Connecting People & Ideas with Sprocket's Community Coordinator Tiffany Boynton

In this episode, we sit down with Tiffany, Sprocket’s new Community Coordinator, to explore her journey from the fast-paced hustle of New York to the collaborative, innovation-driven community at Sprocket. Tiffany shares how finding Sprocket transformed her view of Paducah and gave her the community she’d been searching for, and now, she’s all about creating that same welcoming, supportive space for others.

We’ll dive into what it’s like to be at the heart of Sprocket’s community, how Tiffany brings her hospitality background to foster real connections, and why having a space that feels like home is critical for entrepreneurs and creatives alike. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a remote worker, or just someone looking to feel part of something bigger, this episode will leave you inspired to take action and find your place at Sprocket.

Grab a cup of coffee, get comfortable, and join us for a conversation about building community, one smile at a time.

Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the Sprocket Podcast! If you’re ready to dive into the world of startups and innovation, visit us online at Sprocket WKY to learn more about our mission and how we support entrepreneurs like you.

Ready to check out the space? Book a tour with Tiffany, our Community Coordinator!

Got a business idea? Apply for a mentorship session with one of our experienced mentors!

Stay connected and join our growing community on Instagram for the latest updates, inspiration, and behind-the-scenes looks at what’s happening at Sprocket.

Let’s turn your ideas into reality—together!

Sprocket is proud to be supported by Team Kentucky, the Commonwealth's Cabinet for Economic Development. Learn more about their initiatives and resources at ced.ky.gov.

