Leveling Up with Vasi Sideman

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Are you ready to level up?

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Do you wish to live a life of options and
not obligations? You've gone to the right place. Thank you
for stopping on by to hear knowledge nuggets from Coach
Fergie and his top tier guest to help you lean
into your ultimate human potential. Now let's level up with
Coach Burghey.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
Hey, Varsity Squad, Welcome back to another powerful edition of
Lovelock Conversations with Coach Fergue.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
With the time to Shine Today Coaching.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
I'm your host, Scott Ferguson, blessed to be your gap
coach specialized in performance mental conditioning, working with business leaders, entrepreneurs, entertainers, athletes,
c suite and students to help them bridge their success
gap to live a life of options and not obligations.
On this platform where are stoked to bring you high
performers who are not just chasing and attaining success, but
redefining it through providing above and beyond service. And this

(00:48):
week's kind of coaching knowledge nugget, we're going to go
back to gratitude. Gratitude is something that my clients out
there know that I absolutely require. By nine am, a
text of three things are grateful for a lot of
people ask me why why do I Why do I
do that? Because what we're doing is we're going to
really activate that reticular activating system, that RAS system. You'll

(01:09):
hear people talk about say, you know, I've said this before,
but let's say my producer Brian Mutt has a Tesla
and I've never seen one before. I go to Brian
and Brian's like, hey, for you, come check out the tesla.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
So I go. I look at it.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
I see his emotion to it. I'm emotional to it.
When I drive home. How many teslas do you think
I'll see? Probably see ten or twelve because it's activated
in my brain at the forefront. So gratitude, if you
start your day with an attitude of gratitude, it will
pull yourself through the day. And after my coaching clients
after a few months, it's like they don't feel right
if they don't put out their gratitude. So again, you

(01:43):
bring about what you get about. So let's just start
practicing gratitude and talk about gratitude. I'm super grateful to
bring on our guests. My good friend who is not
just snapping photos, she's capturing legacies. Vassi Sideman is a
third generation master photographer with not one, but two degrees
on photography and a gift returning ordinary moments into timeless art.

(02:04):
Based in sunny South Florida, Vossi's lens tells powerful stories,
whether she's photographing pets that steal the show, entrepreneurs building
their brand, or families preserving their legacy. Her work has
touched thousands of lives and she's just getting started. But
she doesn't just keep her brilliance to herself. Bossi is
also a globally respected educator, mentoring up and coming photographers

(02:25):
around the world, teaching them how to create not just
beautiful pictures, but meaningful masterpieces. This isn't just photography, it's
storytelling with a soul. And that's what my good friend
Bossy does. If you see any of my marketing out
there with my arms folded power pose that Vassi put
me in, that's Vossi's magic.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
She actually makes me look good, look powerful.

Speaker 3 (02:46):
And Vassi, thank you so much for coming on in
the caveat me and her are really good friends as well.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
Yeah you know, and so thank you so much for
coming on. Vassi.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
It's I've been that kind of baited brought the have
you in here and talk about your photography, because anybody
in Palm Beach has such a beautiful area needs to
have you behind that camera.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
So how are you?

Speaker 4 (03:04):
First of all, high Scott, and hi to everyone who's
listening this episode and to be friends honest with you,
I am very grateful and you really started the show today.
Gratitude is very important. Yes, say thank you, thank you
that you woke up, thank you you have great family friends,
so and then I would say thank you for being

(03:25):
a friend of mine and thank you for everyone who
trusts me to be able to capture their story with
my camera.

Speaker 3 (03:31):
Yeah, and like if you are blessed to ever go
to our studio, it's like you could see some of
our artwork there if you go to our website, is there,
but you got to catch it in person. Plus, as
a third generation photographer, you know, how is your family's
legacy right influencer approach to capturing these moments especially you
know also not just people but also pass It is.

