The Power of Adaptability: Lessons from Ilana Golan

Could you imagine starting a business with a partner, a co-founder, raising capital and then all of a sudden getting 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 and our rapid fire top five.

And then we're going to find out the one word that defines her legacy.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present my good friend, the leader's leader, Miss Alana Golan.

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 intramene.

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 are you doing today there?

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 am the honor one.

Thank you so much for for taking the time.

I know how busy you are.

So I know you just don't do things to do them.

So that's why I have goosebumps because 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 do you like?

141 now 142 like 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 listen to you as well.

And I loved and plugged.

So 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.

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 a lot of what's all the amazing things that you do.

From 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.

There'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.

However, 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 hold 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 giving up.

And I realized that she's, I don't have a chance.

Like she has a weaker to live.

And I remember thinking, like, what are the regrets?

What are the regrets?

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, basic 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 all these countries.

And he keeps like, let's retire together.

I'm like, I'm not ready for it.

I, I'm on this planet for a bigger purpose and I have to do this.

So that's it.

I love it.

I love it.

And a lot of again, being such a huge fan of yours, like this episode,

I'm going to ask a whole bunch of just personal questions, not personal questions,

but personal questions that I want answered, because.

Like you are someone that I look to for advice.

You 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 would just raise 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, Mike, this is such a humbling experience.

And you know, and I always say to people, like you can talk 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 wounds.

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 at 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 at that point, I was already vice president 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, yes, I'm going to add new for 20 years said,

hey, let's start this company together.

And I got lit up again, Nick.

Like I was just like so excited.

So even though I was busy, like 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 evaluating a little baby at five million dollars.

So they were, you know, investing about eight hundred thousand dollars.

And it was three prominent Silicon Valley.

It wasn't even just one.

And I remember like, oh my god, I'm so lucky.

How did I get so lucky?

And so during the goodbye party, I told everybody about the startup.

I was so proud of about the money we raised.

And within 24 hours make 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.

No 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 founders agreement.

I didn't know I need to put things in rules.

Like, 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 raised is like that embarrassment of how unearthed I had 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?

Who 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 look all confused and they go to all these, you know, like events and people are like Ilana.

Who are you telling?

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 entrepreneur that's in a partnership.

We talk a lot about trends on this show.

And for the past year, AI has been everywhere.

But here's the truth.

Talking about AI does not make you more productive.

Using it does.

For me, AI has become a part of how I lead, build, and create.

Between the podcast, my team, and multiple businesses, speed matters.

Zapier has helped us connect the tools we already use and automate the things that used to eat up hours.

Lead routing, follow-ups, internal workflows, even connecting AI models like ChatGPT directly into our process.

No tech headaches, no bottlenecks, just results.

Zapier is how you break the hype cycle and actually put AI to work.

Whether it's enriching leads, coaching your sales team, resolving tickets, or streamlining marketing, Zapier makes it simple.

Join the 3.4 million companies already automating with Zapier and transform how you work with Zapier and AI.

Get started for free by visiting zapier.com slash mick.

That's z-a-p-i-e-r.com slash mick.

With its abundant natural beauty, charming towns and friendly people,

South Carolina offers the kind of discoveries that stay with you long after you've left.

Like the realization you're good at something you'd never before tried.

Or your first oyster roast.

And it tastes you didn't expect to love.

And other times, it just hits.

Like the view on a windswept Appalachian mount top.

So come find the undiscovered you in South Carolina.

Visit DiscoverSouthCareLine.com

Make sure your paperwork protects you.

Make 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 fill a certain type of way.

And 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.

It doesn't mean that you have a big ego.

But I think everyone has that sense of pride and to lose that, right?

Is that right, Alana?

Yes, Mick.

But can I, I'm going to be honest.

I think when you ticked some of these boxes of success and 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, you know, I do believe I was a great leader.

I hear it from my, you know, people all the time.

And they were 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.

And 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.

But, 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 didn't get up.

And when you got up a lot and 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 Mick only,

but that, that thing that makes a lot of exceptional.

But the one thing that I think a lot of goal and has that,

that most people don't,

is that grit, but that grit with purpose, right?

Like there's a lot of people 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 was, it was incredible.

And 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, you know, minutia thing that actually went, you know, down,

you know, that, like a basic exploded a few months later.

And instead, I, you know, 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.

And 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 why 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 leap academy.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?

So leap academy with a lot of 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 their new industry or switch your 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.

And the beautiful thing is we talked a little bit before the show.

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.

So if you're going to learn how to do it again, 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.

I love it.

You said you have a statement saying it, 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.

All right.

So talk about, talk about success, but more importantly,

how do people pick up on the clues that success leaves?

Oh, 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, right?

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 tend to look only at like skills or things that we learn in the university, but 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? You're why and you're 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 for what are the things that lighten you up and get you excited?