Transcript

Kaylan: 0:47

Tiffany. I'm so glad you're here. We're making this happen. Me too. This is something I've been looking forward to. Yeah introduce us to yourself, which is a big ask, but what led you here to Sprocket? What led me here to Sprocket? Ooh, we lived here in Paducah before in 2020. I worked at the hub in Tillman. I didn't know how to find community, so I didn't have one. Yeah. I have, my partner's family and they're a rock for me and they're great. But I need more people who are my age around me. So when we moved away for an opportunity in New York, we came back and he started doing Sprocket Logic doing marketing and social media and that's how I first stepped into the space. It's working with him and just stepping into the space is an, Oh, moment like, Oh, I didn't know this was here. Yeah. It's like Narnia. You walk in through the small door and it's very big and you just wide eyed looking at all the opportunities and possibilities and all the people. So as soon as I saw all the people, I was like, okay, this is it. This is good. This is good for me. And then you just start meshing into everything. It's. It's almost inevitable, unless you're trying specifically not to mesh. Which we don't really, we don't really have non meshers here none that I've met yet. So introduce us to what you do here at Sprocket. So if you don't know me, I work front desk. Sprocket. com I'll be answering the phone, taking the door when people need letting in, helping people with day passes and punch passes and overall maintenance of the space, essentially. I'm trying my best to make it welcoming and comfortable and inviting. At the same time, you truly craft a sense of community I am creating the community that I want to be. To see in the world, if you will doing for others, what I want to be done for me, essentially sounds a little selfish, but sometimes you need a little selfish motivator to get things done. Yeah. And creating the community that you want to see in the world that is really impactful. Tell me more about what that looks like. What is the community that you want to see in the world? I'm already seeing it here at Sprocket. It's really base level components. People, smiling faces just people inviting me with their kindness. I haven't really met anyone that I haven't been able to have a nice, cheery chit chat with which is just at the core of what I need. I just need to be able to connect. My, my background, professionally, is hospitality. So I think I'm able to bring that pop to this community which is very fun. It's really great. And it's not the high paced, like super fast paced environment that New York is. Don't get me wrong. That was a lot of fun. That was great two years. But I'm tired. Yeah. I bet that hospitality in New York looks a lot different than hospitality in Western Kentucky. I wasn't allowed to say y'all. What? Yeah. Yeah. They really wanted you to. Yeah. Thank you, sir. Thank you, madam. And sometimes it's not as clear cut as that. So I really like to get down to my roots and say y'all to everyone. Yeah. You can say y'all here. It's the tiny things, all y'all. I love it. All y'all's use. Use guys bring in a little annoy there. I'm so happy for you that you get to say y'all. No, it was really hard for me. New York was so hard guys. What was it about Sprocket that made you want to be a part of this community? I almost want to counter what wasn't it about Sprocket, you meet Monica and you just are already inspired. And this was such an opportunity for me to learn new things. That really got me going. I love to learn new things, work with my hands, just get new experience. And overall, I like to master things. I mastered the hospitality, I've mastered coffee, I just want to learn an office environment. But this doesn't, it's hard to say office environment, because this just feels so much more than that. Office environment feels very dry, and yeah, it's robotic and it doesn't seem, you don't think Oh, I'm going to the office today. Like I'm so excited now, but I think it's a sprocket day. I know who I'm going to see and I'm looking forward to that. And maybe I see someone I'm not expecting and that's cherry on top of the Sunday. What is it about those new connections that you enjoy? It's almost like a new person is a fresh slate And a new opportunity to connect, so I really enjoy, I enjoy small talk. It's a core, it's like a tank top or underwear. It's so basic that I feel like people take it for granted, but I love to ask, Who are you? Where are you from? What do you, how do you fill your time? Because everyone's different, everyone has different perspectives on things. So I like to not just take my opinion and run with it. I really want to know what other people are thinking. Maybe I'm a little nosy. I don't know. But I just really in college I studied anthropology. So I really love. I didn't know that. Yeah. I really love to know what people are doing, why people are doing that, what, culture they came from that influenced that kind of thing. And I find a lot of that in Western Kentucky, surprisingly. Just saying Western Kentucky, you don't think like a melting pot, but We're getting a lot of different people here, a lot of people from all over the place. It's really interesting. They asked me, Oh, how did you wind up in Western Kentucky? And I'm like, no, how did you wind up in Western Kentucky? Because it's very unique. It's very fun. Yeah, I can imagine that everyone's stories of how they got here is so different. And it's probably a peek into their personality and their life story. That's interesting. That's an interesting way of looking at it. I did not know that you studied anthropology. Briefly. Oh, I can see. how that kind of lends itself to hospitality, because you're bringing that curiosity of people and their stories. Yeah, and I think just I don't know, I don't want to be like, Hey, I'm so nice. I'm so kind, but I'd like to be friendly. I think it is. It's much more worth my energy to be in a good mood and influence others to be in a good mood than to be mopey and angry and just like, why me all day? I don't find a point in that. I think that speaks to your core values. Yes. I think I say that my prime directive is to be helpful in life. So it doesn't really matter what I'm doing as long as I like, I could just be putting my finger on the bow while you tie it. I'd like to put my finger there. This isn't how I've always been, but especially being in the Chicago space, it's helped mold me to be the person I am today. Very cool. What do you love the most about the members here that you serve? I don't want to sound corny, but their smiles. I do love just a smiling face at me and Since I'm right there when you first walk in the hallway, it's just, it's pretty routine. Walk in, turn, smile at me. And I love that. It's I don't know, sometimes you just need someone to smile at you. Not that I'm sitting at my desk like, ugh, but, I could already be smiling and someone would smile at me and I'll just smile bigger, I like the infectiousness of being around people, just in general, I really like to be connecting with humans, meeting them, helping them. Is there something special about Sprocket itself that kind of sets it apart as a community? Just the fact that it is existing. A, if not us, then who kind of thing. Not to say that there aren't, can, This one is just unique in its striving for innovation and entreprenuership, which, like I said, is just a whole new thing to me. But if someone who's completely green to the situation can come into Sprocket and start really picking up business know how, anyone can do it, really. So I think that just it's almost like you come to the space and you absorb by osmosis. You just start, you can't help but pick up things here. Someone's always giving you a tidbit or a tip or a trick or just friendly advice. Yeah, I would agree with that. And I think you don't have to be an entrepreneur to feel like an entrepreneur here. I think it's like a total mindset and it's that growth mindset. It's the generosity with ideas like you mentioned, the willingness and like that risk taking nature to innovate. All of that