Today I talk with Vincent Pugliese about lifestyle freedom. Vincent has been a professional photographer for more than twenty-three years and an international award-winning sports and documentary photographer.
He has photographed every major sporting event, including the Super Bowl, the World Series, the NHL Finals, the Kentucky Derby, and even Wrestlemania!
Vincent and his wife Elizabeth own and run Elizabeth Vincent Photography, which specializes in documentary wedding and corporate photography.
When he’s not with his family or shooting, Vincent also coaches freelancers on how to live a life of financial, time, and life freedom, specifically through the world of self-employment, and is the co-owner of Sports Photo School, which teaches parents how to take awesome photographs of their kids playing sports.
Vincent teaches those looking for time and money freedom through mastermind groups, The Freelance Tribe membership community, and through one-on-one coaching.
WHAT IS LIFESTYLE FREEDOM?
Brandon Birkmeyer: Thank you for being here. We get to talk a little bit about the entrepreneurial journey, a little bit about lifestyle freedom, and then obviously my favorite topic, personal branding.
Let’s start with the concept of lifestyle freedom, which is something I know you’ve been coaching on for a long time. What does that mean to you and why is it important?
Vincent Pugliese: It’s an interesting topic because I never understood that it was even possible. I grew up in an era where you go to school, you apply for a job. It’s a job that you probably don’t want. Then everybody older than you tells you, “Well, you’re not going to enjoy where you work, what you do, and someday you’re going to retire.”
I was always very rebellious. When I had no clue what I was doing back in school, I was worried, but I knew it wasn’t for me. Even though I wasn’t down on myself and nobody else was, I had so many people telling me they were worried for me.
YOU HAVE TO CHOOSE THE LIFESTYLE FOR YOU
I had a friend in high school say to me, “What are you going to do?” I remember clearly at 17 years old, as stupid as I was saying, “I don’t know, but I’ll figure something out.” I remember feeling confident when I said that. Even though I have no idea why I was confident, I couldn’t explain it. I just knew this wasn’t for me.
As time went on, I did all the jobs that everybody told me to do. It just never resonated. It wasn’t until I was able to build something where I thought, I can control my time.
I was a newspaper photographer. There’s so much more before that, but I made $32,000 a year. My wife made $30,000 a year. We worked together and we were essentially broke from everything going on, and we had a kid.
WHY VINCENT TOOK THE LIFESTYLE FREEDOM LEAP
We started a wedding business. What really happened was I was the top photographer in our area, even in the country. I won Top Sports Photographer in the United States, for an international award on top of it.
I went back to my boss because I’m felt like this is the time when we get a raise. We have a kid coming. My wife was eight months pregnant with our first son making 32 grand a year.
He listed off all of my accomplishments, and then he kind of rubbed his eyes and said, “But we can only give you 3%.” I thought, so what am I going to make now? $34,000 a year? I’m going to be busting it.
I remember just walking out and thinking, it’s over. This was my dream job. I got to shoot the Superbowl. When presidents would come to town, I would hang out with them, and spend the day with the Dalai Lama. Everything you can imagine, but I couldn’t support my family.
YOU HAVE TO MAKE A DECISION
I remember leaving and thinking, this is over. I’m not sure how it’s over, but it is. I went home and I called my dad to see if I could get some extra work with him because he had his own business in New York. I was in Indiana at the time.
He said no. Even my dad’s rejecting me. This was the worst day of my life. Then he said something that changed my life. He said, “I’ve been trying to tell you this and you haven’t listened. Maybe you’ll listen. You have a skill, but you’re not using it.”
I said, “Right, what do you mean?”
He said, “You’ve become a really good photographer. You weren’t. You learned, and you become really good at this. You’re selling yourself short. You’re selling out because you’re settling for $32,000 a year with benefits when you could shoot weddings. You could shoot corporate work. You could shoot pro sports magazines, anything you want at any price you want and you control your schedule. You’re settling.”
When you’re 30 something years old, and your dad tells you that, it’s a real kick in the gut. He’s supposed to be the one to tell me to be safe. You’re telling me I’m too safe.
I hung up the phone and I started calling the photographers to see if I can work with them. Maybe I can assist with them making some money. They all told me no. I took the phone book (if you remember a phone book, because there used to be those) and I threw it against the wall. I was so mad.
CREATE YOUR OWN LIFESTYLE FREEDOM
I’d heard the phrase if you can’t beat them, join them, so I said, “Well if you can’t join them, we’re gonna beat them.
I called my wife and said, “We’re starting up a business.” She’s thinking, what? She’s eight months pregnant and I’m saying, “Yes, we’re starting a business.” I had no idea what I was doing, no clue. She didn’t either. We started a business literally the next day.
