Building an Invested Community with Club Ichi’s Co-Founders

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Networking can be hard, especially for introverts, so Liz Lathan and Nicole Osibodu co-founded Club Ichi to welcome event professionals from all backgrounds to connect. Their social club and membership community is built around casual, conversation-based gatherings, peer-to-peer exchanges, local meetups and retreats.

In this episode, Lathan and Osibodu delve into their friendship origin story and how Club Ichi has grown and evolved to support their community of more than 700 members. One of this year’s highlights was taking 50 members on a “Secret Family Reunion” trip to New Zealand, surprising all the attendees at the airport with the destination.

They share how they pulled off the big reveal, worked through large-group and international travel considerations, and designed the itinerary around adventure and cultural immersion, while leaving room for spontaneity, like getting matching tattoos with a stranger (you’ll have to hear the whole story).

The two longtime friends and business partners say Club Ichi works because it’s intentionally focused and not trying to be everything to everyone. Lathan and Osibodu balance each other out and come together with their individual strengths and ways of thinking. One of their favorite games to play is “You know what would be really fun?” And it has sparked a number of memorable experiences that play into what Lathan calls “return on friendship.”

“You can’t just throw people in a room and say, ‘Look, we have the right people in the room,’ and then let them fend for themselves…” Osibodu says. “The way in which we do something is extremely Ichi, and that’s what’s magnetic for people. It’s not Liz and I; it’s everybody inside. It’s the way that they connect to each other in ways that they just cannot explain, even to their spouses and their kids.”