This is your sign to host something this summer.

WATCH: Five questions to take your gathering from idea to invitation.

Priya Parker
Jun 01, 2026

Dear Group Lifers,

Thank you for joining us for our very first Do Lab!

A few years ago, Exa had just finished recording a small collection of original songs she was nervous to share. Her birthday was coming up in a new city, and she didn't know how to celebrate. So she made a list of everything she might want to do. She circled two things: to share her new songs and to celebrate with the people who made her feel safe. She kept it small — dinner with close friends at the restaurant below her apartment. She made little party favors, printed tiny reflection cards, and played her music while people listened.

She didn’t wait until she had a stage, a venue, or a perfect plan. She started with a need, found the people who belonged in the room, and did the simplest version she could actually pull off.

There are so many reasons people feel stuck and just don’t host: time, money, energy, and the fear of not having an Instagram-worthy setup. But people are hungry for connection. And waiting for the perfect moment to host keeps us lonely and disconnected and isolated.

Two weeks ago, we talked about all these reasons people don’t host and broke down these blockages (you can watch the replay here). And this past Wednesday, we got in the gym and did something about it. We took the half-formed gathering idea you’ve been sitting on and worked it into an invitation you could actually send.

Group Lifers can watch the full replay below. (And if you’re not a Group Lifer, you can sign up here for the cost of a sandwich a month 😉).

Five questions to ask yourself to take your gathering from idea to invitation:

1. What do I actually want more of right now? Most people start with “I should host something” and then get stuck because that’s not actually a reason; it’s pressure. Start with you. What do you genuinely want more of in your life right now? More laughter? More creative energy? More time with people who get you? Host a gathering you would want to attend.

2. Why does this gathering actually matter to me? Most of us skip this step. We know the category of the gathering we want to host — a dinner, a book club, a birthday party — and we let that do the thinking for us. But a category is not a purpose. A dinner is not a reason. When you don’t know why you’re really gathering, you end up replicating a format instead of creating something that actually means something. So keep asking yourself why until you run out of answers. That’s your purpose.