988 Serin Silva:

Wings of Inspired Business Podcast EP988 – Host Melinda Wittstock Interviews Serin Silva

Melinda Wittstock:

Coming up on Wings of Inspired Business:

Serin Silva:

Right now, what I’m seeing is a lot of transformations and those aren’t always pretty in that, okay, the old business model is not working. What are we going to do? And you might say, okay, well we find a new business model. No, there are entrenched mindsets among female CEOs. I’m needing to build the psychological safety and the trust in a qualitative way. I come in specifically to disrupt and break the old patterns, to bring in the new. I’ve been called a business doula before.

Melinda Wittstock:

We talk a lot on this podcast about how entrepreneurship is an inner game, that its many challenges show us where we need to grow our conscious awareness, where we need to let go of old limiting beliefs and the internal mind games that hold us back. Serin Silva went from VP in Fortune 500 corporate America to executive coach, helping women flip the script with new rules that embody intuition and empathy for entrepreneurial success.

Melinda Wittstock:

Hi, I’m Melinda Wittstock and welcome to Wings of Inspired Business, where we share the inspiring entrepreneurial journeys, epiphanies, and practical advice from successful female founders … so you have everything you need at your fingertips to build the business and life of your dreams. I’m all about paying it forward as a five-time serial entrepreneur, so I started this podcast to catalyze an ecosystem where women entrepreneurs mentor, promote, buy from, and invest in each other. Because together we’re stronger, and we all soar higher when we fly together and lift as we climb.

Melinda Wittstock:

Today we meet an intuitive strategic advisor and executive coach who helps powerhouse women move from stuck to strategic growth. Serin Silva spent two 2 decades leading transformation at Fortune 500 companies, including taking Williams-Sonoma to half a billion in sales and launching Hearst Corporation’s first digital division, Now she’s on a mission to guide CEOs and executives to make clear, confident, and energetically aligned decisions in the moments that matter most.

Melinda Wittstock:

Serin believes it’s time to rewrite the rules for female founders and leaders. Today we talk about what sets women executive leaders apart, how the pressures of work-life balance shape our approach to leadership, and why empathy and tough decision-making need not be contradictory. Serin, who has been described as a “business doula”, says it’s vital to use your power of intuition, regulate your nervous system and align your inner and outer words – if you want to embrace creativity and innovation to succeed in an increasingly complex and uncertain business climate.

Melinda Wittstock:

Bridging the corporate and spiritual worlds, blending strategy and soul, has proven profitable for Serin’s clients, many of whom have scaled from $10m to $25m, land CEO roles, and transform self-doubt into self-belief. Her clients include leaders from Apple, Patreon, Airbnb, Genentech, UCLA and Microsoft. So, whether you’re a startup founder grinding through the early days or a seasoned CEO leading through change, Serin has something for you today if you like the idea of creating a resilient, human-centered business.

Melinda Wittstock:

Let’s put on our wings with the inspiring Serin Silva.

[INTERVIEW]

Melinda Wittstock:

Serin, welcome to Wings.

Serin Silva:

Hi. Thanks for having me.

Melinda Wittstock:

You have worked as a VP at a number of Fortune 500 companies, really helping leaders, CEOs and C suite be their very best to make great decisions in the moments that matter. And I imagine you’ve worked with both men and women. I want to start with what do women executive leaders, I guess intuitively or naturally bring to the table that makes us better?

Serin Silva:

Well, I don’t theoretically look at as one versus the other one being better than the other. However, I think you’re clued into something that there is a difference in how men and women show up in the workplace and how they lead. In my 25 years of experience, what I’ve really noticed with women is there’s just a different energy. A lot of the work I do is around nervous system regulation and how we can better calm our amygdala and think more clearly. And while I wouldn’t say men don’t think as clearly as women, what I would say is there’s less of this sort of driving energy. What I’ve noticed with the men that I have worked with on really high-profile projects that have a lot of pressure is sort of this almost staccato kind of chop, chop, chop, chop kind of energy that they bring to the table. And I can appreciate the focus, but I think women bring more of a calmer, more ears on, more thoughtful approach. It is rare when I meet someone who is sort of at that chop, chop, chop kind of tempo.

Melinda Wittstock:

Right. So, I wonder what you think about this. I have sort of a theory not backed by anything other than just my own experience building five companies and working within very large ones as well. Before that is that women tend to bring much more of a collaborative, inclusive approach and maybe think more, I don’t know, matrixy, a little more holistically. Whereas men tend to be, and again, this is big generalization, but tend to be a little bit more linear, right? Like A to B. Whereas women are like considering A and B and C and D and all these different things. And, and men can look at that and say, oh, that’s like very, you know, confusing. But for the woman it’s like completely clear.

