Danielle Green

Danielle Green is an award-winning creator in the fashion, beauty, lifestyle and wedding industries. She is a branding consultant with a niche in art direction under her own agency and master photographer and owner of L A Y E R S, an adventure photography company based in the United States. You can see her work in numerous publications including Southern Living, Martha Stewart, British Vogue and Brides magazines to name a few.

Green is an advocate, lobbyist and abuse survivor featured in the Netflix docuseries, The Most Hated Man on the Internet, where she tells her own horrific story of image-based sexual abuse. She is the founder of Victor by Danielle Green, a streetwear and activewear fashion collection dedicated to the empowerment of victims of abuse and systematic oppression. Green will continue to use her platform as a way to provide truth in storytelling, influence modern legislation and advocate for abuse survivors in an effort to provide hope for a world in need of strong voices creating change. Many news outlets have covered her story, her fashion line and the message behind it including The Tamron Hall Show, Rolling Stone, Yahoo Life, Today, Psychology in Seattle and The Crime Report.

Her current project in the photography education tech space is in the development stages with announcements coming soon. Investor inquiries are welcome to preview Green’s pre-seed app startup pitch deck upon request.

What is your typical day, and how do you make it productive?

After the kids are in school, I like to take an hour to take an alone time break. Whether I read an article, meditate, or do yoga, I take some time to ground myself or find inspiration. The rest of the day is spent working on the various projects I have going on at any given time then family time in the evening.

How do you bring ideas to life?

When I feel convicted to create something, I keep the end goal in mind and take any step in the right direction. I’m not afraid of setbacks and failures because failure is an important stepping stone to success.

What’s one trend that excites you?

The modernization of a casual mental health dialogue resulted in the shared knowledge of the language that our parents didn’t have to identify problems. Therefore, solutions like the younger generations have now, like trauma, misogyny, and toxic masculinity. It’s just the beginning of my vision for a future where mental health and psychology are essential to the undergraduate curriculum. I plan to use my art and platform to bring more awareness to this issue.

What is one habit that helps you be productive?

I am intentional about my time on social media. When I’m not marketing myself, I am staying off of social media and not watching television. These things are enormous time-sucking distractions.

What advice would you give your younger self?

Therapy gives you superpowers. The earlier you start, the greater your life will be.

Tell us something you believe almost nobody agrees with you.

Megan and Harry all the way.

What is the one thing you repeatedly do and recommend everyone else do?

Read articles from Psychology Today when you feel you can’t navigate a situation healthily.

When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?

I tend to shut down, recluse and sit with my emotions until they bloom into thoughts, words, sentences, and eventually, a healthy, calm discussion with myself or whoever I need to discuss an issue with.

What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business or advance in your career?

Loyalty and compassionate thoughtfulness that I extend to those who I can help. I believe in giving more than you receive, and when the time comes, those you support will come back around to support you in your most significant times of need. You can’t do it alone. It would help if you had a community that truly believes in you. It takes you believing in others to build that. So surround yourself with those who you believe in.

What is one failure in your career, how did you overcome it, and what lessons did you take away from it?

The most time-consuming, money-sucking issues I’ve encountered have come from poor planning. Contracts and insurance will save you a fortune more than anything else you do. Your trips, rentals, gear, and business; insure it all. Sign a contract that protects you in every single agreement. If you offer a service or a product or have any business of any kind, you need a contract for everything that can go wrong because Murphy’s law has been an unfortunate reality of mine. If you partner with someone, you need a contract for solid steel.

My biggest failure was choosing a business partner without knowing what makes a great business partner. I didn’t do my due diligence and found myself years later revealing very uncomfortable facts that led to the dissolution of the friendship and partnership. Before forming a partnership, interview that person as if you were about to marry them and tie your entire financial future to them with no prenup. Drill them with all kinds of questions and assess their ability to manage stressful situations, be mutually respectful, and make responsible financial decisions as a team. Have them psychologically evaluated. Run a background check and have their taxes reviewed by a professional. People can mask for years. Protect yourself with careful planning.

What is one business idea you’re willing to give away to our readers?

There is a great need for an app that helps you find the cheapest flight fares from [anywhere] to a chosen arrival destination. I recently found that you can easily find the cheapest flight fares from a departing destination to [anywhere], but there is no place I could find to run that query in reverse, and it would have been incredibly helpful for me to find cheap last-minute flights home from Europe during a stressful moment.

What is one piece of software that helps you be productive? How do you use it?

17hats. It automates my client onboarding, data, agreements, invoicing, and payments.

What is the best $100 you recently spent?

I purchased souvenirs for my kids from my recent travels and adore seeing their faces light up when they receive them.

Do you have a favorite book or podcast from which you’ve received much value?

Mindset Reset Radio is one of my favorites. A friend recommended it, and it inspires me daily from other successful businesswomen.

What’s a movie or series you recently enjoyed and why?

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck (Movie)
Mark Manson gives his best life advice after struggling to navigate the struggles of life without a mental health toolkit. After years of compensating with destructive coping mechanisms, he experiences a period of self-awareness and comes to some fantastic conclusions about the systematic problems humanity is facing. He establishes his philosophical theory, Manson’s Law of Avoidance: The more something threatens your identity, the more you will avoid it. The more something threatens how you view yourself, the more you will avoid getting around to doing it. He theorizes that sitting with negative emotions instead of avoiding them is the key to a happier life. Without it, humans develop entitlement, depression, and a victim mindset, always feeling out of control of the bad things that happen to them. If humans challenge themselves with his approach, they can develop self-awareness and accountability that lead them to feel more in control of their lives, therefore creating a happier, more constructive life.

I loved the film and am excited to read the book. It inspired me to write my book!

Key learnings:

• The foundation of success is built on failure, community, and a growth mindset.
• Therapy gives you superpowers. The earlier you start, the greater your life will be.
• Normalizing mental health dialogue is essential to a better future for the world.
• Pay attention to the integral importance of insurance and contracts; it will save you a fortune and years of heartache.