The Power of Adaptability: Lessons from Ilana Golan

0:00Could you imagine starting a business with a partner, a co-founder, raising capital, and then all of a sudden getting kicked kicked out of that business. Well, that's what happened with my great friend today, Alana Golan. And we're going to talk through IQ and EQ. Emotional intelligence has been a thing. But what about your AQ, that adaptability quotient? And if your AQ isn't strong in 2026, you're going to struggle. We're going to break that down at the end in our rapid fire top five. And then we're going to find out the one word that defines your legacy. Ladies and gentlemen, I present my good friend, the leader's leader, Ms.

0:38Alana Hulani. You're listening to Mick Unplugged, hosted by the one and only Mick Hunt. This is where purpose meets power and stories spark transformation. Mick takes you beyond the motivation and into meaning, helping you discover your because and becoming unstoppable. I'm Rudy Rush, and trust me, you're in the right place. Let's get unplugged. Alana, how you doing today, dear? Oh, my God. Can you always introduce me wherever I go? I'm going to have a Mick coming with me to introduce me. Thank you so much. So great to be here. No, I'm the honored one. Thank you so much for taking the time. I know how busy you are, so I know you just don't do things to do them.

1:24So this is why I have goosebumps, because I've been a huge fan of you. honestly since like over a year ago when like our podcasts were like beside each other like all the time and I was like oh who's this podcast that I keep getting recommended that I should listen to and then I started listening and I was like wait this podcast is amazing and so like literally from episode one to what are you like 141 now 142 like I don't know I literally have listened to every single one of them and most of them I've listened to twice. So thank you for being here. Oh my God, that makes my day, Mick. And I obviously listened to you as well and I loved Unplugged.

2:10So let's go. And I hope to add a ton of value to your listeners because if you're on this podcast, then you know, you know what's coming. So it's going to be gold. So let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. I know you're going to bring it and you know how I like to start it. And I know a little bit about this, but we get to go deeper. I want to know, Alana, with all the amazing things that you do, from helping entrepreneurs to helping leaders become better, what's your because? What's that deeper purpose that you have to do all that you do? Because honestly, at the end of the day, Alana, you don't have to do the things that you do.

2:47There's a purpose behind it. What's your because? I love that question. And you know that, Mick. and it's interesting because you actually opened my eyes to the idea because that's kind of all happened when I was listening to your podcast right and initially I was just like well I just want to help people I want to feel like I'm making a difference it's you know and it's true like losing my identity feeling stuck in my career was one of the hardest moments in my life and if I can help somebody get out of that unstuck and feel accomplished in the better version of themselves. That is my mission.

3:25However, you lit my eyes that there's a deeper sense of it. And when I was reflecting on it and my biggest reflection always comes when I hike and I realized that it was that moment where, you know, and I think I told you that story. I held my mom's hand and she was passing from cancer. And I remember trying to ask her if she has regrets. And I couldn't ask. I felt ashamed or I didn't want to admit that we lost the fight. You know, I was so hungry to fight for her and to win. And I'm not used to, you know, giving up. And I realized that she's, I don't have a chance. Like she has a week or two to, you know, to live.

4:10And I remember thinking, like, what are the regrets? What are the regrets? And when she passed, not feeling regret became so prevalent for some reason. And that became my fuel. That became my because. So and that, you know, basically lit a fire under me because you're right. I don't have to do what I do. my husband is cycling and in you know in in all these countries and he keeps like let's retire together and I'm like I'm not ready for it I I I'm on this planet for a bigger purpose and I have to do this so that's it make love it I I love it and Alana again being such a huge fan of yours like this episode I'm gonna ask a whole bunch of just personal questions not not personal questions but personal questions that I want answered because like you are someone that I look to for advice.

5:07You are that person that I'm like, there's synergy. I know that like Alana has resources on this or that you've gone through this. And one of the things that I love, and for those that don't know, I'm going to kind of highlight this a little bit. You know, this journey kind of started for you. You had just raised money, right? One of your companies that you were starting with the co-founder, everything's going well. And then one day you get kicked out of your own company. So my, my first question, how in the heck do you get kicked out of your own company? Oh, Meg, this is such a humbling experience.

