We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Chaselle Miranda a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Chaselle thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Talk to us about building your team? What was it like? What were some of the key challenges and what was your process like?

Starting out, it was just me, and I definitely would not recommend that path to everyone.

At the time, I didn’t know any better, and I actually thought I was being financially responsible by trying to do everything myself. Instead of hiring experts, I was out here learning every single skill required to run the business. Which meant designing websites, build landing pages, setting up automations, managing email marketing, taking photos, editing video, and still hosting events, nurturing my community, and actually running the brand.

In reality, only a small percentage of those tasks are actually exciting to me. My strengths are bringing people together, creating experiences, and building community, not building websites, troubleshooting automations, or becoming a photographer or videographer.

When you try to learn everything from scratch, you end up spending months just trying to become competent at a skill that someone else has already mastered. And after three months, you’re still a beginner (and your work reflects that). You end up with something that functions, sure, but it’s patch-worked together and took way longer than it should have.

I remember being on a call telling my coach, “I never want to log into Zapier again. It makes me want to cry.” He responded that I needed to start thinking about: “Who, not how.” Instead of asking how I could do everything myself, I needed to ask who could do it better so I could get my time (and tears) back.

There are people whose entire careers are built around designing beautiful websites, building sophisticated automations, or managing marketing systems. They can accomplish in hours what might take me weeks, and the final product will be significantly better. Once I embraced that idea, I felt like I could finally sprint.

Now I focus on bringing together talented people who love what they do. They create polished, professional work, and I get to spend my time doing what I actually love doing: building community and creating experiences. The result is better for everyone involved: the work looks better, the systems run smoother, and I’m no longer wasting months trying to master skills that aren’t my calling.

If I were starting today, I would build my team sooner and save myself the headache of mediocrity in fields I’m not even passionate about. Had I implemented this way of thinking sooner, it would have saved me an incredible amount of time, energy, and unnecessary frustration.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I didn’t start in the event industry, I started by bringing my friend groups together. Through these gatherings, I noticed that my friends were connecting with each other and appreciating meeting more people in the city. It made me realize there are not many opportunities for people to connect at the level they actually want to through in-person meetups.

So I started curating community events, not only for my friend group, but for all of Duval, so people could experience that same level of connection.

What this really solves is what is becoming a loneliness epidemic in the world. We are more connected than ever through platforms like social media and the internet, but paradoxically more disconnected because we’re lacking in-person interaction and real-life connection. People simply aren’t getting out and meeting each other the way they used to.

Hosting events helps solve that problem.

The events started off small, like dinners, and have now grown into 300+ person community events, which I could not be more grateful for. We now host recurring events that bring together hundreds of people each month.

As the events started growing, I began receiving a lot of inquiries from people who wanted to do something similar within their own networks and communities. They wanted to bring people together the same way, and I absolutely loved those conversations.

So I began coaching and teaching others a structure for how to put together and market their own events so they can bring people together outside of the online space and back into real life. Through Chaselle Gazelle, I now teach event strategy to community builders who want to create those same kinds of experiences.

I’m most proud that through doing what I love, I’ve been able to inspire others to follow their passion, follow their creativity, and be bold and brave and daring enough to put themselves out there in a vulnerable position and take on the responsibility of leadership through hosting. It looks glamorous from the outside, but it takes a lot of work internally and a ton of self-awareness to be able to show up for others on such a large scale and at that capacity.

I want people to know that Chaselle Gazelle is here to help guide you through that process. If you’re wanting to step into the event space and take on this incredibly important role within society, within your community, within your neighborhood, you can look to Jacksonville Bestie and see what has been accomplished in such a short period of time.

And truly, all credit goes to the community. It goes to the people who were willing to get out of the house and show up. Those who were willing to attend an event alone and put themselves in that vulnerable position to meet others. Everyone who is brave enough to change their patterns and habits from just connecting online to returning to the way we used to gather and meet, in person.

It’s like being a kid again.

It makes me incredibly proud to see my clients bringing communities together around the things they love like fitness, music, thrifting, art, food whatever really speaks to them. They’re now able to gather people with similar interests and connect face-to-face again.

We’re talking to each other again. You can reach out, grab someone’s hand, and give them a hug.
That is what brings me the most joy.

Because there was a period of time where it felt like we were losing that.

So this is bigger than just a day party or a meetup. On the surface it might look like a fun event, but on a deeper level it’s about connection, healing, and community. It helps people navigate mental health challenges and emotional hurdles that many of us have experienced in recent years.

From the outside it can look like “just a party,” but something much deeper is happening. People are building friendships and finding belonging by reconnecting with the people around them.

What sets this apart is consistency. These aren’t one-off events, they’re recurring spaces where people build real relationships over time. If you want to experience it, you can join us at a Jacksonville Bestie event or follow along online.

You’ll see that this community shows up month after month to be around their crew, their neighbors, and the people who eventually become their besties.

And it’s needed now more than ever.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

It sounds kind of backwards, but hosting in-person events has been the driving factor in building my online community.

How is this so?

Gathering people in person and bringing them offline has helped my online community skyrocket. It seems a little backwards, but people appreciate the fact that I’m getting them offline and together in real life, so they make sure to stay connected with me online.

By staying connected with me online, it keeps them on top of all the opportunities to meet with people in person.

To give you an example, if I was simply making content about the restaurants I visited and talking about the food and the experience, or if I was just sharing things happening around the city and giving people information, but wasn’t providing that physical, in-person touchpoint, my online community would not be growing at the speed that it is now.

So it does seem a little counterintuitive that pulling people offline to meet in person has actually been the biggest driving factor behind the growth of my online community.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Jacksonville Bestie actually started as a resource, a guide, a liaison, if you will, for the city to keep its current residents and visitors up to date with all of the happenings in Duval County.

And that was going swimmingly because people needed a connection point.

So at this time, I was still hosting my own friend group events, and I was promoting other people’s events as well. And it clicked for me one day… why wasn’t I promoting my own events?

I was having so much success promoting other people’s businesses and their events that I realized I should allow my events to live on a larger scale too.

So I dialed it in, and Jacksonville Bestie began focusing solely on its own events.

What seemed like a narrowing down of the business actually caused an explosion in reach. Instead of being scattered across different topics, it became all about Jacksonville Bestie and all about the community.

People really gravitated toward that more solidified brand feel.

So what started as a whim, a risk I wasn’t sure would work, ended up becoming a massive turning point. At the time it felt like I was cutting off a lot of what had contributed to Jacksonville Bestie’s growth up to that point. But in reality, it became the catalyst for massive expansion.

It was a little scary at the time, but I’m so grateful that I was willing to take a chance on myself and my business and follow my intuition.

Now on the other side of it, I can see how cohesive the brand is, how clearly the mission of Jacksonville Bestie is communicated to the community, and I truly love what we’re all building together.

Contact Info:

• Website: ChaselleGazelle.com | JacksonvilleBestie.com
• Instagram: @ChaselleGazelle | @JacksonvilleBestie
• Facebook: Chaselle Gazelle The Event Authority | Jacksonville Bestie
• Linkedin: Chaselle Miranda | Jacksonville Bestie
• Twitter: @JaxBestie
• Youtube: Chaselle Gazelle | Jacksonville Bestie
• Other: TikTok: @ChaselleGazelle | @JacksonvilleBestie

Image Credits

Tim Graves ii Photography
https://timgravesiiphotography.pic-time.com/portfolio