SPEAKER_02: 1:45

Welcome back to the Hilltop Glove Podcast. Today we had the pleasure of speaking with the incredibly talented Daniel Green from Charleston, South Carolina. Daniel is a multifaceted artist and visionary video director whose work is nothing short of spectacular. As one of Charleston's most sought-after photographers, he has collaborated with prestigious regional and national brands like Total Wine, Warner Brothers, and Lionsgate. What sets Daniel sets Daniel apart is the remarkable ability to use his platform to champion positivity, creativity, black joy, and black culture. From grand galas to dynamic festivals, Daniel excels in commercial and event photography and videography, as well as crafting mesmerizing music videos. As an artist, he is known for his captivating art, often showcasing his original sunflower character, Kai, which has become an emblem of creativity across murals, canvases, and stickers throughout South Carolina and beyond. His awe-inspiring live paintings and storytelling prowess have captivated audiences on Live 5 News, Ted Charlson, and even HBO Max's hit series, The Righteous Gemstones. His work is a beacon of inspiration, drawing viewers into a world where art and emotion intertwine seamlessly. How are you doing today? And I saw you up here looking around, like, who are they talking about? Hey, what up? Excellent, excellent, brothers. Good to have you here today. We always talk about this on our show, man. You gotta give people their flowers when they're here. So we do this a lot, and Tamai does an excellent job of putting all these breakdowns together for you all. She does her work.

SPEAKER_00: 3:33

Can I drop the fire, man?

SPEAKER_02: 3:36

So she makes sure it's good. And when people hear it, they're like, wait, is that the person? That's why we want to talk to you because you are this person that's in front of us. So it's awesome to have you here today. We appreciate you so much for sitting down with us. Obviously, we know you're a busy person, you have a lot to do. So not gonna waste a lot of time. I do want to get into the crux of the interview so we can get some answers about some questions. And plus, you have some excellent art over here that we're gonna take a look at as well. Um, that you all have to see. And I mean, it is eye-popping. Um, first things first, we always ask patients, I mean, our patients, I apologize. We always ask our guesses. I can't help it on the back. You got the day job on the day job up here bleeding over. Um, we like to start off each episode by asking a little bit of the your history, um, your childhood experiences, what it was like growing up for you, and who inspired you to be who you are today.

SPEAKER_00: 4:27

Um, a lot unpacked. Uh, my childhood experiences, uh, I feel like I've always just been into things. Yeah. Uh as a child, I felt like life was about having abilities. So I learned how to do a bunch of different types of things. So like I had just chapters of my life where I had different um art disciplines. You know, so now I'm just an accumulation of all those chapters, and so I I let the different art disciplines that I've practiced in, I let them like combine or intertwine. So uh as a child, man, I thought I was gonna be in the NBA for real. Really?

SPEAKER_02: 5:05

Oh, hey, hey, who dreams, who dreams? Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I gotta ask you this. You said that. Yeah. Who's your favorite player growing up?

SPEAKER_00: 5:11

Uh growing up, uh, probably Alan Iverson.

SPEAKER_02: 5:14

Hey, Bubba Chuck, Bubba Chuck. He's everybody's favorite. Man, I I always tell folks he is um Kevin and I we always have this conversation about why people like players like Stephan, uh, Stephen Curry. And it's because it's somebody that's relatable. Like everybody can't be seven foot five and shoot three pointers of dunk on people, right? But we all may be between the heights of 5'3 and 6'1. And we may have a little bit of basketball skill. And if we can make it work for us, it looks good, right? Right. And so it makes sense. I understand that. And with you saying that, and and Alan Iverson being one of your favorite players, did you, is there anything about the way, was it anything about his his charisma, his culture, the way he carried himself that that, you know, attracted you to him?

SPEAKER_00: 5:52

Um, you know, at the time I didn't see it this way, but as you asked me this question, I kind of know what it is. Like, uh Alan Iverson created a brand about himself as a basketball player when that wasn't something that was generally being done. You know, uh I mean, I of course I have to recognize the fact that Jordan also did it, and I'm sure there's a plethora of other uh players, even my man in the logo, I forgot his name, but Jerry West. Yeah, you know, there's a there's a plethora, but for me, when Alan Iverson did it, it was more uh down to earth for me. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? It wasn't necessarily a system put pushing his products and his brand everywhere, it was the streets doing it, you know. Yeah, no, rough off.

SPEAKER_02: 6:42

Jordan was Jordan was a corporation. Yeah, that was different. It was different. We like people we still revere him and whatnot because Jordan how he played, right? Right. But as a as a person off the court, it was different. The reason why I asked you that, and I thought it was very um uh interesting that you said that is because you as an artist, right? Yeah, you want somebody that's what that's actually that it seemed like you would like somebody, especially a player that's true to themselves, that expresses himself as they are, because right that's what it seems you might be looking to do through your your art. Is that correct? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, no doubt. Now, um with you, like obviously, what could you tell our audience a little bit about where you grew up and and how that and how the area that you grew up may have impacted you?

