Hit with a brick at 59 – Menopause, cultural intelligence, and never asking for permission – with Sophie Solomon

Sophie Solomon has lived in four countries, spoken four languages, and worked at some of the biggest companies in the world. Autodesk, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Accenture. She quit a leadership track at 34 to raise four kids, started a company while pregnant with her fourth, and came back to corporate America like nothing happened.

At 59, perimenopause hit her like a freight train. Debilitating brain fog. No real answers from doctors. No support from her company. So she did what Sophie does: she built it herself. With zero budget and zero mandate, she created a menopause education program inside an 800,000-person organization and turned it into a model that others are now following.

But this episode is about way more than menopause. It's about what it takes to reinvent yourself, not once, but multiple times. About cultural intelligence and why most people in global business don't even know they're missing it. About the difference between empowerment and militancy. About being a people connector so relentlessly that you steal everyone's friends (Jose's words, not hers). And about a woman who has never once asked for permission to take up space and has no intention of starting now.

This is one of the longest episodes we've done. Not a single minute was wasted.