Even if you’ve done dozens of sessions, photographing a new baby can feel a little intimidating. What do you do if a baby doesn’t want to sleep? How do you get a rambunctious toddler to cooperate? And when do you finally start to feel confident as a newborn photographer?

When it comes to newborn photographers, Sissi Wang is one of the best, and she’s graciously joining us today to answer some of these tough questions. She gives us an overview of how she came into newborn photography, how she prepares for each session (flexibility is key), and her top tips for getting those cute baby photos in all kinds of circumstances.

In this episode, Sissi also shares some of her best business advice and online marketing tips, like how she shows up online as her authentic self and ignores the trolls, how she sticks to her belief in herself and what works for her business, and why being confident in your ability to learn, grow, and adjust will carry you through, even when you have ups and downs in your business.

What’s in this episode:

• [05:46] How Sissi got started in newborn photography
• [09:19] Why the way you lead and learn to roll with the punches during newborn photography sessions is more important than feeling like you have “everything figured out”
• [13:45] Top tips for photographing toddlers and infants (#1 is keeping yourself relaxed!)
• [21:24] Why showing up as her authentic self online – and brushing off any rude comments – has helped Sissi find her ideal clients
• [24:27] How sticking to what she believes, not necessarily what everyone else is doing, has allowed Sissi to grow and develop her business
• [27:17] Sissi’s story of navigating a terrifying health scare while traveling abroad
• [35:11] Why cultivating confidence that you can keep going and keeping growing will carry you through normal business fluctuations

If you’re a newborn photographer looking for a little encouragement, this conversation with Sissi Wang will inspire and uplift you!

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Meet Sissi Wang

My name is Sissi Wang. I’m specializing in newborn and cake smash photography. My studio is located in Thornleigh on a two story commercial building. I’ve been doing photography for 6 years now and this is my 3rd year of doing full time with a team of 5. I have moved from a business owner of running everything to now only shooting sessions and creating social media contents. I also teach newborn workshops around the globe to help aspiring photographers chasing their dreams. 

Connect with Sissi

Sissi’s website

Follow Sissi on instagram

Follow Sissi on Facebook

Sissi’s Youtube Channel

Want to hear from another expert newborn photographer? Check out these episodes from Dawn Potter and Denise Urness

Transcript

[00:00:00] Sissi Wang Also, babies are different. Every baby’s their friends, you know, some are more cooperative than others. You get the confidence from the cooperative babies and then have some struggle seeing the next one. Oh, yeah. 

[00:00:14] Lisa DiGeso And it’s like when you have like that series of like five like rough sessions, you’re like, I’m throwing in the towel. This is. 

[00:00:21] Sissi Wang Awful. I’m gonna find another job. Yeah. 

[00:00:27] Lisa DiGeso You know, we all get those. And I think that’s one thing that our new photographer listeners sometimes maybe forgot is like, you know, even someone who’s been doing it as long as we have, we get those bad days, too. Yeah. Those rough sessions. And, like, you’re not unique and you don’t suck. 

[00:00:46] Lisa DiGeso Welcome to the Art and Soul Show, where we dove into heart opening chats on photography, business, life and that messy in between. I’m your host, Lisa de so a mom, a photographer and entrepreneur. And I’ll be sharing honest conversations and advice for photographers with insight on mindset, entrepreneurship and creativity. The goal of this podcast is for you to be able to gain insights and strategies that will get you real results. Because, let’s face it, having a photography business can be lonely, but it doesn’t have to be. This is the place you can go when you need a boost of encouragement, a kick in the pants and inspiration to pick up your camera. This is the Art and Soul Show. 

[00:01:30] Lisa DiGeso Hello, my beautiful friends. Welcome back to the show. I am super excited to dove into today’s conversation with Sissy Wang. She specializes in newborn and take smash photography. Her studio is located in Thornlie in a two story commercial building. She’s been doing photography for six years now and this is her third year of doing full time with her team of five. She moved from a business owner of running everything to now only shooting sessions and creating social media content. She also teaches newborn workshops around the globe to help aspiring photographers chasing their dreams. I had the pleasure of watching her on social media for the last couple of years and I am so excited because she taught last year for us for the Milky Way and she is returning again for the online Nubian retreat happening in January of 2023. Sydney, welcome. 

