Our Stellar today hides in the lush island of nature and fun, doing seriously conscious business. Introducing Emily, the founder of Santos & Co, based in Hawaii. Santos & Co is a company that helps conscious bands work on their branding strategy and how to tell their story to the world.
Emily strongly believes in the human connection between brands and their customers, and this is reflected in how she works with her clients as well. It all starts with the human, she starts by asking who is behind the brand, getting to know this person and what are their values, how does this connect to the brand. We love it when she says that the experience should feel like your customer is buying from a friend. When we create businesses that showcase strong values, we build connections with people who not only care about what we sell, but who we are and this is why people choose your brand over another every single time.
“We are programmed to believe that in order to be a successful business, we have to operation the same way as big companies do, but times are changing, and people vote with their money. We can make a difference in the world by creating businesses with a purpose and a mission to change the world. Your business is not too small or too big to start creating change.”
Emily Santos, Founder of Santos & Co
Every Stellar that we have met along the way has a unique and inspiring story to tell, and through this series of conversations we feel honored to be sharing these stories to the world. Some got the idea from a personal need that was lacking from the market, a personal pivot point in life that required a change in direction, a passion that turned into a life mission and career, a frustration in the industry that they worked in which fueled a need to make a difference with their know-how and experience…
Since Emily believes that the brand always starts from the human (and we conquer!), let’s get to know the human behind Santos & Co today. Spoiler alert, it involves a dog, too!
Tell us a bit about Santos & Co. What is the brand about, the focus and mission?
Santos & Co is based in Honolulu, Hawaii. We focus on Brand Strategy and Identity Design for conscious business with a mission to make a difference in their communities.
Prior to creating a company that takes on this mission, Emily worked as a designer creating custom illustrations. Whilst it was bringing in success and a great deal of fun, she couldn’t feel the meaning that she was bringing to the world until this piece of art came along, and changed the way she saw how her design could make a much larger impact.
I started my business during the same time that my father was detained by ICE, the BLM protests were happening, and we had a president that didn’t care about women or our rights. In all honesty, I couldn’t find the words to describe my anger and my fear so I turned to design to communicate.
I chose to work with conscious brands for selfish reasons:
1. Because I never want to play a role in helping a business fight against or remain silent on the causes that affect me, my family, my friends and my community.
2. Because I knew that my designs and my passion for what I do and WHY I do it, paired with someone else’s talents, skills and passion can create a much larger difference than we can ever do on our own.
Because I work with conscious businesses, I know that the human behind the brand matters more than in any other industry. These are people that saw something that needed to change and decided that they wanted to be the ones to do it. These are business owners that have true passion for what they do and I strongly believe that that passion should show up in their branding.
Emily found the support and courage to go out there and do what’s right from her chosen family, even though one is too shy to look at the camera!
Looking back at the journey so far as an entrepreneur, is there anything you would like to tell your past self that you wish you knew back then?
Let go, its is okay to learn things as you go. You will never be 100% ready to start, you just have to have a true passion for what you do. Also, stop spending money on courses! Everything you need to know, you can find within yourself … also google.
Finally, what part of being in the Myth community would you look forward most to?
Making friends with other business owners that have the same passion and drive to create a difference!
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