Dale
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Jeremy: Hello and welcome to the Jeremy Haywood Show. This podcast is all about exploring a wide range of topics that spark curiosity, build community, inspire action, and deepen our understanding of the world around us. Before we get started, make sure that you subscribe now on whatever platform that you're seeing or listening to this by tapping that follow or subscribe button.
In Season three, we are shining the spotlight on women in business, the trailblazers, innovators, and leaders who are redefining what it means to build with purpose. Each episode, [00:01:00] we bring you stories, strategies, and inspiration straight from the women who are creating businesses that make an impact.
This season, we're going to celebrate and learn from the powerful voices of women in business. Today's guest is the founder and CEO of Taste of Atlanta. Welcome to the show Dale de DeSena. Thank you for coming out today.
Dale: You bet. Thank having me.
Jeremy: All right. We are gonna start taking it back a little bit to childhood. Well, I, I don't wanna say childhood 'cause I don't know when this occurred for you, but tell me about your very first job and what did you learn from it?
Dale: Oh, wow. Oh, my first job, well, I was probably a camp counselor.
Jeremy: Okay.
Dale: I grew up in Savannah, Georgia.
Jeremy: nice.
Dale: I am one of four kids. You know, Savannah was a, a small town. We rode our bikes everywhere. Unfortunately, we didn't wear a helmet. But you know, I, I was a very active kid outside. I've swam on the swim team [00:02:00] and but being a camp counselor was probably, a great summer job.
Jeremy: Nice. Nice. Yeah, I'm, I'm from the no bicycle helmet era too. So look at us. We, we turned out fine, right?
Dale: We did, we did. Don't tell our kids
Jeremy: I know. Yeah. Make sure you buckle up, put your helmet on, and don't ever ride in the back of a station wagon. Like those things didn't happen. as a camp counselor, what are some things that you learned even at that age with your first job?
Dale: , I learned that always have to be on your toes.
Jeremy: Hmm.
Dale: Being a camp counselor, the kids were probably my first and hardest sales job. , Now I've got a 20-year-old kid and still one of my hardest sales
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: but I think really just to relate to all people that you come across and figure out how to work together as a
Jeremy: Mm-hmm.
Dale: know, age is just a number. It doesn't matter.
Jeremy: Yeah. It's interesting since we start to talk more about your [00:03:00] entrepreneurship journey and what you're doing now, even reflecting on what you just said and, and some of those skills that you learned. It sounds like some foreshadowing of where our discussion might go today tell me about the first business that you started and why.
Dale: Okay. The first business I started was DG Publishing.
Jeremy: Okay.
Dale: it was a custom publishing company in 1993. I had been previously in a job that was. I was doing fulfillment realized that was not my, my dream job, but as the sales director for that company, we took it onto the Inc. 500 company
Jeremy: Oh, nice.
Dale: I really reorged a company that. Just really figured out the processes and the systems and increased their sales exponentially. but the interesting thing is the reason I went to the fulfillment business. Also why I then [00:04:00] started my own company was because I was working for Business Atlanta Magazine,
Jeremy: Okay.
Dale: which back in the day was an a very well respected publication. And, the known CEO of that company at the time would not promote me to be publisher.
Jeremy: Wow.
Dale: 28 years
Jeremy: Mm-hmm.
Dale: and had been through numerous publishers, was the ad director, had really created a lot of great things for, for the magazine. Sales were great, but he said, because I was a woman.
Jeremy: Wow.
Dale: it was so young, he couldn't do it.
Jeremy: Wow,
Dale: I said, if you really are telling me this, I will turn in my resignation right now. And he said, Dale, I can't. And I said, well, you know what? I can't stay here.
Jeremy: Amazing.
Dale: left. Went to the fulfillment company. From there I was there for probably a year and a half. And then I started DG [00:05:00] Publishing, doing custom publishing magazines.
Jeremy: Wow.
Dale: the really fun part, and I love magazines. I had been involved in ad sales before I had been a photographer in my early
Jeremy: Mm-hmm.
Dale: I, I loved the whole putting together creative process of creating magazines and. I was sitting on the beach at Tybee in
Jeremy: Mm-hmm.
Dale: I said, Dale, if you could do anything you wanted to do, what would it
Jeremy: Mm-hmm.
Dale: And I thought, well, I'd love to make my own magazine.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: to sell, I would love to, you know, be in the entertainment business. So I really pulled all of those things together. put in a call to Peter Conlin at Concert Southern Promotions, which is now Live Nation.
Jeremy: Mm-hmm.
Dale: And he looked at me and said, no, you can't.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: [00:06:00] I promise you I can. And, from there really just created sponsorship packages, ad packages and started my company with the Chastain Park Summer concert program.