Speaker 4 (03:52):
Very special knowing that it actually it's not only third
generation photographer, but it comes also from my mom's side
as well, and I'm the full generation of artists. It's
just really like looking through the pictures of my dad
and looking through the pictures of my grandparents and my childhood.
It really brings so many memories and reminds me nowadays

(04:15):
when I show them to my daughter what an important
job I have. And yes, sure we take pictures with
our cell phones. And I definitely would encourage each of
your friends to kind of utilize your best friend your
fund in addition to your fir babies. But it's really
like empowers me because I know that I continue the
family legacy.

Speaker 3 (04:34):
You transition about fifteen years ago from Bulgaria to Florida, right, yeah,
we moved here, you know, and built this thriving, you know,
photography business. What challenges did you face and like, how
did those challenges shape your entrepreneur journey?

Speaker 4 (04:49):
Great question. So, first of all, will start that I
almost didn't speak any English, but sure enough I do
have an accent, but at least I'm speaking thinking and
dreaming in the English, which is really great. I did
work for a photographer, and I would say the first
thing was the culture I had to integrate and being

(05:09):
able to know what norms, and then it was really
running the business. I understood that the last thing as
a photographer. It's to take pictures. It's all about the
connection and the relationships and just whatever we do for living.
It's just making everyone on the other side feeling very special.

(05:30):
So it was building the trust of the partners I
worked with it because very fast I grew my business.
I am currently working with most of the animal clinics
and bad businesses the offices I take the business portrait.
So it's pretty powerful to be working for over decades
for people.

Speaker 3 (05:48):
So you had the language barrier, was like, how about
getting business? And what was really kind of put you
over the top because a lot of people call you
like all the time they do. One thing I love
about you is your realist photographer. What I mean by
that is, you know, I am a real estate broker
and I do take listenings here and there, and when
you come out, you actually make the house look like

(06:09):
the house. A lot a lot of these photographers make
this room look thirty by fifteen when really it's twelve
by ten. Right, So I appreciate your honesty and your
photography as well. It's absolutely beautiful. How about the pet photography, right,
I still got to get my three fur babies in
with you, right. Also, you got to take a special
picture of my Susan as well that we've talked about before.
But that'll probably make her blush when she listens to this.

(06:31):
But like pet photography, right, it's a niche, but it's
an emotionally rich field. You've had pets are only around
for you know, unfortunately ten maybe fifteen years.

Speaker 1 (06:42):
But what drew you to kind of have a specialty?

Speaker 3 (06:45):
You know, you do everything, but like you have this
passion with the pets and the pictures that are just
beautiful cats, dogs, whatever, But how do you capture the
unique personalities.

Speaker 4 (06:54):
Of animals when they call me the pet whisper for
a reason, right, It's about connecting the relationship and capturing
the personality of the paty and also people. It's very
special to me and the way it started when I
worked through my photographer. He kept asking me if that's
what do you want to specialize in. For a while,
my husband and I we couldn't have kids, and one

(07:15):
day my mom said, well, I tell you all the
neighbors in Bulgaria about your children. Like what are you
talking about? She said, yeah, I tell my neighbors you
have a doggie and a kid, and they your kids,
and then I realized, okay, so they are photographers who
they do weddings and events and fashion, business, ports, And
I said, well, I mean I'm going to become the
pet photographer in our area. And going back, how did

(07:38):
I build my business? Literally I was going from business
to business to business to business. I printed over two
hundred canvases, and I went to every place from Pound
Beach gardens to JUPI thirty questers toward the array, and
I was offering to decorate their place. And here I
am but also very important part giving. So I was

(08:01):
offering too many rescues and different fundraising.

Speaker 3 (08:05):
Question, your work supports pats and veterans, right, yes, can
you share one of the like maybe a memorable story
of where your photography made a significant impact in someone's life.

Speaker 4 (08:18):
Yes, I will. And so I had this veteran who
just he was going through a trauma and a rescue
gave him a pet. So they came to me to
photograph a few of them for the van. After I
took the picture, it was very empowering because I captured
the connection between the two of them and it was

(08:38):
like absolutely amazing. But he had a very severe problems
in a way accepting the world.

