What does it look like to build a life and a business with purpose - when time is finite?

James Lang is the Managing Partner of OverLang Venture Partners, a venture firm building proprietary AI infrastructure that accelerates company growth while protecting the human capital inside each organisation. Before that, James served as COO of a medtech startup where he grew revenue past $20 million and built a team of 60 from the ground up. He's a self-described introvert, a late-diagnosed autistic, and someone navigating a serious health condition — with remarkable clarity and candour about what truly matters.

This conversation is raw, honest, and unexpectedly profound. James shares what a military upbringing and chronic illness taught him about pushing forward — not through willpower alone, but through the people you choose to bring with you. We talk about chosen family, legacy, and why the most powerful career move you can make is becoming someone who genuinely shows up for others. We also dig into AI — not the hype, but a harder question.

Key Learnings:

• Why James believes the greatest competitive edge an introvert has is caring more than anyone else in the room
• What it means to be a "magnet" for good people — and how to build your chosen family intentionally
• Navigating serious health challenges without losing sight of purpose or progress
• How James discovered late in life that he is on the autism spectrum — and what shifted when he did
• The philosophy behind OverLang's approach to AI: building technology that reflects and enhances our humanity rather than replacing it
• Why legacy isn't about the dollars — it's about who you took with you
• If AI is built in our image, whose image is that, and what does it mean for the rest of us?

If you've ever felt like your quiet nature was holding you back, or wondered whether your careful, deep way of doing things is actually your greatest strength — this episode is for you.

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Connect with James Lang

Connect with James Lang

Overlang Venture Partners

Work with Serena Low

For trauma-informed guidance on how to be a visible introvert at work without depleting or draining yourself, visitserenalow.com.au.

Work with Serena Low at serenalow.com.au.

Loved this episode? Leave a review to help other Quiet Warriors find the show.

This episode was edited by Aura House Productions

If you've ever been told to "be more strategic" with no explanation of what that actually means — this episode is for you.

Limor Bergman Gross spent 20+ years leading engineering organisations across continents before making the leap to executive leadership herself. Now she coaches ambitious women in tech to do the same. In this conversation, she gets real about the patterns that keep talented women stuck — people-pleasing, hiding achievements, staying rigidly inside their job description — and shares the practical strategies that actually work.

We also dig into what it looks like to expand (not just "break out of") your comfort zone, how to say no without using the word no, and why protecting your time and energy isn't selfish — it's strategic. Whether you're climbing toward a promotion or trying to lead more sustainably, there's something here for you.

Key Topics

• How Limor broke through from first-line manager to executive — and what "be more strategic" really means
• Introverts, permission-seeking, and taking initiative without going rogue
• Expanding vs. "stepping outside" your comfort zone: – the reframe
• Why you should say yes first and figure it out later
• What leaders can do to create inclusive spaces for quiet people
• Patterns Limor sees holding women in tech back — and how to shift them
• How to say no without the word "no" — a practical script
• Why overcommitting is bad for your employer too
• It's not just how much you do — it's what you do and the impact it creates
• Limor's closing message to every introvert

About Limor Bergman Gross

Limor is a former Director of Engineering with 20+ years in tech, having led engineering teams across continents. She now coaches ambitious women in tech into leadership roles and speaks globally on leadership, influence, and visibility. She is also the host of the From a Woman to a Leader podcast.

🔗 Connect with Limor on LinkedIn 🎙️ From a Woman to a Leader podcast

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Leave a review on your listening app.

For Serena’s guidance on how to be a Visible Introvert without performing extroversion, visit serenalow.com.au.

Work with Serena Low at serenalow.com.au.

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This episode was edited by Aura House Productions

What if being overlooked at work had nothing to do with your performance — and everything to do with a bias so embedded in workplace culture that most people don't even recognise it as bias at all?

David Boroughs spent 30 years navigating corporate America as an introvert. He received top performance rankings and was still told, repeatedly, that he wasn't visible enough. Near the end of his career, that contradiction became an epiphany: it wasn't him that was broken. It was the culture.