Jeremy: Wow. So , the funding for that company then, was it primarily through the sponsorships and promotions from, from other businesses? Yeah.
Dale: It was ad sales for the publication.
Jeremy: Okay.
Dale: sponsorships I was able to have first dibs on tables at Chastain,
Jeremy: Wow.
Dale: know, back in the nineties, that was gold.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: And so you know, we created that and because it was so successful Peter and Alex Cooley came to me and said, Hey Dale, we wanna start a, a music festival.
And I said, okay, let's start a music festival. And , I said, well, what are we gonna call it? And they said, Music Midtown.
Jeremy: Nice.
Dale: I said, oh, cool. Let's start a music festival. So. You know,
Jeremy: [00:07:00] Wow.
Dale: from, I was doing the Chastain Park program, I was also doing the Atlanta Opera program,
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: Theater, the Nutcracker Ballet a lot of different programs all around the city. But then I got into. Music festivals and art festivals
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: and just, it's amazing how everything, I took a right turn, left turn, right turn, left turn,
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: my path was created.
Jeremy: Wow. It's really amazing just to, hear the backstory because some people who may have met you in the past 15, 20 years know you for a taste of Atlanta, but they don't understand that you're actually like this Atlanta legend who, when it comes to food and entertainment and culture, you're, you're one of the pillars in this community.
So it's really awesome to hear the backstory from the Music Midtown piece. Knowing that you helped start that, what was your role in, in getting that started? Was it still more on the sponsorship side or, or what, what was the role?
Dale: Well, [00:08:00] back in the day, this was like 1994. We, we were in charge of selling all the sponsorships. We were in charge of creating the poster, the graphic design, the look we created, the logo, everything. Back in this time, there was no internet. You know, there were no real cell phones. , We did eventually create an app but we were really more in the financial side of raising the funds to create the festival.
Jeremy: Okay. Wow.
Dale: then, we had 11 stages. We had 300,000 people over three days,
Jeremy: On the,
Dale: stages.
Jeremy: on the first Music Midtown.
Dale: I think we really kind of came in on the second Music Midtown because the first one, the people didn't fulfill everything were
Jeremy: Gotcha. Gotcha.
Dale: I kind of came in
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: second year, but it was held where the Federal Reserve is right
Jeremy: Mm-hmm. Yep.
Dale: 10th in Midtown.
Jeremy: Okay.
Dale: and that was all. [00:09:00] Trees, land grass. There were no buildings.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: we closed down the entire, like four or five city blocks
Jeremy: Wow.
Dale: and the festival was born.
Jeremy: Wow. So with Music Midtown, and, and I'll ask a similar question for Taste of Atlanta, especially the first year, first couple years, it just had to be chaos. 'cause you're tying so many different pieces together from just logistics of pulling off a music festival period and , blocking off the city.
There's gotta be so much, tell me some of the stressors or the barriers that were in place, the challenges. Just getting it off the ground?
Dale: I do have to tell you, I was not really in charge of the actual festival,
Jeremy: Mm-hmm.
Dale: Southern Promotion.
Jeremy: Okay.
Dale: The greatest thing was it was teamwork.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: Concert Southern had the most amazing logistics team
Jeremy: Nice.
Dale: charge of the states building stages. [00:10:00] Bringing in sound, hiring the music artists. Amy Berg was in charge of that. You know, so Tara Murphy was in charge of
Jeremy: Mm-hmm.
Dale: had amazing people
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: their area of expertise. Our job was
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: we had, amazing sponsors who came in. So we had all the banner signage and the, you know, ticketing to make sure they had what they needed and the programs, we had a,
Jeremy: Mm.
Dale: program given
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: I will tell you, the funniest thing though, about that day that I remember so clearly was I was, young, I was, in my thirties I guess, and I hadn't really done a music festival before. And we were driving around our golf carts and, driving people where they had to go and everything.
And then all of a sudden Alex said, well, the festival's open and I mean. of thousands of people came
Jeremy: Wow.
Dale: I'm in my golf cart, like on [00:11:00] the opposite side of the site,
Jeremy: Mm-hmm.
Dale: I'm like, oh my God, I cannot drive my golf cart back to, where it belonged. And so everybody said to me on the radio, they're like, Dale, just park it and and come back and we'll get it at the end of the day. Well. That night I
Jeremy: yeah,
Dale: to get my golf cart and it was gone.
Jeremy: yeah.
Dale: there,
Jeremy: I was gonna say, I, I, I bet it was not there.
Dale: no it wasn't, and I had no idea. But you know, all golf carts had the same key
Jeremy: Oh, I didn't know that.
