Female Founders: Chef Tamearra Dyson of Souley Vegan On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Kristin Marquet
Bet on you. If you don’t get a loan, find another way. This will help you build faith in yourself, maybe not quickly, but at some point, you will become a spiritual giant, able to make the tides move around you.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Chef Tamearra Dyson.
Chef Tamearra Dyson was a single mother with zero capital when she opened her first restaurant in 2009 with about $20 something dollars in the cash register and built it from there. This 2,700 ft location now serves as the flag ship location. Since Covid 2020, Chef Dyson has opened three Souley Vegan ghost kitchens in Las Vegas, San Francisco and Los Angeles. In addition, Tamearra has recently opened a sister location that sits right behind the original Souley Vegan location in Oakland. The new restaurant is called “The Back Porch, which a Cajun bar with upscale bites and serves as a “little sister” to Souley Vegan.
Recently beating Bobby Flay on the January 20, 2022 episode A Deal to Beat Bobby Flay was the culmination of her years of hard work and her passion and creativity of vegan cooking. Having been on The Food Network a few times before but appearing on Building Bobby Flay was something that chef Dyson is terribly excited about. Chef Dyson holds so much respect for Chef Flay, not only for what he’s accomplished but how far he has come with his work and dedication.
Chef Dyson having come from an extremely underprivileged background enjoys motivational speaking, mentoring others, and of course the obvious…creating new recipes. Public speaking is her passion, and she wishes to one day have more time to dive into this area as she feels that she has a lot to share. Her wish is to inspire and motivate others.
Chef Dyson has accumulated many accolades from best vegan restaurant to best soul food restaurant to being voted one of the top 10 soul food restaurants in the country by USA Today. She was also voted entrepreneur of the week by Black Enterprise. She has served celebrities such as Stevie Wonder, Erykah Badu, and Eric Benét. Additionally, her okra gumbo was voted a Weight Watchers favorite for Oprah Winfrey‘s “2020 Vision: Your Life in Focus” tour.
Chef Dyson has been invited to speak at Tesla, several colleges, and the list goes on. Her goal is to have a future cooking show and speaking engagements, allowing her to share her story with others.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I started Souley Vegan in November of 2006 — one prerequisite away from nursing school, a single mother with no savings…yet I felt I had something to offer the world. In the process of launching Souley Vegan at a local farmers market, I lost everything. Having left my job to pursue my dream — I was evicted from my apartment, car repossessed — the list goes on and on. Anything that could happen did happen, however, my will to succeed was stronger than my adversities.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
When Stevie Wonder came to dine with his whole crew and asked, “Do you have space?” LOL Did we have space…it was a very busy night, but I was like, “Ummm, ABSOLUTELY!”
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I have learned so much along the way. Once, as I was transporting a table for a catering event, the table flew off the top of the SUV while we were on the freeway! We began to pull over right before it detached from the vehicle — but the wind was so fierce that that table almost blew out of our hands! Lesson was to tie down your cargo securely…lol
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
There have been many that showed me grace along the way, but my Uncle Patrick helped me get equipment for my restaurant so I could open and allowed me to pay him back in increments.
Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
“The Alchemist” taught me that life’s journey has little to do with the end goal, and more so about the journey to get there — which has been my story.
Do you have a favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life or your work?
“Play for more than you can afford to lose, and you’ll learn the game”
Risks build character and makes a person stronger.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
Teaching, public speaking, mentoring youth.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?
Maybe lack of confidence in the “knowing” that we can succeed in whatever we so choose…I built Souley Vegan from $27 dollars in the register. It was my desire that made us succeed
“You do not need someone to believe in you in order to succeed-you only need to believe in yourself”
Can you share with our readers what you are doing to help empower women to become founders?
Leading by example and as many speaking engagements as possible — sharing my lessons and experiences. I will one day have a non-profit to mentor aspiring entrepreneurs.
This might be intuitive to you, but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?
To control their/your destiny. I always thought to myself that no one will have control over me that I do not want them to have — that being said I run my own world. Me and Go.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Can you please share 5 things that can be done or should be done to help empower more women to become founders? If you can, please share an example or story for each.
1. Take a chance. If you fail or succeed, you will be stronger and you need to build strength to get what you want in this life.
2. Bet on you. If you don’t get a loan, find another way. This will help you build faith in yourself, maybe not quickly, but at some point, you will become a spiritual giant, able to make the tides move around you.
3. Don’t wait. Do it, do it NOW. Don’t look back. Keep going. Decision making and persistence are key.
4. Don’t be so hard on yourself. We are all our own worst enemy. Seek out stories of victors with stories of adversity.
5. Be laser focused. Don’t pay too much attention to irrelevant information around you that serves as a distraction and or a deterrent. Learn to shut it out.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
Mental health awareness. Many are not ok and are afraid to say it.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
@MarkCuban — to have a conversation about Souley Vegan’s expansion! We are ready…
How can our readers further follow your work online?
IG @SouleyVegan
Twitter TamearraDyson
Linkedin Tamearra Dyson
Website TamearraDyson.com
Website Souleyvegan.com
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
