Michael Tavani is the founder and CEO of Switchyards, the world’s first neighborhood work club. He joins Geoff to talk about creating a new—and much needed—type of “third place”, his love of third places, the inspiration he took from Oldenburg’s book The Great Good Place, building with soul, the advantages of being an owner operator, and the growth of the business.
Links:
Switchyards: https://switchyards.com/
The iconic sign: https://www.instagram.com/madewithsoulinatlanta/
The Great Good Place: https://www.dacapopress.com/titles/ray-oldenburg-phd/the-great-good-place/9781569246818/
Bowling Alone: http://bowlingalone.com/
Timestamps
0:00 – intro, Geoff on Atlanta at its best
2:43 – What Switchyards is and the biggest reshuffling of work since the 40-hour work week
9:04 – two tactical uses of Switchyards
11:18 – The Great Good Place and Third Places
14:11 – quick history of Switchyards, having a strong point of view
25:32 – what does having soul mean? How do you scale soul?
29:06 – sources of inspiration from completely different places, businesses with soul
33:12 – how Michael chooses locations in neighborhoods
37:38 – operating for 10 years, how time’s the best thing in business
43:05 – no dogs policy, music, figuring rules out
48:19 – emergent congeniality that Geoff experienced
49:41 – creating a place by curating the details
52:58 – why Michael removed the Switchyards Slack
56:42 – locations in Atlanta, new cities, contrarian growth strategies
1:08:01 – Switchyards binds neighborhoods together, on working on a tangible IRL thing
1:11:02 – Relentless focus, where to learn more about Switchyards
Yeoman 