We’re looking forward to introducing you to Tara Green. Check out our conversation below.
Good morning Tara, we’re so happy to have you here with us and we’d love to explore your story and how you think about life and legacy and so much more. So let’s start with a question we often ask: What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned about your customers?
The most fulfilling realization of my career is the importance of self-care and the awareness of humanity that comes along with that. While I would not say it’s surprising, all people deserve to feel beautiful and rewarded with opportunities for self-care regardless of your socio-economic status or where they come from. I never judge a client by where or how they live as all of us have a story to tell, a struggle that no one sees, and are as deserving as the next person to feel good about ourselves, inside and out.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Tara Green. I am the founder and sole proprietor of TanTara Mobile Airbrush Tan. I have serving the Greater Kansas City Metro area since 2016, providing mobile airbrush tanning services to people in their homes. I have been the recipient of local awards such as The Pitch Best of KC from 2020-2023, and the Kansas City Star Silver Award winner for 2024. I am also proud to say that I am a Miss USA tan sponsor for the Midwest region and have been sponsoring our Missouri and Kansas Miss and Teen representatives since 2021.
What makes TanTara unique and sets me apart from the rest is my focus on quality versus quantity. Having retired from a career in Legal and Economic Development, I wasn’t necessarily looking for a “get rich quick scheme” but instead something slower-paced that I could enjoy and be proud of. While my availability can be limited at times, my clients know I am serious about what I do and they can expect expert level customer service, dependability, and quality in every service.
As my demand for services has increased over the years, I have been seeking the right spa placement for a little while now. My hope is to create a spa location that I can serve more clients on the busiest days of the week, Wednesday and Thursday. During the busy season, from March -July, I turn away too many clients due to lack of availability on these two days and can book several weeks out. My current focus is to resolve to this problem by bringing an esthetician on board for in-house aesthetic and tanning services.
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. Who saw you clearly before you could see yourself?
My Mom could always see who I was long before I had the confidence to believe her. She would always say, “Tara, I know you can do anything you set your mind to.” I was always stubborn and she knew I was too headstrong to give up or be told I couldn’t do something. And so I set out to eventually prove her right, even though I didn’t realize that is exactly what I was doing. I always had to be the best in everything I put my hands on. Whether is was cooking, baking, art, writing, music appreciation, maintaining a 4,0 through college while married and working full-time, starting my own businesses, or acting as her attorney on occasion – I was always throwing myself into something. I could never just be good enough or like everyone else because that is what she impressed upon me. I remember when I went to prom with one of my guy friends in high school, it was last minute because he didn’t have a date, so we had to buy a dress off the shelf (gasp!) She never wanted me wearing what everyone else was wearing. I had to be unique and different and she was right. I walked into the bathroom at that prom and there were two other girls with variations of the same dress. I was mortified and have had a disdain for anything seen as trendy or a fad ever since. HA!
She is still my greatest fan (obviously). My mother is also a beauty service provider and has been a cosmetologist and seamstress in Jefferson City, Missouri with a focus on wedding design and alterations since the 70’s. I guess you can say, I come by it honestly. My mom is a Chatty Cathy too – now you know where I get it.
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
In 2008 the economy had crashed. I was working for an economic development firm, sitting on top of the world and suddenly, my career was gone. I struggled HARD for a year thereafter. Gas prices were over $4.00 a gallon, my then fiancé had taken a job in Columbia, Missouri to help us pay the mortgage, and our relationship was barely hanging by a thread. I sent out over 235 resumes that year trying to find anything in my wheelhouse to no avail. (I still have that resume file in my email inbox today. It keeps me grounded.) I began working in a grocery store and doing sales at Bath & Body Works to stay socially warm while interviewing day in and day out. It had become a full time job just trying not to lose my house, which I eventually sold by a short sale. I even needed to rely upon public assistance just to put food on my table because part-time was barely paying the bills. I was receiving utility assistance from the United Way, and my job counselor was talking about ‘homelessness prevention assistance.’ I was terrified and embarrassed and I never felt more alone or hopeless in my entire life. I had been very successful in local politics and then suddenly I was disposable and invisible. At that time, there were people with masters degrees living in their cars. I will never forget what we went through as long as I live. You will often hear me very passionate about political issues because I know first hand what can happen and no one is above or exempt from that.
It made me stronger. I learned that I could get through no matter what I faced with a little faith and a lot of hard work and I did. The day I finally landed a job in my field, I was sitting in First Watch having breakfast with a friend and I sobbed. An entire year of stress and fear just poured out there at that table. From that day forward I stopped depending on others to provide my security. That no longer existed in corporate America. It if were not for that experience I would have never been brave enough to eventually let my career go and venture into the unknown of something entirely different on nothing but faith and determination.
So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
My closest friends and confidants would tell you my love for animals and cat rescue matter more to me that anything. My partner Brian and I have a historic property in downtown Kansas City near the old Northeast. Unfortunately, even though our neighborhoods are very eclectic, there is a high animal dump rate that breaks my heart to no end. I care for ferals and strays by spaying and neutering, vaccinating, detraumatizing, and rehoming discarded, abused and neglected kitties. Despite being very rewarding when another baby finds their forever home off the streets, it’s very stressful and expensive. I have several of my own that are foster fails or could never be placed in a home and they take up the majority of my free time. I wouldn’t change it for the world even though my bank account tells me to stop while I’m ahead.
Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. What do you understand deeply that most people don’t?
I understand the struggles of the LGBTQIA+ community on a cellular level. I was born with Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser Syndrome. This a congenital birth defect that impacts the lives of 1 in 5000 women world-wide who are born without reproductive organs despite being chromosomally female and appearing normal on the outside. This congenital anomaly is categorized as an Intersex condition and part of the LGBTQIA+ spectrum. As such I have a much deeper understanding of the gray areas outside of the black and white that those not born this way will ever understand. There are many conditions that impact children from birth that are far from what is considered normal and they are not choices. For most of our lives, we live with shame and judgement from those who do not understand – that shapes who we are and how we interact with the world socially until we become comfortable in the skin that we’re in. For some, that never happens. About 12% of youths have attempted suicide in the last year and upwards of 46% will consider it. It for these reasons we have a deeper level of compassion and can more easily love and accept people for who they are rather than expecting them to conform to societal ideations of sex and sexuality.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.tantaratans.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tantaratans/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tara-green-16b72b26
- Facebook: https.//facebook.com/tantara
Image Credits
LMG Photography, Devine Studios, Adri Guyer Branding Photographer, Brooke Buck Photography
