Transcript | 4 : The Art of Hosting a Branded Dinner with Kara Dykert | The Experiential Table Podcast

CYNTHIA SAMANIAN: You're listening to The Experiential Table episode four.

Have you ever dreamed of hosting a beautiful dinner for your brand? Picture your brand's biggest fans and target customers seated around a table engaging with you and your team. They're enjoying abundant platters of food scattered down a long, endless table.

Well, if this sounds like your brand's dream event, then you're in luck because today's guest on the podcast is the one and only Kara Dykert. Kara is the ultimate modern hostess, a true celebrator of bringing people together. She's mastered the intersection of food, community and design through her dinner parties, workshops and retreats, a variety of brands including Bare Snacks, Sorel and Darling Magazine have clearly caught on as they've hired her to do what she does best set the table and facilitate connection.

In this episode, Kara and I talk about her approach to using food as a medium for bringing people together. If you're thinking about hosting a special dinner or workshop for your brand, you won't want to miss this episode. We're digging deep into the power of food and how it can connect us all.

But before we dive in, I'd like to share a special discount from our friends at Peerspace. This is so very appropriate for this episode since most of the dinners we've hosted have been at venues found on Peerspace. If you haven't heard of them, think of Peerspace as the Airbnb for event spaces. You can find the perfect venue for your event, whether it's for an intimate 12 person dinner or a celebration for 200.

Thanks to Peerspace, I'm able to offer you a special promo code! Get 10% off your first booking up to $50 total. Head on over to hiddenrhythm.com/peerspace to save on your next booking. Note that this only applies to first time users, so if you haven't checked out Peerspace now's the time.

Now let's dig in with the amazing Kara Dykert. Alright, well, I am so excited to have you on the show. Kara, you are, in my opinion, the ultimate hostess. You've mastered the intersection of delicious food, really amazing community and of course, beautiful design through your dinner parties. So if you could share a bit more about what you do for those who haven't heard of you, I don't know where they have been, but they need to know who you are and I'd love for you to share a bit more about what you're about.

KARA DYKERT: So I guess I am that; I am a hostess. That is at the heart of everything I do. My career is a funny mix of a lot of tangents that accidentally kind of turned into this. My back story is that I moved to Los Angeles from Chicago in 2013 with no money and no plan. My best friend drove me across the country and she said, if money doesn't matter, what would you do for a living? I said, "have people over for dinner."

It's really interesting in hindsight; the having people over part is really what mattered to me. And then the dinner, you know, the actual creating the food and the ambiance around the food was just the vehicle to having people over. Because at the heart of it, I love human connection and I think that's what we're all really hungry for, both literally and figuratively.

We're just hungry for connection. I guess what I do is I create connective experiences. A lot of that is dinner parties. A lot of that is retreats. I'll curate retreats for brands and then on my own, on my own end, I'm working on a branch of retreats. And, I've done a lot of other types of experiences as well. So anything from like a brunch party to a cocktail party to birthday parties, you know, anything that is about bringing people together around this vehicle of food, that's essentially my career.

CYNTHIA: You just gave me serious, serious goosebumps because it sounds like food is your medium, that your ultimate goal is enabling this connection, which it sounds like you feel might be missing these days. What are your thoughts on that?

KARA: Yeah, absolutely. You know, I think there's so many ways we could go with this. I'm the middle of five children and I grew up every single night around the dinner table, having dinner, sitting in a circle, looking at my family in the eye and engaging in conversation around the table. When I moved to LA, that was a practice that was really missing in my life. This like slowing down every evening, looking at people, being present. And fast forward where we are now. Culturally, I think we're in this time where we're all running really hard and we're chasing our dreams and we're doing what we love. And we are constantly engaged in other people's lives via social media. And we're aware of all these things that are happening at all times. And I don't know, I think there's something about slowing down that actually creates connection and it's a really, really hard thing to do. But I think it's, it's the thing that all of us long for the most, like at the end of the day, what we want is to feel seen, to feel known, to feel heard and to feel loved. Right? And that comes through authentic connection and food just happens to be this one way that I've taken and and played with and been like, Oh we can create connection around this. Everybody has to eat. So if I make you a meal, you have to sit down across the table from me and have a conversation. Right?