Serin Silva:

Honestly, I think it has to do with, with women not always having a seat at the table historically. And so, we’ve had to be more measured about when we speak up. Even we’re from a high-power room with, you know, our, our executive collaborators next to us. We’ve got more writing on how we show up. There are certain things that are just assumed by men. And, you know, it’s challenging to talk about because you don’t want to generalize. You don’t want to make it seem like men are bad and women are better. I, I don’t really play that game, but I do think that we will hold back a little bit more, and that can come across as being more considerate or more thoughtful or more ‘big picture’ because we have to place our bets a little more carefully.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, that’s interesting. I think my perspective comes from entrepreneurship and the type of businesses that women tend to start, right, as opposed to men.

Serin Silva:

And how, and how they, and how they go about it.

Melinda Wittstock:

I’ve also seen along the way that women tend to be so focused on proving competence and, you know, getting things done and all these sorts of things that we sometimes can ignore the thing that we’re really naturally quite good at, which is the relationship piece where men are out, of course, doing that, and then women have their heads down, working hard. Okay, again, another generalization. But I, I, I’ve seen that at all levels of organizations where women are more likely like, oh, I’ll just do it myself. Right, right, right. Instead of really focusing on the relationship.

Melinda Wittstock:

How do you see that play in, in, in terms of executive leadership roles?

Serin Silva:

Well, I think you bring up a good point from an entrepreneurial perspective, because I do work right now largely with female entrepreneurs who are leading midsize companies. And what I do see, and I think to some extent it’s needed, is a little bit more of a nurturing, compassionate, empathic leadership style. My sense is that some of that has come out of COVID as well. And sometimes I’m actually coaching women to shift out of that mindset, to let people fail, to not give them so many chances and options. I think there’s a little bit of a course correction that needs to happen there. And I’m a huge believer in empathy and compassion. I don’t like the staccato approach I mentioned earlier, but just like anything when it’s out of balance, you can wind up with employees who stay for longer than they need to. People are not producing.

Serin Silva:

Yeah, people definitely take advantage. Absolutely do.

Melinda Wittstock:

And I personally experienced that because I think a lot of women are so worried about being called the B word you know, this pressure to be nice.

Serin Silva:

Yes.

Melinda Wittstock:

When you are in business and you have to make tough decisions, like, you can’t be thrown off course just because of the fear of how you’ll be perceived. I like that you mentioned the balance. When you’re drawing on both the archetypal masculine and the archetypal feminine, and you’re integrating those really well, a holistic way. That’s when you’re, I think, at your superpower. 

Serin Silva:

Yeah, I think I’m. I think I’m feeling like I’m there finally after 20 something years.

Melinda Wittstock:

It takes a while because you have to be very aware. So, does necessitate some evolution?

Serin Silva:

Yeah, I think it’s been an evolution in a few ways. I think, to your point, it’s also the passage of time. You know, when I started working, you know, 20 something years ago, I was in high tech and doing leading marketing for high tech companies. And it was me and a room full of men. And I had to be harder and tough and show that I could do it and place those bets carefully. And then I think over time, as more and more women have shown up in the workforce, whether they be entrepreneurs or in corporate, there’s been less of that. You’re the B word.

Serin Silva:

And more like, take charge and prove you can do it. And I think then Covid happened, and then the other generations have entered the workforce, you know, particularly the millennials who were raised differently than say, like Gen X. And so, there’s more of a softness. And I think we’re just playing with that balance, and it’s hard to get right. Right. You have to make tough calls. I can say in the last year or so, I’ve had to sit with female CEOs and be like, this person is not producing the money that you need to invest in getting the talent to bring into the organization to grow. The organization is being wasted because you’re keeping people on who I know you like and care about, but you can’t do that emotional labor anymore.

Serin Silva:

I think Covid, with everyone having to be home and not knowing what was happening, there was a lot of nurturing that had to happen because people were having a hard time. But again, as I said earlier, it’s it. We need to sort of bring it back in balance because it’s actually hurting our bottom line, it’s hurting our ability to innovate, to grow our businesses. Sometimes you got to be the tough voice in the room.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah. It’s interesting the role that intuition plays in this because I don’t think I’ve ever met a founder and if I look at myself or an executive that hasn’t, if they’re being honest, admit that they knew something intuitively, but they let their analytic mind override it. Yeah, that was the root of their mistake right there.