SPEAKER_00: 7:22

Uh what going on, yeah? I'm from Charleston. Greece, that's all I'm waiting what's going on, yeah. I'm from Charleston, South Carolina. If you're from Charleston, I'm from Exit 209. If you know about Exit 209, you know, ain't a lot of artists inspiration in that area. True. You know, um, and and and it's it's so funny when I get that specific because like when we talk about culture and community, there's people that can appreciate somebody that really understands what's happening in the community around them. Yes. Uh so I like to put a lot of that into the essence of what I do in my work. Um but uh coming up, uh I use the internet for my inspiration. I didn't I didn't have a lot of like people or opportunities or circles that I can go to to learn about the things that I wanted to get into. Uh so I found like online forums and in blog spaces and stuff where I would find community where we can chime in on all the niche uh practices and methods, techniques and stuff. So whatever it was I was trying to get into, I knew I could find a forum for that. And somewhere I can connect to somebody out in Colorado who can give me the critique I needed to get where I want to go, you know?

SPEAKER_02: 8:42

Man, and that's a good question. I know we got Mike, Mike over here on the mic, on the background, in the background. And I know he actually does art. I always see people, I I don't actually work in the material of making visual art. And one of the things I always ask folks who do, yeah, how do you how do you get into and this is interesting gets into our second question about the art in you? Obviously, something had to spark you and inspire you to want to do this and and to create these characters that you create and use the mediums that you do. Do you remember any particular time or event that may have occurred that led to the creation of your spark for what you do, especially with your characters, because your characters are very unique?

SPEAKER_00: 9:24

Uh multiple steps led to me creating these characters. Um coming up, I was diving into worlds and I was learning about different methods and techniques in these worlds. So like uh graffiti was what got me interested in learning about art and the principles and the you know. So uh Okay, okay. So uh uh I would go on those websites and we'd have like a prompt. So let's say the prompt is like um whimsical, and everybody on the internet gotta draw the same word, win whimsical, and each person gotta vote on who how they like who how however you drew it, and then we gotta add a critique that'd be like, I, you know, your your letters are are dope, but you know, your flow gotta be consistent throughout. So use some of these things that you did on this letter over here to make it fit throughout the whole word. We're basically building fonts.

SPEAKER_01: 10:19

So you really came up in the forums, yeah. Yeah, word. We're lying.

SPEAKER_00: 10:24

Yeah, bruh. Yeah, like if you know, you know, you know. So uh um then, you know, I went to New York for the first time. Uh I saw like all the wall art and the murals and whatnot. And uh, you know, that was my first time really being like uh surrounded by it everywhere I went, you know. Um so uh that same year, uh I just remember science class, like sixth grade. I saw a piece of paper on the ground. I didn't know what it was called at the time. It was like just like letters drawn funky. Now we would consider that a tag. So I saw a tag on a piece of paper, and I was like, bro, like how do they get it to read this word, but you're not going about it the way that I normally would when I look at a letter. So um that was just interested, interesting to me.

SPEAKER_02: 11:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 11:15

Um, and then uh I was like, I'm gonna go to school for graphic design, and uh, because I was inspired by that and inspired by shirts, and so uh I learned how to do everything but make shirts. So I learned how to do like logos, brochures, posters, websites, yeah, uh everything from photo, all the multimedia. So uh I realized it had been years since I had drawn something for the sake of expressing something, or just because I felt like drawing. Every time I would draw something, it was because I was gonna turn it into a design. I would sketch a logo, send it straight to Illustrator. Let's go ahead and send it over to the client, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01: 11:58

And so uh it takes something out of you when you're doing everything for pay. Yeah, you know, it's draining, it's draining. I got to that point at one point too. For real. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 12:09

