This is an episode about belonging. What does it mean to belong somewhere, or not to belong? And how do you cultivate a community that makes you think “I’d rather be here than anywhere else?”

Our guest is Tiffany Scott, founder of the Sister Supper Club, a global movement that helps women feel nourished inside and out. Once again we’re pushing the conversation beyond business and exploring this fundamental need for a meaningful life.

In this episode, you’ll hear…

• Linsi’s story of belonging.

• How belonging plays into our hierarchy of needs (psych 101).

• How Sister Supper Club helps modern women connect across the globe through technology, food and creating space for meaningful conversation.

Episode Links:

• Visit sistersuppers.com to find local connections.

• @tiffanyjanescott on Instagram.

• Buy the book Belong on Indiebound.

• Linsi’s Website

• Be Brilliant in Your Business Podcast Website

• Linsi on Instagram

• Schedule a Coaching Consultation

Transcript

Linsi: Hi friends! I am here today with the always inspiring, always make you feel good about yourself and hopeful about the world, Tiffany Scott. Hi Tiffany.

Tiffany: Hello, my gorgeous Linsi.

Linsi: Thank you so much for joining me today, I’m really excited to talk to you about Sister Suppers, the community you have founded. Tell us the overview of Sister Suppers.

Tiffany: Sister Suppers is a community where women open up their homes, and they cook a beautiful meal, and they facilitate roundtable-conscious conversations to deep into sisterhood and how we can transform and change our lives, and ultimately the world.

Linsi: That is so awesome. I love that there is a very intimate home component to this, and also the people, I didn’t really realize that the hosts actually cook the meals. What’s a typical group look like? Or do you have a typical group?

Tiffany: We have structure and format around each meal. Obviously each host brings her own essence to it. Typically, the women come in, they have a beautiful nourishing home cooked meal, we have a topic that we discuss, and then we facilitate a roundtable conversation that follows the format of an ask, share, or witness. So, they come to these Sister Suppers wanting to meet new women, wanting to engage in new friendships, and collaborations, and sometimes finding new clients and things like that. However, they walk away really feeling nourished inside and out because their bellies are beautifully full, but they’ve also connected with women on a much deeper level.

Linsi: I love this, because I mean, for all of our history as humans, food has played a really big part in community, in culture, and how we connect with other people. So, it’s really cool to see that in these very small settings, and specifically to help women engage deeper with one another. I love that because I feel like we’re certainly going through a sister renaissance at this moment in time.

So, you’re really bringing an opportunity for women to, it sounds like primarily meet new people. This isn’t like a small group of friends necessarily gathering, at least not the first time maybe, but really being able to branch out and find new people that you, really deeply, instantly connect with. Which I think is so rare and it’s so…we’re craving that in our lives right now.

Tiffany: Yeah. You’re 100% right. A lot of women find going into, say a big networking event, really intimidating. A lot of women, let’s face it, find other women intimidating. We’ve been doing some great work around sisterhood, and the women rising, and the feminine energy, but there’s still a lot of what I call “sister wounds” that need to be healed, and this is a really great starting place to do that.

Linsi: That’s so beautiful. How often are people hosting? Do you have repeat hosts? Or what is the format for the women out there who want to start getting involved with this?

Tiffany: Yeah. All our hosts are repeat hosts, so they are trained in how to hold circle, and how to be leaders, and how to create community from within their homes. They come in as a host for a minimum of a year, generally they’ll host every month, most will host every month. It just allows them to meet new women as a host, and most of these women love to host. So, they love to cook, they love to open up their home, and they love the swinging door effect of women coming in and women coming out, but most women that come, come back again and again.

Linsi: Yeah. Oh, I can imagine. I mean, that seems like you bond so quickly with people, that you would want to continue that relationship.

Tiffany: Yes, absolutely.

Linsi: So cool. So, you’re talking about hosting and being trained to hold that space, what is an ideal host? I mean, what is a woman really looking for and what is she committing to? I know you said a year, but what does it look like for a host to come in and think, “Yeah, this is a fit for me, this is what I want”?

Tiffany: Most hosts we attract are women that love to host, there’s something about cooking and opening up their homes that they really love, but they love the bonds of sisterhood as well. They’re nurturers, they understand the importance of it, they also love to facilitate and be leaders as well. When I say leaders, it’s not like dictatorship, it’s just opening up in a space, in a circle, for women to feel safe, to feel connected.