[00:02:20] Sissi Wang Oh, thank you. Thanks, Lisa, for inviting me to this site. Thanks so much again to teaching Milky Way newborn retreat. 

[00:02:29] Lisa DiGeso We’re so happy to have you. So tell us who you are and what you’re passionate about. 

[00:02:35] Sissi Wang So apparently I’m a newborn photographer now. I’m a full time photographer, which is a surprise. And I’ve never thought of that before. Six or seven years ago, I started my job as a landscape architect, as a graduate. So I did about 33 years, and then I got pregnant. So I gave up that job to have my babies and started having photography as a hobby to raise my child, you know, and also capture his growth. Yeah. So I got carried away. 

[00:03:12] Lisa DiGeso I love it. So do you find that having a background in architecture, you find that you use that in your photography much? 

[00:03:19] Sissi Wang Absolutely. So I’ve always been like doing any kind of creative things, any artistic arts related projects, anything that related to art to inspire me. So having the architecture background or design backgrounds, it helped me to have the eyes. To see what is good and what is not and what I like and what I don’t. So I have a very, I suppose, unique style, the style that is me to start with. And I stick to my style and I carry it along. 

[00:03:55] Lisa DiGeso I love that. I think that as beginning you learn photographers, especially when you’re first getting started, it is so easy to get overwhelmed with all the different ways you can be a newborn photographer. So how did you find your style and niche down into what really you love and what works for you? 

[00:04:13] Sissi Wang So, I don’t know. Maybe I was influenced by some photographers that they started doing newborns a little bit earlier than me. And their styling is like incorporating home decor elements and flowers out those natural elements into their newborn sessions. So putting like little babies next to those flowers and basking and that kind of thing, that really gives me, you know, that kind of look that I really want to achieve in my own work as well. So that’s how I got started. In terms of very specific styling, I sort of like discover my way along the go. Yeah. 

[00:04:55] Lisa DiGeso Yeah. It’s funny, like I think I’m the same way is I didn’t actually realize I had a style until I actually looked at my body of work for a few years and I was like, Oh, actually, I do have a style. 

[00:05:08] Sissi Wang exactly yeah

[00:05:10] Sissi Wang I didn’t realize until like four or five years later. And people are saying, like, even without your logo or your watermark on your pictures, we can still recognize your style. I know that’s just got photos. I’m like, Oh, okay, wow. Even up till now, the photos actually like outdoor or Just some random out on our food pictures. People will say, That’s your style. Yeah, we can tell. Yeah. 

[00:05:35] Lisa DiGeso I love that. So obviously having children drew you to your newborn photography, but how did you know you wanted to niche specifically in the newborn genre and the cake smash genre. 

[00:05:46] Sissi Wang I suppose I didn’t see initially. Initially, I just wanted to photograph kids I didn’t even know. Newborn as a niche existed, but I think I was having a six year I mean, six month old toddler, relatively small. So I was within those moms group with very little and very small babies who want to have their babies photos taken. So I started in that kind of time that I was capturing friends and referrers of friends. Friends, babies. Yeah, that’s how I got just to start with those little babies and our toddler photos. Then in terms of cake smash, it wasn’t until quite a few years later because obviously my newborns have grown up. They were they watched the photos being taken, too. And also on my social media, I have grown quite a bit of audience. People who missed out their newborns want to have their birthday photos taken. So they come to me and I wanted to create something unique to them, of course, that their friends to the new ones. So I create some different styling in the cake smash to fit that age group. 

[00:07:07] Lisa DiGeso My journey was very similar. I started my photography business when my son was about six months old and I specifically went niche. Not knowing that niche was a thing only because I was terrified of children over the age of 18 months. I was like, I don’t know how to deal with those kids, so I don’t want to say I ended up in a meeting from the beginning of my business and then expanding to eventually do cakes that and then older children and families but I’m actually it’s funny I am I’m in this spot in my business where I’m actually reaching back down just to do newborn in maternity again. So it’s just it’s so funny how like your season of life can affect what you do in your business and how you relate to your clients, too. 

[00:07:51] Sissi Wang Absolutely. Yes. Yeah. 

