When Failure Isn’t Failure. Giovanna Silvestre

[00:00:00] Bob Wheeler: In order to make a good impression on others, we might do things that don’t always align with our values. We might pretend to be someone we’re not, or put up a facade to make ourselves look better. While these things might seem necessary in the moment, they can cost us in the long run. By compromising our values, we lose sight of who we are and what’s important to us, and invite a whole lot of unwanted stress into our.

[00:00:22] So instead of trying so hard to impress others, the focus should be on trying to be true to ourselves and building positive relationships based on honesty and respect. In this conversation with Giovanna Silvestre, AKA Confused Girl, she shares her journey from Cool Jobs unhappy person to risking it all for freedom and peace, happy person.

[00:00:41] We talk about the struggles of letting go of safety nets and starting your own business when others say, Get a real. We also touched on the importance of doing self check-ins to keep stress at bay. Don’t listen to me. Don’t listen to her. Listen to yourself and find your true nature and happiness. I’m Bob Wheeler and this is Money you should ask where we explore why we do what we do when it comes to money.

[00:01:07] Giovanna Silvestre: Ooh,

[00:01:27] Bob Wheeler: Giovanna Silvestre graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in international relations, and later worked in the entertainment. Her jobs included being the assistant to film director Kenneth Braa on the first Marvel Studios Thor film, and working alongside Anthony Hopkins and Natalie Portman.

[00:01:44] She created her activewear brand Confused Girl from the ground up. She’s designed and successfully marketed a full collection of confused girl products, accumulate over a thousand loyal brand ambassadors worldwide, and has been featured on nbc, Forbes, and many more international public. As an influencer, she was one of the first female influencers Audi has ever worked with.

[00:02:06] She’s also collaborated with some of the biggest global brands, including T-Mobile, Target, crox, Ritz Carlton, and many more. She spent several years living in different parts of the world, Indonesia, Thailand, and Italy, to name a few while writing her upcoming book and continuing to build her Instagram platform.

[00:02:23] The self-love and courage she developed were made possible by the lessons she writes about in her soon to be released. Book confused girl. Find your piece in the chaos. Jovana, welcome to the show. I appreciate you taking the time cuz I know you got a lot going on and even though I know you just woke up, , there’s a lot going on in the day.

[00:02:42] So I have to ask just off the bat, what does the role of being a multi hyphenate influencer, clothing designer soon to be, author fully?

[00:02:51] Giovanna Silvestre: Oh my God. So many things , by the way, thank you for having me. Very happy to be here. Did just wake up so I’m a little groggy still. Ok, wait, sorry. What does my life entail?

[00:03:05] What was the question? Yeah,

[00:03:06] Bob Wheeler: because you’ve got your a multihyphenate influencer. Clothing designer and you’ve got a book coming out, like that’s a lot to start your day. I mean, no wonder you’re tired, , ,

[00:03:19] Giovanna Silvestre: its a lot. But when you read it like that, it sounds like a lot of things and I’m juggling a lot of things.

[00:03:25] But I think there was such a slow progression of everything through the years. Mm-hmm. , it’s like one thing just led into the other. So actually a big goal of mine is really to not stress. Like I try to stress out the least amount possible. So if I need a day to just go and be by the beach, I’m gonna go be by the beach.

[00:03:52] I’m not the type of person that’s like, Okay, I’m up at 5:00 AM then I need to work out, then I need you this. Then I, No, no, no, no, no, no, no. . If I wanna sleep in, I sleep in .

[00:04:03] Bob Wheeler: I’m laughing cuz I’ve been up at 5:00 AM

[00:04:07] Giovanna Silvestre: I know this sounds so different than everybody else. I am very disciplined. I do have a schedule.

[00:04:14] I do make sure that I work out like five times a week. I do get all my work done, but I do it in my particular way and I try not to stress myself out.

[00:04:25] Bob Wheeler: Well, that’s awesome. And let me ask you this, what’s the clue? Like you wake up and you’re starting to stress out, and in hindsight that a day at the beach would be great.

[00:04:34] Do you like, you’re like, Oh my God, beach time, Like , How do you arrive at that moment to take care of yourself? It’s,

[00:04:42] Giovanna Silvestre: I’m feeling like there’s nothing I need to get done at this moment, but I am feeling overwhelmed and I almost have this feeling I wanna jump outta my skin. That’s when I’m like, Okay, we’re doing some self care today.