Dale: So somebody had taken my golf cart and driven it to Georgia Tech, and Alex just laughed at me so bad and he
Jeremy: Oh, that's hilarious.
Dale: you can't leave your golf cart out there.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: I had no idea.
Jeremy: . But the golf cart was recovered though. You did get it back. Nice.
Dale: Tech. Yes.
Jeremy: Wow, that's awesome. So tell me about [00:12:00] then, the transition from, did you go from Music Midtown to Taste of Atlanta, or was there something in between?
Dale: There was lots in between. I worked with the Atlanta Dogwood Festival for
Jeremy: Okay.
Dale: years. I also worked with the Mont Music Festival. The Jazz Festival. And so we really were just the Atlanta Arts Festival. I mean, we were just really helping to produce festivals from the sponsorship side, from the graphic design
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: in the late nineties Food Network had started and and in early 2000 I was like, you know what? I'm producing all of these great festivals for all these great people and great causes, but I wanna own my own festival. And so there was not a Taste of Atlanta event and
Jeremy: Yep.
Dale: wow, people really want to come out for food or they wanna watch Chefs cook on a cooking stage.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: So I, from the ground up, created Taste of Atlanta
Jeremy: [00:13:00] Wow.
Dale: we had our first festival and that was where it all started.
Jeremy: That's awesome. Yeah. Which, actually you, you beat me to the question, which was how did that piece start? When you started Taste of Atlanta, when you were working with these festivals, did you still have your publishing company? Were you still doing the programs or had that sunset already?
Dale: the programs had pretty much morphed out.
Jeremy: Okay.
Dale: I had become DG Publishing and Event Sponsorship
Jeremy: Okay.
Dale: and, but then that company, I was still doing the Dogwood Festival. I think I was involved with Music Midtown for maybe 12 years and
Jeremy: Okay.
Dale: like, Al, I just can't do this anymore.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: just. Just, it's too, I'm too old for this and just,
Jeremy: Oh, please. I don't believe that Dale. No.
Dale: I just had, had enough. I
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: is crazy. 2001, I was doing just a couple of festivals, but really by 2002 three, I [00:14:00] was only doing Taste of Atlanta.
Jeremy: Okay, so Taste of Atlanta the first year. This is now your, your very own thing. Now it can probably better answer the challenges, the bigger challenges of just putting together the first taste of Atlanta. You're not responsible necessarily just for a part of it, but this is your big event.
This is your introduction to the world of your event. So tell me about, the challenges and, and some of the victories too.
Dale: the challenges were. Weather.
Jeremy: Oh gosh. Yeah.
Dale: is for festivals is
Jeremy: Yep.
Dale: a challenge.
Jeremy: Yep.
Dale: we were in October and I , did a lot of research on the driest months in Atlanta, and that would be October. But the exciting part was really pulling together a team.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: I got to really pick and choose people who I trusted, who I knew could handle teamwork, logistics and, and handle that, our first event was at Phipps Plaza in
Jeremy: Hmm.
Dale: parking
Jeremy: Okay.
Dale: they're all now office buildings,
Jeremy: [00:15:00] Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Dale: And we put up a Cirque de Soleil like tent,
Jeremy: Okay.
Dale: was huge. It was big, and it was air conditioned,
Jeremy: Nice.
Dale: conditioned, it was crazy.
It was expensive. It was unbelievable. And we. Built it by adding restaurants. Now the restaurants back in the early two thousands, they were not really chef-driven
Jeremy: Mm-hmm.
Dale: chef-driven, had just started that name like was just created.
Jeremy: Yep.
Dale: a lot of chain restaurants, a lot of big corporate, you know, Ruby Tuesdays.
Jeremy: right. Yep.
Dale: You know Applebee's, it was crazy, but Buckhead Life Restaurant group did exist which is Pano Caritas and Kevin Rappin worked for Nava,
Jeremy: Okay.
Dale: restaurants. And you know, Jerry worked [00:16:00] for Buckhead Diner. You know, and then Jerry started Aria like the next
Jeremy: Okay.
Dale: we were really on the cusp of. Finding great chefs who understood what we were trying to do, which was really showcase the dining scene in Atlanta.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: , the mission from the festival. I have stood by it for 24 years, which is turning tasters into diners
Jeremy: Nice.
Dale: really created the festival in order to help restaurants get butts in seats.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: know, they needed customers, they needed people to understand what made their restaurant. An amazing restaurant, why their food was good, why their chef was good and where their food was coming from. And that transition was just happening.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: you know, so it was, it was very challenging to pull together a, a team, but it was so much fun.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: of [00:17:00] fun.
