Fullest Table serves up a feast of vulnerable conversations among Kamloops women

A Kamloops supper club series for women held its most recent events late last month, with its speakers talking about women’s relationships to money.

The events were the fifth in a series hosted by Fullest Table, a project launched in 2023 — born out of a need in connection, specifically between women in the community — explains founder Kayla Brazier.

“The intention behind Fullest Table is to bring the women in our community together to connect on a deeper level,” she says.

Each dinner has a different theme, offering expert speakers on the topic as well as chances for participants to reflect, discuss and build community.

“Fullest Table was born, honestly, from my own loneliness and wanting to find a tribe,” Brazier says. 

She grew up in Kamloops before moving away for six years. But when she returned to her hometown, she found it had changed.

“I really didn’t feel like I had somewhere where I felt supported, lifted up, inspired,” she recalls, “and I was looking for women who could fill that role for me.”

She explains that she wanted to set what she calls a big table around which women can have “big conversations” — and meet more people in their community. 

She organized the first dinner speaker event, titled “Women and Self Worth,” in late 2023. Since then there have been four other editions — on themes ranging from “Women Talking About Death Over Dinner,” to “Women and Desire.”

Despite such wide — and, for some women, vulnerable — kinds of topics she’s picked so far, finding speakers has not been hard at all.

Brazier says she chooses the topics of each dinner based on conversations she was having within the community. 

The speakers for the events have not been at all hard to find, according to Brazier.

“This community is so full of incredible women who are doing incredible things and have so much wisdom to give,” she says.

Over time, she says, people suggest new topics to talk about. For the most recent event, Stacey Owen and Tianda Ford suggested she focus on “Women and Money.” Both of them ended up being speakers at the event. 

Ford is a financial broker and literacy advocate who works in Kamloops, helping people invest and manage their finances.

Building power and confidence

A local entrepreneur, Owen describes herself on Instagram as a “business and money mindset coach.” 

She founded a coaching service, Hey Silly Rebel, as well as Pepper marketing agency, and Standard Office Space, a non-profit co-working location. 

For the businesswoman of 12 years, establishing connections with other women is very important — especially after being in an abusive relationship for more than ten years in which she felt really isolated. 

She explains that when she first started her business, other women entrepreneurs helped “build up” her confidence.

“I gained power through entrepreneurship,” she says, “and that allowed me to build confidence and personal wealth to be able to leave my abusive relationship.”

As a woman entrepreneur, Owen recognized the importance of having support from other women. Even her marketing firm Pepper is an all-women agency, and she says her passion is to coach fellow women entrepreneurs. 

After discussing last month’s topic — women and money — with Ford and Brazier, Owen said it became clear it was something many others wanted to discuss.

Planning the March 28 event became a collaboration between the three of them, but because it was so popular they had to host a second supper the next night, she says proudly.

The main idea is for the events to be interactive — not just featuring presentations by guest speakers, but also sparking meaningful conversations between the attendees. 

Hannah Bergman attended her first Fullest Table event last September at Rancho Burro where the topic was “Women and Business.”

Bergman is an entrepreneur who started her own business, Hannah Clare Health Coaching, last year. It empowers women to adopt health-promoting habits to improve their relationship with their body, food, and fitness. 

Having been born and raised in Kamloops, before moving away, she hoped to expand her circle beyond just the people she met growing up. But she said she was initially a bit nervous about attending the event on her own.

“I think there is a huge desire and need for this type of supper club with speaker series, especially for women, because I think we’ve lost that ability to connect in person,” Bergman says.

She says Fullest Table offers an opportunity to talk to people you would not normally meet within your social circle. She especially appreciated that the events are multigenerational, allowing a richer variety of conversations. 

“You get such a diverse range of wisdom and perspectives,” Bergman says. “At the same time you don’t feel the generational gap. Everyone is truly there to connect as fellow human beings.”

The events have allowed Bergman to network and promote her business to other attendees, but also to interact with other successful entrepreneurs and inspiring women. 

“It’s about bringing women together, respecting diverse perspectives and being open to them with a wide open heart,” she says. “For me to have a space to be able to do that is everything.”

Exploring ‘money archetypes’

Hosted at Hello Toast, the ambiance was warm and intentional. Five tables were set and adorned with candles, carefully arranged fresh bouquets of flowers, a three-course menu by chef Mack Isaak, and a small notebook tied up with a ribbon so participants could take notes.

Women were surrounded by women throughout the evening — and not only among the attendees and speakers, but also by the bartenders provided by Sagebrush Sips, and the venue’s servers. 

It was an intimate setting where women could feel safe to share and open up. Some women went with their friends, others went alone, but the organizers hoped to create a welcoming space so everyone would feel seen and heard. 

During the event, Ford spoke about the importance of why women should talk about money and manage it. 

Owen spoke about what she called “money archetypes,” the common ideas about money that influence how people think, behave and feel around it. Understanding which archetype each person is can help them address their own behaviour and beliefs about money, Owen explained. 

As she explained the concept, people can fall into eight money archetypes, or ways of viewing finances. 

Before the event, attendees filled out a survey to find out which money archetype they were. Owen reached out to each participant beforehand, letting them know their top three archetypes. At the event itself, attendees’ name tags featured their own archetypes. 

Owen and Brazier collaborated on presenting about money archetypes during the event.

Brazier runs her own business as a somatic practitioner, a healing practice focused on the nervous system — treating the body as a sensing, feeling and living organism. Brazier uses somatic practices to help people understand the connection between mind and body and learn how to better connect with their own nervous system. 

At the event, Brazier guided attendees through a breathing exercise that allowed them to connect to their bodies and see their own reaction whenever they thought about money. 

Each of the three speakers presented between courses of the meal, ensuring there were multiple opportunities for participants to connect with each other in the room, too.

Brazier said that when women come together, it’s like “magic, there’s power created.”

“We bring so many different stories that can be useful to one another,” she added. “Women know what the other women are going through.

“Women really need each other first of all …. We really need each other to hold each other up emotionally. We need each other to inspire one another.”

She said when women can be vulnerable with each other, “we can really find regulation in our nervous systems,” allowing healing and movement for things that “have been sitting inside of our bodies for such a long time.”

As a founder of the event, seeing it become so popular has fulfilled her hopes of finding community in Kamloops.

“I had this dream of setting a beautiful table and diving into some big conversations, and hoped that I would meet some people that way,” Brazier said. “Honestly, I thought I was going to be throwing these cute little dinner parties in my spare time and that maybe we’d have 20 people if we were lucky. 

“It’s clear that Kamloops wants this really bad … We’ve had waitlists for every single event.”