We recently connected with Steven Hooks and have shared our conversation below.

Steven , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

-Taking risk is apart of the journey no matter what business you’re trying to start for me it started early while in college designing clothing and selling it without having a website. Started with hoodies and crewnecks for the fall/winter, then creating summer items such as t-shirts and tank tops. Generating a lot of buzz around campus and sold-out most of my pieces, even had my brand in a campus fashion show with Travis Porter performing during my segment. Post college after designing my own brand I was approached by other local brands on the scene which I helped and made some noise where the pieces ended up in some professional athletes hands, mangers in the music industry etc. My latest design work and ideas landed me as COO of a women’s athletic brand Enzo Unlimited that landed investment and launched with 100 designs and sold-out in the first year, opened a store, partnerships with various local & national brands such as ClassPass.

-Taking a intern job for a new network coming to television, Revolt Tv & Media. Seeing an ad on social media asking for brand ambassadors to come to Miami to work a 4 day event. Literally said to myself this should be fun why not? Found a signup page regarding the event, applied, got a call within a week, it was either zoom or google meeting met 2 individuals that worked in the marketing department they liked my interview and I was hired. Taking that chance and doing good work I was hired by them for 3 years. Getting the opportunity to meet some of the biggest artist, entrepreneurs, actors & actresses, radio personalities, etc. Not to mention the amount of brands I got the opportunity to work with during my time there, Apple Music, Adidas, At&t, Twix, Ciroc, Beats by Dre to name a few.

-When it comes to finding that next client for styling and personal shopping and you can’t get in touch with a agent or someone that represents the players from a team standpoint. The next best option is social media direct messaging hoping the client will see it and respond back with a “Yes.” Its all about timing and being in the right place at the right time, that’s happened to me on several cases. Speaking things into existence as well, I’ve got the opportunity to work with Super Bowl champions for the Chiefs, music artist as small as 10k following to 1m+, tech entrepreneurs that have products endorsed by Klay Thompson, and fin-tech company that raised over 1m. Before the clients while working on my craft after designing saying to myself I can get customers to buy something I can make, what about selling clients on something they want? I took a chance to join a network of highly skilled professionals with more years of experience through a program with GQ called “The Mentors” program headed by Jim Moore GQ’s Creative Director at Large for over 20+years and Rachel Johnson fashion stylist to Victor Cruz, Lebron James etc. I had a zoom call with both of them at the same time I basically said before “I start this journey what’s your predictions involving NIL, luxury brands etc within the 5 years? Conversation lasted about 45 minutes great insight from both parties with them both ending the conversation saying “I like the way think, I know you have what it takes to be a big stylist in this industry, we would love to work with you.” Now I’m here getting new clients and taking all the advice from my peers who I call on that work with Zendaya, Lewis Hamilton, Colman Domingo, Morris Chestnut just to name a few.

Another big risk was stopping Image Architect Law Roach during New York fashion week in 2023 for a quick conversation who helped me realize the business of fashion vs just styling and personal shopping. Same for Jason Rembert, he said “do what you love and everything will come to you.” The risk for knowledge and insight is a big key for me I am always willing to learn from the ones before me.

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’m Steven Hooks entrepreneur & fashion stylist I’ve been blessed to work in fashion for myself since starting! I have great mentors Law Roach, Jim Moore, Rachel Johnson and various other people on speed dial for advice!!!

I have worked in different industries tech, marketing, event planning. My many experiences have groomed me in being a jack of all trades. I feel like there no job I can’t accomplish.

Brands I’ve worked with: Apple Music, Champion, Beats by Dre, Ciroc, Coca Cola, Xbox, Microsoft, Adidas Soho House, MLS, Redbull, Spotify, Dropbox, Lyft, Drew Gooden Foundation, Big Brother Big Sister Kansas City, Pepsi, At&T, Class Pass Twix, Budweiser, Wayside Waifs.

Helped various companies raise funding for different projects estimated over 1m+

I own an operate UTM Studios LLC a creative agency based in Kansas City we provide services such as Marketing, Branding, Image Consulting, Event Planning, Production, Fundraising. Accepting new clients just shoot us an email!

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

When starting a women’s athletic brand Enzo Unlimited our team said we would only launch with 12 designs to give customers a nice variety. But in the design process we had so many designs and variations of colors adding up to about 100 designs. We thought it would be cool if the audience could give us feedback on products before they launched, like making a kickstarter page but something we built custom. We built a website to showcase all the designs and when you clicked on your favorite design we got an entry for the selections from over 300+ customers. With as much feedback and data we collected, the odds were in our favor. We launched with all 100 designs sold-out all of them in a years time, and created more and eventually opened a store. At $65 a pop you had a very high quality garment!

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

In my life for example I always had to pivot, nothing has been given to me, I’ve had to work for everything I have. A pivot started after I put college basketball down and went right into designing clothing.

When designing clothing didn’t work right off the bat, I went into designing website & wireframes for mobile apps. When I felt like I wanted more I pivot again. I took the intern job with Revolt Tv & Media, working in the marketing & production departments for 3 years.

Timing and the right place at the right time I was approached to be a COO of a women’s athletic brand based off my previous experience designing clothing.

All while being a COO, I then went back to my production and events experience to help create a event in Los Angeles called “The Basement Series” with Warner Music SVP Ericka Coulter it’s an event where you can network, vibe, discover new talent in the music industry. Working with the likes of Maeta, Ambre, Tone Stith, Bay Swag, Rich the Kid, Asian Doll, QuinCat, KalanFrfr just to name a few. Work being mentioned in “LA Weekly” LA Times and various other outlets. Not being from LA I had to find venues to host the event that was a 2-3 month long process for the right venue, while working remotely.

Another major pivot was during the pandemic having to close our store, not being able to do in person popup events, workout sessions, team retreats, etc by far the hardest not knowing what tomorrow was going to look like for any business along with manufactures cost, shipping, or what shopping was going to be like in the near future.

In the middle of the pandemic a rebrand of UTM Studios LLC emerged, as everything was slowly opening backup had the opportunity to regenerate the community with a charity event called “Spread Love” it was a event to giveback to two charities BBBSKC, Wayside Waifs. Raising about 20k event held at the new Loews Hotel in 2020. The first company to rent out the Horsefeather Rooftop area sponsors The Pitch & Panthers Place. People still talk about this event today who attended and needed that breathe of fresh air. Event gained over 200k impressions during one of the worst times in history.

Getting UTM Studios to work with music artist, professional football players, tech entrepreneurs, models, and as of recent a player in the NWSL. Speaking into existence along with execution the pivot was worth it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.utmstudios.online
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/steven.hooks/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-hooks-jr-4874347b

Image Credits

IG:Kennyphotokc or Kenny Johnson