5:49And, you know, and I always say to people, like you can talk, uh, on any kind of like, I love vulnerability, But the truth is you can only only be vulnerable when you're from the scars, not from the wound. And if you would have asked me this a decade ago, I could not talk about it. Like I was so embarrassed. I was so ashamed. And you're right. So basically, we lived the Silicon Valley dream. Like I live here in Silicon Valley. Right across my fence is the Steve Jobs basement. This is where he started. You know, like I mean, I'm covered with this like incredible Silicon Valley vibe. so um at that point i was already vice president in in you know a very successful company i literally built it from you know buying the printer and the router to you know this mega five sites multi-million dollar deals like it was incredible but i was burned out i was tired i was flying every week and then a friend of mine yeah somebody i knew for 20 years said hey let's start this company together and i got lit up again mick like i was just like so excited so even though i was busy.

6:53Like I was working on this thing day and night and I was so excited. And we did this whole Silicon Valley thing. We went to visit investors and it was incredible because our story was so good that within a few weeks there was, there was a term sheet, they were valuating a little baby at$5 million. So they were, you know, investing about$800 ,000 and it was three prominent Silicon Valley. It wasn't even just one. And I remember like, oh my God, I so lucky. How did I get so lucky. And so during the goodbye party, I told everybody about the startup. I was so proud about the money we raised. And within 24 hours, 24 hours, my co-founder decided to take the money to his bank, throw me out of the business, and I was left with nothing.

7:37No job, no salary, no startup, no investment. So you're asking, how is that possible? The truth is it's ignorance. I didn't have somebody to tell me what to do. I didn't know that I need to put a founder's agreement. I didn't know I need to put things in rules. Like I, you know, it was all kind of like excitement and doing things and like hustling and creating stuff. And then, yeah. And I think one of the things that you raise is like that embarrassment of how on earth did I let that happen? And, you know, one of the hardest thing about this moment is that your ego just comes crushing down. Like you, like, who am I without that identity?

8:17Who am I without my title? Who am I without my company? Like, who is Ilana? And to make it even worse, I didn't know where I want to go. So now I'm I look all confused and they go to all these, you know, like events and people are like, Ilana, who are you? Tell me, you know, it's like, I don't know. What do you do? I don't know. What do you want to do? I don't know. You know, like, who am I, Mick? Anyway, so that was my story. No, I love it. And there's two things I think are important here. One, for everybody that's listening, that's an entrepreneur, that's in a partnership, make sure your paperwork protects you.

8:54Make sure you review the paperwork. Like we all do it at some point. Like even now, one of my companies is with one of my really good friends. But the first thing that we did was make sure the paperwork was right. His attorney reviewed, my attorney reviewed. And then we had a separate attorney that didn't know either of us draw up the actual agreement. Right. Because we didn't want to feel a certain type of way. Then the second thing that I think is important that you said. Was that you had an ego. And I think people try to say, oh, I don't have an ego. We all do. We all have some type of pride, some type of emotion.

9:36It doesn't mean that you have a big ego, but I think everyone has that sense of pride. And to lose that. Right. It's tough. Is that right, Alana? uh yes mick but i can i i gonna be honest i think when you tick some of these boxes of success in corporates as a vp running some big things i kind of have bigger ego than i should and i think that confuses you again i was a you know i i do believe i was a great leader i hear it from my you know people all the time and they're still in touch with people that reported to me but i didn't realize that when you're trying to do something you've never done before, you don't know what you don't know.

10:19And to make it even worse, the worst part is actually not what you don't know that you don't know. It's what you absolutely sure you know, but you know wrong. And I was absolutely sure that I will know how to start a company. And I was absolutely wrong, Mick.

10:40but but you got up though right i know that there was a moment that you were down on yourself there was a moment you didn't leave the house you didn't leave the bedroom you didn't do whatever but you did get up and when you got up alana you freaking took over the world right like that fire that you have that passion that you have that thing that and these are the words of mick and only but that that thing that makes alana exceptional but the one thing that i think alana golin has the that most people don't is that grit but that grit with purpose right like there's a lot of people that that that have the fight that have the grit but you did it with purpose and then you became the person that you were supposed to be is that right yeah yeah it It was incredible.

