Hi everyone, my guest today is Paul McVeigh. He started his career in football and became a Premier League and International football player for Tottenham Hotspur, Norwich City, and Northern Ireland.  Paul competed with and against the best players  in the world on a daily basis , and this is what shaped his methodology of high performance.  He has a unique combination of reaching the pinnacle of elite sport as well as being the first Premier League footballer to qualify with a Master’s Degree in Psychology.  He dedicated his career to understanding what makes humans ‘tick’ and how it affects how they think, feel and act. Paul specializes in implementing the mental tools required to elevate the performance of leaders and teams from organizations across the world, especially in financial services, technology, and the professional services industry. He has recently worked with PWC,  Aviva, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, NatWest, Microsoft, Cisco and many more. He is also an established broadcaster on TV and radio and is a published author. Here is what we talked about: -       Growing up in Northern Ireland in the 70s and 80s -       Starting with football and what it taught him apart from physical strength and endurance -       The decision to study Psychology -       His book “The Stupid Footballer is Dead.” -       How he developed his business  -       Becoming  a keynote speaker -       Experiences from his transition from football to his current business -       His key takeaways for a successful career pivot   Tune in to hear this fascinating personal story. You can connect with Paul at https://paulmcveigh.com/ Listen to his podcast:  https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-psychology-of-success/id1561741449

Jay Shaw is an entrepreneur with over 20 years of  experience in the IT industry and experience on both corporate and  non-profit organization boards. He had a very unusual start to his career – he was a commercial fisherman for 10 years. After that, he became an English teacher in China. Jay  co-founded and served as CEO of NetDimensions, a technology company  acquired in 2017 after listing on the London Stock Exchange AIM. He is  currently the CEO of Praxonomy, a UK-based software company that  provides board portal solutions to listed and private companies, NGOs,  and fund management groups. Jay takes a broad view  of corporate issues as an executive with experience in information  technology, software development, cloud services, compliance, governance  and risk, strategy, general management, and corporate development. We talked about the following: - the unusual start to his work life - being a commercial fisherman. - becoming an English language teacher in China - starting his first venture - being an entrepreneur - selling one company and starting again with his current company - Praxonomy (https://www.praxonomy.com/) -  managing a start-up in times of COVID and geopolitical changes - managing a new company as a digital nomad Jay's three key takeaways for anyone who wants to pivot their career into  entrepreneurship: 1. Awareness: You must have an idea for a product or unmet need that you can solve. 2. Willingness: You must be willing to take action on this idea or unmet need. 3. Resilience: You have to be able to deal with setbacks and change course as needed. Don’t forget to like, subscribe or ask questions on https://anifilipova.me/or on your favorite podcast platform. Please tune in and enjoy

My guest today is Naveed Sultan. He is a recognized banking industry leader who built a career at Citibank spanning almost 30 years.  His career is truly amazing. He has led multi-billion dollar global businesses working with most Fortune 500 global companies, banks, asset managers, and insurance companies in over 120 countries. He was the chairman of the Institutional Clients Group in Citi, and in this role, Naveed led Citi's Digital Policy, Strategy, and Advisory Practice for all types of clients. Apart from this, Naveed is passionate about education and has helped to establish the center for Responsible Leadership in the  Imperial Business School's These are some of his thoughts that stayed with me: “You have to develop a narrative to influence people with credibility. But after that, it is a question of living up to that narrative with credibility.” “Everything in life is about apprenticeship; it’s about people’s development.” On the topic of key Leadership attributes: “When you build a magnificent building, you focus on its foundation. Moral conscience and your value system are the two things that make your character as an individual and leader.” On how to stay aligned with the fast paste changes in the banking profession: “Keep reading, developing knowledge, and being curious beyond your core competencies.” “To have a successful career – one should operate very well at the Intersection of Finance, Economics, and Technology. One should be able to move from Strategy to Business planning to Execution comfortably.”” These are his three key things to have in mind when you consider a career change: 1. Always do it for the right reasons. Think about the move rationally. 2. Build a broader and deeper intellectual foundation which gives you a greater level of confidence and allows for a smoother transition 3. Incorporate both tangible and intangible factors in your decision-making process. Tangible means compensation, title, and scope of your job, and non-tangible are experience, cultural fit, reputation, network Please tune in and enjoy the discussion. Don’t forget to like, subscribe or ask questions on https://anifilipova.me/or on your favorite podcast platform.

