I'm on a mission to help female business owners stop hiding and make them proud to be visible.
FREEDOM
It's well known that many women are still, even in this day and age, grossly undervalued and underpaid in the workplace.
I believe that running our own businesses is a viable solution to this and that all women should have the freedom to choose to do so.
MORE!
I want to help women who believe there must be more. Who believe there must be more to life than the daily grind and working for the man. Who want to achieve practical and financial independence by running their own successful business.
Empowered women make things better for themselves, their communities, their nations and ultimately, humankind.
PLAYING MY PART
If my personal branding photography can help female entrepreneurs get more visible, get more confident, and get more business, then I'll have played my tiny part in changing the world.
BRAND PHOTOGRAPHER | EDINBURGH | SCOTLAND
I'm Donna Green
I’m an Edinburgh-based personal branding and headshot photographer working across Scotland, and I could bore you with my whole life story or Donna could talk about herself in the third person ...
But she won’t do that, she'll just show you who she is, why she does what she does, and how she can help you.
BRAND PHOTOGRAPHER | EDINBURGH | SCOTLAND
I'm Donna Green
I’m an Edinburgh-based personal branding and headshot photographer working across Scotland, and I could bore you with my whole life story or Donna could talk about herself in the third person ...
But she won’t do that, she'll just show you who she is, why she does what she does, and how she can help you.
It was a dark and stormy night ...
... and my phone went ping.
I eyed it sourly. It was 4.23 am, a few years ago.
"Bugger off", I ordered it. It pinged again. The notification panel was full of, well, notifications.
I peered more closely. Then catapulted out of bed like the hounds of hell were scenting my rapidly congealing blood.
Sweating spinal fluid, I boggled aghast at my computer screen. "Oh no, NOOO ..!"
I'D GONE AND MADE MY FIRST EVER FACEBOOK BUSINESS PAGE LIVE BY ACCIDENT.
The page I'd been tweaking, over-working, and tinkering with for months because I didn't have the balls to publish it, was now public.
I had heaps of comments and messages from various people I knew. "Nice page hun!" (NB: DON'T call me that!) "Cool - at last! Love your page!", "Brilliant! Love your photos!", and possibly the most horrifying one of all: "Love it - have shared".
I sat there, paralysed. What now?
I could have just unpublished the thing instantly. But that would have looked even worse. What would people think?
I went back to bed squirming in a cold sweat of mortification that my online presence was now ... online, and I needed to just suck it up.
Knowing that I was out there. And it just looked pretty rubbish. And people could see it. And they might think ... Well, what WOULD they think?
Possibly the most horrifying message of all:
"Love it - have shared"
That Facebook page thing was a wee whiley ago now ...
But I've never forgotten how it feels to be embarrassed about your online business presence.
I know how feeling like this holds you back. How it makes you play small, hiding in the shadows, because you just don't feel comfortable inviting people to your digital home or putting yourself out there.
So I absolutely get how you're desperate to have a vibrant, dynamic online presence you can be proud of which will attract the right people to your business by showing you and what you do in the very best light.
Let me help you with this. Let's get you sorted. Why not give me a call and we'll have a chat about how to get the real you and your brilliant business out there and looking fabulous? Let's get your visuals working hard and selling for you.
"I had never thought about branding in detail until I started working with Donna. Her skills and experience helped me to consider the important details in achieving the images and branding I wanted.
I appreciated Donna’s supportive nature from the first time I met her during my introductory meeting. She was intuitive to my needs and offered considered suggestions based on my requirements. I felt relaxed and listened to.
I would say Donna’s ability to gain an accurate, in-depth understanding of her clients is her superpower. She invests so much of herself in making sure your vision is realised, be that your branding, image, or social media presence. From start to finish Donna keeps you at the forefront of the creative process.
I’m looking forward to working with her again in the future."
Helen-Marie O’Malley
Personal & Business Coach / Cognitive Behavioural Therapist
Elevate your brand with my unique blend of expertise
My clients nowadays benefit from the valuable skills and perspectives I've gained in my professional background over the years. I've been:
COMMUNICATIONS, PR, MARKETING
My comms background, which also included PR and marketing, is a massive advantage when it comes to helping clients express their brand messages in visuals and figuring out what they need to say, and how. (And planning it all out).
it
My IT experience is incredibly useful not just for helping clients with what to do with their photographs and how, but I'm also pretty good at helping them fix their own techy issues, particularly relating to digital images.
TRADE UNION
My trade union experience gave me lots of soft skills like listening, negotiating, getting to the heart of what's really going on/needed, seeing the big picture, and dealing with people in a pickle who need help.
That all said, I was really, really, ASTONISHINGLY shite at hardcore programming and absolutely loathed it. To this day I have no idea how I passed the psychometric and aptitude tests for that role, never mind why I went for it to start with!
I'm a fairly equal mix of analytical left and creative right-brained, so my brand photography is always strategically planned out with rigorous attention to detail. My primary brand archetype is the Sage, the analytical thinker, and my secondary archetype is the Creator, aka artist/designer/maker. (What's your archetype?)
Other important stuff!
Guns n' Roses: Appetite for Destruction - this filthy, nasty, and utterly foul 1987 piece of dynamite is my favourite album in the entire universe. They're my favourite band in the entire universe.
I LOVE GnR and I'm so glad I got to see them way back in '93. Best. Concert. Ever. Nothing can top these guys for me.
Still waiting for Axl's book, though ... Obviously I've read all the others! (Perhaps more than once ...)
I grew up a bookworm, a complete fictionaholic.
We didn’t have a TV for a few years, and by the time I left school I felt like I’d travelled the world, lived in many different eras, and was convinced that had I been Cathy, I could have made Heathcliff into Perfect Husband Material.
I played the pipes in competing pipe bands for a long time and even joined the Army Reserves as a piper. (Yep, that's me in the middle row.)
I’d tell you more, but what happens in the beer tent stays in the beer tent.
My favourite TV show EVER was “The Thick of It”.
If you’ve never heard of Malcolm Tucker, for pity’s sake don’t Google him if you’re at all faint-hearted.
I don't like chocolate very much. Some people are deeply suspicious of this.
However, I'd be quite happy to murder and pillage for Mackies honeycomb.
My favourite drink is 18 year old Glenmorangie.
I keep trying other types of whisky in the hope they'll match up, but sadly they don't.
The quest continues.
* If you really, truly, know what I mean by "where's Izzy?" when you look at the GnR picture, then you are my new best friend.
The way I work
I don’t want to be treated just as a “service” by you, and I sure as hell will never treat you just as an invoice number.
I want to get to know who you are. You’re not just a "photo package" to me, and I’ll never be just about filling up my calendar with “shoots”.
Doing it my way, I get to be creative, use my digital marketing skills, meet fascinating people, make a difference, and have a rare old time doing it!
And you? Well … I suspect you're looking for something special and not just ordinary, aren't you?
I don’t want to be treated just as a “service” by you, and I will NEVER treat you just as an invoice number.
I want to get to know who you are. You’re not just a "photo package" to me, and I’ll never be just about filling up my calendar with “shoots”.
Doing it my way, I get to be creative, use my digital marketing skills, meet fascinating people, make a difference, and have a rare old time doing it!
And you? Well … I suspect you're looking for something special and not just ordinary, aren't you?
Even if you love my "important stuff" above too, I may still not be the right personal branding photographer for you. You have to book the right photographer for your needs.
Are you and I a good fit?