[00:07:54] Lisa DiGeso So how long do you feel before you actually started to feel confident in your newborn sessions? 

[00:07:59] Sissi Wang It wasn’t until over three years ago. So I’m up to six, six and a half years of after. And half years ago it was a lot of struggles. It’s always some kind of struggles every session. Some babies are more cooperative than others, and some are younger than maybe older than others. So there’s always some struggles. But in in terms of the first kind of struggle is always most likely might be the wrapping because you don’t know what the baby is like. They have their own language. You couldn’t read their languages in the first maybe a couple of years, but after a few practice, do you kind of like know what you need to do if the baby doesn’t do this? So how do you move along if you can’t make the baby to fit into this workflow? So I kind of like the first two years it was my practice and I kind of like saturate baby’s language and I try to discover my own workflow that can at least guarantee some photos. So about two or three years, I kind of practice makes me a bit more confident in terms of getting a successful newborn session. Yeah. 

[00:09:19] Lisa DiGeso I love that because I think a lot of the times when newborn photographers or new photographers wanting to get into the newborn photography genre, they think that they should be confident within a couple of months or, you know, five or six sessions. And it really is not like that. And like for me personally, it was like 100 babies in and I was like, you know, I might feel like I’ve mastered a couple of poses at this point, but like it probably wasn’t at least until a big three or 400 babies that I felt like I knew what I was doing. 

[00:09:50] Sissi Wang Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it it kind of gets you like if it, if the baby doesn’t do the way how you want is you kind of like I feel oh my doing something wrong and you get confused what do I do? So you have to have the confidence of course along the way and to see, to find your way along the go. But also babies are different. Every baby’s difference, you know, some are more cooperative than others. You get a confidence from the cooperative babies and then have some struggles in the next one. 

[00:10:28] Lisa DiGeso Oh, yeah. And it’s like when you have like that series of like five like rough sessions, you’re like, I’m throwing in the towel. 

[00:10:36] Sissi Wang I’m tired and find another job. 

[00:10:42] Lisa DiGeso You know, we all we all get those and I think that’s one thing that our new photographer listeners sometimes maybe forgot is like we, you know, even someone who’s been doing it as long as we have, we kept those bad days, too. 

[00:10:53] Sissi Wang Yeah. 

[00:10:54] Lisa DiGeso And those rough sessions. And, like, you’re not unique and you don’t suck. 

[00:10:58] Sissi Wang Yes. It’s just it’s not just the baby themselves. They can’t they can’t talk. There’s also some factors that you could consider from the parents side, too. Some parents are more, I suppose, open minded than others, whereas some might be more. They have their own mind how to have the baby, how to prepare the baby, how they want to feed the baby. And I think very small. That, of course, specifically impacts on your session. 

[00:11:31] Lisa DiGeso Yeah. 

[00:11:32] Sissi Wang Yeah. So, yeah, there really are a lot of factors you could consider into your session where the it’s all contributing to a successful session. So yeah, there’s obstacles of course, but the main thing is how you lead the session or how you grow as a photographer. Yeah. Mm. 

[00:11:52] Lisa DiGeso I agree. I think it’s so important, especially there’s been times when like grandparents have come in for the sessions and grandmothers definitely have their opinions on how we should be handling their grandchildren and are quite vocal about it and it can really throw you in your session. Yeah. So like just standing in your power and your strength and knowing that you know what you’re doing. And that’s just that was one lesson I really had to learn. 

[00:12:20] Sissi Wang Yeah. Not only the grandparents, I suppose even the parents, the way how they stand behind your shoulders and watching over your shoulders or having a milk bottle and dummy holding both hands back, kind of eyes, making really intense intent and not knowing what you’re doing is right or wrong. Yeah. 

[00:12:45] Lisa DiGeso Yeah. Especially when you’re new. I think that’s something that, you know, we forget what we went through, but like we all all have to go through that process of like that scrutiny that we’re getting from the parents and the grandparents and just like, yeah, breathe through it. Breathe through it. Yeah. Know your poses. 

[00:13:03] Sissi Wang And the way how they say, do you need help that kind of gets you right. 

[00:13:08] Lisa DiGeso I know. 

