Meet Stephen Salinas | entrepreneur / music producer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Stephen Salinas and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Stephen, career-wise, where do you want to be in the end?
The end goal was always clear to me, to be a rock star and a family man, though being a rock star has a different meaning to me now. It mostly just means to be able to live happily and free while also making self-sufficient income off of jobs and opportunity I’ve created. Professionally at the end of my career I would like to be known for helping others achieve their dream and a passion and turning it into a sufficient source of income as well. Creating the company Urban Artist Syndicate is my first big step into making this dream a reality is a great example of that thought process, turning a dream into a career. We are a syndicate, a group of individuals or organizations combined to promote some common interest. Interest such as creating ideas, creating music, film, art, culinary and even creating jobs/opportunities. We are all urban artist seeking to build ourselves up, build each other up, but most importantly building our communities up and creating a better tomorrow for similar like-minded people.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
My answer What sets us apart? Our diversity in our management, we have African-Americans, Caucasian, Hispanics, and Natives, male and female. I am thankful to have a team of deep thinkers and self-driven dreamers. Each and every one of us have our own unique talents that we all use to collectively reach a singular goal, success.

What are we most proud of and excited about? I am proud of seeing the people around me grow to be risk takers, dream chasers, and successful entrepreneurs. Being about to help mixxedmediaartistry build and create a art show and to see some of our work displayed on OWN the Oprah Winfrey Network was truly amazing. Though that was mixxedmediaartisty’s event we know with some more hard work we’ll have similar opportunities just like that again.

How did we get to where we are as a business? With well thought out plans, hard work, years of training, seeking advise from other successful business owners, and never looking at your customers / business partners and think what can they do for me. Instead, what you should be thinking is what can I do for them. With that mind set your company will make the hugest impact on a person on whether or not they will want to work with you again.

Is it easy? No, defiantly not. There are many challenges that come with running a business but the biggest isn’t quite with the business but more so with myself. See I have ADHD so for me it is very easy for me to just keep brain storming ideas for the company for all the accomplishment I would love to see us achieve but though all the ideas would be a great asset for the company staying focused on a single idea/task is very difficult for me. See the average person with ADHD’s mind can run 4 times faster than any normal person, meaning for every idea I have there is a counter idea to make it better, and with every counter comes a way to fix the original and a fourth idea that seems better than all three ideas before. You see its not easy living inside my own mind and at times it can seem a little unproductive. Thankfully I have taken time to understand myself a little better, to find ways to use my ADHD as a perk / advantage. One of the hugest things that I learned that helps me is that if my mind can work 4x as fast, hens why people like me can never stay on a single task for too long, then give yourself a couple goals you know you can finish in one day, or however long you plan on working for. And instead of trying to sit done and accomplish one task at a time give yourself multiple productive task and every time you lose focus on one then just switch to the next productive task until you have completed everything you needed to one after another. Learning this is easy but being able to use this to your advantage is easier said then done. Practice, practice, practice and eventually anyone with similar disabilities, if that’s what you want to call it, can use there ADHD to there advantage with there business and personal life.

Lessons ive learned along the way? One thing ive learned along the way is that writing down goals and accomplishment are equally as important. Writing down goals are easy because it gives you direction but, figuring out what it takes to reach those goals is definitely the harder part. By writing down your daily accomplishments it gives you a better understanding of how much time you waste and how much more time you can give yourself to work on any given task. You’ll understand how long it takes you to finish said task, and will help you schedule yourself for future task. Which leads me to my second lesson I’ve learned. I do believe that spending a sufficient amount of time with your loved ones, which may vary from person to person, is equally as important as making time to run a business. Although that may feel like every minute of every day. Spending time with your loved ones will help you remember why you have to work so hard in the first place, so that way you can provide, love, and protect them. Take that motivation and try to be the best version of yourself. Every day we should be learning something new to improve ourselves and to further our businesses. And lastly success is not determined by what others idea of success is, but better yet, success is what you make it.

