Tamar is an author, mother, and founder of TAMAR, a fragrance brand designed for who you are, not who they want you to be. She's determined to show the world that the key to happiness and self-improvement is loving and accepting your most authentic self first (and smelling good doing it). You can find more on Tamar and her story at tamar.com

Can you tell our readers about your background?

I consider myself a professional hustler; I’ve worked in the startup world for quite some time and was Mashable employee six as well as an early employee at several other companies. It gave me a great start in understanding business operations from all facets and really, in being a generalist, since I was able to dabble in so many different parts of the business. I’m also a writer; I authored two books on completely different topics (genetic genealogy more recently and social media marketing in 2009!). 

What inspired you to start your business?

I never thought I would ever start my own business, but I had a calling a few years ago after hitting my rock bottom. I hadn’t been aware of it at the time, but I had a lingering mild-to-moderate postpartum depression that began after the birth of my firstborn that lasted nine years through the birth of three more children. In 2018, after suffering a trauma, I realized that I was in a deep, dark place. I spent a big portion of several months going through the motions like there was this dark cloud following me.

And then one-day things changed. For whatever reason, I opened a cabinet and found a vial of perfume against the corner of it and decided to be selfish and put it on.

When you’re depressed, you don’t care about what you look like (my clothes of socks and crocs and sweats would indicate I was not invested at all in my appearance). You also don’t care what you smell like. I wasn’t putting on perfume to smell good for anyone out there. 

Instead, I put it on in an inquisitive way. And that mindset changed everything for me. It awakened my dormant sense of smell is the most powerful way possible. I felt alive again. I was excited by this scent for myself and revisited sniffing my wrists throughout the day.

The thing is, I had tried it on before. It wasn’t a miracle scent. But it was part of the mindset I had going into it that saved my life. And it did. I was more motivated to do things, to take control of my life, to be invested in self-care, to try a lot more scents, and to be a better person. I realized this approach toward the scent, especially in the world we live in today where we’re at home, is so important, because it can truly bring happiness and ground you as a human being.

The fragrance market is oversexualized and all about beauty from beyond. But there’s an element of beauty from within that isn’t being expressed, and I think people, in approaching scent with this mindset, can become happier and healthier versions of themselves.  

And that was my impetus to start a wellness fragrance brand, a unisex artisanal fragrance that ties into the lifestyle of the wearer (and not the observer). 

Where is your business based?

I’m based in New York and have been preaching remote work before we were all forced to work from home in our quarantines. I never had plans to have an office.

Our team is located on both coasts in the US. 

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?

It all really started with the idea that I needed to do this. I spoke to a bunch of people who validated the idea, and then I spoke with someone who would be my “nose” behind the scents I created and he was willing to take the ride with me. After that, I filed corporate paperwork and started recruiting my team, which is hard because admittedly I am bootstrapping and we’re all starting from zero right now. You really need to find someone who believes in the idea and the mission, and fortunately, I have found some incredible people but it took longer than usual.

I hadn’t initially planned on calling the brand TAMAR, but it was Thanksgiving 2018 when I was readying the concept. I pitched the idea to my sister at our dinner table; my brother-in-law, Steve, said “you should call it TAMAR.” Fortunately, I already owned tamar.com since that’s my first name, and it wasn’t more than a resume and a landing page for the books I wrote, so it was easy to convert into a company website. 

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?

I’m still pre-launch, but my awareness to date has been through self-promotion, a landing page email list capture that is intended to build community, social media marketing (paid and earned), and public relations. I also run a podcast, The Common Scents Podcast (tamar.com/category/podcast), that I use to let people tell similar stories to mine (an unexpected career change, rising above the ashes, and embracing self-care) 

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?

I think my biggest challenge overall is fear. What I’m doing is not easy at all and I am afraid to fail. Bearing in mind I’ve put more than a year of work into this project, I want nothing more than for it to become extraordinarily successful. I’m still trying to convince myself that I will succeed. I think imposter syndrome is real for all of us. What I do is force myself to overcome the fear and I read a lot of books that help me get over this hurdle. But often, it’s a step forward and two steps back, as I think it is with anyone who is a human. It’s cyclic. I am overcoming them daily, but I am also finding the fear overcoming me too!

How do you stay focused?

I believe that focus is a product of the passion you have for the work you do. I am focused because I know I couldn’t throw away more than one and a half years of work. I set goals, I have a weekly female founders accountability meeting with a few incredible women, I have a task list that I work on daily, and I aim to get things done, maintaining Inbox Zero while I work on everything I need. I use an app to journal what I accomplish every single day (see below in the “my favorite app” question) and set specific mini-milestones.

 How do you differentiate your business from the competition?

My competition is focused on sexual and sensual. I’m about “selfish” ness. We’re doing it for ourselves because we deserve to feel good.

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?