[00:04:55] Okay? Like, we’re not gonna be in front of the computer today. We’re going to the beach and we’re gonna breathe some fresh ocean air and we’re gonna chill out because all this other stuff. You know? Yeah. Like obviously if I make appointments or meetings like today, I’m not gonna be like, Oh, I’m sorry, I gotta go to the beach.

[00:05:13] Right. ’cause I have integrity. Thank you. . I believe in having integrity and showing up to my commitments. Yeah. But then after this I might say, Hey, I’m done. I’m gonna go to the beach.

[00:05:27] Bob Wheeler: I’m done. That was stressful. I’m gonna the beach. No, that’s great. So you just do a check in. Yeah. Yeah. That’s so important.

[00:05:34] Giovanna Silvestre: Yeah. I really believe that stress, It cuts life short. Yeah. for sure. Even more than food. Smoking, drinking, You know, I think stress is like a number one. Yeah, and I just try to avoid that as much as possible. ,

[00:05:53] Bob Wheeler: absolutely stress people, stress out on money, all kinds of things. Heart attacks, health issues. All stress.

[00:05:59] Stress, stress, Stress related, related, family,

[00:06:03] Giovanna Silvestre: very stressful. , I’m never enough. I need more, more, more, More. Stress, stress, stress, stress.

[00:06:09] Bob Wheeler: Oh yeah, that internal voice shut up. , right? It goes crazy. Now you have a close line. And when you got into apparel, was that something like, as a kid, you were like, I’m gonna design clothes for the world, or something that just organically happened?

[00:06:26] Giovanna Silvestre: You know what? Now that I think about it, I did used to draw dresses and clothing. I mean, I have an active line, so I wasn’t drawing active wear. Right. But now that, I think it’s funny how you end up doing something and when you really think about it as a kid, you were actually kind of there in a way. Yeah.

[00:06:46] I loved being in front of the camera. I loved taking photographs. I loved like, yeah, drawing, designing my dress. I did love doing that kind of stuff. I don’t think I had the context like, Oh, I’m gonna be a fashion designer, or I’m gonna be an actress. I don’t know. I can’t really remember ever wanting to be something in particular, but it’s interesting because I actually went on a very different path.

[00:07:14] In my earlier adult years, like in my twenties, I worked in the film industry. I worked behind the camera. I worked in real estate for a bit. I did a lot of different things, and it wasn’t until my late twenties that I got into all of this. Mm-hmm. .

[00:07:30] Bob Wheeler: So you used crystals as an inspiration for your active wear and like how did that come about?

[00:07:35] You were just like, I love sitting with the crystals. What’s the story?

[00:07:40] Giovanna Silvestre: Okay, so it’s interesting because I wasn’t like this crazy hippie girl that’s like I just around with my crystals in my, you know, like people put their crystals out and cleanse them in the mood light and Right. I mean, I didn’t even own a crystal.

[00:07:56] I was going through a quarter life’s crisis, which is real. Don’t laugh. It’s actually real. And it happens. They call it also Saturn returns. They say it’s every 27 years. It happens in your late twenties. Okay. I was going through this big transformation and I felt like I wasn’t living in my truth and I wasn’t happy either.

[00:08:16] Like I was actually quite miserable inside myself. I was in, I describe it as a mental. I actually understand what being in prison is like. Cause I was in a mental prison and I didn’t know how to get outta it. And I remember at some point going, I actually wish I was in a physical prison but was free in my mind.

[00:08:36] Right? Because that would feel better than actually being mentally in prison. I just, all these reoccurring negative thoughts and there was like a obsessive compulsive thinking. It was like on a record player. We just would just go around and around and I couldn’t. So I’m like, I have to take care of myself.

[00:08:53] I have to figure out how to get myself outta this depression. Yeah, so I started doing lots of yoga and meditation, and this was at a time when there wasn’t a yoga studio on every corner. This was still at a time when it was a bit more niche, and so I started doing yoga, and just the yoga gave me a little reprieve in my mind.

