We recently connected with Mimi Zieman and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Mimi, thanks for joining us today. 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?

The biggest risk I took is the topic of my memoir, Tap Dancing on Everest, (April 2024, Falcon/Rowman & Littlefield) about the risks we take to become our truest selves.

I grew up as a city girl in New York, the daughter of immigrants, but I accompanied a small team of mountain climbers to a remote side of Everest in Tibet to serve as the “doctor” when I was a 25-year-old medical student in 1988. I was terrified that I’d fail in my role if serious injuries or medical conditions occurred. To prepare, I studied high-altitude medicine for a year and a half, and struggled through many doubts, wondering if I should back out. Ultimately, I went, and serious things did happen on the mountain. The climbers needed me. The experience was hard in many ways, but I grew enormously. That’s why I think it’s worthwhile to take risks even though it can be terrifying and challenging.

As I got older the question of what makes some people take more risks than others prompted me to explore the decisions that led me to Everest and try to create a book that would resonate with readers. The more I wrote the book it morphed into a coming-of-age story because that’s the period of life when we focus on important questions of self: Who do I want to be in this world? What do I want to do? What brings me joy?

I went to Everest, risking failure at my job as “doctor,” to be in my happiest place. To live and breathe in the mountains for the 3-4 months we were there. The title derives from the fact that my prior dream had been to become a dancer, but I wasn’t brave enough – could not risk – entering that creative field full of rejection. And there I was on the mountain a few years later facing risks of a different kind including life and death. I brought my tap shoes to Everest and fused my love of mountains and dance.

The irony was that while I wrote Tap Dancing on Everest, exploring risk and my fears at age twenty-five, I relived all the same emotions but in the context of the risk of exposing my vulnerabilities in the book. Although I avoided becoming a dancer because of fear of rejection, I was now experiencing all the risk and rejection that goes along with being a creator of a different kind – a writer trying to get published. It is encouraging that I gave up creative endeavors earlier in life due to fear but am now able to be creative and express myself as a way to connect with others. I hope others will see that it’s never too late.

Mimi, 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?

One day, I quit a high-powered medical job, and the following morning I sat at my home desk and started writing my book, Tap Dancing on Everest. I had wanted to tell this story when I returned from Everest, at 25, but couldn’t fit that into my busy medical training schedule.

What I’ve learned about myself is that I’m willing to jump into things, even when not completely ready, if I’m being called to do something from deep inside. This story was calling to me thirty-one years after it happened, and I dove right in.

Several years earlier I had read WILD by Cheryl Strayed, a book centered around hiking the Pacific Coast Trail, and thought “maybe it’s not too late to tell my Everest story,” but had still not acted on that thought.

When I did start writing, I looked at old journals and discovered that I had also really wanted to become a writer but had buried that desire for decades. When I finally started writing, the words poured out. But I had to study craft, so I took many classes, workshops, webinars, studied craft books, and joined a writing critique group. I kept telling myself that anyone can write a book, but my goal was to write a good book. That took enormous effort.

I learned that I needed to publish essays to find an agent, so I did that. I found an agent, then a publisher and thought “that’s it, I’m done writing.” But I have since also written a play, The Post-Roe Monologues. It was supposed to be a one-night event but has been performed in multiple cities.

My favorite accomplishments have happened when I have not planned them. When I’ve followed my gut and jumped in.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I have pivoted so many times in my career, usually driven by an internal feeling of dissatisfaction. There is always fear before a pivot, and then I end up enjoying the next job because I have to learn so many new things.

Being a physician -and the field of medicine – is usually filled with straight lines. I have never felt like I fit in this world well, and my pivots have never been planned. In the world of writing novels, authors are considered either plotters or pantsers. Well, I’m a pantser in life – as in flying by the seat of my pants. First, I had trained to become an OB/GYN specialized in endocrinology and infertility, but I needed a one-year position and found myself doing a fellowship in Family Planning. So, I pivoted and gave up my first goal and built my career around Family Planning.

Then, after ten years as an academic, I pivoted to building my own business as a consultant. I left a secure and prestigious career at Emory University School of Medicine and ventured out on my own. Working for myself was more creative and I thrived.

My next pivot brought me to the role of Chief Medical Officer for Planned Parenthood Southeast and then to VP of Research and Clinical Development for a medical device startup. That job required I learn a whole new industry and was the final job before my biggest pivot to become a full-time writer.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Yes, the foremost is creating connection between people. When I’m vulnerable on the page, someone else is going to see themselves in my story. In so doing, I hope to be in conversation with my readers.

I also have the goal of using my voice to advance causes I believe in, or to better the world. My father was the only survivor of the Holocaust from his family. He became a psychotherapist who worked on human rights issues and worked to build bridges between groups. He inspired me to use my voice as an advocate. I promote reproductive rights, the subject of many of my Op-Eds and of my play, The Post-Roe Monologues.

Along these lines, I’ve been a researcher and educator focused on contraception. I’ve co-authored sixteen editions of a guide for healthcare providers called Managing Contraception.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mimiziemanmd.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mimiziemanmd/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mimiziemanmd
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mimi-zieman-md-44ba68b/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/mimiziemanmd

Image Credits
Tap Dancing on Everest Book cover, photo by Stephen Venables. Playwright Zieman at NYC Benefit production of The Post-Roe Monologues With co-author of Managing Contraception, Dr. Robert Hatcher Photo John Stanley Inside cook tent at Base Camp, Mt. Everest, Tibet, Photo Stephen Venables Zieman treating Tibetans with snow blindness Photo Venables Dinner at Mt. Everest Advanced Base Camp Photo: Ed Webster