We recently connected with Hope Misterek and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Hope thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

It’s true what they say about how many hours of practice you need to put in to be an expert. But beyond that, to be on the top of your game, a lot has to do with your nature as a person. I took a course at the makeup designory in LA in wardrobe styling and that gave me a lot of technical knowledge and some insight about navigating the profession on an interpersonal level. That, I had already learned in my career in finance at multiple full time jobs. Understanding working, sales and numbers helped a lot in a creative field especially in starting with no contacts and connections. Having been a telemarketer, collections rep and other sales experience when I was young helped a tremendous amount in some fearless marketing efforts. Building a network of contacts and a good reputation and treating both like gold was important to also build a strong portfolio and client list. Learning how my job worked in the scope of other people I interfaced with was important for me to learn to do a better job. Always trying my very best and making sure to be completely prepared was essential but learning from the experiences where I was not completely prepared or had limited skills and knowledge. I would have learned a lot more and gone further faster both in my career and in the legacy of my portfolio if I would have been less concerned about receiving criticism. or not having my ideas come to fruition; in other words..pride. Pride probably was the biggest killer in my own growth and the growth potential I have seen in others over the years.

Hope, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My career has been an evolution to a mix of style and production related services my company/I provide to various clients. The foundation of what I do started with styling wardrobe on and off figure for photoshoots. It evolved into helping develop and mentor assistants and working in propping and set design. Adding additional focuses to my work caused me to need to bring on additional people to handle wardrobe prop and set and those things started to propel my scope of work into more and more aspects of photo production and fashion including editorial positions, fashion shows, interiors etc. My signature in these fields is my aesthetic interpretation of the said and unsaid cues I read from clients while mixing in an edit of trend, high low, new old and restrained or unrestrained excessive surprise. I was at the forefront of this type of look. My success garnered a lot of interest from peers and soon my advice and assistance led me to start an agency to help photographers get work. My success was directly attributed to a solid consistent aesthetic and an unwavering commitment to execution at the highest level and not letting people down. In 25 years I came in under budget all but once and I delivered over and over ahead of schedule. Client trust and being able to hand off things with confidence even if they could tell me almost nothing or barely help at all was a big reason for growth. We have a skill for keeping the big picture in mind while not ignoring the smallest details and running short and last minute deadlines. Today I do very little marketing and do not chase social media or other newer marketing channels. Most of my work is word of mouth/reputation or comes from clients I marketed to years ago and still maintain a relationship with, Today I work with clients like Warner Bros Discovery on their interiors and holiday installations, interior decor and design consulting and procurement, other multiple corporate art curations and installations, styling and consulting on catalogs and other photography, production work for fashion shows and other event design connecting and execution. Our skills in procurement and sourcing are pretty much unrivaled in terms of finding things on quick lead times and at reasonable price ranges in still that high level of aesthetic and quality balance.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

My expertise in my fields revolve around trends and forecasting. I trend analyze my business and stay conscious of how and why it changes constantly. I have and continue to pivot to optimize the win-win opportunities for clients and artists as things change. I dont chase the trends, I get a sense for demands. My career and my agency are both a prime example of pivoting.

In styling, I could see the change in creative freedom and expert input in even so much as how many buttons should be buttoned on a shirt for sale. It made me move from just wardrobe to props and set where the creative value was less programmable. I saw the best stylists and photographers get replaced by influencers and bloggers and how a new regime of a one stop shop arose. My agency once required a commitment from artists for exclusivity and today we have relationships with artists at different levels none of which require their exclusive commitment to us and of us to them. Instead we match the client to the artists and if we dont have the right artist we source them with the same level of efficient effective success we are known for.

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

My company was one of the first agencies to work with Amazon when it developed its photo studios. We helped supply support to their need for hair, makeup, styling, etc. As with many companies, Amazon sought to reduce their freelance costs even after many years of a great relationship. Thats business. However, the tactics taken to attempt to blemish my name and my business name were a shock. Our artists were threatened with losing their work if they did not leave and work with Amazon directly and rumors were spread saying we had committed fraud on some level. After sending a letter to Amazon, some months later we received an apology and given a new contract. And not long after that we were again in another situation where there were additional unethical occurrences on their part again causing the severance of the contract. Those days were an all time low. We had worked hard on our reputation and personally cared about our clients and our artists and my agency nearly closed. It was surprising how few people were eager to believe there was some wrong doing. Over the years I have been honest about Amazon. Over the years, most people who I am honest with tell me similar stories of their experiences.

Contact Info:

• Website: ajentse.com
• Instagram: hopemisterek
• Facebook: hopemisterek
• Linkedin: hopemisterek
• Other: ajentse.com

Image Credits
Mohegan Sun, Tahari, Wayfair, All Modern