Encouraged eavesdropping!
Make a (free, virtual) reservation at Table for Two’ish, where you are the ‘ish and two is Mac & Cheese Productions’℠ Saya Hillman and Guest.
Where Guest is a Life of Yes℠ poster child, someone inspiring in how they’re living life, unapologetically* designing life to best fit themselves, even if that means straying from the path and being uncertain-fearful-selfish-what am I doing’y?! *Sometimes, apologetically. Cause it’s work in progress to confidently live out loud.
30 minutes of Saya + Guest—you listen.
30 minutes of ‘ish—your questions, stories, recommendations, discussion, me too’s…
A cozy, easy way to hear how everyday people are living their ideal life—their Life of Yes℠. Their journeys and their transparency, vulnerability, and ups and downs will impact you to dream, do, and be bigger. A seat in a repeated room of positive stranger-friends will provide you quality community.
Camera on, camera off. Talk, don’t talk. Chat, don’t chat. How you show up and participate is up to you.
These are purposefully in and out conversations: easy to attend, easy to digest, easy to love. High-class problem (HCP)—you’ll have “It’s over already?! I want more!” thoughts.
You’ll want the space though… cause you have a life to live and post-table, with a to-go box of inspiration!
Make a Reservation
Each Table has a different guest; see who’s scheduled when below. You’ll need to register for each Table you’d like to attend. Tables aren’t recorded. For more gathering detail, see FAQs below.
Adulting Tip: put all the Tables in your calendar now. You’ll want to prioritize and make time for this.
Additional dates to be added; to ensure you hear about them, choose how you’d like to stay Mac & Cheese updated
Table for Two’ish Guests
January 29th | 12pm-1pm EST
Hillary Stifler, Owner & Innkeeper, Garden Grove Inn B&B || Instagram
After 17 years working in market research in Chicago, Hillary quit her job, sold her home and bought a 7-room B&B in Union Pier, Michigan. She is still working too hard, but it’s a lot more fun! Living where people vacation is super underrated, and she enjoys being an advocate for all the amazing things her new hometown offers. She even has her own “What’s Happening Hillary” events column in the local paper!
February 10th | 12pm-1pm EST
L’Oreal Thompson Payton, author, journalist and founder of Zora’s Place || Instagram | LinkedIn
L’Oreal is an award-winning journalist, author, speaker, and founder of Zora’s Place, a Black feminist bookstore and community hub in Evanston, Illinois. She is the author of Stop Waiting for Perfect and Amanda Gorman: Poet and Activist, as well as the forthcoming children’s book Violet Goes Voting (September 2026) and the highly-anticipated memoir Infertile Black Girl (Spring 2027). Her byline has appeared in outlets such as Essence, Fortune, New York magazine and SELF, and her work centers Black women and girls, mental health, and the power of storytelling. She lives in Evanston with her husband and daughter.
February 26th | 12pm-1pm EST
Meg McKeen, Adjunct Advisors ||Instagram | LinkedIn
A believer that there is a story within every story, Meg’s career journey took a sharp left turn in 2017 when she exchanged her corporate j-o-b for a year of self-discovery. The following year, she launched Adjunct Advisors LLC with the simple belief that the people that have made a career in insurance deserve a better experience. With roots in both underwriting and sales, Meg holds space, at the crossroads of personal and professional development, for insurance professionals as they grow their confidence – and careers – through private coaching, consulting engagements, and the podcast she hosts, Bound & Determined℠ and leverages more than 25 years of industry experience and studies in the social sciences to support our changing relationship with work, with each other, and with ourselves.
A graduate of Illinois Wesleyan University, Meg is currently a digital nomad in the midst of a thoughtful travel adventure. When she’s not supporting insurance professionals, you can find Meg putting the “practice” into yoga practice, searching for the best vegan bakery, or cheering on her favorite independent musicians. Her path has not been traditional – but her ability to make heavy topics approachable and relatable, with humility, humor, and heart, is her gift.
March 10th | 12pm-1pm EST
Caro Griffin, Founder, Between Drinks | Instagram | LinkedIn | TikTok
Caro is a mezcal sommelier and bartender who hosts tastings and pop-ups in Mexico City. She also runs Between Drinks, a podcast and travel company that helps you discover off-the-beaten-path places in bucket list destinations like Mexico, Japan, and Scotland. You can follow along by subscribing at Between Drinks.
March 26th | 12pm-1pm EST
Jessica L. Williams, Tech Biz Gurl || Instagram | LinkedIn
Jessica (aka Tech Biz Gurl) is a side hustler, caregiver, and the creator of #jesspicks, a weekly newsletter full of helpful links and encouragement for folks balancing work, life, and business. She believes in building with what you have, where you are, and taking tiny steps that add up over time. When she’s not curating or cheering people on, she’s probably dancing, reading, or wandering around Chicago.
April 14th | 12pm-1pm EST
Emily Davis, Who is Emily Davis? || Instagram
Emily is a farmer–florist, plant medicine practitioner, producer, comedian, and community-based ecotourism guide working at the intersection of Indigenous sovereignty, environmental stewardship, and multimedia storytelling. She collaborates closely with the Achuar people of the Ecuadorian Amazon through Maketai, Inc., and is a producer of iiTantari, the first Achuar-language podcast documenting ancestral creation myths and cosmology. Her work emphasizes reciprocal engagement with the natural world and centers Indigenous knowledge as essential to sustaining life, culture, and the planet amid accelerating cultural loss and climate collapse.