And again, like you said, 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. I did sell it. I did, you know, started it. So, but what, what I, you know, and I started mentoring in some of the biggest startup accelerators in the world. And I'll see, I'll share why I'm saying this.

And it was like things like Google, say, you know, accelerator and singularity, university, and academy, ball 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, which I go.

And people don't realize that they can actually use that in a career related, I mean, right? And you can actually experiment. Is 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. I know it's something that you spend a lot of time when you're working with your clients on and that 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? What's the advice you have for them?

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 there 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 read, you know, 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 think you think that the people will send you in messages or people will come and say, Hey, Lana, do you have a few minutes. I 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, but 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 make 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. I 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 does 10 days 10 weeks 10 months experiments.

And 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's me read other people that are doing it. Let me see if this lights me up this. Let's see if I 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 I all I need to decide is this worth 10 more weeks, for example.

Right. And if it's worth 10 more weeks, is it worth 10 more months. And you know, when you kind of try to think and distill it, it actually lets you off the hook a little bit, right. You 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 a lot of 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. And 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.

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. Right. 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 that 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 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.

Um, the person that 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. So 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.

Oh, you made my day, Mick. This makes me so happy. Um, 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.

And 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, Mick. Like I was 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, Doran. So not only that I'm not doing myself a service. I'm actually becoming a red flag.

So 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 or 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 schools in the world.

I can't talk about all the cool algorithms that I was writing an intel. Nobody cares. That just doesn't care. Right. 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 V 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 again.

No, on top of this, I will say all the coolest opportunities and from 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 the hidden market. It's who knows you that will bring opportunities to you. That's the fast.

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, 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, again, your life changes forever. You 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 a life that you want is 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 golden is going to tell you comfort kills dreams. Right. So, so 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 stuff.

If you're not moving forward, you know, at the pace of change, at least in leaping again, again, you will fall behind. Do you will lose relevant at a pace you don't even realize how fast that is.

Now, with all respect to somebody comfortable ages them exists. People are seeing less and less opportunities as they age out. And if you don't start and we're 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, I think people don't realize the era that we're in. And I think it's important to talk about it for a second.

And maybe you talk a little bit about it in the air show or remember, but, you know, like about 40 years ago, whatever we were kind of in the era of IQ, right. And we talk about right intelligence, right. We would do these tests. And if you were smart and you had good IQ, then, you know, you would be a successful person.

And about a few decades ago, it was switched to EQ to emotional intelligence. You talk a lot about it. And I think Richard Branson was one of the first ones to say EQ is actually more important than IQ.

And that gave a green light to a lot of leaders, a lot of founders, like, you know, suddenly because I didn't have the highest IQ, I was never the highest student. Like that's not it, right.

But if you're going to search today and people are listening, if you're searching for today, the skill that is most important right now is a Q adaptability quotient.

And if you don't build that adaptability, your ability to reinvent and leap is actually becoming the most important skill for the future of work. And it is happening right now in front of our faces.

And if you're not starting to create that safety net, if you're not creating your portfolio career, if you're not getting into a habit of reinventing again and again and again, you will lose relevant at a pace you've never seen before.

I freaking love that you just saw me writing adaptability quotient.

We are, we're going to record a whole another episode and just talk about that. I think, and I'm just going to say this now.

This is me asking you a question I will get with your team, but March 11th and 12th, I'm doing, I have a leadership series I call lead loud, so their leadership summits.

In March, I'm doing it with my best friend in the world, Robert Irvine. So Robert's going to be there.

Mace current, Michelle Mace current, former F 16 firefighters.

I know her.

Joanne Bass, former master sergeant of the Air Force is going to be there. I think I need a lot of going on stage to talk about a Q.

Let's do it.

I'm putting it out there in the universe. If you receive it, you receive it, you just let me know, but we got to talk about it.

I'm going to talk about.

That sounds amazing. Yeah.

You know, I could talk to you all day.

There's, there's so much that I want to ask, but I know that you are a very busy human being and you have a lot going on.

So I'm going to ask you, where can people find and follow you first and foremost?

And then, and then I have like five rapid fire questions that I get to have fun with.

Where can people find and follow a lot of gold?

Oh, perfect. So first of all, thank you. Thank you. This was amazing, Mick.

They can definitely find us in leapacademy.com.

We also going to have a giveaway for you specifically.

We make and plugged. We want to give them a ton of value.

So if they go to your link, they actually going to have like some gift from us, like a free training and something you can download.

And something that you can kind of we call it the curiosity 60.

It's a way for you to really find that that few things that actually are blocking you from being your full potential.

It's an incredible assessment. It's going to be for free. Usually we charge for it, but Mick, we're going to give that for you so that you're going to have it for your listeners.

We also, I don't know when this is airing, but on February 26, 27, we have our own leadership conference.

And it's going to be really, really fun. And we're going to have guests like the president of Starbucks speaking and some Blickoff who is like a director in Netflix and Disney of all the biggest shows that you can think of.

