Today we’d like to introduce you to Luke Collier.
Hi Luke, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I think a lot of my story started long before I realized I was building one.
When I look at where my creativity and entrepreneurial mindset came from, I can trace them back to two very different influences in my family.
My mom gave me my creative side. She introduced me to graphic design and helped shape the way I see things visually. Long before I understood that creativity could become a career, she gave me an appreciation for design and the idea that how something is presented can completely change the way people experience it. That influence has followed me throughout my life and still shows up in almost everything I do today.
My uncle influenced me in a completely different way. He taught me about business.
He started a meat company in Kansas City’s City Market, and I had the opportunity to grow up around the business during an interesting era of transition for the market itself. Over the years, what he started evolved and grew into one of Kansas City’s most iconic Italian delis, still located inside the City Market today.
Growing up around that gave me a front row seat to what it actually takes to build something that lasts. I saw the long hours, the relationships with customers, the importance of reputation and all of the decisions happening behind the scenes. At the same time, I watched the City Market itself evolve. It was gritty, colorful and authentic, and it was filled with people who had created something of their own. You knew the vendors. You knew the regulars. There was a culture to it.
I am incredibly proud of my family and everything they have built. Looking back, I can see pieces of both influences in almost everything I do today. I got much of my creative foundation from my mom and much of my entrepreneurial mindset from watching my uncle build his business.
Eventually, those two sides came together for me.
Professionally, I found my way into marketing and communications, where I have spent much of my career helping companies tell their stories, develop their identities and connect with people. Today, I work in corporate communications and marketing and am helping lead the rebranding of a nearly 140 year old company. It is a massive undertaking and one that has given me an entirely different appreciation for what a brand really represents.
When you are working with something that has existed for generations, you realize pretty quickly that branding is not just a logo. There are people, relationships, history and trust attached to it. The challenge is figuring out how to respect where something came from while still being willing to evolve where it is going.
That idea of evolution probably describes my own story pretty well too.
I have never really thought of myself as one business, one company or even one type of creative person. I have always followed ideas that interest me and then tried to figure out what I could build from them.
Trick Pony Junktiques came from my love for antiques, vintage pieces and the hunt itself. I have always been drawn to things with a story behind them. An old sign, a photograph, a piece of furniture or something somebody else might walk right past. I enjoy finding those pieces, learning where they came from and figuring out how to give them another life.
What started as something I enjoyed eventually became a family business. Now my own kids get to be around it, help with it and see some of the same lessons I grew up watching. There is something pretty special about that coming full circle.
Hometown Anthem came from a completely different place.
For years I had been creating designs and ideas for other people. Eventually I had one of those moments where I thought, if people are using my ideas, why am I not creating something of my own?
That question became Hometown Anthem.
It started as an outlet where I could take my own designs, put them on apparel and eventually work those products into retail storefronts. The designs were centered around hometown culture and the small, relatable things that connect people to where they are from. It might be a town, a familiar phrase, a landmark or something only the people from that community immediately understand.
To me, that is what makes a design interesting. It is not just something printed on a shirt. There is culture and identity behind it.
Hometown Anthem has continued to evolve since then. What began as a place for my own designs has grown into helping other businesses create their own branded apparel and identity. Today, we work with businesses and organizations throughout the Kansas City metro, helping take their ideas and turn them into something people can actually wear and connect with.
Painting is another part of my story, but a much newer one.
I only recently started painting. There was not a business plan behind it and I certainly did not set out thinking I was going to become a painter. I just wanted another way to create.
I started taking some of the ideas in my head and putting them onto canvas. Then someone wanted to buy one. A few more sold. More requests started coming in, and suddenly something I had picked up in the occasional free time became another creative journey.
I also do photography and videography, which gives me yet another way to tell a story. Sometimes that story is captured through a camera. Sometimes it is a piece of graphic design. Sometimes it is an old object I found, a shirt someone wears or paint on a canvas.
The older I get, the more I realize I do not have much interest in defining myself by one title.
I am not just the person behind one company or one brand. I have a corporate career that challenges me in one way. I have businesses that challenge me in another. I have antiques, design, photography, videography and now painting that allow me to exercise completely different parts of my creativity.
They are separate things, but there is a common thread running through all of them.
Storytelling.
Everything creative becomes part of your brand, whether you intend for it to or not. For me, all of these different things have become part of the evolution of my own personal identity. I keep learning. I keep trying things. I keep challenging myself to do something I have not done before.
