What does it actually take to build a brand people can feel is real?

In this episode of Lumos Talks, Contessa Boorman — Senior Director of Brand and Content at Vayner Speakers — walks through a career built on following curiosity: starting in corporate sponsorships at a bank, moving into agency work for Gen Z audiences, leading global partner events at TikTok (including their first-ever Cannes Lions presence), and landing at one of the world’s top speakers bureaus after a chance conversation on a plane.

She gets into the difference between culturally engineering a brand and forcing one, why she’d replace the word ”authenticity” with ”honesty,” and why the brands that win collaborate with culture instead of trying to own it.

She also breaks down why brand is about to become the most valuable asset any company has in the age of AI, and why — after all of it — her best advice is refreshingly simple: have fun.

Sharp, human, and impossible not to enjoy.