Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jamie and Steve Fowler. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jamie and Steve, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you take vacations? Why or why not?

For us, we started The Zoo Review as a result of some fun vacation trips we took. This is basically our origin story! At the time, I was running a small business working six (often seven) days a week, tracking inventory, doing all the purchasing, and managing ten to twenty employees. Needless to say, I needed to take breaks! Steve teaches for a living. So, between class during the day and grading on nights and weekends, he was happy to go along.
We both grew up around animals, and having science backgrounds, we loved to learn about animals and the natural world. So going on Zoo Adventures was a natural fit. We would travel to a large Zoo and stay over the weekend. Then on the drive home, we would stop at a smaller Zoo along the way. We found we loved some of the small Zoos just as much as the larger Zoos, but we would struggle to find reliable information about the quality of a Zoo before we would visit it. Sometimes search engines and travel sites would give a high user rating to a Zoo, but when we would get there, we found it to be average at best. We felt our backgrounds gave us a unique perspective on animal care and conservation education. So, we started The Zoo Review (dot org).
Advice we can give? Go do something that you and your partner or family love. Share the experience, and who knows, maybe you find your passion like we did!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Hi, I’m Jamie. My husband, Steve, and I created The Zoo Review. We travel the country, visit Zoos, and tell people about our Zoo Adventures. Our mission is to Inspire, Educate, and Conserve. By telling others about our Zoo Adventures, we aim to inspire others to visit Zoos. We know that educating others about Zoo animals and the world class care and conservation efforts Zoos provide, people are inspired to go patron their local Zoos or visit other Zoos when they travel. We inspire others to have a Zoo Adventure of their own. While on their own Zoo Adventure, visitors are inspired to become more active agents in conservation efforts themselves. Our goal is to Inspire others to visit Zoos because Zoos are amazing vehicles for Conservation Education.

If you have multiple revenue streams in your business, would you mind opening up about what those streams are and how they fit together?

The Zoo Review has always been a side hustle for us anyway, but along the way, we started another side hustle, Pallas Productions. It’s a place where we can put our photography, graphics and creative skills to use. For now, we sell items through an Etsy store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/PallasProductions

Right now we are selling T-shirts and coffee mugs, but we can also sell pictures, canvases, and other items.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Simply put, do not be afraid to put yourself out there. There will be many times people will tell you “No Thank You”, ignore your emails, or not return your phone messages, but all of that will be worth it when you make the right contacts! Most importantly though, when you get the opportunity to make a good contact, be kind, polite, and informative.

We recently went on a Zoo Adventure, we were so incredibly impressed with the early parts of the Zoo. When we sat down for lunch, we made a point to tell the staff and Keepers we encountered how wonderful our Adventure had been so far. Most of them were thankful but needed to keep moving on with their busy day. However, one Keeper really appreciated the feedback, loved hearing about The Zoo Review, and they became an advocate and ally for us moving forward. Again, you never know when a good contact comes along, but you will never make good contacts if you do not try!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thezooreview.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thezooreview
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thezooreview
• Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/PallasProductions

Image Credits

Jamie & Steve Fowler