About Mavens

It started with a book club,
a few honest conversations,
and the belief that people who know things should be findable.

I built Mavens because the best teachers I know don't have blue checkmarks. My mom, Elizabeth Engelman, is a trauma-informed yogi, published author, and embodiment researcher — and she's nearly impossible to find online. I kept meeting people like her: deeply skilled, locally rooted, and invisible to anyone who didn't already know them. Mavens exists to change that — and to build the kind of community that was worth searching for in the first place.

Meet the Book Club Browse the Directory

Mavens collective members gathered around a table, candles lit, smiling

Women laughing together at a Mavens book club meeting

Bella Engelman leading a large beach yoga gathering in a white skirt

The Origin

Built by someone who just wanted to find the right people.

It started at my day job. I work at the Family Center on Deafness in St. Pete, planning field trips and workshops for kids in the Deaf community. I was spending weeks cold-emailing people, networking at markets, scouring the internet — trying to track down individuals with real skills who'd be willing to share them. Not organizations. People. A fermentation guide. A natural dye teacher. A storyteller. I kept wishing they all existed somewhere in one place, on a map, findable. So I decided to build it for myself — and if others loved it too, even better.

The problem I kept running into was invisibility. The algorithm rewards the already-seen — the creators with followings, the teachers with great SEO. But some of the most knowledgeable people I've ever met don't have a TikTok presence. They have a backyard dye pot and thirty years of practice. They want to run workshops but don't know where to start, don't have the connections yet, and can't afford to spend hours gaming a platform to find their first student. That gap felt wrong to me, and fixable.

So Mavens is two things that belong together: a directory where skilled local people are discoverable by name, and a community of people who believe that the best education is hands-on, local, and human. We started as a book club — a small circle of women who wanted to think deeply, create together, and grow. That's still the heart of it. We also show up for our broader community: volunteering, creating together, giving back. The platform just makes it possible for more people to find each other.

"A Maven is someone who accumulates knowledge. The word, in Yiddish, means 'one who understands.' What they want, more than anything, is to tell you about it."

— Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point

A Mavens member smiling and holding up handmade jewelry at a workshop

A Mavens member hand-lettering a card that reads 'I am so happy you're here'

Two women wrapping a bouquet of flowers together in a park

Bella Engelman playing singing bowls on the beach

The Founder

Hi, I'm Bella.

I'm a speech-language pathology assistant, behavioral health practitioner, and community builder based in Largo, Florida. I spend my days working with kids in the Deaf community and my evenings figuring out how to make the world a little more connected.

Mavens grew out of a simple frustration: the people I most wanted to learn from were the hardest to find. Not because they weren't out there, but because nothing existed to make them visible. So I built it — first for myself, then for anyone who's ever wished they could just find the right person nearby.

When I'm not building Mavens, I'm making jewelry, practicing yoga, learning about natural dyeing, or reading something that makes me think differently about everything.

What We Believe

The principles that shape everything we build.

Knowledge Lives in the Body

Real skill isn't stored in a credential or a certificate. It's encoded in muscle memory, built through repetition, and passed person to person. Nothing replaces learning from someone who truly lives their practice — and no degree is required to teach it.

The Process Is the Point

We believe in freeing the work-in-progress. Imperfection isn't something to hide — it's evidence of someone building toward mastery. The best learning happens when people feel safe enough to not know, to ask the real questions, and to show up exactly where they are.

Every Maven Is Vetted

We'd rather have 500 Mavens we've personally verified than 50,000 we haven't. Every verified badge means a real conversation happened. Local people with deep knowledge deserve a platform that takes them seriously — not just an algorithm to beat.

It started with a book club,a few honest conversations,and the belief that people who know things should be findable.

Built by someone who just wanted to find the right people.

Hi, I'm Bella.

The principles that shape everything we build.

Ready to find a Maven — or become one?

It started with a book club,
a few honest conversations,
and the belief that people who know things should be findable.