Andy is excited to welcome King Dahl, former Executive Director of Events at MGM Resort Event Productions leading the design and sales teams and ultimately responsible for 1200 events a year. King began in the event industry with Cheryl Fish before starting his own company King Dahl event design, which he later sold. King is known for large dramatic productions and he became an inductee of the Event Solutions Magazine Hall of Fame.

King left it all behind to design his dream life, taking time with his family and traveling but also to allow the young guns in the event industry to spread their wings and see what they could do. He now works when he wants, on the events he wants to design and produce, and works around his life instead of living around his work.

Listen as King give us a glimpse into his world, his events, his mentors and why he is glad that his new lifestyle allows him to play jazz again. He didn’t let fear stand in his way as he planned and strategized to make this new lifestyle happen. Listen closely and you may be inspired to redesign your life to live on your own terms.

 

Show Highlights:

[02:04] Welcome to the show King!

[02:32] Andy chats with King about meeting him years before at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

[03:05] King says that he documents all of his events with pictures and or video because once the event is over you only have the pictures left to remind you of what you did.

[04:05] King was born in Indiana and grew up in Coco Beach Florida, his father was the youngest bank president at the time. He saw the Apollo take off from his backyard.

[05:32] He got his love of music from his father who was a very good trumpet player and played with some of the greats of the time.

[07:43] King is a bass player which is why music played a big part in his event planning, it was where he got his creativity.

[12:05] He got a job in his brother’s new company, an event planning company, building props where he met Cheryl Fish.

[13:35] King gives us a rundown on the kinds of events they did those many years ago when this industry really got going.

[17:28] He was given the opportunity to open his own company which he jumped on.

[20:43] Cheryl offered him the position at the MGM to run the sales and creative division.

[23:48] He surrounded himself with the best event designers in the industry and earned their trust and respect because he let them work creatively on their own.

[26:43] King managed by breaking things down by team leaders and department heads. He then worked with them individually to make sure things were handled correctly.

[28:53] You have to allow people on your team to spread their wings and take on responsibility, bringing in their own voices.

[31:03] Have you ever reinvented yourself? Your business? Do you need to?

[32:15] King handled events by understanding where the client is coming from and what the purpose of the event is.

[35:15] He tells us a story of one of his favorite events for the Keep Memory Alive Foundation.

[40:43] King left it all and moved with his wife to Washington State to slow down, relax and travel.

[46:05] He said it was time for him to revamp himself and regroup.  He also wanted to allow the new talent at MGM Grand to flourish and spread their wings.

[46:52] King discusses his strategic plan that allowed him and his family to survive without having a regular income.

[49:25] The day after his last event he said he was walking on air, the possibilities were endless and he felt free.

[52:20] Has King changed since he started traveling around the United States and Canada? Did it open his eyes?

[53:50] After a couple years he decided to start looking around for something new to do and MGM Resort Event Productions asked him to come back on a freelance basis..

[55:55] King now gets to pick and choose when he wants to work and what events he wants to work on.

 

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Title Sponsor: This episode is sponsored by Kushner Entertainment 

www.KushnerEntertainment.com

 

King Dahl

MGM Resorts Event Productions

Facebook – @kingdahlcreative

Instagram – @kingdahlcreative

Twitter – @kingdahlcreative

Mentioned during the interview:

Cheryl Fish

Kevin White

Dan Frazee

Kelly Creative