They want to be a part of that because they know that this is a movement, that although we’re doing it in homes of 6, to 8, sometimes 12 women, like a small group, that the energy and the effect of that creates a beautiful bubble that bursts out into the world. So, we all get to feel the energy of what it’s like to be connected with our sisters.

Linsi: So cool. I think it’s so beautiful that you’ve been able to build something out to not quite replicate yourself, but you are one of the most inspiring people. As I said, you’re so good at getting people to feel really safe, and to want to share, and to want to make these deep connections. It’s such a cool thing for you to be able to take that out into the world and help other people own that space in their own way as well.

Tiffany: It does feel really good because so many women…again, I was saying before, we’re natural nurturers, we’re natural connectors, that sometimes we forget that, that’s been…I won’t go into all the background of it, but part of being the patriarchy, we’ve disconnected with our feminine side and we acted more on our masculine, but for the most part, we’re coming back to our roots now of why we love to sit in circle, why we’re so good at nurturing, why we’re so good at listening.

To me, that’s something that’s been always easeful for me, and I think for the most part it is for a lot of women, they’ve just forgotten. So, when they come to sit in a women’s home, they remember. It’s like coming home again. They’re literally in someone’s home, but they come home to themselves again.

Linsi: Awesome. That’s so great. Again, it really speaks to that desire that we have right now all across the world, we want ways to connect, and so you’re really creating this opportunity for people to connect. I’m really curious, what do you find right now, there’s a lot going on? What’s most exciting and inspiring to you about this work?

Tiffany: This work inspires me every day in different ways. As an entrepreneur, as you know, sometimes we’re sitting behind the isolation of our computer everyday, right? What I love about this is I get to get out from behind my computer and connect with women in their homes, in my home. I still hold Sister Suppers myself, but it’s the women themselves that inspire me. They just never cease to amaze me.

As Sister Supper hosts, we meet on the first Monday of every month across country through Zoom, exactly like what you and I are doing now, and we have some really deep, beautiful conversations. I just get so inspired by their point of view, their wisdom, their experiences, their journey. Things that we tap into that we have a perspective of, that we feel is our truth, that we get to experience from someone else’s truth, that just gets to open our mind on such a deeper, greater level that you get to see things through the eyes of someone else.

It warms my heart every time that I get to hear another woman speak about what she’s passionate about, or what she’s working on, or even not all the unicorns and rainbows, but what the hard stuff is as well because we find inspiration from each other. I get to do that pretty much every day with the women that I come in contact with, and I want to say men as well because I have a great partner working behind the scenes on this brand and the development of this brand, and he brings the masculine. There’s a man in this as well, and I want to say if a man ever wants to come, he is more than welcome.

Linsi: Yeah. I mean, it’s certainly not an exclusive kind of thing, but it’s really about creating that space for women to really find those connections with one another, and like you said, it’s not all unicorns and rainbows. I think something that is really unique and amazing about this is that you have a great balance, you come as you are. You’re bringing some really beautiful, wonderful things and have conversations around your hopes and dreams, and what’s awesome in your life.

Then you’re also fully supported to talk about the things that are not great, and the place to express when you need extra support. I think it’s lovely that this isn’t specific to business, or a particular kind of hobby, so it’s really an open forum for people to be where they are in their lives. Just be there for the connection and not need to have any sort of tangible outcome from it.

Tiffany: Yeah. You summarized that so well. Women come in feeling like they’re gonna meet some nice women and have a home cooked meal, and they leave feeling seen, being heard, witnessed. It’s just so powerful. It’s not a place of commiserating because women are so strong and we remind each other of that, so they leave feeling so much more powerful, and empowered, and connected to who they truly are.

Linsi: Tiffany, thank you so much for all that you’re doing to get this out into the world, and to really share it, literally across the world. It’s amazing. So, I’m excited for the people in my world to hear about it as well, and to participate. Where can people find Sister Suppers, find out more?

Tiffany: Yeah. They can go to sistersuppers.com or they can come onto Instagram @Sister Suppers, or email me, literally you can email me at Tiffany@sistersuppers.com. I’m available for everyone.