GCUC Podcast Recap: Jillian Kilby

It’s the people who hold communities, societies, and cities together.

No one knows this better than Stanford Civil Engineer to coworking powerhouse, Jillian Kilby, Founder and CEO at The Exchange. This week we had the pleasure of interviewing her on the GCUC Podcast and it was inspiring.

In this episode Jillian talks about the importance of economic development, having passion for the cause, and putting everything into perspective. She dives deep into her love for service, giving back to the community, how opportunities and education can shape the future, and always asking what you can do next.

Give the pod a listen. For those of you who can’t wait, check out these sound bites:

“10 year from now I hope you look back and see changes you made that made your organization better and make your children proud of you as leaders” – Jillian Kilby, Founder of The Exchange

“The piece that I really love is the restoration of these old heritage buildings to create coworking spaces. I get so excited about that” – Jillian Kilby, Founder of The Exchange

“We are all about leaving a lasting legacy of change.” – Jillian Kilby, Founder of The Exchange

“ I am very passionate about the regional communities because that’s what gave me the opportunity when I grew up to be who I am today. I love living and working in regional areas. Its what brings me alive” – Jillian Kilby, Founder of The Exchange

“Regional areas are a bit limited so you have to make your own way”- Jillian Kilby, Founder of The Exchange

“My motto was to have a fabulous career no matter where I chose to live” – Jillian Kilby, Founder of The Exchange

“The exchange is unique because it is in a rural setting and when we threw open the doors over 80% of people who walked in were women. We didn’t see that coming.”- Jillian Kilby, Founder of The Exchange

“We found that the women were turning up because they wanted to be part of a community”- Jillian Kilby, Founder of The Exchange

“In creating a community you have to be prepared to have more members and tenants in a smaller community” – Jillian Kilby, Founder of The Exchange

“It was something that was needed in regional areas but overlooked because Its hard to run a very profitable business with a smaller network with a smaller market” – Jillian Kilby, Founder of The Exchange

“Those people hold community, and society and cities together. Those people are what make the restaurants in the mission fly. What made those bars in Hayes Valley trendy and what makes the climbing gym I visited a great place to be on a thursday night at 9pm. The fact that someone put a climbing gym there is not what made it cool. The same can be said about the infrastructure we build for coworking spaces. You can build it and they can not turn up if you don’t have the ingredients of the people right”- Jillian Kilby, Founder of The Exchange

“We are a 100% female lead team.” – Jillian Kilby, Founder of The Exchange

“In March this year on my birthday, I bought the fourth building” – Jillian Kilby, Founder of The Exchange

“Biggest opportunity: Because we have built a foundation of properties, what can you do next to give back? Being a social impact organization we think that we can take a profit and do good with it. How we do good is Education. I am where I am because of my education” – Jillian Kilby, Founder of The Exchange

“So how do you give other people good education? There was a quote at my meeting yesterday that said you cant tip enough education into community” – Jillian Kilby, Founder of The Exchange

“One of the things we miss out in in regional areas is face to face learning. So we started a program called the business the exchange business activator program last year. 680 local people went through the education. 30 local people taught local content” – Jillian Kilby, Founder of The Exchange

“It is important that local people teach local content because we don’t have to drag someone the 7 hour drive from sydney when its only taught twice a week” – Jillian Kilby, Founder of The Exchange

“What we needed was the infrastructure. We needed the building that put the people in the same room” – Jillian Kilby, Founder of The Exchange

“Our opportunity is to continue to drive education into regional areas through out community. The glue that holds our community together is the people.” – Jillian Kilby, Founder of The Exchange

“The building doesn’t do it without the people. – Jillian Kilby, Founder of The Exchange

“The biggest challenge is probably on keeping sustainability. Financially stable” – Jillian Kilby, Founder of The Exchange

“This is not real estate, it’s hospitality. We are hospitality and community first. Coworking meeting rooms and private offices second.” – Jillian Kilby, Founder of The Exchange

“Importantly underpinning it are the commercial aspects. We own and operate a building. That is what allows us the financial sustainability to continue. That’s important to me. I never realized that without getting the budget right we actually cant have an impact.” – Jillian Kilby, Founder of The Exchange

Click here to listen to the full podcast. It is juicy and full of more than just these sound bites.