Salt Lake entrepreneur is cleaning up

Joyce Mathie wasn't ever one to let herself get bored, and she isn't about to start now.

Mathie, Salt Lake-based national distributor of Sargent Steam's BRZ2 steam cleaner, will turn 70 this month. At an age when most Americans are contemplating life on the fairway, or taking that oil painting class, or setting off on a long-awaited travel adventure, Mathie said she's ready to push away from the dock and launch her business — and there's nothing tired or timid about her, or the voyage she's plotted for Sargent Steam.

"You want to know what I want? Really? I would like a Sargent Steam cleaner in every home in America," Mathie said.

Step one toward making that happen occurred 13 years ago, when . . . Wait. No, it was before that.

Mathie's journey actually began in a Utah town called Hiawatha, near Price. She grew up and married early. At age 19, she and husband Alex Mathie

had their first child. By age 21, they had three daughters (a fourth followed a few years later). By 43, the "empty nest" loomed.

"About the time my children were getting older, I got very bored," Mathie said. "I woke up a couple of times, thinking, 'I don't want to get out of bed. There's no responsibilities here.' That's about as close as I've come to being depressed."

So she took a job at a little shop called The Rag Barn, where she taught sewing. It was something she could do, and Mathie discovered that she loved working with women — helping them learn, providing a service that would make their lives better.

She went on to a gig with Bernina, selling their machines and teaching customers how to use them. When that career ended, she was in her mid-50s and looking for something new.

"I thought to myself, 'What can I do? I don't have a college education, and I don't want to rent myself out by the hour doing shift work,' " Mathie said.

About that time, at the Utah State Fair, Mathie spotted a former colleague from Bernina who was exploring opportunities selling steam cleaning machines. Mathie ended up market-testing several, including the Sargent Steam model, and fell in love with it. She'd become her own first customer.