Yeah. Um I got to a point where, you know, I finally caught up on like every project, assignment, every, you know, all I was like, all right, cool. I got time to go buy me a sketchbook. Let me do something for me right quick. And so at that time, um uh I had a creative block. Like I I had I didn't know what I was gonna do. Like after so many years of creating for others, when it came time to create for myself, it was more difficult. Uh you know, it's like almost like I didn't know what to say. Um, I just knew that like when it came to art, um I had multiple passions. But as far as visual art, uh my passion was in graphic design. I felt like that was something that I was gonna pursue. Uh and I did for a couple years, but I ended up pivoting. And so now I'm kind of circling back to some of those previous passions that I had in like design and illustration and stuff. So the artwork that you see is like my way of getting back to my roots. And I've always been fond of like language, playing with language, and and so uh a lot of the the motifs that I put in my work end up um manifesting throughout my life. Yeah. So, you know, art depicting life and then life ended up depicting the art again. Uh so when we look at these characters, uh my first time wearing this suit uh was in a music video. Um because like most people know me as a video director. Yeah. And so um my manus was like, yo, um, I want you to make this video super creative. Um, I don't know, I got I got this flower suit from Fresh Prince, and I kind of wanted Oh my gosh. All right, that makes sense. All right, go ahead, continue. Yeah, he was like, I want to do a nod at that or whatever. And then I was like, let me wear the suit and I'll be in the video. Because people don't people ain't expecting to see the director.

SPEAKER_02: 14:12

That's that's true. Yeah, they don't usually make cameos and these are you ain't gonna see them.

SPEAKER_00: 14:17

Yeah, so when I did that, uh it uh it became like a culture. Uh-huh. So like when I when I did that in the video, um it became super recognizable. So every time like anything about a sunflower happens on the internet, everybody's tagging me, sharing, and so I was like, man, I'm trying to figure out what to draw. I'm like, you know what? If I you know people look at me and see a sunflower. Yeah. I'm like, I'm gonna turn that into a character, and that's gonna be my Mickey Mouse. Uh and I'm gonna create other worlds. Yeah. And then I'm like, but wait, like, you know, uh Walt Disney had more than Mickey Mouse.

SPEAKER_02: 15:00

He did. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 15:01

He has several Mickey Mouses. So I'm like, alright, so when it comes to my creativity, whatever like world I'm building at the time, that's gonna be like one of the shows on my network. And so like the other projects that I do are other like shows on the same network. So Art of Daniel Green is kind of like I compare it to like like FX. Okay. You can go on FX and you can watch The Simpsons or you can watch Atlanta.

SPEAKER_01: 15:31

True, true, true. I see what you're saying.

SPEAKER_00: 15:33

I see what you're saying. So uh this is my way of pushing my love for cinema and my love for like visual arts and stuff like that. And so when it came to the uh the storyline I'm building with it, um, it was based off of my spiritual journey. And so like a lot of the things that I learned in healing and I learned with like understanding who I am and like like my my people, my ancestors, this the stories that led us to where we at. I I found a lot of similarities with nature, plants and animals, uh uh nature. And so like uh when um you got Kai over here looking at all the crystals, yeah. That's like a metaphor for one of my favorite images coming up, which was uh uh Scrooge McDuck diving into the Yeah to the yeah yeah to the pit of money to the gold coins. So like for flower, they don't look at dollar bills and go, whoa, that's a lot of money.

SPEAKER_02: 16:29

True.

SPEAKER_00: 16:30

They look at natural resources and be like, Yeah, look at all these crystals.

SPEAKER_02: 16:34

Yeah, I get it. I get it. I get it.

SPEAKER_00: 16:37

See what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02: 16:38

And then I like how you have the city in the background, too.

SPEAKER_00: 16:41

Yeah, I like to carry little motifs, you know, you know, keep my city with me and stuff like that, you know.

SPEAKER_02: 16:47

That's dope. That's dope. That's really not for me.

SPEAKER_01: 16:50

The eyes just really it's it's very uh glow to the to the to the eyes.

SPEAKER_02: 16:58

Appreciate it, man. It pops. So what and I have to ask, all right, so why why name the character Kai?

SPEAKER_00: 17:03

Uh uh, you know, it was wild, like, so I'll tell you the reason first, but like, uh so with a lot of the work that I had done outside of what I did for clients, a lot of the artwork that I did was I'm gonna try this effect. Let me try this effect. That's all graffiti is. It's like, you know, here's the template. The template's my name, but I'm gonna draw my name and another theme, and now try this theme and that theme.

SPEAKER_02: 17:30

I haven't thought about it like that. You're right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Doing effects, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 17:35

So I was like, alright, well, with this project, I still kind of want to incorporate just showing off a different style for this and that. You know, that's why, you know, I showed y'all I can make smoke out of an air.

SPEAKER_02: 17:47

Which is crazy, yo. This is crazy. Obviously, we'll have you'll be able to see this, the the canvases. Wow, it's crazy. I see it.

SPEAKER_00: 17:53

Yeah, so like as a from a graffiti artist perspective, a lot of times when we do these pieces, we're introducing you to the similar world but different themes and different effects. And so, um what was I gonna say? Um The name for Kai. The name for Kai. So with this project, I wanted everything that I did with this project to be intentional. Yeah. Not just showing you what I can do because I can do it. So I I was like, all right, with everything that I do, let me do some research on some things. And so I'm looking up uh uh names that I can use for the character. And uh I I like playing with language. So like a show that I like that played with language is Courage the Cowardly Dog.