Speaker 1 (08:45):
So PTSD veterans out there.

Speaker 4 (08:47):
Right, Yes, So after I took the picture, he looked
at them and he started believing in himself. He really
builded his confidence and I never will forget went from
the rescue and he also told me, Vassi, my son
told me he has his dad back, and that was very, very,
very powerful. And there are so many stories and to

(09:10):
be friends honest with you, people keep calling I'm the
first one who knows their pet it's not doing well.
Unfortunately their pet it's not with us, and they always
call me or text me. Sometimes it will get text
messages a tentary PM. Vassi. We are so thankful. It's
so special what I do, and I love it. I
love it from the bottom of my heart because even sometimes,

(09:31):
and I'll be quick with these, people would say, well,
my pet it's not going to behave I mean, I
do have portraits with seven pets looking in the camera,
and I'm like, you don't worry. If you need it,
you have to, you can step out, I can take
the picture. And they're so thankful.

Speaker 1 (09:45):
Yeah, you make it just a memory.

Speaker 3 (09:48):
What you said there with a veteran is that I
know that you know, I work with a couple of
organizations where canine is where we put the right canine
and a dog with a veteran and it does change
your life. And for you to capture that moment from
them that that's God like you just said, it's just
got to be like feeling just fantastic. And I know
that you did have kind of a pet pics platform

(10:11):
before and it was a lot about educating people, yes,
and photography, right, And I know that we dissolve that
for good reason, but you still give back and give
forward to for people that want to be photographers. Yes, right,
So tell us a little bit about like how you
do that and how you got to give and help
people get to at least halfway to your level.

Speaker 4 (10:31):
Yes. Well, even with some of my clients, after I
take their portraits, they get very sport and they're like,
what's you want to have the same portraits when you're
not around. So they typically would hire me one on
one and I would show them how to take beautiful
pictures or videos with their cell phone and to edit them,
how to organize them and etcetera. So then then thank me.

(10:55):
And one of the rewarding thing was when one of
my clients two and some sorry students. She said, was
able to restore a picture with my grandparents seven years
after her grandparents passed away. And I was like, amazing,
And yes, sure I close pet pics, but my forwards
they continue, Yeah, I always teach, I catch myself. I

(11:18):
always teach. And for all of your friends who have business,
this is very crucial for your business, pictures, videos now
more than ever in the air of technology and the
importance of us running business. This is important to embrace it.
And if I can say something else, whether I have
discovered over all these years and hundreds and thousands and

(11:42):
thousands of portraits I took of business people and branding
and pets and families, many people struggle and I was
one of them with the confidence. And they keep saying, oh,
I would lose a few pounds, I would you know,
like I need to do my hair, and it said,
and then they wait and wait and wait, and unfortunately

(12:03):
sometimes it's late to go back right, and it's.

Speaker 1 (12:08):
Time passes you by, and people, I want to look
perfect for a picture.

Speaker 3 (12:12):
But I got to tell you squad out there that
you know, no matter what you feel, you look like
Bossi's going to bring out the best in you. That's
no matter what she's going to make you. She hits
angles that you know, got rid of my third This
is when I was a lot heavier, but she got
rid of my third chin.

Speaker 1 (12:29):
You know. Then she's like, hey, Scott, just turn and
look like this. Oh my gosh, she made me shine.
And speaking of shining.

Speaker 3 (12:35):
Squad, we're going to take a break right now and
get a really quick mortgage report from our sponsor, Steve
Austin over at Revolution Dynamic Team.

Speaker 1 (12:46):
Thanks Scott.

Speaker 5 (12:46):
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(13:10):
past the consensus.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
Last week.

