Meet Tasha Ali | Yogi and Entrepreneur

We had the good fortune of connecting with Tasha Ali and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tasha, how has your work-life balance changed over time?

My work-life balance has completely transformed from my old lifestyle to now. After several years of intense focus on my career as a senior accountant for a large television and media conglomerate, I made the decision to redirect my focus to my “hobby-turned -business” and allow myself more flexibility in planning my daily activities aligned to what matters most.

Then, my lifestyle as a full-time professional consisted of work that included: 9+ hours in the office, 2 hours of commute time through aggressive downtown Atlanta traffic, and 2-3 hours dedicated to my growing online plant business that I had started on ebay. This would leave only 10 hours for the life portion of the tradeoff, which included sleep time and all the responsibilities that come along with being a spouse and mother to 2 growing children!

Now, my lifestyle prioritizes the most important elements of my life first. My daily schedule includes 2 hours of self-care activities that include my kriya yoga practice, reading books, scanning magazines for inspiration, and other enrichment activities to develop my skills and support personal development. This time dedicated to my personal wellbeing has been instrumental in helping me to unlock my full potential, benefiting not only myself but also those living and working around me. This dedication to prioritize my personal wellbeing first, has gifted me with internal balance and a more fulfilled life.

What should our readers know about your business?

I started JUST BLOOM®, in 2011 after falling in love with everything related to gardening. I began making terrariums as a means to continue gardening when the cold winter months would force me indoors. Soon, I began getting requests from my coworkers at the office for my custom made terrariums. This allowed me to build upon my craft and to develop my own style in the way I designed. In 2015, I was able to grow the business exponentially by taking our business online, power-selling airplants on ebay!

As an entrepreneur, what sets me apart from others is my experienced background in business, while also an artist with a unique perspective. Our custom terrariums are designed with my artistic signature making our products truly one of a kind. Our interior design is uniquely focused on biophilia, which incorporates natural elements in the design of living or working spaces. The main purpose of this biophilic design within spaces is to improve dweller’s connectivity to the natural world. This increased connectivity stimulates our senses to bring balance and reenergize our bodies and stimulate creativity in the mind. This understanding of biophilic design allows me to design spaces more intentionally, bringing positive effects to the environment for maximum return on investment = healthy people.

I am most proud of our endeavors through our 501(c)(3) nonprofit , JUST BLOOM!® Corp, which focuses on nourishing individuals in underserved environments, encouraging these individuals to reach their highest potential. These efforts include providing resources to our village in the Philippines, in the form of food, clothing, toys, household items, travel experiences, and much more essential items to live more comfortably. In the village, we have also built a home for family and community bathroom for resident farmers, and also funded the rebuild after damages from an earthquake destroyed the family house.

Our JUST BLOOM!® nonprofit group also creates outdoor experiences for multicultural youth, to encourage them to spend more time outdoors to receive all the natural benefits provided by mother nature. These outdoor experiences add sunshine and fresh air into their lives to naturally improve mindfulness, which in turn promotes more positive mood and good mental health.

A professional background in corporate accounting/finance and also experience working with small business owners to create solutions to improve their overall business operations, is what helped develop me and get me to where I am today. Most entrepreneurs will agree that it is not an easy path. You will surely face challenges in your entrepreneurship journey, and often alone since we tend to wear many hats. For this, strong leadership qualities, persistence, self-discipline, and a solutions-oriented mindset are of most importance to endure those challenging moments. Also important is the ability to pivot when necessary and evolve the business, as needed.

My solutions-oriented mindset allows me to overcome challenges. The best example of this occurred during the pandemic when all physical storefronts closed, with my main shop supplier included! What was most challenging, the closing of physical storefronts drove many customers to our online shop, dramatically increasing demand for a product I could no longer source. Of course, this was a great problem to have! So we were forced to either find new sourcing or refund a significant dollar amount to customers and close up shop. With persistence and a solutions-oriented mindset, I was able to find a new supplier with amazing quality products. This pivot also created a new income stream for our new suppliers, providing new work opportunities during the pandemic when jobs were scarce.

This challenge taught me the value in persistence and to create the opportunity I was seeking. I trained our new suppliers on how they could run their new business. Now, 3 years later, we still work together to make sure that our shop customers are satisfied with their products.

Our brand JUST BLOOM!® is symbolic of the products that we sell. As a plant is not an overnight blooming success, neither is the growing of a business from seed. Both require regular maintenance to reach its full potential. Just as a plant requires sunshine, your business requires your focused attention to provide it with adequate nutrients and to stay in healthy condition. Cash flow is the water that nourishes your operating activity to keep it growing. And of course, love and care are key essentials in the process that help most everything Bloom!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If I were showing my best friend the area for a good time, I would take them to both the city and also into natural environments. The city of Atlanta provides a number of museums, great restaurants, and amusement parks to experience. We would enjoy six flags for an afternoon and the aquarium for another. We would eat at the restaurant Escobar-Atlanta to enjoy good food and music. We would also take some time in nature and visit Stone Mountain Campgrounds to stay in their Yurts. Finally, taking scooters to zip along the Atlanta beltline would be a great addition to our itinerary.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I would like to give a big shoutout to all our customers, who have supported our plant business. They have been great supporters, allowing it to grow and flourish over 12 years. I would also like to thank my Yoga teacher, Heath, who introduced me to my daily kriya practice and to The Isha Foundation. They have both been instrumental in my spiritual growth and personal transformation. I have so much gratitude for my parents and want to thank them for instilling important values and serving as great examples of strong work ethic. Most importantly, I would like to thank my husband and 2 children, Ahmad, Taliyah, and Cairo, who have supported me through all the shifts and pivots in my journey while still encouraging me to keep going and to keep on Blooming! Cheers!

Website: www.allthebloom.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/allthebloom

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allthebloom/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/allthebloom

Other: host.peerspace.com/just-bloom www.etsy.com/shop/AllAboutMoss