Bri Norberg started Women of Sacramento in 2016 because every networking event she walked into felt stuffy, cliquey, and transactional. So she created what she was craving. Her first brunch had 80 women. Three years later, 400, and that’s the night she launched her membership. In this episode, Bri gets real about a decade of in-person community: why her events never made money (until this year), why she’s never raised prices on existing members, and how she kept showing up through the hardest season of her life. Plus, what she found when she dug into her feedback forms to figure out why members were canceling, and how that answer became Powered by Women’s new app. 167 people signed up in the room the day she launched it.

In this episode

• Why Bri started with a big brunch instead of small monthly meetups
• Going from 80 women to 400, and launching her membership in that room
• What her feedback forms revealed about why members cancel (they only felt the value when they walked in the door)
• Building a “floor of value” so members feel it between events: referral circles, an ask board, and eventually an app
• Why she asks “is this a wise community decision?” before a business one
• How her community gave her an unfair advantage when she launched her coaching business ($100K in seven months, all local clients)
• What she learned from going nonprofit, leading a board, and converting back
• Pitching from stage for the first time

Links:

Website: https://poweredbywomen.com/

To download the app: https://poweredbywomen.com/app

Powered by Women IG: https://www.instagram.com/poweredbywomenco/

Bri's IG: https://www.instagram.com/itsmebrinorberg/

Website: www.inbalclaudio.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/inbalclaudio
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/inbalclaudio

Magic of Hosting Workshop: https://calendly.com/inbalclaudio/events-workshop

The IRL Effect Course: https://xoxoinbi.circle.so/checkout/the-irl-effect - Use code MAGIC10

If you're hosting events, you need contracts that actually protect you. Venue agreements, vendor terms, speaker agreements, attendee waivers. Contractista has a whole collection built for events, written by a lawyer, ready to use.

40% off the event collection with code MAGIC
contractista.com/collections/events

A man once asked an event host to go get him a fork. She was in a full ball
gown, holding a microphone, about to walk out and run the whole thing. That's
one of eight stories in this episode.

Inbal and Haley Westfall asked the internet for event host horror stories and
got an indoor tornado inside a convention center, an influencer who locked
herself in a bedroom for an entire paid trip, a giveaway winner who dislocated
her kneecap mid-celebration, and a retreat attendee who came out of an ice
plunge with no memory of getting in.

Recorded in bed, in another country, mildly unhinged. Underneath the chaos: why
your liability waivers matter more than your aesthetic, how to hold a room
together while it's falling apart, and why you need other hosts in your corner.

Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Takeaways

• Why liability waivers matter more at a breathwork-and-ice-plunge retreat than almost anywhere else
• How to run a room and manage a crisis at the same time, when you’re the only one who can do both
• The vague phrase on your registration page that causes most attendee disappointment
• Why “I don’t have a co-founder, but I have my quad pod” is a business strategy, not a consolation prize
• What to do when a vendor confirms and then backs out two weeks before
• What attendees never see when they look at your ticket price and do the math
• The one ask you should never make of a host who’s about to take the stage

Website: www.inbalclaudio.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/inbalclaudio
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/inbalclaudio

Magic of Hosting Workshop: https://calendly.com/inbalclaudio/events-workshop

The IRL Effect Course: https://xoxoinbi.circle.so/checkout/the-irl-effect - Use code MAGIC10

Thinking about hosting a dinner for founders in your community? Alisha Kumar, founder of Good Time Media and The Founder's Table, shares exactly how she hosts curated mastermind dinners for women founders in cities across North America. We get into how she structures the night, why every table is capped at 20 women, how she went from $125 to $475 tickets, and what one dinner really costs to host (hint: way more than you think). She also shares why she stopped partnering, how she decides when to cancel a city, and where The Founder's Table is headed in 2027: money talk, exits, and building wealth together.

In this episode

• How Alisha filled her very first event with a line out the door, through influencers
• The structure of a Founder's Table dinner, from arrival to hot seats to dessert
• Why your ticket price decides who shows up
• The minimum number of seats she needs before a dinner makes sense
• How she seats guests so friends don't sit together
• Why she greets every single guest by name at the door
• What to do after the dinner so the connections keep going

About the guest

Alisha Kumar is the founder of Good Time Media, a marketing agency helping brands scale through paid acquisition, retention strategy, and full-funnel marketing infrastructure. She also created The Founder's Table, a curated mastermind dinner experience and network for women founders building serious companies and long-term wealth through trusted relationships.

Connect with Alisha

• Alisha's Instagram
• Good Time Media
• The Founder's Table

Website: www.inbalclaudio.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/inbalclaudio
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/inbalclaudio

Magic of Hosting Workshop: https://calendly.com/inbalclaudio/events-workshop

The IRL Effect Course: https://xoxoinbi.circle.so/checkout/the-irl-effect - Use code MAGIC10

“Friendship first, business second” is how I run everything. But what happens when the bill is due or prices go up? A listener asked how I handle those conversations when my clients see me as a friend, and my answer might surprise you.

In this quick solo episode, I break down the two kinds of friendship in my business: friendship as my strategy for meeting people, and the friendship that actually makes a community work (spoiler: it’s not with me). Plus why my real friends are always the first to buy, share, pay on time, and tell me the truth.

In this episode:

• Why I walk into every room looking for a friend, not a client
• The honest truth about being “friends” with every member (mom of three, remember?)
• Where the real secret weapon lives in a community
• Why real friendship makes money conversations easier, not harder

Website: www.inbalclaudio.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/inbalclaudio
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/inbalclaudio

Magic of Hosting Workshop: https://calendly.com/inbalclaudio/events-workshop

The IRL Effect Course: https://xoxoinbi.circle.so/checkout/the-irl-effect - Use code MAGIC10

My business bestie Haley Westfall is in the room, and we are spilling all of it. The voice notes we usually keep to ourselves are finally on the airwaves, including the part nobody posts about: the stress before the magic.

