Matthew Kayser
The idea of an “influencer brand” is shifting. Once primarily tied to affiliate links, product placements, sponsored posts, or personal style and beauty lines, influencer-led ventures now cross industries. These brands now lean into tech, entertainment, legal services, consulting, wellness, media, and more. As the influencer economy grows, creators are seeking ways to turn fleeting virality into durable commercial and professional structures.
The creator economy has undergone rapid, sustained expansion, drawing significant capital into influencer-led brands. The global influencer marketing sector is projected to reach approximately USD 32.55 billion in 2025, up from roughly USD 24 billion in 2024, reflecting strong year-over-year growth. In response, brands are allocating a larger share of their marketing budgets to influencer partnerships, with many signaling further increases in 2025. These figures suggest that influence is being treated less like a sideline and more like a primary mode of business expansion.
Among examples of modern influencer brands that span several domains, Texas attorney Steven Franz, is one that draws attention. Known for a mixture of street interviews, legal work, music, endurance sports, and provocative visual narrative, Franz has built what might be called a dual-life brand. His trajectory provides insight into how social virality can convert into multiple professional opportunities.
Franz’s story begins very early. He started college at 14 and graduated with a B.A. in government by age 18. Before content creation took off, he worked for a Texas State Representative in Austin and then for a U.S. congressman in Washington, D.C., working on constituent issues and performing legislative research. He then left D.C. to start law school. While in law school, he began producing video content, including “drunk interviews,” a format that gained him nearly three million followers combined on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. Several celebrities, including Drake and Steve Aoki, also follow Franz. Maintaining a presence on social media while attending law school was challenging. In 2025, Franz was licensed as an attorney in Texas and now co-leads Franz Law Group with his father, a Board Certified Personal Injury Trial specialist. The firm serves South Texas and represents clients throughout the state and country. Steven has “built a team of board-certified attorneys” to ensure his clients receive quality and ethical legal representation on personal injury, wrongful death, and criminal defense matters.
In his law practice, Franz focuses primarily on personal injury cases and criminal defense matters. “When you do come to us, you will speak to a board-certified specialist, which I think separates us from a lot of other law firms in this area,” he has said. The Franz Law Group team is composed of lawyers who have secured seven and eight-figure recoveries for clients. He emphasizes that he has assembled an experienced team composed of board-certified attorneys and legal staff. Building trust among clients is important to Franz.
Parallel to his legal work, Franz has pursued a DJ and music career. He says that after attending Coachella and seeing live sets, he was inspired. He learned to DJ in Tulum, Mexico. Subsequently, he played large shows, sometimes in front of thousands of people, and has opened for Deorro. His latest track was signed by Future Rave Music, supported by David Guetta, and has over 25,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. He has adopted the practice of DJing in full suits and is developing a concept called “Jury Box,” where the imagery of the courtroom and performance merge. He frames it with visuals such as walking out of a courthouse and then pivoting to a club scene in the same suit. He reasons that “the lawyer DJ thing is going to be really popular because it’s a real attorney doing it.”
This path also illustrates something becoming common among influencer brands: structuring beyond the person. Franz’s path from child college student to influencer, from law student to practicing attorney, and from DJ to performer, shows how social media influence can serve as the seed of a multi-dimensional branding.