For people who don’t know you, how would you describe who you are and what you do?

I would describe myself as a host, a curator, and an enabler of visions. My North Star is trying to find as many unique collaborations as I can bring together in the same room. I want to try to leave people feeling rejuvenated and grounded. I do a lot of things, from producing to dinners, to art exhibitions, to just generally live experiences, all with the goal of being highly intentional and curative.

How did 3rd Space get to where it is now?

I was fortunate enough to get funding from USC to host dinners for startup founders on campus, and then that project kind of blossomed into a passion of mine where I was like, what if I put a brand on top of this? What about all of these other creatives who are outside of the startup sphere? So think dancers, actors, designers, filmmakers, producers, everyone in that sphere, and bring them together for the same kind of curated experience, but start layering more levels on top. We went from getting food trucks in someone's front yard to sending invites and making it more curated. We went all the way into, well, what happens if we get a reservation at a restaurant and have the chef talk?, What if we go to a professor's house and have an artist make art and talk about it? What if a musician plays or a magician does a show? And you slowly just start to become really good at like the basic. Then, once you know that you can replicate the basics and overcome whatever hurdles come with it, it's silly to not add on more layers that you haven't explored. And then naturally, with each new layer, there's something that you learned because you didn't do it right. And then you do it again better.

As you just mentioned, putting on events is a learning experience and you often don’t do everything right. Can you tell me about a time that something did not work out the way you wanted it to for one of your events?

For all events, I always make a list for myself of the biggest things that could go wrong. I think that if you approach events, or really anything, with the idea that five massive things are gonna go horribly wrong, and you bake that your event planning, instead of freaking out, you’re prepared to figure out a solution.

This past dinner, the one thing that I didn't consider is that the kitchen could stop working. Which literally happened. We served the first course, and the chef was like, “Hey, nothing's boiling. The stoves aren't heating. What do we do?” So I left the building and went door to door to apartments and restaurants asking we could take over their kitchen, and in 15 minutes, we were telling the chef to move all of her stuff to a new kitchen. So obviously it took a lot of time to get that second course out, but we ended up giving the chef like a big round of applause for being adaptive.

Continuing on the topic of challenges - you recently graduated from USC and moved to New York. What challenges have you faced with 3rd Space in NYC that you did not face at USC?

Everything with events is network enabled. Events as an industry is highly, highly not profitable - no matter what you're doing. But it is profitable if you're able to lower your costs, and costs are only lowered through relationships, whether it's through brands coming in to sponsor things, or through venues doing things for free, or chefs doing things for free, whatever it may be. In LA, I had all the relationships I could ever ask for.

Here, I have none, because I've been here for a month. So I'm slowly starting to build back up. Thankfully, I got a venue for half off to do my first event in New York. I got a chef to do something for well below her day rate. But, yeah, it's all just a matter of no longer having the validation of being a student or having a college campus as a shared unifier. I now have to just really be authentic and have people trust that my intentions are where they're supposed to be. Making those asks is definitely hard, especially given that a lot of like these people don't know me, nor do I have a reputation here yet.

To pivot a bit, when we spoke on the phone earlier this week, you mentioned that dozens of connections have come out of 3rd Space, from professional connections to romantic relationships. What’s your favorite 3rd Space meet cute?

One of the artists I was highlighting was like, “Hey, can my sister come?” and I was like… we don't really have a seat, it's really hard to do last minute. But, my answer is always going to be yes. I'm always doing whatever I can to say yes. I talked her on the phone, because I did that with all guests, and there was something that just felt right. And I decided “I'm gonna sit her next to my best friend.”

Everyone still talks about it - it's like, “yeah, we all watched them fall in love.” Literally, in all the disposable photos of that first night, they're like, the most perfect couple. They're also both like, superhumans. She's literally a supermodel. She's the coolest human being ever; so full of joy and love, and he is one of the best animation directors in the world right now. So putting them together as creatives who are both such inspired people with big personalities… of course they hit it off so well. They started dating from that. It fills my heart.

What are the three most important qualities you look for in a 3rd Space guest?

Kindness, curiosity, and mission.

On the opposite side of the same coin, what goes into choosing the specific creatives you highlight?

People who are excellent storytellers and people who are highly confident and can speak in front of a crowd. If I'm going to be platforming someone, I need to know that they're not going to get nervous day of and back out.

What do you hope guests biggest takeaway is after a 3rd Space dinner?

Honestly just like, ‘that was fun!’, ‘I'm glad I spent $100 on that,’ ‘I'm glad that I cancelled other plans,’ ‘I'm glad I took this risk.’

I’ll read a text I got from a guest actually: “Thank you, darling. It was such a warm and wonderful experience. I was honestly so nervous because I have super high anxiety when it comes to meeting new people. But everyone was so lovely and kind. It's truly such an incredible space you're curating at these events. Keep it up.”

The biggest thing is people come in really nervous and I'm able to convince people to just have trust. They’re literally getting an Uber by themselves, arriving by themselves, and walking into a room full of strangers. And everyone's in the exact same boat. And then, for whatever reason, it’s not scary. And then people leaving are telling me ‘I'm glad I did that.’ That's the feeling I want.

Final question - what does community mean to you?

It’s interesting because that word has become so diluted. Like every brand, whether it's like a underwear brand or like, whoever, one of their main pillars is always, ‘community’. I think what I do is just largely reliant on very intentional seating charts and very intentional guest lists. What I do is building products around people, not people around products. Does that make sense? And I think that when you lead by like, ‘how do I take this group of individuals and then give them an experience that's built around them at the core’, then it's like, okay, now you're supporting and naturally creating this sense of shared experience.