Serin Silva:

Yeah. I’m a trained intuitive. I did that. Something that I follow as a passion project. And so, a lot of the work that I do right now is using what I call insight or intuition coupled with corporate experience. Experience to identify patterns quickly. I rely on it. It doesn’t mean I throw my business brain out the window, but those two belong together.

Serin Silva:

And then now in the nervous system regulation work that I mentioned at the beginning, you’ve got this sort of trifecta. You’ve got the mind, the rational mind, you’ve got the insight layer and then you have an awareness of the physical body where you can quickly kind of reach yourself. Like, am I stressed? How am I showing up here? I really thoroughly believe in those three things working together as sort of the framework for success.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, it, it, it really, it really is. When you think of the fact that we’re really ruled by our subconscious minds, like whatever we were going through as a child, you know, whatever was going on really sets, you know, not only our fears, but also all these sorts of patterns and all these beliefs that we may not even be conscious of. So, you have a lot of Fortune 500 companies and startups that are effectively being run by toddlers.

Serin Silva:

Yeah. And people who don’t have really good self-control or awareness, you know, it makes, in some aspects it makes them really good at their job. They can drive forward; they can make the bold calls. But sometimes that approach of kind of the bowl in the china shop doesn’t work or it stops to work. And I think right now with things being complex and we’re having a lot of never been done before, has never happened before, that method of like blindly pushing forward is starting to not work. It’s starting to show its age. And that’s why I believe so firmly in people using their own intuitive abilities, their gut knowing, whatever people feel comfortable using to, to, to take in information from there.

Melinda Wittstock:

Well, it’s interesting because the culture of the company, whether you sort of like it or not, the CEO sets the tone.

Serin Silva:

Right. Just right.

Melinda Wittstock:

Who they’re being so right. If they’re all over the place or they’re capricious or like they, they, nobody can really understand them when you’re supposed to read their mind or like.

Serin Silva:

Right.

Melinda Wittstock:

However that manifests itself, right? That’s the company culture. So that level of self-awareness is so important. And you’re right. Things are really changing. Like it used to be that business was, I don’t know, the big book was the Art of War.

Serin Silva:

Yep, I’m familiar with that book. 

Melinda Wittstock:

And it, it doesn’t necessarily work. How do you motivate people to get the results you want if people can’t understand you or you’re just sleeping on the factory floor, okay reference there to someone we, we all know, Elon Musk. I mean it doesn’t necessarily get the best results. It maybe can for a short time. 

Melinda Wittstock:

So, when you’re advising women, what are the biggest lessons that most of them need to learn? Tell me a little bit about your process and, and, and how you’re helping them.

Serin Silva:

I mean I’m definitely big on synthesis and talking to the key people in the organization to identify what the blockers are. So, I’ll come in and I will do a leadership scan and put together. I need the information; I need the qualitative and the quantitative information about the business. And then I need to look at the relative perspectives of the people who are driving the team, and I need to look at that with respect to the goals that they have on the table. So, I do a scan, I do talk to people. I basically am like a little detective. I turn over every stone. I look for patterns and themes that I’m hearing that are holding the business back.

[PROMO CREDIT]

Wings of Inspired Business is brought to you by the podcast, Zero Limits Business Growth Secrets where Steve Little – serial entrepreneur, investor and mergers & acquisitions maestro – shares the little-known 24 value drivers that spell the difference between a $5m business, and a $50mm even $500 mm business. It always pays to understand what’s driving the underlying enterprise value of your business. So, check out Zero Limits Business Growth Secrets at zerolimitsradio.com – that’s zerolimitsradio.com and available wherever you get your podcasts. More information about valuation growth at Zero Limits Ventures.com

Melinda Wittstock:

And we’re back with Serin Silva, intuitive strategic advisor and executive coach.

[INTERVIEW CONTINUES]

Serin Silva:

Right now, what I’m seeing is a lot of transformations and those aren’t always pretty in that, okay, the old business model is not working. What are we going to do? And you might say, okay, well we find a new business model. No, there are entrenched mindsets among female CEOs. This has always worked for me. I’m going to keep doing what works for me. So sometimes I’m needing to build the psychological safety and the trust in a qualitative way to say, you know, we really need to look at this. People don’t bring me in unless they want change.