SPEAKER_02: 18:33

Oh, I love Courage the Cowardly Dog. Yeah, shout out to Courage, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 18:37

So so the title is an oxymoron. Yes, because courage and coward. So Kai is a a name that has many different translations depending on the culture we're referring to. But one of the depictions of his name means happiness. So I bring I I I sh give him a life of things that aren't happy. Oh uh and and and so and a lot of those things are derivatives of the black flight. My goodness. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 19:10

Now it comes together, makes sense what I was looking at. That makes sense. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00: 19:14

You know, so uh like um this other character here, this is Rose. Um uh Rose looking at uh looking at the sage as if you know there's like a lot of power in that, right? Yeah when humans look at sage, it can be polarizing. Either you're you're you're for it and you might use it as you know part of your healing practice, or you might be against it and you have like a negative connotation about you know what I'm saying? Yeah, you don't trust it. But which is weird, right?

SPEAKER_02: 19:48

Right, yeah, I get it.

SPEAKER_00: 19:49

Yeah, but if we're talking about the perspective of flowers and nature, there is no weird when it comes to that. This is their power.

SPEAKER_03: 19:59

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 20:01

So I'm able to have these conversations without there being any room for uh debate because no matter how you feel about like even the even the concept of God, yeah, when we're talking about flowers and nature, yeah, it's always the most high.

SPEAKER_02: 20:20

Always. Always. Oh, this is too deep. All right, I'm looking at this man's art and I'm looking at this little. I wasn't thinking about like now I feel like I was being shallow. Yes, I get when you're coming. Man, that's dope. That's dope. That is so dope. Appreciate you. Wow, wow, yeah. All right, so I gotta ask this because obviously being from Charleston, yeah. This is uh this is a just the region of Charleston, because I tell people um, people just say they're from Charleston, they ain't really from Charleston, the city area. They're gonna be from the region of Charleston. Yeah, preach on it. The region, because the region, the reason why is because it has such an effect. The region is not just downtown, right? It expands beyond that. And the culture goes with it, right? Yeah. Now it's a it's a city and it's an area and a uh a place of history and very divine spiritual culture. It's here because most of us, this is where we came in. This is our point of port of entry into the quote unquote new world. Um, if we arrived here, or if our folks are from this area, we we already know what goes with it. Now, I I will say this. My brother and I were talking about this on the way up. One of the things that we always think is so interesting about it is there is this deeper culture to Charleston, but the one thing that you the one thing that is always talked about, the one thing you only see, hospitality and food and beverage. Yeah. And it kills me. Because Charleston is more than just red rice and some kind of mint jewel. And it kills me because obviously the culture and the stuff that you're talking about is so deep. That comes from the culture and the history of the people that live here.

SPEAKER_00: 21:54

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02: 21:55

So, how do you feel as an artist? Do you think there's enough exposure? Am I overlooking it? Am I missing and not seeing it? Is it as exposed as it should be the culture outside of food and drink?

SPEAKER_00: 22:08

I love talking about this type of stuff. Um, because like I weave all of that in my work. Even when you ask me what sparked me to do this, yeah, there's a spark that makes Kai a character and not a regular flower. True. You know, uh, so when we're talking about um the way the culture is expressed to the masses, um what I what I like I I study I study the mind a lot, and what I what I find is that sometimes, you know, when we really have a message that we want to get across, uh we we um we don't do it subtle enough. And so it's not appreciated right uh off the first round. Um like like like Black Lives Matter.

SPEAKER_03: 22:53

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 22:53

Great message. Yeah. But if you reworded it and had it say like I love black people, then if you don't rock with us, everybody knows the reason why.

SPEAKER_02: 23:08

Oh the subtlety will show the truth. Right. You don't have to mash it.

SPEAKER_00: 23:14

Yeah. So the the name of the story is Return of the Flower. Uh-huh. A story of us getting back to our roots, um and you know, back to like the de delicacy that that makes us who we are before we have to uh create like ways to navigate through life socially. Yeah. As as a young child, we just want to make friends, type of thing, right? Um but but nature ain't always pretty. I like to play with those dualities. And so this is my way of doing what they did with the racist cartoons growing up, where you fall in love with this cartoon and then you grow up later and you realize that it was racist the whole time.

SPEAKER_02: 24:04

You are subtle. You're the smooth mofo. I probably I get it. Because you yeah, alright, alright, I see where you're coming from. Yeah. The subtlety.

SPEAKER_00: 24:12

Right. I've always been fascinated by racism. Yeah. Because I'm like, what you mean you gave us a classic and you had enough extra time to animate it as racist?

