What a Summer, Atlanta.
Updated: Sep 23
I slowed down on purpose
My budding consultancy was a bit quieter this summer. And it was intentional. My sons were home from college, and with Atlanta being a host city for the 2026 World Cup, I needed to make room for family time.
So I did what I tell clients to do when hours are limited: focus your limited resources on what matters most to your business. Drop the rest.
For me, it was face time. People. I stopped creating new online content.
I continued supporting existing client work, networking at my local Chamber meetings, and volunteering with Giving Kitchen. And, on June 1, days before delivering the 1st of several marketing readiness workshops, I volunteered with Hands On Atlanta's Together for Downtown campaign, helping with last-minute preparations for the city ahead of the World Cup.
Nearly 30 years earlier, AmeriCorps had anchored me to Atlanta and introduced me to community building and economic development before I could even describe “what I actually wanted to do in life.”
And there I was, sitting on the side of a road at 8am in downtown Atlanta waiting for the tool truck and for the eager volunteers who would help with the final beautification projects.
Soccer was my path to affording college and later connected my husband and me to a community of expats and Americans that we’ve maintained through every adult milestone since.
Now, through my own consultancy, Circle 4 Marketing, I was partnering with the Brookhaven Chamber of Commerce and Atlanta BeltLine economic development arms to help local restaurant owners and operators prepare for that same opportunity.
I had spent 11 years of my career leading marketing efforts at a multi-location restaurant group… and one of the top soccer bars in the country, stretching through three World Cup tournaments and many other international tourneys and large outdoor events in between. I knew what was coming to the hospitality industry and wanted to share those lessons.
I might have slowed down but I didn’t stop moving.
My husband and I spent June and July reveling as fans; we attended official watch parties and reconnected with friends at house parties. We touristed with our out-of-town guests and seemed to bump into old friends every few days. We also checked off a bucket-list experience: England vs. DR Congo at the Benz, surrounded by 69,000 people from all over the world who seemed just as grateful to be there as we were. And we ended that epic day celebrating a USA win. (Shoutout to Fadø Irish Pub!)
Southern hospitality was everywhere. It’s hard to describe the impact of singing, laughing and cheering with complete strangers from all over the world week after week. This feeling, this energy, was all anyone seemed to talk about, and nobody wanted it to end.
Capturing the moment vs. Building on it
However, I couldn't turn off my marketing brain.
Early on, I noticed online that all kinds of restaurants were hosting watch parties. They were all in, posting on social media, creating special menus, and building experiences to draw new diners in.
By mid-tournament, fewer and fewer were keeping the conversation going. The USA games got heavy promotion. Other big matches got less. It appeared that giving guests a reason to come back in August wasn’t on their radar.
I understood why.
Inside those packed bars, staff were experiencing a different energy. Servers pushed through standing-room-only crowds to deliver trays of drinks raised well over their heads. Owners collected glasses and bussed tables to make room for quick turnovers. At one venue, I spotted a server break down in tears as she cleaned up a big spill in her section.
I don't know whether those crowds ultimately delivered the sales the business owners hoped for. Early reports suggest the impact was mixed. But I doubt a lack of effort was a factor.
When your team is running on fumes, marketing follow up is often one of the first things to go. It doesn’t matter how good your technology is.
That was the heart the restaurant marketing readiness workshops I developed: helping businesses think beyond showing up for the moment and consider whether they had the capacity to build on it. An estimated 500,000 visitors were expected to travel to Atlanta during the World Cup, but millions of locals were here experiencing it, too.
The opportunity wasn't only about capturing visitors. It was about turning the energy of the summer into business that could last beyond it.
And as my own client work picked up in August, I found myself navigating those same capacity questions from another angle.
Different scale. Same capacity questions.
That new engagement brought me back into the broader business environment. It was national in scale, but the questions were familiar.
Do we have the capacity to grow? Who owns the work? What systems support it? What happens when the customer responds? What gets dropped to make room?
A bigger budget doesn't automatically mean a business is better equipped to grow.
I've spent my career getting things across the finish line through sheer determination, and I'm good at it. But watching those teams push through the summer reminded me how often we ask people to compensate for what the business is not prepared for.
In marketing, you can't grind your way into making a good idea stick.
As a consultant, I'm hired to recognize opportunities and help make them happen. I'm also hired to recognize when the answer should be NO.
Saying "we could, but we shouldn't do this right now" used to feel like turning away growth. Now I see clearly what it saves: money, time, and team morale.
From neighborhood restaurants to national companies, knowing what deserves a NO is critical to sustainable growth.
Working harder won't grow your capacity.
This summer, I spoke with business owners making careful decisions about what they could take on. Staffing challenges, unexpected setbacks, and life had other plans.
Your business needs to be able to support your marketing. So do you.
Strong foundations, clear ownership, and simple routines give you room to grow. They also give you room to handle the unexpected and have a life outside your business.
The longer I do this work, the more clearly I see how much marketing depends on the whole business behind it. The people, systems, and capacity to support growth. It’s the thinking at the heart of Circle 4 Marketing.
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If you're in hospitality and this summer showed you what's working and what's creating friction in your business, I'd love to compare notes.
Reach me directly at ellen@circle4marketing.com or find some time to chat that suits your schedule!
