“The pilots who survive aren’t the most skilled—they’re the ones who adapt fastest.”
In this episode, I explain why your current identity—the expertise you’ve built over years—might be your biggest obstacle to adapting at AI speed. I break down the “OODA loop” and how it can determine your success in business.
Key Topics:
- Why a sense of stability could be your downfall in the AI era
- Three-step protocol for building an AI-first identity
- The uncomfortable truth about letting go of who you’ve been in order to adapt
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00:00:00:01 - 00:00:21:22
Itamar Marani
In combat, aviation survival often comes down to one main thing making better decisions faster than your opponent. It's referred to as the OODA loop. Observe, orient, decide, and then act. And the pilot who cycles through this loop faster wins the dogfight. When I served in the Israeli Special Operations, this wasn't just theory. It was real life and death.
00:00:22:00 - 00:00:45:18
Itamar Marani
The faster adopter survived the slow one die. And right now, whether you like it or not, you're in a dogfight with AI and your competitors. And just like an aerial combat, the speed of adaptation often determines who wins and who loses. But there's something that's probably holding you back from doing that that you probably haven't even noticed. If you don't know me yet.
00:00:45:19 - 00:01:10:10
Itamar Marani
My name is Itamar Amrani, a max Israeli Special Operations. I spent over a decade in the special ops world. I was also mentored by the Mossad chief psychologist and have not coached hundreds of entrepreneurs and how to develop a military grade mindset so they can achieve everything that somebody with their skill set should be able to. I've also watched countless talented business owners these days get blindsided by a guy not because they couldn't see it coming, but because they couldn't adapt fast enough.
00:01:10:12 - 00:01:34:12
Itamar Marani
They were trapped by something more dangerous than any external threat. Their own identity. So picture this. You're great at what you do. You've spent years, maybe even decades, mastering your craft. You've built success through specific skills, methods and ways of working. And that identity, who you are and how you operate, has served you very well. But here's the brutal truth.
00:01:34:14 - 00:02:00:22
Itamar Marani
That same identity can now be your biggest liability. When pilots get locked into old patterns. They die. When entrepreneurs get locked into old identities, their companies can die. Different stakes. But it's the same principle. So let me share a very real and very clear example from one of my coaching clients. I used to work with a copywriter who built a seven figure business, writing high, converting sales copy and funnels for clients.
00:02:01:00 - 00:02:22:12
Itamar Marani
He was very proud of his craft, his research process, his ability to find the perfect word, so to speak. And then charge you better, right. Instead of embracing A.I., he doubled down on being more human. He thought that was his niche, and he spent weeks crafting copy that I could generate in minutes. His identity is what he called a master wordsmith, was killing his business.
00:02:22:14 - 00:02:41:19
Itamar Marani
Now, the solution wasn't about working harder at his craft or trying to say he was more human. It was about reimagining his entire role, letting go of his identity as a wordsmith, and adopting a new one as an AI powered message strategist. And today, he uses AI generate 20 versions of copy in the same time he used to take him to write just one.
00:02:41:21 - 00:03:01:08
Itamar Marani
And then he can apply his expertise to select and refine the best approach and just build better funnels and get better results because he was able to shift that identity. Let go of wanting to be that wordsmith and to have all the ego that comes with it. His income has tripled. And more importantly, though, he's moving at an AI speed.
00:03:01:10 - 00:03:23:16
Itamar Marani
So here's what nobody talks about with identity. Identity. It gives you a lot of stability, which is great. But stability usually comes as a cost of mobility. And in the age of AI mobility, the ability to shift and adapt rapidly is everything. Think about standing with both feet firmly planted on the ground. If you're stable and solid and if someone pushes you, you won't fall.
00:03:23:16 - 00:03:50:19
Itamar Marani
Right now, that stability has served many business owners very well throughout the years. It's helped them resist chasing shiny objects, stick to their values, maintain course during hard times. Right. But there's a problem when both feet are firmly planted, you can't really move. You're stuck. And right now, with this rapid change in AI, being stuck is actually more dangerous than being unstable.
00:03:50:21 - 00:04:12:15
Itamar Marani
In this unprecedented time, almost a VR investment, you need to favor mobility over stability. Otherwise you're going to get left behind. You need to be ready to move, to pivot and adapt, even if it means feeling less secure. And this plays out in several critical areas. So in decision making, the stable position is to stick to what's working.
00:04:12:17 - 00:04:31:23
Itamar Marani
The mobile position is to quickly experiment and rapidly learn. As far as skill development, the stable position is to master one craft very deeply. The mobile position with the AI is to learn and adapt constantly in business strategy. It's right now to perfect your current model. That's a stable position, but the mobile position is to test new approaches weekly.