[00:13:09] Sissi Wang And they keep on saying, that’s all right, sit down. Relax. We got it. 

[00:13:12] Lisa DiGeso It’s okay. I got this. 

[00:13:14] Sissi Wang Yeah. 

[00:13:15] Lisa DiGeso Yeah, exactly. Yeah. What I found, actually, is when when I started to introduce a spotter, like I had a spot, like a spotter or an assistant with me that really stop that from happening as much like when I had my assistant sitting there with me, it really just made life so much easier that they were like, okay, like they’ve got. 

[00:13:32] Sissi Wang Yes, yeah, yeah. Exactly. 

[00:13:37] Lisa DiGeso So do you have a go to trick to get toddlers to cooperate? Because they. Are. Toddlers. 

[00:13:45] Sissi Wang Of course. Every different age, just difference eye shapes, more newborns and six measures 12 Months than older. You know, 18 months or two years. I prefer doing your ones more than the smash, to be honest, because Smash could be a bit trickier when they have at that age they have the stranger and daddy, which is difficult to handle because you are a photographer, you still have to being there, whereas I don’t want to see you and they start to cry me immediately seeing you. So that’s difficult. Sometimes I have to reschedule, but it’s a very rare because I know even if we reschedule, there will still be the same. So we try to photograph as the way they are. 

[00:14:41] Sissi Wang So in terms of the tricks to calm some babies, I don’t know. Maybe just give them some time, some more time to relax. I don’t overbook myself, so I only try to book one session a day so that I know just in case some accidents or some break time and nap time or meal time or anything. So toddler session, let’s say a six month old was supposed to be only an hour to an hour and a half. Sometimes can be stretched up to 4 hours because, yeah, they might need a sleep or a meal. Or a break or whatever. So yeah, maybe the trick is to relax yourself. Just give yourself plenty of time. Don’t overbook. And yeah, you know, if the baby’s not cooperative, we’ll give them a break, a sleep or some food. Try to keep a distance from the babies you start with. You don’t want to shock the baby in the beginning and then you mess up, bring to session, get the parents to handle the baby, to cuddle the baby, to change the baby’s clothes, to put the baby down until we are ready to shoot. And we should. Really quickly, I tried to get some smiling photos in the beginning for us, a very long period of time just to get a smiling photo. Then I end up having two. 300 fathers look exactly the same. When the baby lose the temper, then the baby doesn’t want to do the second set up because we spend a lot of time in the first one. So I learned my lessons. I try to photograph very quickly, even ten, 15 minutes. I’m done with this, then move on to the next one before the baby started realizing this is a new thing we’ve done already. 

[00:16:39] Lisa DiGeso So did you notice with pandemic babies or babies that were born like it with masks in 2020 and less social contacts, did you find them to be even more stranger danger or stranger anxiety? 

[00:16:51] Sissi Wang There might be some cases, but not really that obvious. People always say that because this is a pandemic baby, they don’t see strangers much, so they are more aware. But I see the way that if the baby’s that kind of personality, they’ll be afraid of strangers anyways. And some babies are not, even not seeing much strangers so yeah. It’s not really yeah I don’t I parents are first time parents, they don’t see many toddlers in their lives but to me I see a lot. I still deal with the babies that was born in the pandemic period, but they are very happy babies. They love eating. They love the cake. They like. How do you interact with strangers? 

[00:17:36] Lisa DiGeso I love that. That’s good. For a while there, I think it was in 20, it was late 2020, early 20, 21, where we were still mandated to wear masks, trying to do a one year old session in a mask. I was like, This is impossible. 

[00:17:51] Sissi Wang Like, Oh, no. 

[00:17:52] Lisa DiGeso I was like, because I use my face to smile and. 

[00:17:55] Sissi Wang She can’t. 

[00:17:55] Lisa DiGeso Right. 

[00:17:57] Sissi Wang No. 

[00:17:57] Lisa DiGeso It was so hard. 

[00:17:59] Sissi Wang It’s hard for you to breathe. Hard for you to see the viewfinder if you’re still looking at the viewfinder from that. And it’s hard for the baby to see your face to smile. And they shock to see, whereas trying to mask over the face. So I don’t mask in my toddler sessions. 

