Friday. It works like a cell phone plan,” Ballard (pictured) explained. Members can sign up for 50, 100, or unlimited hours a month for $50, $150, and $250 respectively. The membership fee pays for wireless internet, copy and printing services, storage space, meeting room space, and an innovative community,” Ballard said.

With 15 members, the Grove is paying its bills but not yet making enough money to pay Ballard and Janke, Ballard said. We haven’t earned a dime yet.”

Jeff Kubarych, a tech entrepreneur and marketer, was one of the first members. Like Rabinowitz, he had been working at home with his cat Zoi in West Haven before he joined the Grove, he said. Now he feels very close to the Grove community. It’s almost become another family to me.”

Story Lab has helped open my eyes up to my own story … and living the life I want to live,” he said.

Kubarych said he’s realized that what’s important to him is creativity, whether it’s creating songs, or businesses, or mobile apps. He’s now on the verge of launching a new venture, called Create 96. He wouldn’t go into detail about it, beyond saying, I’m looking to ignite a movement to help people remember their creative capacity.”

Since working at the Grove, Kubarych said, I’m just as interested in outcomes as I am in incomes.”

There’s a shift that’s going on for me, in here,” he said, touching his heart.

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