SPEAKER_02: 24:21

That's true.

SPEAKER_00: 24:22

Y'all are talented.

SPEAKER_02: 24:24

They have to be. Again, one of those conundrum. Man, gotta be talented. I was in Disney World with my wife. We were looking at the stuff that was created and him like creating like the Abraham Lincoln animatronic. Yeah. And how much work he put into making this thing. You were talented. I know you were talented. How can anything? Why are you gonna use that talent to make something that is disparaging? It's crazy, right? To think about it, but you have to have talent.

SPEAKER_00: 24:52

Yeah, so I'm like, okay, I'm gonna do the same thing. When you first look at my my work, you might appreciate it for the hospitality and the pretty vibes. Pretty vibes colors and the colors and the floral, yeah. Yeah, but I'm I'm giving you reverse anti-racism. Shh. You know, it's it's it's it's uh or uh what's the word? Subliminal anti-racism. So so like you would you wouldn't know off at first glance of what you're looking at. You appreciate it for whatever you appreciate it for at first, uh-huh. And then, you know, as I this is the I do the work as just like I do like the artwork as a way of like uh currency for this the the story behind the the flowers and stuff. So that you know I'm working on like an animated series for it. Um and so uh the the the paintings is like currency for that, like how the dollar used to be backed by gold. Okay, okay, I got you. So like you know, um if you take the concept of um let's say the couch scene on The Simpsons, if the creator of Matt Groening was also a painter and he painted that couch scene of the characters, can't you imagine what that would be worth? Amazing amount of money.

SPEAKER_02: 26:10

Because you could pay you have different ones you could do. You could do different scenes and you can sell those scenes. Right. I'd buy them and put them in my house. I'd have all the little blocks and I'd have like a bunch of them, and they'd all be my house, and I would pay$15,$20 for each little print.

SPEAKER_03: 26:22

Right.

SPEAKER_02: 26:22

Yeah, you ain't lying. But they don't do that. No, that's crazy. Don't tell them to do that, though. Don't tell them. So, you know, like so I see you're creating the currency for the actual okay. That's smart. That's so smart. Yes. Now I gotta bring this in because he said it. I gotta bring this in, Mike, because we haven't talked about this in a long time. NFTs.

SPEAKER_01: 26:41

I was about to say, man. Say it.

SPEAKER_02: 26:43

Because what you're talking about is the reason why people would create an NFT.

SPEAKER_00: 26:47

Yeah. How do you feel about those?

SPEAKER_02: 26:49

I know this is off topic, this is mad off topic, but I gotta ask, because you brought it up.

SPEAKER_00: 26:53

Uh, so I love the psychology behind why NFT works. You know, you you you created uh you created scarcity, you also created community, and you gave it a face. Okay. That's what it took for NFTs to be successful. You can use that same type of ideology for a a different um uh I can't think of the word, medium. For a different medium. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 27:19

So um Pardon me, y'all, there's some probably may hear some sounds in the background. Everybody safe, we're good. It's just something going by outside at all. Just go ahead.

SPEAKER_00: 27:26

Yeah, we're yeah, no, so like uh, you know, I'm working on things that are similar to the way an NFT works. Okay. So like for for for those that you know support support me and support Kai, and you know, uh that that are part of the garden, you know what I'm saying? Uh I like it, I like it, I like it. We all part flower in one way or another, you know. So uh for the people that you know uh see themselves as part of the garden, there's gonna be special person opportunities for them when I start creating bigger.

SPEAKER_02: 28:06

Oh, so this is built in long term.

SPEAKER_00: 28:10

Yeah, uh community funding. Yeah. Uh so um an NFT is a um if I could put it in other words, I would say it's like a um a token or a uh that's what the T stand for, right? But it's like a let's say it's a token. Yeah, it would say it's a token that you give your own face for. So most people chose to give this face. It's so funny how like when NFTs came around, when you think NFT, you either think uh same illustration, different outfit, or you think uh some 3D wrap around visual. Yeah, yeah. Though all of those things have been existing.

SPEAKER_02: 28:56

Those that's just right, yeah, yeah, yeah. But now it's something different, it's something new.

SPEAKER_01: 29:01

It's like selling prints of a digital art now that is one of 128,000 or whatever.

SPEAKER_02: 29:08

That's it.

SPEAKER_00: 29:09

But you know, you can sell one out of 30 shirts. Right. Five years from now, we know, and you know, now if you come to what I got going on with You get some kind of value out of it.

