Ilana Golan went from F-16 flight instructor and the first female squadron commander in the Israeli Air Force to one of Intel’s youngest hires and Silicon Valley VPs, contributing to a $300 million exit along the way. In this episode she joins John Golden to unpack what mid- and late-career professionals must do right now to thrive in an AI-disrupted job market. After her trusted business partner pushed her out of a freshly funded startup within 24 hours, Ilana lost the job, the title, and her sense of self overnight. She rebuilt her career and her identity from scratch, and now runs Leap Academy — one of America’s fastest-growing companies — training professionals worldwide to leap intentionally rather than wait for the next layoff.
Topics covered:
- Why the World Economic Forum projects 92 million jobs displaced by AI within two years
- How portfolio careers stack multiple income streams that reinforce each other and build authority
- The Adaptability Quotient (AQ) and why it now outranks IQ and EQ for career success
- The hidden danger of tying your identity to a single title, employer, or company logo
- Why every professional has been a media company since 2007 — and what silence signals to the market
- Ilana’s four-step reinvention framework: define what’s next, package the story, open doors, build authority
If you feel stuck mid-career or worried that AI will erase your role, Ilana hands you a working playbook. Book her free three-day Leap Academy training at https://www.leapacademy.com/.
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