Welcome to “5 Questions With,” an ongoing series featuring kickass entrepreneurs, community leaders, and other superheroes.
Lilian Santini is the CEO of The Copper Portico, an award-winning branding agency focused on creating beautiful brands for organizations and individuals bringing good to the world. She loves working with companies that are aware of their impact and striving to make their communities better. Lilian is proud of leading work that has a foundation in authenticity, relationships, and one–of-a-kind aesthetics.
Enter, Lilian.
Question 1: What’s your superpower?
I’m the CEO and Creative Director of a Branding Agency called the Copper Portico, based in Coral Gables, FL. I founded my company in 2017 with the intention of creating beautiful brands for entrepreneurs and organizations committed to making an impact in their communities and the world in general. My clients are museums, non-profits, women-led companies, and other businesses rooted in their purpose that want to show their essence in the best light.
Together we create authentic brand assets that capture their unique value and essence. That can look like a brand book, a website, a complete brand revamp or a brand strategy session to go back to the basics and re-evaluate the company’s mission and values.
I love that moment in the creative process when I know my team and I have translated our client’s vision into a physical representation that will make them proud. After 10+ years of working in this industry (first as a freelancer and then as a business owner), I’m thrilled to be leading work that has a foundation in authenticity, relationships, and one–of-a-kind aesthetics.
Question 2: Why are you the exact right person to do what you do?
I was born in a small town in Brazil, and I was always fascinated with creating beautiful things. At my first job as an English teacher, I prided myself on making beautiful decks that would make it more fun for my students to learn and communicate. I’ve always intuitively known and trusted the power of beautiful design.
When I moved to NYC in my early 20’s, I began designing and building websites on WordPress for small businesses and entrepreneurs. From that moment, I was hooked on the impact and expansion that was possible with a beautiful and authentic brand.
My passion for women empowerment, languages, mission-driven organizations and mysticism is woven into my work everyday.
Question 3: Tell us a story about a time your work made a difference.
In the summer of 2019 I onboarded a new client, Catalyst Miami. They hired The Copper Portico to help them bring to life the first universal Children’s Savings Account program in the state of Florida – Future Bound Miami. This was an exciting project, and also a major undertaking that required collaboration with more than a dozen community partners and funders. We had a very aggressive deadline to complete the project, and as soon as we set up the timeline… a hurricane warning came in, announcing the arrival of Dorian in Florida. In between boarding up the house, making sure everyone had a safety plan, buying hurricane necessities, the brand for Future Bound Miami was born!
We created the identity for the program from scratch, with no brand identity or similar programs to model in the state of Florida. That involved extensive target audience research to make sure our brand message guide had the right tone and voice. We lost contact with a few team members due to electricity outage, but though some effort and creative ways to make it work, everything worked out. The results were eye-catching visuals, design and copy for promotional materials, social media, website, press kit and pitch deck. We also delivered a strategic marketing plan for reaching press, community partners, school administrators and parents. Finally, we built a custom multilingual website with a strong focus on user experience to increase conversions. We reached our deadline on time, too!
The program was a success and got coverage on major newspapers and many other radio, TV and print media outlets. So much came from supporting each other during a scary time where our safety was at risk. Our commitment to build a new model to solve economic challenges faced by our community made this work worthy and to this day we remember this project with pride and awe of the credibility and engagement Future Bound Miami was able to build in Miami.
Question 4: What’s your go-to move for drumming up business?
When things get a little slow, I reach out to past clients and also acquaintances who expressed interest in working with me before, but perhaps didn’t have the time or budget when we first spoke. Timing is everything and it’s important to me to keep in touch with my connections not only for future work, but also to learn how my services are helping them reach their goals. I’ve been surprised many times of how many people reply to my emails when I launch a new service and tell them about it, or even a quick message saying hi.
Question 5: Tell us a story about a time you fell down and got back up again.
Before coming to the US I was a language teacher in Brazil. When I was 24 I moved to New York City as an Au Pair to study International Marketing and pursue the American Dream.
For the first few years, things were rough. I really missed my family and I had so much on my plate! I was studying, working as an Au Pair, and interning at an e-learning company in the hopes of getting a work visa that would allow me to stay in the country after my Au Pair contract expired. So much happened at that time and in order to stay afloat I did a little of everything. I lost count of how many babysitting jobs I had on weekends to pay the bills and be able to afford the courses and experiences I wanted to have under my belt.
It took me seven years to look back and finally see my hard work paying off. And after 12 years of the hustle and bustle of New York City, I packed it all up again and moved to Miami where I started my own agency, The Copper Portico. My journey has had plenty of twists and turns, and I’m so happy for all of the experiences I’ve had along the way. I’m so grateful to be able to do what I love every day.