Serin Silva:

If they want someone to just come in and tell them, keep doing what you’re doing and it’ll work out, that’s not me. I come in specifically to disrupt and break the old patterns, to bring in the new. I’ve been called a business doula before.

Melinda Wittstock:

Oh, I love that.

Serin Silva:

And I always say it’s really messy and people are like, oh, this isn’t working. And I said, you know, there’s friction because we’re doing behavior change. So, I definitely, to your point around process, come in from a humanistic lens. I think that is really important because if you can’t get the people on board, and if the CEO herself cannot get on board 100%, it’s not going to work. And that’s a very human process. You can put as much software into a company and be like, we’re going to get these employees to be accountable and do what they’re supposed to be doing. And it’s like, that’ll work to an extent.

Serin Silva:

And I think what we’re seeing out in the market is people have optimized and adopted a lot of software and are looking purely at things through an efficiency lens. But my question to them, whether you’re Amazon, who just laid off 16,000 employees yesterday, or whether you’re a midsize company, is what is your next trick after that? Once you’ve cut everything you’re going to cut, where’s the market share going to come from?

Melinda Wittstock:

Right, right, right. And if your employees, your team members aren’t motivated, like, there’s a bunch of different things to break down here. Are we all on this mission together? And what is that mission and how’s that mission and how are your company values operationalized? A lot of people put their mission and values up on their website and then just got it.

Serin Silva:

Absolutely, absolutely. Absolutely.

Melinda Wittstock:

I’ve done the work to actually offer. Like, what does it actually mean in practice? Like, what if we say innovation is our, is our North Star? What does innovation mean in practice? It, like, does it mean that, okay, so yeah, you gotta let people the opportunity to fail, but when they fail, what do they learn from it? What’s the process around that.

Serin Silva:

Like, very few people take that mission, vision, values, process seriously. I would say CEOs of a certain era, they think it’s all fluff.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah.

Serin Silva:

And it’s like your employees still need to have something to believe in and build and know that their work is helping to enable something. I don’t care if you’re the receptionist. I don’t care if you’re the guy in the stock room. They still need that. And when you’re seeing high levels of attrition, it’s because people aren’t engaged. A lot of what I hear right now, which I haven’t necessarily figured out what the main way to approach it is, is employees are really disengaged. I get a lot of, why aren’t they doing the work? I feel like part of its generational.

Serin Silva:

And I think also one thing that I don’t see enough people in business talking about is the impact of all of the external change in the world. And I’m not here today to talk about that, but what I am here to say is that is a factor. Whether someone at work or an employee ever talks about what’s going on in the external world doesn’t matter. They’re feeling the weight and the stress of it.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah.

Serin Silva:

And just. Yeah.

Melinda Wittstock:

I mean, there’s, there’s so much like just the rapidity of, of change, even the political circumstance in the United States, you know, AI. All these, all these things.

Serin Silva:

Right. Going on.

Melinda Wittstock:

And there’s just this underlying stress level that I, I certainly can feel. And there’s a lot of uncertainty because there’s a lot of capricious decision making.

Serin Silva:

Right.

Melinda Wittstock:

Nobody really knows, like, how does a business plan, like tariffs on / off, for instance.

Serin Silva:

Right.

Melinda Wittstock:

It’s a very difficult and challenging time to operate. And then you think your employees are going through all of this and people are lonely, they’re craving belonging. Now that’s not to say that you, you need to open up, you know, therapy for all your, all your team members, but like, you kind of need to be aware of it. I think most businesses aren’t like they’d rather just sweep that under the table and just think, okay, you know what, it’s just business as usual. But it doesn’t feel like it.

Serin Silva:

No, it’s not business as usual. And I agree with you. You know, Google actually has on staff therapists, which I find interesting. I don’t think they talk about it a lot. I think it’s part of their wellness program. I don’t know how it’s executed because I’ve never worked inside of Google. But, you know, as far as capriciousness, I’ve seen all kinds of crazy things. I mean, I think the craziest thing I ever saw was I was on the marketing team and my boss got fired.

Serin Silva:

I can’t talk about that. But what I can say is they brought in an ex-CIA agent who had no marketing experience to lead the marketing team. What? Because the board liked him.

Melinda Wittstock:

Oh my goodness.

Serin Silva:

Okay.

Melinda Wittstock:

And then so all the employees are like, wait, what?

Serin Silva:

And he had no marketing experience. Fortunately, I really liked. He was very good with people. We worked well together. But he didn’t know the first thing about it.

