Founder of “Change is Possible” Community & Accelerator where corporate professionals build influential brands & portfolio careers I Change Advisor to Leaders I Ex-Citi COO I Follow for modern leadership, career & change

Over the past 25 years, I have built a successful international banking career.
Most recently, I was the Regional COO for Citibank’s $2Bn business across 16 countries in Asia - leading large-scale transformations in digitisation and culture.

But in 2021, I walked away from my high-paying executive role.

Why?

Because I wanted more space.
More time with family.
More alignment between who I am and how I work.

But I didn’t want to start from scratch.
So I asked myself a question:
What if I could build a career around everything I already know - and love?

That’s how my portfolio career began.
And it changed everything.

Now, I help other professionals do the same.

What I’ve built since 2021:
→ A 6-figure portfolio business with 3 income streams
→ Founder of Change is Possible - a business community for professionals redesigning their next chapter
→ 100K+ LinkedIn followers (grew from 17K in under a year)
→ Coached 100+ professionals through successful career transitions
→ Host of a Top 20 global podcast on career change, Change is Possible
→ TEDx speaker, Forbes columnist, and Bloomberg TV guest

Want to build your own portfolio career?
🚀 THE PORTFOLIO CAREER ACCELERATOR (Launching January 2026) 
Apply here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1thkmph_EwRxLGfuL9muCsRir1uKDdF2nXYeI7X_1oSA/edit

This is an 8-week program designed to help you:
→ Turn your expertise into income
→ Build a personal brand that opens doors
→ Create your first income stream - even before you leave your job

Only 20 spots. 12 already claimed.

Other ways we can work together:
✔️ Join my business community — Change is Possible https://changeispossible.co.uk/ - doors open for new members on Sept.10, 2025
✔️ Book me to speak — I deliver keynotes on leadership, change, career reinvention, and the future of work - send a DM.
✔️ Hire me as an advisor — I support companies navigating complex transformation - send a DM to meet and explore.
✔️ Book 1:1 coaching — For senior execs ready to design their next chapter - send a DM.
✔️ Book my LinkedIn Growth Bundle — A 2-session intensive where I teach you the exact system I used to grow to 100K+ followers. Apply here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1bLp7wmK8xhIpfFu8beImvD5JZQHYsbraTBx5Orjx0zs/edit

P.S. Still wondering if change is really possible?
🎧 Tune in to my podcast Change is Possible — where 100+ professionals share how they redesigned their careers and lives. Watch here - https://www.youtube.com/@ChangeIsPossiblePodcast

Ani Filipova

The first time someone told me the truth about my leadership, I wanted to fire them.

I did not, obviously.
But I wanted to.
"Who are they to tell me...." 🤯 

Most leaders say they want honesty.
Then someone actually gives it.
And they get defensive.

Start explaining why that person is wrong.
Or worse - they punish honesty.
Withdraw.
Get cold.
"Manage out" the truth-teller.

Do it enough times and people learn.
They stop telling you the truth.
They tell you what you want to hear.

Look around.
Scandals at every level.
Boards blindsided.
Leaders shocked by what "nobody told them."

Nobody told them because they made it unsafe to speak.

The first time someone tells you a hard truth, you will want to fight it.
Your ego will scream.
You will feel attacked.
Misunderstood.
Betrayed.

This is normal.
This is human.
This does not make you a bad leader.

Leadership is not being okay with hard feedback.
Leadership is what you do in the 10 seconds after hearing it.

How to train yourself to receive truth better:

→ Leadership is not being okay with hard feedback.
→ Leadership is what you do in the 10 seconds after hearing something that makes you want to defend yourself.
→ It is saying "tell me more" when every cell in your body wants to say "you are wrong."
→ It is thanking someone for their honesty even when their delivery was clumsy and it stung.
→ It is sleeping on feedback that feels unfair. Then waking up and finding that some of it is true and deciding to take it on.

You do not have to be perfect at this.
You just have to be 5% better than last month.

The more truth people tell you, the less scary it becomes.
Not because feedback gets easier.
But because you prove to yourself that honesty does not destroy you.

It builds you.

Follow me, Ani Filipova, for more on leadership and building a career on your terms.
♻️ Repost if a leader in your network needs to hear this.