[00:18:22] Lisa DiGeso No, I miss that. I don’t miss that one little bit. So do you supply items like the client closet for your client? 

[00:18:32] Sissi Wang I have only maternity closets. Not with the parents closet. No, but I give them a guide how they prepare their clothes for parents. But I just. It’s because I think my parents photos I’m not what dominants my sessions. The majority of the time we spend is the toddler only so we spend about 90% of the time for that are less. So we’re focusing on the toddlers to get the most beautiful photos out of it. Then in terms of family photos, it’s towards the ends. So it’s something add on for the package and there would think that they’re here mainly. Even some don’t want to photograph their family photos. They’ll would just skip that. Yeah, but some are more willing to spend more time preparing. They will read through the email and they will prepare accordingly for their family photos. But for the baby’s clothing, I supply everything. 

[00:19:34] Lisa DiGeso And it’s so fun to shop. 

[00:19:35] Sissi Wang Yeah, I love shopping right away. Now is Black Friday coming up. 

[00:19:41] Lisa DiGeso And so how do you handle sessions when the baby refuses to sleep? 

[00:19:51] Sissi Wang We try to convince the mom to feed more. That’s the best I can do. If not, we’ll just try my ass off to find the baby for the time being and rock the baby and try to settle on the on the spots. 

[00:20:08] Lisa DiGeso Yeah, it’s kind of all we can do. So how big are your average client calories. 

[00:20:13] Sissi Wang In terms of newborn or toddler? 

[00:20:16] Lisa DiGeso Newborn. 

[00:20:16] Sissi Wang Newborn will be about 30 to 50 depending on if they want to have their family photos. Family photos will be a bit more. Average is about, let’s say, 40, 45 days. Toddlers is a lot more because they have different expressions, the expressions that keep all the original ones in the whole package as it comes as a pack and they pick 15 to 20 as retouched images. 

[00:20:47] Lisa DiGeso Now, do you include prints? Do you do iPads or are you digital model? 

[00:20:51] Sissi Wang Yeah, I do prints. I have these prints five by seven size frames that just on my desk so I can show the clients the size five by seven prints. I standard ones that come into the package so that I can put up and also remind them to come back to me. They can, of course, customize their sizes and do frames or canvas or larger prints. 

[00:21:16] Lisa DiGeso So let’s chat a little bit about building your business on social media and showing up online. So what advice do you have about that? 

[00:21:24] Sissi Wang Oh, just to be yourself. I’m very authentic. I am. 

[00:21:30] Lisa DiGeso You are. You are. 

[00:21:32] Sissi Wang Thank you. 

[00:21:33] Lisa DiGeso I love that about you. Because that’s something I really struggle with. I really do. I feel like I’m always wearing a mask, and I. I really struggle showing up authentically online. So I always admire people that are really unapologetically themselves. And you’re like, this is me, and I love it. 

[00:21:48] Sissi Wang Oh, yeah. You know, we get a lot of comments. If we being authentic, you know, people will judge you. Some people are more mean than others. Yeah. I mean. 

[00:22:00] Lisa DiGeso There are some trolls like. 

[00:22:01] Sissi Wang Yeah, those comments. I don’t get bothered. It’s just you have to be confident in yourself and knowing what you are doing. People who hate you are hate you no matter what you do. But people who like you, they will understand you. 

[00:22:17] Lisa DiGeso So what kind of content? 

[00:22:19] Sissi Wang I know some content you think is maybe innapropriate way to put on online, but as long as it’s judging, it’s not offense to your client anyway or something. You put it up, let people judge you like a speed up of obviously the new one session is speed up so people think that you are rude to your babies. 

[00:22:43] Sissi Wang But of. Course not. 

[00:22:44] Lisa DiGeso They they see it and they see the sped up. Like you’re shaking the baby. Like, I’m not so, so slow is so gentle. You like, well, you don’t understand. This is like 8 seconds is really 20 minutes. 

[00:22:56] Sissi Wang Or even 3 hours condensing into one minute. So yeah, people watch you based on the eyes and you stretch the babies. I’m like that. I would say, Are you torturing the baby? 