Haley got rescue-flighted into entrepreneurship after losing her corporate job twice, built Collab Culture with her lifelong best friend (45 plus signups in the first 72 hours), and then launched The Table on top of it. But the story that will stick with you is year one of her live event. She was unhinged-confident she'd sell 250 tickets. She sold 70. She cried most of February, went upside down on money, and then found out that the very thing she was most scared of was actually her superpower. We get into pricing, raising your rates without flinching, inviting the boys to the table, stripping an event back to bare bones, and why your feet are not in concrete.

What you'll take away

• Why Haley and her best friend "selfishly" built a community for themselves, and how that became the whole business
• The real pricing journey: $45 and $55 memberships to a $89 signature tier and a $189 CEO Round Table, and how surveying her people drove every change
• What happened when the math ain't mathing three weeks out from her first live event, and how she talked herself (and 70 guests) through it
• Why smaller rooms keep winning, and how nobody ever mentions the balloons or the decor
• How she made year two work with a venue sponsorship and a bare-bones build, and what's changing for year three

Find Haley

• Instagram: @thehaleywestfall
• Free resource: the Connection Compass, her personally vetted, application-based database of must-attend events and must-join communities
• The Table Experience Live returns for year three in February 2027

This episode is brought to you by Contractista

If you're hosting events, you need contracts that actually protect you. Venue agreements, vendor terms, speaker agreements, attendee waivers. Contractista has a whole collection built for events, written by a lawyer, ready to use.

40% off the event collection with code MAGIC
contractista.com/collections/events

Website: www.inbalclaudio.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/inbalclaudio
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/inbalclaudio

Magic of Hosting Workshop: https://calendly.com/inbalclaudio/events-workshop

The IRL Effect Course: https://xoxoinbi.circle.so/checkout/the-irl-effect - Use code MAGIC10

Mari Milenkovic has taken founders to Sicily and Lake Como, hosted 500 person events, and run meetups in four cities. She also scouted Catalina for a day trip, took one look, and walked away.

In this episode she breaks down the actual formula she uses to build an experience, and it works the same whether she has six days in Italy or seven hours in Orange. We get into the three part structure she designs around, the care package she mails before anyone gets on a plane, why seven days is one day too long, and the real numbers on whether a retreat makes money.

If you have ever thought about hosting a retreat, a day trip, or even a dinner, this one is a playbook.

What we cover

• The formula behind every experience she builds: an activity you do with your hands, a visit to something a founder built, and a meal to tie it together
• Why she thinks about an experience in three parts, and why the last moment matters more than the first
• Everything that happens before a guest arrives, from the mailed care package to the snacks already in the room
• How she filled her very first retreat, and who those women actually were
• Why she moved from Sicily to Lake Como, and how travel logistics changed the sale
• The honest answer on retreat profitability, including the one that broke even
• Why she scouted Catalina and said no, and the one thing about a location that makes it an instant pass
• How she finds a local collaborator in every city and borrows their excitement

About Mari

Mari Milenkovic is a serial entrepreneur, exited founder, and marketing strategist who has helped thousands of female founders grow their businesses through strategies that align with their vision and directly impact their bottom line. As the founder of With Mari, she specializes in creating momentum through clarity, building systems and strategies that support intentional, aligned growth.

She hosts an annual retreat in Lake Como and runs founder field trips across Southern California.

Find Mari

• Instagram: @withmari.co (she loves a voice memo)
• Website: marimilenkovic.com
• Next Lake Como retreat: May 21 to 26, 2027. Get yourself to Milan, she takes care of the rest.

This episode is brought to you by Contractista

If you're hosting events, you need contracts that actually protect you. Venue agreements, vendor terms, speaker agreements, attendee waivers. Contractista has a whole collection built for events, written by a lawyer, ready to use.

40% off the event collection with code MAGIC
contractista.com/collections/events

Website: www.inbalclaudio.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/inbalclaudio
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/inbalclaudio

Magic of Hosting Workshop: https://calendly.com/inbalclaudio/events-workshop

The IRL Effect Course: https://xoxoinbi.circle.so/checkout/the-irl-effect - Use code MAGIC10

I had 4,000 women in an online community. When I opened a paid tier, almost nobody joined. Then I got 20 women in a room, and that room turned into a membership, a coworking space, a retreat, this podcast, an annual summit, and my best friends.

This is the follow-through on what I promised you at the end of episode one: hosting in-person events is the best business decision you will ever make. It all comes down to two things, trust and staying top of mind. You'll hear how one event a month became a membership, how the women who kept the conversation going in the parking lot led me to open The Clubhouse OC, where referrals actually come from, and why friendship first, business second isn't a cute tagline. It's the business model.

Then I give you your homework. You do not need a bigger audience. You need a room.

IN THIS EPISODE

• Why 20 women in a room did what 4,000 online couldn't: online you're asking strangers to care, but in the room they already showed up
• An event is not the end goal, it's the front door: one monthly event became a weekly event, and the weekly event became a membership
• Why members stay: people don't stay for your content, they stay for one another, and nobody cancels on their friends
• Where referrals really come from: being in their inbox every week, in person with them, and in their corner
• Your homework: pick a date in the next 30 days and invite six women, one at a time

Website: www.inbalclaudio.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/inbalclaudio
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/inbalclaudio

Magic of Hosting Workshop: https://calendly.com/inbalclaudio/events-workshop

The IRL Effect Course: https://xoxoinbi.circle.so/checkout/the-irl-effect - Use code MAGIC10