The first year was awful, but within three years we had replaced our income. We had paid off all of our debt, including our house, and quit our jobs. All of a sudden, literally one day I’m scheduled to work 20 days out of the year making not twice as much, but close to twice as much as we made combined.
This is working 20 to 25 days a year and having this freedom every day with our two kids at that point. Every day we do what we want to do. I remember going outside in the yard and thinking, nobody ever told me life could be like this, that I can control this.
That’s where it came from. Then eventually we were on a long road trip for four months and I called a friend while we were at the beach in Oceanside, California. He said, “Man, you have got total life freedom!”
I was already doing the mastermind, everything I’m doing now. My wife was going inside, and I said, “Hey, can you check that domain?” She checked it, and it was available. We bought it for about 13 bucks. That’s how the business name started, but it came from that.
RELATED: Build your personal brand with the Content Marketing Starter Guide.
HOW TO FIND LIFESTYLE FREEDOM
Brandon Birkmeyer: I love that story. One of the things that resonated was something that was similar to my journey. I feel along the way, we all find a route that is the safe route if we want to take it. It seems like you found that for you, in theory.
The safe route was whatever this job was that was going to pay your health benefits, not pay you what you’re worth, but it was there every week for you to go and do.
However, it didn’t feel so safe anymore. I think that is huge because when your safety net isn’t what feels safe anymore, what do you do? I think it’s the universe changing in that regard. It’s an interesting part of your story.
Vincent Pugliese: Totally. It continued on through different career shifts in terms of when it gets too comfortable, I want to just kill it instead of growing it or optimizing. What is the next challenge for me? That became a theme throughout the next 15 to 20 years.
IT MIGHT TAKE DIFFICULT CHOICES
Brandon Birkmeyer: It’s interesting to have your father being able to jump in here and recognize that for you. I’ll admit I did some, I did some research on you and from my research, this is the second time he stepped in your life and said you’re not seeing about yourself, and maybe you should give yourself a little more credit.
Vincent Pugliese: You’re talking about when I started my photography career? Yeah, I was lost. I was lost and I was a terrible student. As I said earlier, I muddled through life. I didn’t even think I was gonna live to 20.
Literally, on my 20th birthday, I was with a girl that I was dating. I realized it was my 20th birthday. The whole time I thought, I’ll never make it the way that I was living with the friends that I was hanging out with. I said to my girlfriend’s mom, who I just met, “Oh my God, I’m 20. I never thought I’d live this long.” It’s not a great way to introduce yourself to your new girlfriend’s mom.
However, when I drove home that night, I remember thinking it’s all bonus. A lot of my friends were thinking, oh, I’m getting old. Now I’m 20. I was thinking, what is there to lose?
LISTEN TO PEOPLE IN YOUR LIFE
I didn’t get it at that point; I was working at a convenience store, and I was stealing, I was a thief. It was terrible.
I had a nightmare that I got caught stealing again. I went downstairs, and for the first time at 22, I’m thinking, what am I doing with my life? My dad comes down. We didn’t get along as you can imagine hearing my story. He literally in a minute, “Well, you like traveling, you like sports, you like taking pictures. Why don’t you become a sports photographer?”
I wondered, is that even possible? It’s a job? That’s a career? Because of that, months later I was buying tickets to games and sneaking up to the front. For 20 years I was a sports photographer, shooting everything you could imagine.
LIFESTYLE FREEDOM COMES FROM YOUR STORIES
Brandon Birkmeyer: What’s funny is you said that you guys didn’t get along, but it’s obvious that he sees you and he understands his son. These little “Yoda” moments that have changed your life are amazing.
I would hope that we all have someone in our lives that can help us see that thing that’s just right in front of us if we just have the bravery to try something new or different.
Vincent Pugliese: The thing is, I didn’t even remember those stories till I went to write my first book. It was called Freelance to Freedom. I’ll be completely honest, I started writing the book because I was angry. At that point, I wasn’t getting along with my dad. I wasn’t getting along with my parents, and I was an adult now. There were a lot of issues.
I start writing the story that was a big kind of thing–hey, I did it, I won. I was almost doing it to prove them wrong.
REFLECT AND GLEAN FROM YOUR PAST
There’s something so interesting about this, and I hope even listeners can take something from this. As I started writing the book (and it was a really angry book at first) I started reflecting. You can’t help but do that.
That’s where those stories came from. I started thinking, oh, wait a second, there was that time… I have got to put that in there. Then there was that other time…
My dad, quite honestly, (and he knows this) went from being the villain, why I started writing the book, to the hero by the time the book was over. That’s why my next book is being published on his 80th birthday on purpose because I want to honor him with that.
CONNECT WITH VINCENT
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