[00:09:15] After yoga class, I would just be. The mind chilled out for a second, and I had a bit of peace, so I was like, Okay, I need to keep doing this because I couldn’t seem to find the piece anywhere else. Yeah. Then I started meditating and I was reading like every self-help book available to me because I was trying to help myself and on this journey I met this healer.

[00:09:40] He had all these really amazing crystals, and he said, I want you to take two and keep. So I took them to my house and I just thought they were so beautiful. And I’ve worked in the film industry, I’ve been in multimillion dollar mansions with lots of wealthy items around me, and I thought, Oh my gosh, these things are some of the most beautiful, beautiful pieces of accessories in the house.

[00:10:06] I’m like, They’re so gorgeous. And I thought, Okay, I wanna do something with these crystals, but I didn’t know what mm-hmm. . So one day I came up with the idea. Making yoga wear inspired by healing crystals. That’s what I

[00:10:20] Bob Wheeler: did. There you go, . Well, that’s pretty awesome. Like it did sort of organically. You got LED there, you’re doing the yoga, the crystals came to you and then you went back to yoga wear.

[00:10:30] Giovanna Silvestre: Exactly. It all just kind of went from like one thing to the next. I mean, there was no thought out plan on this. My brain’s just like, Okay, cool. Let’s do this now. Okay, let’s go do this. So,

[00:10:44] Bob Wheeler: well that feels more in line with the, I think I’ll wake up when I wake up versus gotta, I gotta put five o’clock.

[00:10:50] Gotta find the clothing. Like it just more of letting it come to you and maybe following your intuition a little bit. Yes,

[00:10:58] Giovanna Silvestre: exactly. Cause I used to very much be the girl. Really hard on myself, super disciplined. You have to get up at this hour, you gotta do this, you gotta do this, you gotta do this. And I’m like, I don’t wanna live a life of, I gotta do this.

[00:11:11] I mean, of course, sometimes you gotta do this, right? And I get that it’s about balance, but I don’t want every single day to be like a push. Yeah, I wanna have some joy and some levity in my day.

[00:11:25] Bob Wheeler: When you were going through this, did you find your family was supportive? Did they. Yay. Go do this, Follow your bliss and do whatever you want.

[00:11:33] Or were they like, Could you just sort of keep a nine to five job? It’d be much better. Yeah,

[00:11:37] Giovanna Silvestre: yeah, yeah. It was pretty much like, okay, what are you doing? You’re starting a brand called Confused

[00:11:44] Bob Wheeler: Girl, right? Are you confused? ?

[00:11:47] Giovanna Silvestre: Yeah. And then they’re like, Just get a. And what I did was I worked a bunch of part-time jobs to be able to start the act of wear line.

[00:11:58] Mm-hmm. , which was, to be honest, there’s nothing wrong with working part-time jobs or the jobs that I did. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with it at all. But at that time, you know, I would private school my entire life, I was a graduate from usc. I was working very competitively in the film industry, working like for Marvel Studios and stuff on huge productions in my twenties.

[00:12:22] I was like competitive. Yeah. So the part-time jobs was embarrassing to me. Right. It was really embarrassing. I didn’t wanna tell people about it cause I was embarrassed, but mm-hmm. , I’m like, well this is the only way to actually try to see if this will work and it’s now or never. Girl, let’s do.

[00:12:42] Bob Wheeler: I have to ask a little bit about this because I think this is for a lot of people.

[00:12:46] I don’t wanna assume here, but it sounds like there might have been a little privilege. Yeah. Right. And now you have to present a certain way. I’ve gotta present, I went to usc, I did da, da da, da da. Yeah. And now I gotta take a part-time job if I wanna go for what I like. What was that struggle?

[00:13:06] Giovanna Silvestre: Well, I was already in the process of, I think I got to such a low point with inside of myself and I was working the cool jobs and I was doing all of that stuff and in that competitive realm with all my peers.

[00:13:18] Right, right. That went to usc or went to Harvard, or went to here or went to there. Like I’m like right in there with them. Mm-hmm. and I was so unhappy. Yeah, and I didn’t love myself. I didn’t love myself, and every day was a push. So it was misery. Yeah. I was already broken down as a person. It’s like my ego had been really cracked open because then I started to think, Okay, so you have the fancy jobs, you’re doing this, you’re doing that.

