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Meet Zachary Hall of AtZacharyHall in Phoenix

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Zachary Hall.

Zachary, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I am born and raised in Phoenix having grown up in the West Phoenix Neighborhood of Maryvale. My first job was at a local roller skating rink called, Rollero. I was 10 years old and really enjoyed roller skating on the weekends with my friends but often times it was too much of a financial burden for me to go as often as I would like. My parents encouraged me to ask the family ownership if there were ways in which I could assist them in their business in exchange for the opportunity to skate as often as I liked, it was then I found my first mentor, Tom Wyse.

It was through his mentor ship and the opportunity to begin working at a young age I learned the value of building relationships or regulars, providing great service, and building the trait of working hard for something you want.

I knew working in service was something that I valued early on as being able to put a smile on someone’s face when they come to your place of business was extremely rewarding. I loved sports and dreamed of the opportunity one day to call that my job.

At 19, I started with the Phoenix Suns organization working on their in-game entertainment teams for the Phoenix Mercury, Phoenix Roadrunners and Arizona Rattlers throwing t-shirts, learning to do trampoline dunks, putting on funny mascot costumes when needed and getting fans excited to help our teams excel in any moment.

During this time, I was pursuing a college education beginning at Phoenix College and then moving on to Arizona State University to earn my B.S. in Business Administration. It was my senior year at ASU when an opportunity came up with the Arizona Coyotes to become a mascot that I began the next step in my sports journey. February 2009, I was still working at skating rink at Skateland in Chandler, AZ as the General Manager, working for the Phoenix Roadrunners as their mascot, the Arizona Coyotes as their mascot, the Phoenix Suns in-game entertainment team, working the NBA All-Star Festivities here in Phoenix and then auditioning for the Arizona Diamondbacks Mascot position that had just come open.

During my audition for the D-backs Mascot position of Baxter, I had to miss many classes during the day for various appearances and at the end of the 2-week audition upon being offered the job, I had a decision to make. Unfortunately, the job was going to require me to miss more classes and the position was mine or I could finish school and not take the position. I dropped out of my senior semester to take the job knowing that I couldn’t pass this up. This job became my career for the following 9 seasons up until Opening Day 2018.

I finished up my undergrad in the fall of 2009 and during my time at the D-backs, I even went back to school and earned my M.B.A. in Project Management over 2013-2015.

Through my time working in sports, I was able to travel the US visiting various ballparks, build some amazing relationships throughout all of the sports and most of all help bring joy to fans of all ages each day. This is where “Dont Sleep on Planes” came to life. I had utilized this once in a lifetime position as a professional mascot to grow such a unique network around the world and many people would always ask me how do I get connected, stay connected, and most of all whats in it for me to be connected to so many people?

“Dont Sleep on Planes” has changed my life. While I have enjoyed building my own network, having created the opportunity & self-help book of sorts to encourage readers to build their own through sharing some of my own tricks has been the greatest achievement in my career.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
In my life, there have been a variety of challenges. Be it growing up in 2 separate homes through a divorce, living on food stamps at times, being a part of the free lunch program at my elementary school k-8 grade or going home on Fridays from school with a backpack full of canned food for the weekend. I remember growing up and looking forward to having a bag of hand-me-down clothes from family friends allowing me an opportunity to find new items to wear to school. When I look back at many of these obstacles, I am so grateful for the one constant, love.

Now, as I continue to grow in my career and in business I look for every opportunity possible to share my energy and support to as many causes as possible. In working in sports, while there were many nights in which I was working games, going to galas, etc. There were just as many appearances in which I was visiting low-income schools, non-profit events or community impact projects put on by team sponsors with similar missions.

When I look at my own life, I know it took mentors, hard work on my own accord and keeping a glass 3/4 full approach to many things. I do believe that positive thinking starts with yourself and each event that takes place in your life needs to be filtered with empathy to fully understand everything that is happening.

As an “author” I had no idea what I was doing, I just knew that each day I needed to write a bit more than I did the day before. Because at the end of the day if you say you want to write a book, the first step is writing, and the second step is writing more. There is no handbook for how to write a book. You write, your edit, you organize, and when it is all said and done your market.

Through my struggles growing up and the obstacles that came my way learning how to be an entrepreneur, I appreciate being able to share with anyone my own “how I got here”every day.

AtZacharyHall – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
“At Zachary Hall” started with me sharing my story through my first book, “Dont Sleep on Planes.” The idea stemmed from the digital version of myself, @ZacharyHall which you can find Twitter & Instagram. I realized that everyone I know may have my phone number or email, but as I continue to grow in this digital world, it was going to be through digital media that I was going to build new relationships with people around the world hence “AtZacharyHall.” When I think of connecting with people often times you receive a business card which is great because you have their title, their email and their phone number but how often are you actually going to use that? Probably only when you need something right?

This is why I have worked to build my personal brand of @ZacharyHall because the more I share digitally or on social the more people can learn about me but also there are more opportunities for people to connect with me outside of that typical “catching up” phone call or email.

Through “@ZacharyHall” or “www.AtZacharyHall.com” I am able to produce digital content each day allowing me to connect with the world. The idea that in a tweet, an Instagram post, a #hashtag or podcast I can meet someone new that may be able to impact my life, support my business or impact a community is the single greatest idea to me. I love that our society is a non-stop conversation on digital media and should you choose to participate you can connect with anyone. Your favorite athlete, artist, author, leader, etc., they are all available to connect with.

In 2018, I am most proud of having built a platform in which I am able to share my energy with the world, share my network with those that need support, and most of all continue to connect with new contacts each day. I am grateful that God gave me the comfort of being extroverted and I look forward to helping others find their way to grow their own network each day.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
When I think of success, the most important thing to me is happiness. I have connections who have been actors, elite athletes, professors at universities, and just because they have wealth or prestige due to their success they are often times missing happiness.

At the same time, I have connections that are teachers, blue collar workers, hospitality professionals or salesmen and while they may not have the wealth or prestige in their day to day work they can be the happiest.

At the end of the day, true success to me is happiness. When you are the happiest you enjoy what you do, you enjoy the people you work with or help and most of all you are happy with your work-life balance.

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Getting in touch: VoyagePhoenix is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

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