That may seem like a stupid question, but I'm just wondering if there are techniques out there to do it right. Anyone can through something together and call it stylized but if done right it really pops. That's what I'm looking for are some techniques I can use to make my art stylized but not cartoon like.
like throttlekitty said study existing stylized work. By doing enough of those and combining it with proper knownledge about the reallife buildup of whatever you want to make you`ll start to become better at it and have a more distinct style
Find a style you like, and work towards creating art like it, analyze what elements give that style its look. Try thinking in terms of restriction an exaggeration. There is no catch all answer here, there's so many forms of 'stylization' that all use their own little tricks and techniques.