Now retired, David is an author and advocate for personality type inclusion. We talk about what it costs to mask your introversion, why the burden of change cannot keep falling on the individual, and what leaders can practically do to create cultures where introverts thrive as their authentic selves.

We also explore the Anxiety High book series — a fiction series for introverted teenagers that David co-authored with his son, Joshua — and why it's finding just as much resonance with parents, teachers, and school counsellors.

In this episode:

• What "personality type bias" is — unconscious, socially accepted, and legally unchallenged
• The performance review moment that changed everything for David
• The exhaustion of performing extroversion, and why it compounds over time
• What leaders can do differently: hiring language, selection committees, and creating genuine belonging
• Why introverts who break into leadership sometimes perpetuate the very bias they've suffered
• How David and his teenage son wrote fiction books together to help young introverts feel seen

About David Boroughs

David is the author of The Extrovert's Guide to Elevating Introverted Leaders in the Workplace and co-author of the Anxiety High teen fiction series. Connect with David on LinkedIn and his website.

Work with Serena

If you’re successful on paper but still feel unseen, over-extended or quietly stuck at the same level despite everything you’ve achieved, the SEEN executive calibration was designed for you. It helps identify the deeper patterns that may be affecting how you communicate, advocate for yourself, lead, and show up professionally.

You’ll find more information HERE.

Work with Serena Low at serenalow.com.au.

Loved this episode? Leave a review to help other Quiet Warriors find the show.

This episode was edited by Aura House Productions

What do you do when life hands you a diagnosis — and you're the person everyone else depends on?

Deb Krier was a “good patient” kind of person. Annual physical. Mammogram. Did everything right. And still didn't make it home from the hospital before the phone rang.

What followed over the next decade was 34 surgeries under general anaesthesia, a stage zero diagnosis that leapt to stage four almost overnight, septic shock with a 75% fatality rate — and a surgeon who told her husband she would be dead by midnight.

Her response? Excuse me. I get to vote.

In this episode, Deb — cancer advocate, strategic advisor, creator of TryingNotToDie.live, and host of the Business Power Hour — shares what she's learned about leading through a health crisis without losing yourself, your business, or your people..

If you've ever pushed through difficulty alone because you feared what people would think — this one is for you.

You'll learn:

• Why hiding a health crisis from your clients almost always backfires
• How to maintain decision-making authority when your brain has short-circuited
• What solopreneurs need to put in place before a crisis hits
• Why asking for help is not weakness — it's what warriors do

Key Takeaways:

• Isolation is the enemy. The instinct to hide a health crisis from your clients and colleagues is understandable — but it's the thing most likely to make everything harder.
• Transparency converts people into supporters. When Deb told her clients the truth, they didn't pull away. They asked, what can we do to help?
• You are the decision-maker — even when the white coats disagree. Give yourself the time to grieve, gather yourself, and then choose the path that is right for you.
• Bring backup to the hard appointments. A level-headed person by your side can hold onto information your shocked brain can't process.
• Build your systems before you need them. Automated invoicing, a backup contact, someone who can handle the basics — these are not just illness preparations. They're what lets you take a vacation too.
• The strongest thing you can do is ask for help. Reaching out — to a friend, a counsellor, a faith community, a stranger on Facebook — is not weakness. It is what warriors do.
• Gratitude doesn't have to be grand. It can be as simple as: I woke up. The project didn't get done, and the world didn't stop.

About Deb Krier

Deb Krier is a cancer advocate and strategic advisor for executives and business owners navigating the personal and professional impact of a cancer diagnosis. She provides high-level guidance for leaders who want to maintain their executive presence and decision-making authority while managing the complex realities of cancer.

Deb is the creator of TryingNotToDie.live and the host of the Business Power Hour.

Gentle invitation for Quiet Leaders:

If you love learning at your own pace, I’ve created a mini-course that you can digest in a weekend. You can download it here:

https://www.quietwarrioracademy.com/leadershipforintroverts

Enjoying The Quiet Warrior Podcast?