11:26And that's also a reminder to people listening because you will make mistakes. Yes, I didn't know about the founder's agreement. I made a lot of mistakes, but the truth is, thank God I didn't have a founder's agreement because I would have been stuck in this minutiae thing that actually went down, like it basically exploded a few months later. And instead I had to lean into figuring things out. And that became my purpose. That became my mission. That became Leap Academy. That became everything I do now. So to some extent, a reminder to everybody, your darkest moment, again, it's always darkest before sunrise.

12:10And it's very, very likely that this is your teaching moment to actually reflect and actually put you on a journey that will change the second part of your life. So the question is not why is this happening to me, but what should I learn from it? And who am I becoming because of this? And I think that's just such a powerful thing. I love it. And so I'm going to do something I never do live. So this segment that we're about to go to is brought to you by Leap Academy. So everybody right now go to leapacademy.com because we're going to talk about Leap Academy, why you decided to start it, and what Leap Academy is doing to impact the lives of others.

12:53So Leap Academy with Alana Gold. Wow. I'm honored. So again, the idea, the mission of Leap Academy is to take driven professionals that want more for themselves or individuals that want more for themselves or feel stuck or know that there's more to them and really understand that clarity, understand who they are, what their story is, how to build that brand, how to open the right doors so that they can either land the right opportunity for themselves or switch to a new industry or switch to a new function or start a business. Because, again, I wanted to gain the income, the reputation, the balance, the impact that they deserve to have and live the best version of themselves.

13:36And and the beautiful thing is like we you know, we talked a little bit before the show, like in the future of work. Reinventing yourself, leaping again and again is becoming the most important skill for you right now. And people will reinvent themselves every year. People don't realize it. Even if you're in the same corporate job, you're going to switch functions, you're going to switch technologies, you're going to switch responsibilities like you're going to change all the time. If you're a business owner, you're going to adapt all the time. So adaptability is the most important skill. And I can't stress it enough.

14:13So if you're going to learn how to do it again and again, you can create a portfolio of things and ventures of income that will change the rest of your life and create not just the paycheck, but the life that you want with the paycheck. That is one minute about Leap Academy. Let's go. I love it. I love it. I love it so much. And Alana, you have a statement, a saying, and I've said it a thousand times as well. And ironically, one of my programs, it's how the video starts. And it starts with something that you also say. Success leaves clues, right? So talk about success, but more importantly, how do people pick up on the clues that success leaves?

15:00Oh, that's such an important thing, because for me, one of the hardest thing was not having that clarity of what's next, what's next, what's next. There's so much on the menu these days, so many options that people don't even know. And nobody teaches you. So how do you find among all these options, the days of me being in one place for 40 years is gone. So in that case, how do I find what's next? Like, who's going to teach me? And the interesting thing is when I was trying to figure out my zone of genius, what was interesting is that we we tend to look only at like skills or things that we learn in the university.

15:40But that's actually usually not going to be where your zone of genius is. And when you actually look at your zone of genius, it's going to be a way broader. First of all, there's, you know, the because right. Your why and your because right. Like, what is that fuel? but on top of this is like what are people already intrigued by you what are people already coming to you from what are the things that lighten you up and get you excited and again like you and there's like a list of things that we do with people that to actually understand their zone of genius because again when you find it and you can lean into it it's incredible what you know how it's going to fuel you in a whole different way and maybe i'll say one more thing i think you know in the startup world, again, after that horrible down moment that I had, I did start a tech startup.

16:29I did sell it. I did, you know, start. So but what I you know, and I started mentoring in some of the biggest startup accelerators in the world. And I'll share why I'm saying this. And it was like things like Google, you know, Accelerator and Singularity University and Karen Gabbard and et cetera. And one of the things that people don't realize in startup world, you experiment finding market fit all the time. You experiment, experiment, experiment. Like, where should I go? Where should I go? And people don't realize that they can actually use that in a career related arena. Right. And you can actually experiment.

