Sarah Dale Left a 30-Year Career to Build Project 1490

Sarah Dale likes to describe Project 1490 as Girl Scouts for grown-ups, with good wine and deadly weapons. Behind the joke sits a serious idea. It's a community for accomplished women who have hit every traditional marker of success and then found themselves quietly asking, “Is this it?” She built the answer to this question outdoors.

Sarah Dale is the founder of Project 1490, a community that gets successful women out of their routines and into the unknown through outdoor adventures, wilderness skill-building, and small peer advisory groups. A member of the Entreprenista League, she spent more than 30 years in advertising and media first, including a decade in leadership at the Wall Street Journal and a run as a chief revenue officer. Then, she married two chapters of her life that had never met.

Sarah learned to leap and trust that the net would appear in the mountains of Montana.

The Montana chapter

Early in her career, Sarah took a hard left turn off the corporate ladder and moved to Montana for 7 years. She learned to bow hunt, snowboard, and fly-fish, and faced down the occasional mountain lion. That is where she discovered how empowering it is to get outside your comfort zone. She eventually returned to the corporate world and spent more than 30 years in advertising and media.

Why Sarah Built Project 1490 for Women Leaders

Sarah had been entrepreneurial since childhood. She started a bookstore at 10 years old using her neighbor's used books and later built 2 small businesses in Big Sky. Back in New York, she realized the outdoors had become her confidence, and she saw a real idea in bringing those 2 worlds together. "Now that I'm doing it for real, I can't go back," she says. She launched Project 1490 as an experiment, unsure who needed it, and reached out to her network to find out. The response, in her words, came back like gangbusters, and the larger marketing plan is only now coming to fruition.

The transformations she's proudest of

Sarah is proudest of the members themselves, many of them now in their third year, and the changes they have made. They have published books, started LLCs, changed jobs, and negotiated for what they wanted.

"I realized how, at times, I have made myself smaller so someone else could feel big. That is one hundred percent over now. I feel reborn."

Another member arrived for a single retreat and, in 48 hours, lived what she called multiple lives, an archer, a drummer, a poker player, and a survivalist, and left ready to launch a venture of her own.

Who Project 1490 is for

Sarah built it for successful, driven women who can feel a shift coming and cannot quite see its shape yet. They tend to be a bit restless, tired of surface-level networking, and ready to do something brave alongside other women who value real connection over collecting contacts.

Learning lessons and what's next

Sarah is candid about her biggest early mistake: believing she could do everything herself instead of protecting time for revenue-generating work. She found real help along the way, including grant coach Kat Weaver, whom she met through the Entreprenista League, and marketing guidance from Amy Porterfield.

Next, Project 1490 is rolling out member-led events so women can have the experience wherever they live, and running its fourth signature retreat this year with more on the way.

You can learn more about Sarah's work and join a retreat at project1490.com.

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If Sarah's mission to help women find clarity and confidence outdoors resonates, the Entreprenista League is a community of women founders who value connection, shared experience, and practical business insight as they grow. Learn more about the Entreprenista League right here.