-----
📌 Check my free webinars this month:
Future of work: https://lnkd.in/gT5S8Sbs
Portfolio career: https://lnkd.in/gf-ifWqj

Some people did everything right and still didn’t make it.

I think about them a lot.

They made smart decisions.
Built the right skills.
Were genuinely good at what they did.

And the break never came.

Meanwhile, I know people (myself included) who caught a moment of luck so precise, so accidental, that if you shifted timing by six months, or moved geography by one country, the whole story collapses.

Here are two of mine:

1) A colleague in London mentioned, almost in passing, that there was a COO role available. I applied. I got it. That one conversation shaped the next chapter of my career.

2) Years later, I got invited to an event where entrepreneurs pitched to magazine editors. I saw what people were building. The energy in the room. The possibilities. That night is a direct line to me leaving my job.

Neither moment was “earned”.
Both changed everything.

And I know plenty of successful people have these moments too, but they rarely mention them because it complicates their success story.

We are sooo binary:

- Success is merit: work hard, decide well, win.
- Success is luck: hard work doesn't matter anyway.

The real version sits in the middle.

Decisions create the conditions.
Luck pulls the trigger.

Sometimes luck pulls the trigger for someone who didn’t deserve it.
Sometimes it never shows up for someone who did.

If you are navigating this, here is what I know:

1️⃣  Your decisions still matter a great deal.
They don’t guarantee the outcome.
But they are how you stack the odds in your favour.

2️⃣  Luck is real.
You don’t get to choose when it shows up. Acknowledging it keeps you hungry without making you bitter, and grateful without making you passive.

3️⃣  Make peace with the unfairness.
This is the hardest part.
Sometimes you do everything right and still don’t make it. The only move left is to accept and move on

The truth is: most success stories are part skill, part luck, and a lot of editing.

---
You can’t control luck, but you can control your odds.
That’s what we build inside the Portfolio Career Accelerator. Apply here: https://lnkd.in/gpEqqqFs

or DM me

I used to think I handled feedback well.

Then I watched myself get defensive almost immediately.

I nodded. Said, “Thank you for sharing.”

Then spent the next three days arguing with it in my head.
And thinking, “Who does he think he is?”

Here is what most people get wrong about criticism:

They do not hear, “Here is how to improve.”
They hear, “You are not as good as you thought.”

That is why people:

▶️ Get defensive.
▶️ Justify themselves.
▶️ Go quiet.
▶️ Blame the delivery.

It feels like a threat.

The top 1% leaders do not hear feedback and think, “That is unfair.”

They think, “What is useful here?”

That shift changes everything.

Here is what that looks like:

▶️ Pause.
▶️ Let them finish.
▶️ Write it down.
▶️ Ask for an example.

Then leave the room and decide what is signal and what is noise.

Not all feedback is right.
But almost all feedback reveals something.

If you want to grow fast:

Stop protecting your ego.
Start mining for signal.

Feedback is uncomfortable.
But staying the same is worse.

Follow me, Ani Filipova, for leadership truths most people avoid.
♻️ Repost if someone in your network needs to hear this.

How to learn so fast it feels unfair.

Here is why this matters now more than ever:

- The half-life of skills is shrinking.
- What you learned 5 years ago may already be outdated.
- AI is changing industries faster than most people can adapt.

Learning how to learn is no longer a nice-to-have.
It is the skill that makes all other skills possible.

Leaving corporate was one of the biggest learning curve of my life.

- Suddenly, no team.
- No structure.
- No playbook.

If I did not learn fast, I did not earn.

So I devoured information.
And still felt behind.
Because volume is not the same as mastery.

When I interviewed Dr. Justin Sung on my podcast, he explained why.
The best learners do 3 things differently:

1️⃣ They pause.
Your brain needs time to organise what it just received.

2️⃣ They synthesise.
They teach it, apply it, turn it into something useful.
This is where real understanding happens.
And where you discover what you actually do not know yet.

3️⃣ They compare.
They connect new ideas to what they already know.
This anchors new knowledge into your existing mental frameworks.
It makes learning stick.

🎥 Watch the full podcast episode with Dr.Sung here: https://lnkd.in/g32j73jq

♻️ Repost if someone in your network needs to learn faster.

