We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Danielle Thomas. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Danielle below.
Danielle, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?
From someone that feels like their going from nothing to building one of the most creative dreams they’ve had this far. I can tell you that as you start any journey, acknowledging self is the biggest win you can give yourself. Each small step is a closer step to the end goal. We say it and try but when we give it our all and hit that new level in life we celebrate. If you hype yourself up and keep your focus as you work towards each goal, you end up building a sense of confidence you can only obtain through your momentum.
Understanding how you need to move will save you time and energy because you will know where you stand in your journey. I am an artist but regardless of my profession, I myself need to be in a place of mental peace to excel in my craft. I know that I need to flow in only a way I know how to even get close. Sometimes that takes a doodle here or a trip to a museum. Whatever I need to do to pump up my mental and my most authentic self, that’s what I’m about to do.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
For those that don’t know me, I am Dani T. of InVision-Graphics, an artist, wellness speaker and fitness nerd that loves to live life to the fullest. Using these different facets of my experience I have been able to take my knowledge and help many others find their way back to loving their own crafts and life in general. I create home, studio and office decor to empower others to find peace and be their best selves in any space. I recently published an ebook of the title; Create Your Peace: : 7 Ways to Wellness in Any Space which promotes self love, balanced mental health and more personal enlightenment. It is available digitally now through Amazon as the Kindle Edition. Let me know what you think, tag me because I am working to create an expanded version to drop this Fall 2023.
Art has taught me that what I create carries weight in the minds that see it. By hand, I create about 1000 pieces now of art each year which relate to others in many ways. To evoke a feeling in someone just by being my authentic self and sharing my stories is the best reward for what I do. When I challenge people to workout with me, they show me three things they enjoy that builds them to their best self as well. Wellness is just as contagious as when people say misery loves company. As you can see, I am a person that doesn’t just do what I do for money or acknowledgement. Creating and creativity is simply natural to who I am and how I live. In return, these same practices and traits I carry into my brand and business. Maintaining this mindset is very important when it comes to human interaction inside and outside of business.
Stay tuned for more love, creativity and peace. #VisionariesHooT
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Acceptance, understanding and learning new skills I never thought I would need. I often speak in a way that has my friends calling me a human fortune cookie. Let me break that down because some skip over these qualities when starting their journey. Then soon realise these are inevitable qualities learned as you go most of the time anyway. Life is funny like that.
Imagine: hitting your big toe on the corner of your bed in the morning. Two things are happening. One, you anticipate the pain but don’t fully accept it. You get stuck. Resulting in hopping around on one foot for a sec and maybe a curse word or two before walking away like nothing happened. Accepting the full scope of a situation and moving forward accordingly helps you find a more practical path to your challenges, even professionally. Not everything is going to work out all the time. Prepare to be your best and accept that you always give it your all. Know when to be flexible and turn the tide into your flow.
The second thing happening, in your mind, you’re understanding that hitting your toe hurts and to avoid making the same mistake again in the future. Understanding the outcome of each part of your journey is important to your growth speed and peace of mind navigating through everything to come. As a business owner, I had to understand many new forms of operations and vernacular that if you aren’t ready for you can get overwhelmed easily and want to give up before you reach your truest peak of success. Almost anyone has the capability to make their own way to the success of their goal. I truly believe that. I say “almost” for those that kept from the knowledge necessary and those that give up before they get started. It’s all a mental game with yourself.
Above all, keep moving, traveling and learning all about this world. No matter what you do, your craft will benefit from the more you learn. Especially my fellow creatives reading this. Inspiration can be found in the smallest of details but if you’re not looking, what difference does it make. The moment you stop feeding your soul with what you love you stop growing as you. I have always liked to challenge myself and do new exciting things just to be able to do it. I started my own YouTube channel, InVision-Graphics, with a successful 6 hour art and chat stream after only studying a couple of hours beforehand on how to do it. If it’s something I want to tryout, I’ll express it and figure out how to make it happen. I’m a jack of many trades, master of some. I said what I said. All that’s to say, go learn a new skill that could boost your confidence or just be a really dope experience. These are the things I mention in my ebook on Amazon. (lol Shameless plug).
If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend that decade?
A particular challenge has been marketing my brand effectively and not leaning further into my style. Sometimes being too close to the canvas you can’t see all the painting’s beauty. I found myself falling into “this is the best I can do right now.” Surely not! I had to take a step back from trying to push the old faithful pieces instead of really doing the research and getting more intune with my style. There was a moment in my personal development that I noticed being so focused on making a sell that I would sketch a popular character or whatever was trending. I thought it was really going to get em. When really, it wasn’t the subject fully. The disconnect was with my own craft.
“To know me, is to love me”, this is a concept I grew up understanding and yet didn’t carry it over to my professional thinking because in business you have to be a matter of fact. If you waiver, you lose ground on your current task. “To know me, is to love me”, meant to be read two ways. One for self and one for other’s interactions with you. Of course if you cross paths with a person multiple times you get a chance to meet someone new who has a whole set of experience that you do not. Vise versa but remember to look inside as well.
The more I fall in love with my craft and push it to a point where it’s as smooth as breathing, the more others will want to know. I had been posting so many different creations that it was hard to understand what I even do. I thought that my skill level is good enough to make these things happen in this moment and then I’ll polish up my abilities later on. Truth is, if I maintain my own development while creating new pieces more people will see what I love about myself and my craft. I am learning quickly that to keep that fire in my passion and connection with my community I need to keep that passion moving forward.
It’s such a simple concept but when you get into the flow of this is now business. Now the process has become something more than just your love of craft, but an important source of income. Taking a deep breath, accepting and understanding come into play at that point. On one hand, today I officially found out I have the opportunity to take part in Artscape Bmore, which as an artist developing her skill professionally, it is important to showcase my pieces ever so often. On my other hand, I have to pay off my car note balance of $1000 this week. I know one thing, I will find a way to secure my car and attend one of the more popular art events this year. I will not stop myself from becoming my best self, it would be a disservice in my personal opinion. It’s like coming home from a long day and really sitting still for the first time in awhile, the momentum comes to a halt and stall.
I’m not done moving yet so, I’ll see y’all soon. Remember to find peace in self to do what you love.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.hootstop.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/dt_invision
- Youtube:www.youtube.com/@DT_IVG
- Other: “Create Your Peace: : 7 Ways to Wellness in Any Space” Kindle Edition: https://a.co/d/dwqE5Wy
Image Credits
Dani T (Photographer and video/photo Editor)
