I recently celebrated my 4th anniversary of living in Los Angeles at one of my favorite places–if not my favorite place–in the city. 

I moved to Los Angeles in the midst of the lockdown. I knew 2 people, both of whom moved a month after I got here. I knew I was moving into an LA that looked different than its normal self–all of the entertainment and art that I was coming for was at a standstill. When things began to open up again, one of the first venues to do so was the Hollywood Bowl. 

On Friday, I attended a “Dinner With Strangers”. Exactly as it sounds, I met 9 people who, until that moment, were total strangers. Run by Justin, a very nice guy from Belgium, these events were created because he wanted to find a community in LA. The idea was that we’d get to know each other throughout the night, facilitated by conversation questions Justin had prepared. 

There were only three rules:

1. You can’t sit by anyone you know, if you happened to come with someone you knew. 

2. No phones. 

3. No talking about work. 

That last one got me. While I knew this wasn’t a professional networking event, I had just launched “My Brand Mirror” the day before and I was really excited to share it. However, if I wanted to play by the rules (and I am a good rule follower), that was now off the table.