[00:13:45] And it was never about money for me. It was more about the way I look to other people. Mm-hmm. , that I was doing something cool, that I was acceptable. It wasn’t about the money. So I was so already broken down with inside of myself that I was like willing to do the part-time jobs to see if something else worked, but I was still embarrassed about it.

[00:14:07] So like I really did tell people, and actually it went as far as. Uber was doing a brand ambassador thing, which you made a ton of money. Yeah. This is way back in the day. You’d stand at a gas station and you’d go up to people, be like, Hey, would you like to sign up to be a driver? And people would be like, nad be like, Listen, if you sign up to be a driver today, you never have to drive.

[00:14:28] Not even one day, Uber’s gonna give you a $50 gift card and they’d be like, Sure, I’ll sign up. , every time they signed up I would get $50. Wow. So I was making like 800 bucks a day doing this, which funded my active wear line. And I actually was too embarrassed to do it in LA cause I know so many people. . I drove to Orange County to.

[00:14:52] Or no one would see me at the gas station. That’s

[00:14:54] Bob Wheeler: hilarious. That’s motivation . I love that. Now, did you ever work at hotdog on a stick? I mean, like, you know, those are nice uniforms.

[00:15:05] Giovanna Silvestre: I did. I naed. I naed for a little bit. I was an Uber branded ambassador. I also would do like some promotional things. Put a golf course and they wanted you to stand behind a booth and have people try certain drinks or something.

[00:15:21] I did that, That kind of stuff.

[00:15:23] Bob Wheeler: So you were unhappy. Your family’s telling you to get a job. It sounds like part of your measure at a certain point became, is this making me happy? Even though initially it was. Is this making me look cool? Exactly. In that transition, how did you stay true to yourself?

[00:15:40] Because I think this is what a lot of people struggle with. I have a belief that I’m this somebody, nobody else can see it. Everybody else is telling me, don’t do it. And there’s this little light in me that I’ve gotta nurture and go, Come on baby, let’s shine. How do you push through that where everybody else is telling you, just get a job.

[00:16:01] This is silly. You wanna go out and make yoga stuff? Like, who does that? Yeah, you’re doing part-time jobs. That’s embarrassing. Just do, Why do I

[00:16:09] Giovanna Silvestre: push through that? Yeah. You know what? I don’t know if I have an answer for that. I think. It’s just certain people can’t and certain people can’t. I think you have to have a certain level of guts.

[00:16:21] Have a certain level of just throwing it to the wind. I think you have to, Yeah, kinda trust, you know, you have to really go to a place of like, Okay, I’m trusting myself. I’m trusting my journey on life is sure I’m gonna try things. A lot of people don’t try. Because of fear of how they’re gonna look if they fail.

[00:16:43] Fear and fail. What is fail? What is fail, Right. I mean, I don’t even believe in that word, actually. Yeah, Because if you’ve learned something, how have you failed? You didn’t meet your expectation, right? But like is that really a failure if you’ve learned something? I just think if you’re a jerk all the time, you’re failing, right?

[00:17:07] But actually, if you’re trying something quite noble and it doesn’t work out, doesn’t meet your expectation. Is that really failing? I don’t

[00:17:14] Bob Wheeler: think so. No, I don’t think so. But what I’m really hearing is just a willingness to take a chance despite the fear. Yeah. You just

[00:17:21] Giovanna Silvestre: gotta, And it’s not easy. Like that’s the thing too.

[00:17:23] It’s not, And just because you’ve tried something and you’ve worked really hard, it doesn’t mean it’s going to meet your expectation. It doesn’t mean that you’re going to be like a major success. I mean, maybe you’ll be, but maybe you won’t. Yeah. Some people look at me and they go, Oh wow, it really worked out for you.

[00:17:41] But in my head, It’s worked out okay. Right? I put a lot of work in. I thought it was gonna be bigger. I thought I was going to be financially better off. Right? But God, wow, what a journey. What a freaking ride. Like the other opportunities, the things, it’s led into amazing gifts from God. .

[00:18:03] Bob Wheeler: Yeah. Well, it’s easier from the outside to sit and go, Wow, look at all the success.

[00:18:07] I mean, I’m thinking about, I watched a interview with Elon Musk and he was like, I was on the verge of everything. Completely failing . Yeah, yeah. I was minutes away from complete, absolute, Nobody would’ve ever known my name. And so I think for a lot of people, they forget about all the hard work, and they just see the snapshot at the end and go, Oh, what a winner.