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For weekly insights on how to flourish and lead as an introvert, subscribe to Serena's newsletter, The Visible Introvert.

Work with Serena Low at serenalow.com.au.

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This episode was edited by Aura House Productions

⚠️ Content note: This episode contains references to suicide. Please take care of yourself as you listen.

What does it really mean to be happy — and why do so many high-achieving, outwardly successful people struggle to feel it? In this deeply honest and practical conversation, happiness coach Todd Patkin joins host Serena to explore the hidden cost of perfectionism, the systemic roots of burnout, and the 12 steps he developed to help people move from surviving to genuinely thriving.

After growing a family auto parts business by 20% year-on-year and working 70–80 hours a week, Todd hit a wall at age 36. A complete mental breakdown, suicidal ideation, and an inability to even answer a simple question at a restaurant forced him to stop and ask: Why am I doing this to myself?

What emerged from that dark chapter was a 12-step program to happiness — one he has since shared with corporations, schools, associations, and individuals worldwide.

What You'll Learn in This Episode

• Why bullying in childhood can plant the seeds of perfectionism and anxiety that follow us into adulthood
• How the "tombstone test" can help you realign your daily life with what truly matters to you
• Why perfectionism is a socially rewarded addiction — and why that makes it so hard to break
• The real reason social media is making young people (and adults) so unhappy
• How we spend more than half our mental lives in the past or future — and what that costs us in the present
• Why loneliness carries the same health risks as smoking 15 cigarettes a day
• The surprising role of generosity in your own wellbeing (givers are 40% happier and 25% healthier)
• How introverts can lean into friendliness without betraying their nature
• The importance of seeking professional help for anxiety and depression — and why medication is nothing to be ashamed of

Todd Patkin's 12-Step Program to Happiness — Overview

Week 1 – Exercise

Week 2 – Prepare your mindset

Week 3 – Be Kinder to Yourself (Todd's most important step)

Week 4 – Play to Your Strengths

Week 5 – Living in the Present

Week 6 – Eliminate Stressors

Week 7 – Surround Yourself with Positive People

Week 8 – Spend More Time with Family and Friends

Week 9 – Be Cheerful and Connect with Others

Week 10 – Be Giving

Week 11 – Practice Gratitude

Week 12 – Connect with a Higher Power

Memorable Moments from This Episode

"Happiness is just being okay with yourself because you're here."

"Most people say things to themselves all day long that they wouldn't even say to their worst enemy."

"We reward perfectionism, whereas we look down upon alcoholism and smoking — and that's one of the problems we have in society today."

About Todd Patkin

Todd Patkin is a happiness coach, author, and speaker who spent over a decade building and leading a successful family auto parts business before experiencing a severe breakdown at age 36. That turning point led him to develop his 12-step program to happiness — a framework he has shared with corporations, schools, associations, and individuals across the country. Todd is also the author of an autobiography and workbook that accompany his signature course.

Connect with Todd Patkin

Website: toddpatkin.com

Udemy Course Bundle (autobiography + workbook + video series): https://www.udemy.com/course/twelve-weeks-to-living-a-happier-life/

Gentle Invitation

If you're navigating anxiety, depression, or simply the quiet exhaustion of always striving, Todd's message is clear: you don't have to live with it. Speaking to a doctor or mental health professional is a brave and practical first step — not a sign of weakness.

If you're a quiet achiever ready to lead on your own terms without performing extroversion — Serena's self-paced resource for quiet leaders was made for you. Download it at https://www.quietwarrioracademy.com/leadershipforintroverts.

Work with Serena Low at serenalow.com.au.

Loved this episode? Leave a review to help other Quiet Warriors find the show.

This episode was edited by Aura House Productions

What happens when you've built a successful career, ticked every box on the list society gave you - and you're still miserable?

That's where Mike Wood found himself at 45. A former COO who helped scale Jarrett Companies from $2.5 million to over $100 million in revenue, Mike had achieved everything he was supposed to want. Yet beneath the success, 30 years of anxiety and depression were still screaming.

