The Resilient Mind - The Identity Shift That Changes Everything - Ilana Golan

Episode Date: February 11, 2026

Watch the full video interview on the new Resilient Mind YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuTY8wK3N2AIlana Golan is a Silicon Valley growth strategist, tech investor, and the Founder and CEO of Leap Academy. From being the first female F-16 instructor commander to scaling businesses toward a $300 million exit, her career is a masterclass in breaking barriers. As an investor in over 100 companies and a member of the Forbes Business Council, she specializes in helping professionals navigate high-stakes career pivots. Now, she joins us to share the M.A.S.T.E.R. technique and the mindset shifts needed to leap into your next level of leadership.Connect With Ilana:Website: http://leapacademy.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ilanagolan/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ilanagolanleap/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IlanaGolanLeapAcademy/Take action and strengthen your mind with The Resilient Mind Journal. Get your free digital copy today: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Download Now⁠⁠🌍 The Resilient Mind Podcast is a proud member of 1% for the Planet — building resilient minds and a resilient planet. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the Resilient Mind podcast. In this episode, you will be listening to The Identity Shift that Changes Everything with Ilana Golan. Get access to the Resilient Mind Journal by clicking the link in the show notes. Enjoy. What if the moment that shattered your identity was actually the beginning of your greatness? Within 24 hours from that goodbye party, my co-founder decided to take the money, throw me out of the business, and I was left with nothing.

No job, no salary, no startup, no investment. Today's guest, Ilana Golan, went from flying F-16s to leading in Silicon Valley. She's now the founder of Leap Academy, helping high performers reinvent themselves and design lives of purpose, power, and freedom. This is a conversation about identity, failure, fear, and the courage to leap forward. I'm going to say something really harsh. I didn't even respect coaches. And now I'm like building a coaching company. It's actually delay.

It's procrastination. People just don't take action. And that's the biggest killer of dreams. This is actually the most important thing that happened in your life. Embrace it. And you mentioned a concept that I think maybe a lot of people have not heard. The Zone of Genius. Ilana, welcome to the resilient mind.

Oh, thank you, Simba. It's so great to be here with you and with every single one of the listeners. I'm excited to have you here. Yeah. So let's start from the beginning, right? Before you were a fighter pilot, an engineer, a founder, who were you at your core? And what was the fire in you before the world handed you those amazing roles? So the truth is, Simba, I was a pretty shy girl, if anything. I think there was something bold in me. So somebody asked me about some experiences that I remember. in childhood. And I remember myself as a four-year-old kid actually gathering things from around the house. Now, I don't know why my parents were not there at home when it was four years old. I'm not sure how that worked at that time. But I literally gathered some things and I put a box outside

the house and I sold the things for probably very, very cheap. But I remember coming back to my parents being so proud of how I sold their pens and their things. And I remember, like, they were trying to debate if they're shocked or they want to encourage me to do that again. But I think there was something there. But I was in general very shiteen. I didn't feel like I belong. I was very, I don't know, I think it took me time to find myself. And I, you know, if anybody is still there, it's okay. It takes time sometimes. And what does, I guess, the process of finding yourself from going to that shy team to an accomplished founder, accomplished individual?

Yeah. I mean, I think it's such an interesting, because I do reflect on it a lot, because success leaves clues, and you're trying to find where are the clues, right? And I think there's the myth about finding your passion, find your passion. But the truth is, you don't know that it's your passion until you created enough evidence to say that it's your passion. And I think that's something that spirals a lot of us high achievers down because I did too at some point, and we'll talk about it much later in my life, suddenly lost almost everything and I needed to find my passion. But if I take, you know, take myself to kind of that kid, shy girl, it, you know, suddenly I realize that I do like leadership.

I am pretty good at it. Yes, maybe I don't, there's a lot of things that I'm not great at. I was never the girly girl. I was never, you know, with all these like really cool clothes. I never was really great in art. Like there was things that I just don't have in me. But I was good at other things. And I think as I was starting to stack the evidence of I'm actually good at certain things. I was the school presidents.

And I, you know, I was the president. We had this like student council of all of my city. And we would create these like really big events for all the students. And it was really fun. We would bring these like musicians and it was just like a really fun party, if you will. And I noticed that I'm really good at organizing these things. But again, I wasn't the girly girl that really fit in. So I think there was like a little bit of that to find myself in this different world.

Yeah. And I'm wondering like in terms of the process in discovering that, because I think it sounds like at a level of self-awareness to be like, this is not me, but this is me. Is that something that you had innately, or is it something that you kind of learned to kind of build that self-awareness or that reflection? Yeah, it's a beautiful question. I think it's one of those dots that you can only, you know, put together looking back. I don't think that I could have found them at that point. I will say that when I joined the military, and again, it's a compulsory military where I come from. And so we had to join the military.

and to some extent I stumbled into an F-16 slide instructor. It was something I sort of stumbled into, but it did build me and gave me the biggest boost of confidence and find myself in a biggest way possible. So I think there was a lot of role to the military to help me find the Dalana that I am today. And you've lived at the extremes, right? So from the cockpit of an F-16 to corporate boardrooms, what identity was the hardest to share

and which one do you feel both you closest to your truth? Oh, that's a hard one. I think you learn from every single thing that you experience in life, Simba. But I think, you know, there is a cliche, but it's so true. You actually learn from the failures. And, you know, if you want, I can share, you know, kind of like a pretty big. screw up that I had, you know, as an F-16 flight instructor. And I think that was a pretty humbling experience, but it's actually something that I took with me, you know, if you want

me to share. Absolutely. Yeah. So, I mean, and it's, and again, I think people will resonate with different mistakes that they made, you know, and throughout life, because again, I think when you're breaking those barriers or you're trying to do something that you're out of your comfort zone, At that point, I'll give some background. Women were not really allowed to be fighter pilots to the full extent. And we were kind of, I had to be a flight instructor, almost like Kelly McGillis, you know, in Top Gun. You know, because that's all we could do. And I was very determined to show that women can actually be just as good as men at that point.