Jeremy: Yeah. Had you seen other tasting events in other markets and you're like, we could do something like that in Atlanta, or was this just like. This seems like a good idea and let's see if we can pull it off.
Dale: I did go to a few other festivals.
Jeremy: Mm-hmm.
Dale: then, honestly, there were not
Jeremy: Mm-hmm.
Dale: really other big tastes of Atlantas, , they were outdoor street festivals and. Well, that was a great idea and, and I like that idea. I was more worried about weather. I
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: the experience for customers and what was gonna make it a great way to kind of eat and greet with the chefs.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: gonna get to know the chefs and being under a tent made it feel more inclusive and more
Jeremy: Kinda more intimate. Yeah.
Dale: More intimate.
Jeremy: Yeah,
Dale: but there were, there, there were not a lot of taste of festivals like there are
Jeremy: yeah. Yeah.
Dale: \ that had not [00:18:00] even occurred to people to really start that yet.
Jeremy: Yeah, I've been in Atlanta since 98. So I've seen, tastes even like, not just in the Atlanta Metro, but all over the state, like the Southeast, like you see them now in a lot of different cities and markets in the us. So, you know, I like to think of really the work that you did paved the way.
There's probably a lot of people that visited. Taste of Atlanta and we're like, we're gonna take this concept back to our city. Definitely props to you for being a visionary with that and, and taking a chance. And, you know, when I look at you starting Taste of Atlanta, sure you have sponsorships and everything like that, but one of the things that I want to get into for the listeners, and we don't have to go too deep into it, but just kind of an understanding of like, how does funding come together to pull off something like that, aside from sponsorships.
Dale: Aside from sponsorships or from sponsorships.
Jeremy: so, is it all like your taste of Atlanta, it's 100% sponsorship, or are there other, okay.
Dale: see. No, I mean, well you've got [00:19:00] ticket sales and then you have sponsorships.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: talk about teamwork. You have to build your asset bank. So we had to make sure we had good media partners media, print, radio, tv. And nowadays digital we have to be able to figure ways that we can include sponsor, mention, sponsor logos in those those advertisements.
Jeremy: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Dale: I have been very fortunate that Coke has been our sponsor for every year I have been in [00:20:00] business.
Jeremy: awesome.
Dale: for every festival I have done, every Taste of Atlanta event I have done. Coca-Cola has been there.
Jeremy: Yeah. That's great.
Dale: I'm so proud to work with them and have them as a partner and you know, they trust what
Jeremy: Mm-hmm.
Dale: We trust what they do. It, it just works very well together.
Jeremy: Yeah, that's great. And for them to work with you so long, it does it, it exhibits that trust in the output of what they're getting. They see the value in what you're doing. And I imagine too, when you have a consistent sponsor like. Coke every year like that just helps you to secure other sponsorships. Say, Hey, they've been rolling with us for this long.
They, we know it's a solid event, so it can encourage other people to start writing those checks and get their sponsorships as well. So with Taste of Atlanta, shifting a little bit so that, that's how it all started with Taste of Atlanta and now it's evolved. You have a few different brands underneath the Taste of Atlanta Umbrella.
Is that correct? Like, talk [00:21:00] a little bit about that.
Dale: Well, I will say that, you know, 2020 COVID made us all pivot, made us all rethink our businesses.
Jeremy: Yep.
Dale: , 2008, we had a recession killed us. Then
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: survived you have to constantly be thinking, what am I gonna do? How am I gonna survive this? How do I pivot? Where do I go? Who do I talk to? And, and that's the key. You've just gotta constantly be thinking on your feet. Talking with your partners, what ideas are gonna stick, know, what's gonna make money what do my sponsors wanna see? When 2020 came, we couldn't have a festival . We
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: a festival really in 21.
But we pivoted to create smaller, more hyper-local tasting events in four communities around Atlanta.
Jeremy: Mm-hmm.
Dale: in 20 18, 20 19, you know, taste of Atlanta had grown to [00:22:00] be 40,000 people over three days,
We were working with a hundred, 150 restaurants every
Jeremy: Mm-hmm.
Dale: To produce a three day
Jeremy: Mm-hmm.
Dale: but in 20 18, 20 19, I really started to myself, this sustainable? Is this. Million dollar festival for three days. Something that people want to continue going to, but is it more importantly even something that restaurants can support? Are the restaurants still seeing the
Jeremy: The value. Yeah.
Dale: in an event like this?
Jeremy: Yep.
Dale: And the answer was maybe
Jeremy: Hmm.
Dale: Staffing in 2018
Jeremy: Yep.