And we're going to have some amazing speakers is going to be really, really fun.

So it is for people who want to reinvent themselves build an incredible brand and become their best version of themselves.

You can also find me on LinkedIn on Instagram.

Ilana go on. So I'm all over.

All right.

So Ilana.

Before I get to the top five,

your event is February 26, 27, right?

I don't know how much tickets cost. So don't tell me.

The first three people that message me a queue on, are you, are you more on LinkedIn or Instagram personally?

Both. It's both.

Okay.

All right. So I'm going to do for that.

So the first two people that tag Ilana and I a queue on.

Yeah, let's give them. I'll give them. Let's go.

No, no, no, no. This is my gift.

I am going to buy four tickets. So two to the first two people on LinkedIn that you got to what I want you to do is this so that you're not messing around.

I want you to write down what adaptability quotient means to you.

Tag Ilana and I in the first two people.

I'm buying your ticket to the event and same thing on Instagram.

So the first two people on LinkedIn, first two people on Instagram.

It doesn't count if you don't write what it means to you and what you want to get out of this and hear out of this.

I'm going to buy four tickets.

I'm also going to be there as an audience attendee.

Because I want to learn. I want to be a part of this too.

I'll bring a couple of my team members.

So February 26th, you want to hang out me, Ilana.

I'll be there.

Let's go. Let's go.

All right. So rapid fire.

Top five questions. First one.

You're at avid hiker.

What's the food?

What's your fuel when you come down from an amazing hike?

What do you want to eat?

I need my coffee first.

But I'm a good latte person.

So I need my latte art and all of this thing.

But it's probably going to be, I don't know, like an assayi or something or maybe pasta.

I don't know.

I love, I'm a foodie.

So I love food.

Okay.

All right. So you're a foodie.

What's your favorite Israeli dish?

I love hummus.

I love chakshuka.

I don't know.

I love salads.

I think salads.

Like they're so fresh and everything is so yummy.

Yeah.

You're a foodie and then you tell me your favorite dish is a salad.

Sorry.

We do make really good salads there.

I know.

I know.

I know.

What's the most surprising?

Let's go.

I'm there.

What's the most surprising lesson from the Air Force that still guides you today?

Um, oh my God, I think it's knowing my audience.

I think it's learning that when I was giving feedback to people,

I wasn't understanding that it's not about what I say.

It's how I say it.

And if I only knew them better, I would have said it differently.

Love it.

Love it.

Fourth question.

What's one myth about success that people need to drop?

The four hour freaking work week is does not exist, everybody.

If you want to, if you want success, you freaking be ready to work hard.

And if you want to follow a work week, no worries,

but if anybody driven will work really, really hard and then have a little bit of

four hour work week and then you're going to work hard again.

There you go.

Totally agree.

Totally agree.

Last question.

When the story of Elana goal and is written.

What's one word that you want to be in that story that defines you?

Impact.

Love it.

Love it.

Love it.

Love it.

I want to impact a lot of life and make a lot of people smile.

That's it.

Well, you do that already.

And that truly is a word that defines you because you've impacted me.

And again, I want you to know that and to feel that.

Everybody do me a huge favor.

leapacademy.com.

Make sure you're going there.

A lot of has like.

Her and the team have free resources that are available to you that I promise

are going to be life changing.

You have the ability to work with her team as well.

Like just a ton of amazing things that they're doing.

If you are a leader.

If you were trying to change and really get out of your comfort zone.

There's only one place I'd recommend you go and that is leapacademy.

So leapacademy.com.

Reach out today.

Means the world.

Thank you, Mick.

And seriously.

You got it.

To all the viewers and listeners.

Remember you're because.

Here's your superpower.

Go unleash it.

That's another powerful conversation on Mick Unplugged.

If this episode moved you and I'm sure it did.

Follow the show wherever you listen.

Share it with someone who needs that spark.

And leave a review.

So more people can find there because.

I'm Rudy Rush.

And until next time.

Stay driven.

Stay focused.

And stay unplugged.

Nearly home.

Isn't home where we all want to be.

Reba here for realtor.com.

The pros number one most trusted app.

Finding a home is like dating.

You're not just looking for a place to live.

You're searching for the one.

That's where realtor.com comes in.

Like any good matchmaker.

They know exactly where to look.

With over 500,000 new real listings straight from the pros every month.

You could find your perfect match today.

Ranch style with the pool.

Barn Dominion with an inlaw suite.

Realtor.com's got them.

Modern craftsmen with a big yard and a tree house out back.

Reeltor.com will have you saying,

yep, that's the one.

No more swapping.

It's time to start finding.

Download the Reeltor.com app today because you're nearly home.

Make it real with Reeltor.com.

Pros number one most trusted app based on August 2025 proprietary survey.

Over 500,000 new listings every month based on average new four sale and rental listings.

July 2024 to June 2025.