CYNTHIA: Yeah. Yeah. I love that. I mean my own background, it's pretty similar and I think a lot about that family dinner table. I mean that's when my mom and dad would find out how I was feeling at school or if I was getting bullied. All of those really serious conversations actually happened at the dinner table when I was picking at my food and they were like, what's wrong Cynthia? Like, your not being yourself. And I think even as adults we need that and it certainly is missing and kind of our go, go, go fast paced modern times.

KARA: Yeah, absolutely.

CYNTHIA: So let's back up a bit. You end up in LA after being a Midwestern gal from Chicago, right? You show up and your friend challenges you to pursue this idea of hosting dinners. How did it actually happen? Where did you start from there?

KARA: Yeah, I like to say that my life is like a series of, of random miracles because truthfully, like in hindsight, ignorance is bliss, right? Like I didn't know and I just did what I needed to do. So I went to grad school in Chicago and halfway through grad school started a wedding planning company with a friend. We were doing these weddings, we were working on other types of events. So I had an event planning background and knew how to put together something. I also at that time was always hosting dinners for fun in Chicago. So I would have friends over for all of the holidays or any kind of big weekend. We would just have big dinner parties. And this is a little bit further into my backstory, but I've always loved cooking. It's always been quite therapeutic for me. I'm not a trained chef, but when I was 13 we had a little bit of a family drama and I found myself in the kitchen all the time, just like baking things to kind of calm myself down. Cooking and being in the kitchen became this form of therapy.

So when I drove across the country with Michelle, my best friend and she said, what are you doing if money doesn't matter? And I said, have people over for dinner. We kind of took this, however long that road trip was, 36 hour road trip to brainstorm the ethos of that. Like, why would I want to do that? How would I do that? And you know, all those nooks and crannies. And so when I got to LA, I literally, it was so funny, I was there in my second night, I was at this happy hour with a group of friends and there was this guy who was quite connected in the film industry and he said, what are you doing in LA?

And I just said to him, I'm starting a dinner party company. And he was like, cool, what is that? And this is where LA, you know, is the land of dreamers because if you have a dream or you have some kind of idea, it's a very positive culture. And everybody's like, that's amazing. Do it. So I told this guy, I said, I'm starting a dinner party company. And he said, great, I want to hire you for this 12 person event that I'm doing. And he took a risk on me and hired me to do this dinner party and, and then somebody hired me to do their birthday party. And then word of mouth, somebody hired me to do an anniversary party. And then this celebrity who was a friend of a friend hired me to do something.

And so kind of organically people saw that I was in this food space creating these small intimate events. And then, again a miracle. I moved into this loft in downtown, before downtown was like super cool. I was sitting on the floor with another girlfriend and we were drinking whiskey on a yoga mat or something. I was like, wouldn't it be fun if we had strangers over for whiskey? She was like, yeah, let's have strangers over. And I was like, I could cook them dinner. And we kind of came up with this idea. I was like, let's call it Whiskey Wednesdays. So I launched, I think on Instagram, maybe, I launched a dinner series called Whiskey Wednesdays on some random Wednesday in, I think it was October of 2013. This series called Whiskey Wednesdays was a dinner series where 16 to 20 strangers would come over, they would, you know, cocktail hour for the first half hour. We'd have out really beautiful cheese boards or toast or something fun.

And then at 7:30, we'd sit down for a family style dinner. I'd bring out platters of food, we would fill our plates and then I would ask a table question. It would be anything. Sometimes depending on the group it would be really intense and sometimes it would just be fricking hilarious. My favorite was there was this one group where we asked what's the worst date that you've ever been on? And the stories were just, they were incredible. They were so funny. So yeah, this was happening every other week for about two years I did it. And what I found during that time, and I'm sure you can imagine this because you are versed in experience and in connection, what I found is that people walked away from those experiences being like, I've never done anything like that before. I've never had a dinner party like that before. And they walked away with new best friends or new business partners or a new date to go on. You know, there was such a fun birth of relationship that happened when people just organically came together. And that's what I really love.

