In this episode of the Leanpub Podcast, Len Epp speaks with Serena Martino, an executive and leadership coach based in Portugal with 20 years of experience helping professionals navigate the gap between outward success and inner alignment. Serena is the author of The Unwritten Job Description: How to Redesign Work and Life on Your Terms, currently being published chapter by chapter on Leanpub.
From Italy to Dublin to Coaching
Serena grew up in northern Italy and always felt a pull to move abroad. After studying economics and completing a master’s degree, she applied for a tech role in Ireland almost on a whim — and was starting the job two weeks later. That role turned out to be at Google in Dublin, where she worked from 2005 to 2010 during the company’s hyper-growth years. She describes an office of around 200 people, two semi-empty floors, and an environment full of young, ambitious professionals who pushed each other not out of hostility but out of a shared sense that they were doing something genuinely important. The culture rewarded people who went beyond their targets and drove innovation — a way of working that Serena observes many companies are only now beginning to adopt.
After Google, she moved into the travel and hospitality industry, working with major e-commerce players at a time when online booking was transforming the sector almost overnight. She recalls how, just before 2005, travel agencies were still receiving offers by fax and printing physical tickets — and within five years that entire world had changed. She remains passionate about the future of sustainable, experience-driven travel that benefits local communities as well as travellers.
The shift to coaching came after Serena met a coach, quickly recognised the value of the practice, and decided during the pandemic to pursue it full time. Six years on, she has coached more than 250 executives one-to-one.
Unwritten Rules and the Weight We Carry
The book’s first chapter explores what Serena calls the unwritten rules — the inherited scripts that shape how people think about work, success, money, and self-worth. These rules come from parents, schools, early workplaces, and peer groups. They are not inherently wrong, but most people have never examined them. Serena’s invitation is not to discard them wholesale but simply to question them and decide consciously which ones to keep.
Carrying rules that no longer fit creates what she calls an invisible weight — the cumulative drain of working inside a system that doesn’t work for you. This shows up as residual stress after hours, dread about certain colleagues or conversations, or a low-level numbness toward work that has long since stopped feeling meaningful. Removing that weight, she argues, is what creates the space to figure out what you actually want.
The New Contract and Taking Action
The book is structured around practical reflection rather than abstract inspiration. Each chapter addresses something professionals are typically taught to overlook — where their definition of success came from, how they actually spend their energy, what they genuinely stand for. The concept of a “new contract” marks the turning point between understanding what has been holding someone back and beginning to act differently. Crucially, Serena emphasises that the destination is not necessarily a new job or a radically different life — it may simply be the same role approached with greater intention and agency.
You can find the book at https://leanpub.com/theunwrittenjobdescription and follow Serena’s work at serenamartino.com.
This interview was recorded on May 13, 2026.
The full audio for the interview is here: [episode-audio-url]. The Leanpub Podcast is available on our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/leanpub, in Apple Podcasts here https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/Leanpub/id517117137, and almost everywhere else people listen to podcasts.
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