Leap Academy with Ilana Golan - Solo - Building your Portfolio Career

Episode Date: September 23, 2023

Why is building your portfolio career mandatory for the future of work? This is a MUST listen.Would you like to learn the 4 steps our clients use to make huge leaps in their careers? Check out my FREE training https://training.leapacademy.com/register Need some guidance ASAP? Grab a FREE career coaching session with our team:https://www.leapacademy.com/apply About Ilana Golan & Leap Academy:Website - https://www.leapacademy.com/Follow Ilana on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ilanagolan/YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/@ilanagolan-leap-academy

Welcome to The Leap Show. In The Leap Show, we're here to bring experts from around the globe who share inspiring stories, concrete tips, and insight on what helped them become the best version of themselves and who they are today and create the incredible life that they wanted. Subscribe and follow us. Share this with friends who are also driven and aiming for more because you'll hear stories and tips that you'll hear stories and tips that you'll hear nowhere else. Hi, I'm Ilana Golan, CEO of Leap Academy, which helps driven professionals

reinvent, leap their careers to the next level. Now let's get started. Welcome, welcome to the Leap Show. I'm so glad you're here because today I have a really, really important topic. From time to time, I go solo on something I'm very, very passionate about. And today I want to talk to you about portfolio career and why this is the future of work. Look, there is only one way to get ahead today. And I want you to listen closely because you just have to have what we call a portfolio career. Your entire identity cannot be your title. It cannot be dependent on this one company that you're with. You must control the narrative to create a future that is based on your passion and the legacy that you want and to create your freedom. It's not just about a career. It's about your life. And you want to

create the freedom to choose. And that freedom to choose is everything. And we'll talk about why. Because for a long time, people used to just go to work, work there for 40 years, retire. That was enough for them. Right now, it's clearly not enough. But in some cases, people just move from one job to another job, and this is it. But guess what? This is not the solution for the future of work, period. You're going to have to diversify. Just like you diversify investments, just like you diversify a lot of other things, you're going to have to diversify your career. You're going to have to accelerate your impact, your growth, become the best person that you can be. What's available right now, the possibilities that exist right now are creating portfolio

of income streams, build something bigger for yourself with yourself, right? To create a portfolio of things that you're involved with, a portfolio career. Now, you may have a primary. That's totally fine. You usually will, whether it's in corporate, whether it's on business, that's where you spend the majority of their time. But you should absolutely have a full portfolio to maximize your potential, your impact, your reputation and income. But here's the catch. It does not mean that you just throw spaghetti on the wall to see what sticks. But you need to be very, very intentional and strategic about every move you make and how you look at your future, how you paint the art of

what's possible, and you take those steps to achieve bigger things and how you stand on the shoulder of what you achieve to aim even higher. Okay, so let's talk about why portfolio career and why is it now? So if you look at what's available and what's going on in technology, technology is moving at a pace that nobody is even able to grasp. We used to not know how to read 50 years into the future. We can't even read five months into the future now, okay? Individuals, you will need to reinvent yourself and leap again, again, again, in order to stay relevant, in order to even just be in the arena, in order to just be relevant and just to be in the game, right? Now, on the other hand, the number of options for income are exponentially

higher than what they've ever been. The gig economy makes it super simple to make extra income. The ease of starting businesses is just like this. The type of businesses that you can start are endless. You can franchise, you can do investments, we can go on and on. It's never-ending. Now, usually people don't even realize what's on the menu, but there's a lot of options and you're going to have to start opening your eyes to what's available. Now, the other element is that people now have different priorities than they used to have. We're not in survival mode. We don't want to live paycheck to paycheck. We want to live not an okay life. We want to live an incredible life. We want maybe the financial independence or the

geographic independence to work from anywhere. Some want massive impact to feel like they truly make a difference, to leave a legacy. For some, it's thought leadership, stature. And for some, it's really just to live an incredible, interesting, fun, fulfilling life and feel amazing about themselves. I call it the freedom to choose. And that freedom to choose means that you can decide what you want, when you want it, where you want it. That's what it's about. That's the freedom to choose. Now, with this kind of

shift, a new type of career is born and you're going to have to embrace it. It's called the portfolio career. There are endless ways, endless, to make income these days. And it's a beautiful combination that lets you pursue your zone of genius and lean on that zone of genius together, which makes you passionate and create not just a career, but create the life that you want and become the best version of yourself. That's what it's about. Okay.