Speaker 5 (13:11):
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(14:27):
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Speaker 3 (14:40):
Hey spot, We're back with my good friend and awesome
sauce photographer. And I'm telling you if you're if you
need a business portrait or you're you want to document
that history of your business, give my friend Vossi a call.
I mean, it's like you can reach out through me
or we'll get our information here. A little bit towards
the end of the show, but I got to get

(15:01):
to a couple more questions about the kind of personal
branding in photography. So you obviously you'll take the pictures
and stuff, but you also help them project authenticity and
confidence in their images and get it out to the
correct outlets.

Speaker 1 (15:17):
Like what do you do for them?

Speaker 4 (15:18):
Absolutely great question. I love this question. So first of all,
when I talk to people, I ask a lot of questions. Friends,
I really do. Yeah, from what do you like to do?
What is your ideal client? I always ask to show
me your social media, your website. I truly want to
get to know you, and then I will give you

(15:41):
a recommendation about clothing, about covers, about everything. What I
feel is going to really make you shine and capture
your ideal quiant. And sometimes people don't even know who
is my ideal quiant. So as an artist, I can
step back. I can think the way that I the
acquired things and I would tell them, listen, do this

(16:03):
makeup for a man, make sure you take do your haircut.
I would also suggest about props. I would suggest about
location and so like sometimes when we do branding pictures,
like I had this lady. I mean we went to
a home and we went outside. I mean she changed
seven outfits. Wow, and we did and listen, we did
them pretty efficiently, and we did with computer around the

(16:25):
pool about you know, like I gave her a huge
variety so she can take those pictures and get a
lot of mileage. But it is important we need to
understand and I will just bring this very quickly.

Speaker 1 (16:39):
Now.

Speaker 4 (16:39):
In the air of AI, a lot of people decide
to actually go ahead and take an AI portrait. Well, friends,
it's not the same. It's not the same because what
we do as photographers we build a confidence. We show
you who you are when truly who you are, what
do you stand for? What is your message? And yeah,

(17:00):
you can approach to any business portraits or you to
any photos and I can generate a hundred pictures. You
can pick a couple of them, but you didn't go
through the experience. This is not really you. This is
zeros and ones who define who you are. But are
you really this person?

Speaker 1 (17:16):
Love it and you bring out the authenticity in the person.

Speaker 3 (17:19):
I mean, I get so many compliments just on my
business portrait that you've took. You know, they're like, wow,
that's actually you, Fergie. I mean that's it. Like you
nailed it, which is a beautiful thing. So with you
nailing it and just getting it out there, you've received
multiple multiple awards, yes, you know for your work. You know,
how do these recognitions influence your creative process and professional growth?

(17:43):
Because you are so sought after, it's like for me
to get on your schedule. Sometimes it's like, uh, and
I know you must be in friends you kind of like, yeah,
stuff around I really appreciate, But like, how does it
influence your creative process?

Speaker 4 (17:55):
Well, a lot of people think, like when you go
to a lawyer, they need to have a degree. So
it's more about having all of these degrees and awards
showcase cretability. But the knowledge. It's about the knowledge. What
knowledge do you have? And to be honest with you,
it's not even like you get a degree, but do

(18:16):
you continue constantly learning like you're an amazing coach and
people think, oh, I'm really good. You are good, But
sometimes we become the workers. So we need a powerful
coach or a training to push you to the next,
to the next, to the next. And that's why because
as you mentioned to the listeners, when I start teaching photographers,

(18:38):
I always have done it. But recently two years ago,
before a Photoshop announced officially AI program, I was already
having a program. And you know what I would say,
Many of my photography friends were not ready for it,
and I said, I said I have to help. If
I have one person to save their career, build their business,

(18:59):
I did a great job. And that's what my kid
will be proud of me.

Speaker 3 (19:02):
Yes, absolutely, And you know it kind of speaking of
the kid and you know your awesome hobby. But like
kind of balancing roles there, right, there's harmonizing that you
have of like as a photographer, an educator and entrepreneur again,
an awesome wife, a fantastic mother, Like what strategies do

(19:26):
you employ to maintain creativity and most of all kind
of prevent burnout?

