Edition #5: Carl Sullivan

Here at GCUC we are immensely fortunate to cross paths and work with so many amazing people. Through our work, we’ve cultivated a global community of people we think you should know about. 

Its that time again- another edition of Community of Cultivators. Check out our past posts
before or after diving into this one…

This month we decided to take our interview to Australia to chat with Carl Sullivan of Your Desk, a handful of family owned and operated coworking spaces!

Name: Carl Sullivan
Company and title: Your Desk

What in your life are you most proud of cultivating or creating? Why?

Stay tuned…

Where do you personally feel the most sense of community?

I personally feel the most sense of community at Christmas time. In Australia its always summer over Christmas, and its a time for me to gather my family and celebrate with coworkers, my extended family, my immediate family and attend the many community events that are on in Sydney around that time… plus who can say no to a tasty Christmas Ham!

What podcast would you recommend to others and why?

Well this is like asking who is your favourite child! I will say that there are a number of amazing coworking podcasts out there, but my all time favourite podcast series is Hardcore History. I always hated learning about history in school, the presenter Dan Carlin has such a knack of bringing those stories to life in such an in-depth way!

What is one piece of advice you give everyone that works with and/or for you?

I don’t have one piece of advice that I apply to everybody, people are all so different. Add to that, in Your Desk all the people work with me are family and I know that the way I give advice to them has to always be well considered emotionally and in keeping with our company goals

If you had $500 to spend- what would you buy?

A ticket to any coworking conference. I often feel weighed down like I am the only one working through my challenges in my business. Yeah I know that $500 is a lot for a ticket but the energy and ideas I gather from meeting with my peers and blowing off some steam, I know that I can easily make that money back 100x over the next 12 months.

What advice would you give to someone thinking of becoming an entrepreneur?

I always ask someone now “What would you do if you could be if you could not become an entrepreneur?” Only the ones that refuse to answer the question and insist that that’s the only option for them are the ones that will make it. Or to put another way, everyone has an opinion on your journey as an entrepreneur, if you can’t explain or ignore feedback from someone who has not walked in your shoes then you will never make it.

What is the best habit you ever started? What habit do you want to start but haven’t yet?

About 2 years ago I hired a business coach for $1000 a month to help me be better with running my business, 2 years later we have lifted our profit margin from 6% to 30% and I always look forward to the monthly catch up calls to gain valuable insights on how to work my toughest problems and capitalise on my best strengths. My business coach is fond of telling me that for small founder focused businesses, when the founder is down the business is down, so the habit I need to work harder on is spending more time on self care.

If you had to put a quote on your gravestone what would it be?

Do or do not, there is no try – Yoda

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Thanks Carl! For another edition of Community of Cultivators- check back next Tuesday!