Tea Hosting - On Reaching More People
For the last few months, I've been hosting Chinese tea ceremonies (gongfu cha) at home. I mainly hosted them for my social circles, so mainly friends and their friends.
I like hosting tea. It's an opportunity to meet nice people, relax, and, well, to drink good tea.
So I decided to expand the hobby and reach more people - optimally, strangers. I started a Calendly calendar to allow people to set up sessions with me twice a week - at the beginning of the weekend and at the beginning of the work week (some people are free during or after work).
At first, it didn't catch on too well. I shared it with some friends and a WhatsApp group or two, and my girlfriend shared it with some of her friends. I did get a few bookings. Only a few, though, and none from people I didn't reach directly.
One of the feedbacks I've got was, that it's suspicious because it's free. I'd really like to keep it free, but I was starting to consider a small fee because of that.
But then I published a Facebook post about it, and it caught on - my girlfriend and some previous guests shared it, and it got a nice amount of traffic.
I now have a session every weekend until the end of October, and almost every first workday until the end of September. Apparently, some people do find the free approach suspicious, but others appreciate it.
I already hosted the first people in this run - a friend and her mother. We drank tea and talked for two and a half hours, and it seems like everybody had fun. I know I did.
Hopefully I didn't take too much upon myself. I have this small anxiety of me doing it so much that I'll have enough of this hobby. But I mainly wait for the next hosting, hope to meet friends, acquaintances and new people, and prepared to have fun.
Let’s talk about this: [e-mail] [Facebook]