Meet Silva Benlian | Mother and entrepreneur

We had the good fortune of connecting with Silva Benlian and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Silva, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
Starting my own business was not something I thought about since I have been in Executive managment for 25 years. But I am a problem solver by nature and/or sircumstance, so as I encounter problems, I try and come up with solutions for myself and others.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I graduated from CSUF with BA in Business and Communication. I did an intership at the Avon products Corp office in Pasadena. It was supposed to be 1 month internship but within a month they offered me a position as a supervisor in HR.
I ended up working for the company for 21 years. I was later hired by Tupperware as GM to start a new company for them.
From there I worked for Arbonne as their National Director. Then to Pangea Organics as VP of Sales and DotDotSmile, VP of sales. I am very grateful for the opportunities I’ve had in my professional career. I believe what helped me excell above others is working harder than the rest and anticipating promblems and tried to get ahead of it. I was always greatful to great mentors that I’ve had in my career so tried to play it forward and mentor my direct reports and get them promoted and help them get ahead.

My career was on the righ track, but god throws you curvs so you have to pivit. The pandamic hit and my boys were home 24/7. I could no longer work the hours that I needed. instead I had to become my olderst, Alec’s full time caregiver. I also thought this might be a good time for me to retire.

And then I met a friend that discovered an incredible nutrition product that would help everyone get healthy. We decided to take this product to the masses and help everyone get healthier and Wealthier. We launched the company 1 year ago direct to consumers and it’s been an incredible success. Currently I am the CFO of a nutrition company, impactMVP.com

My story is all about when god gives you lemons, you make lemonade. We are blessed to be in a country where anything is possilbe. Yes there are obstacles and you have to learn to overcome them and not allow temporary setbacks get in the way. Having a positive attitude is a must and surround yourself with smart, strong and honest individuals that will give you constructive feedback and be open to recieve it and make changes.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I am blessed to be living in sunny California. There are so many places along the coast from Restaurants to beaches.
I would start form the south in San Clemente and Laguna with the beautiful beaches and restaurants, there is a great one at Hotel Laguna and an incredible medditerranean Restaurant called Pinafini. Drive up the coast going through Corona Del Mar and Newport beach. Going up the coast the drive North of LA to stopping in Santa Barbara and Paso Robles for wine tasting.
Stop at Hearst castle before you stop to spend the night at Carmel. Depending on the company takin some gulf at Pebble Beach at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Well my inspiraton was my dad. Born in Beirut, Lebanon he started working at age of 15 to support his family and became an expert diesel Mechanic. At age 18 he was sent to differnet countries as an expert working on large projects. Eventually made it back to Lebanon where he was VP of distribution for Pepsi Cola in Lebanaon.
We came to US on vacation 40 years ago and he went to Pepsi to observe their operation. They were so impressed by him and offered him a job on the spot and they facilitated our path to citizanship. After a few years, he did resign and started a few businesses of his own here in CA employeeing many.
Unfortunately, my father passed away from colon cancer when I was in my 20’s. But his spirit of overcoming obsticals and taking chances, stayed with me. When my father passed away, being the oldest of 3 kids, I became head of household taking care of my mother, my younger brother and sister.
My other inspiration everyday, is my 2 boys, Alec who is 23 and a beautiful boy. Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with autism after he had his 2 year immunization shots. My youngest son Brandon, 21, is such an incredibly compassionate boy as he helps me manage and care for his older brother. Despite the fact that Alec is non verbal and has agressive behaviors, he is always calm and loving as he helps his brother navigate day to day activities.

Website: www.impactmvp.com/+mvp2 & www.RealSingles.dating

Other: I also have been working on a new dating app for the past 4 years. It is about to launch and it will be on all social media coming very soon. I wanted to talk about this project but I could not go back to add this to my career section.
We are in google app store for testing right now and working on getting it on apple store soon.
the website will be live in about 2 weeks and I am having single mixers as a pre-launch events. The first one is on May 4th in Yorba Linda, CA and later in Newport Beach, CA.
Let me know if you want more details on this.