[00:18:28] And don’t realize or forget, The whole journey that gets us to where we are. Yeah.

[00:18:34] Giovanna Silvestre: You also forget, and now that we’re talking about it, I’m going back to that place and I’m actually sitting here kinda going, Wow, I’m really proud of you. Like I’m proud of my younger self. Yeah. And proud of myself for even being able to talk about it, like.

[00:18:52] But on a daily basis, I’m just kind of at a certain place now and I’m just going on my day. I’m not thinking about that, but talking about it, I go, Wow, that was super cool and brave of you. Like you go girl, you know .

[00:19:05] Bob Wheeler: Yeah, for sure. Now that you’ve gotten to this place, freedom is a big piece for you, being able to feel free, right?

[00:19:13] Yeah. And can you say more about that? It sounds like you’ve let go of the presentation piece of, Look how cool my jobs are, and more about into look how free I am. Can you talk about that freedom because there, I think there are a lot of people out there that would love to feel a sense of freedom.

[00:19:30] Giovanna Silvestre: Yeah, I never thought I was like all about freedom, right?

[00:19:35] I never thought I was that girl, but I don’t know. As you tune into yourself, you start to just by asking yourself, What do you want? Okay. Why do you want this? I really understand that. I love freedom. That’s why I can’t have like a dog is because I can’t have the confinement. I can’t have someone telling me what I can do when I can do it.

[00:20:00] And that’s actually quite difficult in a way, because that means I have to eat what I kill. Like, I mean, I have to constantly be out there hunting to feed myself, right? Because I can’t be in the confines of somebody telling. What to do and . I mean, I think it’s just, you know, know thy self really. You just have to come to a point.

[00:20:25] I mean, in life there’s also limitations to freedom. We’re never gonna be completely free in this world, just, but the very existence of being in physical form or confined to a body or confined to a certain way, we look, we’re confined to a certain gender, a certain this, a certain you. And there’s other places where we have wiggle room,

[00:20:45] Mm-hmm. . So yeah, I guess I do try to be as free as

[00:20:50] Bob Wheeler: possible. You have a lot of female listeners. How do you help them be their best, most confident self? Is there some advice that you give them? Just sharing your own journey and modeling that? Like how do you share your message?

[00:21:07] Giovanna Silvestre: The motto for my brand is Find your True Nature.

[00:21:11] Okay? So I’m all about don’t listen to me, , listen to yourself. You know what I mean? I don’t like this kind of era we’re in right now where it’s like, I’m gonna preach to you what you should be doing and how you should be feeling, and how you should be thinking and all this kinda stuff. I actually, within my social media and all of that, I stay away from political topics.

[00:21:35] I stay away from any of that kind of thing because for me, it’s like I had to dig deep inside of myself to figure out what I really want, but what I really. It can be very different from somebody else. Like I’ve never really wanted to get married, have kids. It’s never been something that I’ve really wanted, but maybe for some women, it’s what they really want.

[00:21:55] So who am I to tell them, No, you should travel the world and do all these other things. Might not be for some other people. So my whole thing is take the time to go inside of. Be quiet inside of yourself. Find freedom inside of yourself in your being. Don’t just like distract yourself your entire life and then wake up at 60 and go, What the hell have I done?

[00:22:19] Yeah, like do it now. Find your true nature and live by that. And that’s also like a changing process too, cuz we all changed what we wanted before. We don’t want anymore, but it’s just staying in tune with yourself.

[00:22:32] Bob Wheeler: I love that. I just wanna piggyback on top of. Your clothes line is confused, Girl. Yes. Your book coming out is Confused Girl and Finding Peace in the Chaos, right?

[00:22:44] Yes. Are you a confused girl and have you found peace in the chaos ?

[00:22:51] Giovanna Silvestre: I’m always gonna be a confused girl. I hope so, because I think I named myself that when I was really confused. Yeah, I really was about. People go, You’re not confused though. Like you figured stuff out and it’s like, Yes, sure. I’m not confused about what I was before and now I’m confused about other things because life, there’s always going to be confusion.