If I'm giving you an example for me, for me, this means to continue working and building Leap Academy to become the best company in the world, to disrupt all of professional education and the future of work. And it's growing multimillion dollar, you know, doubling every year. But together with that, this is where I spend majority of my time. But together with that, from time to time, I'm advising companies because it's just really, really fun. I sit on boards of public companies that literally pay me to help them build their brand and massively accelerate their growth. It's incredible because I get to sit with amazing people,

super smart people, and get to see different companies and what helps them grow. I'm a paid public speaker because I love standing on these stages and seeing thousands of people get inspired and motivated and see the world in a different lens right after the keynote. I'm an investor in over 100 companies. I started my Leap Show, the one you're just listening to, because I wanted to inspire millions to move the needle, to get the courage to chase their dreams, to become the best version that they can be. Now, all of these are aligned with my passion because I wanted to see people become the best version of themselves, dare to try, dare to be in the arena, dare to do bigger things

and create a life of possibility for themselves and everybody around them. That's my passion. That's a portfolio career. So why portfolio? So the very first thing that I want you to understand, this is your safety net, period. I can't stress it enough. People are being laid off. There's ageism, economy. You don't want to be dependent on these things. Your identity cannot be your title. Your identity cannot be only the company that you're with. You can't put everything you've built on only this one company that may or may not be there in the future for you. Diversity is absolutely critical. Now, the second thing is it's just going to make life so much more interesting because guess what?

Working on different things just makes it more fun. Now, especially if it's aligned with your passion, with what you care about, it just makes life considerably more interesting. You learn more on the go. And it also means that if it's more fun, you're more motivated. You're more inspired to do a great job. You're more driven and you shine this light on everyone around you. And that's huge. And if we're not here to have fun, what are we here for? Right? Now, the third thing that is really, really interesting and important is extra income streams. Look, when you're looking at retirement these days, retirement is no, it's not any, it's not 10, 20 years. It could be 30, 40, 50 years. Thank God. Right? So with that kind of retirement, you start, you know, people start having all these questions. Well, until what

age do I need to work? How much do I need to earn in order to retire? Do I need to downsize? Will I need to move to a cheaper area? Will I need to cut down my travel? Will I be able to retire and live the life that I want for myself? Because right now, I mean, we didn't work and study so hard in order to live just an okay life.

And we find ourselves handcuffed. Another 10K on a promotion is not going to move the needle on your retirement. So how can you make a difference? And the solution is, portfolio career, is to maximize your income while being super intentional and super strategic about every move you make, not too late when you're 50, 60, but from 30. That's critical. Start aligning a portfolio of income streams that are aligned with your passion, with what you want to be known for. Okay. And again, this is not about moving a 10K, you know, on your promotion. This is about moving the needle hundreds of thousands of millions. This means millions in a decade, if not more. That's how you start creating the freedom to choose because with that freedom, now comes the impact that you can create,

the reputation that you have, the travel, the second home, whatever it is that is important for you, that's where it comes. Now, where is the catch? Look, a portfolio career done wrong can be a serious, serious defocus that will kill every opportunity you touch.

Just randomly again, throwing spaghetti on the wall, let me try all these different things. This is just defocus. This means they're all going to collapse like a house of cards. Just randomly burning the boat without a plan will just get massively depressed, massively broke.

That's not a way either. Remember, more businesses close down. The average coach, for example, makes $40,000 a year. Average gig jobs, $17 an hour. That's not cutting it. Trying to do this without a very engineered plan, create this portfolio without an expert by your side will cost you everything. So doing this right is really, really crucial, okay?

