Hidden Gems: Meet Melanie Piazza of Family Village

Today we’d like to introduce you to Melanie Piazza. 

Hi Melanie, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers?
I never imagined myself becoming an entrepreneur. I’d always felt most comfortable as a follower and tended to choose the path of least resistance in terms of just taking the next most natural step in my life. My first jobs were as a sales associate in retail clothing stores which naturally led to studying marketing and retail studies at Santa Clara University. That led to a seemingly successful 8-year career as a buyer/ merchandising at the headquarters of Gap, Inc. I imagined that I’d grow my retail experience for decades and then retire having never left the world of clothing and product buying. Until I started showing up to work in tears and barely capable of getting through the product presentations that had once been so exciting to me. Something deep inside me just couldn’t hide what I hadn’t even consciously realized until then…I just didn’t care that much about clothes. I was doing something that was lucrative and even seen as a bit glamorous to by peers. But I had no passion for the industry and the long hours and high pressure chipped away at my confidence until, as my colleagues named, it broke me. 

My clear and straightforward career path was in shambles. I quit my job with no idea on earth what I was going to do next. I dabbled in marketing for the senior living industry after a career counselor suggested my love of elders could marry well with my marketing background. But after a few years of witnessing how few elders could afford to live their final years with good care and quality accommodations, that too began to break me. So, after realizing that the struggle my husband and I were having getting pregnant may have had something to do with the stress I was experiencing at work, we decided I would quit my job and focus on building our family. 

Thankfully, we succeeded and had our first child in 2012. Thus, began what I imagined would be my next straightforward career choice: stay-at-home momming. I was blessed to have the option of staying home (though it was definitely a financial strain.) But very soon into the beginning of motherhood, I recognized in myself, once again, the excruciating feeling of brokenness. I loved my daughter deeply and felt so blessed to have been able to experience all of her firsts. But it became clear that I was not feeling fulfilled and even capable in the ways I’d hoped. And again, I was left with the terrifying feeling of not having a clear path ahead. 

Time went on. My daughter grew into a happy and healthy toddler and we moved from California to Longmont, Colorado where we knew we’d have a better chance financially and could live more of the small-town life we’d been dreaming of. My husband was privileged to keep the job he’d had in California so was working from home which provided me some of the support I’d been without when he had to commute to an office every day. I was grateful. And exhausted. Overwhelmed. Lonely. Frustrated. I did not feel the way I imagined other moms to feel. 

Then life was derailed in a way we hadn’t imagined. My mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer and we shifted our attention to her and her needs as she lived alone in the Seattle area and become more and more fragile and needed more and more support. We decided to move her to Colorado to live with us so we could provide the support she needed and take advantage of every moment she had left to live. Our son was born the day she moved in with us. So, my ailing mother and my newborn son became nap buddies and my daughter spent hours curled up in bed with my mom, watching cartoons and taking advantage of Nana’s secret M&M stash. My kids became well acquainted with. It was the most beautiful and agonizing time of my life. 

The broken feeling I’d been feeling evolved and turned into rage. It because crystal clear to me that feeling I’d had of not being enough as a mother was not my fault. It was because something in my knew that living an isolated life as new parents was not natural, even though it was “normal.” The idea that aside from a weekly mommy and me class, a park playdate and gyms with childcare attached, my husband and I (and most parents) were on our own on a daily basis was unacceptable. 

So, I began imagining a space I could go to where my kids would be watched by someone else and I could chat (or cry) with other parents, take a nap, explore a future career and just take care of myself. And the rage I felt about the lack of support for young parents turned into determination to build this place I was imagining. And so, a few Facebook posts & meetings later, in February 2018 I had gathered a group of parents as determined as me to build this place, and one step at a time, we opened Family Village in Longmont in June of 2018. The original location utilized the ground floor of a coworking space where parents could work, take yoga classes, meditate, chat and dream of and build businesses. We also rented an attached dance studio where the kiddos could play, sing, and be loved on by our childcare director, Toni Green. Since then, we’ve moved twice and are now located in the garden level of Columbine Unity in East Boulder and are thriving more than ever. As a cooperative business structure, we all own the business democratically and are equally empowered to evolve and grow the business as our membership grows. 

So, it turns out, I am an entrepreneur. Just not one that had to do it all on my own. 

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The road to building this business has been exhausting but also completely fulfilling. The vision I originally had for Family Village was so big and grand that I really had to work to simplify the ideas and learn deep patience. In addition, so many of the ways I knew the business had to be set up created their own challenges. First, I felt creating Family Village as a cooperative was critical. Giving parents and other members the opportunity to shape and mold the business based on specific needs and also feel like the Village was a home away from home felt so aligned with the idea of democratic, mutual ownership that cooperatives entail. However, cooperatives tend to have real challenges getting access to capital via grants and donations (as they are by nature for-profits) and also loans as banks tend to want to lend to organizations where one or a few owners can personally guarantee loans. So, finances were never easy for this business. 

