November 03, 2025

229: Breaking Out of Codependency | Claude Silver, CHO at VaynerX

20 minutes

Claude Silver is the Chief Heart Officer at VaynerX and partners with CEO Gary Vaynerchuk to drive their success. Claude has earned Campaign US's Female Frontier Award and AdWeek's Changing the Game Award and is a sought after speaker at companies including Meta, Google, US Government agencies, and the US Armed Forces. She has been featured in The New York Times, Forbes, and The Wall Street Journal, and she is the author of the book, “Be Yourself at Work.” I hope you enjoy learning from Claude Silver today.

In this episode we discuss the following:

Claude repeatedly found herself in unhealthy, codependent relationships, and it wasn’t until her brother told her that she was living in a pretty prison, followed by a therapist insisting she attend Codependents Anonymous, that Claude began to understand the pattern: she was losing herself by centering her identity around others.

Through six years in Codependence Anonymous, Claude learned some powerful lessons: Empathy needs boundaries. You can’t change others—only yourself. We each have the agency to steer our own life. It’s okay to take up space and be big in the room. We don’t have to shrink so someone else can feel better.

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