Meet Michelle Silva
Fractional CMO & Strategic Marketing Advisor
When Loss Teaches You What Matters Most
My name is Michelle Silva
I'm a breast cancer thriver who has also lost my brother to a rare blood disease and my beloved husband in a tragic motorcycle incident. I've had to figure out how to hold grief and resilience simultaneously, how to honor what's been lost while building what still matters.
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These experiences taught me something fundamental: life is too short to build anything that doesn't matter. When you've faced that kind of loss, you stop asking "Can I do this?" and start asking "Does this actually matter? Will this create something meaningful? What's the greater impact?"
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I've been through the hardest things life can throw at you, and I know what matters. That's what I bring to your business. That's why I started The Savvy CMO.
The Marketing Hat Problem
I kept seeing the same pattern: capable leaders, people building meaningful businesses, stuck wearing the marketing hat when they should be leading. Marketing had become this fragmented, exhausting thing they were doing on top of everything else, rather than the strategic engine connecting every part of their business.
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They needed a strategic partner who understood that marketing isn't a department, it's the central nervous system of a business. Someone who could help them stop doing marketing and start leveraging it.
The Fourth Time's a Charm
This is the fourth iteration of my business, and the most aligned. Each rebuild taught me something about resilience, clarity, and what actually matters. I've navigated layoffs, grief, and complete reinvention, and each time, I came back with more clarity about what I'm here to do.
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In midlife, I've stepped into a deeper sense of confidence and calm. I know who I am, what I bring, and who I serve best. And I love helping other leaders find that same clarity.
My Neurodivergent Superpower
I'm proudly neurodivergent. My ADHD brain works like a mycorrhizal network—the vast underground partnership between fungi and plant roots that connects entire forests.
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You know how trees communicate and share resources through invisible underground highways? That's the mycorrhizal network where fungi and plant roots work together in symbiosis. And that's how my brain sees business, constantly mapping the connections between Operations, HR, Sales, Product Development, and Leadership. I see how information and resources need to flow between departments. How a decision in one area ripples through the entire ecosystem.
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It's why marketing as "the central nervous system" makes so much sense to me. And it's why I developed a framework based on ecosystems rather than linear processes.
Built by a Trailblazer, Building for the Next Generation
I come from a long line of trailblazers. My ancestors were among the first English settlers to colonize Massachusetts in the mid-1600s—people who crossed an ocean to build something new, even when the outcome was uncertain.
That spirit of building against the odds carried forward.
My mother was a trailblazer who owned an interior decorating business in the late 1970s and early 1980s, at a time when women needed male co-signers for business loans. Watching her navigate those barriers, refuse to give up, and build something successful anyway, shaped everything about how I approach entrepreneurship and leadership.
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She showed me that you don't wait for permission. You don't make yourself smaller. You build what needs to exist.
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Now I get to pass that forward to my own daughters, showing them what it looks like to rebuild, reinvent, and refuse to give up, even when it's hard.
Creating The Framework
For years, I tried to fit myself into other people's marketing frameworks. None of them felt quite right. The "bro marketing" culture didn't align with my values. Some of the women-led approaches had solid paths to revenue, but something was still missing for me.
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I didn't just want profit. I wanted Revenue, Relationships, Ethics, and Values, woven together in a way that felt natural, organic, cyclical. Like the ecosystems I grew up with.
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I'm from a small town on the Coast of Oregon, surrounded by ocean, lakes, and forests. Nature doesn't operate in straight lines or rigid formulas. It operates in cycles. Growth, seasons, interconnection. Everything serves everything else.
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My neurodivergent brain sees business the same way, like mycorrhizal networks where fungi and plants work together in symbiosis, transferring water, nutrients, carbon, and information where they're needed most.
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That's what I wanted to build. A framework that honored how businesses actually grow, not through hacks and hustle, but through natural, sustainable systems rooted in relationships and values.
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So I created the RREV Growth Ecosystem™, which is centered on Revenue, Relationships, Ethics, and Values, with nature themes and animal archetypes that reflect organic lifecycles.
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It's not about chasing trends or forcing growth. It's about building marketing systems that work with your business, not against it, the way mycorrhizal networks support and sustain entire forests through partnership and exchange.
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Grounded in Growth. Profit with Purpose. That's not just a tagline, it's the foundation of everything I do.
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I'm still refining it (nearly ready to beta-test!), but it already reflects who I am and where I come from. And it's resonating with clients who are just as tired of the old, extractive playbook as I was.
Beyond Work
When I'm not partnering with visionary leaders, you'll find me spending time with my Australian Heeler, my tabby cat, and the people I love—my daughters, family, and friends who feel like family. The outdoors brings me peace and renewal, reminding me what matters most.
Let's Build Something Meaningful
Life taught me that we don't have time to waste building things that don't matter. If you're ready to stop wearing the marketing hat and start leveraging marketing as your growth engine, in a way that honors both profit and purpose, let's talk.
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No pressure. No sales pitch. Just an honest conversation about where you are, where you want to go, and whether this partnership makes sense for your business.
Jane Goodall
Primatologist, Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute, and UN Messenger of Peace
"​We have the choice to use the gift of our life to make the world a better place—or not to bother."