The take away. Urban Artist Syndicate is a company we started to build up our friends and families, companies and communities, and most importantly to build up ourselves as individuals. This work we do is our integrity and soul propose to show our community and other communities that we as a company willing to put our customers first because helping others reach their dreams helps us reach ours. For these purposes, your organization could be catalyst to what we could be; a new revolution of creativity for the future generations to come. UAS offers everything from music production, photography, videography production while also offering event support for customers who need help with planning and building event/sets. Our motto is if you work with us, then you will be putting your dreams in the most honest, hardworking, and caring hands in the business. And we look forward to working with any and all creatives to help them building up there dreams.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Places to go around Houston? Although I Do believe most Houstonians would rather chill at a friends house or backyard with the whole friend group but there definitely is a great multitude of local places to hit while you are here. for instance if you want i nice outdoorsy kind of vibe that is usually always poppin my live bands and good food hit up truckyard but if you want something more up beat and with country dancing then go check out stampede, its a almost guaranteed good time. now if its some food we are looking for then i taking you to Alamo Tamales & Tacos where they have some of the best Mexican food around. Or even triple j’s where they have some the best barbeque on all of the northside Houston, but even better than that, stop by any local corner where they are serving up street food for some super amazing authentic cultural food. definitely worth it. If your into sports and love trying out local craft beers then check out 8thwonder brewery. It’s a super cool indoor/outdoor vibes with a ton of out door space to bring the family. Another must see while visiting Houston is the museum district and surrounding parks and even our Houston zoo. In some way, al three will find a way to take your breath way.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My answer There were multiple points in my life where the period and the people associated with that time period molded me to be the business owner and aspiring entrepreneur I am today. When I was 13, I had a life changing tragedy what would forever change how I see the world. When you are young you constantly hear people asking what do you want to do when you get older, as if ready to hear you say something on the lines of engineer, teacher, or part of the work force. And im definitely not saying these things are a bad thing, they just weren’t for me. I almost passed away by electrocution and drowning at a rent house about a month before my first year of middle school. Doctors didn’t think I was going to make it and had already told my parents that the chances of me living were slim. Nearly a week before my accident at the same hospital they had a similar case but unfortunately child didn’t make it. My conditions were worse yet I survived. Considering the circumstances I only have God to thank. God gave me a second chance to live, to enjoy life and all its greatest treasures. When it comes to applying this to my professional career i aspire to do the things that have always made me happy like making music, creating, and helping others. Enjoying the work you do is very important to me and is one of the many thing I will pass down to my own children.
The second is to have patients. Thanks to the staff at the psychiatric rehabilitation center, where I worked, was able to learn the true meaning of having patients. About 4-5 years ago I worked at a rehabilitation center for psychiatric children and adults, these staff member are the ones who truly taught me to have patients. While working with these particular types of patients no two stories are exactly the same but one thing is clear getting well takes time. Not all patients were in there right mind but still the staff would still take there time working with these patients, making sure they were understood and tended to even if they weren’t on there best behavior hours earlier. All in the hopes to make a lasting impact on the patients for a better tomorrow. Though there are many accomplishments I would love to achieve in my life time knowing my limits is so huge for me. On top of running a business, creating music, and helping others, I still have to make time to be a lover and father; a family member and a friend. I have to take time out of my busy life to get to all the things that matter most to me. Realizing that you can only do so much at one time, because of that, you need to give yourself a schedule. Give yourself a time and day to do whatever it is that you need done. If you can have persistent to do this then you’ll find that in time and with a little bit of patients you’ll be way happier with the results of your personal life and business life.
Lastly is pretty cut and dry, id like to thank my friends and family. Through every journey ive been through in the short 25 years ive been on this world, ive always had a friend to talk to, or a family member to mirror myself off of. Someone to hype all my biggest dreams but also another to question every detail. All these things made me into the person I am today. A humble, hard working, and full of life person who has dreams just like anyone else. Someone who has decided that working hard for other is great and worth every experience, thankful for the experiences, but working hard for yourself is even better.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/urbanartistsyndicate/

Image Credits:
photography credit goes out to: Nolan Pena Jorge Sanchez Maria Rodriguez