In Person

An inside look at what it takes to leave something you love for the next chapter.In this first solo episode of In Person, Lucy Nelles, co-founder of Coffee & Chill Miami and founder of Community Mastery, takes you through the full story of building one of Miami's biggest wellness communities, why she is stepping away, and what comes next.Lucy moved to Miami five years ago with no friends and no network, and found a social scene built around alcohol. She quit her remote 9-to-5, started hosting alcohol-free Hi Vibe Wellness events, and in 2023 met Eric, the attendee who would become her Coffee & Chill Miami co-founder.She breaks down how they brought Coffee & Chill from an LA backyard to Miami in three weeks, and grew it into 250 people at the first event, to 2,000 guests at an event six months later. She shares how she built the paid sponsor system, and earned equity in the company.She also gets into the core memories: going from an F1 cease and desist to an official Formula 1 partnership, the Miami Dolphins' first-ever sober tailgate inside Hard Rock Stadium, Camp Chill as Art Basel's largest wellness event, and partnerships with some of the biggest brands.Finally, Lucy opens up about the transition, why change is hard even when you're ready, and why she is going all in on Community Mastery to give community builders a home and empower the next 10,000 communities. If you've ever built something you love and had to decide what's next, this one is for you.Connect with Lucy:IG: https://www.instagram.com/lucelianellesIG: https://www.instagram.com/inpersonpodcastApply to work with Lucy and grow your IRL community events business: https://communitybuildingcollective.com/Chapters00:00 — Intro01:07 — Moving to Miami and Starting High Vibe Wellness03:42 — How Coffee and Chill Began06:17 — Launching Coffee and Chill Miami10:15 — Midroll Ad11:27 — Growing to Austin and New York City13:33 — Top Events and Core Memories20:24 — The Community We Built Together21:13 — Why I'm Leaving Coffee and Chill22:12 — What's Next: Community Mastery25:06 — Closing

What does it actually take to leave a successful career and build your dream business from the ground up?In this episode of In Person, Lucy Nelles sits down with Aly Barraza, founder of Wild Thing, one of Miami’s fastest-growing yoga studios, to break down what it really looks like to open a brick-and-mortar wellness business.After a decade-long career in engineering, Aly left her six-figure job to go all in on a vision she couldn’t ignore. She shares the financial reality behind that decision, raising capital, signing a lease, navigating construction and permit delays, and building Wild Thing while betting on herself before there was any guarantee it would work.Lucy and Aly walk through the process from the very beginning: creating the pitch deck, finding investors, negotiating with a landlord, choosing what to spend money on, designing a five-star customer experience, and launching in a saturated Miami fitness market.They also dive into how Wild Thing built hype before opening, attracted nearly 1,000 people to its launch, landed partnerships with brands like Nike and Alo, negotiated its way onto ClassPass, and turned intentional design, hospitality, instructors, and community into a profitable business in its first year.This episode is a practical look at what happens behind the beautiful studio, the packed classes, and the brand partnerships—and what it takes to build an in-person experience people genuinely want to return to.Connect with Lucy:IG: ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/lucelianelles⁠⁠ IG: ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/inpersonpodcast ⁠⁠ Apply to work with Lucy and grow your IRL community events business: ⁠⁠https://www.communitybuildingcollective.com⁠⁠Connect with Aly Barraza:IG: ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/alybyoga⁠⁠ Wild Thing IG: ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/wildthingmiami/ ⁠⁠Web: ⁠⁠https://wildthingyoga.com/⁠

What happens after you achieve the entrepreneurial success you thought would make you happy?In this episode of In Person, Lucy Nelles sits down with Aaron Spivak, co-founder of Founders Club & Hush (sold for $48M), Forbes 30 Under 30, and an entrepreneur who has built three companies—including one to eight figures in just 24 months.After selling Hush at 25, Aaron found himself with something he hadn’t expected: success, money, and no one around him who truly understood the experience. That loneliness eventually led to a series of founder dinners—and ultimately to building Founders Club.Aaron breaks down how those early dinners evolved into an eight-figure community, why he believes community should create an unreasonable amount of value, and the systems Founders Club uses to protect the quality of its members as it scales.Lucy and Aaron dive into membership vs. ticketed events, pricing premium communities, member retention, using data and AI to identify disengagement, designing admissions incentives, attracting more female founders, building a team, and the one metric Aaron believes every community business should track.They also unpack the human side of building businesses and what makes people actually connect in a room. For Aaron, the best communities don’t just gather great people—they intentionally help them make friends, feel seen, and build relationships they’ll remember long after the event is over.Connect with Lucy:IG: https://www.instagram.com/lucelianelles IG: https://www.instagram.com/inpersonpodcast Apply to work with Lucy and grow your IRL community events business: www.communitybuildingcollective.comConnect with Aaron Spivak:IG: https://www.instagram.com/spivak/Web: https://www.foundersclubofficial.com

What does it really take to build a community people want to keep showing up for?In this episode of In Person, Lucy Nelles sits down with Mimi, founder of Mimi Yoga and Pilates, to talk about the journey from discovering yoga during one of the hardest periods of her life to building a thriving wellness brand with three Miami locations and hundreds of teacher training graduates.Mimi shares what pushed her to make the leap from teacher to studio owner, why community—not customers—is at the center of everything she builds, and what she has learned about expanding locations, hiring the right instructors, creating a strong team, and knowing where to invest when opening a physical space.They also get into the business behind boutique fitness: ClassPass, memberships, teacher trainings, brand partnerships, personal branding, handling negative reviews, and why Mimi made the decision to stop filming during classes even when social media exposure could benefit the business.Beyond the strategy, Mimi opens up about grief, vulnerability, motherhood, relationships, therapy, and the philosophy that has shaped both her life and her business: the magic is in showing up.If you're building a studio, hosting experiences, growing a community, or trying to turn something you deeply care about into a real business, this conversation is full of lessons on what it means to lead with conviction while continuing to evolve.Connect with Lucy:IG: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/lucelianelles⁠IG: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/inpersonpodcast⁠Apply to work with Lucy and grow your IRL community events business: https://communitybuildingcollective.com/Connect with Mimi Ghandour:IG: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/mimiyoga_official/?hl=en⁠Web: ⁠https://www.mimiyoga.com