Dale: horrible. I mean, restaurants were opening left and right, but there was not enough restaurant staff to fill all of these
Jeremy: Mm-hmm.
Dale: And then restaurants closed
Jeremy: Yep.
Dale: restaurants were not able to be at a three [00:23:00] day festival.
, let me tell you about one of my biggest, ideas and achievements in the festival business was I was the first food festival to bring in RFID wristbands.
Jeremy: Wow.
Dale: if you're not familiar with RFID wristbands, it was a radio frequency identification and at Taste of Atlanta, we used taste coupons, little movie theater tickets where you would buy your taste.
Because what happens is, is that for every taste ticket a restaurant collected, we paid them 50 cents. So the restaurants made money. Through our
Jeremy: Okay.
Dale: they, they make a lot of money if they
Jeremy: Okay.
Dale: a
Jeremy: That's interesting. Yeah. I didn't realize that. That's cool.
Dale: So then what happened is. We weighed the coupons.
We would weigh them and tare them TARE to figure out how many coupons restaurants had collected, because there was no way we could count the tens of
Jeremy: [00:24:00] Oh, right.
Dale: of coupons.
Jeremy: Yep.
Dale: but some restaurants, somehow got wet. And when they got wet,
Jeremy: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dale: We, then we started to have to count them because we're like, no, no, no.
If it's wet, we're gonna have to wait a day or
Jeremy: Right.
Dale: dry,
Jeremy: my goodness. That's crazy.
Dale: So then pivoted to the RFID where we shifted to Taste
Jeremy: Mm-hmm.
Dale: and they were on your wristband your wristband was mailed to you with directions on how to set up your account and your points, and then you could buy more points at a point bank at the festival, and. Never miss a beat.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: have to pull out any cash. You just had to connect your credit card to your, your wristband and add more points for the restaurants, the beauty of the RFID was I could tell a restaurant every person who ate and [00:25:00] sampled at their restaurant at Taste of Atlanta on any given day at any given time.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: I had all the backend information,
Jeremy: That's nice.
Dale: It was so expensive. It was so expensive, and oh my God, the restaurant's gonna love
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: all this data. We're gonna have all this data. The restaurants were so busy they couldn't even figure out how to use the
Jeremy: Oh man. Yeah.
Dale: so 2019. , The last year of the festival, as we knew it, I'm like, oh my God, we can't do that
Jeremy: Mm-hmm.
Dale: And then COVID hit and
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: like, you know, I think all the restaurants came to Fourth Ward Park.
Jeremy: Mm-hmm. Yep.
Dale: friends from all over Atlanta came to Fourth Ward Park and it was a great. Put on to showcase restaurants from all over. But when COVID hit, I thought, wow. People are really [00:26:00] supportive of their restaurants and their community, and sometimes there are a lot of restaurants in your own community you don't even know about.
And so why not? Let Taste of Atlanta hit the road and travel. Let us go to these communities that have great culinary, visions themselves and chefs, and put on a festival in all of these different towns, in these different neighborhoods. And so by going hyper-local, we chose four Buckhead, Sandy Springs, Alpharetta, and Midtown, and. They became grand tasting events.
Jeremy: Okay.
Dale: grand tasting bucket, grand tasting.
Jeremy: Yep.
Dale: Springs. Though we had been doing an event, , I live in Sandy Springs. We've been doing an event called Food That Rocks and. That really was a takeoff on the VIP Friday Night of Taste of Atlanta.
Jeremy: Okay.
Dale: So we really kind of spun the [00:27:00] food that Rocks VIP tasting to these grand tasting events, and that's where we are today,
Jeremy: Wow.
Dale: really producing these smaller, hyper-local to showcase restaurants in those communities.
Jeremy: Yeah, there's so much that you just said the past couple minutes that could be unpacked for a whole separate episode. One thing I want to go back to is just with Taste of Atlanta in general, like how you've had to evolve, like you said, when you first started, really social media wasn't even a thing.
The technology wasn't a thing. The cell phones at the time were probably. , Not very existent. You get closer to 2000, you had maybe the Nokia phones, but even then they were phones. They weren't, computers in your pocket. Yeah. So for you to continue to innovate and figure out, okay, here's the technology that's available, how can we use that?
That's something that you always would have to be thinking about, especially if you want to have success. Every single year because it's almost like the customer's demand [00:28:00] it. And you wanna give an experience, especially with your brand, you've created a brand and an experience that people expect really just almost the best of the best.
So you're gonna bring the best technology, you're gonna bring the best experience you've brought in chefs from all over to have private cooking experiences at your events. One key thing that I think. It is really instrumental to point out is sometimes you have great ideas even the people are ready for 'em.