kind of coalesces here, and the friendliness that you nurture here. No shortness of friendliness. No shortness. Or let me just say. We got it on tap next to the coffee. Coffee, cucumber water, friendliness. Friendliness. Double shot. Why is building a strong community like that so important especially in a co working space? I think, and it goes back to how, when we first started. When we moved here in 2020 and I didn't have community, it, we ended up moving away. We still had a house here and family, but we left for a couple of years to find new opportunities because I didn't know that there were any in Paducah. So when we came back and found community in Sprocket, it just blew my mind. And it was just so important for me because if I came back and did another two years of not meeting or knowing anyone I probably would move away again. So Sprocket really is helping show me the value of this town. It's really connecting me to people I wouldn't have been connected to previously. And those people are invaluable in my life now. I would count you as one of those people. It's just it's so important for me to immerse myself in this community or else I'm not going to bring any value myself. So it's showing me the value in the town and showing me the value in myself. So I think you can't get more special than that. And I, like you, I spent some time in a larger city. We were in Nashville. It was during the pandemic, so it was more of a ghost town, but you spent time in New York and then you came back here to Western Kentucky. For me, it was like, I wasn't seen in Nashville. Nobody was seen in Nashville while I was there. Cause it was during the pandemic, but we did get to experience some of that hustle and bustle. And it was so hard, even though that you're immersed in a sea of people. People are so hard to be seen and make friends. And then coming here into Sprocket, it's just night and day. It's natural. Did you have that same experience? Yes. I would say that, being in New York is magical. The hustle and bustle is unlike anything that you'd ever experienced, but after two years straight of it, grinding harder than I've ever ground before, no pun intended since it was coffee. Oh, funny. Pun entirely intended. It was great. It was something that I think people should experience at least once in their lifetime in general. But, it, I got burnt out. I didn't do it properly, I suppose you'd say. I didn't have good boundaries between work and life. I was just running myself into the ground. And plus it's very expensive. Yeah. It was so expensive that once we needed to repair something at our house. That was still here. We said, let's not renew our lease. Let's go take care of the house that we love so much. And it was just a bonus that everything fell right into place as we came back. So I, I consider myself very lucky for that to have shaken out the way it did. Walk us through a day in the life of the community coordinator and what you do here at Sprocket. My day starts at a beautiful 545 a. m. Yes, it is. No thanks. That's just my first alarm. I like to snooze it until about 6 45. But it starts nice and early, which I really enjoy, but it's not too early. It's just a perfect waking up time. Come in. I get the coffee started for y'all. I set up the space as nice as I can to just feel comfortable. And then, emails and reports. It's any given day is very unique from the day prior because you never know when someone's going to come in and want a tour or email. membership or just have questions in general about things that I may have never dealt with before. So it's a learning opportunity for both of us at the same time. A lot of member connection, a lot of running around, honestly, but it's that fun running around where you're busy the whole time and then suddenly, Oh, the day's over. It really fills my time even though sometimes I come in and I, like today, I came in, I got everything done. I was like, okay, new opportunity for me to find something else to do. Or you just check in with your coworkers. Cowork with them, help them do something. Again, I'm coming back to the helping thing. So I find that if I am not already leading something myself, I like to fall in line behind someone who's doing something else. And of course, there are moments to connect with members. It's like in the kitchen area, just chit chatting about how their day is going, really helping giving them a moment to not be in work mode is something I really like to do. I'm trying to dance the line of, am I distracting you or am I pleasantly, entertaining you? So I'm still learning that because with my background in coffee and hospitality, people just are there to chit chat. You're almost like a bartender as a barista. They're like telling you everything. And I'm like, I'm doing everything I can just be like, yes, I love that. Additionally, just having actual conversations, not just frantic, like hellos. Lots of yes. And here, a lot of yes. And let me tell you, for those who Sprocket or a coworking space, tell us about what they can expect here. What does Sprocket offer? If I'm working for myself as an entrepreneur. I know the boss. And I know what I can get away with. And if I'm the boss, I'm not going to yell at myself for not getting things done. I'll just be bummed. But that doesn't get you anywhere. That doesn't, non productivity is, the antithesis of entrepreneurship. So this is a great place to just head down, grind out some work, but then have the opportunity to take a few steps to the right, breathe, connect with people, and then get right back into it. That's awesome. So I think it's a wonderful place for getting things done. And then, additionally, if you are getting things done but you don't know what's the next step to take, this is the place for you. Doesn't matter if you are about to It doesn't matter if you just have the idea for a product. It doesn't matter if you have an idea for a software system. There's probably something you don't know or someone you could connect with here at Sprocket that will take you further than you ever imagined. What doesn't Sprocket have to offer? Honestly. If someone is thinking about touring or joining Sprocket, what would you say to them? First I would say, yay. Yay! Because giving a tour is one of my favorite things. Gets me up and walking around and looking at the space that I really enjoy, and just saying all the things that I love about the space, to inform you of what's going on. If you were interested in taking a tour with me, you could go to the Sprocket Paducah website, scroll down at the contact us, and I have a Calendly link. But if you wanted a tour, that is something you could do anytime, morning, afternoon, evening, that I'm here and we have coffee, we have tea, we have snacks, not to brag, but we have amenities that you can take advantage of while we're touring and who doesn't want to walk around, look at a beautiful space, eating some Cheez Its? Yeah, Cheez Its. Velveeta crackers. Cheez Its are like one of the most popular things here. I have to restock that a lot. Oh, yeah. But I am also eating half of the Cheez Its. Dang, someone's eating all these Cheez Its every day. I have to go to Sam's Club and order more Cheez Its. Who is this Cheez It person? I will say this job introduced me to pickup at Sam's Club. Just pulling your car into the spot and they bring it to you and put it in your trunk. I was like, oh, actually, this is lovely. Luxury. And luxury was my whole thing in New York, so I was like, I know what luxury means to me. And it's this. It's Sam's pickup. Literally. And the girl who brought it was so nice to me. She was so sweet for the 30 seconds we were interacting, so that's something I look forward to doing here. The real question is, do they bring out the samples? Now that would be just too much bliss, maybe. Ultimate luxury. To drive through the samples. Yes. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Nothing for me. Thank you. You dip it. Well, Tiffany, thank you so much for taking some time outta your day to chat with us and tell us all about your role in this, the Sprocket community. Of course. Thank you for having me. Thanks.