[00:23:18] Right? You know, you fall in love, you’re confused cuz it’s scary. You have a kid, you’re confused. You turn a certain age and you’re like, Oh shit. Or I want a career change, I’m confused. You know, it’s, life’s always gonna bring you confusing moments. And so I think a part of the beauty about it is you have something to discover.

[00:23:36] Yeah. So I think I will always be in discovery mode cause I’m a curious person. Yeah. So I’m always gonna be trying to discover something and I think what my book, Confused Girl, find your piece in the chaos. Accepting the confusion, finding peace there, and then kind of enjoying the discovery.

[00:23:56] Bob Wheeler: Yeah. Well, I love that because I think so many times we as adults feel like we have to present a certain way.

[00:24:03] We have to know certain things, even though secretly we’re like, I don’t know, and we don’t name that we’re confused or that we don’t have an answer. And my mantra has always been when I was doing standup comedy or whatever I was doing, and I would always say to. I don’t know what works. Instead of going out, going, I’m gonna do this or I know how to behave this cuz I don’t.

[00:24:23] But if I come in just open going, I don’t know. We’ll try this. Let’s see where we go. , it leaves an opening to not fail so miserably because I’m just saying, let’s discover and I love that you’re saying that like I’m not confused, but if I’m in this place of, hmm, I don’t really know, but I’m.

[00:24:41] Giovanna Silvestre: Exactly. I’m like, I’m open to changing my mind about something.

[00:24:45] I’m open to learning something. I’m open to understanding things in a more deep way. And that’s happened to me too, where I thought I understood something and then I understood it more deeply and I was like, Oh, it wasn’t so black and white anymore. It was shades of. . Yeah. You know, then I understood people a little bit more because of that, and that kind of brings more compassion, just being more humble too.

[00:25:11] All that, all the things. That’s

[00:25:12] Bob Wheeler: so awesome. Well, Jovanna, we are at the fast five, so we’re gonna shift it up a little bit fast. Five is brought to you by Acorns, where you can invest spare change, banks smarter, save retirement, and much more. Check on the show notes to get more information. Now you and I were talking because you use Acorns too.

[00:25:31] I do and I do too. ,

[00:25:33] Giovanna Silvestre: I love it. Just the other day I looked and I was like, Oh, I have a thousand dollars in there already.

[00:25:37] Bob Wheeler: Yeah, it goes quick, . Even with my spending, I’m sometimes like $8, but I put more money in besides my little roundups. But it’s just another way to get conscious and use automated savings to help get you

[00:25:49] Giovanna Silvestre: on track.

[00:25:50] Yeah, exactly. Just a little like nest egg for the future. Yeah, absolutely. Nothing wrong with

[00:25:56] Bob Wheeler: that. Nothing wrong, . All right. We’re gonna have some fun. We’re gonna see what we can learn here. Okay. What’s the most cost effective thing that everyone needs in their travel kit? The most

[00:26:06] Giovanna Silvestre: cost effective thing that everybody needs in their travel kit.

[00:26:13] I dunno. I think it’s always good to bring. Oh, I know. I always bring it Advil .

[00:26:21] Bob Wheeler: Ok, that’s

[00:26:23] Giovanna Silvestre: great. Advil, you abs or ibuprofen, You AB said something I bring everywhere because you never know when you’re gonna like drink too much on vacation. And a lot of times when you’re in foreign countries, they don’t have things over the counter that are as strong as like ibuprofen.

[00:26:40] Cause if I have a headache or I’m hurting, Ibuprofen takes it. But I had my family ship me Advil when I was living in Berlin because the German equivalent to it wasn’t strong enough.

[00:26:55] Bob Wheeler: Yeah, there you go. . I put peanut butter in all my kids. Oh, okay. Peanut butter. So that if the food’s horrible, I got something to eat.

[00:27:02] I got a protein. Oh, okay. There you go.

[00:27:04] Giovanna Silvestre: There you

[00:27:04] Bob Wheeler: go. What’s one financial misconception people have about influencers that

[00:27:09] Giovanna Silvestre: we’re probably doing better than we’re doing financially? People think, Oh, you have so many followers, you must be doing really well or making a lot of money from it. But the truth is the people that are making a lot of money from it have millions and millions of followers.

