Meet Quest Maker Anne Zeiser
Quest Makers are women in their 40s and beyond who've declared
"now it's my time," and then set off on their own journeys to realize their dreams. Every month a Quest Maker is featured in the FREE e-newsletter, Your Next Quest Chronicles. Click here to enjoy archived issues.
Quest Maker Anne Zeiser
From a life in perpetual motion
To stillness and a new clarity
From an early age, Anne has been questing. About every 15 years, she experiences a big-life moment—an inflection—that sets her on a new path. Her first happened when she was 4-years old and her mother died. That's when she learned that the life you have is one you forge on your own. And forge she has, from living in the South Pacific as a young woman to her first foray into entrepreneurship in her twenties, and then in her late 30's to leave corporate world to work in public television at Boston's WGBH. During her tenure there, Anne became one of the leads for the largest and most life altering project of her life, Rx for Survival—A Global Health Challenge. Over her four-year involvement with the project, she discovered her passion work: combining her love of the media with her desire to catalyze social change.
At 48, that passion led her to form her company, Azure Media. For the next 18 months she focused on raising her young son and doing work that excited her and wildly exceeded her expectations. Then an unforeseen inflection point occurred. Anne was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer. Always in motion, for the first time in her life, she was forced to be still. Having had cancer doesn't define her. To Anne, it is but one of the inflection points she has encountered on a journey that, as she describes it, has fueled her passion to "harness the power of the media to raise awareness of and improve conditions in critical social, health, political, and environmental arenas."
Would you share a little of your background?
At age four, my mother died of cancer. I was the youngest of five children. That taught me that life isn't fair and you have to forge your own life.
I went along on my way and at 19, I had another big inflection point. I left college after two years of studying biochemistry. I wasn't all that happy imagining myself in a biochemistry lab for the rest of my life, even though I love science.
I took off for the South Pacific where I lived for a year doing anthropology research on the Māori of New Zealand. I had only the money in my pocket and I didn't know anybody there. Before that, I had been studying in a structured way, but in the South Pacific I combined my interests in the natural world, politics, anthropology and culture. What I was really doing in terms of my life journey was getting to know myself and creating my own authentic path. This led to my first post-college job in state government and then a production job in television news, where I witnessed the influence of the media as a storyteller – a theme that would resurface later in my quest.
In my twenties, I worked in marketing at a variety of advertising and public relations firms. One was truly fulfilling, working with engineers and government agencies to clean up Boston Harbor. All were learning opportunities. When I was 30, I left a terrific job and started my own company doing marketing work, but on my own terms. It was the height of recession and people asked me: "Are you nuts?"
For me it was like Hemingway's bullring where the matador faces down the bull. Starting the company taught me about being fully responsible for my failures and successes, by facing the bull head on.
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| Anne interviewing "Charles Darwin" about the NOVA series, Evolution |
In my late thirties, I left the agency world working with corporate clients because I didn’t want to feel like I was selling soap anymore. Having been a TV news producer in a former life and appreciating the power of the medium, I went to work at WGBH, PBS's largest producer of national TV and online content in drama, documentary, reality, and for children (WGBH produces1/3 of PBS’s programming). There I was able to apply my skills in journalism, marketing, and strategy to something I believed in—public television and its educational mission. I had a fabulous 10 year run there where I headed up the marketing, promotion, station relations, and social impact campaigns for the ongoing signature PBS icon series such as Masterpiece Theatre, NOVA, Antiques Roadshow and Curious George and for scores of big mini-series.
I worked on a few projects during my years there that exercised the muscles that make me tick. These projects became the germ of what Azure Media has become.
One of them was Zoom, a popular kids' show from the ‘70s that relaunched in the late ‘90s. I developed a component of that program called “Zoom into Action,” which inspired kids to volunteer and make a difference in their communities. It had a significant on air presence profiling the Zoom kids (cast) and Zoomers’ (viewers). Together they did various Zoom Into Action projects, an on air and community element. The 350 PBS stations produced local segments to highlight socially responsible local youth and kids shared their ideas in a huge online component.
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Through “Zoom Into Action,” kids have volunteered hundreds of thousands of hours in their communities—helping elders, raising money, and cleaning up the environment When I started that project, I realized that even in my early ad agency days, I was already doing that kind of social consciousness work. Even in the late ‘80s, I was always trying to add a social impact piece to my corporate clients’ business goals and create a second bottom line.
For Brigham's Ice Cream I developed the KidSpeak campaign, which was about giving kids a voice and promoting good citizenship. One thread of my quest is that I care deeply about inspiring youth to realize the gift of giving back.
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With the help of a lot of people, I then worked on a huge project called Rx for Survivial—A Global Health Challenge. I was one of the leads on this NOVA, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Vulcan Productions project about global health in the developing world. It was and is my biggest project to date and probably the most life altering.