The public's ready for 'em. But logistically, if your partners aren't ready to execute, like with the RFID, that's a brilliant idea and in theory it should. Be amazing for the event, but when the actual restaurants are having to keep up with it and then they're not really ready for the technology or how to use it it creates a problem.
Like I said, it's very expensive, but it's like you, you tested that out and you learn, and I think as an entrepreneur,, whether it's running a festival or running something else is like try something like it was a risk involved with that. It makes sense, but it's [00:29:00] like there's a risk if we don't do it, but there's also a risk if we do it.
But you have to try things to learn. And I think that even just goes along with being an entrepreneur. I think back to the beginning of this discussion and you basically being told no, you can't advance in your career because you're a woman. And for you to take that and be like, okay, well let me show you what this woman can do, and you've got this amazing track record of running events and just having success and innovating, you know, what do you see as being the next chapter for you?
Is it still taste of land and expanding that, or are you interested in maybe doing something else down the road?
Dale: You know it's funny you ask that now, because I, that is a question I'm asking myself a lot.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: I love what I do. , We're celebrating our 25th anniversary next year in 2026.
Jeremy: great.
Dale: we're going to do something really fun and exciting. I don't know exactly yet what that's gonna
Jeremy: Mm-hmm.
Dale: we are trying to create [00:30:00] that right now.
Jeremy: Yep.
Dale: but also too I like the idea of the upscale hyperlocal tasting event.
Jeremy: Mm-hmm.
Dale: Helping different communities. I mentioned before that I'm from Savannah,
Jeremy: Mm-hmm.
Dale: we are going to create a grand tasting Savannah event
Jeremy: Yes.
Dale: November of 26.
Jeremy: Awesome.
Dale: you've heard
Jeremy: I might go there, I might go, 'cause I, I love Savannah. That's where I got married, so I will be keeping in touch with you to find out dates and all the logistics.
Dale: There you go. The interesting thing about that event too is, is that we're gonna do it two nights Thursday night and a Friday night. Because we really wanna do something thi night for the local, local people who
Jeremy: Okay. Yep.
Dale: And then Friday night, we're gonna create for the visitors who come into Savannah and create something. Friday, Saturday, Sunday with the restaurant.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: I'm, I'm really excited about doing something in Savannah. [00:31:00] It's a great community, a great restaurant town.
Jeremy: Yep.
Dale: they haven't done anything there for five years, so this is gonna be there sort of coming out party.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: let's showcase the Savannah restaurant scene.
Jeremy: Yeah, that's great. Now, so you're from Savannah. You still have family out in Savannah, or is everybody
Dale: do,
Jeremy: okay?
Dale: actually, all of my siblings
Jeremy: Okay.
Dale: of them live in Savannah with their families.
Jeremy: Okay. So when you go to Savannah, then you're staying with family or are you staying like in a hotel? In the historic area.
Dale: I stay with family.
Jeremy: Okay.
Dale: family.
Jeremy: Okay.
Dale: but you know what, there is something to be said about staying in hotels.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: I have not had that experience really, but. Well, except at my wedding, per se.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: And, many years ago, my mom had a house in downtown Savannah but one of the only modern homes that Jones and Habersham.
Jeremy: Okay.
Dale: so growing up, I stayed there every time [00:32:00] I went to visit.
Jeremy: Yeah. Yeah. No, that's awesome. I'm sure you have great memories of that, such a beautiful little town.
Dale: It
Is.
Jeremy: so let's talk about a couple things here with owning your own business. Like what do you love about it and what are the things where you're like, I could do without that.
Dale: Ha ha ha. I love being able to be creative and think of new ideas and figure out how to make them happen. I love being able to pick the people that I wanna work
Jeremy: Mm-hmm.
Dale: I love, the whole process of creating an event.
Jeremy: Mm-hmm.
Dale: What I am not so in love with is the administrative part., But I have a great bookkeeper.
I have a great team, but I still find myself taking on a lot of the tasks of the event that I probably should not be doing, but I fall in that horrible place of, could do it quicker, faster, and get it done.
Jeremy: Yeah. [00:33:00] Yeah.
Dale: I would love to be able to step out of that role and have someone else, you know, really just take that part over.
So honestly, what I'm looking at right now is you know, finding someone to sort of help me logistically manage that back backend of all of the festival details.
Jeremy: Yeah, that's a lot. I, I feel the same about mine. I think everything you just said is like echoed for my own business. It's the admin stuff I don't enjoy. And then also just as. A leader, there's things that you can do quicker, faster, and you know you'll do it right. And it's like, lemme just do it myself when it's like, gosh, taking the time to train someone to do it, in the end it's better because you have more free time to do the creative and the things that you enjoy doing, but it's just when you need it done, you want it done right.