[00:27:24] Yeah. So if you’re a million and below, you’re getting other great things. Like I get hotel collaborations all around the world, staying at five star hotels, amazing opportunities, and I do make money. But you have to do other things, like it’s not enough money to actually make a living. Just totally off of your pictures on Instagram.

[00:27:42] No.

[00:27:43] Bob Wheeler: Right. You can’t buy a small city . Yeah. No. No. What city was the most expensive place you’ve ever lived? Oh,

[00:27:50] Giovanna Silvestre: Iceland. Iceland. Yeah. I mean, I lived in Iceland for a month, and it was very Iceland’s. Incredibly expensive. Incredibly expensive. Yeah. I was eating at Subway. Oh, there .

[00:28:03] Bob Wheeler: Very Icelandic cuisine.

[00:28:07] Giovanna Silvestre: Exactly. No, I mean, I did collaborations with nice restaurants. I mean, just a normal dinner for two at a restaurant, Iceland’s $400. Oh wow. Just

[00:28:17] Bob Wheeler: normal. Yeah.

[00:28:19] Giovanna Silvestre: I wouldn’t be eating, So when I did have the collaborations with the restaurants, I was eating it that. Yeah, I

[00:28:25] Bob Wheeler: hear you. . That’s that’s rough. . Wow. I would not be, Yeah, I’m not going to Iceland.

[00:28:31] What’s the most unexpected, hidden cost of owning your own business? The

[00:28:35] Giovanna Silvestre: most unexpected, hidden cost of owning your own business. I would say probably all the stuff that you need to invest in your marketing. I think marketing is the biggest cost, actually. Yeah, because if you really wanna grow, you do need to do ads, you do need to do all this other stuff.

[00:28:57] So that’s where all the money goes, goes quick. Yeah, it goes quick. I mean, you’re just talking like five, 10 grand, bam, couple months gone, so you really need to know what you’re doing when you’re doing that kind of stuff. But to grow, you have to do that kinda stuff, so,

[00:29:10] Bob Wheeler: yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. On your recent trip to Hawaii, what was your favorite purchase?

[00:29:17] Giovanna Silvestre: Oh, could it be something I ate? Sure.

[00:29:21] Bob Wheeler: Okay. If you didn’t steal it, if you , if you purchased it ,

[00:29:25] Giovanna Silvestre: I’m like really didn’t buy anything, like any gifts for myself when I was over there. It would be this big. They have this Macadamian net chocolate chip cookie. Mm-hmm. that I would dip in my coffee in the morning and that was my favorite.

[00:29:43] Bob Wheeler: Sometimes a cookie or biscoti and a cup of coffee is all you need. You can’t

[00:29:49] Giovanna Silvestre: beat it. That’s called Living .

[00:29:51] Bob Wheeler: That’s living . That’s living.

[00:29:54] Giovanna Silvestre: That’s

[00:29:54] Bob Wheeler: awesome. Ocean View. Yeah. All of it. So we’re at the m and m Sweet Spot, Money and Motivation part of the show. Do you have a practical financial tip or a piece of wealth wisdom you could share with our listeners?

[00:30:08] Something that just has worked for.

[00:30:10] Giovanna Silvestre: Don’t live beyond your means. I think that that’s very important because people who live beyond their means, it’s like a show off thing. They want, I did it. I did it, but it’s like nobody cares. Yeah. Like there’s always gonna be somebody better off than you or whatever.

[00:30:25] Who cares? Who cares? Just don’t do that because it adds to more stress and the stress leads to real issues. Yeah, so I think the living beyond your means is just an illusion and nobody really cares. You know what you’re driving or what you’re doing, the only person who really cares is you. So it’s like live within your means and find joy in other places.

[00:30:51] Yeah. Cause like what people are really attracted to and really look up to is someone that like shines is not somebody with like a nice car. And I’ve had both. . Yeah, I had the really nice car and I was unhappy. And then the nice car. I remember thinking this nice car isn’t really doing anything for me.

[00:31:09] Like it’s not really getting me anything.

[00:31:12] Bob Wheeler: Yeah, and I think most people that you’re trying to impress are so busy trying to impress everybody else. They’re not even really focused on what you’re doing anyway. Cuz they’re like, Did you see mine? Did you see mine? Yeah,

[00:31:20] Giovanna Silvestre: exactly. And it’s like, I don’t even really wanna be associated with people that live like that and think like that.