[00:23:09] Lisa DiGeso Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:23:10] Sissi Wang So people will judge you no matter what you do. But we as a photographer, all newborn photographers will understand what we’re doing is we know what we’re doing. Yes. Let’s just be authentic and show the true side of your business, your sessions. Let people to to judge. And I also want to have my parents to know beforehand what they’re expecting in the studio. It’s not always perfect. There will be tears. That’s why they have to get mentally prepared. If they can’t handle that, they can find somebody else. 

[00:23:47] Lisa DiGeso Yeah. 

[00:23:49] Sissi Wang So that saves us a lot of troubles and hassles and misunderstanding. 

[00:23:53] Lisa DiGeso Yeah, that makes sense. Just knowing that, you know, your baby eventually, like, might get frustrated or upset or frustrated or angry with me. My goal is to be as gentle and get you the best, safest, beautiful photos for your session. Yeah. Communicating that beforehand, I think is really important. Yeah. Sessions. I love that. Yeah. So what’s the best piece of business advice you’ve ever been given? 

[00:24:17] Sissi Wang We get confused with a lot of business advice is I try not to listen to many advice. Yeah. 

[00:24:24] Lisa DiGeso Yeah. 

[00:24:27] Sissi Wang I had a business coach came to my studio a few years back. She was saying that stick to your mind. So whatever you believe in the first few years, stick to that. Don’t get confused because somebody else is doing something else. And you wanted to try that. And she’s saying like, for example, there’s a photographer can sell camera for $8,000 for a single piece of canvas. And people are successful in that way, but I can’t convince myself to sell that kind of price. So I stick to what I believe, which is to make the session a bit more affordable, whereas not as cheap as some other photographers. I try not to let my clients mine to influence me like that. How they want all the original files. I don’t want to give up all the orange and offer housing new ones. So stick to what you believe. They don’t need all the orange and all for that. They look similar or repetitive. So I only produce about 20 to 40 images for them to choose from. Eventually they pick around ten or 15, which is enough. So believing in what you are producing is good for them and good for your business and carry along. Yeah. And don’t start your business very cheap, so don’t do your packages like free package or like that $200 session, say or something and never do a fake giveaways. People try to get these because they maybe. Yeah on social media that post free give away and they get leads to call up people to come in for sessions and try to sell the session with bigger amounts and they get the feeling that they’re being frauds. So just be authentic and transparent upfront. 

[00:26:30] Lisa DiGeso I suppose that’s good advice. So you ready for our lightning round? 

[00:26:34] Sissi Wang Yeah. Let’s go for. It. 

[00:26:36] Lisa DiGeso Okay. Coffee or tea? 

[00:26:39] Sissi Wang Both. 

[00:26:41] Lisa DiGeso Both. Love it. Most luxurious vacation you’ve ever been on. 

[00:26:46] Sissi Wang Maybe, let’s say Thailand trip from this year. I don’t know if I’m saying this. Accidents. Yeah. Yes, I was. 

[00:26:58] Lisa DiGeso I saw. 

[00:26:58] Sissi Wang Yeah. It wasn’t a pleasant experience. 

[00:27:03] Lisa DiGeso No, you got very sick. I saw that. 

[00:27:06] Sissi Wang Yeah, but the trip overall was fantastic. Other than that, yeah. 

[00:27:13] Lisa DiGeso So can you share with our listeners what happened to you on your Thailand trip? 