Part One was a high profile media event firing on multiple platforms—TV (PBS), radio (NPR), online (PBS.org), print (Time magazine), and book (Penguin)—designed to raise Americans’ awareness of global health disparities.
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Part Two was a public social impact campaign around child survival, getting critical interventions to the world’s neediest children between the ages of 0-5 to dramatically increase their chances of survival. Intervention partners included CARE, Save the Children, Girl Scouts, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and many others. Families, children, doctors, schools, and communities held events, raised money, and donated interventions to improve the health of the world’s children. We also developed an influencer campaign with Congress, journalists, world leaders, and academia to highlight the urgency of global health, raise its stature as a U.S. priority, and affect financial and policy change. In some part, Rx for Survival contributed to the tripling of U.S. funding for AIDS, malaria and TB and a recent 40% decrease in child mortality worldwide.
I spent four years of my life on this project while running two departments at WGBH. It was two full-time jobs, but passion work. Somewhere in the middle of it I knew this was my life's work. The other thread of my quest emerged. I wanted to harness the power of the media to raise awareness of and improve conditions in critical social, health, political, and environmental arenas.
Where did your quest take you next?
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About 2.5 years ago when I was 48,
I bundled my love of the media— in particular TV and film—with my desire
to catalyze social change and started Azure Media. The company tagline is “media-fueled impact.” My company creates high profile cross platform media projects on air, online, in print and on the go, together maximizing audience awareness. For many media projects, we leverage that media awareness to catalyze social change in communities, in schools, and in capitols. Azure designs grassroots and treetops impact campaigns that galvanize constituencies around a solution or call-to-action for an issue, from donating individual time and money to passing national legislation. Azure projects and campaigns often include developing multi-disciplinary strategic partnerships among the media, NGOs (non-governmental organizations), corporate America, and government.
Currently, I am working on a variety of projects in a number of arenas from health care, the environment, childhood obesity, homelessness, and women's empowerment to hunger in America, human rights, entrepreneurship, cultural tolerance, and science literacy.
What it has been like since you founded the company?
My first 18 months with Azure Media were fabulous beyond my expectations both in terms of enjoyment and success. I was working with PBS, WGBH and the BBC, Vulcan Productions, and other terrific partners and projects right out of the gate. In fact, I was turning clients and films away. I loved the work. I wasn't focused on the money one bit. I was focused on my passion and the money followed.
Then in the spring of 2009, a year and half into Azure Media, I was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer. My mother died of cancer when I was a child and my sister had died of breast cancer six years earlier.
This past year has been really tough: four surgeries, chemo with lots of problems and side effects. And, I was raising a young child along the way. I had to suspend much of my work during that time because the treatment was so aggressive All that was compounded by the mental struggle of dealing with the fact that, to date, cancer in my family ended in death. I have had to work tremendously hard at finding both physical and mental fortitude to help me slog through it all and stay positive. Happily, my prognosis is good.
Is there anything you have learned from cancer?
I have been profoundly changed because of my cancer. Now that I am out the other side, there were a lot of silver linings in this experience for me.
Pretty much since I can remember I have always been a perpetual motion machine. The cancer treatment required me to be still for the first time in my life. I mean physical and emotional stillness. I had never experienced that for very long periods of time. It helped me think and to understand what is important. Ultimately, I have come out of this reshuffling the deck in terms of my priorities.
Before my cancer, I organized my personal and professional worlds in two file folders: “Very Important” and it was full of stuff. The other was called, “It Might Be Important” and everything else was in there.
Since my cancer, my life has become clearer and simpler and I now have three file folders. One of them is” Important” and there are only a few things in it. The others are “Whatever “and “Why Bother?” They’re both pretty full. That's how I live my life now. It's sort of a joke, but the point being that there are only a few things that are truly important. I hope I can hang on to that. It is still a fresh and driving principle. I hope it doesn't recede too much, because I cherish it.
Is there anything you wish you had known as you set off on your journey?
To listen more. Do fewer things well. And, advocate fully for the things that I do choose to take on.
What is the one essential quality that you'd tell women to pack for their own path?
Their gut. Listen to it and trust it. It has served me well in all walks of my life: judging people, forecasting business trends, reading my son’s nonverbal expressions. Listening to mine is such second nature that I almost don’t realize how much I use it. It is more noticeable to me when I don't trust my gut. For example, I remember a long time ago meeting someone once in a business setting who I thought wasn’t trustworthy, but I did business with him anyway. Suffice it to say I never got paid. I didn’t listen to my gut screaming, “walk away.”
I think women use their intuition extraordinarily well; they simply don't give themselves enough credit for it and can be reticent about incorporating it into their business lives.
Can you describe how you dealt with any obstacles on your adventure?
