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

Megan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to start by getting your thoughts on what you are seeing as some the biggest trends emerging in your industry.

In Texas’s elite country clubs, private events are evolving to meet the sophisticated preferences of high-net-worth members. Key trends shaping these exclusive gatherings include:

**Personalized and Inclusive Menus**

Discerning members expect culinary experiences that cater to diverse dietary needs and preferences. Offering vegan, gluten-free, and other specialized options ensures all guests enjoy a tailored dining experience is just the beginning. When curating a multi-course wine dinner these needs add a layer of challenge that both the beverage and culinary teams love to address. Once we have the pallet accounted for then we must also ensure that the room is set with lush florals that are non-fragrant and candles that are scent free. The entire experience is bespoke from menu planning to clearing the table.

**Curated Intimate Moments**

There is a growing emphasis on creating memorable, personalized experiences. This includes orchestrating unique moments like bespoke proposal packages or exclusive art tours, enhancing the exclusivity of events.

From exclusive dining to personalized celebrations, we want to ensure that Member’s personalities are not only showcased but celebrated.

We work to make elevated moments out of every day spaces.

**Family-Centric Programming**

Recognizing the importance of family, clubs are introducing programs and spaces that cater to all ages, fostering a welcoming environment for members’ families. The Youth Department is bustling with everything from Cinderella carriage rides for the Father/Daughter Dance to the Arcade Day.

By embracing these trends, we continue to offer unparalleled experiences that resonate with our discerning membership. But this does not mean that we stop offering long standing traditions like the Family Camp Out.

The three aforementioned trends help us grow a sense of community with our members while also allowing our teams to showcase their unique skill sets.

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?

My name is Megan and I am Director of Catering at a historic Country Club in Texas and I have been teaching yoga for over a decade, and practicing for nearly 30 years.

I like to joke that I have been planning parties since I was seven. It all started with a Strawberry Shortcake themed party where I wrote my first schedule of events. I had timed out how long we would play each game, the food I wanted served, and when the cake cutting should occur. What started as a funny family anecdote has turned into a fabulous career.

I started my hand helping friends as a favor and then finally jumped in to create Soirees by Megan, LLC. This business focused on assisting non-profits with fundraising events, individual client parties, and some weddings. I am proud to have served the Ronald McDonald House, American Cancer Society, and other local non-profits. On some weekends you can still find me bustling a gown or designing a bachelorette party theme but mostly now I am focused on events at my Club.

These Club events range from small curated wine dinners to 1,000 person concerts and everything in between. I appreciate the team environment and the opportunity to dream up new and unique experiences.

My favorite thing is to take an idea and flush it out until it becomes the “wow” moment a child will never forget, a bride will always cherish, or a celebration of someone’s life well lived.

The best part of event planning is we celebrate the entire circle of life.

Conversations about M&A are often focused on multibillion dollar transactions – but M&A can be an important part of a small or medium business owner’s journey. We’d love to hear about your experience with selling businesses.

I still own my event planning LLC but for a while I owned a bricks and mortar yoga studio. It was a passion project. And with passion, does not always come revenue. After a few years it became clear to me that the business was soluble but I was not. I either needed to go back to work full time to support myself and let the studio continue to invest in itself or I needed to sell.

It took months of meditation, talks with smart business owners in other industries, and honest conversations with my financial planner.

I decided to sell my business to a friend. She had capital and I could still work there, as my passion project.

I learned that one should never go into business with a friend. I did not do my due diligence in protecting the corpus of the business and by the time I moved everything over, it was swallowed whole by her existing business. And she refused to make the payments agreed upon. I had no recourse on the payments she agreed to make because I moved everything over before the ink was dry.

I lost everything. A friend. My business. And any hopes of income to pay back initial investors.

Yes, I could have sued her, but as she aptly stated “it would cost more than I had to do so.”

It was one of the most painful experiences of my life.

As a yogi, I know that the universe is always in balance, so while painful it made me a shrewd business woman and encouraged me to look back at my party planning skills. A decade later, I work in a fabulous Club with a great team, and sleep easy knowing that I overcame those challenges.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

I hope my team would agree with this statement, but I make my team my first order of business.

I start every morning asking how they are. Then asking what they have planned for their days. And finally, asking if they need my help.

I share my day and my agenda with them, so if they need me, they know where to find me.

I also trust them to do their jobs. I am here as support but not as a watch dog.

Mistakes happen, we learn from them and we move on.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://everybodyyogawithmegan.com
• Instagram: everybodyyogawithmegan
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/megan-marie-g-5ab5a01/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@EveryBodyYogawithMegan

Image Credits

Chris Bailey Photography
Abante Photography