You might be brilliant — and still invisible
Why your name deserves to be a brand
You can be brilliant, qualified, even visionary — and still be invisible. In a world where attention is currency, the way you present yourself matters. This edition is a reflection on visibility, narrative, and the quiet power of building a brand that feels as real as you are. From instinctive expression to strategic presence, we explore what it means to become the face of your own story — and why that changes everything.
Your personal brand is what gets your name mentioned in rooms you’ve never stepped into.
It opens doors to opportunities others don’t even know exist. It gives you a strategic edge — because the people around you already understand the value you bring. That’s the power of owning your narrative. When you shape how you’re seen, you shape what comes your way.
Saturday, July 5th. It’s 9pm in Los Angeles. I just got back from Barnes & Noble with two new books tucked under my arm and an almost urgent desire to write. I don’t know if it was the titles, the scent of the pages, or the conversations from the meetings I had this week with Lê (my business partner) and our team — but something reminded me why fashion and art have always been my starting point.
A few years ago, I created my eponymous brand. I was young — and maybe that’s exactly why I was bold. My personality has always orbited the world of art: my gestures, choices, even silences carried a certain sensitivity. Naturally (or by luck), my brand fused with my persona. What was personal became collective. What was intimate turned into a concept. And just like that, my name became a visual language.
I remember vividly the first interview I gave to a fashion magazine — one that’s highly respected in Brazil and internationally recognized. The journalist, already familiar with my posts about shadows on the ground, forgotten sculptures, and museum silences, spoke with me for a few minutes over lunch in São Paulo. On the day the story was published, the headline at the top of the page read: “She breathes art.”Maybe she defined me before she even knew me. Maybe I had already revealed myself, unknowingly. But that title — unexpected, precise, poetic — left a mark. And in a way, it shaped me.
Back then, I didn’t care about the term personal branding. I was simply following my instincts. I never used social media as a family album — I always saw it as a space for expression. A place to train my eye. And without realizing it, I was building a coherent identity that connected me to the right audience, eventually leading to collaborations with artists like Adriana Varejão and Garance Vallée, and institutions such as Inhotim and Instituto Iberê Camargo.
What I want to say with all of this is: branding is not about calculation — it’s about presence and authenticity. It could have gone another way — and I might’ve attracted a completely different audience. That’s why, at Canoa, we always say: a brand is the genuine extension of its founders. When that connection doesn’t exist, people feel it. And they don’t connect.
The world has changed. It’s still changing. We’re living through a silent revolution — where crypto, artificial intelligence, avatars, and digital identity intertwine. (Honestly, that deserves a whole future edition.) The point is: the rules have changed. And many haven’t realized it yet.
Today, someone brilliant, with degrees and accolades, can go unnoticed. While someone else — without those formal credentials — can rise, simply by having the courage to speak up, show up, and say: “This is what I think.”
We are entering a new era of intelligence — one that blends knowledge with courage and digital presence.
We live in symbiosis between the physical and the digital. In many ways, we are social cyborgs. There is no longer a division: who we are online echoes in real life. And vice versa. Brands — like people — need to be whole in both worlds.
That’s why, in our first meetings with clients, we ask a very direct question: Are you willing to be the face of your own brand?Are you ready to show up, to participate — in a strategic, guided, intentional way? Because it’s not about showing up just for the sake of it. At Canoa, we’ve developed our own method, starting with deep immersions to understand the founder’s profile. From there, we build strategies that communicate, with coherence, what only that person can represent.
Yes, it’s about visibility. But it’s also about narrative. About building a character — not in a theatrical sense, but in a literary one. A character rooted in truth and amplified by conscious choices. Because at the end of the day, no one sells better than the founder. It may sound like a cliché — but it’s a cliché backed by facts.
We do, of course, encounter resistance. “I don’t like to be on camera.” “I’m not charismatic.” “I don’t know how to film myself.” And that’s okay. Our role isn’t to turn anyone into an influencer — but into a presence. You don’t have to know everything. You just have to be willing to try. Impostor syndrome has no place here. After all, you can’t be bad at something you’ve never even tried. And once that fear is overcome, something remarkable happens: you begin to be recognized.
