We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tamantha Bowman. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tamantha below.

Tamantha, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Any advice for creating a more inclusive workplace?

Be open to the unfamiliar. We strongly feel it’s important to embrace all cultures and backgrounds. As kids we grew up amongst diverse communities and the LGBTQIA+. It really shaped our point of view and was a lot of fun. Although we were raised Catholic and both served in the military we never closed our minds to new perspectives.

To stay relevant or interesting is really contingent on your life experience and future growth as a person. If you limit yourself to only people that look like you or are only from one sociodemographic group then you are really limiting your audience. One of our favorite things to do is learn about folklore and traditions from other geographic areas in the world. Do you know about Krampus? Or how about the Icelandic Yule Cat?

Our hope, through our podcast and reaction videos is that they are sprinkled with thought provoking moments of conversation. We may focus on the paranormal and spooky, however we are always learning and we feel that is really how you become more inclusive. When you’re working on a project and you look around the table what do you see? We want to shake up norms and expectations. We have a wide array of input from our Summer Spook Nights team too. Each event has a core group planning and additional input from those within the community to improve upcoming shows.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

We began as a paranormal, travel and cocktails w/a splash of pop culture podcast. Our Frolicking Chronicles indie podcast 1st season aired in October 2020. Now we’re recording our 5th season. Our love for Halloween began early in life because we’re October babies. Being identical twins has been a natural draw to those that are curious because it’s kind of freaky. Traveling was the catalyst to many of our adventures and of course, who doesn’t love a good cocktail while on vacation? That was our initial idea. Since then we’ve tried to seize on all opportunities tossed our way.

We started getting invitations to paranormal investigations, conventions and entertainment events. If our schedules allow it, we attend as many as we can, as long as we don’t physically burn out. We still have real jobs, are married and have children. It’s always a challenge to maintain priorities and consistency.

Our communities are important to us and we believe in serving more than just ourselves. As teens we were candy stripers, then we enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard straight out of high school. As moms, we volunteered with our children at the local aquarium and did our time as PTA board members. We’ve always volunteered in some form.

The Summer Spook Night events we host were inspired by a post-pandemic financial need to raise money lost. Having to cancel events at the Etiwanda Historical Society in Rancho Cucamonga, CA really crushed hopes of a new roof for the Chaffey Garcia House. Roni, an active member on their board, wanted to support small spooky businesses too. I remember when she called with the idea. Since then it’s become a community favorite event because atmosphere and aesthetics are really important. Each show is curated to a theme and vendors are encouraged to participate by decorating their booths. We give out awards, have a Dj, live music, food and photo ops. It was natural that we would want to protect historic properties and support them where we could.

Next up for our company is Paranormal Travel. I’m currently working on my travel agent credentials and curating special trip packages focused on the supernatural. Stay tuned, subscribe to our Patreon and sign-up for our newsletter at www.FrolickingChronicles.com.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

We’re always pivoting in our personal and professional lives. Ending my military career was one of the biggest decisions I’ve made. Deciding that retiring as a Chief Warrant Officer three, rather than pursue another advancement to CWO4 and that I would not finish out my career at the highest rank I could achieve. I had 5 years active and 18 as a reservist. I had to let go of my military career to pursue podcasting and unleash the freedom to speak freely. Also, to give myself permission to get SPOOKY. Not everyone embraces the paranormal or what doesn’t make logical sense.

Family, friends and acquaintances can think we’re strange. We’ve always been strange as twins. Roni always talked about us doing a podcast. We talked about paranormal and travel. Our very first episode is a paranormal experience I had at a restaurant in New Orleans, LA. I had to be ok with sharing that story and also ok with some thinking I’m delusional. It makes me laugh to think about it.

Honestly, I love researching and finding cocktails for our podcast. It really got me through the pandemic. Letting go of one aspect of my life and embracing a new existence has really been phenomenal in so many ways. The greatest skillset you can have is to be okay with pivoting from what you’ve been, to what you can become.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

One of the greatest compliments we get is how good our shows are. That’s a podcast episode, a Summer Spook Nights event or the energy we bring to investigations/meet-ups. We bring authenticity, friendliness and can do spirit. That’s the magic combo in my opinion. In a superficial, fast paced, consumerist society I believe that’s where we’re different.

As business partners we have to look past emotions; yet it seems like we base a lot of our concepts on emotion. As sisters, as twins we are the brand. That comes with a lot of emotional connection. It really is a wild concept. We base a lot of decisions on instinct. Does this feel right? Does it make sense? How can we be better? In the end, it always comes down to answering those questions.

We also want it to be fun. Maybe that’s the Libra in us. It has to be fun or we’re not interested. Sometimes we are bringing the fun.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.frolickingchronicles.com
• Instagram: @frolickingchronicles
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FrolicChronicles/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@frolickingchronicles
• Other: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/frolicking-chronicles/id1534096367

Image Credits

John Gilhooley