00:04:32:01 - 00:04:50:12
Itamar Marani
There's just things that are now available with A.I. that if you're not following them, you're not doing them. Somebody else will pay. But let's get much deeper than that and talk about something real for a moment. Your identity, who you think you are, how you work, what you're good at. It's not just a set of habits. It's your safety net.
00:04:50:14 - 00:05:11:05
Itamar Marani
It's what tells you. I've got this. When challenges come up, it's your emotional stronghold and it comforts you in the face of fear and the unknown. And I see this with my highest performing clients not just their skills, but with their values, how they handle conflict compensation or their teams, that identity of knowing this is how I do things.
00:05:11:07 - 00:05:32:14
Itamar Marani
It keeps them steady when everything else feels uncertain. It's something to always be able to reflect back to, and that's why it's so powerful. But again, here's the hard truth. Right now, we're all standing at a crossroads. You can keep both feet planted. Hold on. That sense of safety and eventually get left behind. Or you can accept some uncertainty.
00:05:32:16 - 00:05:56:16
Itamar Marani
Lift one foot and step into new territory. On a personal level, when I transition from special operations to business, I had to let go of my identity as an elite operator. It wasn't easy, and being an operator meant something to me. It meant that I was capable. I was tough and I was elite. And letting go of all of that in order to go to a new field, the field of business where my identity was that of a novice, an amateur.
00:05:56:18 - 00:06:21:08
Itamar Marani
It wasn't fun, but if I would have saved planted in that old identity, I wouldn't be here talking to you guys today, and I wouldn't have built what I've built. Sometimes the most dangerous thing you can do is to stay in your safe zone and identity a lot of times actually forces us to do that. Here's your three step protocol for shedding your old identity and building an air first mindset.
00:06:21:10 - 00:06:51:11
Itamar Marani
First off, you've got to identify your current pattern. Start by spotting where your identity is slowing you down, which tasks you resist automating. What processes do you insist on controlling? Or where do you say? That's not how we do things. What skills do you pride yourself on that Hey, I might do better. The reality is that if you can already answer these questions right off the top of your head and you logically know you shouldn't be doing these things, then you are emotionally holding yourself back.
00:06:51:12 - 00:07:15:04
Itamar Marani
That old identity, you think is actually keeping you safe is killing your progress. Next, ask yourself these hard questions. If you started your business today, what would you do differently? How would you compete with an AI first version of yourself? And now, once you have those questions that might ruffle some internal feathers, except that this is going to be uncomfortable.
00:07:15:07 - 00:07:38:18
Itamar Marani
It's going to feel unnatural and clunky. And basically you're stepping away from what you knew and possibly what you define yourself as. And that's inherently uncomfortable. But start small and start now. Don't overwhelm yourself. Run daily experiments, measure the results, not the comfort. And always start with the default question. Any task of If I had to do this with a AI, how would I do it?
00:07:38:20 - 00:08:03:16
Itamar Marani
When I first started using A.I. in my coaching practice, I resisted. I resisted letting it help with client notes. For some reason, even with some of the content like this. My identity was tied to being thorough and personal. But by experimenting, I discovered that A.I. could help me create better summaries and minutes instead of hours gives me more time for their reclined impact and also helps me put my ideas together faster, more impactful and engaging content.
00:08:03:18 - 00:08:28:06
Itamar Marani
Again, is it sometimes uncomfortable? Yes. But is it effective? Absolutely. So in closing, the pilots who survive aren't necessarily the most skilled. They're the ones who are able to adapt the fastest. And the same applies to you in the air. Your competition isn't just other businesses anymore. It's the speed of A.I. advancement itself. And just like in a dog fight, if you're too slow to adapt, you will lose.
00:08:28:08 - 00:08:54:00
Itamar Marani
This isn't about becoming less human or abandoning your expertise. It's about becoming a faster, more adaptable version of yourself, someone who can observe new opportunities or in quickly the changes decide on action and execute at an AI speed. So don't let your old identity become what kills your company. Accept the discomfort of being incompetent in this new technology and start approaching everything with an A.I. first mindset today.
00:08:54:02 - 00:09:10:01
Itamar Marani
And if you're not sure about how to go about this or what you should be approaching with an AI first mindset, we have a free tool to help you get extreme clarity on what your biggest A.I. opportunity is. Right now it's 100% free and you can go to the link below to exit right now and start winning fast.