So I, I can totally understand that piece. What continues to drive you with your business to make your event so special?
Dale: I want people to [00:34:00] think about Taste of Atlanta as being the best. , I want our events to be the pinnacle of tasting events. You know, I, I want anyone to come in there and go, wow, that was so much fun. everything from the restaurants had great food. My bartenders and my sponsor brands who have been with me so many years, Diageo, pno, Ricard , they're the best partners to me because they create great cocktails and
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: create great activations and they are a part of the vision of why we are successful, but why we are known to be the best. event in town.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: I just want people to come away saying, I discovered some great new restaurants
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: know, I discovered a great new brand of, of a spirit
Jeremy: Mm.
Dale: know of before.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: I learned that at Taste of [00:35:00] Atlanta.
Jeremy: It's like getting people excited about the food and drinks that are in their own market. Like, and I can relate to that, just being kind of the, the person that enabled that and allowed that to happen. I, I would imagine brings a lot of satisfaction to you.
Dale: It does,
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: as well as I wanna be known as the event that has enough trash cans,
Jeremy: oh gosh. That's like the quote. I want to be known as the event that has enough trash cans that, that's like, that's it. It's, this episode is done. We've, we've finished what we set out to do.
Dale: people go to events and it's filthy,
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: it's dirty, it all plays together.
Jeremy: It does.
Dale: has to work together to
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: spectacular.
Jeremy: , that's actually really amazing how. The way that you have to think, this is your event, your name is attached to it, and you have to think about everything from the quality of the food and the restaurants and the chefs all the way down to the trash cans, you know, everything in [00:36:00] between.
It's a lot of responsibility. It's a lot to juggle and you have to have a really good team to help you with that. So when you're not working and running your company, what do you enjoy doing?
Dale: What do I enjoy doing? You know, it's funny right now, I'm guilty of not having enough balance. I
Jeremy: Yeah. Yep.
Dale: I love the beach. I love being outside. I love walking at the river. , I, I wish I did more pickleball.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: I love being outside. , I love going to the theater.
Jeremy: Mm-hmm.
Dale: you know, there's, there's just enough time in the day. I need to rediscover more things that I like to do.
Jeremy: Yeah. Yeah. That will come with time. You know, I know you have a big event coming up here next month. But in the vein of food, because you are the queen of taste in Atlanta, what is your favorite cuisine and why?
Dale: My favorite cuisine. I like that. And that you didn't ask me [00:37:00] what is my favorite restaurant,
Jeremy: No, no, no, we're not. We're not gonna do that. We're not gonna do that.
Dale: My favorite cuisine is seafood.
Jeremy: Okay?
Dale: Savannah being my home. Blue crabs were just the most fun. My dad used to take us crabbing
Jeremy: Mm-hmm.
Dale: would. ' em and put 'em on the picnic table and everybody would just sit there for hours and hours and,, pick at
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: I love shrimp and everything that seafood has and there are so many great seafood restaurants in Atlanta. It's, it's crazy.
Jeremy: yeah, yeah. Do you have a favorite dish or you just stick to the category of seafood?
Dale: The category,
Jeremy: Okay.
Dale: ca. I mean, because I love calamari and I love shrimp and scallops and crabs
Jeremy: Yeah. Oh man.
Dale: I do it to call out. It's funny. Lape did a calamari dish at our grand tasting Alpharetta. That was so good. [00:38:00] It was just
Jeremy: Hmm.
Dale: he, he, he had a fryer there. They were hot. They were, you know, just right out of the fryer.
They were fantastic. This past weekend I did go to the Steam House lounge.
Jeremy: Okay.
Dale: I had a bowl of lobster bisque
Jeremy: Mm-hmm.
Dale: their crab salad. , I love fine dining,
Jeremy: Mm-hmm.
Dale: I love the neighborhood
Jeremy: Yeah. Yeah.
Dale: I think there's restaurant for everyone. I think. Love Houstons. I love Houstons.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: that spinach dip. But across the street there is. So there's another restaurant maybe you haven't been to,
Jeremy: Mm-hmm.
Dale: tried, get out there and try a restaurant you've never been to.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: the discovery, the adventure of finding a your next great restaurant is, around the corner.
Jeremy: Yeah. Or come to Taste Atlanta and try all of them.
Dale: And, and that really, you know, that is again, why these hyper-local, smaller tasting events [00:39:00] are so much fun and so really to Atlanta right now
Jeremy: Mm-hmm.
Dale: in one place you've got 20 to 25 restaurants and bakery, so there's sweet and savory. You can get 'em all at one time. are no more taste points, no more taste coupons. Everything now is one price.
