We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tamika Smith. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tamika below.

Tamika, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

My company is called Eyekhan Studios which is a play on the word “icon” (*īˌkän). Prior to me starting my business, I was having prophetic visions and dreams of projects. At that time I wasn’t aware that was happening but as projects started coming into play, I was seeing things in real life that I was seeing in my visions.

In 2019, I found out that NBA All Star Weekend was coming to Chicago and I wanted to do an event so bad. At that time, I worked for a fabrication house called Illumivation Studios where we created cool scenic props and build outs for large brands. During that time, I started seeing visions of an indoor basketball court with chain link fence everywhere. So I started writing up a proposal and creating a list of brands and venues I would reach out to. And I was telling my friends about my dream and was super excited about it.

Well unfortunately my father ended up going into cardiac arrest and passing away in November 2019. At that point I had to leave my job and go home to handle my dad’s transition and support my mom. So all my plans were on stop. I was away from work for over a month. And although All Star Weekend wasn’t until Feb. 2020, I just knew my window was closed.

Well I finally went back to work and was resetting. At that point I’d given up on my ASW dreams when I got a very interesting email from a company called Satis.fy which is one of Nike’s design firms. And low and behold they were reaching out for a fabrication partner for an All Star Weekend activation geared towards top youth basketball leagues in the city of Chicago. When I saw their deck and all the renders you wouldn’t believe what it was…..AN INDOOR BASKETBALL COURT WITH CHAIN LINK FENCE EVVEERRYWHERE. The creative was immaculate with a 3 story space, media integrations, and mini activation touchpoints. At this point my mind was completely blown away. I ended up producing not only the Nike Playlist activation, but also Puma LeagueFits, and an Adidas Retail experience simultaneously. It was a whirlwind.

Fast forward, the pandemic happened and the shop closed. My former boss from Illumivation and current friend encouraged me to start my own business. And I called it Eyekhan Studios with the tagline “Making Visions Visual”. I spelled it Eyekhan as a play on the “eye” because I was seeing visions and supporting making them come to like. And Eye-Khan but I work with Eyekhanik Brands creating Eyekhanik Experiences!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Tamika Smith. I am originally a country girl from a tiny town in Northwest Illinois called Freeport IL. I attended and graduated from Jackson State University in Jackson Mississippi where I studied Advertising and Marketing. I started my career very young around 19 or 20. My bonus mom owned a spa in McCormick Place in Chicago and I would work at the spa during my Summers away from college. We would perform spa services for convention and expo goers and executive clientele. I sat in and c-suite meetings with presidents and vice presidents and was exposed to a very high level of event production at a very young age.

Subway hosted their National Convention at McCormick place one year and I met a lady who owned a chain of stores in Jackson Mississippi. I told her that I was a student at JSU and she told me to call her when I got back to school and she would give me a job. I called her and I started working at her stores. But shortly after I began hosting events in the store, going to local marketing meetings with the regional marketing manager, and catering private executive meetings and large sporting events. Everybody called me the subway girl LOL I would wear my Subway gear and dress it up really cute with khakis, cardigans and matching sneakers. At that time I was a marketing and advertising student so I was starting to understand how to implement different initiatives with brands.

Shortly after that I caught wind of an Initiative called Toyota green initiative where they promoted sustainability at black college campuses. I did some research and found out they were making a stop at Jackson State and they were doing a greenhouse clean up and also doing a competition. I entered into the competition I submitted a proposal on how I would promote sustainability on my college campus. Because I was an advertising and marketing student I used my resources to my advantage by hosting events catered by subway, reaching out to a local Toyota to do test driving with the students, and getting free merch from my University as giveaways. Low and behold I ended up winning the competition and I won a brand new Toyota Prius and a trip for two to the Toyota headquarters in Torrance California. They also gave me a $1,000 gift card, and planted a tree garden in my honor at the front of my University. I got a two page magazine spread and a huge media day. That is how I launched my career in experiential.

I am most proud of my ability to shift, learn, and grow in such an evolving industry. And I am most proud of the projects that I have been able to produce for global brands headed by some of the world’s greatest minds. It’s mind blowing to think a little country girl would be living dreams that didn’t exist.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

Be the manager you always wanted. I like kind hearted people who have strong leadership and accountability, so I strive to always keep my heart in the right place. When it comes to morale, always find ways to empower the people around you. When you do that it shows you care and that alone boosts morale. When people feel seen, heard, and valued it creates a healthy environment for people to thrive.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I love inspiring people. I love that people see my work and it empowers them to want to be creative and find new paths and interests.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.eyekhanik.com/
• Instagram: mimionthemic
• Facebook: Tamika Renell Miera Smith
• Linkedin: Tamika R. Smith
• Other: https://linktr.ee/mimionthemic