Have you ever held onto an idea so tightly — workshopping it, perfecting it, protecting it — that you never actually put it out into the world?
Have you ever wondered if the path to finding your voice is less about getting it right and more about just getting it out?
Selena Rezvani didn't get to where she is by waiting for an invitation. She got there by writing a typewriter-typed appeal letter to save her college education. By cold-emailing CEOs she had zero connections to. By showing up on TikTok in her forties and going viral in ways she never saw coming. A Wall Street Journal bestselling author, LinkedIn Top Voice, and one of the most sought-after voices on quick confidence and modern leadership, Selena has built her entire career on one foundational belief: you have to be your own vocal champion, because nobody else is going to ask on your behalf.
But this episode goes deeper than the highlight reel. Selena gets raw about her recent journey with PMDD — a diagnosis that rattled her foundations and forced the woman who teaches confidence to find her own footing again. She talks about what it's like to be the student of what you teach, why she believes passing the ball is always a longer game than dunking it, and why keeping the promises you make to yourself might be the most underrated confidence-builder there is.
Tune In For:
- The "seed a forest" strategy — why going viral has nothing to do with the perfect post and everything to do with volume, iteration, and surprise
- Don't tell yourself no before they do — Selena's take on stop overestimating everyone else and underestimating yourself
- The typewriter appeal letter that changed the course of Selena's life — and the lesson about self-advocacy she's been teaching ever since
- "Go after the whales" — the business school professor who told Selena to pitch the CEOs she was sure would say no, and why so many of them said yes
- What PMDD is and what it felt like to navigate a destabilizing health diagnosis while being the person onstage teaching others to be confident
- Why Selena considers herself the supporting role — and why power-sharing instead of power-hoarding is the leadership move most people are too insecure to make
- The male author who passed the ball — a story about allyship, visibility, and why Selena says she'd help him move
- Keeping promises to yourself — and why shrinking the size of a commitment is smarter than breaking it
About Selena Rezvani
Selena Rezvani is a Wall Street Journal bestselling author, LinkedIn Top Voice, and keynote speaker on confidence, leadership, and self-advocacy. Her books Quick Confidence and Quick Leadership have reached thousands of readers and leaders worldwide. A recovering "nervous nice girl" turned boldly vocal advocate for women in the workplace, Selena built her platform by doing exactly what she teaches: making bold bets, seeding the forest, and keeping every promise she makes to herself.
Resources & Links
- 📖 Quick Confidence + Quick Leadership: Available wherever books are sold
- 💼 Follow Selena on LinkedIn: Search Selena Rezvani
- 📱 Follow Selena on TikTok + Instagram: @selenarezvani (verify handle)
- 🎙️ Making It with Jess Ekstrom: Subscribe + leave a review wherever you listen
Produced by Making It with Jess Ekstrom and Walk West
✨ Soulful Sidebar: The Forest, Not the Rose
Selena's biggest lesson about going viral wasn't a formula. It was a mindset shift: stop trying to grow the perfect prize rose. Start seeding a forest.
The posts she thought would land? Didn't always. The ones she tossed off quickly, done hastily and imperfectly? Sometimes those were the ones that changed everything.
There's a version of creative work that's about getting it right. And then there's the version that's about getting it out — articulating the idea, putting it in front of people, seeing what resonates, iterating, surprising yourself. That's how you find your voice. Not in the workshopping. In the releasing.
Whatever you've been sitting on: it's time.