I built my first income stream with a Calendly link and 5,000 followers.

My only regret? Waiting until I left my COO job to start.

While you are at your job, you have the credibility.
You do not need the testimonials.
You have the big title as a crown, and you are sought after.

Who would not choose to be coached by a COO?

But I convinced myself I needed to leave first.
I thought it would look strange.

So I waited.
I left.
And then I started from almost zero.

It still worked.
But it took longer than it needed to.

Because once you no longer have the crown to vouch for you, you need something else - you need proof that you are doing a good job.

So, I started.

Just one offer: I will help you prepare for interviews or figure out your next career move.
No website.
No marketing funnel.

At that time I was posting three times a week on LinkedIn.
I remember refreshing my inbox constantly to see if I had new bookings.

One person booked.
Then another.
Then people started sending me messages saying, “That session changed everything.”

Those messages became my proof.

The testimonials replaced the title.

Imagine having the title AND the testimonials - you will have a much better start in your portfolio career.

You do not need a business plan to start.
You do not need a big audience.
You do not need to quit your job first.

You need one skill.
One person willing to pay for it.
One session.

That is how it starts.

Most people already know what that skill is.
They just haven’t treated it like an offer yet.

I walk through the exact steps to build a portfolio career - including how to start while still employed - inside the Portfolio Career Accelerator. Cohort 1 is underway, and Cohort 2 is starting on April 27, 2026

Apply here: https://lnkd.in/gpEqqqFs

Career Strategist I Change advisor for Leaders | I help successful professionals build freedom, income & impact through portfolio careers | Speaker I Ex-Citi COO | Follow for modern leadership, career and change

I have appeared on Bloomberg from a desk that looks like a crime scene.

Papers everywhere.
Cables tangled.
Notes scribbled on random sheets.
Three pairs of spectacles because I can never find the right ones.

Chaos.

Or so it looks.

Here is the secret: I know exactly where everything is.

That mess is my system.
It works for me.
It has always worked for me.

From this desk I have recorded over 100 podcast interviews.
Run webinars.
Taught in my community and accelerator.
Coached clients.
Appeared on Bloomberg.
Delivered keynotes.

No fancy studio.
Amazing sophisticated office.
Just me, a microphone, and a desk that looks like a crime scene.

We spend so much energy to look "professional."
The clean background.
The perfect setup.
The polished image.

Meanwhile, the real work, the “magic” happens elsewhere.

You do not need a fancy studio to be taken seriously.
You do not need a minimalist setup to be credible.
You do not need to hide your chaos to be professional.

What you need is a system that works for you.
Even if nobody else understands it.

Most people are optimising how they look.
Very few are optimising how they work.

♻️ Repost if your workspace would never make it on camera.
Follow me Ani Filipova for leadership and career stories without the performance layer.
------

📌 Check my free webinars this month:
Future of work: https://lnkd.in/gT5S8Sbs
Portfolio career: https://lnkd.in/gf-ifWqj

I am a Ex-Corporate turned Entrepreneur/ Honest and Positive LinkedIn Connection

With over 28 years of corporate secretarial experience,  I aim to help my clients and leads to achieve their goals through our outsourcing solutions - corporate secretarial, accounting, tax compliance and payroll services.

Robin YOO

1 cent nugget - Gong Xi Fa Cai (Happy Lunar New Year)

Hello my dearest nuggetters ❤️💕

To those celebrating  - May the Year of Fire 🔥 Horse mints success to you and that your family stay protected and safe. 

To those not - Please enjoy your holidays and remember to go visit your Chinese friends as you may get red packets too 😊 

It is another Lunar New Year and it is a practice to add another year to our Roman calendar too. 

So Uncle Robin is getting to my 55 soon. Yay. 

Being old is one thing, being wise is another.  

As they says, with age, 

Our eyes may get blurry however we will definitely see through bullshits as they come along.

Gong Xi Fa Cai, my dearest LI friends ❤️ 

#1centnugget

Robin Yoo

I am a Ex-Corporate turned Entrepreneur/ Honest and Positive LinkedIn Connection / Uncle Robin loves to tell stories and share 😀

1 cent nugget - Warm Welcome

When I started my Corporate career, I was just getting a job. 

Yup, a job to take care of my family. 