In this deeply honest conversation, Mike shares the five-year inner journey that led him to become a consciousness coach — and why he now takes those same tools into maximum security prisons and corporate boardrooms alike.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• Why external success can never fill an internal void — and where to look instead
• How a single moment in kindergarten programmed a core belief that silently ran Mike's life until he was 47
• What the subconscious mind's "number one job" reveals about why we hold on to old wounds — and how to finally let them go
• The two-minute gratitude practice that Mike used when his 7-year-old came upstairs in tears about monsters
• Why reframing the past isn't rewriting history — it's giving your younger self more context
• The surprising leadership lesson Mike learned when his company flooded a 30-floor high-rise — and how taking radical ownership transformed the entire room
• What school is failing to teach our kids (and ourselves) about emotional intelligence
• How releasing identity attachments can dissolve the physical stress response almost instantly
• The one thing Mike wants every quiet achiever to know if they feel broken

About Mike Wood

Mike Wood is a former COO turned consciousness coach who spent 30 years struggling with anxiety and depression before finding the tools that changed everything. He now runs Learn to Love Being You, a 10-week subconscious reprogramming program, and takes his work into maximum security prisons and corporate leadership settings across the US. Mike is also the father of seven children, ranging in age from 11 to 33.

Connect with Mike & Claim Your Free Gift

Mike is offering listeners a free first week of his program — including guided breathwork exercises and manual tools to manage anxiety starting today.

Free gift: mwoodmindset.com/warrior

Program: learntolovebeingyou.com

Email: mike@learntolovebeingyou.com

Work with Serena

If you’re an introverted woman leader ready to become more visible and influential without performing extroversion, I invite you to apply for a SEEN Executive Calibration. 45 minutes via Zoom. Diagnostic, not selling. Root causes, not symptoms.

Apply HERE.

Work with Serena Low at serenalow.com.au.

Loved this episode? Leave a review to help other Quiet Warriors find the show.

This episode was edited by Aura House Productions

What if the career that looked right on paper was quietly draining you — and the one you almost overlooked turned out to be exactly where you were meant to be?

Family mediator and restorative justice practitioner Rosemary Gattuso joins Serena to share the pivotal moment she walked away from legal practice and into mediation — not out of failure, but out of a growing self-awareness that law amplified her weaknesses, while mediation brought her natural strengths to life.

This conversation is for anyone who has ever felt slightly out of place in their career, struggled with an inner critic that just won't quieten, or found themselves caring for someone they love while quietly losing pieces of themselves in the process.

Rosemary introduces her signature what's wrong vs. what's strong framework — a deceptively simple lens that cuts through self-judgement and reorients how we think about mistakes, setbacks and personal growth. When we see a misstep through the "what's wrong" lens, we spiral into shame. When we shift to "what's strong," the same moment becomes a question: What have I learned? What could I do differently?

She also opens up about a deeply personal chapter — caring full-time for both ageing parents — and the conflicting emotions that rarely get named: love and resentment, devotion and grief, gratitude and guilt. Her upcoming second book offers language and tools for navigating exactly that.

In this episode:

• Why aligning your career with your strengths changes more than just your work
• How to become your own internal mediator and shift out of chronic self-criticism
• The emotional contradictions of caregiving — and how to hold them with compassion
• Practical advice for quiet achievers whose deep analysis tips into overthinking
• How to know when you're out of balance — and what to do about it

Resources Mentioned:

Rosemary's first book, It's Not You, It's Me, is available at her website https://www.rosemarygattuso.com and online.

Carer Gateway - an Australian Government program providing free services and support for carers.

Work with Serena

If you’re an introverted woman leader ready to become more visible and influential without performing extroversion, I invite you to apply for a SEEN Executive Calibration. 45 minutes via Zoom. Diagnostic, not selling. Root causes, not symptoms.

Apply HERE.

Work with Serena Low at serenalow.com.au.

Loved this episode? Leave a review to help other Quiet Warriors find the show.

This episode was edited by Aura House Productions