Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Amanda Plante Zovargo Founder . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Amanda Plante, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s something crazy on unexpected that’s happened to you or your business
At Zovargo, we are a mobile zoo that brings animals to all sorts of private events and celebrations. We provide educational animal programming for many local schools, for scout programs, children enrichment centers, and nature centers. One day we were booked for a party and were under the impression it would be immediate family all celebrating a one year old birthday. When we arrived, we heard what appeared to be a DJ and games taking place in the back yard. Our team all looked at each other with a bit of fright and surprise. Normally our events are quiet (the animals can get stressed out if there’s too much craziness) and we may only hear the screams of children playing. This time was going to be different!

I went in to check in with our party contact persons and they were rather hard to find amongst the 10+ tables that were filled with family members laughing, and having the best time watching the family-ran DJ and stage games that were taking place. Have you ever showed up to a party and it was well underway and you didn’t know anyone there? That’s the feeling I had at this moment. I finally connected with someone from the family who knew that they were expecting animals and they said the stage stuff will be over shortly. After a swift set-up, we were on stage with 4x as many people as we were expecting.

What did we do? Our team put on the best, fun, animal show possible! We rocked it! The kids were amazing, the family so friendly and appreciative. We just really did not expect a stage, tons of family, and lots of children. The morale here is to always expect the unexpected and be prepared for anything! Our team is skilled and always ready for anything, so we had the skills to captivate the audience and deliver in this fun, crazy situation! Most importantly too, the animals were all safe and sound – no animals were stressed or upset once we took the microphone and started our show.

Amanda Plante, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I’m a Navy Veteran, with a Bachelors in Science and an MBA. I have worked for the Navy for most of my adult life, which has offered much stability in being able to thrive and also be financially secure when I started this business almost 7 years ago. I got into the animal world when I started as a volunteer wildlife educator and wildlife rehabilitation. I discovered my deep love for wildlife over 14 years ago, and never looked back. Working as volunteer wildlife educator I really learned how to craft my skill in speaking to different groups, connecting with people, and how to share wildlife conservation topics. Today, I continue to go to professional certification courses to ensure I stay well-informed about the latest topics in educational delivery, animal training, animal husbandry, and overall business management.

Today, my organization, Zovargo has grown quite a bit! We travel around San Diego County and beyond to provide interactive animal programs that inspire conservation stewardship. We have supported conferences, galas, weddings, celebrations, and many, many types of school and scout programs. Everything we do has purpose – to inspire conservation stewardship.

I help our clients plan to the most successful events! We have seen so many birthday parties, school assemblies, and other private celebrations that we are skilled in helping clients navigate some of the logistics to ensure their event is a success. Many times, some considerations the client may not be thinking of involves the animals safety and comfort. Many of our policies for our events are directly to ensure the animals feel comfortable. If the animals are all good- then your guests get the most amazing experience to see and interact with the animals!

What sets us apart from others is that we all try very hard to make sure and cover all details with our clients so their event is successful. We also provide a very professional experience with educators/handlers that are compassionate and skilled in what they do. Our animals also very excited and there’s a lot of variety! This variety of animals appeals to many people looking for unique animals that when paired together for a 60 minute animal program is super cool and engaging!

I’m most proud that I have continued to stay driven and heart-forward in this line of work. I don’t get discouraged by much as I know our work in providing educational conservation programs is making a difference in the world. All I want to do is make the world a better place and I’m doing that with my work at Zovargo.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
When the “world shut down” at the start of the pandemic, I knew this change would be tough. We travel to people for our work. – we cannot shut down our organization because of this. Within one week after massive cancellations of our programs, we were offering virtual animal programs to folks across the country and eventually – across the world! I knew our ability to work and deliver programs was essential for our funding and for our animals. We could not sit and ponder. We could not wait it out. We could not wait at all. We started our virtual ZoomFari’s pretty early after we stood up a few virtual programs, then we were really doing it. Sometimes we would do as many as 5 or more virtual programs in a day!

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
What helped (and still helps) Zovargo is our drive to work in the community of San Diego. We work with many civic groups, local nature center, children’s centers, girl and boy scouts, etc.. This work within the community has helped to build our name and create working relationships with groups that we may need to connect with again in the future. Working and serving the community may require a new business to provide that service for free for the first time or even the first few years (yes, we did many free things in the early years). This is building trust in your business and it always pays off to give more than you receive when starting out. We still give back and do some events for lower cost because we believe in community and we aim to continue to work with local conservation organizations more and more!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.zovargo.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zovargo/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zovargo
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/zovargo
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/zovargo
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl7PpDKA3nSPG5-nwyUJqJQ
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/zovargo-santee-2
• Other: https://www.pinterest.com/zovargosandiego/

Image Credits
Jorge Ibarra