CYNTHIA: Tell me, how do you help foster this connection? It sounds beautiful and I can close my eyes and picture this experience. But I know what it's like as well on the tactical side and people show up and their phones are their crutch. So, how do you think about making it easier for people to connect and detach from the outside world for that three hour period?

KARA: Yeah. You know, I found that it really, and this might sound cliche, but it starts with me. I need to feel connected to myself first. Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day and breakfast for me is this time when I’m so intentional with myself. Like I'm intentional in checking in in the morning and slowing down and being like, how am I feeling today? What is my emotional status today? And, and being present enough with myself so that when I interact with people around me, I'm able to facilitate connection in the same way. Because the truth is like everything starts with our internal emotional world, right? Like if we're healthy emotionally, it overflows into everything else that we do. So I think on a more theoretical level, this idea of creating connection starts with me.

And then on a practical level, there is this, you know, I don't, I think all of my life I thought this was like uh everybody had the same kind of gift around this. But I think there is something unique about being able to read emotional temperature. So I can walk into a room and I can know like, oh my gosh, Cynthia is feeling really like shy right now. And Heidi over there is feeling like really insecure. Like I have this gauge for human emotion in a room. And I think that that's pretty important when it comes down to hosting. And I'm not saying you can't, you can't host if you don't have that. But, the more you host, the more you throw parties, the more you are creating experiences, the more aware of people you become. And so for me, what's really important when I, when I'm creating an experience or I'm hosting a dinner is, is kind of tuning into that.

And if I notice somebody alone in the corner on their phone, I'll be like, Oh my gosh, you should meet so and so. You guys both have this in common and I'll make an introduction, especially if I have other friends in the room who I can trust to kind of curate and facilitate that conversation as well. So, you know, at these Whiskey Wednesdays that I was doing, I would always have one or two girlfriends there who are really good at conversation because I knew that if I got distracted in the kitchen and had to bring out a platter of food, I could trust Courtney to make somebody feel really known if they were kind of, you know, the awkward bug in the group or whatever. So I think that's part of it is this emotional temperature thing reading a room. And then there's just some, there's some practical things like be willing to be uncomfortable.

Sometimes conversation is, it can be a little awkward. And being willing to feel a little insecure and a little like, is this, is this awkward? It okay because the likelihood is that the person on the other end of that conversation is feeling the same way. You know? And sometimes I think it's worth acknowledging like, Ooh, this is a little weird, I've never met you. But you know, like this is so strange and just putting that out there and that diffuses it. You know, it's like naming the elephant in the room, it just gets diffused.

CYNTHIA: Right. I really liked your example about that one question. So it's one question that everyone goes around and answers?

KARA: Yep. So what I would do is I would let people mingle for like the first 30 minutes. And it's funny, I'm actually launching in July a new dinner series in LA called Connect Dinners, which are simply like dinners for people to connect. It's all women. And these ones are focused specific on female entrepreneurs in LA, which is super fun. But it's the same concept of the first 30 minutes. You just like get comfortable. You get in your skin, you get a drink if you need some liquid courage and you, you know, you try to make a new friend in this group of strangers. And then I would have everybody sit down and on a practical level I would, you know, give the overflow of the night. So here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna have a family style dinner, we're going to fill our plates with a bunch of food. And then I'm gonna ask a table question and we're all gonna go around and answer it.

Because I think that's part of it too, is people, when they're walking into an experience or looking for someone to guide them through what's going to happen. And you see this in the retreat setting a lot too. People want to know what they're getting into. So I lay out the format of the night and then I get food on the table and then I ask whatever question it is.