Second, in order to be not just a standard coworking space or childcare center, I knew that having parents on-site was critical. I also knew it was important to be a drop-in on-demand space so that parents never had to worry about being on time or have to preplan their visits. Because I knew that the needs I experienced as a parent were rarely predictable and I wanted to be able to have parents show us when and as they needed, not based on a rigid schedule. Therefore, we chose to have a license-exempt status which enables us to operate without the restrictions and costs of being formally licensed. But that also meant we would not have access to funding meant to support childcare organizations. 

The combination of not having access to the capital opportunities most startups can tap into, plus the resistance most moms (our primary customers) have in investing in their own well-being we had to be really scrappy at first. And we learned the hard way that though most parents have limited funds they feel comfortable spending on what feels on the outset to be a luxury of caring for themselves, undercharging was never going to enable the business to thrive. So, we’ve had a few iterations of pricing and finally feel we’ve hit the sweet spot in terms of price for the value. 

And finally, the financial hurdles have made it hard to get the word out about who we are and what we do. There are so few coworking spaces with childcare that parents don’t often even know solutions like us exist. We’re finally in a position to spend some money on marketing and the impact has been incredible. We’re thrilled to be in a position now to see how much more we can do to resource families and mothers to become the change-making contributors we know they are meant to be. 

As you know, we’re big fans of Family Village. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Family Village is somehow very difficult to explain and yet very easy to understand once someone has visited the space. At its’ most basic, it is a cooperative coworking and community space with onsite on-demand childcare. But that doesn’t begin to capture what one experiences when becoming a part of the cooperative. The real magic of Family Village is in taking parenting from an individual, lonely, overwhelming experience into an experience of community where parents share in the joys, agonies, stresses, and celebrations of raising little ones. It’s about giving parents, especially moms, a chance to live into the idea of actual tangible balance…where we can make the choice to be with our children much of the day without bearing all the responsibility of keeping them happy, safe, engaged, and social. It’s about giving parents ways to build the businesses and lives they’ve imagined but didn’t realize were possible. 

We’re so proud to have landed on such a non-cookie cutter model that creates spaces that truly feel like a home away from home. We’re so proud to insist on not just livable, but thrivable (I think I just made that word up) wages. We don’t believe that anyone should have to work two or three jobs to survive. We believe people are far more productive than they’re given credit for and productivity doesn’t have to mean long agonizing hours. Parents are incredibly good at getting lots done in little bits of time. And that can translate to work too. So, our employees are paid well and work hours that allow them to take time for themselves and have quality time with their families. 

We’re so excited that the three of us who’ve shepherded our current location into the space it is today are taking on the next phase of Village building. We’ve created a cooperative consulting firm, called Family Village Cooperative Collective, that will create opportunities for other people to form and build their own Villages. We will be launching in the next few months and will take all that we’ve learned from building, shaping, and growing this sometimes-complicated business and provide simple templates, trainings, capital-raising ideas, location scouting, software, marketing collateral and solutions, and much more to groups of people interested in the Family Village model. 

Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
This business has always been about community and heart. And it is what it is today because of my chosen sisters, Nikki Hastings and Emily Waldeck. Over the past 3.5 years, we’ve truly lived into shared ownership and shared heartbreak, and shared joy in a way that has made this business a living breathing entity. Their wisdom, candor, trust, big big dreams, and down in the dirt grit have enabled Family Village to evolve and grow in ways we didn’t know possible. I highly encourage anyone venturing into a new business or passion to bring onboard partners to fill in the gaps of your own understanding and skills but also hold the same values around both work and life in general. 

Toni Green, our original childcare director, created the spirit, heart, and energy of the childcare part of the business, Little Village. And though she retired from hands-on care, she continues to support and push the business forward as a member of the Board. Amy McKinnell came on as our current childcare director this past summer and brings such life, joy, and love to the Village. We also are blessed to have a team of volunteers who not only help provide childcare but play the role of elders in both the kids’ and the adults’ lives. A village is not complete without the elder generation bringing wisdom and appreciation that only comes with age and experience. 

The villagers (what we refer to our members and supporters) are the soul of the business and each one colors a part of what we’ve become. From those who joined us before we even opened to those who first walked through the door yesterday, everyone has left an imprint on the Village and we feel so lucky to have the privilege of knowing them all. 

I have the most supportive husband I could imagine. Augustus and I have been together 18 years and he’s my biggest fan and mover of obstacles for my dreams. We’ve learned (the hard way) that the best we can do for one another is trust each other’s visions and hold each other’s hands as we walk towards them. 

Pricing:

• $188/mo for adult space use +12 hours of childcare per month
• $322/mo for adult space use +30 hours of childcare per month
• $544/mo for adult space use +60 hours of childcare per month
• $25 one time Membership Fee

Contact Info:

• Email: hello@familyvillagecoop.com
• Website: www.familyvillagecoop.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/familyvillagecoop/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/familyvillagecooperative

Image Credits
Rebekah Romero
Augustus Piazza