Serin Silva:

And when I think about those kinds of capricious moves, I think of Elon, who, you know, Tesla is taking a beating.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah.

Serin Silva:

Right now. And so, it’s so funny how in business, people are so allergic to being human, you know?

Melinda Wittstock:

It’s confounding to me. What is business other than relationship?

Serin Silva:

Like, right. Like, right.

Melinda Wittstock:

Relationship with your clients and customers, your team members, you know, the as a whole. Like even your competitors who might be your acquirers one day. 

Serin Silva:

Right. It just makes me laugh. I get it. I think people get a little uncomfortable with the squishy stuff. It could be trick, like whatever. I’m not saying everyone is to, to your point earlier, like be therapists to each other, but we are human beings. And what I’ve been saying lately to my clients, I’ve said the machine will outperform us. So, stop worrying about that.

Serin Silva:

Start thinking about the strategy and what we’re going to do and what we need to get there. But we cannot continue to go faster. Faster than machine. That window is going to close. So, strategy skills are going to be important with your team. Critical. Critical thinking skills are going to be important with your team. Research and synthesis are going to be important.

Serin Silva:

Paying attention to what’s happening intuitively. Checking in on your, you know, showing up in a nervous system regulated way with your very stressed employees, that’s what’s going to matter. It’s not going to matter how quickly your team goes through their Asana tasks.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, that, exactly.

Serin Silva:

We did that already. We just spent the last, I don’t know, 10, 20 years building really crazy awesome software. You know, I’m proud to be from the Silicon Valley, but that’s not the whole thing. And creativity and what’s, you know, Steve Jobs didn’t use Asana to start to bring about the iPad. You know, he didn’t go task in. He thought really big. And I think we have deprioritized thinking big in the name of efficiency. And I like efficiency just as much as the next person, but it isn’t the whole story.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, giving your team members the space to actually think, to actually be creative, giving them the chance to fail, but also creating a safe space. This is the thing that a lot of people are talking about now. If folks are afraid to say something for fear of being taken down a peg or fired or whatever, for not towing the line or whatever, if there’s a climate of that kind of fear and creativity just can’t function in that realm. And it just seems obvious to me that people need that space. So how do you get that balance right. Between say, the productivity, so you’re a venture backed startup, for instance.

Serin Silva:

Right.

Melinda Wittstock:

And these milestones you got to hit. But at the same time, you’re playing a short game and you’re playing a long game. And I think a lot of corporate CEOs for certain are tied by that, the quarter. Right. And you can get forced into this, into this paradigm where it’s like, oh, we got to make our number. But thinking long term, you can get short term results and then lose the longer game.

Serin Silva:

Right, right.

Melinda Wittstock:

Balance those two things because I mean, they’re very real pressures, people.

Serin Silva:

Absolutely. I get the reality of business like nobody else because I’ve worked with some really hardcore executives. So, I know what’s real and I know we’ve got to be. Prof. And you’ve also described why I love doing what I do. Because it’s this supreme puzzle that balances business strategy and human understanding and trying to motivate people towards a goal and to get them to think creatively. But I start from the top down. I work with like really stressed-out CEOs to say we’ve got to carve out time.

Serin Silva:

I’ve gotten arguments with CEOs and they’re like; I have to check my like phone as soon as I wake up. While I’m in bed, I’m like, no you don’t. Right. No, you don’t. And they’ll be like, well that means I have to be up at 5 before my kids get up to strategize in the business. And you also have to create the climate underneath that. 

Serin Silva:

One company that does this very well, that I’ve always been really impressed with is Williams Sonoma, who I had the pleasure of working with for a number of years across the family of their brands. And one of the things I loved about them was, was they’re highly innovative and that every employee in the company, including the executives, has an innovation goal per quarter. Nice. So you have to try something new every quarter, whether it’s a new vendor, a new way of thinking, a new idea you bring. And there’s a process for that. And that just says ideas are welcome here.

Melinda Wittstock:

See, that’s wonderful. So that’s an example of operationalizing.

Serin Silva:

Right.

Melinda Wittstock:

Just saying it, but like as you say it and you don’t give people a path.

Serin Silva:

Right.

Melinda Wittstock:

How are they supposed to know? So, so that’s wonderful that they do that. Are there any other companies that you know that do that or any.