17:02Is this my zone of genius? Is this what I want to do? And if you actually experiment, you can move so much faster and with so much more clarity because the clarity will come from action, not just ideas, not just dreaming about it, thinking about it. Like it's going to come from that action and that conviction that you're going to build along the way. wholeheartedly and I want to go deeper into the zone of genius um I know it's something that you spend a lot of time when you're working with your clients on and at the academy you and your coaches spend a lot of time helping people identify it so for the person that's listening or watching right now that's like you know I'm good at a few things but how do I find my zone of genius how do I connect with that thing or those couple of things that I do exception?

17:51What's the advice you have for them? Oh, such a good question. So first of all, I will say that many, many, many times, like I said, that a jar cannot read its own label and leaning on somebody else to kind of share some of their perspective. And again, not in a beautiful setting and people that are positive in the world, right? Like don't take their victimhood, but you know, it's good to listen to what are people saying about you? For me, it was like suddenly I realized that some of the recommendations on LinkedIn that I had put in words things that I didn't even think of, right? Or some of the thank you, thank you that people will send you in messages or people will come and say, hey, Lana, do you have a few minutes?

18:34I want to talk to you. And the interesting thing about it is people will already hint you, kind of what we said, success leaves clues, people will already hint you what they're intrigued by you. And the question is, I don't know if I, you know, the question is, what is that? What are those moments? And for me, it's really about really distilling it to what are those pieces that actually makes me unique? What makes me different? What are people already, you know, like drawn to me and what makes me excited again? Again, I think the truth is you will not necessarily know one thing until you start doing it, get clarity, get more conviction, more like it's not that I knew I want to start Leap Academy.

19:22I didn't know I want to grow this thing to a multi, multi million. Like that's not how things start. I think there's also a little confusion about you'll suddenly know and you'll be passionate about it. And, you know, things will just be so easy. And the truth is, I don't think that's the case. I think that's a myth and you don't have the conviction or the evidence to know that this is the thing yet because you didn't build this yet. So I think there's a little bit of how do I just take one step further? And again, I'm going to look at that 10, 10, 10. I look at it as 10 days, 10 weeks, 10 months experiments.

20:04And the way I look at it is for 10 days, let me just pretend like this is what I'm doing. Right. Let me read through it. Let me read other people that are doing it. Let me see if this lights me up. Let's see if I care about it. And if I do like the 10 days, all I need to decide is not, is this going to be my career direction? Because that's a really scary decision. But all I need to decide, is this worth 10 more weeks, for example? And if it's worth 10 more weeks, is it worth 10 more months? And when you kind of try to think and distill it, it actually lets you off the hook a little bit, right?

20:39You don't need to decide this big career direction. All you need to do is decide this one thing. Is this worth a little more time, a little more investigation, a little more clarity? And I think that that takes that pressure of just knowing you won't just know you're going to have to build that clarity as you go. Love it. Love it. And Alana, I have to give you kudos for something. I purposely waited for this conversation to tell you. So, you know, we talked about offline and earlier today about, you know, me starting a podcast. One of the things that was important for me even before the podcast was reinvention.

21:25And the reason I'm bringing this up to you now, and this is before you even had a podcast, I knew you were really one of your pillars. One of the things that you pride yourself on is the reinvention. And so when my kids would tell me, dad, when we Google you, all it shows is the insurance stuff that you do. And unfortunately, that's not sexy and that's not cool. Like all the things that you do with your friends and your mentors and your buddies and like how funny you are, like people need to see that side of you. And I'm like, no, I'm on LinkedIn and LinkedIn. I wasn't even on Instagram at this point.

22:02Right. I'm just I'm a LinkedIn guy. And on LinkedIn, it's business Mick and business Mick only. And my kids were like, but dad, you're going to miss the boat. So I reinvented myself, but I didn't know how to really do it. But you have a great framework. And I'd love for you to just spend a moment because I don't want to talk about it because I won't do it the right service. But I needed to give you kudos for helping me reinvent the person that my kids, my friends and my family knew that I was. But like nobody else in the world knew any of the things that I was doing. But I followed your framework.

