I track how luxury moves through culture, capital, and technology. I run NEON NAVY and lead marketing at Viperium. These Field Notes are where I think out loud: client work, market shifts, things worth noting. Written from Cape Town, Milan, Dubai, or wherever the work takes me.
Field Note 08: Life After the Logo
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Hi everyone, This month marks two years since I walked away from my dream job at Lamborghini and naturally, it’s been a reflective couple of weeks. Listening to a podcast this morning with Steve Versano where he touches on personal branding reminded me of something few people talk about: how much of your personal brand gets wrapped up in the brand you work for, especially in luxury. And what happens when you leave? When I was weighing up my resignation, one thought kept looping in my mind: “Leaving Lamborghini will mean saying goodbye to access.” And I can confirm, it’s true. Working for a marquee name with history, persona and reputation opens doors you can’t imagine. Calls get answered, gifts and tickets appear, invitations flood in. Everyone wants a piece of Lamborghini, and by extension, a piece of you. It’s intoxicating. It boosts your ego, your social media, even your dating life (I once dated a guy who literally just wanted to drive a Lamborghini. Spoiler: he didn’t). But here’s the reality: they don’t want you; they want the brand behind you. And in luxury, whether automotive, fashion, watches, this is amplified. In marketing roles it’s even more pronounced, because your job overflows into evenings, weekends, events, travel. The brand becomes your life. And for many, it becomes their identity. And when you leave, you have to walk out with only yourself and your own “brand.” I guess that’s one reason some people never leave. Looking back, I spent far more time building up Lamborghini’s brand than my own. Rightly so. They paid me well, moved me across countries, gave me extraordinary opportunities. But it’s easy to wonder sometimes if it came at the expense of my own identity. Two years on, I’ve realised just how critical it is to invest in your personal brand alongside your employer’s. Because you never know when you’ll need it. I had the luxury of choosing to leave and start something new; others don’t always get that choice. So ask yourself: Who are you when you’re not working at the big, flashy company with the big name? What I'm Up To Lately:Viperium. The Trading EmporiumBig news! Alongside my consulting and project work at NEON NAVY, I’ve taken on the role of Chief Marketing Officer for Viperium. If you’re curious about the bridge between luxury marketing and FinTech / Crypto / Web3, get in touch. We’re working on some exciting things ahead of our ICO and platform debut later this year. What I'm Into Right Now:📚 Books: The Courage to be Disliked, by Ichiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga 🎧 Podcast: A recent Episode from The Gstaad Guy Podcast, with Steve Versano: Founder of The Jet Business - Aviation, Entreperneurship, Corporate Jets & The Art of The Deal
Where You Can Find Me (When I'm not in Milan):📍 Singapore | Token2049: 28 September - 3 October The world’s largest crypto event, right alongside the F1 weekend! If you'll be there, let's grab some noodles. Thanks for reading everyone, and have a great weekend! Zantelle |
Zantelle van der Linde
I track how luxury moves through culture, capital, and technology. I run NEON NAVY and lead marketing at Viperium. These Field Notes are where I think out loud: client work, market shifts, things worth noting. Written from Cape Town, Milan, Dubai, or wherever the work takes me.
Field Notes has a new home. If you've landed here from an old link, welcome. And thank you for finding your way back. Field Notes has moved to Beehiiv, where it has a fresh new look, a new online archive, and a better reading experience all round. All 14 issues are waiting for you there, and Field Note 15 is on its way very soon. READ FIELD NOTES ON BEEHIIV See you on the other side. Zantelle
Hello everyone, 2024 was the year I established NEON NAVY. In most cases, a fairly regular administrative process of registering a business and opening a bank account. Not in my case. As a South African citizen and Italian resident, it took me eight months to find a solution that ticked all my boxes. And in those eight months, countless calls with lawyers, accountants, tax advisors, wealth managers and financial managers discussing every possible fiscal and tax setup imaginable. It was not...
Hello everyone, For those of you who have been reading my Field Notes for a while, you might recall that alongside my consultancy work at NEON NAVY, I also hold the role of Chief Marketing Officer at Viperium. As a soon-to-be-launched cryptocurrency, $VPR forms part of the wider Viperium ecosystem and towards the end of last year, this took us to Singapore to attend TOKEN2049, the largest cryptocurrency conference in the world. It was fascinating to see the range of projects already live, or...