[00:27:17] Sissi Wang So it’s a family trip. It’s a family holiday. In July we went to Bangkok and pocket. Bangkok was our first stop. We planned to spend about four or five days in Bangkok and then another four or five days in pockets. So as soon as we arrived, obviously you want to experience the food, the local food. So we rushed into some night markets and we arrived at 910. So we rushed into the night markets to experience the food. It’s a culture shock, but it’s not so much as a because I grew up in China, I’m confident to experience exotic foods even from the streets. So the first night it was okay, then I got carried away, went on another trip. On the second day, we went to Chinatown to experience some other street food. My husband saw the marinated crab and the raw, raw prawns, so he wanted to try the marinated crab. I wasn’t so much. I’m not a big fan of raw food anyways, so I said, okay, why not? Let’s try this. They look really delicious. They look the way that how they present the food. It’s just so good. So we had to try it all we brought to the hotel. Me and my husband had. I only had him about two or three paces. He had the rest a lot. Then that night, around two or 3 a.m.. So about five or 6 hours later I started having the tummy pain. I woke up and went to the bathroom and trying to throw up, but I couldn’t. So I was like sitting next to the toilet and I felt a bit drowsy and a bit uncomfortable in the tummy. Then the next seconds I woke up and I was lying in the bathroom on the floor and looking at the ceiling. And I was thinking, Why am I here? Why am I not sleeping on the bed? My daughter was sleeping with me and my husband was in another bedroom, so he wasn’t around me. So I didn’t know what happened. I thought I didn’t wake up. I was lying there thinking and trying to rewind. Then I realized I fell on I, I passed out with the crying to then still having the pang. So I went to my son’s special where my husband was and I talked to him. I might I maybe I find it. I wasn’t sure. So I like there being pain. In the tummy and trying to stir up the second time. Then the next second I woke up. I was in my husband’s arms. He was trying to wake me up because I felt unconscious again. And I had a seizure, according to my. I didn’t know. Yeah. So he said that you had a seizure. Your eyes were like. Like that, and you were shaking for minutes. It was the first seizure that I encountered in my whole life. I never had a seizure before. So he got scared. I called the ambulance. Ambulance arrived. They put me onto the thing before I was carried on transit onto the ambulance of the pandemic. They mentioned you passed out again. You had another episode of seizure and you were shaking like that. 

[00:30:44] Lisa DiGeso Yeah. 

[00:30:45] Sissi Wang This thing that I didn’t know until they told me I lost consciousness for about half a minute or so. As soon as I woke up and I was like seeing all these strange faces and them saying, who are they? Where am I? Who am I? What I’m doing here? So I lost consciousness for about half a minute. 

[00:31:03] Lisa DiGeso Oh, my God. 

[00:31:04] Lisa DiGeso Yeah. So they put the drip on me, and some 

[00:31:07] Lisa DiGeso Scan. 

[00:31:16] Lisa DiGeso And have you had any, like, recurrence since? 

[00:31:18] Lisa DiGeso It never happened again after. 

[00:31:21] Lisa DiGeso Wow. 

[00:31:22] Lisa DiGeso But because of this, I was trying to get the bottom of it. Once I returned, I went to see neurologist and it to MRI and the one EEG, the scans. So far, I still haven’t got the conclusion yet. What causes seizures? Is the doctors saying food poisoning can’t cause seizure normally. It might be something a brain that is preexisting already and that food poisoning is just the trigger. 

[00:31:52] Lisa DiGeso Wow. Now, did your husband get food poisoning, too? 

[00:31:55] Lisa DiGeso He did, but only the tummy pain, a bit of diarrhea and all that. 

[00:32:01] Lisa DiGeso Yeah. 

[00:32:06] Lisa DiGeso Not in . Yeah. 

[00:32:10] Lisa DiGeso That’s been learned. Yeah. Gosh. Well, I’m glad you’re okay, but I thought that I was like, Oh, my goodness. 

[00:32:17] Lisa DiGeso Well, other than that, either of our trip was fine. So I was only down for a day and a half. And I’m a fighter. I’m a warrior. 

[00:32:25] Lisa DiGeso Yeah, you are a little w. 

[00:32:26] Lisa DiGeso The next day, I woke up and I’m fine. I’m happy I’m here. I wanted to enjoy going to a place to have some  

[00:32:40] Lisa DiGeso So speaking of food, what do you like to cook the most? 

[00:32:43] Lisa DiGeso I love cooking. I used to love cooking. Maybe baking a bit more than cooking because I like those little dessert. And what is present about those little things that look really nice. 

[00:32:58] Lisa DiGeso And like, yeah. 

[00:32:59] Lisa DiGeso Some liseven pieces of dessert. But not now. Fortunately, I don’t have time to cook now. 

[00:33:21] Lisa DiGeso So what was your favorite show as a kid? 

[00:33:23] Lisa DiGeso My favorite show. They are not in English. I grew up in China. Yeah, my TV shows were in Chinese. I didn’t get TV until I was about seven or eight school age. Before the school age, there was no TV. Yeah. 

