When it comes to Heard Creative Co. and its founder, Lilia M. LaGesse, a few words and phrases recur frequently: Methodical. Endless curiosity. Accessibility. Clarity. For LaGesse, it’s a philosophy that comes from personal experience. “Everyone is unique,” she says on the Heard Creative Co. website. “That’s why we take the time to get to know you. We want to empower you, not push you into a mold.”
Her business—specializing in brand and design strategies for nonprofits, associations, social-impact programs, and higher educational institutions—draws on family stories of generations of creators, entrepreneurs, and trailblazers. Now she’s taken those experiences, that wisdom, and those skillsets into the world of entrepreneurship with the nearly five-year-old Heard Creative Consultancy, which is based in Silver Spring, MD.
Heard Creative Co.’s served market closely intersects with our own at Fox Associates, so we wanted to get to know LaGesse and her business a bit more and share what we learned with the readers of this newsletter. Here’s our conversation.
Fox Tales: As founder of Heard Creative Co., tell us about your journey to entrepreneurship.
Lilia M. LaGesse: Creative careers are rarely linear, and mine certainly hasn’t been. My career blends communications, liberal arts, and design backgrounds with nearly two decades of communications and publishing work in nonprofit, association, and higher-education settings. Founding Heard Creative Co. gave me room to grow more intentionally, shape my own schedule, and dig deeper into strategy work while continuing to collaborate with the sectors I’m most passionate about: Nonprofits, associations, foundations, and education.
Lilia M. LaGesse.
I’m the first entrepreneur in my immediate family. Their support and sacrifices helped make this dream possible, and I carry that with me as I build Heard Creative Co. Building something of my own has given me a chance to reimagine what’s possible and create a practice around the social impact work and relationships I care about.
Fox Tales: After nearly five years, what are some of the lessons you’d impart to other would-be founders?
LaGesse: Stay curious, bet on yourself, and give yourself some grace. Curiosity is part of how I work and a core value of Heard Creative Co. Ask questions, keep learning, and spend time with people whose experiences differ from yours. Some of my most meaningful connections and opportunities have come from showing up somewhere new without knowing exactly what would happen.
For me, betting on yourself means taking your experience and ideas seriously enough to act on them, even when you don’t have everything figured out. And give yourself grace. Being good at your craft and running a business well are two very different things. You’re growing alongside the company. I’m still learning, and I expect that will always be part of my entrepreneurial journey.
Fox Tales: Judging from your website and the examples on your LinkedIn page, your client list is diverse. Tell us about the agency’s customer sweet spot.
LaGesse: Our sweet spot is a small communications team inside an established, mission-driven organization, especially at a pivotal moment: A new strategic plan, a potential rename or rebrand, or the start of a major campaign, anniversary, or program launch.
My clients know their organizations deeply. They’re also juggling the website, reports, presentations, social content, and whatever landed in their inbox that morning. Finding time to step back and ask bigger strategic questions can be difficult.
Among our nonprofit clients, I’m seeing teams work through how to reach new audiences and funding sources, explain their value, and determine what resonates as communications tools and habits change rapidly. For associations, that can mean making the value of membership meaningful to new audiences and trying out new platforms to reach these audiences so they can better communicate their value proposition. We bring research, stakeholder insights, and creative direction to help teams make those decisions with greater confidence.
Fox Tales: Similarly, tell us about the array of services you offer, and which ones you consider core. Brand development and enhancement? Content creation? Training?
LaGesse: We’re nerdy by nature. Our core practice areas are brand and creative strategy, design, and accessibility advising and training.
We help organizations clarify their story, develop their brand and voice, and bring that direction to life through accessible communications and design. That can include an organization’s brand identity, a multichannel impact campaign, or tools that help staff and volunteers communicate consistently and accessibly.
A strategy is only as useful as your ability to implement it. We plan around a team’s actual capacity and provide practical guidelines, templates, and training that they can use long after our partnership ends.
As an IAAP CPACC-certified accessibility professional, I’m especially excited to see teams wanting to build these skills. My next accessibility workshop is with an association communications team. There’s real enthusiasm for creating content that more people can access and use.
Fox Tales: What’s next for you and Heard Creative Co. in 2027?
LaGesse: We’ll celebrate five years in business in early 2027. Whether participating in the ERA Programme at Cannes Lions in France this past summer or UN General Assembly-related events this fall, we’ve come a long way since our inception.
I’m really excited to build relationships with more collaborators, fellow creatives, and clients across the globe. These experiences bring fresh perspectives back to our work regardless of the client’s locale.
I’m also looking forward to growing our accessibility workshops for creative and communications teams. AI’s potential to support accessibility excites me, but accessible content still takes intention and informed review. Helping teams navigate these scenarios is work I care deeply about.
And, of course, I’m excited to see what our clients do next. More meaningful connections, more engagement, and more positive ripples. That’s the direction I want to keep growing in.