We were lucky to catch up with Shane Hunter recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Shane thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What was the most important lesson/experience you had in a job that has helped you as a business owner?

Before I made the move to go into business full time I was in the Communications field and while working at Comcast, I had a the pleasure of working for one of the coolest Supervisors I ever had. One thing that he said to me in one of our one on one meetings about personal metrics he said something that to this day repeats over and over in my head when i’m going through something tough or anything weighing me down mental and it was so simple but sometimes it takes someone that you look up to to say something that will have a huge impact on your life. He simply said,”Shane, focus on the things that you can control” and that helped me tremendously on that job and with my own business. Some of us creatives are somewhat perfectionists when it comes to our work or when working with clients but we cannot please everyone all the time. Dwelling on what you can’t control won’t do anything for your mental health. The quicker you learn this and apply it to your life the quicker you can learn to focus on the things that truly matter.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’ve been into cameras and creating images since a elementary school youth. Something about capturing memorable moments or even turning moments easily over looked, into memorable moments just by capturing them in a still photo, became addicting. I think unconsciously it was the reaction from anyone who I would show the photos to. Nearly 20 yrs after picking up a camera and getting more and more serious about the craft, pushed me to monetize my skills. My media business focuses on helping clients achieve and improve on their public image through the use of creative photography and videos. The popularity of social media has heightened the demand for imagery and the need for promotion videos. This is where I come in. What my clients are usually happy about is my attention to detail and the overall quality of my work. Once we establish a the idea of the project I need no direction, this is where creativity becomes important and that is what sets me apart from others. What i’m most proud of is actually making the jump from having a reliable 9 to 5 job with steady income to working solely for myself which can come with financial uncertainty especially in this field. I spent many years working a regular job and working on my craft after work until very late hours of the night. I finally saw the opportunity to take the risk and I did and haven’t looked back since.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

When I first started out in my niche I was a 24 year old military veteran living in a city where I virtually knew nobody. I only knew people that I worked with at my 9-5 job. At this point social media and Instagram was new to society and we were all still figuring it out. I spent my free time going to events within my niche and connecting with people naturally. I never forced any conversations with anyone but I would talk to anyone who was willing to have a conversation with me. Slowly but surely my artwork became synonymous with my face but before this my art work was well known in the area amongst my community but people didn’t know what I looked like because I wouldn’t post pictures of myself on social media just my artwork. I realized that knowing me as a person made people gravitate to my work because they had met me in person and saw that I was just as interesting as my work was. Getting out there and connecting with people definitely helped me grow a following quickly and brought many more opportunities my way. A lot of these people I connected with became clients or collaborated with me in various ways. The sooner you make yourself available to people the sooner you will start to take off. I like to preach to people about networking because it’s just as important if not more important than the artwork or the business itself. Even now living in a city where no one knows me, once they meet me and they find out what I do, a lot of people want to support my business. I’d like to say it’s because i’m a genuine person but also I’m a nice person. I have coached a lot of individuals that want to start ventures and networking is usually where I start the conversation because the statement, “It’s all about who you know not what you know” holds so much weight but it’s the most overlooked aspect of business. Nothing will come of just going to work and then going home and spending all your time there. You will never meet the people that you’re supposed to meet in this life. You’re blocking your own blessings by secluding yourself from the world. Sure we can connect with thousands of people online on a daily basis but it hits different when you meet these same people in person. Think about it, if I pitch a business proposal to you in the Dm’s, where you can’t have an actual “connection” with me vs if you sat down and talked with someone about business person to person, where you can get a feel for that person, which one of us are you most likely to do business with granted this other person has a great personality and outlook on business? I’m sure you’d go with the person that you met in person. We can’t expect to do business solely online! get outside and connect with your community! Find conventions to go to and genuinely network with others. I mean it’s really about being outside. Something else I like to tell people is to hang out where what I call “quality people” hang out. I can’t tell you how many times I have gone out simply to have a drink and I would end up sitting next to someone or crossing paths with someone I had a lot in common with! I have met so many business people this way! It doesn’t even have to be your goal but I am just trying to emphasize that these connections cannot be made through social media! Once you make these connections, it’s natural to want to then connect over social media! Many times I feel like people can’t tell how genuine I am through my social media actions! I love to support others but it’s usually not fully reciprocated until we meet in person so don’t rule that out! So in short I personally grow my social media following organically. I put a quality following over a quantitive following. Sometimes a large following can feel like fake love and i’d rather have true connection with my followers.

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?

Growing up in Northeast and South Florida, fashion is a huge part of our culture, simply put we have to look fresh when we step out, so naturally I gained a passion for fashion. Streetwear was and still is a big part of who I am. I always wanted to make my own clothes and have always had the taste for quality gear. For me my brand started with me needing a t-shirt to wear at events so people could see my logo while I worked events. At first these shirts were only for me but others wanted to rock them as well so I produced enough to share with friends and supporters. In my teenage years I spent most of my time doing street art and that eventually made it’s way onto a lot of my clothes and even my shoes when I got into customizing. I made clothes and shoes my canvas. I never had any real interest in people wanting to wear what I was making but I was happy to be wearing something that no one else had and I have always been like this and remain this way till this day. Throughout my adulthood I spent a lot of time at boutiques sifting through graphic tees and limited streetwear brands hunting for quality and provocative gear so naturally I was studying garments and not settling for cheap gear. This led me, in the future to want that same quality for my own brand when I started producing more products. I really had been studying fashion on my own just by shopping. I had no real knowledge of manufacturing I just knew what I liked and I knew how I wanted my gear. My brand has always been different in the fact that I am very hands on with everything from the design to the actual creation of it. This was important for me to stand out because I have witnessed so many of my peers just hand over their ideas to a manufacturer or screen printer and let them do whatever they want with the gear. That’s not how any brand that we revere as great, operates but that’s what separates them from the rest. I never chose a garment because of the price, I always chose garments that I would want from my favorite brands. In the beginning I wasn’t able to use the absolute best garments but I was at least using the same garments as some of my favorite streetwear brands and things just gradually got better. Some of my knowledge in the business comes from me working at an important print shop in Seattle (Inner City Empire) that was in charge of running the original streetwear brand “FUCT”. I learned a lot working there! I am very blessed to have been brought onto their team. I helped design, setup orders for print, and fulfill orders. I was always asking questions about what was going on or why they did this vs that. This helped me see the inner workings of a brand and I still use the techniques I learned and observed there. Forever grateful for those guys! Having worked there, it was hard just handing my ideas off to just any ol print shop. If they weren’t better than Inner City Empire I refused to work with them but sometimes it’s hard to gauge as sometimes the quality of the shop falls on just one person, the person running the press! I spent the time to actually go into various shops and see their setups and speak with the owner and printers to get a feel for their work ethic and an overall outlook on how they operate. Once I find a shop I love I’m pretty loyal to them unless something changes that goes against the ethos of my brand or the quality has just changed for the worst. I have been through this as well. I got burned by a shop after printing my biggest order to this date and that has given me a sort of PTSD because of the very high standards I have with my products! I always want my supporters to see that my brand is getting better and better and not the other way around. My biggest lesson learned is probably to speak up when something isn’t right and give as much detail as possible before your product goes to production. This will make everyone happy in the long run.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: www.instagram.com/the.hntr
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/hntrshoots
• Other: Brand IG: www.instagram.com/shop.hntr www.flickr.com/hntr_

Image Credits
All photos by me! All products designed by me!