My guest today is Sonia Wedrychowicz . She came from a family of lawyers but didn’t want to become one herself – she wanted to travel. She found out that in the Warsaw School of Economics, there was a program called International trade, and she knew that if she studied trade, she would sign international contracts on behalf of Poland with foreign countries. That was close enough to her dream to travel, and that was Sonia’s decision-making process to study economics. And this is how she started a successful career that took her all over the world. Sonia is a Partner with McKinsey & Company’s Global Banking Practice, based in Dubai. She advises corporate and consumer banks in the Middle East, Europe, and Asia on topics including growth and digital transformation. Before joining McKinsey, Sonia had a successful banking career in Citibank, corporate and consumer banking, for 18 years. After that, she was a key driver of digital banking transformation at DBS in Singapore, where she was responsible for building digital banks in India and Indonesia. She then led an agile transformation of Chase at JPMorgan Chase in the US. Outside work, Sonia loves to read, cook, travel, and spend time with her family. In addition, she is an accomplished black belt kickboxer. We had a fun and engaging discussion on many topics: working for one organization for 18 years, becoming a tech lead without a tech background, being a consultant, and many more. For those planning job change, Sonia has the following advice: 1.       Understand your internal motives for the change. This will make the next move  easier and more relevant. 2.       Make profound due diligence of the team and culture of your new employer. The interviews for a new job are like the teaser for a new movie, and then the movie can be very very different from what you expected. 3.       Consider your new job not only from a promotion and money point of view but also how it is positioned in the fast-changing world. 

Episode 15 of the “Change is possible podcast” is out! My guest is Rana Nawas. She is a 22-year corporate veteran who built her successful career around problem-solving, driving growth and building relationships. After graduating from Oxford with an Engineering degree, she worked in  McKinsey & Company’s London Office, the Dubai Government, and GE Capital in a variety of strategy and sales roles. Then she left the corporate world to found her hugely successful podcast "When women win", and become a keynote speaker, advisor, and board chair. Recently, she made another career change and joined Oliver Wyman in Dubai as a partner focusing on the transportation sector. Apart from all the professional success, Rana is a mother of two boys; she is a quad-lingual global citizen, a retired yogini, a cross-fitter, and a cancer survivor. It was such an interesting discussion about life, work, and change Some of Rana’s thoughts that stayed with me: The quality of your life is the quality of your relationships You cannot expect everything in life to come out of only one relationship. Sometimes you have to do a job, and you get meaning and purpose from other things And that is OK There are very few dead ends in life. What you want changes over time and that’s OK! You recalibrate and figure out what is next Here are Rana’s  three key takeaways to have in mind when you plan a career change: - Make sure you are financially secured - Put a lot of thought into what it is that you want to do - When you start with something new – give it a chance; have a grit Tune in, and I promise you – the discussion was so thought-provoking that you will want to spend some alone time thinking about things!

After a short summer break, Change is possible podcast is back with Episode # 14. My guest is Lenka Pinkot. Lenka is a leader in organizational transformation and strategic change. Her core expertise is building strategic transformation vision, driving complex change, creating customer value, and coaching agile teams. Lenka has 20 years long career. She started as a consultant, gained tech industry experience, worked for a non-profit organization, and finally joined the banking sector. When she was working for a non-profit organization, she learned these two things, which helped her for the rest of her career: - Discovered what working with meaning and purpose is - Understood efficiency. When you work with volunteers, no one wastes time with nonsensical tasks; people value their time and focus on what matters. Regarding mentors, Lenka has had one of the most unconventional ones. She was taught this: when you have an issue, think about your famous superhero and what they would do.  Interesting approach, right??!! As usual, I asked her about her three key takeaways for those who are thinking about changing their  careers: 1. Keep track of your achievements. Work on your brand and make it easy for people to understand who you are and what you can offer. 2. Work on your self-awareness and use it to build your resilience. 3. Be observant, and connect the dots. See the big picture and your place in it. Please tune in for more tips and advice from Lenka. You can also visit her site: https://leadgrowtransform.com/.

