In episode 363 of The Real Jason Duncan Podcast, Tom LeNoble discusses how he built careers at Facebook, Walmart, HP, and Verizon — the jobs most people spend their whole lives chasing. And then his body started breaking down. More than once. Life-threatening. And in those hospital rooms, stripped of every title he had built his identity on, he found out the truth his business cards had been hiding for years: his value was never in what he did.

Tom LeNoble has held leadership roles at Facebook, Walmart.com, Palm, and MCI. He's now CEO of the Academy for Coaching Excellence and a leadership coach at Santa Clara University's Miller Center for Global Impact. He survived multiple life-threatening illnesses and has lived with metastatic cancer for over fourteen years. He is the #1 bestselling author of My Life in Business Suits, Hospital Gowns, and High Heels — a memoir that traces everything we talk about in this conversation. Today, Tom sits down with Jason to expose one of the most invisible and dangerous golden cages a high performer can build: the belief that your worth lives in your title, your role, and how well you perform. Lose the role, and you lose yourself. Until you finally find out that was never true.

This episode dives into:

The moment Tom first suspected the business suit wasn't doing what he thought it was doing

Growing up in humble beginnings — and how that wired him to chase titles as proof of worth

The lie culture, family, and industry handed him — and how long he believed it before the truth hit

What it actually felt like to be on a fast track at some of the biggest companies in the world — and why it still felt like something was missing

Surviving life-threatening illness more than once — and why the first time wasn't enough to crack the cage open

What happened in the gap between diagnoses — and what belief was strong enough to pull him back into the performance even after his body sounded the alarm

The moment everything he thought he knew turned out to be wrong

Why the most dangerous cage isn't built from failure — it's built from real results and genuine achievement

What it looks like to coach senior executives who are deep inside the same cage he almost died inside — and why most of them are certain they're not

Why title-identity is the hardest cage to call out to a high performer

The truth on the other side: your value was never in what you did — it's in who you are, what you share, and how you serve others

What he knows now that he wishes someone had told him twenty years ago — and why nobody did

What he wants the world to know

If you've ever used a title, a company name, or a role to answer the question "who are you?" — this episode is the one that finally names what that costs.

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Who is Tom LeNoble?

Tom LeNoble is the CEO of the Academy for Coaching Excellence, a leadership coach at Santa Clara University's Miller Center for Global Impact, and a confidential advisor to executives, founders, and nonprofit leaders navigating the moments where strategy alone is no longer enough. He has held senior leadership roles at Facebook, Walmart.com, Palm, and MCI — and has lived with metastatic cancer for over fourteen years, having been told he had six months to live more than once. He is the #1 bestselling author of My Life in Business Suits, Hospital Gowns, and High Heels, available on Amazon. His work helps high performers stop performing for worth — and start leading from it.

Tom LeNoble's Website: www.tomlenoble.com Email: [email protected] Tom LeNoble's Social Media: Instagram: @lenoble.tom LinkedIn: Tom LeNoble

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