Jeremy: Oh, nice.
Dale: your ticket, you come in, it's all you can eat,
Jeremy: Nice.
Dale: wine, beer, cocktail, tastings, live music, everything for
Jeremy: Wow.
Dale: that is 21 and older.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: we
Jeremy: That's awesome.
Dale: are,
Jeremy: I like that. It's simple, simple, easy,
Dale: Keep
Jeremy: one price.
Dale: simple. One price. All you can eat.
Jeremy: Yeah. So Dale, what have you learned about yourself across this whole journey so far? I.
Dale: it's funny, I always bring up a poster or a sign that I have in my office and it says, if you [00:40:00] do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten. And for me, I want to mix it up. I am not afraid of change. I like change. I embrace change,
Jeremy: Hmm.
Dale: feel like as a business owner, we always have to be looking to what is gonna be next.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: a lot of people have said, when, but when is Taste of Atlanta coming
Jeremy: Mm-hmm.
Dale: And like, it is bad. We haven't gone anywhere. We've just changed the focus
Jeremy: Yep.
Dale: , we've made the pivot to really be more hyper-local. But again, that pivot to four smaller events, but we're still focusing on the restaurant success,
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: the chefs, showcasing what they have, where they are, how can we help them improve their businesses?
Jeremy: Yeah. The goal is still the same at the end of the day.
Dale: the same [00:41:00] turning tasters into diners.
Jeremy: That's it. So if you could instill hope into other women who are considering starting their own business, what would you say to her?
Dale: What I would say to her is be organized. Talk to as many people as you can about your idea. Think about what could be right about the business, but what could be wrong? What are gonna be the hiccups? I always like to anticipate what my hiccups are gonna be. So I can talk about them, with my team to say, this might happen.
It may not happen, but I wanna anticipate everything. But I say go for it.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: you know, the worst thing I used to, it's funny, I used to tell even my parents, my
Jeremy: Mm.
Dale: like, but deal, why don't you just go work for Coca-Cola? Why don't you just get a job there?
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: got job security. And I'm like, no, no, no.
I said. Have more job [00:42:00] security over producing my own events, creating my own business. I said I could get laid off anytime, but I said I need to sure I'm in control and make sure that I can do the best I can do, only for myself, but even for all my, my staff. My.
Jeremy: Mm-hmm.
Dale: Employees, my workers, my team.
I want everyone to succeed.
Jeremy: Yeah. No, that's great advice. Great experience. Thank you for sharing that. So we've come to the part where we're gonna pull a clarity card. Here, I'll pull it up so you can see it better. And your card is, what is one of the biggest hurdles you've overcome in life? What is one of the biggest hurdles you have overcome in life?
Dale: Wow. You know, there've been a lot of hurdles. Recession, COVID, but when I think about life, the biggest hurdle, [00:43:00] and this will get me all emotional
Jeremy: Save the good one for you, Dale. Save the good one for you.
Dale: one. It's a good one. know, my mom was very influential in my life
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: I have always. Tried to do what she would be proud
Jeremy: Mm-hmm.
Dale: and passed away last
Jeremy: Wow. Sorry to hear that. Yeah.
Dale: I still wanna make her proud
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: I still wanna my best and make sure other people know that. Your best is good enough, and that's all I can do,
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: do anymore.
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: I think the hurdle of losing her
Jeremy: Mm,
Dale: moving
Jeremy: yes.
Dale: to, create a life and a business that is bigger than me and, , helping others, I think you know, we always wanna reach out and help other people.
Jeremy: Yeah. [00:44:00] No, that's great. Thank you for sharing that. And I can tell you that you, you are enough. You've created a fantastic event year over year, all the way from your publishing days to Music Midtown, to Taste of Atlanta . This talk is very inspiring to me, and I know to the listeners, but also the event that you've created, the way that you have connected.
People with food and drinks and experiences like your mother is proud of you. And I, I have never met your mom. I don't know your mom, but there's no way that she could not be proud of what you've done and who you are and who you've become to be as an adult. So thank you for all that you've done in the Atlanta community in business.
If there's a way that people could reach out to if they have questions or want to connect, what's the best way they can do that?
Dale: my email is very simple. [email protected]. Would love to hear from you, love to
Jeremy: Yeah.
Dale: can help others and I'm available.
Jeremy: Cool. Very easy. Well, thank you all for tuning in and thank you, Dale for joining me today. Thank you, listener for tuning into [00:45:00] the Jeremy Haywood show. If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to follow or subscribe, so you're always up to date when each new episode drops. And until next time, keep following your dreams to find your purpose.
Thank you.