My guest today is Eugene Liang I  met Eugene more than six months ago to advise him on a product he was working on. I thought his career journey into banking was not  traditional. He  is someone who has spent ten years working for some of the top Asia  Unicorns, such as Lazada/Alibaba - LazGames, Grab, and OFO, to name a  few. He enjoys the zero-to-one process in established companies or startups, from ideation to go-to-market. His experience span gaming/gamification, e-commerce, bike-sharing, and ride-hailing-related industries. Today he is using all his previous tech experience in a very different industry - banking. Outside banking, his interest is in NFTs, web3, cryptocurrency, and blockchains. We had an engaging discussion on what it is to work for a Unicorn, what qualities he needed to start in such a company, what he learned, and,  of course, how he moved to banking. He shared that "folks who work or join startups/tech unicorns are: i)  self-starters; ii) obsessed with execution and iii) thrive in a  fast-paced change environment". And the top skills that one could learn  there are "the ability to do more with less" and "efficiency and  delivering with swift turnaround time." On  the question "why moving to banking" Eugene said - "I  spent quite a  bit of time in environments where growth rates are prized over  profitability. I thought it would be useful to learn what it means to be  financially prudent and build a profitable business." On my traditional question about key takeaways, he shared these: Keep an open mind - your skill set could benefit other departments in your company or other industries. Always be networking - opportunities come through people. Bring tangible and intangible value to the new employer - be it skills, network, or domain knowledge not easily replicated. Please tune in to hear more about his journey! Happy listening!

My guest in this episode is Myladie Stoumbou. She  is the Regional Director for Partner Business Development in Microsoft  Corp. Myladie leads an innovative and fast-growing partner ecosystem  across 33 countries in Central and Eastern Europe. She works on new  business practices, services, and solutions that reimagine the way of  doing business. When  you tune into the podcast, you will discover that apart from everything  else, Myladie is a fabulous storyteller. This is how she described her  upbringing: "I  was raised in a very small provincial town in Western Greece. I was  raised with lots of love, with the wisdom of the ancient philosophers,  the drama plots of the ancient tragedians, and the theorems of the  ancient mathematicians. " She  is also someone who likes to follow non-traditional paths. She studied  Computer engineering when this was not a "thing"; and when it was far  less of a  women's profession than now. And then she became a sales  guru, not in any company but Microsoft! When  I asked for her three key takeaways, she told me, "Well, I will give  you five at the size of one"! This is a salesperson through and through. Miladye said that she walks her path with GRACE and these five pillars are her compass through the years: - Generosity – be a giver, not only a taker - Resilience – make mistakes and learn from them - Authenticity – be true to who you are - Courage – don't be afraid to make decisions to break the status quo - Empathy – stay human; try to connect from the heart and try to understand others Happy listening!!

My guest in this episode is Morgan McKenney. She is the CEO of Provenance Blockchain Foundation, a public blockchain built specifically for financial services and used by over 50 financial institutions today. In this role, she is focused on helping financial services participants leverage the value of digital money, digital assets, and blockchain to transform financial services and deliver material business and customer value.   Before Provenance Blockchain, she was a special advisor to Centre, focused on the trusted use of stablecoins starting with USDC. She spent nearly 18 years at Citi in various senior operating roles worldwide.   I met Morgan in Hong Kong – we used to work together for 4 years. Then she went back to the US, where she became the COO of Citi's Global Consumer Banking business, reporting to Jane Fraser, the current CEO of Citibank.  In our conversation, we spoke about her fascinating career journey, the skills that helped her career grow, the importance of international assignments, her career after leaving a large financial institution, and much more! I asked her to share three key takeaways to help with career change. She added a bonus one, so here are her FOUR essential pieces of advice:      Take the stretch role; take leaps in your career to maximize your potential.     Be in tune with what motivates you:  like your boss and like your content.     Embrace change as an opportunity to learn.     Collaborate and extend a helping hand, and nurture your network. 

My guest in this episode is Eric Sim. A key opinion leader on LinkedIn, Eric Sim, CFA, is the author of the book Small Actions: Leading Your Career to Big Success. Previously, when based in Hong Kong, Sim served as a managing director at UBS Investment Bank and an adjunct associate professor of finance at HKUST. He founded the Institute of Life with a mission to train young professionals to be successful at work and in life. I met Eric Sim one year ago when I left my corporate career and needed a coach to help me navigate my social media presence. I saw a clubhouse event he was organizing. I checked his Linked profile and could not believe that he had more than 2 million followers. I registered, and he invited me to ask my questions on the stage during the event. This is how we connected. In the following months, Eric helped me crystalize my strategy and fine-tune my goals. I established many valuable connections with his help. And he gave me the confidence to start writing on LinkedIn. I have never met Eric in person, but I always wanted to share his story – from his humble beginnings to the powerhouse he is today. He made the portfolio career “a thing.” When we were recording, I asked him to walk me through the stages of preparation and execution when he was leaving banking. The answer was not what I expected! Eric said the first thing he did was design his new company’s logo and print the business cards. He knew he was ready to leave the banking job when he confidently handed out these new cards, accepting his new future. His three key takeaways for success in any career pivot are three “S”: - Build your Social capital well before you need it - Build your Social media presence - Build your Social network Please tune in to hear his fascinating journey. Happy listening!