April 30th | 12pm-1pm EST
Susan B. Clark, Hey Susan Brigid || Instagram | LinkedIn
Susan is a visual storyteller with a nomadic heart, firmly rooted in her love for her hometown Chicago. The gift of a 110 film camera at age 8 was the spark that ignited her joy of seeing the world through its lens and capturing the stories around her. Building off the legacies of a long lineage of educators, creatives, and communicators, Susan has used these gifts to grow her own passion and skills through her multiple decades of data and communication roles in the nonprofit sector. Combining that experience with her personal values of creativity, joy, and adventure, she provides an array of creative and business services for both individuals and organizations.
One of her greatest joys is introducing (or reintroducing!) the beauty and wonders of Chicago and sharing her gift of seeing the world through photography. You can attend one of her phone photography art & architecture walking tours in downtown Chicago, join her online Phone Photos in Focus course, request a custom Chicago tour built just for you, a group of friends, coworkers, or family, or purchase photo art from her online store. Organizations can sign up for a phone photography workshop to help staff and volunteers improve visual documentation for reports, newsletters, and social media. She also offers nonprofit communication management services, so groups can focus on their mission rather than content creation. Susan’s favorite ways to explore are by getting on the water, preferably in a kayak, and eating all the food.
July 14th | 12pm-1pm EST
Bela Gandhi, Relationship Coach, Founder of Smart Dating Academy and host of the Smart Dating Academy Podcast || Instagram | LinkedIn
July 30th | 12pm-1pm EST
Maria Kim, Redefine Alliance || Instagram | LinkedIn
Maria is a self-proclaimed green belt (proficient enough to spar with controlled contact) whose career spans three sectors – private, public, and purpose, and whose ethos through it all has been to help people unlock their genius within. She serves as the President and CEO of Redefine Alliance – a venture philanthropy and impact investing fund backing social enterprises around the country that create jobs and economic power for folks overcoming tough barriers to employment. Prior to REDF, Maria served as CEO of Cara Collective – a nationally recognized leader helping people experiencing homelessness and poverty get back to work.
Maria serves on the board of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and the advisory boards of CASE Center of Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, Procure Impact, First Women’s Bank, and the Leadership Society Initiative. Her previous service includes the US Small Business Association’s Investment Capital Advisory Committee and the California Office of the Small Business Advocate Entrepreneurship and Economic Mobility Task Force. She is a 2008 Leadership Greater Chicago Fellow, a 2012 American Marshall Memorial Fellow, a 2018 Vital Voices Global Ambassador, a 2020 Presidential Leadership Scholar, and a 2022 Distinguished Alumni in Public Service from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, from which she received her MBA.
FAQs
What will I need to do outside of a reservation?
Nothing!*
This is meant to be as little external lifting as possible, for everyone. No homework! No adding to To Do Lists!
*On Mac & Cheese brand, though, an asterisk… well, three asterisks.
One: Conversation will be more fruitful and beneficial if you do a wee bit of guest-musing before each gathering. E.g. jotting down a few questions, suggestions, recommendations, musings to share…
Two: The hope is that you’ll take what you learn and apply it to life. But how, when, what is up to you.
Three: There’ll be deeper goodness if you participate in chatter between meals in the (optional) online community. There won’t be any formal discussion, just encouragement to share thoughts, questions, support with one another. The online community is a paid membership space.
Why do you encourage joining via computer over a tablet or phone?
It’s easier to see everything and everyone as well as participate via Chat on the computer. That said, your presence over no presence is what’s important, so join how you need to join.
What happens if I miss a reservation?
Besides everyone being incredibly sad and you missing out on goodness, nothing. The beauty of the structure is that reservations are not tied to one another so you won’t be in the dark or struggle if you have to miss. Saya hates a no-show but also gets that life happens.
Why aren’t there recordings?
To allow Saya, guests, and you to speak uber-freely. What’s said will be unfiltered, raw, transparent, and honest. “This is being recorded” can dampen conversation.
To encourage you to show up. For yourself and for others.
Because we all know what often happens with “I’ll get to this later…” items. You never get to them. They hang over your head. They remind you of your failure. You refuse to delete them. They’re forever on your To Do List.
Cause Saya doesn’t want to spend her time sending links, dealing with tech issues, storing video.
Do I have to participate?
Nope. You don’t have to talk, verbally or in the Chat, if you’d rather just listen. Of course discussion is better with multiple voices and viewpoints, so you’re encouraged to chime in.
Do I have to be on camera?
If you have your video on, it’s a more pleasant, quality experience for Saya + Guest and a more community-building experience for everyone. So highly encouraged to be Video On. That said, if you’d rather Video Off, you do you, boo. Life of Yes℠.
Can I make multiple reservations?
Yep! You’re encouraged to!
Can I come for part of a reservation?
If you gotta join late or leave early, sadface but a-ok. No need to let Saya know.
Can I invite others?
Yes! They’ll have to register themselves but absolutely, new faces welcome.
Who are the Guests?
Random delights Saya’s met over her 20+ years of Mac & Cheese, with a focus on spotlighting those whose voices could use amplification.
Can I be a Guest?
If Saya reaches out and invites ya. This is an invitation-only scenario. Be in her world; help her be in your world; showcase the bad mama jamma you are, an invite is more likely to appear in your inbox.
What is this online community you mention that’s optional to join?
The Life of Yes℠ Community. Head here and go to “Join the best community on (and sometimes off) the internet” to learn more.
Can I eat and/or drink?
Yes! Extra credit if you’re on camera chowing down on buffalo wings or sipping a marg!
Can I show up with hot mess hair and in jammies, from my couch?
Extra credit if you show up with hot mess hair and in jammies, from your couch!