“America’s Next Top Model” winner India Gants on why WeWork All Access is perfect for her on-the-go lifestyle
The ways we work have fundamentally changed. Virtual meetings and remote offices have become workplace norms. How are people maintaining work-life balance when there’s no separation between home and the office? How are they staying focused while juggling concerns about health and safety? In The New World of Work, people share stories about how they’re navigating—and thriving in—their professional lives, using tools like WeWork All Access and WeWork On Demand in the new normal.
India Gants wanted to film a video of her gliding down a pretend runway in a gorgeous new outfit. Her apartment in West L.A. was too small to give the TikTok clip the gravitas she was looking for, so she decided to pack up her heels and head to WeWork Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles in the wee hours. As a WeWork All Access member, Gants can visit any one of hundreds of WeWork locations all around the world.
Driving in the dark, she arrived at 6:30 a.m. on a Sunday morning when she knew barely anyone would be in the space. She had the place all to herself, set up her camera, and strutted her stuff.
“That video ended up getting over 8 million views and 1.5 million likes [on TikTok],” Gants explained. “And it was all possible because of WeWork.”
Views and likes matter for Gants, a model and influencer whose bread and butter comes from cultivating her audience on platforms such as TikTok and Instagram. It’s a competitive industry. The influencer economy has boomed in the past few years, becoming a
multibillion-dollar business that is only expected to keep
growing.
Gants, who won the 23rd cycle of America’s Next Top Model in 2017, is carving out a niche with videos that go behind the scenes of what it’s really like to be a model. She talks about everything from cultivating a look to her health and wellness routines.
But finding space to shoot videos is never easy during a pandemic. On another day, Gants filmed an audition for Columbia, the outdoor apparel brand. She didn’t know much about it, but she knew the audition called for a strong, bold woman in a gold dress.
“So I brought my most glamorous gown, a pair of heels, and filmed the audition right inside WeWork,” Gants said.
Like so many of us these days, Gants wears many hats. She has multiple jobs across various industries. She’s a social media content creator, a model, and an aspiring commercial actress. And with all of Gants’ jobs comes a work schedule that is far from traditional.
“I am in and out of WeWork constantly, in the mornings, the evenings, and even on weekends,” Gants said. “I walk in the door planning to edit a YouTube video and wind up doing a hundred different things, from taking phone calls in the soundproof phone booths, to scheduling meetings in the conference rooms, to printing documents in the printing hub. WeWork has me covered for every aspect of
my work.”
As a digital content creator, it can be hard to separate work and life, especially when filming your life is part of your work. Various workspaces in WeWork locations provide Gants both creative inspiration and the quiet she needs.
“It’s so refreshing to have the common spaces that are lively and bright and motivating but still be able to escape to total silence in a WeWork phone booth,” she said.
Gants hopes to make the leap from digital content creator to commercial actress, a dream that has her crisscrossing the Los Angeles metropolitan area on a regular basis, taking meetings and working with casting directors.
“My castings and auditions take me all over the city. With my WeWork All Access membership, I can just pop into whatever WeWork is close by, wherever my life takes me—be it Santa Monica, Burbank, or anywhere in between,” she says. Gants just pulls up her map app, searches for ‘WeWork,’ and finds one just a short drive (or walk) away.
“It’s so perfect for my on-the-go lifestyle,” she said.
But beyond the ease of finding a convenient location to get everything done, there is just something about the WeWork spaces that helps Gants maintain her productivity and tap into her creativity. She feels more inspired there than working from a random coffee shop like so many of her peers do.
“There is something in the air at WeWork that makes me work harder and faster. Whether that stems from the inspiring, bright workspaces or the unlimited cold brew coffee, I just don’t know,” Gants said.
What keeps her coming back time and time again, though, are the amenities. She uses the printing hub, the soundproof phone booths, and the meeting rooms on a regular basis.
“Having my membership has saved me time, money, and my sanity. The great thing about WeWork and changing my environment on a regular basis is that I can ‘turn on’ and ‘turn off’ work. While I’m there, I’m working, and the moment I leave, I turn off my work brain completely. This office space and change of scenery has helped me have a much better work-life balance,” she said.
Jo Piazza is an award-winning journalist, bestselling author, digital strategist, and podcast host.
