Over the past three months, I’ve been building a women’s community in Nashville. What began as an idea has taken shape through real, in-person experiences: a panel of female founders, a personal branding workshop, and an intimate whiskey mixology class. Each event pushed me well outside my comfort zone, but in doing so revealed more about who I am, my strengths, my blind spots, and where I’m still growing.

I’ve always been deeply curious. Alongside curating and hosting gatherings for women to connect and collaborate, I launched this publication called, In Her Words, as both a creative outlet and a learning vehicle. It highlights not only women founders, but also experts across different fields with differing perspectives. Over the past few months, I’ve spent countless hours interviewing, listening to, and writing about remarkable women. Their insights have been profoundly inspiring and deeply formative for me.

As I continue to build this community, Her Parlour, I also want to build myself in public. My intention is to document the lessons I’m learning along the way from real experiences, honest missteps, and the wisdom of the women I interview.

Here are a few lessons that have stayed with me:

1. I am a terrible public speaker (for now). I can talk endlessly in conversation, but the moment a microphone is in my hand and eyes are on me, I freeze. In my first event, all I managed to say was my name, “Tena Beard.”

2. Hosting events is far more complex than it looks. I’m naturally a big-picture thinker and visionary, not a detail person. Planning these gatherings forced me to slow down, sharpen my execution, and respect the operational side of creation.

3. Everything really does work out. I’m both detail-averse and oddly perfectionistic, especially around performance. Before my first event, my anxiety was so high that one of my partners had to tell me to “chill the f*** out.” I was terrified no one would come. In the end, more than 70 women showed up, and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive.

4. Dream bigger than you think you should. That first event was a turning point for my confidence. I crossed out my original goals and multiplied them by ten. What once felt audacious now feels possible.

Building Her Parlour has already changed me. It has stretched me, humbled me, and made me braver. More importantly, it’s reminded me that growth does not happen in comfort. It happens in risk, uncertainty, and showing up anyway.

This feels like the first chapter, and in the months ahead I’ll keep sharing what I’m learning from the women I talk to, the spaces I build, and the person I’m becoming.