Danielle Dzioba is a Communications Studies student at Vancouver’s Capilano University and recently joined the LifeTree Media team as our intern extraordinaire. We love her infectious enthusiasm, warm smile and can-do attitude. Watch for her on our Facebook page, Twitter account, and here on the LifeTree Media blog.

Hi Danielle, great to have you on

board! What’s the first thing we need to know about you?

I’m fascinated with culture and the community that shapes it. I believe everyone has a story that we can learn from, and am constantly on my own journey of self-discovery. Nothing gives me greater satisfaction than accumulating knowledge and seeking truth (it’s a Sagittarius thing).  I love really strong coffee, collect cow creamers, and classify myself as a bibliophile and social media geek.

What is the best advice you’ve ever received?

The best advice I ever received was while I was studying music performance in college and struggling with stage fright. If you’ve ever had stage fright, you know it can be quite a nauseating, dizzying sensation; definitely not my favorite feeling. A friend told me that fear and excitement are two feelings that are a half an inch apart; almost interchangeable. By “flipping the switch” mentally, you can change that feeling of fear into excitement. It really works!

What brought you to LifeTree Media?

I truly believe that self-directed publishing is the future for authors who want to take control of their work, especially for those who perhaps wouldn’t otherwise find an outlet for their voices. We see it already in places like the music industry, where artists aren’t necessarily relying on being “discovered” by record labels, and are instead able to get their music to the masses through creative and independent means. I really love that LifeTree offers a marriage of traditional and emerging publishing options.

What are your favourite words to live by?

There are SO many quotes that inspire me daily, however I think the one that I love the most is from Emily Dickinson’s poem If Your Nerve Deny You, when she says “If your nerve deny you, go above your nerve.” Sometimes life can fall into a pattern of repeat. Temptation to just go with the flow and take the easiest path is always there, but the more I leap over my nerve and take on things that are challenging, the more rewarded I feel within my life.

What books are on your coffee table at the moment?

My selection of books is as eclectic as my coffee table is small. Right now the books (both read and un-read) on that table are: Brave New World Revisited by Aldous Huxley, How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran, The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz, Selections from Walden by Thoreau, The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard, and one of my favorite whimsical fictional works, Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen.