We were lucky to catch up with Doe Zantamata recently and have shared our conversation below.
Doe, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?
I had the idea, well, clear direction to write my books back in 1998. I didn’t know when or how, just that this would be my lifetime goal. This was before the Internet is anywhere what it is today, and long before social media even existed. I began to journal, and lived life outside of that working regular jobs and pursuing other creative projects that had nothing to do with what would be my life’s work…or so I thought. I thought I should have money saved up before I began, but it seemed that the more I tried to save up, the more the money either disappeared as soon as it arrived, or I wasn’t paid for my work. So, I decided to start my social media page (Facebook) with nothing saved up and no knowledge of how Facebook pages worked. Diving right into the deep end turned out to give me more drive and energy for my work than if I had a smooth and elongated learning curve and lots of money saved up to live on in the meantime. It made me go all in, and that turned out to be the exact amount necessary!
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
In 1998, I was living in Tallahassee, Florida and finishing my Biology B. Sc. I was en route to becoming a dentist or a doctor, both respectable and admirable professions, but neither were what I wanted to do. I was bitten by one particular mosquito that changed the course of my life forever. That mosquito gave me meningitis, which landed me in the hospital. The first night I was there, I was given a “right-to-die” certificate to fill out in the event it was needed, and I had a near death experience (NDE). During that experience, my entire view of life and myself exploded. I was given the choice to come back or not. I chose to come back and in no certain time frame, learn how to change the most negative emotions I’d felt in life and live life on Earth as it was intended. That was the first part. The second part was to then share all I’d learned with anyone who wanted to know and who needed to know for their own lives. A dream and a purpose all in one night!
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
Since April 2011, I’ve written, created, and posted to my Facebook page every single day. I believe that the most solid foundation can only be built with daily efforts over time. No matter how small, they all add up.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I had a massive down swing in September 2017 that went on for a year and a half. It started with a hurricane. Soon after, everything seemed to be breaking in my home and my car, I got sick with many different things over the next year and a half, and my income dropped 95% in one month and didn’t recover for years. It was terrible, but it ended up inspiring my most helpful book to date, “Improve Your Life in 80 Days,” and it gave me a real-life opportunity to put all I thought I knew to the test. I don’t think there is ever going to be a “happily ever after,” and even when we think we have life figured out, it can throw us a curveball that sends everything into chaos. No matter how good we are as people or how responsible we’ve been. It doesn’t seem fair, but it is what it is. The only way out is through, even if it takes all the courage and optimism you have and then some.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thehiyl.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/happinessinyourlife
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/happinessinyourlife
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/HappinessinYourLife
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@doezantamata
Image Credits
Doe Zantamata