Meet Tijera Wright: Choosing Joy, Connection, & Community One Board at a Time
By Teresa Howes | Twine Featured Founder Interview
For many people, a charcuterie board is simply food. For Tijera Wright, it’s an opportunity to create connection. As the founder of Board and Boujee, a luxury charcuterie and grazing table business based in San Diego, Tijera helps companies transform ordinary meetings, team events, and workplace gatherings into memorable experiences that bring people together.
Her mission goes far beyond beautifully arranged snackables, meats and cheeses. She believes food has the power to spark conversations, strengthen relationships, and make people feel valued.
“It’s more than just food. It’s an experience where people are gathered around. They’re building connections.”
That perspective comes from personal experience. Before launching Board and Boujee, Tijera worked as an IT Business Consultant in a traditional corporate setting. This is where she saw, firsthand, how something as simple as lunch could shape workplace culture.
Today, she’s bringing that insight to organizations across San Diego, helping them create moments that employees actually remember.
From Corporate Consultant to CEO (Charcuterie Experience Officer)
Tijera’s path to entrepreneurship wasn’t born from a lifelong dream of owning a catering company. In fact, her professional background was about as far from charcuterie boards as you can imagine. After college, she built a career in IT business consulting, working for a large accounting firm and navigating the demanding world of corporate life. Like many young professionals, she paid attention to the details. Especially the food.
“I noticed that employees pay attention to the details. When companies invest in thoughtful experiences, people feel appreciated. And when they don’t, employees notice that too.'”
That realization eventually became one of the foundations of Board and Boujee’s corporate-focused business model. Today, Tijera helps organizations deliver what she calls “the wow without the hassle,” creating elevated food experiences while handling every detail from start to finish.
“The employees come in and it’s like, ‘Wow, this looks so nice.’ But the office manager or event planner didn’t have to do anything because we handle everything from A through Z.”
Choosing Herself
While the corporate world provided stability and professional growth, it eventually came at a cost. Long hours, missed family events, increasing responsibilities, and mounting pressure began taking a toll. As someone who values family deeply, Tijera found herself missing birthdays, spending less time with loved ones, and struggling to maintain balance. More importantly, her mental health was suffering.
“I had to make that pivot and choose myself, choose my joy, choose my mental health.”
The decision to leave wasn’t easy. Entrepreneurship rarely comes with guarantees. There are no steady paychecks, no clear promotion paths, and no certainty about what comes next. But there was one thing she knew for sure. The life she was living wasn’t sustainable.
“I knew it wasn’t going to just stop there. Climbing the ladder, there was going to be more and more to it.”
As she looked ahead at the lives of many senior leaders around her, she realized she didn’t want the version of success she was seeing modeled. So she made a choice. She bet on herself. And she turned a side hustle into a business.
Building a Business That Brings Joy
The seeds of Board and Boujee were planted during the pandemic. Like many people, Tijera found herself connecting with friends over Zoom, sharing conversations over wine, and looking for ways to create small moments of joy during a difficult time.
One day, she put together a charcuterie board and shared a photo. The response was immediate. People started asking if she sold them. At first, it was simply something fun to do for friends and family. But as she worked with a coach and explored what might come next professionally, she kept coming back to the same realization. Nothing else excited her quite the same way.
“I love what I’m doing every day.”
Today, what she loves most isn’t the food itself. It’s what happens because of the food. The conversations. The laughter. The connections. The joy.
“Bringing joy to others and it brings me joy.”
After years of waking up dreading the workday, that feeling has become one of the most rewarding parts of entrepreneurship.
The Part No One Talks About
Of course, entrepreneurship isn’t all grazing tables and celebration boards. Like many solopreneurs, Tijera quickly discovered one of the biggest challenges of business ownership isn’t the work itself. It’s the loneliness.
“It’s just me working toward the goal.”
In corporate environments, there are coworkers to brainstorm with, teammates to celebrate wins alongside, and people who understand exactly what you’re navigating. When you run your own business, much of that disappears. That’s one of the reasons finding community has become so important to her.
She credits a fellow entrepreneur and best friend in Arizona as one of her strongest support systems. The two started their businesses around the same time and regularly exchange ideas, frustrations, encouragement, and advice.
“We can talk about the things that are really not going well and be authentic.”
It’s also why she intentionally sought out entrepreneurial communities where she could connect with women facing similar challenges. Not to pitch or sell, but to simply to be around people who understand the journey.
Done Is Better Than Perfect
If Tijera could sit down for coffee with the version of herself who launched Board and Boujee just over a year ago, she wouldn’t give complicated business advice. She’d keep it simple.
“Perfection is not needed. You just need to get stuff done.”
Like many high-achieving professionals, she spent too much time early on trying to make everything perfect. The website, branding, logo, decisions and details. What she’s learned over the past year is that momentum matters more than perfection.
“Eighty percent is better than trying to get it to 100%.”
Progress creates opportunities. Action creates clarity. And waiting until everything feels perfect often means missing opportunities altogether. It’s advice she’s still learning to follow herself, but it’s become one of the biggest lessons of her entrepreneurial journey.
What’s Next for Board and Boujee
As Board and Boujee continues to grow, Tijera is focused on expanding her corporate partnerships, booking more team-building experiences, and bringing her interactive charcuterie workshops to new audiences.
She’s especially excited about helping organizations create memorable employee experiences that foster connection and strengthen workplace culture.
Because at the end of the day, her business isn’t really about charcuterie boards. It’s about creating moments where people gather, connect, and feel cared for. And in a world where genuine connection often feels harder to find, that’s an incredibly meaningful mission.
How You Can Benefit From Tijera’s Expertise
Board and Boujee offers luxury charcuterie experiences for a variety of occasions, including:
- Corporate catering and employee appreciation events
- Team-building experiences
- Interactive charcuterie board workshops
- Grazing tables and specialty event catering
- Networking events and client appreciation gatherings
Whether you’re planning a corporate event, looking for a memorable team-building activity, or simply want to elevate your next gathering, Tijera brings creativity, professionalism, and a genuine passion for creating connection through food.
Connect with Tijera
- Website: https://www.boardandboujeesd.com
- Instagram: @boardand_boujee
- Phone: (619) 537-9828
- Email: hello@boardandboujeesd.com