Interestingly enough, I’m not taking the formal approach toward starting the business. A lot of my business comes from being super authentic with who I am. I am human. I think a lot of people believe in the brand because of who I am as a person. I had the coronavirus; I actually live in the first community in the United States with confirmed community spread (and I got the coronavirus through this community)! I have shared several very down-to-earth stories on Medium (medium.com/@tamar). I’ve been giving back to the community in incredible ways, making sure people are being fed, keeping businesses open because there are people in my community who are interested in supporting them. I know my efforts will pay it forward when I officially launch. I’m not actually doing it for that, though! But this is who I am, and this is the brand I want to create.

This has built upon public relations and word of mouth marketing strategy that will be instrumental with my launch. Additionally, I’m working to partner up with other brands, leverage social media marketing, and building a strong content play. Since I’m pre-launch, I cannot tell you what has officially translated to the biggest conversions. I think all of these together will make a difference. 

What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?

LET GO OF YOUR FEAR. When we look back, no one regrets the risks they took, they regret the risks they haven’t taken. This is why I moved forward on this, but I don’t think I would’ve had the guts to do it beforehand. The more self-improvement books I read, the more I revisit this same message. And here I am, following it as best as I can.

What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

I think I’d have to say three things here: I love Robin Sharma, the author, who writes a lot of books that have really propelled me forward. The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, The Leader Who Had No Title, The Greatness Guide – all of his books are so helpful in ensuring I don’t give up but stay humble. 

I have to throw out Fearless Motivation (https://www.fearlessmotivation.com/). It’s not a blog and it’s not a podcast but by far, this is the BEST thing you can ever listen to when you’re trying to focus on self-improvement. I reserve it for when I run because I want to become a better runner. It’s truly inspirational preaching that helps tremendously with self-esteem and the drive to move forward.

Finally, my favorite app is Daylio. This is an iOS and Android app that can be used for both business and personal purposes; it is a journaling app that also helps me stay accountable in doing things I’ve been committed to. I started using the app in 2018 when I was actually in my rock bottom, but I was also climbing out of it. I personally use it for remembering what I do daily, but also to stick to specific goals I’ve set: for me, it’s been running and reading, which I do daily. At the time of this writing, I’ve done that for 467 days straight without missing a beat. (You can set streaks and reminders to stay focused. I guess I could say that I have been.) 

What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?

This is so incredibly difficult to answer! I think everything here points back to Facebook, which I use for both personal and business purposes. My Facebook experience is curated into groups, and I find that the best resources come from the groups I am most active in. 

Who is your business role model? Why?

I think my role model is Craig Newmark. He created something useful out of something that we already were doing: communicating via email, and he’s so humble, down to earth, and responsive (in near real-time!). I’d like to think my launch is not so incredibly foreign (fragrance already exists); we’re just pivoting in the way we use it right now. Plus, responding to customers directly and doing so in real-time has always been a philosophy I embody (I even ran a consultancy on this core value of mine; realtimeemail.com). I truly hope this brand takes off as Craigslist did!

How do you balance work and life?

I’m responding right now in the heat of a two+ month quarantine (ours started on March 3rd because as I said, we had an early confirmed case of community spread). It’s been really hard because work now embodies volunteerism on top of my day job. Still, I’m committed to running (or even walking – recovery from coronavirus has me doing things at a much slower pace; I usually take 20-30 minutes to myself in walking around my driveway at 11 pm these days!) and reading. 

If we were in a normal situation, I’d take my kids to school, then drive to the gym and work out. Sometimes I’ll get work done in the parking lot in my “remote office” since some gym classes don’t start right away. After that, I will get home, shower, grab a bite to eat, and focus on work all by myself until I have to pick up my kids from school. I’ll focus on the kids for a bit, then resume a little more work, then on whatever else I need to do until late at night. Then I’ll go to bed after reading and doing a Duolingo lesson (I’m trying to learn Spanish right now).

 What’s your favorite way to decompress?

I’m still in this mode that decompressing is inordinately difficult because we’re all in times of such uncertainty. I think letting loose comes from my runs and the occasional karaoke I do on my iPod. I used to be very shy and afraid to speak up, especially in conversations on social media, but fragrance made me decide to try to sing, and when I sang, I decided my voice was worth being heard. I find it almost strange to admit that fragrance spurred a domino effect that has helped my mental health tremendously, in giving me confidence.

What do you have planned for the next six months?

I’ll be launching a crowdfunding campaign to help validate this claim to a wider audience, continuing with production and logistics, and continuing to create content that supports the brand and the lifestyle I am trying to have the brand embody. It’s not just about fragrance, but a movement through the podcast and hopefully books and more.

How can our readers connect with you?

You can subscribe to my mailing list or learn more about the product or crowdfunding campaign at tamar.com. You can also follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram: @tamaressences. 

THANK YOU!!!!