Meet zachary harrold

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Zachary Harrold. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Zachary below.

Hi Zachary, thank you so much for opening up with us about some important, but sometimes personal topics. One that really matters to us is overcoming Imposter Syndrome because we’ve seen how so many people are held back in life because of this and so we’d really appreciate hearing about how you overcame Imposter Syndrome.

when i was 18 i was kicked out of my mom and step dads house. i stayed in many different homes of family members and friends and finally ended up living in a tent down the road from my grandmas house, panhandling for money.

for 6 years off and on I did this. high school friends saw me and would drive off disappointed. I would get court fines for begging. I started to feel like this was where I belonged, because I wasn’t smart enough to keep a job or because I was too smelly from not having a shower around to apply anywhere. I drank heavily and married with a girl from the homeless shelter. the relationship was toxic and abusive. i felt i deserved someone who was smacking me around just as much as i was unfaithful every day of our marriage. I became comfortable with being the lowest form of me because that’s who I thought I was.
then I meet this beautiful person you guys have interviewed before by the name of Andrea Leahey-Carella. she moved from a New York apartment to NC just to live in a tent with me. i insisted i didn’t want a relationship and she understood that i needed time to heal from what i had been through. i began to smile again. i began to hope for more for myself because she expressed her belief in the same. well, the community saw that hope, and banded together to get us a vehicle.

we ended up travelling the country together. and after years of hard work building each other up, we both are following our dreams to the fullest. she is a licensed massage therapist running her own businesses and I now own my own film production company in which has started two projects this spring already. one film one tv show. we have a daughter together almost 10 years later, who I swore to myself would never have to go through what we did.
how did I overcome imposter syndrome? it took a spark of love, and the modern equivalent of a village.

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Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

the biggest thing I’m working on is Captain Zach’s Adventures. its a sci-fi fantasy tv series that i have been putting together. with 3 seasons and a spin off already written out, we have started principal photography yesterday! I’m happy about it either way, but the goal is for it to be picked up and made more available to the public. I’ve started merchandising options and aim to have panels at any convention that will let us join. the momentum I feel off of this project has propelled me forward on its own and it feels effortless even though its been such an amazing experience so far.
I also have a futuristic murder mystery film coming out hopefully by the end of summer

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Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I survived. with my experiences in life I feel like I can survive anything else life throws at me.
my imagination, while getting me in trouble sometimes, has always been VERY strong. when i write movies or tv shows they literally play in my head first.
patience. Tim Robbins once said that people overestimate what they can do in a year and underestimate what they can do in a decade.

which brings me to the best advice I ever heard:
give yourself that extra decade, that extra minute, that extra pause in life. you deserve it. life is moving slower than your brain. I can almost guarantee it.

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Looking back over the past 12 months or so, what do you think has been your biggest area of improvement or growth?

I’ve lost 60 pounds in the last 6 months to play the main character in this sci-fi fantasy tv series. lifting weights and jump rope, using a calorie deficit program and staying as healthy as I can. I was almost 300 pounds when i started (pandemic era had me steadily eating out of boredom) and I feel more and more like a superhero each day.

Contact Info:

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Image Credits

Captain Zach of Earth & Co

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