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.

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📌 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

Public Policy Leader | Technologist | Lawyer | Speaker

I am a public policy director, who is well-versed in law and regulation, especially at the intersection of law, policy and technology. 

I have developed policies and regulations on ICT infrastructure and services, resilience, cybersecurity, competition and consumer protection matters. 

I am also experienced in data protection and regulation, including the formulation of data-related legislation and policies. 

I also headed up global public policy for a tech MNC, as well as served as its chief Data Protection Officer for its international businesses, focusing on legal and compliance, government affairs, and international trends and developments in tech regulation. 

I have also formulated policies and frameworks at the Government level to facilitate the introduction and adoption of new technologies such as 5G and AI in a sustainable, inclusive, and trusted manner.

Finally, as my passion project, I established my own watch brand, TENNET, to parlay my love for horology into a product line that is well designed, built with best-in-class materials, and delivers excellent value to customers.

All views expressed here are of a personal nature and do not represent the organisations I am working or have worked with.

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