Slowly, it became a financial pursuit. 

As I got older, I realised that working hard won't get me the money. 

I started investing into stocks. 

Well, got burnt many times however it made me smarter and avoid certain theme stocks. 

As I gotten more savvy about finance, I got greedy. 

Yes, who isn't if there is a chance to get super returns. 

I guess what I have got was super stupidity. 

Guess that's Life, and we learn to rebound from it.

Just like Entrepreneurship,  no one will be there to teach us everything. 

Sometimes, we stumble. We don't get it right all the time. 

At least we tried. 

Happy Lunar New Year and with the Horse cometh, it will be my 7th year of this entrepreneurship.

Will I get better, only Time will tell. 

Good luck and have a great celebration 🍾  

Love y'all 
Uncle Robin ❤️💕

1 cent nugget - Reunion Time 

It is incredible to say the feeling on How we view the growth path of each businesses.

As they grow in size, I tend to feel a little intimidated.

Who is everyone now. 

Am I spending enough time speaking with them.

Or perhaps, how personal should I be for each of them. 

Colleagues are key to each company in my view. 

Everyone is important and everyone is requested to be performance driven. 

Firmly, as we grow, Agile 8 remains committed to giving performance driven delivery. 

Why - because we don't have too many clients. 

We have great clients  only 🤣

As we have our Chinese tradition - Lunar Year End Dinner, we herald the upcoming Year of the Fire Horse in Chinese Lunar Calendar soon.

Here, I wish all my clients, network, friends and partners - 

"A Great Gallop in the Year of the Horse to where ever destination You may seek!"

Heng, Ong Huat Ah ( Lucky lucky luck)

#1centnugget

1 cent nugget- What We Wish For

At 54 years old, I don't ask for more. 

Steady business and health to see through the growth of my daughter

Don't we wish for many things. 

Wealth, smooth career path, health and many other reasons.

Wishing is one thing.....Living it is another.

Same as an entrepreneur. 

You may not want to spend your Life chasing after money and success, that you forgotten to Live your Life.

Sometimes, we may wish for many things however ultimately, only one thing remains true. 

Your family and You.

Happy Tuesday, my dearest LI friends ❤️💕

When we achive success, there is plenty of people whom had helped us. 

Remember, what we wish For is one thing, Who had helped Us is another.

#1centnugget

1 cent nugget - Keep on Going

As I sit by the road side near Frankfurt, I had  an urge to start looking at my handphone.

Yup, checking emails and see if there are any important messages.

I knew I had colleagues who had taken care of almost everything. 

This is so Corporate, I remembered telling myself. 

As an entrepreneur, it is difficult in the starting years. 

For me, 3 years is about being tough and difficult. 

The next 3 years was even harder. As I kept on grinding, I knew that everyone benefits afterall. 

My colleagues, clients and network. It is a friendly ecosystem for us all.

You will walk and fall as an Entrepreneur. 

When the time is right, have a sit. Be it by the roadside, kerb or maybe a stool.

Starting out is tough already and there is nothing more fearful, than to give up what we have started. 

Of course, there are some of us who have taken the entrepreneurial journey and went back to Corporate.

To me, thats amazing as these experiences will definitely be put to good use. 

Happy Monday, my dearest LI friends ❤️ 💕

#1centnugget

1 cent nugget - Where Does Your Path Go

As an entrepreneur, I have seen quite a number of new business owners burn out.

They tend to do everything themselves. 

Often than not, they ask around to find an answer and try their hands on the things.

In the end, time is spent and focus is lost. 

Worse still some tried and fail. Then they get in the experts which cost more. 

I am one of them. 

In the beginning, 6 years ago, I was the Head of IT, Finance, Marketing and Sales, Call Centre and also General Manager.

I did everything as I was new. 

It was really tough. 

Yes, I have learnt along the way however as my business grows, these functions eventually was given out to the experts.

Once we have chosen a path, my view now is to focus on them. 

How about You? 

Aren't you tired of doing everything and being Everything to Everyone. 

I have been there. 

Chart your path and focus on What you Do best. 

Leave the rest to the rest.

Happy Wednesday,  my dearest LI friends ❤️💕

#1centnugget

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The Battle

Ani Filipova

Robin YOO

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