We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Meena Amani a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Meena , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’re complete cheeseballs and so we love asking folks to share the most heartwarming moment from their career – do you have a touching moment you can share with us?

One of the hardest parts of taking care of exotic animals or even your pets is when they get old or sick. We had a Wallaby named Winston and he was so sweet. I could go into his enclosure and call his name and he’d hop over and want a massage or to hang out. He the most adorable over bite. He had gotten really sick.

The owner of our center, Stacy was working tirelessly to take care of him. I don’t know how she does it. She’s a rockstar! I often say if you could get rich rescuing animals. She’s basically the Bill Gates of rescuing animals. He needed round the clock medicine and treatments.

I was leaving on a trip to film Jaguars in Pantanal. I was so worried he would pass before I came back. Luckily, I came back and he was barely hanging on. I went into his cage and he was getting his medical treatment from the owner. Everyone left and I just sat with him and tried to make him comfortable.
I left and we all went to tend to the other 78 animals. I came back 30mins later and he had passed.
I went to let people know and I walked by our baboons cage. I was crying and sat down next to the enclosure. She put her hand out and held my hand to comfort me. I dont know how she knew that was exactly what I needed, but humans share 98% of our dna with chimps. We still have so much to learn from nature and all the animals that we share this earth with.

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?

I have always wanted to work with animals since a very young age. When I was 8 I was reading zoo magazines in class and by the end of the day I came up with supply and demand. I went vegan before I knew a word for it. To protect animals and help people have empathy for animals has always been my mission.
When I got older I got distracted and studied others things, but I always came back to animals. In 2015 I went to HI on a retreat to swim with wild dolphins. It really changed my life. Dolphins were so sophisticated in their communication to each other.

I couldn’t stop thinking about the incredible interactions we had with them. Completely unexpected and every encounter was with respect and orchestrated by the dolphins who would play or leave us. The group I was with had been swimming with these dolphins there since the 70’s and knew each dolphins name and personality.

I came back home where I was doing spinal rehabilitation and personal training. I couldn’t stop thinking about when I could she them again.

Which lead to many more dolphin visits. Then following animals like whales when they migrate to see them. So it was pretty natural to start filming them. It gave me a reason to need to spend time with them. Which led to photographing animals on land as well.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

When I was in my 20’s I was working in a spinal rehabilitation clinic and had no intention of starting my own business. Then insurance reimbursement rates started to drop and they wanted us to see more and more patients per hour.

Of course people weren’t getting the attention they needed. So in a way I was forced to go out on my own. I spent what little money I had saved all on marketing. Nothing no one single call. I had to admit failure.

I met with a dr who knew me and she said she had been looking for me to send patients to. I told her I wouldn’t accept them, as I didn’t want to steal people from my old business. To which she said, well I am absolutely not sending them there so it’s you or someone else.

For me I grew my own business not because of marketing or anything other than really listening to people’s issues and fixing them. Then they would show their doctors or surgeons how they had improved. The doctors would ask who they had seen. Pretty soon I couldn’t even see new patients.

So never underestimate just helping one person. Thats all I did and one led to many.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

Find people that are really good at what they do and always be humble enough to want to learn more from them.

I have always been surrounded by high level achiever’s in so many fields, but never underestimate that just because it’s not your exact field that those lessons won’t help you.
They have all taught me so many things from so many fields that I still use today.

When I started learning from the executive director of Animal Tracks Stacy. It was very easy to get frustrated because things that seemed to come so easy to her were so hard for me to figure out, but when I realized she had spent her whole life around animals. So it was second nature for her and for me it would take more work.

Ever have a hard time with office staff? Well, imagine if they were monkeys. Boy, it can be really difficult and just when you get a little cocky and think you understand primate language and culture. You interpret something they do, though your human lens and ask Stacy and she laughs and lets you know how far off your idea was from the truth. Then she explains exactly what they are saying or doing and why. The funny thing is, it always makes complete sense when she does. There is just always so much more to learn.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: meena.amani
• Other: Youtube channel is on the way!

Image Credits

Tiger shark pic with me and my camera- Kinga Philipps
African photography pics with me and my camera- Nili Gudhka