Speaker 4 (19:33):
Okay, gratitude going back to square one when we started.
It's gratitude. I actually am very good in manifesting. I
meditate many times a day, and believe me, I was
not this person a few years ago, so I needed
to work on myself right. But also the core is
self love. And I know that everyone hears about self love.

(19:56):
But the moment when you give yourself permission to do
what you feel insight you have this desire to be
who you are. This is the moment when you know
that you deserve it, you open the doors and life changes.
So and also boundaries saying no, it's okay if it
doesn't resgnate with you. And believe me, the ideal quiet

(20:17):
will respect you even more. And this is one thing
I'm very grateful to my husband. By the way, my daughter,
she is eight and a half. She also told me
to tell your friends she does love to take pictures.
But I never pushed her. I gave her the freedom.
And this is just being who truly you are, not
mode by the community and society, but who you are.

(20:38):
It really brings you to the next level in your business.
And it's incredible. It's magnificent to see yourself rising star.

Speaker 3 (20:48):
Yeah, we're shooting stars out there, Like we talk a
lot about like the top. You know, once we reach
a peak, it's really the bottom of the next peak.
And what Vazz is saying a lot of is always pros.
The Japanese would say, kaisan, you know, always doing better
for yourself. So like we talked a little bit Bussi
about you know how one of your photos changed the

(21:11):
veteran okay for the better. How about give me a
moment behind the camera where it changed you personally, like
you saw something and you walked away a different person,
but like something that you didn't expect.

Speaker 1 (21:25):
To feel and you felt it.

Speaker 4 (21:27):
Okay. Going to my very special client and talking about
not liking to be in the pictures. So I have
been photographing this family with the children and the pets
for seven years. The mom was a little overweight, and
for many years she didn't want to take pictures okay.
So eventually she jumped in the pictures.

Speaker 1 (21:45):
Okay, And she.

Speaker 4 (21:46):
Said, Bassie, I wish this is one thing. I feel bad.
I lost all of these years and I don't have pictures,
And I said, I understand. So two weeks ago I
did a session on the beach with her and her daughter.
The last few pictures friends. Absolutely incredible. She was smiling,
she was laughing, she was full of joy and life.

(22:10):
And I told her when I showed her her picture,
I'm like, look at you. You are so beautiful. You
You're like the love for yourself and the world it shows.
And I was like, how fortunate I am to be
able to capture it and show it to you, and
you can see it in twenty years from now look
at me. But it was very profound, incredible.

Speaker 3 (22:33):
You can see the gratitude that just falls out of
you for your work. It's you know, I'm a big
believer in do what you love in the service of
people that love what you do. Right, You love photography,
but the people that you're servicing see that you love photography,
and so it just that's again, that's why you've grown
this business to where it is and it continues to grow.

(22:53):
But like, if your camera could talk, what would it
say about the people and animals and the objects that
it's met through your lens?

Speaker 1 (23:02):
If your camera could talk, what would is that?

Speaker 4 (23:05):
I would say, we are happy, we are joyful, we
believe in ourselves, and life is beautiful around us.

Speaker 3 (23:13):
I'm thinking much more needs to be side with that.
But what do you wish more people you understood about
the emotional power of photography.

Speaker 4 (23:21):
It's very powerful. Imagine you decorating your home, Imagine you
having a very expensive and old painting in your home. Well,
how about you have a painting or a picture, a
picture of yourself and capturing the happiest moments in your life.

(23:42):
This is called a treasure, a treasure for life, and
this is your legacy. And that's why I do what
I do with passion. Encourage people to believe in themselves,
to be brave, to jump in front of the camera
and to do it for them, for their children, for
the Acquian and for the world.

Speaker 1 (24:01):
Love that.

