This year in 2023, we’re celebrating our 10 year brunch anniversary!
All starting in the summer of 2013 when Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook at the time, released her new book called Lean In. After the release of the book a huge conversation was starting to emerge around women leadership, women empowerment, and breaking the glass ceiling.
At the time, I was living in NYC and was attending a LOT of events. None of them involved a focus on women and each event felt so bland and impersonal. I remember coming home after each event with a purse full of business cards but couldn’t remember much about any of the people I had just met.
It was the good ol’ “there had to be a better way’’ mentality… and so I set out to combine my event planning experience to create a new type of intimate dining experience, centered around women, and thus Women Who Brunch was born… The brunch component of this is based off the fact that if you know New York, you know brunch is a lifestyle here…. plus I love breakfast foods.
Our first event was held August 2013, at Five Point in Manhattan - this restaurant has charged hands and owners several times unfortunately; but for a large sized group it’s still a great venue. We had speakers Megan Nuttall and Monica Lo, on the subject of “Passion Projects”. At the time, they received Google Glasses to beta test and brought the new technology to the brunch for us to check out. We thought we were so cool…
We have a whole list of past speakers and brunch events, what can I say I’m nostalgic for remembering all our events. Some of the most notable have been Deepica Mutyala, who is now the CEO & Founder of LiveTinted. At the time back in 2015, Deepica was working at Birchbox and her life had completely changed when her YouTube video went viral — a beauty tutorial about how to hide under-eye dark circles with red lipstick. She discussed a ton of marketing and content/social media tips - still a crowd favorite topic discussion at our events.
Learning about Blogging and Morning Pages (a daily practice of writing three pages of longhand, stream of consciousness writing), from Molly Ford - we had brunched at The Penrose, which is a great brunch spot. Days of May flowers provided floral arrangements and Michaela has turned out to be such a successful floral designer. It was at this brunch I realized the power of collaboration and supporting small businesses.
Molly’s now the CEO & Founder of Messy.FM and author of Reach Out: The Simple Strategy You Need to Expand Your Network and Increase Your Influence. She’s always a powerhouse of knowledge.
Dr. Sonya Rhodes gave us her new book at the time and got to brunch is her gorgeous Upper West Side. We felt very glamorous that day; like an experience straight out of Sex and the City - compared to my 4th floor Queens walkup.
Emily Merrell, Founder of Six Degree Society, another great events community for women, taught us how to network like a pro. She introduced me to “Asks”; going around the table and asking everyone what is one thing you need help with. I’ve used it ever since at our brunches because we all have a connection out there and could always learn to ask for more help.
Truly all our speakers have had amazing stories and learnings to share. I get so energized by the things I learn or the people I’ve met that have attended our events. That’s the magic behind keeping them intimate and smaller group sizes, it allows you to really talk and engage with someone. Each time there’s a new opportunity to learn something new, meet someone new, or try out a new brunch spot.
Of course, what had came out of the “pandemic” years was the launch of our podcast, Brunch & Learn Podcast, which is a podcast that features interviews with women in food while combining two of my favorite things: learning something new everyday and talking about food. It’s allowed me to share more stories from women all over the country about their entrepreneurial journeys. It certainly kept conversations and hope going when we couldn’t meet in person for brunch.
Now to present day, I’ve since moved outside the city and the path ahead is to continue to bring these event experiences to the Hudson Valley, NY region. And to continue writing and sharing the local scene around the greater NY & Hudson Valley. The challenge and balance I face often is balancing a full time job, toddler, and this community. I recently went to a conference and one of the speakers had said that we really need to fight for community and connect. We need to fight for in-person - whether that be events or making the effort to meet up with friends. It really struck a cord with me. That in a very social media driven world - the value in in-person is priceless. It’s what keeps me going on this brunch life.
I’d love to hear from you if you’ve attended an event of ours in the past and have a memory to share. Or new to the brunch crew, share your favorite local brunch spot.
And if you love food news, updates on event, or new food/CPG products - Join us over on our WWB Newsletter.
Thank you for being here & Cheers to another 10 Years!