Sometimes, you know, depending on my friend that's in the crowd, I'll be like, Hey Courtney, you start the question and pass the ball left or right. And then she would again pass the ball left or right or sometimes we would popcorn it. But I think as much as there is the same kind of format that I do over and over, every once in awhile you do have to like insert yourself and kind of like liven up if you will like the group. So sometimes I would be like, okay, everybody needs to go around and say their name, answer the question. And this sounds, this sounds like so simple and so silly, but let's say you went first and you're like, hi, I'm Cynthia. I would be like, hi Cynthia. And then everyone else at the table would be like, hi Cynthia. And it's this simple trick, but everybody all of a sudden is engaging with you and it loosens you up a little bit to kind of engage with the crowd, answer the question, and it just makes it a little bit lighter.

CYNTHIA: And just saying people's names, looking people in the eye. That's all powerful. Twice you have mentioned family style as kind of your format. I come from the dinner party world as well. I love creating experiences around food and in fact our events are always family style. So I have a hypothesis around why, why that works for us. But I'd love to hear from you.

KARA: Wait I want to know your hypothesis. That's so fun.

CYNTHIA: Well, in my opinion. I think it's just the act of passing food around and it's the act of giving and receiving. That to me just makes it more connected. And while there is a place for a beautifully plated entree, our events have never been about that. It's been more about the connection side. Yeah. My guess is you've thought about it as well.

KARA: Yeah, absolutely. No, I love that. I think in my entire career of food, I've only done one plated dinner, one plated dinner party and I didn't like it.

CYNTHIA: There's probably a reason why you only did it once. Right?

KARA: Exactly. Yeah. I think the family style, you're so right, there is something magical about passing and sharing the, the reciprocal giving, receiving. Um, I think visually I really love like a beautiful platter of food. And then on a practical level, it's also really great for people to be able to choose what they want and to take as much as they want or as little as they want. It creates like less guilt for somebody if they don't like a certain dish or if they really love something to be able to have more. So there's a freedom for the guest and there also is this communal experience. And I joke at every table, I'm like, you guys, if you want something that's at the other end of the table, get aggressive and ask for it, you know? So there's also this engagement of needing to ask for what you want. So if the bread and butter is at the other end of the table, you get to be like, Hey, will you pass that to me? And it creates a kind of like a round table circle experience where it just involves everybody, which I love

CYNTHIA: That by the way is my nightmare. Having the bread and butter the other end of the table.

KARA: I'm with you. I was the little girl and probably still in that girl who my parents had me clear the table, that was my chore, and they had to remove the butter before I would clear the table because they would find me eating it plain like with a spoon.

CYNTHIA: Oh how funny life can be. It's come full circle. Now you're just spreading butter.

KARA: Just creating plates of butter.

CYNTHIA: Okay, so these dinner parties, you're not catering, you're really creating this holistic experience that facilitates connection and brands have caught onto this. Right? Retail brands, lifestyle brands, beauty, food. They definitely have I think jumped on the pop-up dinner,I don't want to call it a bandwagon or trend, but there's definitely a movement. And I think brands are understanding the power of building a presence offline and now they're coming to you. So tell me more about how you started working with brands and we'll dive into that a bit.

KARA: I think what you’re tapping into and you're so spot on is that brands that are smart are looking to create connective experiences for their consumers because we are bombarded with visuals all the time of what's available. And I was actually having this really interesting conversation with my friend Emily yesterday and she has a stationery line and she was talking to me about buying patterns and essentially what came out of the conversation that a lot of retailers are realizing is that Generation Z is buying less product and wanting more experience. So they're spending their money on retreats, on travel, on things that are giving them some kind of emotional give back as opposed to just something that they can hold in their hand. I'm watching a lot of brands right now be really strategic with almost generating a community around their product and I think that's what we all want. At the end of the day, we want to be part of something greater, part of something bigger.

