Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Latasha Smith. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Latasha, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

This business was and is God inspired. I was literally traveling as a nurse, sitting idle at the time, in a hotel room in Boston and God just placed this idea in my spirit. I immediately called my youngest daughter and told her what I was thinking. She was skeptical and honestly didn’t think it could be done. But I started in that moment researching and digging up as much info as I could about the culture, flavors, spices and how to’s. Fast forward two weeks later, I returned to Atlanta, and got to work! I had no blueprint and no one to ask for advice or bounce off ideas because I didn’t know anyone who knew how to make what I was proposing much less, how to do what was proposing. When they say entrepreneurship is a lonely venture it truly is.
I had to figure out the concept from beginning to end, plus how I could deliver it to the public to maintain the integrity of the recipe. It was challenging, it was frustrating, It was almost defeating. How do you take something like this and provide it to the public, while maintaining is original form.

Latasha, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I can honestly say this industry of food/beverage choose me. I never took a cooking class, learned to be a chef or worked in the food industry prior to this, Getting certified in food handling, commercial kitchens, and learning how to. The idea went from being conceptualized, then I created the first recipe, got the business licensed and registered to generating revenue in less than 30 days. Most people here on the east coast have no idea what an Mangonada, which is one our signature cups, was exactly. They don’t know what it’s made of or what it tastes like. Mangonadas are derived from the Mexican culture, as well as the spices. Chamoy was derived from the Asian cultures We provide education all around it because we want to serve up a complete experience along with something that tastes good, pleasing to the palate.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I never created this business to be outside but we’ve been outside through heat, rain, cold, slow traffic or the other, we’ve maintained the integrity of our products and tried to deliver an excellent customer experience, I guess we do alright because people keep coming back over and over again. Loyalty and showing love is everything no matter where we are in the city.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

We were working our social media, and waiting for to grow at the rate of watching paint dry in the wall, then one day we posted a video, that went viral overnight, it was crazy and we just grew like crazy overnight. That video has over 4 million views. It was a lot to handle and take in for a minute, but we handled it and remained humble at the same time. It is true what they say, TikTok can change your lives because after that video went viral, people showed up in droves to support us, We are so thankful for each and every person who likes, follows and shares our content. We are most proud of the fact that we have been blessed to have grown our social media organically. We never paid for a follow, used influencers or celebrity endorsements. Now, that’s not to say we would’ve love an endorsement but we are certainly ecstatic at how our presence caught wave purely on our efforts and God’s blessings, The love has been 100% genuine and organic in nature. We honestly love our customers because they are truly the best!!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.dolcetropical.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dolce_tropical/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dolcetropicalatl
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/dolcetropical
• Other: TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@dolcetropical