And the beautiful thing is that doing this right will contribute and, you know, because you're gonna stand on the shoulders of what you achieved and aim higher. So it's gonna grow your reputation, your confidence. It will feed off each other to create this freedom, fulfillment, legacy that you want. Okay. Because again, it's not about living an okay life. It's about living an incredible life. It's not about just looking at your career. It's looking at the big plan, the big life that you want for yourself and it needs to be done right.

So let's take a look at a few examples that we have in Leap, in Leap Academy, because I think what you can see, you can start imitating. And I'm a big believer, and that's why we're having the Leap Show. So by the way, subscribe, follow up, share this with somebody that needs to hear this. Because A, it means the world to us. It really, really helps us. But also we can bring even more amazing speakers and really make this an incredible podcast that is completely free, free of ads and just here to inspire and teach. Okay. So share this with whoever needs to hear this. Let's take a look at Iran, for example. So he was already a very experienced executive.

He joined Leap Academy because he wanted more, but he wasn't quite sure what he wants. And he fell in love with this idea of combining impact, business, and investments into one single thing. But he wasn't quite sure how to do it. Eventually, he decided to raise a $20-plus million fund to invest in impact-related startups that are doing good, like PTSD and water supplies, big, big, amazing, audacious things. Now, when he analyzed the journey, look at how intentional and strategic he is and how we work with him. So when he analyzed his journey, what he realized is that

raising this kind of fund takes time, right? So first of all, he needs to start high profile advising and consulting to pay the bills while he raises the funds, right? So that's the very first thing he needs to do. He also needed to partner with an expert who has done and has access to capital and people that have capital, but also has done similar funds before. And he partnered with somebody amazing that obviously, you know, fast track this in a big, big way. He also wanted to partner with somebody on the advising side so that they can help, you know, fast track this in a big, big way. He also wanted to partner with somebody on the advising side so that they can help, you know, step into different consulting gigs if

needed. And he's done that too. And now, you know, started building his brand and to have incredible seat at the table and access to more influential people in the world and et cetera. And you see this snowball effect happening and that's why he was so successful. That's why he continues to leap again and again. That's a portfolio career. Okay. Polly was already, again, an incredible professional. She worked at Amazon for Alexa AI, but she felt stagnant, not motivated. She knew that she was meant for more. She wanted that freedom. Burning the boats would have been a massive mistake for her. Massive mistake, right? She realized though that she's passionate about AI, artificial intelligence, and how it's growing so fast.

And she wanted to help professionals adopt AI. And the beautiful thing is that she started building that reputation, even while she was in corporate, she started building this reputation. She started being more of a thought leader, a thought after speaker. And she started kind of, you know, positioning her business, growing her business, and then she could burn the boats to go all in. And now she's speaking and advising and consulting and doing all these amazing things. That's a portfolio career done right. Jen, very different example, but still important because Jen was passionate about impact. She loved impact, but she wasn't

in the right place for her. She was burned out. She was not happy. So she joined us in Leap Academy to, first of all, just get some stability, which is really, really important. If you don't have that stability, you can't leap higher. And at that point, if you try to create a portfolio career, again, house of cards, it's all going to collapse. So she needed that stability. And what she did is she landed this incredible role as a deputy director in the Gates Foundation to give, and, you know, and she was just living her dream. She basically said, Hey, for everybody that wants to know, you know, when you find the right place, there is no burnout, right? Which is true because she was just so, so, so happy. But the beautiful thing is she realized that she's so

passionate about impact that now that she has a stability, now she can start advising companies and mentoring companies and inventing startup accelerators and helping nonprofits. And she's a speaker and more, she is the best version that she's ever been. And she always says, I was sleepwalking through life. I didn't realize all these things that I could be doing. So whether you're in corporate or you wanna be an entrepreneur, it doesn't matter, but you need to start creating this portfolio

based on not just a career that is right after, but the life that you want to create for yourself. Okay? So that's really, really crucial. So let's understand what you care about, what you want to be known for, and let's start creating this amazing portfolio for you for the best life that you can live.

I hope this is helpful. Subscribe, follow us, share it with friends, and let us know. We. Love to hear from you. Bye. Thank you for listening and hope you enjoyed this show. Don't forget to subscribe, follow, share this with friends. I'll see you in the next Leap Show.