[00:33:41] Lisa DiGeso Wow. 

[00:33:42] Lisa DiGeso So, yeah, my TV shows, I’m Chinese. I don’t even know how to say English. 

[00:34:03] Lisa DiGeso Do you know that one? 

[00:34:05] Lisa DiGeso Oh, the monkey king. 

[00:34:07] Lisa DiGeso I don’t know about monkey. 

[00:34:09] Lisa DiGeso Have you heard? 

[00:34:12] Lisa DiGeso I’m going to Google that, though. 

[00:34:14] Lisa DiGeso Yeah. Google . Yeah. 

[00:34:16] Lisa DiGeso So what did you want to be when you grew up? When you were a kid. 

[00:34:20] Lisa DiGeso As a fashion designer? Oh, yeah. Before I try, I liked being a model. Because you’ll get access to different clothing. I love fashion related things. Then I realized my body shape was imperfect and I wasn’t being able to be modeling my body shape. So I changed. I moved on to a fashion designer who still got access to some fashion related stuff. So, yeah. Fashion design. I still love fashion design now. I love seeing fashion shows and both saying, yeah, and how to style myself and everybody else. Yeah. 

[00:35:04] Lisa DiGeso I love that. 

[00:35:11] Lisa DiGeso Starting out? Just be confident and yeah, try to have believe in yourself. You can get it and you can have clients, of course. There’s some days, some downs and some ups, so up and down is a very normal thing. Whichever phase of your business, even now we go through ups and downs, there’s some downtime. We don’t have many clients with uptime. They are busy like 21 days, which is the way I’m doing now at 21 days now break. So yes, believing in yourself and try to be bold at the same time too. You want to take your step forwards, don’t get scared because you might encounter some troubles or something along the way, but don’t get scared because of that. I started my studio, found my home, so I move on to the granny flat, which is a one bedroom. Before that I was questioning self. Do I really need to? Do I have to? Do I want to? So if I want to, I move. You know, there’s of course, the overheads, the rentals and all those expenses are there no matter where if you have clients or not. So it’s a speedboat takes the challenges of it. There’s not much you can lose. All you could lose is the way you try yourself for one year. If it doesn’t work out, it can always come back. Yeah. So that’s how I grow my business. Up to now. I move around to this commercial buildings, which I own now. 

[00:36:43] Lisa DiGeso That’s great. So where could our listeners learn more from you? 

[00:36:47] Lisa DiGeso Well, they can follow me on social media, of course, on Instagram if they want to learn the new one. Photography, anything related to business, the new ones. I can come to my workshops either online or in person. I have in-person workshops next year in Marching America and in Japan to love that. 

[00:37:10] Lisa DiGeso And you’re going to be teaching for the online new. So can you share a little bit about what you’re going to be? 

[00:37:16] Lisa DiGeso Oh, I’m so excited. You know, I think just it’s the day before yesterday I shot the film. So I was editing the video yesterday. And yeah, looking at the in-home photo shoot, it’s going to be very applicable for a lot of aspiring photographers because I started my photography business as a travel photographer to travel to a client’s home to do the thing. So I was throwing a lot of tricks how to use minimal items, minimal props. I don’t use what they have in their home, even withing a very small bedroom space to shoot you on your newborn photos and make it work and look like the studio shoots. 

[00:38:02] Lisa DiGeso So I love to end my interviews just with this last question. And it is what are you currently curious about or artistically curious about? 

[00:38:11] Lisa DiGeso I’m curious about I’m curious about everything. For the most part. 

[00:38:53] Lisa DiGeso Well, , thank you so much for joining me today. 

[00:38:56] Lisa DiGeso Yeah, thank you, Lisa. At least for this invitation. And yeah, and I was so familiar when you won Ritchie and I’m so excited. Yeah. I’m also happened to see some other photographer’s work, too. I learned so much from the last just newborn retreat from others. As a teacher and a student,

[00:39:17] Lisa DiGeso So it’s always something new to learn. 

[00:39:20] Lisa DiGeso Oh, my beautiful friends. Thank you so much for joining me today. I love this conversation. I hope you did just as much as I did. I am sending you so much of my light and my love today and every single day is the next time.