Meet Lilian Raji | Fractional CMO, Communications Advisor and PR Specialist

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

Hi Lilian, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I honestly didn’t want to start my own business. I only wanted to be in public relations because it felt aligned to my destiny. Unfortunately, I fell in love with PR shortly after 9/11, when there was a hiring freeze in the industry. I managed to secure a 3-month internship at a local boutique PR agency which stretched into 6 months with me being freelance with the agency at that time as I interviewed for a full-time position at another agency. I quit working with the boutique when I believed the other agency would come through, but it didn’t. I was devastated, but kept pursuing interviews at other agencies.

At the same time, I began working at Tourneau watch store, and in three months, became the top selling sales associate in the local store. I also continued accepting freelance assignments here and there, believing by doing so, I would be able to get a more senior role at an agency once the hiring freeze was lifted. I didn’t know then what I know now, and that is agencies don’t like to hire people who have been freelancing for too long. I didn’t realize I was setting myself up to open my own agency.

After another heartbreaking failure to secure a position at an agency that I’d actually brought work to through one of my PR freelance contracts, I decided to give up on trying to work at an agency, and almost gave up PR entirely. Instead, knowing somehow that PR was to be my destiny, I made the decision that if no one would give it to me, I would have to give it to myself. I gave myself a deadline for my 2004 birthday to quit Tourneau and go out on my own.

At the time, I was the top salesperson across all 12 Tourneau locations for selling Dubey & Schaldenbrand watches. When I quit Tourneau, I called the Dubey representative to tell him he would need to find another top person at Tourneau for their watches as I was leaving to start my own agency. He told me the distributor for Dubey & Schaldenbrand had been looking for a PR agency, and thus, I launched my agency with the distributor being my first client. In addition to Dubey & Schaldenbrand, the distributor also owned brands Clerc, Aquanautic, Volna and a watch retail store in Manhattan, all for which I became the PR rep.

So to answer your question more directly, there was no thought process, only a desire and a determination to not allow anyone to tell me what I could do with my life. I wanted to be in PR; no door would open for me, so I built my own house.

What should our readers know about your business?
What has set me apart from other PR agencies is the extent to which I work with my clients. I choose my clients very carefully, never willing to work with any company I don’t honestly believe I can do anything for. My agency has grown over the past two decades almost exclusively by referrals because I stand by the commitment I make each client when they sign a contract with me.

I’ve earned a reputation as a pit bull because no matter what it takes, I will deliver. Sometimes, I bruise a few egos along the way, but I always warn clients at the onset that I am a change agent. You hire me because something in your business has to change. Far too often, clients create acts of self-sabotage because they fear the very change they want. So I let clients know very early on, I don’t care about your feelings, I’m here to do the job you’ve hired me for and I do not fail.

To do this, I often have to go beyond what a traditional PR firm would do. For instance, I once had a CEO client who kept self-sabotaging press interviews I lined up for him – and these were major publications, like the New York Times, Bloomberg, Vogue Business and more. After the sixth interview he did that didn’t end up with an article, I had to get to the bottom of why he kept messing up the interviews. I discovered he was suffering from childhood trauma around his ability to communicate effectively, so I hired an executive coach for him to get to the root of this trauma and strengthen his self-confidence.

This is what I mean by I go above and beyond most agencies. At the end of the day, in order for me to sustain my reputation and subsequently continue receiving referrals, I must deliver on my promise. And that’s all that matters to me. How I get it done – including having to play therapist for my clients – doesn’t matter as long as I’ve delivered the results I was hired to achieve.

And no, it was not easy for me to get to this point. I’ve only ever had that 3-month internship at a PR agency, never working officially at any, so everything I know about PR, I had to teach myself. I made so many mistakes along the way, but I made sure I learned from every single one and then tried again. And that has been my ultimate lesson – it’s not failure until you give up. Make the mistakes, learn why you made them so you don’t do it again, then keep going.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I am in love with Faena! And OMG, the spa! I also write for Forbes and in two columns, I’ve had to give a shoutout to Carlos, the masseuse there that has worked wonders on the stress I carry around on my body. So a friend visiting would have to endure (ha!) a spa day with me at Faena’s spa. Then a drink at The Living Room before we go catch a show at the Theater.

I recently had an Omakase experience at Queen Omakase, so we would definitely have to snag a seat at Chef Max’s table for a special experience. But if we can’t, I’d settle for the lovely supper club at Paris Theater.

I would also insist we pop into The Corner for some jazz. And I wouldn’t mind another visit to The Betsy hotel for their jazz, as I experienced it for the first time during Miami Art Week. Such a cool and fun atmosphere.

Lastly, we’d have to make a stop at the Panamericano Bar, where I recently had a tasting experience with the bar manager, who walked me through their entire concept.

For fun dinners, I’d say Mila, Sexy Fish and Salvaje. I love the extra effort each restaurant puts into making it always a fun night out. And strictly for the food – Casa Neos and Novikov.

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?
There are so many people that played a role in my getting to where I am. Yet it’s interesting how so many of them performed what they thought was a small act, only to have that act change my life. If it wasn’t for the CMO of Cirque du Soleil 20 years ago who didn’t hire my agency (only six months old at the time) but offered me two tickets to the opening night performance as a consolation prize, I wouldn’t have sat next to the Georgia Tech professor during that night, who was tasked with putting together a conference for the French Trade Commission and was desperately searching for someone who could speak on luxury.
By accepting that offer, I met and became very good friends with the business development manager of the New York office of the French Trade Commission, who would then invite me annually to New York to consult with French brands considering entering the U.S. Any brand who did always hired me to do their PR. And from this relationship with the French Trade Commission, I leveraged it to form similar relationships with the Italian Trade Commission, UK Trade and Investment and the Swiss Investment and Trade and create new sources for clients.

All of my clients, relationships and ultimate successes can be traced back to my not winning the Cirque du Soleil account. And coincidently, I lost that account to the PR agency that I always wanted to work for, the one that devastated me after multiple rounds of interviews with them at the beginning of my career. It was a testament to my ability that the CMO chose between my 6-month old agency and the largest PR agency in the world to manage the account. Yet had I won the account, I would never have sat next to that professor.

Yet if I were to name one consistent person through it all, it would have to be my mother. At the beginning, as I endured disappointment after disappointment, she urged me to reconsider having my own company. When I finally explained to her that I was following what in my heart felt like my destiny, she became my greatest cheerleader and champion, motivating me forward after every disappointment.

Website: https://www.lilianraji.com

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

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lilianrajipr/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lilianraji

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLilianRajiAgency

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