SPEAKER_02: 29:25

Yeah. So I know I gotta push this, but I want to ask, we got there's there's one question I gotta ask before let's get into the little boring part of it, but I gotta ask this. Obviously, one of the things about our podcast that we like to discuss with our guests are the the boring parts of how things operate, the the pragmatic day-to-day business things. And since we got into this NFT part, one thing I did want to ask you about um with finances and the sense of doing work and being able to be an entrepreneur but a creative and somebody who can live off your work is in your bio, we talked about the different work that you've done, commercial contracts, et cetera, that you've had. What kind of strategies do you use to turn one-time commercial contracts into long-term partnerships that naturally highlight your brand so that you can leverage it to push the things that you want to do with your art?

SPEAKER_00: 30:23

Um, I have great relationships with uh my clients. Um, some of my clients that uh are known as like, you know, uh big clients. Yeah. A lot of my big clients, I worked with them since I they were small clients.

SPEAKER_02: 30:39

Oh, okay. So you can't grew together.

SPEAKER_00: 30:42

You know, a lot a lot of people know my work for like the festivals that I do around town. So like like the Black Food Truck Festival or Shout out, shout out to Show. You know, or uh uh Juneteenth Family Fest. That's another so um uh like Black Food Truck Festival. Um I've had a relationship with Marcus Hammond. We've been working together years before the festival became a thing. Okay, okay. Same with Juneteenth Family Fest. Like my first commercial was uh uh a commercial I did for a clothing line. The client for the clothing line launched Juneteenth Family Fest years later.

SPEAKER_01: 31:20

Oh wow. So you tie in with people and then as they go on to other projects, they come and get you for those. Yeah, that's good business. Very good business. Very good business.

SPEAKER_00: 31:30

You know what I'm saying? Um a lot of the I wouldn't say strategies, but like I'm just very community-oriented. People like to work with people they know, like, and trust. Everybody in Charleston. Repeat it.

SPEAKER_02: 31:42

People like to work with people that they know, like, and trust. Yeah, good gracious. That's something simple, but you gotta repeat things like that. And we say that on purpose because people they listen to stuff to learn. And they have to understand that. That's a very pivotal part of good business.

SPEAKER_00: 31:56

Yeah. Uh yeah, um, it's it's interesting because I'm seeing a lot of guys out here uh um selling video packages and stuff like that. And um I learned that well not that I learned, but I've been noticing that they're really good at articulating something basic.

SPEAKER_02: 32:20

That was so nice. Again, you with your subtlety, man. You ain't good. Yeah, you're right, you're right, you're right. They really are. They really are.

SPEAKER_00: 32:28

Um uh because like a lot of the clients that I work with, you know, like man, like uh Nicki Minaj says something about uh it's machines that go against me or something like that. Like I'm in meetings and you know, clients is talking to a staff of people and you know, and and they're like, oh no, Daniel, Daniel, he he knows da da da, like, you know, like because people be having a staff of like you know, a person in different positions, yeah. You know what I'm saying? And like sometimes that's a great way to work, but the thing is that uh take dance for instance. Um I was in dance and choreography for maybe like four or six years before I started directing. Wow, okay when I was in that world, uh life is all about niches, man. You know, if you if you dive into something that people just like like genuinely, that's a community of people that's gonna rock with you genuinely. And if you're and if you're into a bunch of those different things, then it all adds up. And now it just looks like everybody just knows Dana Green. But Daniel Green also been he's been at dancing, he's been into painting, music, playing African drums.

SPEAKER_02: 33:52

What do you play African drums too?

SPEAKER_00: 33:53

Kickboxing.

SPEAKER_02: 33:54

Wait, wait, you kickbox?

SPEAKER_00: 33:56

I train in those things for the show that I'm developing.

SPEAKER_02: 34:01

Well, you different. You real different. You real different. Yo, yo, you got good energy too, just so y'all know. If y'all was in here, you got great energy, man. You different. That's good, man. That's a blessing. Man, go ahead, continue, continue. I apologize.

SPEAKER_00: 34:13

Um my bad, my bad. I was talking about the niches, but what was the question?

SPEAKER_02: 34:17

So we were talking about how you leverage those connections.

SPEAKER_00: 34:21

Um, uh Yeah. It's it's not even about the craft after a while. It's really about your personal connection to people. Like having good energy. Like I I I just so happen to have uh like a great portfolio and uh great resume and client lists and stuff like that. But it's always been myself that I pushed. I I wasn't the person that you knew because he worked on so-and-so's project.

SPEAKER_02: 34:57

Oh, so it's not just your piece of paper that you bring in front of that person.

SPEAKER_00: 35:01

Yeah, like most most creators are really good, not most, but you know, uh a lot of the creators that I saw on like Clubhouse, for instance, yeah, were really good at like elevator pitches.

SPEAKER_02: 35:13

Yeah, they get there, you know, push it in, pump it out.