Serin Silva:

I think Google is also very innovation led by its nature. I think Apple also kind of operates that way. When I look to the mid-sized companies, they don’t have as much time and so kind of finding a way to program that muscle and is an interesting challenge. But again, when you’re doing the mission, vision and values, don’t just put lipstick on a pig. Sorry for my way of saying it. Actually, think about what are the attributes that you want this company to have that are going to get you to where you want to go with the business. Don’t just do it because HR told you to do it. Internalize that.

Serin Silva:

If innovation and strategy and long-term thinking and critical thinking are part of it. Built, you need to build in the infrastructure to support that. Yeah.

Melinda Wittstock:

I’m always reminded of Zappos and their customer success.

Serin Silva:

Yeah, very good example.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah. Where they did something really counterintuitive. Well, every other call center, you know, is like, spend as least time as possible on the phone and, get through as many calls as possible. Their employees actually were told to keep people on for longer. And I think that’s really interesting because I mean it led to like you know, in Tony Shieh’s book Delivering Happiness, even if a customer called and I think he called his own company in order to order a pizza…

Serin Silva:

And just to test it out.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, and that and that and that, you know, the rep said, okay, like I, I’m not local, but let me look up some pizza places in New Hampshire or wherever. He was right, right. I’m still talking about this, like kind of 15 years or something after read. So like your customers are happy, they talk about it. It spreads goodness. The, your employees are actually developing relationship. It’s good for that, you know, but that is such a counterintuitive thing to do.

Serin Silva:

Right. But what’s interesting about it is, you know, you’ll bring up a company like Apple, or you’ll bring up a company like Google, and everyone will be like, well, of course you brought that up because those are the, you know, those are the strongest companies. And of course they’re doing it well. At some point within those companies, someone took a risk and said, I want to do it differently. And hey, guess what? The data proves it out that those companies that have consciously embodied and thought about new ways of doing business have actually become really successful. Why don’t we do that? I don’t understand. If we know it works and we’ve seen the market traction, why do sometimes people poo poo? Being intentional about strategy and intentional about the behaviors that you want to see inside of a company that are going to take you to success. Do you think just doing the same thing over and over again is going to yield the result? You know, that’s the whole definition of insanity thing completely.

Serin Silva:

So, I don’t work with those companies.

Melinda Wittstock:

I think, I think a lot of people say things like, oh, yeah, when we’ve hit this milestone, then we’ll do that. But like, it’s, it’s never too early. Like the, the benefit of a startup is that you can, if you’re intentional, yeah, set this course from day one. I mean, it’s your company, you know.

Serin Silva:

Yeah, I’m, I’m coaching an amazing stealth startup right now in the cell space, using cell medicine to heal. And they’re right at the ground floor. I think they have like three employees. And I’m hearing a lot of this and trying to figure out how to help them navigate the way forward. But yeah, you know, you have to consciously decide. And I think in the rush and the, you know, our original business model, the corporation was built on the 1950s auto industry model that was not humanistic. And so, the model, look, the model worked freaking great. I’m not here to say it stunk, but what I am here to say is times have changed, especially with the…

Melinda Wittstock:

Gen Z. Yeah. Millennials, Gen Alpha coming up behind them. First of all, you have to be cognizant that the whole American dream is just sort of crumbling.

Serin Silva:

Absolutely. Okay.

Melinda Wittstock:

Like, and they’re kind of questioning everything, like, okay, well, it didn’t work for my parents, it’s not working for me. Why am I here? What am I doing? Like, why am I doing this?

Serin Silva:

Right.

Melinda Wittstock:

And so, I think they’re just a massive part of this change. Just even their purchasing decisions.

Serin Silva:

Yeah.

Melinda Wittstock:

All the people who boycotted Target, for instance, because they got rid of DEI, filed into Costco. So which company did better? The one that maintained their, their, their values.

Serin Silva:

Right. My daughter is a Gen Z entrepreneur who just graduated college. And it’s like, I’m not gonna go work for some company. I’m gonna build. Going to build it on my terms.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah. My son is doing the same thing. He’s nineteen, second year undergraduate. He has this really quite big startup that he’s focused on. He’s like, there’s no future in corporate. I’m just going to my own, and AI is making that possible too.

Melinda Wittstock:

But like, to point with all the AI tools in the world, that’s not creativity that, that can help you.

Serin Silva:

Right.

Melinda Wittstock:

It’s a tool. It’s not gonna do it all for you. The relationship is going to be the, the really critical thing. And the creativity that just comes from something within us. 

