From the Founder, Brian Mazza 9/19
Who’s on your Guest List?
Fashion Week, Fall in NYC, and events are jamming in town! I was out a ton these past couple of days and it reminded me of when I was in my 20’s, and understanding then that there are two sides to every velvet rope in hospitality, but now I understood it in my personal life.
If you’ve ever worked in nightlife, you know the truth:
It’s always better to be the one curating the guest list than the one waiting in line hoping to get on it.
The longest-running, most iconic clubs in NYC don’t survive because they let everyone in.
They thrive because they’re ruthless at the door.
Not out of arrogance, out of intention.
They protect the room.
They protect the energy.
They protect the experience.
And that only works when the product, what happens inside, is so dialed in that it demands that level of protection.
Now zoom out.
Apply that to your own life:
Are you curating your guest list?
Or are you constantly trying to get on someone else’s?
Are you choosing who gets access to your time, energy, attention, and trust?
Or are you hoping someone picks you?
Are you being pursued because of your energy, values, and discipline?
Or are you chasing someone else’s approval, attention, and standards?
Your guest list isn’t just who you hang out with on weekends.
It’s who gets access to your mindset, your calendar, your goals, your emotional energy.
It’s your professional circle. Your personal circle. Your growth circle.
And here’s the thing.
If you don’t protect your door, you’ll eventually become someone else’s filler.
Filling their agenda.
Filling their narrative.
Filling their needs, at the cost of your own.
But when you protect your guest list?
You rise.
Your circle levels up.
And the room you walk into becomes your room. One you designed with intention.
So ask yourself:
Who are you letting in?
Who needs to stay outside the rope?
And most importantly, are you on your own guest list?
Because that’s where it really starts.