SPEAKER_00: 35:16

Like, hi, I uh I'm a correct uh creative director, photographer. I I've worked with uh Vogue and Tom Ford and uh this is cool. Yeah, hi, I'm Daniel Green, and you know all of these people because I did their projects. You know, it's the flip of that. You know, yeah. So now that I happen to have national headline clients, it's it's great, but I appreciate the fact that I'm known for like my work before I'm known for the opportunities that I had back in 2023.

SPEAKER_02: 35:50

So you you don't you don't and this is a good thing to say, and I I know strategizing just for people who come up looking and looking to perform and do well, you are not resting on laurels at all. You are not living, quote unquote quote, say in the past.

SPEAKER_00: 36:05

Oh yeah. Uh I just recently started to do like the, you know, people like go back and like look at like previous work and stuff like that. I I don't do year wrap-ups because I always come December, January, I always got like mad projects that I still have to post anyway. So why would I take my time and make a recap when I could just post the stuff as if it just happened?

SPEAKER_02: 36:28

Especially in this day and age.

SPEAKER_00: 36:30

Why would you not, right? You know, I mean I mean I might do that, you know, for the sake of an algorithm or something like that, but uh I don't feel like you're not behooving to it, do you?

SPEAKER_02: 36:41

You don't feel like that's something you have to do. Yeah, because I know a lot of folks, and I know um we're gonna speak to somebody today, and I was actually talking to him yesterday at random time in the street. It was funny. But we're talking about the fact that there's some folks, they feel as if, especially to live as a creative and to take care of yourself, you have to almost sell your soul and your morals to make the money. As if there's no other way to get it done but by, all right, I'm just gonna prostrate myself out here. I'm just gonna do whatever I need to, I'm just get, get, get, get, get, move, move, move. And there should still be some kind of joy to that. And that's one thing I always like to ask folks, and before we get to this last question, I was gonna ask you, like, do you do you have do you still have that same joy in doing your work as you did when you were not quote unquote successful?

SPEAKER_00: 37:26

Um I still have the same joy.

SPEAKER_02: 37:33

Um it's a difficult question because like you have a I'll tell people it's the difference between LeBron James and his son Brian. LeBron had to do it because he actually had nothing to fall back on, so he had a different type of fuel. His son's fuel is more than likely not being made made to be embarrassed that he cannot look like his dad.

SPEAKER_00: 37:55

You see what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02: 37:55

It's a different fuel. And the fuel that LeBron has, I always like to look at with artists and creatives as you're doing it out of joy to start because I hate to say you ain't making you don't you don't usually start off off the s off the rip just making money. Once you get to the point where you now you may be comfortable, you may have money, what still pushes you to do it is it do you still have that same childlike joy and spirit when creating?

SPEAKER_00: 38:19

Always. I think I just protect it more now. Um yeah, some of my turning points in my in my career were when um I got my feelings hurt uh by being a passionate creative in a business space, you know? Yeah. Uh uh I ended up getting my and and and it'd be stuff that I don't talk about, I don't make a I don't make like a TikTok to kind of got me today.

SPEAKER_02: 38:51

They burned me today. It's me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 38:54

You know, like it's it's you know, when I put out my my big Kanye documentary, people might know about how I felt about certain things that happened in certain events, but nah, nah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 39:05

You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_00: 39:06

Um, but like um like I I enjoy when I I I like everything that I do. Yeah, it'd be stuff that's not made for entertainment. Uh, but I I like it because I like the way that I did it. You know, like I I might not, you know, if somebody asked me to show you my work, I might not show you this documentary that I just did last week. But it was kind of cool. Like I I went on a on the water and we found we looked at a underwater civilization and show no back. Share that. Yeah, you know, so you know, I might post that on my page. Yeah. Um, auto Danny Green, y'all. But yeah, um uh so like let's say I do a do a project, say I do a project for you or whatever. I would put so much into the project to I already know it's gonna blow your mind before I send it to you. But uh I learned early on not to hype up my work because I'm excited about because here come the notes. Yep. There it is, real life.

SPEAKER_02: 40:13

Smack in the face. Yeah, you know, yeah, Mike. What about the notes?

SPEAKER_01: 40:18

Oh, I mean, that's that's that's just something that's part of being a designer. It doesn't matter how good your thing is, there's gonna be notes. Because people feel like they're expected to give notes. They feel like they're paying for it, and so they gotta they gotta have their hands in it a little bit, something. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02: 40:35

Yeah, you know? Yeah, because that's one thing always gets me about being a cut, like you don't want nobody to tell you how your baby's supposed to come out. You done made this baby, done worked on this baby. That's your baby.

SPEAKER_01: 40:42

See, that's the thing, though, is it's not mine, it's theirs.