[00:31:26] I like to be associated with. Interesting, curious people that talk about interesting things. . Yeah. Or

[00:31:34] Bob Wheeler: part-time jobs. .

[00:31:35] Giovanna Silvestre: Yeah, exactly. I’m like more interested in hanging around people that are creating things versus bragging about what they just bought. So,

[00:31:42] Bob Wheeler: Yeah, absolutely. Well, Gianna, we’re towards the end of the show here, and I just wanna say, you know, this has been such a fun conversation because I love that you come off saying, I’m confused, which I know you’re not , but I love that it’s this place of being open and not knowing what’s gonna happen, knowing that there’s gonna be chaos, there’s gonna be stuff happening, and still finding the peace within yourself.

[00:32:05] And being okay with knowing that that’s just the norm. Yeah. I love that you do these little check-ins that say, Hmm, I think I should go to the beach today. I mean, I’ll stay in integrity and I’ll talk with Bob for an hour, but like , get me to the beach cause that’s where I belong today in Audio . Exactly. I mean, I think it’s so important for people to check in and see what’s true.

[00:32:27] And I appreciate that you shared, which is a little vulnerable that like, Hey, I don’t wanna look like I’m not living the cush life. We’re working these part-time jobs. It’s sort of below me and yet being willing to do it anyway. Just that willingness to go out and say, This is my life. Time is short and I’m gonna live it the way that’s gonna actually make me happy.

[00:32:46] And I think even though we didn’t talk about it a lot, you said it a few times, like, Am I happy? Yeah. Like I’m not happy. Yeah. And so that quest to find what’s gonna actually bring me the peace and the happiness, cuz it’s certainly not the material things or the really cool looking. And

[00:33:04] Giovanna Silvestre: that is the truth.

[00:33:05] And the sad thing is I think, is that people wait like too long. Mm-hmm. and they’re go after something, after something, after something, and then they get it and then they go, Wait, this is it. Like, I thought I was gonna be happy now. And this is all that it is. And I think that that causes huge depression, suicide.

[00:33:24] That is very scary. Yeah. You wanna get to that point and be like, This is cool. I feel accomplished. I did this. That’s awesome. But guess. I was happy then. I’m happy now. I’m just proud of myself. Right. Yeah. I think it’s more like being proud of yourself than, Okay. I felt like shit before and now I feel great now.

[00:33:41] No, If you felt like shit before, you’re gonna always feel like shit. It’s not gonna change unless you change.

[00:33:46] Bob Wheeler: Yeah. Learn to celebrate. Learn to celebrate. Yeah. And appreciate. Go to the beach. Go to the beach. Yeah. Well, where can people find you? Online and social media. And where are they gonna be able to find your new book?

[00:33:57] Giovanna Silvestre: So you could find. At Confused Girl LA on Instagram and you can follow all of my travel journeys and the book is still in the process of finding a publisher. Okay, cool. So my agent and I are still in the process of finding a publisher, but if you follow me on Instagram, I will let you know when the book is

[00:34:19] Bob Wheeler: coming.

[00:34:19] That sounds awesome, and if any of you are confused, we will put it in the show notes written out so that you won’t be confused. I’m excited to hear about your new book so you can share your life lessons and all the things that you’ve journeyed through. And Joanna, thanks so much for joining us today.

[00:34:34] Really appreciate it.

[00:34:35] Giovanna Silvestre: Oh, thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. This was actually really great. Great way to start my day. Absolutely.

[00:34:41] Bob Wheeler: And where can people find your apparel? Cuz it’s still on

[00:34:43] Giovanna Silvestre: sale. Confused girl in the city.com.

[00:34:46] Bob Wheeler: Awesome. Thank you so much.

[00:34:48] Giovanna Silvestre: Thank you.

[00:34:56] Bob Wheeler: We hope you enjoyed this episode. Did you learn something new about your relationship to money today? Maybe you have a friend who has some financial blocks or beliefs that are holding them back. Please share this podcast so they too can get off the roller coaster Ride of Financial Fears and journey towards financial.

[00:35:13] To learn how to have a healthy relationship with money, visit the money nerve.com. That’s nerve not nerd. We’ll be back next week with another perspective on money and the emotions that bind us.