Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Hive Member Spotlight - Tamara Mathews - WA




I am Tamara (Tami) Mathews and I live in Pasco, WA, which is on the desert side of WA State. I was born in Seattle and lived there until I was 10 and then transplanted into the desert. I have been married for nearly 32 years to my high school sweetheart and bestest buddy Leon. We had the pleasure of raising 3 incredibly talented and fun children who grew up to be awesome and inspiring adults. They each married great spouses that we love and adore and have made our family even more special as they have given us 8 adorable grandchildren (5 girls and 3 boys). Each of our children are entrepreneurs, which I think is pretty awesome.

My husband and I are avid gardeners. It is something that we love to do together and share with others. We have a half acre of lush garden with stone paths, gazebo, arbors, ponds and waterfalls that we built together. We share our garden with others through garden tours, classes, weddings, receptions and other events. It is very rewarding and something I don’t consider hard “work”, even though it can be pretty exhausting and time consuming.

My husband quit his career in sales after 22 years and turned his passion and boyhood hobby into a new career as a full time taxidermist. It took a lot of courage to walk away from a steady income, company truck and all the bennies to break out on his own and do something he loves. He and my children were the inspiration to change the direction of my life.

I quit my job where I had worked for over 10 years and wanted to move out of accounting after working in it off and on for 30 years. I was searching for something that inspired me. I had written down the criteria that this new path required. It had to be fun, uplifting, creative and mobile, because I hoped to spend my winters in Hawaii and travel and it needed to have that capability. I was at my daughter’s blog site one day and she had a link to the UB personality test (she had seen it at Design Mom’s sight – thanks Kelsey) and when I emailed Kelsey about where I could get the products in my area she replied immediately that there was no one on my side of the state and neighboring states, so a light bulb went off in my head. I started scheduling my parties before I had even tried the product. I am a fragrant lotion junky so it wasn’t much of a leap.


I have been involved in both network and direct marketing in the past and all were extremely positive growing experiences, so I didn’t hesitate to jump in with both feet with Urban Botanic. My family and friends are incredibly supportive, so much so that they had my schedule booked for parties for the first and second months of my business.

Probably the most difficult challenge many of us face is being a literal pioneer in this business; and what comes with being a pioneer is building our businesses in our areas alone. I so appreciate the support and encouragement from my up-line via modern communication, as well as the inspiration I receive from the other designers across the country who contribute to the boards. Your input, ideas and experiences are absolutely the best kind of support I can have at this point in my UB business. I also can’t say enough about the generosity of time in sharing your business building tools. Thank you, thank you, and thank you!!!

I have had the opportunity to travel a lot of late and I have been spreading the word of UB wherever I have gone, without regard to whether I personally will benefit from those conversations and the materials I give out. I know that it will come back to me, as what goes around comes around. If someone else recruits from my promotion of UB back East it is all good. At this point exposure is our goal and the more we are out there making UB known the more success everyone is going to have. I just really want people to benefit from the products and the UB experience, as it is so unique and everyone needs to have that experience for themselves. That won’t be possible without us all working together for that purpose.


My Personality Test results are: Leafy 26%, Fruity 24%, Woodsy 16%, Herby 15%, Spicy 10% and Floral 9%

Where do you see yourself with Urban Botanic in the next year? Are you a business builder, In it as a hobby, or somewhere in between?




This is an interesting question because the last five years I have had to change the type of person I had always been due to suddenly dealing with a chronic illness. I had to cease being so driven and demanding of life and begin living my life day to day, according to what strength and health I had that day. The Serenity Prayer took on a whole new meaning for me. It is requiring a lot of faith for me to schedule my life (parties) for a month or two not knowing what my health is going to be at that time.




I really feel I was lead to UB and it is in a way therapy for me and has given me something other than my lack of health to concentrate on. With UB I am able to control my life more. When I was working full time it demanded more of me than I sometimes had, so with UB I am able to pace myself and have the control I need to stay healthy. I am sure there are many women out there dealing with the same type of health issues that I have to deal with and UB would be an answer to their desires to have something that inspires them while providing them an outlet to provide additional income or even socialization that is so needed when dealing with chronic illness.


What is one personality trait you have that you think will help you be successful at UB?




I am not afraid to talk to people. They are after all just people, just like me. I actually love speaking in front of a group of people and I also love teaching and UB is very much about teaching, both at parties and with recruiting.




Shawna's Fun Questions:




If you were an animal what would you be and why?




Definitely a Humpback whale because they winter in the tropics (big smile) and they are just such absolutely amazing creatures, graceful, playful and powerful.

If you were told you needed to do 10 UB parties in a month and you'd win 1 million dollars but you couldn't tell anyone about the million what would you do to get them?

That is such a difficult question for me. I was once driven by money and now I am driven by living a healthy balanced life and am not as motivated by money at this point in my life. I would be more motivated by thinking about all the great people I would meet doing those 10 parties and the fabulous creative energy that would result. Having said that though, I just got back from NYC and the shopping and Broadway shows has me rethinking my motivation. I am sure I could do 10 parties in a month because so many people are curious about UB; so I believe I would definitely win the million bucks! Are we having a million dollar contest? I am having some serious NYC withdrawals.

1 comment:

The Garden Maiden said...

Thanks for pushing me out of my comfort zone Shawna. You are a great leader! Thanks also for all your support.