We recently connected with Michelle Nemirovsky & Ashley Ferguson and have shared our conversation below.
Ashley & Michelle, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.
At Pasta Night Club, we’ve taken a unique approach that deviates from traditional relationship enhancement tools commonly seen in the industry. While many focus on conventional counseling, therapy, or challenges meant to be ticked off a list, we incorporate the everyday act of sharing a meal—preferably a cozy bowl of pasta—as a medium for couples to connect and communicate. Our approach is about embedding relationship enrichment into the couple’s lifestyle, making it as fundamental as dinner itself.
This idea stems from a personal tradition between our co-founder Michelle and her husband, which proved to be a powerful way to strengthen their relationship. With life throwing them into house renovations, startup launches, and wedding planning, they realized how easy it was to drift apart amidst the chaos. So, they started a fun tradition: once a month, they’d cook a new pasta dish together and reflect on relationship questions they’d answered throughout the month. It became their way to check in on their relationship—no heavy therapy sessions, just meaningful conversations shared over a comforting meal. This ritual helped them stay connected, gave them a safe space to communicate on a deeper level, and helped them see areas they needed to grow or celebrate.
Their home-cooked tradition inspired our flagship product, the Pasta Night Couples Journal Set. Instead of guiding couples through a predefined series of adventures or tasks, we focus on fostering deep communication through the intimate and universal experience of sharing a meal. Our method, rooted in the simple yet profound tradition of “Pasta Night,” leverages the act of cooking and eating together to encourage meaningful conversations. We view romantic relationships as part of your overall mental health journey; how you feel in your partnership directly impacts your well-being. It’s not just about fixing problems; instead, we’ve given couples a way to create ongoing moments of reflection and connection—making space for growth and joy in everyday life.
This stands in contrast to more prescriptive experiences that can sometimes feel like another item on a busy couple’s to-do list. And while the industry standard of one-size-fits-all relationship advice is great in some aspects, we believe in embracing real couples’ stories. Every relationship is unique, and we offer tools that fit into the flow of real-life—fun, practical, and focused on creating connection, not perfection. We also recognize that one of the hardest things as a couple is finding other couples to connect with. There aren’t a lot of tools or spaces designed to help build those friendships, and that’s where we are stepping in. Our Pasta Night practice has turned into a community movement, with playful branded hats, live events, and our podcast “Love & Pasta,” coming this Fall, where we’ll extend these personal stories and insights on a larger scale to amplify real stories from real couples, emphasizing authenticity and relatability over novelty.
Our community appreciates this genuine take on enhancing relationships, which is evident from the heartfelt feedback we receive. This resonates incredibly well in a market where many seek sustainable and integrated ways to strengthen their connection without feeling overwhelmed by high-concept ideas. Our divergence from the norm has not only defined our brand’s identity but has also shown that sometimes, the best way to tackle a complex issue like relationship health is through simple, everyday actions. We firmly believe that it’s not just the extraordinary moments but also the ordinary ones that forge the strongest bonds.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Entering the world of relationship enrichment was outside of our day-to-day careers but felt like a natural step for us. Already female entrepreneurs in our rights, we bonded over finding each other, socializing as 30-somethings, equally committed to our relationships in the whirlwind of life. This bond turned into a shared vision to enhance couples’ connections because that’s what we wanted, too.
Our journey into this niche began with a personal tradition that Michelle and her husband cherished: hosting a pasta night each month to reconnect and communicate openly about their relationship. Witnessing how regular, meaningful interactions profoundly strengthened their connection, we realized the potential to extend this practice to other couples seeking deeper engagement in their relationships.
Pasta Night Club emerged from this idea, designed to offer more than just products; we provide experiences that integrate naturally into couples’ lives. Our flagship product, the Couples Journal Set, is more than a set of prompts; it’s a gateway to rediscovering one another and fostering intimacy through the simple yet intimate act of sharing a meal. This concept has expanded to include an array of couple-focused merchandise and community-building initiatives like live events and our podcast, “Love & Pasta,” which shares touching and humorous tales from various couples, emphasizing the reality and diversity of modern relationships.
What truly sets us apart is our focus on real-life applicability and community. While others may offer structured relationship aids, we encourage organic, meaningful interactions that don’t feel like tasks. We believe in supporting relationships in a manner that feels more like a part of daily life rather than an additional obligation. Our approach is tailored to fit into the ebb and flow of real life, celebrating the uniqueness of each couple and providing tools that adapt to their needs.
We are immensely proud of how quickly we could bootstrap and launch Pasta Night Club. It hasn’t been easy, but it has cultivated a space where couples can find both resources and community support. We’re committed together to continue creating moments that couples look forward to, fostering both personal growth and a deeper connection. We invite everyone to join us at Pasta Night Club, where we turn everyday moments into chances for couples to connect and grow, ensuring that each step of their relationship journey is supported and celebrated.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
Building our social media presence at Pasta Night Club has definitely been a labor of love. It’s been hard, super time-consuming, and we’ve gone through a lot of trial and error to see what resonates with our audience. From the start, we’ve focused on authentic engagement, sharing real stories of real couples to create a sense of community and connection. As we grew, the demands of maintaining this presence grew as well, leading us to partner with a social media agency to help us manage and scale our efforts.
We’re committed to organic growth and genuine interaction. Paying for followers has never been an option for us—we’d much rather have a smaller number of engaged followers who are genuinely interested in what we offer. We’ve experimented with various content approaches, from inspirational stories and real couple highlights to humorous couple-related content and trending topics. More recently, we’ve started collaborating with unpaid UGC (User Generated Content) creators to bring fresh perspectives and content to our channels.
However, we haven’t seen direct sales returns from social media posts alone, which has led us to support our social efforts with other strategies like SEO-optimized blog posts and media placements. This multi-channel approach helps us reach a broader audience and funnel potential customers from various platforms.
For anyone just starting to build their social media presence, our advice would be to focus on creating authentic content that truly represents your brand and mission. It’s important to be patient and stay consistent. Engage with your audience genuinely, analyze what works and what doesn’t, and don’t be afraid to adjust your strategy as you learn. Remember, building a social media presence is a marathon, not a sprint, and it’s about creating meaningful connections that can eventually contribute to the growth of your community and brand.
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Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
At Pasta Night Club, Brene Brown’s insightful discussions on vulnerability and courage have profoundly shaped our approach to building our brand and community. Her talks, especially her TED Talk on the power of vulnerability, resonated with us deeply as we navigate the complexities of entrepreneurship and relationship building.
Brene teaches that embracing vulnerability can transform the way we live, love, and lead both at home and in our businesses. This philosophy has become a cornerstone of how we interact within our team and with our community. It encouraged us to foster a space where couples feel safe to share their real experiences and challenges, by connecting with each other and other couples, without the façade often seen on social media.
This approach has not only helped us connect more authentically with our audience but also guided our content creation and community engagement strategies. We believe that real strength lies in admitting fears and imperfections, and this belief fuels our mission to support couples through real stories and genuine connections.
Her work has taught us that vulnerability is not about winning or losing; it’s having the courage to show up when you can’t control the outcome. In our journey with Pasta Night Club, adopting this mindset has allowed us to take bold steps forward, whether in launching new products like our Couples Journal Set or initiating conversations that many shy away from.
Brene Brown’s emphasis on vulnerability as a strength has truly transformed our entrepreneurial philosophy, making it integral to how we grow our brand and community.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://pastanightclub.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pastanightclub/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61558568850308
- Other: Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@pastanightclub
Image Credits
Dharmesh Bhakta
His instagram is: https://www.instagram.com/mesh_bhakta/