People start calling you by what you represent. You become the coffee girl. The gym guy. The founder of the cult-favorite lipstick brand. The woman with the poetic feed who talks about art. TikTok, more than any other platform, amplified this — this logic of direct association between content and creator. And that’s not superficial. That’s recognition.
Because in the midst of so much information, people have started to seek the source. They want to know who’s behind the curtain.
Who’s the person behind the fashion label with a soul?Who’s the founder of the brand with impeccable storytelling?Who is the brain — and the heart — behind the thing they admire?
This generation wants to know who made it.
And when the source doesn’t match the brand — when the creator doesn’t resonate with the creation — something breaks. There is no coherence. The magic falls apart. The circle doesn’t close.
Because at the end of the day, every brand is a story. And every good story needs a trustworthy narrator — someone who embodies what they say. Someone who becomes what they sell.
We’ve seen this play out over and over again.
Virgil Abloh, for instance, didn’t just build Off-White. He was Off-White. His vision wasn’t limited to fashion — it spilled into architecture, street culture, design theory, music, and language itself. His use of quotation marks, his fascination with "in-betweenness," and his post-industrial minimalism weren’t branding choices. They were personality traits. And because of that, his brand didn’t feel manufactured — it felt lived. Even after his passing, Off-White still echoes his voice. That’s what happens when your identity is indistinguishable from your brand: it lives on.
Tyler, The Creator offers another kind of blueprint. GOLF le FLEUR*, his fashion brand feels like an extension of his sketchbook, his lyrics, his inner child. From pastel palettes to jazz influences and surreal lookbooks, everything is unmistakably Tyler. He didn’t pivot into fashion — he expanded his language. The result? A brand that doesn’t need to explain itself. You know it’s his — because there’s only one Tyler.
And then there’s Gwyneth Paltrow, who turned her lifestyle into a business with Goop. Whether you agree with her methods or not, the alignment is undeniable. The brand sells wellness, luxury, and a bit of controversy — exactly what she radiates. She doesn’t promote the brand from the outside. She is the product. And that clarity of identity is what keeps her audience deeply engaged (and endlessly curious).
These people didn’t just build companies. They built reflections of themselves — carefully, intentionally, and truthfully. That’s why their brands have weight. Recognition. Longevity. Because when the founder and the brand are telling the same story, the audience listens.
And maybe that’s why — now, again, on a quiet Saturday in Los Angeles — I walked out of the bookstore with two books and the urgent need to write.
Because that’s what the books reminded me of (I'll tell you which books they are later lol).That’s what the conversations reignited.
That my story, no matter the city or season, is still about the same thing:Looking deeply. Creating truthfully. And remembering that what connects us — always — is the way we choose to tell.
Here’s a non-exhaustive, totally chaotic but very accurate list of things I love. Some are brands, some are vibes, some are people, some are just weird little corners of the internet that live rent-free in my head. Think of it as a soft moodboard of inspiration, identity, and internet rabbit holes. Let’s dive in:
Ryan Murphy – The mastermind behind Glee, American Horror Story, and Pose. Campy, dramatic, queer, brilliant.
Dirtbag Bar – Not a place, a feeling. Think neon lights, sticky floors, divey bathrooms, Fleetwood Mac on the jukebox. Grungy but in a poetic way. The kind of place you go to forget or to remember.
Alice Mushrooms – Adaptogenic microdoses for focus, mood, and creativity. Wrapped in dreamy, pastel, psych-feminine branding.
Gusto – It’s a payroll startup but the name makes me giggle and the branding is lowkey fun.
Burberry – Because nothing screams “melancholy rich girl in London” like a Burberry trench in the rain.
Suki Waterhouse – Model, actress, singer, boho angel. Her whole aesthetic is soft grunge meets vintage Hollywood meets heartbreak ballad. Also dating Robert Pattinson, which feels right.
Stripes – Horizontal, vertical, metaphorical. I’m a fan.
🖼 Missed the last edition? The Case for Unmeasurable Work
🌀 In our previous post, we questioned the tyranny of metrics — and made a case for intuition, emotional labor, and the kind of work that resists being quantified. From gut feeling to invisible effort, some of the most meaningful things we do can’t be measured (and that’s the point).
Cara, impecável!! Insights e refs on pointtt🤌
I just had a class. A clear and extremely relevant read for anyone thinking about creating or launching a new product in this moment where brands are merging with their creators. Tips that are worth gold.