And so yeah, I think you're right. There's a lot of brands being really smart and engaging their consumers offline in these very connective experiences. A lot of them being dinner parties because it is something fun and experiential to do and throw and it doesn't take the bandwidth of renting a house for a month and doing this elaborate convention or whatever it might be. It can just be this one time experience or, or a series. And I think two, with some of my favorite brands that I've worked with, they really are including these conversational pieces that might not be directly related to the brand but still are pulling in the brand ethos in some, in some way.

CYNTHIA: Do you have any examples of brands that either you've worked with or you've seen do a really good job of this?

KARA: Yeah, you know, I just did a dinner party for Sorel. They're the the shoe company.

CYNTHIA: Yes, I saw that!

KARA: It was so fun. So that was an interesting one because my dinner for them was the end of an entire experience they had put together in Palm Springs. And so they had brought out, gosh, I think it was like 16 stylists from LA and kind of had given them this whole, it wasn't a weekend, but it was like a three day experience in Palm Springs. And the culmination of that was a dinner party that we did and they gave me free reign to take over the dinner to do a table question. And we did a table question. And again, it wasn't related to shoes, it was related to something totally different. But within this brand ethos of connection and experience. And at the end of the dinner, one of the stylists pulled me aside and she was like, you know, I've, I've worked with this group of women on and off in LA for years. And she's like, I've never sat down with any of them and had that kind of conversation. We're always talking business. We're always talking work. And it was so refreshing to actually interact with them on a human level, which I thought was really cool feedback to think, you know, we're surrounded by people all the time and I love good business conversation. I really do. I, I love talking about like what we do and why we do it, but to have a conversation that's more holistic and taps into who we are beyond just our work I think almost creates the work bond stronger. So that was, that was a really fun one. And again, I think with Sorel, you know, that group of women walked away now having a more connective experience with each other and every time they think about that connective experience Sorel is going to be in their mind because Sorel is the one that facilitated it. And so I think that's really cool and almost a good example of a brand being willing to tap into this emotional world of people.

CYNTHIA: Absolutely. It's rarely about the brand's product. It's usually never, right? The best experiences are about their values and their story and making it relevant to the people who are there. And it sounds like you were able to do that.

Kind of going back to this idea of offline experiences in a digital world, as you think about these branded events, right? Like we both are in this space and there's of course pressure for brands to really get the impressions on social media. And I know for you and I, we actually love the experience and don't focus solely on that, right? That's an output for us. So how do you think about social media when you work with brands and they want something that's designed to, to meet those goals?

KARA: Yeah, that's such a good question. And it's such a complicated one for me because for me, I probably, with most of us, I have such a love hate with social media. I think it can be like the most amazing tool ever and it can be such a fun and creative space to share and to connect. And yet I'm just nervous about what it's doing to us culturally and what it's doing to us emotionally. I'm a little worried about it all the time. So I, you know, I, I think when a brand approaches me and the entire intention is social, like social feedback and social posting and social whatnot, that's probably not my event. If a brand is really, really curious about creating a connective experience for a group of people and social happens to be a leg of that then I'm like, great, let's do that. But if it's the focus that concerns me because it really does take away.

Here's a good example, and I won't use brand names because it's probably inappropriate. I did a retreat for a brand and the entire intention was social and that meant that we had to have a certain amount of photos, a certain amount of posts per person, a certain amount of hashtags and whatnot. The thing is the girls that were there, it felt like they weren't even there because they were always concerned about, oh my gosh, am I doing my posting in time? Did I do enough stories? Do I do enough posts? Is this photo pretty enough? I'm going to go spend an hour editing these photos and instead of actually being present with one another, they were so distracted with what they had to put out on social. And here we are in this like gorgeous location, having this epic trip planned and I felt like none of them were truly enjoying it because they were so busy on their phones.