Serin Silva:

Absolutely. It’s much more organic, it’s much more intentional when we do it. Right. It’s much more humanistic. I love AI. I’m not gonna lie to you. I love it. I know it’s powerful.

Serin Silva:

I know there’s a lot of hullabaloo about it, but I don’t get as nervous as other people do. And maybe I’m, you know, whatever, but I, I don’t get nervous about the creativity part. It’s not human.

Melinda Wittstock:

Exactly.

Serin Silva:

It’s impossible for it to be human. And I have a client who their work is. They are an AI data partner. So, the work that they do feeds the large language models that power Google’s Gemini and Meta. We all know that that’s. 

Serin Silva:

They still have human validation of all that data that’s required. That’s why they exist as a company, because AI unchecked is. Is. Is just a tool. It needs guardrails. So that’s a different subject. But I think what’s core there is that it’s not human and it’s not supposed to be exactly knowing.

Melinda Wittstock:

Like it’s sort of garbage in, garbage out. So even just…

Serin Silva:

Right.

Melinda Wittstock:

…What to ask it.

Serin Silva:

Right. Right.

Melinda Wittstock:

…What to do.

Serin Silva:

Right. Right.

Melinda Wittstock:

It’s going to make assumptions. They may not be your assumption. Can’t read your mind.

Serin Silva:

Right.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, I want to make sure that we have time to get into your whole point about alignment, not exhaustion. I see so many women trying to do it all right. And burning out and just themselves impossible standards. Like they’re human doings, not beings, and they burn out. Like, I can’t tell you how many entrepreneurs I’ve had on this podcast that had that kind of crisis, some sort of health crisis or crisis, because they were on that path and it was unsustainable. Tell me about your process of how you help women actually get into that mode of awareness and alignment. So, they’re not burning out.

Serin Silva:

Yeah. Well, another aspect to that, that it’s one of my favorite things is I work with a lot of moms who, who either becoming moms and trying to grow their businesses or they’re conscious of it. I like talking about the balance of it and the exhaustion of it. Balance is kind of a funny word when we talk about it this way. But bringing things into alignment, let’s use your word. So, I asked the hard questions. If someone works with me, I ask the hard questions.

Serin Silva:

I want to get to the nitty gritty. I want to understand the priorities. I want to make it safe for them to confide in me. I had a client last year who texted me an EPT test picture that said now what? Because who was running a business and teaching at a university here in Colorado. And you know, that’s the, that’s the thing that they don’t. There’s. There’s no playbook for that. There’s no, there’s no playbook that says this is how much time you put into raising your kids, this is how much time you need to put into the business, and this is what’s going to work.

Serin Silva:

And so, I think one of the things that I really emphasize with entrepreneurs that they push back on at first is you’ve got to take more breaks. And sure, there’s some eye rolling when I say that, but you do have to take more breaks. We have to consciously disconnect. And so, what is the support system? What is the structure? What are the goals? Let’s get those right sized. What is realistic output for the first quarter? Right. I’ve had a few clients who have gone through cancer. I have seen that journey. I’ve seen them go through cancer and then return to the same bad habits that they had before.

Serin Silva:

So, it’s complex. But I think you touched on some of the points earlier around. They need a trusted partner. They need a safe space to talk about what’s really going on in the business. I do focus on the nervous system regulation, their energy level, their stress. And I think it’s really about, again, marrying the inside world with the outside world. What’s going on on the inside? What’s going on on the outside? A lot of the CEOs, you’ve heard this, I’m sure, and you’ve experienced this. It’s lonely at the top.

Serin Silva:

There’s not a lot of people you can tell what’s going on. You certainly can’t tell the people that are reporting to you what’s going on all the time. Right. You have to carry that. You have to. You can’t always take it to your marriage or to your partner. Yeah, right. Because they’ve got their own thing and maybe they’re trying to put the, you know, keep the wheels on the bus at home because you’re running this business.

Serin Silva:

And so, they do need that consigliere or that person that they can rely on. And I definitely always go to the body. I will say you need bodywork. When was the last time you moved your body? Part of my intuitive practice. I can actually see sort of the energetic field, which is really atoms. You know, if you want to get scientific, it’s atoms, it’s energy. When people sell, it’s energy that they’re selling. It’s that magnetism, the confidence, all those things.

Serin Silva:

That’s an inside job.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, it is a hundred percent. Like, I, I’m sure everyone’s had that experience, you know, when you’re just, you know, just having a really great day and, like, you feel good, you feel aligned, like things fall into place. You wake up on the so-called wrong side of the bed. Your energy’s off, you’re sort of stuck. Like less good things are gonna happen to you.

