This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur Tamara Loehr. She is a serial entrepreneur and creative powerhouse. She is the owner of Mitara Impressa, one of the most renowned digital advertising agencies in Australia. She is a real estate investor, singer/songwriter, who went by the name Claire and was featured throughout Australia and the world. She retired from music at 30. After retiring, she met her husband and began a family and then started her first business in the wellness space growing the business to over $10 million in less than 2 years with no capital investment.
She went on to go through the Entrepreneur Masters Program at MIT and then with the help of her mentors went to her next level investing and leading global businesses. She invested in Gutsii and vegan haircare brand, Hot Tresses, and oversaw the companies growing into hundreds of stores in 6 weeks of their launch date.
She then started Dollar Beauty Tribe. And most recently has released a new book called Balance is B.S. which empowers female breadwinners to play a bigger game in business. Throughout her life, Tamara has basically done the opposite of what everyone thought or expected her to do and it has led to amazing success and incredible impact and I squeeze every bit of wisdom and business advice I can from her in this episode.
www.Loehrblend.com
Tamara leads with passion and likes to evolve constantly. From the passion comes the business. Whenever she chooses something – it needs to serve her and have an impact. She thinks every 5-10 years you should re-invent yourself, not changes your values, but re-invent and evolve yourself.
As she says, “In her 20’s she wanted all the “stuff” and the big office,” and nowadays she wants nothing to do with that.
You grew up in the outback in AU…How did you get to become an entrepreneur?
- Tamara is very creative and has always been an artist.
- To Tamara, an entrepreneur must be creative to solve problems. She grew up in the arts, music, painting, etc.
She got a fine arts degree in university. She is a painter by trade. At the same time, she was writing music and that got her into the business. She began to travel. She then went into marketing and started her first business helping companies grow. She wouldn’t just give them a brand, but figure out the why, how to disrupt, etc.
She was very good, and someone told her she should do it for her own products which lead her to some of the businesses she still has today. Over the years, she has really figured out who she is in that she is a creative who doesn’t want to deal with the heavy details. She likes to be in early stage start up and build them to a point, hand them off to be run, and then go to the next one.
Out of everything you have seen and done, what is the one key ingredient entrepreneurs need to succeed?
- They must stick to their values – even when it ruffles feathers.
- Having values means that you need to show up as yourself.
- They don’t conform.
- It is tough because you may not fit in with what the world says you should be, but in that is where you genius is. Embrace it.
“The last thing most people work on is themselves, where it should be the opposite. You must operate at the top of your game. And when you have the energy and you show up and you are clear on your vision – that’s where the magic happens. That’s when magic happens to Misfits!”
To help you in working on yourself, Tamara asks you to think about and define out your values, beliefs, and “non-negotiables.” What are those for you?
- Knowing these will help to keep you in alignment
At the 15 min mark, Tamara tells us about her book, Balance is B.S.
- The book started as part of a legacy project as part of the Birthing of Giants Program.
- Tamara is passionate about helping more females get into entrepreneurship and business.
- Tamara noticed as she climbed the ladder and grown businesses to $1 million, then $10 million, $50 million and so on, she found less and less women.
- When she asked women as to why they have not pushed to higher levels, one of the typical responses is that they did not want to sacrifice their family, etc.
- This gave Tamara pause as she has built massive companies without sacrificing her family and time with her boys – it’s one of her core values.
- She asked more questions and dug deeper. She found that the bigger the business one built, the more actual freedom and flexibility that they have vs. a small business.
- The book helps people learn and understand themselves and then shows them the possibility of how they can play a bigger game and stay to true to their values.
- The other reason for the book is to make a bigger impact and foster entrepreneurship around the world.
- The best thing an entrepreneur can do is grow a very large, profitable business – and from that give and share with the world.
What are some of the myths that hold us back?
- It all stems from social norms and “what we are supposed to be.”
- We must create what we are for ourselves based on what is important and what our core values are.
- We need to say “no” instead of showing up and trying to please everyone and be a certain way because that is what we are supposed to be.
- It is ok to be selfish with your core values.
- Once you realize this and understand it, you can then empower others to do the same.
- You can “blend” your work and personal life and do it the way you want. Blend instead of balance.
- Put it all together and set the boundaries – then go.
Talk to us more about blending instead of balancing…
You must create a space where you can blend is very important
Making sure you communicate and people understand your values and what is important, so they know how to help you blend.
- Give yourself and give others the permission to blend. Lead by example.
- You must extend the same things that you give yourself to those you lead.
- And there is some stuff that you have to do, no matter what – you may not like it, but you have to do it. Schedule it and get it done.
- Just figure out how to blend it in.
- Every time you are torn between two things, ask “How do I bring these 2 things together and blend them?” And don’t apologize for it.
- Get creative and be open about things – don’t be afraid to ask for help.
Can you give us your top piece of advice from the other areas of the book?
- Self is all about how you serve yourself and how to establish your values, boundaries, and expectations. Everything starts in yourself and flows from there.
- You will need to learn to renegotiate some things.
- Personal is about how you want to journey in life and how you want to show up to live the life you have always wanted to.
- Business is about choice and re-inventing your life in the way that makes sense. You re-invent your life, but not the tools you learn along the way. You take the tools and utilize them to help you create the life and work to serve you. Really knowing what serves you is important.
What are the principles and strategies that you use to build companies?
- Tamara uses the same strategy for every business she starts or comes into.
- They bring their values to every business they work with.
- First, they look at the “why” of the business.
- Then they look at every aspect of the business and ask “How can we do it better?”
- They look at who the business is serving and the impact it can have in the world and ask, “How do we get there as quickly as possible?”
- But, you must be careful to no overcomplicate things.
- Tamara prefers to go deep and narrow and do one thing extremely well and take market share in that area. To increase revenue, you should be hyper focused on the best area to gain it.
- Then after you have gone deep and narrow, gained market share, increased the revenue, etc., you can go wider.
- The next part is to be relentless and not let yourself get distracted from the mission.
- At the same time, you should do the opposite of what the industry expects
- You must be the best in class in what you do. Don’t compromise.
At the 50 min mark, Tamara talks about how and why she built Dollar Beauty Tribe.
Best Quote: “The last thing most people work on is themselves, where it should be the opposite. You must operate at the top of your game. And when you have the energy and you show up and you are clear on your vision – that’s where the magic happens. That’s when magic happens to Misfits”
Tamara's Misfit 3:
- Family is core. You are not a success in business if you fail at home.
- Regularly detox. The mind, the body, and your environment. Cleanse your mind, yourself of bad habits, and make sure to clear your environment of negative influences.
- Do the opposite. Own being a 1 percenter. You are different and need to own it.