The Leap Academy Podcast with Ilana Golan is all about honest and inspiring conversations about what it really takes to leap to bigger things, amazing careers, and craft the life you want. Stories and tips you won't find anywhere else. Ilana speaks with some of the world's most influential people, experts, and thinkers who created incredible careers, massive impact, built a reputation, and an extraordinary life. Together we discover the untold truths, the emotions, and important lessons that enabled them to reinvent themselves & leap. We take our audience on a journey that will not only inspire but also teach concrete lessons on how to leap careers: fast-track to leadership, jump to entrepreneurship, build a personal brand, portfolio career, and much more.
184 episodes transcribedMike Fisher’s career has taken him from West Point and flying helicopters in the U.S. Army to leading technology teams at PayPal, serving as CTO of Et...
Tom Cortese helped turn an idea that investors rejected hundreds of times into Peloton—an $8.1 billion public company that completely changed the way...
Sir Richard Harpin put £50,000 of his life savings into a business that nearly collapsed—twice. That company eventually became HomeServe, serving mill...
At 18 years old, Shawn Nelson had a crazy idea: build a beanbag so massive it could fill an entire room. That idea eventually became Lovesac, a public...
Manu Sai Bakshi arrived in New York with $2,500, a new wife, and a degree that wasn’t recognized in the U.S. Within weeks, he was applying for a job a...
Ilana Golan knows what it feels like to lose everything. After climbing from the Air Force to Intel to VP in a Silicon Valley startup, she thought she...
Christina Tosi didn’t have a clear five-year plan when she graduated from college. She tried different majors, worked odd jobs, and kept searching for...
What does it really take to solve impossible problems? In this episode of Leap Academy with Ilana Golan, Ilana sits down with Astro Teller, CEO of Go...
At 16, his grandmother fled Kraków after the Nazis killed her father, worked a New York factory floor beside her mother, and applied to every medical...
Revisiting one of our most-downloaded episodes, Tom Bilyeu shares his powerful journey from self-doubt to self-mastery. His early years were shaped by...
In one of our most popular episodes, Amy Porterfield had a dream job working with Tony Robbins, one of the world’s top motivational speakers and busin...
On our most replayed episode, Gary ‘Vee’ Vaynerchuk talks about how being scrappy wasn’t just a choice for him; it was his only way forward. After yea...
As a kid struggling with ADHD and financial instability, David watched his family nearly lose their home before taking a door-to-door sales job as a b...
Mark Tluszcz had the career most people would chase: a top consulting job, rapid success, and a clear path forward. But eight years in, he made a move...
John Paul DeJoria grew up with no connections, no money, and no roadmap. He sold encyclopedias door-to-door despite constant rejection, got fired from...
Despite his high intelligence, George Barrios nearly flunked out of both high school and college, drifting without discipline or direction. Realizing...
When Eric Ries built his first startup, he believed he had the perfect plan. But when no customers showed up, the business collapsed, exposing a costl...
Jason Feifer started his career writing about middle school dances at a tiny local newspaper, frustrated and convinced he was capable of more. Stuck i...
Tim Draper didn’t become a legendary investor with billions in his account overnight; he started by taking a $6 million loan to launch his first ventu...
When Yancey Strickler moved to New York, he was broke, freelancing for $50, and chasing a writing career. Little did he know, his gift for building on...