Serin Silva:

Right.

Melinda Wittstock:

This is kind of like mindset, but it is, it is body. I know you do like somatic work and, and you know, all of that, like these things are really important. Entrepreneurs and executives. I can take care of yourself. I could talk to you Serin for like hours longer.

Serin Silva:

Me too. This has been a great. I love the way you’ve posted some of these questions because people are very comfortable on podcasts, just asking the surface level questions.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah.

Serin Silva:

Going deep.

Melinda Wittstock:

Life’s too short. You know, you got to get right into that.

Serin Silva:

Not you got to get into it.

Melinda Wittstock:

This is so important and it’s so important especially for, for women. And it’s so important in our time. I think we have the capacity and I believe the business has the capacity to, to make the kind of world we want to live in. Right. I know a lot of people say that and they don’t really mean it, but I see a lot of really great mission driven entrepreneurs, But how are you going to create that change if you’re not being the change yourself? So that, that, that is where some of this falls down, I think, you know, absolutely.

Serin Silva:

And, and we have to get a little bit more comfortable with letting go of the old way.

Melinda Wittstock:

It’s true. It’s true.

Serin Silva:

And that’s hard.

Melinda Wittstock:

People, people struggle with change. People hate change. But like, change is, is, is part of the.

Serin Silva:

Right.

Melinda Wittstock:

The sooner you can just sort of, you know, assume that change is constant.

Serin Silva:

Right.

Melinda Wittstock:

And there are things beyond your control. So, what can you control?

Serin Silva:

Right? You can control being, you can control your response. Right. And that’s where this whole nervous system, regulation, the inside job, slowing things down. People always say to me, you’re so calm. And I’m like, well, I just work to breathe and just be fully present and listen.

Melinda Wittstock:

Remember to breathe.

Serin Silva:

You know, people walk through life. I was one of them. I actually had someone come to me and say, have you ever like, actually breathe? Like out of breath? This happened to me about 15 years ago. They’re like, you’re clenched. And I was like, no, I’m not. I’m focused and it’s like, no, you’re not actually breathing, you’re not connected to yourself. You’re a one-way output machine, but you’re not internalizing what’s being said.

Serin Silva:

And that’s where you actually miss all the juice and the patterns and the things that need to shift, shift for the business. When you pause, everyone’s like, well, that’s a meditation thing. No, it’s actually a being human thing and allowing your brain to catch up because you’re not a machine.

Melinda Wittstock:

Exactly, exactly. So, I want to make sure that all the amazing women out there, whatever stage they’re at in their business, know the best way to find you serene and work with you.

Serin Silva:

Yeah. First thing you can do is you can visit my website, serinsilva.com. you can also book a free 15-minute consult with me. Because of my intuition, I have to do consults in short length because sometimes it can be very fast and prescriptive and people get the answer and then they’re like, I’m done. And I’m being fully transparent about that. That’s how strong it is, the patterning. But yeah, my door is open to that. It’s not a, it’s not a big sales pitch.

Serin Silva:

You can follow me on LinkedIn. I put a lot of content out. I’m also starting to do training around somatic leadership, so you can look for that on LinkedIn.

Melinda Wittstock:

Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for putting on your wings.

Serin Silva:

I appreciate it. I love my wings. Thank you so much.

[INTERVIEW ENDS]

Melinda Wittstock:

Serin Silva is an intuitive strategic advisor and executive coach whose clients include leaders at Apple, Airbnb and Genentech among them.

Melinda Wittstock:

Please take a moment to give us a five-star rating and review the podcast on Apple and Spotify—it helps more entrepreneurs like you find the secret sauce to support and grow their businesses.

Melinda Wittstock:

That’s it for today’s episode. Head on over to WingsPodcast.com – and subscribe to the show. When you subscribe, you’ll instantly get my special gift, the WINGS Success Formula. Women … Innovating … Networking … Growing …Scaling … IS the WINGS of Inspired Business Formula …for daily success in your business and life. Miss a Wings episode? We’ve got hundreds in the vault, all with actionable advice and epiphanies. Check them out at MelindaWittstock.com or wingspodcast.com. You can also catch me on LinkedIn or Instagram @MelindaAnneWittstock. We also love it when you share your feedback with a 5-star rating and review on Apple, Spotify or wherever else you listen, including Podopolo where you can interact with me and share your favorite clips.