SPEAKER_02: 40:45

Dang, see what I'm saying? Dang, I get it.

SPEAKER_01: 40:49

It's their logo, is their brand, is their whole shebang. Dang.

SPEAKER_02: 40:53

Yeah, see, it's a different dang. And that's why you were saying at the beginning, too, like it takes a little bit out of you when you're producing and putting, because you're that's part of it is giving that away. That's something interesting. I we'll build on that. I know I gotta wrap, I gotta wrap, but um, before I wrap, but one thing we like to do this time shameless plugs, shameless plugs, shameless plugs. So at this time, we would like for you to tell us about what you have going on, any upcoming events, activities, and or or projects. And please let our our um audience know where they can find your work and how they can even request your um your your your uh skills and services.

SPEAKER_00: 41:33

Well, um, I ain't gonna lie, y'all. I town like this, I wish I could uh do like them boy, um, what do you call? Uh yeah, I had to turn them on for y'all. Yeah, he turned them off we call him the the man at the auction to talk fast. Oh, oh yeah, the auction. Get everything. Alright, so what's today?

SPEAKER_02: 41:53

Today is Today is February 21st.

SPEAKER_00: 41:56

21st. Alright, so today, um 3 to 9 p.m. We got black people love house music at LoFar Brewery. Um I miss others, but um on the twin well, I I currently have one of my art pieces is um currently on display at uh Park Circle Gallery. Um uh we're doing an art talk on the 27th. I'm gonna talk about my work over there. Um uh Black Food Truck Festival's coming up in April. Yep, yep, yep.

SPEAKER_02: 42:29

Uh uh Don't forget about Best of Charleston finalists. Oh, word up. Yeah, see I'll be while I was checking your stuff and I was waiting for you to say that's what I had to wait in for you. Yeah, we'll make sure we put it out and let people know to go vote. Weird up, we're it up.

SPEAKER_00: 42:45

Yeah, so yeah, y'all. Um uh I was nominated for uh Best of Charleston, Best Videographer. Um and uh I love it for my community to come together and you know show how we can make history. Um when y'all look at the people I'm going against, you're gonna really want to vote for me. Subtle. That's all that's all. You know, um Black History Month ends on the 28th, but voting doesn't end until March 8th. So you can continue to vote for me for that.

SPEAKER_02: 43:25

If I held it just so I could do this now, I'm voting for right now. Yeah, you know, you gotta register, you know. But once you get through it, you know what I'm saying? It's easy, it's easy. And if you already have a Google or Facebook account, then it's actually nothing. It's not you know what I'm saying? It's not work at all.

SPEAKER_00: 43:38

So that's love. Yep. But yeah, so I got that. Um, you know, follow my pages. Everything's art of Daniel Green. Yep. Um and uh Return of the Flower if you want to follow more of my artwork. Uh yeah, uh TikToks, hey Danny, what you doing? I'll be doing different things. Yes, sir. You know, um, yeah, so if there's any other dates and stuff like that I forgot about, I'm sure you'll see it on one of my platforms.

SPEAKER_02: 44:05

And you can always pass that stuff on and someone make sure it goes out on social media with you because like things that are coming up, so we'll make sure to get it out quickly. That's one reason I skipped another room here up there doing extra work. That's what he's doing right now. So we'll make sure we get that stuff up. Um, but um, is there anything that you want to ask or add for the end, Mike?

SPEAKER_01: 44:22

Well, you know, we gotta we gotta mention our beautiful studio that we got today. Thank the Lord Jesus. The Link Studio down in Somerville. Yes. This is uh a space that you too can have your podcast here.

SPEAKER_02: 44:35

Yes, you certainly can. And just to make sure I'm correct, I don't want to mess up the information. I gotta make sure I'm correct on this. One moment. Watch this. All right, so I am correct. So um this space is available for rental on Peer Space. Um, but we're located at O on O'Charlie Road. Uh it's actually 1668 Old Charlie Road Suite 202, Summerville, South Carolina. It's by appointment only. The phone number, if you do want to call, is 843-771-0016. However, you can always go to peerspace.com and you can search up links recording studios. From there, you can look at some photos, etc., and see um what our hourly rate is if you do want to use this space. Um, outside of that, I will tell you it's been a pleasure speaking with you today. I know I have to sign out because we got some folks coming in, but as a heads up, I always like to tell folks I'm DJ and what? This is Mike skips in the other room, and then our esteemed guest, uh, this your boy Daniel Green. That's what I'm talking about. We appreciate sitting down with you today. And and until I always like to tell folks this um, obviously, love the folks around you in this very uh stressful time. And the world that we're living in, make sure you tell somebody next to them that you love them, you appreciate them. Please do. And until next time, peace.