I have been extraordinarily lucky. I have a very positive outlook. I'm a glass half-full person. I don't know if you're born with it or it's something you adopt over time. I look at losing my mother at four. Did I have it already or was that the beginning of teaching myself to dig deep and find extra strength and reserves? I don't know. Either way, I've been able to draw on my optimism and it moves me forward.
Also, I have a tremendous amount of energy (although not so much during the cancer treatments). I have been able to dig deep to find just a little more and a little more and a little more. I remind myself of all the other times that something felt daunting, or frightening or undoable and look at how it turned out. And 99% of the time it was OK. I've been able to say: "Keep going. Don't give up. It will be OK." I feel lucky about that.
What changes has this brought to your life?
Where I'm at right now is about simplicity and clarity – and focusing on my priorities.
In the past six months I have been tweaking Azure Media Not only did the stillness affect me at a core level revealing that I was doing too much and trying to be superhuman, it also gave me enough time to reflect on the core concept of my company, which I think is still very solid.
When I started Azure Media, my business plan was to buy a laptop. I didn't say "What's my 5 year plan?" I said, "Let me do the work and see how it feels."
So now I have stepped back and asked myself whether the two core pillars are still sound. They are cross platform media projects and fueling positive change via the media. I have added another element though. In addition to working with media clients, I am exercising more of my own creative muscle and doing more of my own original work. I’m guessing that if I hadn’t had that time for reflection, I would have gone a couple more years before determining where was the next place I wanted to take this.
What helped you stay on your path?
When I was in the throes of lying on the couch, bald and trying not to throw up, I wasn't even consciously thinking about Azure Media. Whatever I was thinking was subliminal. I didn't know what I was going to feel when I came through this. I had no preconceived notions. I got good advice to not worry or think about it and I followed it. Azure Media became tertiary for a period of time.
When it was all over, I could easily have abandoned Azure Media and said to myself "get a job somewhere because I don't want to think this hard anymore,” but I didn't.
Why do you think you returned to Azure Media?
The clothes still fit. Creating Azure Media was still ringing true. Even though cancer had changed me, it still felt right. As I began to think of my professional goals again, I realized Azure Media still looked great in the mirror. It was a classic piece like the little black dress.
In addition, I have a bunch of attributes that my friends say were there even when I was having surgery and chemo. They’re a combination of a love of life, grit, curiosity, a sense of responsibility to the world, passion and creative desires. They don't go away because you have cancer; they just slow down for a while. I have to do things that fulfill those aspects of who I am. Azure Media does that and now it gives me some new creative outlets under that umbrella.
What's been the secret to reaching your goals?
Not giving up. What I see in most of the successful and talented people I admire are people who keep putting one foot in front of the other. That is the difference between getting somewhere or not. It's just perseverance.
What's the best advice for your quest that you've ever received?
Don't give up.
Is there a particular quote, a movie, a book or a person that has sustained you?
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| Photo © Jeekc |
Jane Goodall has been a life-long role model for me. As a little girl, I used to look at National Geographic and say "that's what I want to do."
And, my mother, who came into my life when I was 6 years old, when my father remarried. She adopted and raised us five kids and propelled me forward with love and hope. At 90 she died a few weeks before my cancer diagnosis. She was a tremendous person, the most powerful human being—in every way—that I have ever met.
I am just starting to deal with my mother's death. I didn't have a chance to go there. I thought: "Yes, Mom just died, but now you need to fight for your own life." I had to put my grieving aside to have the strength to do what I needed to do. In the last 3-4 months I have really been letting myself feel it because you have to. As much as I miss her, I still feel more happy than sad when I think of her.
Also, there was a song that encapsulated the stillness and my new simplicity for me. It was the Beatles song, Let It Be. That song was ringing through me during my treatment. Just let things be. Just let yourself be.
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| Listen to Let It Be |
What is your dream now?
Integrating my personal and professional life. I no longer separate them. Azure Media was a distinct personalization of my business goals, but it was still business. I'm not separating those two worlds as much anymore. It's all one holistic way of living my life now. I'm doing more pro bono work. My dream is the way I live my life every single day, both personally and professionally. I do have a practical separation. I work in an office setting. It's important to keep those boundaries between work and home life, so one doesn't overwhelm the other. But, the overriding philosophy for both is the same. I feel more integrated.
Do you have a new quest around the corner?
Right now I am producing three of my own projects under the banner of Azure Media Original Productions. One is an online social film experiment and a book on the power of youth and social responsibility. . I am also working on a trans-platform media project on practical, effective ways the average person can fuel social impact and realize good citizenship.
Finally, I am conducting a comprehensive analysis of media content aggregation and curation in the 21st century. It is a proprietary strategic analysis of where media is going in the future.
If you would like to get in touch with Anne, you can send her an email, call her at
781.342.5142
or visit her website, Azure Media.
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