In this episode, I will meet you with Diana Wu David  - She  is a former Financial Times executive, author of Future Proof: Reinventing Work in an Age of Acceleration, and an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School's EMBA Global Asia. She started her career as a management consultant and assistant to Dr. Henry Kissinger at Kissinger Associates in New York. When  Diana left her corporate career, she wanted to do something that would  help her be forever employable. She founded her own company, Future  proof lab, in 2016, and she works with global leaders, companies, and  boards to enhance their ability to adapt, contribute, collaborate and  grow. She shared that "the corporate work teaches us always to scale up and grow. What I love about being a master of my destiny is the ability to not only scale up but also scale down whenever I need more time for my  family." She  also knows that there is a lot of anxiety about the future of work, regardless if you have a corporate career or are an entrepreneur. If you  are wondering whether you are ready for the future - please check  https://www.futureprooflab.com Diana thinks that the key trends for the future of work are : - The power of one - each of us can be an individual creator- The power of many; the liquid super team- we come together to work on a project, and then we disband. - The application of technology to support all of the above so we can match each other for the right project and work. Please tune in to hear more about her journey and understand why she feels that she is living the future of work.

In this episode, I will meet you with Hannah Genton -  a Berkeley school of law graduate and a former start-up attorney turned entrepreneur. After years of practice in one of Silicon Valley's leading law firms, she realized it was never quite enough, regardless of how much she accomplished. Additionally, the extra workload she was required to take on left her sacrificing family time, especially after the birth of her first child. This fueled the belief that there must be a better way to honor her professional and personal life. This is why she co-founded a very different law firm - CGL was born with the idea of giving its attorneys an unprecedented level of freedom and autonomy. This meant choosing where they worked and committing to a set number of hours each week. It was a success, and now, CGL offers on-demand legal services for companies and law firms alike. Hannah said that the first thing she did when starting her company was to google " How to start a law firm" - she had no business experience in how to set things up. "In the law, you often know the answer; there is a rule and a way things are done. As an entrepreneur - it is kind of blank slate, and you figure it out." This is what she said about her experience leading her legal firm: " I never expected how much I would love my job and that it was even possible to feel that way." Here are Hannah's  key takeaways for anyone who is leaving their corporate career to become an entrepreneur: - Having a sound financial plan will give you creative freedom and time to pause intentionally so that you can plan the future. - Don't be afraid to fail; every failure is a learning opportunity. - Take the plunge, despite the fact it is scary. Please tune in to hear more about her journey after quitting her corporate job to create her own company and life.

In this episode you will hear from Frank Koo - Head of Asia in LinkedIn Frank started his career with IBM in Singapore after graduating from university with a business degree. He then spent 11 years in Oracle, where he headed up various business functions, including managing director for Singapore and South Asia growth economies. In 2010, Frank pivoted into the education sector, initially with Pearson Education, where he led its Learning Solutions business based in China. He later joined an education start-up in Shanghai as their Chief Operating Officer. In 2016,  Frank returned to Singapore to join LinkedIn. Frank shared that his life purpose is to help people and teams achieve positive transformation with joy. He is passionate about assisting people in leveraging the LinkedIn platform to inspire others and navigate their career transformation through the Great Resignation. Frank's three key takeaways for anyone planning a career pivot are: 1. Always see yourself as a "work in progress." 2. Be ready to take intelligent risks 3. Build a network Please tune in to hear more about what helped him in his career pivots across industries, critical trends in the talent market today, essential skills needed in the future, and more.

In this Episode #6, I will meet you with Lubomila Jordanova, one of the young leaders of the climate tech industry and a prominent climate activist. She is the co-founder and CEO of Plan A, the German software company that builds science-based, AI-driven tools for carbon accounting, decarbonization, ESG management, and reporting. She is also co-founder of the Greentech Alliance, a community of more than 1,000 startups connected to more than 350 advisors from VC, media, and business. Lubomila was an official speaker at COP26 and serves as an Obama Foundation Europe Leader 2022. She has been recognized as a Marshall Fund Fellow 2021, Top 50 Women in Tech in Germany 2021 (Handelsblatt), and 30 under 30 (Forbes). Very recently she was selected as one of the 35 MIT Technology Review Innovators under 35 for 2022 worldwide. She was focused on building a finance career but everything changed in 2016 when she arrived in Marocco for a surfing trip. On the first day, she found herself on this beautiful beach covered in plastic, and instead of surfing, she spent the week cleaning beaches. Lubomila says, “after that, I was not able to stop thinking about it, and I felt that I have a level of responsibility that I needed to claim.” This is how her journey in the climate industry started. For her, being an entrepreneur is to “see yourself as an individual unit of impact, to see how your thoughts can influence the way people think and by perseverance, being stubborn, and pushing forward how much you can change.” Tune in to hear her journey and learn how university graduates, mid-career professionals, and executives can transition to the climate industry, which is growing and needs all levels and types of expertise to accelerate.