Speaker 3 (24:02):
And it's like I'm getting a coaching session right here
from gratitude with you. But we've got to do a
little bit of our lightning round you and I when
you came on the podcast, we did a little bit
of it probably.

Speaker 1 (24:13):
Four or five years ago.

Speaker 3 (24:14):
Right, Yes, we're going to kind of blow through it
again and again you got five second stance from with
no explanations, so you can answer them all this way.

Speaker 1 (24:22):
You write a level up?

Speaker 3 (24:23):
Oh yes, of course, so ASTI what's the best leveling
up advice you've ever received.

Speaker 4 (24:29):
Keep learning?

Speaker 1 (24:30):
Yes, sure, one of your personal habits that contributes.

Speaker 4 (24:33):
To your success being open minded, love it.

Speaker 1 (24:37):
So how about a book that's really kind of shifted
your mind.

Speaker 4 (24:44):
I'm more of a podcast person. I'm not really a
book person, but I believe I believe in the Secret
Love It?

Speaker 3 (24:50):
Yes, great, great book. But so do you have any
hidden talents that nobody knows about?

Speaker 4 (24:55):
I do quite a bit actually, Okay, recently it was
a to what you've been able to take quantum pictures,
their energy pictures, and that that's my new hidden secret for.

Speaker 1 (25:06):
Not anymore so anybody taken. Let's get it done. So
how about chest checkers or monopoly?

Speaker 4 (25:14):
Ah yah yai. That's a monopoly.

Speaker 1 (25:16):
Okay, very good headline for your life.

Speaker 4 (25:20):
The example when impact and inspire others beautiful.

Speaker 1 (25:24):
It is fantastic. Go to ice cream flavor.

Speaker 4 (25:26):
Ah ya yai, chocolate and pistachio.

Speaker 1 (25:30):
How about nicknames?

Speaker 4 (25:31):
Growing up, always has been Vasi, Vassi, vassi.

Speaker 3 (25:35):
Okay, so how about let's have a sandwich called the
Vasi Vasi Vasi. Build that sandwich for me?

Speaker 1 (25:39):
What are we eating?

Speaker 4 (25:41):
It's going to be strawberries, cucumbers, fat, the cheese and
a crossan.

Speaker 3 (25:45):
Love it you feel right in The producer Brian Mudd,
back there, excellent last question, but what's the best deck
in the music sixties, seventies, eighties or nineties?

Speaker 4 (25:54):
Of course nineties nineties.

Speaker 3 (25:56):
I figured your age, you pick the nineties, so we
get about a a minute and a half. The platform
is yours.

Speaker 1 (26:02):
Tell us how we can find you friends.

Speaker 4 (26:04):
If you go to Google and you write vasistudio v
asistudio dot com, that's where you can find me. You
can read some of the Google reviews of people. You
can find me. Also on social media Facebook and Instagram,
that's primary where you can find them. And I think

(26:24):
that my work speak for my passion of what I do.
But I also would encourage you to pick up the
phone and just call me. So let's discover what you
need and don't be shy, because I think it's important.
And I'm so excited, and I want to thank you
for your time for listening this episode, and I really

(26:45):
hope that you're going to tell your friends and we
will continue listen to it because this is how we change,
This is how we grow, This is how we are
happy beans and have others around us how gorgeous and awesome.

Speaker 3 (26:57):
And I love it, Squad when you said a super
fun conversation that had me moved VASI was in the
Queen of Light is what your name means? And I'm
gonna do a really quick giveaway the first person that
calls me at five sixty one four four zero three
eight three zero.

Speaker 1 (27:13):
I'm gonna do if a business portrait.

Speaker 3 (27:15):
I'm gonna take care of the portrait for you, So
give me a call five six one four four zero
three eight three zero. You will not go wrong. Thank
you so much for tuning in. Thank you so much
for my producer Brian Mudd, who actually makes me shine
more than I feel I should. And just go out
there and level up.

Speaker 1 (27:31):
Have a great weekend.