For the past 13 years, I worked in the corporate telecommunications industry. While I’m proud of the career I built, one thing I struggled with year after year was finding a place where I truly felt like I belonged — especially when it came to friendship.

It often felt like the women in my life and I were always in different seasons. One person was getting married, another was traveling and embracing a child-free life, someone else was becoming a mom, focusing on her career, starting over, or stepping into an entirely new chapter. We still cared deeply for one another, but our lives didn’t always line up the way they once had.

Then I entered a new season of my own. I married the love of my life, became a mom to our little girl, and found myself craving community more than ever. I realized how much I missed having a village — and a social circle that felt like mine.

I’ve always been naturally outgoing, and I genuinely love creating, organizing, and bringing women together. For more than six years, I also had the opportunity to lead a women’s employee resource group in my corporate career, creating spaces where women could connect, support one another, and feel seen.

The Guest List grew out of all of those pieces of my life — and the kind of community I had been searching for myself.

I wanted to create the kind of community I had been looking for myself — a place where you can show up alone without feeling awkward, try something new, meet women in different seasons of life, and know there is already a seat waiting for you.

Whether we’re sharing dinner, making wreaths, meeting new friends four minutes at a time, dressing up for a Halloween party, or sitting around a tea table at Friendsgiving, the event itself is only part of it. The real goal is connection.

My hope is that every woman who walks into a Guest List event leaves feeling a little more welcomed, a little more connected, and a little more like she has found her people.