Leap Academy with Ilana Golan - Client Spotlight: From Tech Manager to Chasing Her Dream

Starting point is 00:00:00 All of those exercises, the team support, the conversations, watching other people kind of go through the same thing and understanding, you know, I'm not the only one that feels stuck. You know, there's a lot of people feeling stuck. And then, you know, with you and the things that you've done, there's so much trust built into it, though, right? Like it couldn't have been anybody else for me. I don't know that maybe that maybe it could have. But for me personally, it helps so much because I know all of the things that you've done, or at least know half of them. When you speak, you speak from experience, not from, you know, ideology, right? Yeah. So I would say it was everything for me. So I want you to tell a little more about your time in corporate, just short.

Starting point is 00:00:54 Yeah. So, you know, it's a great place to be, right? So for some period of your life, there's a lot of challenges. You can learn a lot. I was lucky to be in a lot of startups. So there was no limit, you know, really to what I could do. But at some point, you know, I ended up in a long-term relationship with a huge corporation, right? And that's not a startup, right? So there are limits. There's a lot of politics involved. And the ability to drive change becomes very difficult. And that is what I love to do. So I love to create, invent, you know, something's broken, let's go fix it. Let's just do it, right? And that became sort of this huge burden and discomfort for me. And just so frustrating, right? I couldn't,

Starting point is 00:01:47 I couldn't, you could see the train coming, you could see a problem, but you just can't fix it. Or you could see an opportunity that would be, you know, an amazing thing. And you just can't, right? It's like pushing this boulder uphill, and they push it down, you push it back up, and they push it down. And, you know, I just realized like, this is just no good. And I was just killing myself with frustration and work trying to push this boulder up this mountain. And I just said, you know, this is this isn't good. So I left that corporation. And so you joined me in January. What happened? I mean, you were like one of the fastest leaps I've ever seen. That was one of the most challenging leaps too.

Starting point is 00:02:31 So what happened? Well, I went through the exercises, right? And like I said, there were some things that came out of that. I think the things that are most top of my mind are, you know, the questions about what would you do if nothing else mattered, right? You know, it's sort of the, you won the lottery question. And I've always been one to say, I'm not going to not work. Like, I will always work. It's just part of me. I would be bored being retired. So, you know, what would you do if you could do anything? And what are your priorities at this point? Right. And, and so those two things were put down on paper, and

Starting point is 00:03:13 I did the exercise, but still in the back of my mind is this was this sense of security, I think. And so consult and what I naturally did, right. And that's kind of a topic of conversation that came up many times in the program. And that was kind of a topic of conversation that came up many times in the program. And that was, you know, you kind of end up doing things because that's where you should be or what you should do or what you're used to, you know, this sort of sense of, um, complacency and, um, Society expects you to do or what you're comfortable with or yeah.

Starting point is 00:03:43 What you've always done. done right you've just always done it yeah and um and so it is what you're comfortable with it's what you know and so i was going i was still i think not really opening up to the program so i'm like sticking with this consultant thing right because again it's in my comfort zone it It's something I know I can do well at. And it got me a lot of the freedoms and things I was wanting. But it also did come with probably more money. And so I said I didn't want the money, but here I am going after the money, sort of. I think that was more security. But anyways, we're, you know, so going through the program, learning these things about myself and having a conversation with the team and somebody brought up, you know, when you talk about consulting, first of all, you're talking about working for somebody else, which I'd never seen it that way, but you really are. You're just doing what they tell you to do, especially if you're in government. And then secondly,

Starting point is 00:04:45 when you talk about opening this vegan thing, you're talking about your whole body language changes. And I, you know, I didn't know that. And it made me think, you know, much harder about that. And what I do know, based on my career, if you're passionate about something, it will work. You know, this was one of those things outside of technology that I spent a lot of time just daydreaming about, right? And long conversations with my daughter, who's also vegan, and oh, we would do this, and we would do that, and write down these notes, but never really did anything. Again, like the whole course is around like, you know, making this huge change and being comfortable with that. And how do you do it, right?

Starting point is 00:05:33 And that's what I came to terms with. Yeah, and said, you know, I'm going to get uncomfortable and I'm going to stop the complacency and I'm going to go actually do this. And one of the most exciting things about it is my daughters have heard me talk about idea after idea. It's just was really cool that they saw me actually do this. Like they've heard me talk about this and of course other ideas through the years. And I feel really happy, I guess is the best term I can think of, or satisfied that I showed them, you know, even though they're 27 and 30, but I showed them you can make any change you want, you know, you can make it happen.

Starting point is 00:06:22 What do you think was the impact of CareerLeap on this? Just in terms of your personal feeling. Oh, I... It was everything from my perspective, because that's what... The program is designed to support somebody to do exactly what I did. And without that program, kind of walking through the, what are you working for? What do you want to do? What are you good at? Where are you passionate? What drives you? You know, what is today look like versus, you know,

Starting point is 00:06:59 where you were yesterday and that's okay. And how do you transfer skills? And, um, all of those exercises, the team support, the conversations, watching other people, um, kind of go through the same thing and understanding, you know, I'm not the only one that feels stuck, you know? Um, there's a lot of people feeling stuck. And then, you know, with you and the things that you've done, there's a lot of people feeling stuck and then, you know, with you and the things that you've done, there's so much trust built into it though. Right? Like it couldn't have been anybody else for me. Um, I don't know that maybe that maybe it could have.

Starting point is 00:07:35 Um, but for me personally, it helps so much because I know all of the things that you've done or at least know half of them. You're so sweet. Yeah. But I mean, if you know, you, I know when you speak, you speak from experience, not from, you know, ideology. Right. Yeah. Um, so I would say it was everything for me. I live alone. I have my two dogs. My kids are raised. If I was consulting or in technology, I would be working out of my house and I would be

Starting point is 00:08:05 alone all the time. Wow. Okay. Yeah. And I have this, I have created this COVID proof world. Seriously, I am out every day in a safe way. We've always had masks, always done all that. And I meet your clients by the way, because they're all right. Believe in exactly mindset. We are amazing. Yes. I mean, I haven't known any other vegans other than my daughter really ever. And so now all of these people around me are of the same mindset and have a lot of the same, you know, passions and goals

Starting point is 00:08:45 around health and environments and, um, and animal welfare. And so that's super cool. So yeah, it's exciting. I mean, they're excited. They're excited for me. I have a number of regular customers that I now consider friends. Um, you know, it, yeah, it's, it's so inspiring. And there's always a conversation. I mean, I'm not quite sure how I'm going to scale with that because there's just always a conversation, which is great though. So again, I get this huge social outlet, right? Who's meeting new people in COVID times? Me. Right. You're the only one. I've been here. That's crazy. I don't know a lot of other people that are. And, um,

Leap Academy with Ilana Golan - Client Spotlight: From Tech Manager to Chasing Her Dream

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