And then fast forward I did the same kind of retreat with a different brand and they wanted social, but they were very flexible from the attendees on the timing of the posting. So they were like, we have two photographers there, we'll get a bunch of content and feel free to post after the fact. It doesn't have to be in time. So that was really neat because what I felt like happened on that experience was that girls were able to be present. Some of them were on their phones, you know, some were taking stories and whatever. But in the actual workshops and dinners and things like that, they put their phones away and they were present. I don't want to throw out social. I think it's an incredibly impactful part of brand relations, but I also think that there's a way to engage socially that doesn't detract from the actual moment when you're in it.

CYNTHIA: Yep, absolutely. And that's really good advice for brands who might be listening to this. That balance is important. And it sounds like you've discovered in your work that if the guests actually connect with each other, it will be associated with the brand that brought them there.

KARA: Absolutely, absolutely.

CYNTHIA: As if you don't have enough going on. I see that you are traveling the country, you're in Atlanta, you're in Chicago teaching cheeseboard styling workshops.

KARA: I know, so funny. Right?

CYNTHIA: It's incredible and I think it's brilliant just given the fact that, you know, anytime a cheeseboard comes out, people just start drooling and it's aspirational, but you bring it to a very accessible level. What inspired you to start teaching people how to make beautiful boards?

KARA: You know, I, I tell my friend Lindsay all the time, whenever we're reflecting on our lives, she's like, what are you doing in the world? What do you want to do? And I said, I want to create beauty and I want to get people free. And she's like, great. So I say that a lot. Like that's one of my taglines is I want to create beauty and get people free. And I think that the cheeseboard styling workshop was birthed out of that. Um, I think beautiful food really matters. I think beauty in general matters. I think it, it shifts the way we think about something. When we see something beautiful, it forces us to pause and it forces us to slow down and it forces us to savor and celebrate and be in the moment. So I think beauty really matters. And with cheese boards, that's why people, when they're on social and they see a cheese board, they're like, ah, cause it's beautiful. It's so beautiful. And um, I, you know, for so many parties I was doing cheeseboards and people were like, how do you do that? It's like art. And for me, I was like, you can do it. Anybody can do it. And they were like, I have no idea how. And for me I was like, well let me show you.

So I have a friend up in Sacramento who she runs an entrepreneurship group and she was doing a workshop and she was like, do you want to come up and teach people how to make cheese boards? And I was like, absolutely. So I went up in December and got such good feedback and I think for me when I'm teaching, it's kind of the best of all worlds because I'm getting to do something tactile with my hands and create and I'm getting to teach and kind of engage with women around me and I get to facilitate a connective experience because I'm always like break out into groups of three and you know, tell everyone the best part of your day. So I'm getting to do a version of the table question. So the cheeseboard styling thing started in December and then I just kind of threw it out there and I have some friends that own a restaurant in Carmel so I did two there. And then I did one in Chicago. And I did one in Atlanta and I've done a couple in LA. We're doing one in Orange County in two weeks. What it is, it's one of those experiences that you can grab a girlfriend and go to. You can have an educational experience and learn how to do something new and you get to have a connective experience because the likelihood is that you're going to walk away meeting somebody new and you know, having some kind of conversation.

And for me it's funny, my cheese boards, they're pretty, they're beautiful but they are so low budget, like pretty simple. I use all the cheating tricks. You know, I buy the pre shelled pomegranate seeds, the pre-chopped everything and I do the dips from Trader Joe's. So I love teaching these tips where you don't have to slave in the kitchen for hours to create something beautiful. You can take really amazing products that are pre-made and assemble them in a really beautiful way and create a wow experience for guests. So that's the hope with the cheeseboard styling workshop is to give people a sense of freedom in the kitchen. That it doesn't have to be that hard.

CYNTHIA: Yeah. And it, it seems like with this, what you're doing with the cheeseboard styling workshops, you're really empowering people. Whereas I think a lot of food focused events feel aspirational and you know, it's a cooking class and you're making something you'll never be able to recreate at home.

