Jamie Green is a one-of-a-kind. With a knack for starting businesses and a heart of gold, he’s launched four brands before the age of 24 and is considered a leader in the social enterprise industry. I first found Jamie when I watched a video of his Dreamstarter crowd-funding campaign. He was raising funds to produce the first line of sleepwear for his cheeky brand, One Night Stand, that provides a meal for a homeless youth with every purchase; He was standing in a box for 24-hours. His stand made him a successful crowd-funding campaign with $27,000 in sleepwear pre sales and media coverage that went global.
We’re thrilled to have him as a #RadLivin speaker in Sydney on the 20th of Feb. Learn a bit about his story and get excited for the day.
Meet Jamie Green…
Where are you in the world?
Right now? Byron Bay my home base. I travel a lot for work but I am lucky enough to call this place home. It’s pretty magic for creative thinking.
How do you follow your bliss?
I’ve really got no choice, I was never good at anything else. I’ve got one life motto – Above All Try Something.
When did the inspiration for One Night Stand first come about?
It was after I started my forth business, a cafe. It all went wrong and I fell flat on my face; I was broke, collecting debt by the day and had to move out of my apartment. I carried on like this for six more months until someone came along and offered to buy my cafe. At this stage I dusted myself off and reflected on the past year. I started to wonder about all the homeless youth I had seen and how they got themselves back on their feet. This is when I decided to do something to help.
How did you go about making your own clothing line? Can you walk us through the process?
With great difficulty, ha. I found people in the industry, begged and pleaded them for help. At one stage I had an Australian brand helping me with my pattern making, design and manufacturing. Once you get that down-pat, you get into a rhythm.
You had the dream, then started a crowd funding campaign through ING Dreamstarter. Can you tell us why you believe your campaign was so successful?
Most likely because I stood in a box in the middle of Melbourne CBD for 24 hours straight. Ha jokes, that was part of it. I had a big team of markets and other big brands helping us out. We had a strategy and saw it though. It was well organised and executed.
If you have a dream that is tied to a good cause, do you believe that helps the early stages of success for an up and coming brand?
If it’s for a genuine reason then yes, but it’s not without a great brand, product and good price point. You can’t just slap on charity and it’s going to work. I believe we all want to do something good for the world but consumers are not going to buy an ugly shirt just because it helps someone.
What has been the most exciting or surprising thing that’s happened since starting a business?
We had Richard Branson give us a shout out when we first launched the brand, that was pretty special.
If fear ever shows up, how do you move beyond it?
Fear is always around, but you have to think to yourself what’s the worst thing that can happen? Or look back on something you did that might’ve been harder. This should push you though.
What advice could you give to someone who knows what they would love to do but haven’t gone for it?
ABOVE ALL TRY SOMETHING.