Sometimes it turns into a business. Sometimes people start buying it. Sometimes it is simply something I enjoy doing.
When I look back, though, I can still see where so much of it started. I see the creativity my mom introduced me to. I see the entrepreneurial spirit I watched my uncle put into practice in the City Market. And now I get to take those influences and figure out what they look like in my own life.
I am incredibly proud of where I came from, but I am equally excited about what I have not created yet.
I still feel like I am just getting started.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I would not call any of it a completely smooth ride. I think almost everything comes with some level of struggle until you start figuring out your rhythm.
A lot of what I know creatively has been self taught. When I first picked up a camera, I did not have someone standing beside me showing me how to use it. I started taking pictures, made plenty of mistakes, watched videos, tried something different and went back out and did it again. Photography eventually led me further into videography, design and other creative outlets, and I have approached most of them the same way.
I have never been afraid of not knowing how to do something. If anything, that usually makes me want to figure it out.
I think there is a misconception that you have to master something before you can do anything meaningful with it. I do not know that you ever truly master a creative skill. Technology changes, trends change and your own eye changes. You just keep learning and hopefully get a little better every time.
Thankfully, we live in a time where almost anything you want to learn is available to you. I still watch tutorials all the time. I will see a technique or an idea and immediately want to go try it myself. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it absolutely does not. Trial and error has probably been one of my greatest teachers.
The same has been true in business. Not every idea works. Not every design sells. Sometimes you invest time into something that never becomes what you imagined. Other times, something you started almost accidentally connects with people and takes you somewhere you never expected.
I have learned not to look at those moments as failures. They are part of figuring out what works, what does not and what direction you want to go next.
For me, the challenge has never been trying to make the road perfectly smooth. It has been becoming comfortable enough with the bumps to keep moving forward.
I am still learning. I am still experimenting. I am still figuring things out. I hope I never lose that, because I think the moment you believe you have everything mastered is probably the moment you stop growing.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
This is a much stronger direction for the creative question because it gives them three memorable stories instead of repeating what you do. I’d also make the point that the camera was never really about photography alone. It became your access point to experiences you otherwise never would have had.
Some of my most memorable experiences have come from simply having a camera in my hand.
Photography is another form of communication to me. You are still telling a story, just without always needing words. I learned early on that having a sharp eye, being curious and knowing how to capture a moment can put you in places you never expected to be.
If I had to pick three experiences that I still compare everything else to, they would be very different from one another.
The first was traveling to St. Louis to photograph behind the scenes for a company. Somehow that assignment put me backstage and front row as Drake and his entourage entered the building. I remember thinking, how did carrying a camera get me here?
Another was being invited to fly over Kansas with a National Guard pilot during an aerial refueling mission. Being in the air with a camera and having the opportunity to document something most people will never experience was incredible.
The third was finding myself standing in Victory Lane at a NASCAR race with my camera. Again, it was one of those moments where I stopped and realized that photography had given me access to a place I never imagined I would be standing.
There have been plenty of accomplishments that have come from my professional career and the businesses I have built, and I am incredibly proud of those. But from a purely creative standpoint, those three experiences are hard to beat.
They also remind me why I continue to create. A camera started as another way for me to tell a story, but it ended up opening doors to stories I never expected to become part of myself.
What matters most to you?
What matters most to me is being authentic, being genuine and continuing to become the best version of yourself. I think you have to show up every day for yourself, even when nobody else is watching.
That carries into the way I approach creativity, business and my professional career. I have never wanted to create something simply because it is what everyone else is doing. Whether it is a brand, a photograph, a business idea or something I am creating personally, I want there to be a reason behind it. I want it to feel genuine.
I also believe strongly that communication and education go hand in hand, especially in marketing. The best marketing does more than sell something. It helps people understand something. It gives them information, creates a connection and hopefully leaves them knowing something they did not know before.
That is something I have learned throughout my career. You can have the best idea in the world, but if you cannot communicate it in a way people understand or connect with, the idea can get lost.
The same is true personally. Be willing to learn. Be willing to share what you know. Be willing to listen. And most importantly, do not lose who you are while trying to become who you want to be.
I think success looks different for everyone. For me, it is continuing to grow while still recognizing the person looking back at me. If I can keep creating, keep learning, communicate well and show up as myself, I feel like I am doing something right.
Contact Info:
- Website: HometownAnthem.com and LukeCollier.com
- Instagram: @TheLukeCollier
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukecollier913
