Zurlia Servellon & Oliver LaPoint shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Zurlia & Oliver , a huge thanks to you for investing the time to share your wisdom with those who are seeking it. We think it’s so important for us to share stories with our neighbors, friends and community because knowledge multiples when we share with each other. Let’s jump in: What makes you lose track of time—and find yourself again?
Connecting deeply to nature. Giving back to the earth whether it is planting trees, flowers, feeding stray dogs and cats, picking up trash from the rivers and oceans, or simply sitting under a tree feeling all vibrations from the earth.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
It’s an honor to share my story here. I’m Zurlia Servellon, co-founder of Floresta Capital, and my work sits at the crossroads of high-performance investment and deep planetary regeneration. In simple terms: we help capital do what it was always meant to do, create life, not extract it.
Floresta was born from a long conversation between my business partner, Oliver Edward Lapoint, and me; one of those late-night, big-vision moments when you realize you’re thinking the same thing at the same time. We both felt the world didn’t need another investment firm; it needed a new kind of leadership. One that blends elite access with spiritual intelligence. One that can speak to investors in Dubai and healers in the Amazon with the same authenticity.
That became our blueprint: an ecosystem where influence, purpose, and regeneration meet. We work with an international circle of investors who care as deeply about returns as they do about impact. People who understand that the greatest profits come from service, from regenerating soil, water, communities, and culture.
Our portfolio is intentionally tight. We’re not trend-chasers. We’re builders of generational, cross-cultural impact. Each project we take on is chosen because it has the potential to shift a landscape, economically, socially, or spiritually.
Oliver and I have lived through enough reinventions and continents to know that real power comes from alignment. From honesty. From being willing to do the hard, unglamorous work behind the scenes. Floresta Capital is the culmination of that journey, a place for people who want to lead with both rigor and soul.
Right now, we’re developing a series of flagship initiatives that blend local wisdom with global capital. These aren’t just investments; they’re gateways into a new paradigm of wealth, purpose, and belonging.
One thing that’s important to understand about us is that we’re not brokers. We’re not middlemen. We’re architects of the container, the energetic, strategic, and relational space where aligned investors and visionary projects can meet, build trust, and lead the emergence of a new earth economy. Our role is part translator, part curator, part steward. We hold the integrity of the room, ensuring that everyone who enters it is aligned in values, intention, and long-term commitment.
If our vision resonates with you, consider this your invitation. The future we’re building needs courageous partners, and we’re ready to walk with those who feel the call.
Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
The moment that shaped me the most wasn’t a single event, it was a season of my life. I spent months deep in the Brazilian Amazon, living with shamans and indigenous communities who see the world through an entirely different lens. Out there, surrounded by trees older than countries, listening to people who still hold the ancient memory of the earth, something in me realigned. It felt less like learning and more like remembering.
Before that, I had always been an entrepreneur, but I did it to survive. I built businesses because I was clever and capable, not because I felt connected to a larger purpose. I worked as a brand and PR strategist, traveling the world, collecting stories, and helping founders weave their life experiences into their companies. I loved it, but it always felt like the prologue to something bigger.
The Amazon gave me that “bigger.” It taught me that leadership is not about building an empire, it’s about carrying a responsibility. It showed me that business can be a ceremony, investment can be medicine, and that the most powerful structures are the ones that honor both people and land.
That was the moment Floresta truly began, long before we had a name for it. What I do now isn’t a career pivot; it’s an answered calling. Co-creating Floresta with Oliver feels like the first time my entrepreneurial fire and my spiritual truth are speaking the same language. And once you’ve experienced that alignment… there’s no going back. The name Floresta is also what the indigenous communities call the Amazon. Floresta is their home, the florest.
When did you stop hiding your pain and start using it as power?
I stopped hiding my pain the moment I realized that most of it was never real to begin with, it was a story my mind was telling, not the truth of my soul. I grew up believing that pain meant something was wrong with me, or that I had to fight through life to earn my place in it. But over time, especially through my work with shamans and through sitting in silence with my own heart, I discovered that suffering is optional. Pain becomes power the moment you decide it’s not an enemy to escape, but a teacher you can listen to.
For me, the real turning point was understanding that the ego creates narratives to protect us, but those same narratives can become cages if we never question them. When I learned to sit with the emotion without the story…without the blame, without the shame, without the “why me” everything changed. I finally understood that nothing outside of me could define my worth, my purpose or my path.
That’s when I stopped hiding. Not because the pain disappeared, but because I stopped giving it the authority to narrate my life. I let it become fuel instead of fear. I let it strip away what wasn’t mine, old identities, old expectations, old versions of myself that were built for survival, not for expansion.
Turning pain into power wasn’t a single moment; it was a choice I make every day. A choice to show up with open eyes and an open heart and endless curiosity. A choice to live from truth instead of illusion. A choice to lead from presence rather than protection.
And that’s the same energy that shaped Floresta. When you stop running from yourself, you stop running from your calling. You step into it. Fully. Unapologetically. With clarity that isn’t shaken by ego or fear.
Pain didn’t break me, it introduced me to myself. And that became my greatest power.
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. Is the public version of you the real you?
Honestly, yes. The public version of me is me just not the whole me. I’ve learned that authenticity is the only currency that actually holds value. I don’t have the energy or desire anymore to perform or to keep up some perfectly curated persona. What you see is the real thing.
Of course, I don’t share every layer of my life with the world because some parts are private, some are sacred, and some just belong to the people closest to me. But the way I speak, the way I lead, the way I show up in my work… that’s not a character. That’s who I am.
For a long time I thought I had to be different versions of myself depending on the room. The entrepreneur, the strategist, the spiritual one, the serious one, the fun one. And it was exhausting. At some point I just decided: I’m done splitting myself. If someone can’t handle the full truth of who I am, they’re not my people.
So yes, the public me is real. It’s just the part of me that’s ready to be seen. Same goes for my business partner. I think this is what created so much alignment between us and led us to partner up on this calling.
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. What do you think people will most misunderstand about your legacy?
If anything gets misunderstood about my legacy, it’s the idea that being a healer and being prosperous somehow can’t coexist. A big part of my work is helping people dissolve money blockages, and ironically, those same blockages sometimes get projected onto me. Some people hear the word healer and immediately expect humility to look like struggle, like I’m supposed to be broke in order to be a good healer.
But that mindset comes from wounded conditioning, not truth. Humility has nothing to do with lack. And being in service doesn’t mean walking through life with empty pockets. In fact, the more resourced I am, the more people, communities, and ecosystems I can impact.
My legacy isn’t about choosing between spirituality and prosperity, it’s about showing that both can exist in integrity, and that money, when handled consciously, becomes a tool for healing, regeneration, and expansion.
So if there’s a misunderstanding, it’s that some people still think you have to pick a side. I don’t. And I hope my work shows others they don’t have to either.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.florestacapital.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zurlia888. https://www.instagram.com/oliverlapoint/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zurlia-servellon/
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