22:38So talk to us about the importance of reinventing yourself. Because I know there's someone that's listening or watching right now that's like, yeah, I need to start reinventing myself. Because in today's age, if you if you haven't reinvented yourself in the last three years, you have to today. So the floor is yours. You made my day, Mick. This makes me so happy because it's really important for me that every single person we're going to have tens of millions of people that are going to need to reinvent themselves. Like I want everybody to listen to this podcast and to know how to do this. Right.

23:11And the very first thing is you're going to have to know what you want to do. Like the clarity piece is really, really important. And that's where the zone of genius. This is where the experimentation comes in, because otherwise what happened to me in the past is when I had no clue what I wanted to do, I was becoming a red flag, Nick. Like I still remember the day when I met the CEO that could have opened any doors for me. He was also a venture capitalist and it took him five minutes to say, Lana, you have no clue where you want to go. Right. And I'm like, oh, darn. So not only that I'm not doing myself a service, I'm actually becoming a red flag.

23:47So the clarity is number one. It's so, so, so important that you'll know what's next, even if it's a test, even if it's an experiment, but you know what you want to do. Then you're going to want to line the story according to where you're going, not where you are today. Now, it's with complete integrity. We're not lying here, right? But we're emphasizing the right things according to where you're going. Because again, if I want to build Leap Academy to one of the most, you know, incredible reinvention schools and portfolio career schools in the world, I can't talk about all the cool algorithms that I was writing in Intel.

24:21Nobody cares. That just doesn't care. So I need to emphasize the right things and the right stories and the right points. And then, yes, it is about building a brand, because especially now in the lack of trust economy, your brand is your currency. Your brand is the only insurance policy you have. Gary Vee said that, like he said it better than I do. Like, it's incredible. This is what I'm going to allow you to leap again and again. Now, on top of this, I will say all the coolest opportunities and for mid to late stage career, especially when it's crowded, if you do want to land a job, if you do want opportunities, all the coolest things are only in the hidden market.

25:02It's who knows you that will bring opportunities to you. That's the fast track. So if you want the fast track, if you want a lot of opportunities, if you want to play in the hidden market, this is where the portfolio career is. This is where the advising, the board seats, the co-founding teams, the executive things, the investment opportunities, the leadership retreats, right? Like it's all in the hidden market. And if you're not playing in the hidden market and your brand is not aligned with the opportunities that you want to get, you're not going to get the right opportunity. So with the clarity, the story, the branding, the hidden market, And when you actually play those games and you leap again and again and again, your life changes forever.

25:40You will never like people around you will say, oh, my God, what happened? And that's just the most incredible feeling in the world, because you can inspire. You become the role model that you're meant to be. You can build the life that you want. It's just incredible. So. I believe you and I know that, but there's somebody that's listening or watching right now that saying to themselves or they may be saying it out loud. Alana, that's awesome, but I'm comfortable right now. I'm comfortable. I'm okay. And I know that my good friend, Alana Golan, is going to tell you comfort kills dreams, right?

26:17So how does that person that's comfortable, they know they need to reinvent themselves. They know they need to take themselves serious as a brand. How do they go from comfort to having that courage muscle to actually do the thing? That's such a beautiful question. I will say a few things. First of all, we're living in a time that the pace of change is absolutely mind-blowing. There is no comfortable. There is no staying stuck. If you're not moving forward at the pace of change, at least, and leaping again and again, you will fall behind. You will lose relevance at a pace you don't even realize how fast that is.

27:02Now, with all respect to somebody comfortable, ageism exists. People are seeing less and less opportunities as they age out. And if you don't start and getting like creating a safety net, but beyond that, it's really not about just the pay. It's really about the life that you're trying to create with that paycheck. So I don't believe you're comfortable, I believe that maybe you're not dreaming big enough and that's okay. But in order to dream bigger, you will have to start creating a big action and to take action is everything. But I will say one more thing, Mika. I think people don't realize the era that we're in.