KARA: Yeah. I want to give people permission, you know, I want you to give them permission to, to make some messes and to have it not be perfect. And even like on a theoretical level to be themselves. Like there's such freedom when we're around someone who feels like they're fully themselves because we feel empowered to be ourselves. So sometimes I'm making these cheeseboards and I'm super messy, but that's okay because that's me and I like being resourceful. So I like empowering people into that permission slip. You know, like, here's the permission slip to do it your way.

CYNTHIA: Sounds like you have more down the pipeline and I am curious to see how it grows. How have you thought about tweaking it and changing it?

KARA: Yeah, so right now the format of the workshop is that I'm just teaching, like people are just watching me do it and I think we learn so much by being tactile. So I would love to create some way of people being able to do it. Whether it's they do their own mini board or they as a team create a cheeseboard because right now the format is that they're just watching me and they're seeing these tips and these tools and little tricks. But to be able to do it I think could be really interesting. Again, that takes a little bit more of a production because you've got to get more boards and more food and more whatever. But I'm actually, I'm teaching a cooking class to eight women up in Ojai next weekend and we're doing cheese boards as a part of it. So it'll be a test case for me to test out what it looks like for them to each build their own little mini board. But yeah, I think that would be a definite way to improve it.

CYNTHIA: I love it. So this is a question that I'm asking everyone who I interview and I've told you earlier, you're only our second interview, so the answers are infinite. What is the single most important element for an incredible experience?

KARA: Oh, that is a great question. I think the single most important element is connection. Like are you creating a connective experience? And again, that word, it's a little bit of a buzz word. We're throwing it around a lot, but I think if you can create an experience where someone walks away and they feel more connected to themselves, to the people around them, and then to the world, you've nailed it. Like I said in the beginning, people are starving to feel known. They're looking for anything, you know, that's why people are binging on social media or whatever it is. They're looking for this experience of like, I want to feel, I want to feel connected, so I'm going to go with that. That's the single most important element.

CYNTHIA: That's a fantastic answer. And I think definitely wraps up everything you've shared. I have to say it's kind of funny as we talk about sharing on social and connection and even the word sharing, these words are all used right now and to describe technology, but it's like bringing it back to its roots. Earlier you had mentioned, oh, it's all about social, but you and I know we're talking about social media. Social isn't social anymore. It's the opposite. So it's just, it's kind of weird to catch ourselves saying these things and realizing like connection isn't about being digitally connected. You know, it's interesting how that's shifting as technology becomes more prevalent.

KARA: Oh, you're so right. It's so true.

CYNTHIA: Well, thank you so much, Kara.

KARA: You're welcome. Let's just talk for hours and hours.

CYNTHIA: I know, it was such a fun conversation. I feel like we could go on and on. Before we end, I would love for you to share where people can find you if they want to see these boards, dinner parties, sign up for a workshop.

KARA: Absolutely. So my website is just ByKaraElise.com and my Instagram is @bykaraelise and my YouTube channel is just youtube.com/karaelise, no "by".

CYNTHIA: Awesome. Well thanks again for an amazing interview and can't wait to see what you do next.

KARA: You're so welcome. So good chatting with you.

CYNTHIA: And that's it for today's episode! I hope you enjoyed this interview with Kara as much as I did. I have to say I really appreciate her refreshing perspective when it comes to events, especially dinner parties and gatherings. Often times we get caught up in the logistics, what should we eat and what should the decor look like? But Kara reminds us that while those things matter, it really is about connection. I hope that you were able to draw some insights to apply to your next event, whether it's a small gathering with your target customers, your biggest fans, or maybe just at home in your personal life.

If you'd like to check out some of the resources mentioned in this podcast, be sure to head over to the show notes and we'll have them linked there. Also, don't forget if you haven't yet already joined, we have an awesome community of people over in our Facebook private group. It's called The Experiential Table, same as this podcast. There you'll find people from all over the food and wellness world who are interested in creating meaningful experiences. So hop on in, join the group and let's keep the conversation going. If you're enjoying this podcast, be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. We'd also love your ratings and reviews as it really helps to share with more people who can find this podcast. Until next week, get excited to get experiential...talk soon!