We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Valentina Zakharova a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Valentina, thanks for joining us today. What’s been one of the most interesting investments you’ve made – and did you win or lose? (Note, these responses are only intended as entertainment and shouldn’t be construed as investment advice)

The best investment I’ve made (and keep making) as a business owner is investment in myself, my well-being and self-exploration. This may sound out of topic, but if we think deeper, it’s not. I’ll explain.

When you fly on an airplane, the flight attendant instructs you to “put your oxygen mask on first,” before helping others. Why is this an important rule for ensuring survival? Because if you run out of oxygen yourself, you can’t help anyone else with their oxygen mask. The same is with my photography.

When I just started doing individual portrait sessions I was surprised by the fact that almost every woman I worked with had some kind of insecurities about her appearance. At the same time I didn’t appreciate my own beauty enough and I didn’t know a lot about myself, but I did know that I wanted to use my lens in a way that shows people how beautiful they are and how beautiful the world is.

At that moment I felt an urge to dive into self-exploration and started doing a lot of psychology work that led me to feeling myself, the world around and other people deeper than ever before. It was a great investment of time and money because it not only helped me feeling better about myself, but it also gave me enough courage to finally start doing photography professionally and with a deep meaning.

That’s when I realized that accepting and observing who you are makes you go to a qualitatively new level. And that’s when I felt an abundance within me and realized I was ready to bring my business to a new level where I do it out of love. And it just worked out organically. I finally had my “oxygen mask” on and could help others.

You’ve probably heard that a lot and I’ll tell you again: the best investment is in yourself. Cause your business always reflects your personality.

Valentina, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I do Lifestyle and Fashion Photography and Creative Direction for brands and Souls behind them.

It’s really important for me to work with people who truly love and enjoy themselves and what they create.
I like saying that I capture Souls, and it doesn’t matter if it’s a photo of a person or a product – you can feel it when there’s love.

Because of my life experience it became so important for me to show my appreciation for other people, businesses and what they are going through. It became my focus. I can see the beauty of people, their creations and I’m happy that I can use my photography in a way that helps them and their clients, followers and fans see more of what they do and who they are.

With my Creative Direction I help brands deliver a certain message, tell a story to their audience. It’s a different way of communicating and it brings their business to a new level.

I’m also launching my merch with a simple but important message that I bring through my work: “You are beautiful”. I believe that the more people accept their beauty, the better world we will be living in.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Yes! As I’ve mentioned earlier, I want as many people as possible to accept their own beauty, beauty of moments, things that made with love, and beauty of people around.
I know from my experience that appreciating beauty leads to creating a better life in a various different aspects. So I really want it for people and for the world that we are all living in.

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one.. (c) John W. Lennon

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Ability to express yourself! I believe this is what makes you creative, and these two things are interconnected.

Some things are just impossible to express with words (unfortunately). Some things are not allowed to be said out loud. But we can do it in a numerous other ways.

Honestly, most of my life I was suppressing my ability for self-expression. I think I was culturally conditioned to it.
It was such a big amount of energy that was unreleased and as result it was stuck in my head and body and caused some mental and physical issues. And only when I overcame my fears and realized that I wanted to express my thoughts, feelings and emotions, I became creative. I found out my own way to express myself – through photography.

Contact Info:

• Website: valentinazph.com
• Instagram: @valentinaz.ph – photography page, @valentinaz.more – lifestyle page