As Co-Founder of Munay Comunidades, Gi helps leaders design businesses that spark joy, meaning, and genuine connection. Born in Brazil and shaped by nearly a decade abroad in New York and Italy, she blends creativity, cultural empathy, and strategy to create communities that go far beyond profit.
In our conversation, Gi reflects on what she’s learned from building across continents — from the emotional truth of belonging, to the balance between creativity and structure, to the radical act of leading with heart. She also opens up about her first romance novel, a project that’s teaching her as much about surrender as storytelling.
You’ve built communities and businesses across three continents. How have those global experiences shaped your approach to work, connection, and daily life?
Living abroad has been one of the most transformative experiences of my life. It taught me to adapt quickly, to read environments, to understand people before judging, and to appreciate cultural nuances that you can only grasp by living them. I learned to be proudly Brazilian while embracing new ways of being from how people connect, to how they celebrate, to how they rest. And that was the essence of community for me while living in two completely different places as NY and Italy: realizing there are a million things you can’t do alone when you’re far from home. You learn to seek help, build bridges and create spaces of belonging wherever you are. That mindset became the foundation of how I approach work and life, with openness, curiosity, and deep respect for connection. To be honest, I find that super beautiful.
As someone who leads others while writing and creating yourself, what does a typical day look like for you? How do you keep your routine grounded in purpose?
My routine is flexible by design, I’ve tried the strict schedules, and they just kill my creative flow. I always start my mornings slowly, with tea and quiet. No meetings before 8 a.m. because I need space to think, plan, and create while my thoughts are still fresh (and of course, having kids gives me a family routine for itself). Reading and journaling are my daily non-negotiables; they ground me, help me process ideas, and keep me connected to purpose. The rest of the day varies, some days are filled with mentoring sessions and meetings with my team, others with deep creative work, writing, or community strategy. Lately, I’ve been focusing on refining internal processes so I can delegate more and make space for what I love most: building partnerships, writing content, and leading movements around the power of communities, with my members and also in different communities around the world.
You help founders and leaders build communities that go beyond profit. What have you learned about the link between meaningful work and personal wellbeing?
In my community, we stand for three fights that define our mission: we fight against communities that focus only on revenue, we fight against the excess of content that overwhelms people, and we fight against loneliness — because in an age where people are taking their own lives for lack of real connection, that’s not just a challenge, it’s a calling. I deeply believe that meaningful work and wellbeing must walk together. I don’t want to work only to make money; I want to enjoy the process, to grow while staying healthy, close to my family, and surrounded by love, and yes, have this as a business model that connects and creates abundance for everybody. It’s about building something that’s financially sustainable but also emotionally fulfilling. I try to lead by example, living the same balance I encourage in others, and that’s what keeps me proud and energized to keep going.
Balancing creativity and strategy can be tricky. How do you stay in flow while still managing the structure and focus a business requires?
Creativity, for me, isn’t a department, it’s life itself. It’s in the small things: the music I choose, the food I try, the art I make with my hands, or the moments I spend in nature just observing. I believe creativity comes from our senses, what we see, hear, touch, taste, and feel. That’s why I constantly seek new stimuli beyond screens: concerts, books, flavors, colors, textures. Structure and systems are still part of my world, they give form to what intuition brings. I see strategy and creativity as dance partners, when they move together, that’s when magic happens. There is no successful community or business . When people choose one or the other, there is no way to sustain in the long run just based on what they “want to do”.
You’re also writing your first romance novel — a major creative shift. What has that process taught you about discipline, vulnerability, and joy?
Writing my first novel has been a journey of surrender, like a ritual of passage. The main character, Olivia, leaves her stable career as a lawyer to travel the world for a year and rediscover herself. It started as a story I wanted to tell (and connect life and entrepreneurship), but soon I realized the story was also telling me something. Every chapter feels like the universe is using me as an instrument, as if Olivia is a real person showing me lessons about courage, love, and freedom. It’s a humbling process, one page at a time, teaching me patience, discipline, and joy in the act of creating. I thought I was writing a book, but I’m really living one. it’s weird, I know.. but I see her as my friend. lol
For people looking to bring more community and connection into their work, what’s one small daily habit that can start to make that happen?
If there’s one daily practice I’d recommend for anyone wanting to bring more community and connection into their life, it’s this: open yourself to the unknown a little more each day. Let go of the need to control outcomes, and allow space for real encounters, the ones that move you, challenge you, and change you. Authenticity is magnetic; people don’t connect to perfection anymore, it’s boring and fake. The world doesn’t need more parrots repeating trends, it needs leaders who are willing to be real, who build communities that transform lives because they dare to show up as they are. Transformation starts with ourselves, and this is not a motivational quote, it’s really how I want to build the future for myself and allow people to live that as well. <3
