In this episode of Stories Across the Table, Bridget Cook-Burch and Steve Ramona welcome Serena Mastin, author of Exposed: You Can't Heal When You Hide, a woman who has spent her life learning that the very pattern that kept her safe as a child was the same one quietly unraveling everything she loved as an adult.

Serena's earliest years were shaped by survival. Her biological father was the leader of a satanic cult, and the abuse she suffered before the age of five set her family on the run, eventually landing her in witness protection and a series of foster homes where she was moved without warning, sometimes in the middle of the night. By fifteen she was living on the streets, enrolling herself in high school, working three jobs, and hiding every bit of it from the world.

Hiding became her armor and her habit. She carried it into her marriage, concealing her husband's affairs and addiction to protect everyone around her until the day he took his own life in 2020. And then, just as she was finishing her book and beginning to step into the light, she lost her fiance Thomas unexpectedly at thirty-six years old, only eight weeks before this conversation was recorded.

What Serena offers through all of it is not a story of being broken, but a story of learning that you cannot earn love, you can only receive it, and that you cannot heal what you are still hiding. Her book began as a private act of healing she planned to keep under her bed. Publishing it was the first time she refused to hide.

Pull up a chair for one of the most raw and honest conversations this podcast has had, and for a reminder that being alone is a state of being, but loneliness is only a state of mind.


BIO:
Serena Mastin is the founder of Pulse Marketing, an award-winning agency blending traditional and digital strategies to help businesses grow. Driven by a passion for entrepreneurship and shaped by her own journey of healing, she is committed to empowering others to embrace resilience and transformation. Through her leadership, Serena fosters connection, growth, and authenticity, guiding both clients and peers to navigate the challenges of business and life with strength and purpose.


LINKS:
Agency Website: www.heartofcreative.com
Author Website: www.serenamastin.com
IG: https://www.instagram.com/heartfeltstories2026/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/pulse_marketing/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PulseMarketingTeam
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heartofcreative/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/serenamastin/
Amazon: amazon.com/author/serenamastin
Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/Exposed-Audiobook/B0CF3NDWGM?action_code=ASSGB149080119000H&share_location=pdp

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