In this Episode #5, my guest is Mathew Howe.   He is the founder of Grobrix, a company focusing on sustainability, food security, physical health, and mental wellbeing. Grobrix is on a mission to make urban communities leaner, greener, happier, and healthier, focusing on bringing the farm and the farmer's market right to their doorstep. Before that, he spent 15 years in financial markets spanning various sales and trading roles both in London and Singapore. Mathew graduated from Imperial College, London, in Mechanical Engineering. Mathew shared with me that it all started with pesto! Green pasta was on the lunch menu for his children nearly every day, and there were times when the supermarket simply could not fulfill the household basil needs. So, he started growing it. And this is how Grobrix was born - the world’s first modular edible hydroponic green wall.  Designed in Singapore. Developed in Singapore. Made in Singapore. Tune in to learn about the journey from the trading floor to urban farming. It is one of the most unusual career changes I have seen.  Here are his key learnings: - You cannot be a part-time entrepreneur. You have to go all-in. - Do something you are passionate about and leverage the skills that you've  got - The fear of never knowing will become bigger than the fear of failure. As Mathew says - " When all is said and done, I wanted to look back in 20 years and know that I tried, even if I failed. I'd rather have tried and failed than to have never known."

My guest in this episode is Rachele Focardi. She is one of these people who believes that "life is a matter of synchronicity, and a matter of synergy and a matter of connections." and that "What is meant for you will always find you. We should be thankful for all these closed doors because they protect us from things that are not meant for us." She also says that "one of the benefits of going with the flow and jumping into things without giving too much thought is you don't really need a plan to define your success or a lack of success. The more fluid you are, and to a certain extent you have to have a goal in mind, the less likely you will experience setbacks that mess up this plan." Rachele was born and raised in Italy, studied journalism in the US, and spent her professional life between Europe, the US, and Asia. After graduation, Rachele became an anchor for CFN-CNBN in Italy. But then she decided to go back to the US to pursue her master's degree and was waiting tables in two restaurants to support herself. This is where she connected with Universum, a global employer branding agency, and landed one of their projects, which transitioned to full-time employment. This is how she dived into and later spearheaded the employer branding movement globally, advocating for organizations and governments to incorporate an employer branding strategy into their workforce planning.  After a very successful 16 years career at Universum, where she was Chief Strategy Officer, Rachele decided to pursue her real passion: bridging the generational divide. At that time, McGraw Hill offered her a publishing contract. In 4 months, during Singapore's Covid-19 Circuit Breaker with three kids under five and while serving her six-month notice, she wrote: "Reframing Generational Stereotypes" (which has since become a best-seller). She started XYZ@Work to help organizations adapt to the needs of the new generations, foster a culture of intergenerational collaboration, harmonize their multigenerational workforce and empower future leaders to drive positive change. Listen to her full story of transition from journalism and TV anchor to becoming a leading expert on generational diversity, a global thought leader, and public speaker on multigenerational workforce dynamics, the future of work, and employer branding. Happy listening!

In this episode, my guest is Binod Shankar. He started in industrial banking in India before moving to work for KPMG, Andersen, and Ernst and Young. He then joined Nakheel Inc, the iconic Dubai property developer, and was promoted to Finance Director. After 17 years of corporate career, Binod quit his Executive Director job as a listed asset manager to co-found and lead Genesis. Under his leadership, Genesis quickly became a highly respected training company, also the largest CFA prep provider in the Middle East. It was acquired by Kaplan Inc, the global training and publishing giant. He is a platform speaker, an executive coach, a regular blogger, a frequent market analyst on CNBC and Bloomberg, and the host of the RFM podcast (www.therealfinancementor.com) that focuses on finance careers. Binod says that if you want to pivot your career you should choose an area you are truly brilliant at. You should be not merely 20% or 50% better. You should be 100% better than the competition.  Listen in for more tips and practical advice for successful career pivots.