But breaking those barriers means that I don't have a lot of examples to look at. So you're essentially always out of your comfort zone. You're always trying things in the first time. So I'll share a quick story. So this person came in and he was very high ranked. And, you know, it was my turn to give him the training. I was, you know, creating a training where creating this mission together. I was, you know, giving him feedback on the training.

And I, you know how you can sense that something is off. But, you know, like you have a conversation and you can sense like, good, this is not going very well. And I could sense him something is going really bad. And I'm done with it. And he stands up. He's, I felt very tall. I mean, think about, I'm like maybe 19 or 20 at that time. Right. So he's probably at least twice my age. And he's like extremely big person. He stands all, you know, tall. And he says, honey, do you know who I am? And I'm like, uh, I knew his name. We barely were computerized at the time, you know, it was all kind of paper and, you know, like I'm kind of aging myself here. But, you know, like, oh, I knew his name. I knew, like, the last few trainings that he's done,

but I really didn't know a lot about him. And in retrospect, you know, he did one of the biggest missions ever accomplished by an Air Force. And I won't go into the details, but I completely missed it. And what I realized, Simba, and again, it was like at that moment, I wanted the earth to swallow me and I was completely humiliated. I really wanted to make a good impression because I was trying to show that women can do a good job. And here I was completely failing at this one thing was that really big general. But the truth is, we didn't know anything about our audience. I was literally shooting in the dark. And that realization, when I got over the humiliation in shock, I realized that that lesson of understanding my audience at a whole different level is probably one of the things that changed my life.

Now it doesn't matter if I talk to my kids or a clerk in the supermarket or negotiates a really big deal for millions of dollars. Like knowing my audience is so critical and I will get relentless around it. So I think it was just one of those like real humiliating moments that change your life. And I have unfortunately or fortunately a lot of these mistakes that taught me a lot. And I love that because I think there's an interesting point here talking about breaking barriers, like breaking that ceiling, not having those examples. And I think a lot of people are working on breaking barriers. But then there's another part to it, knowing your audience.

Because sometimes we might try to break barriers without knowing our audience and the results can end up being disastrous or maybe embarrassing. Oh, yeah. And so in terms of knowing the audience, is there like a process now that you go to? Like if there's a place that you want to go so you can assess who your audience is going to be? I mean, there's a lot of research that we can do around like our audience. And usually I love visualization. I love understanding where their headspace is.

What are they seeing? What keeps their weekends away or their nights away? What prevents them for sleeping? And like, what worries them? And the more you can get really understand your audience, you can now start adding a lot of value to them, but also making sure that you can move people's minds, if you will, and persuade them to see your version of the story.

And, you know, I think understanding that and starting to play at a different level, I was also able to, in the middle, to completely change the whole training and education for all F-16 pilots. And I did break the barrier. I became the first woman to become a commander in my squad. So that was a really big deal. But I think, you know, and we were all standing on each other's shoulders to reach higher

and to, you know, kind of break those glass barriers and glass ceilings. So it's beautiful to see. But it is one of those lessons that no matter what conversation, whether you're, you know, looking at an employer, whether you're convincing a client, whether you're in a negotiation, like understanding your audience and what they're worried about

and how can you be of service to them will actually help you move people's minds and get them on your side of the fence. That's a very important thing to consider. One of the things you talked a lot about as well is about the proving mode because part of again, breaking barriers is proving that, again, we can do it. Women can do it. But then there's also this

shift about moving to simply being. So how did that transition work from your perspective? Or how did you move from that proving mode to simply being? That's such a good question, Simba, because I think, you know, I was in proving mode for a very long time. And I think to some extent as a driven human, you always are somewhat in approving mode. Like I think it's like it's hard to completely get away from it. But I will say that the more you can start figuring out, and this is something that I probably just learned in the last five, six, ten years, like to really understand when you can lean on your zone of genius

and you can start operating from a place of, you know, your must haves, your zone of genius, I know I'm in the right place. It's not so much about proving myself as much as it's about being in peace with who I am and what I bring to the table. And knowing that it's always going to be hard, there's always going to be haters, there's always going to be rejections. That's always, you know, that's almost the basics of being driven. By, you know, by being driven, you know, you always going to have these issues. You're always going to have the people that don't believe in what you do. I think, you know, I just talked to a venture capitalist on my podcast and she said, you know, I'm in the rejection business.

And I was like, you know what? Yeah, I'm probably in the rejection business too. But I think the more you understand that when you can continue when everybody else stops, this is where you live a life that, you know, most will only dream of. But in order to create a life that you want for yourself, you have to be in peace with who you are, what you're trying to achieve. At the end of the day, for me, Ilana Golan, Leap Academy, right, I'm trying to change people's lives. So at the end of the day, I need to get relentless about remembering

what am I trying to do, what, you know, what makes me happy, why did I decide to go there and to do exactly this? And I think, you know, the more you can be happy with where you are, you know, it's everything. But it doesn't come at a price of not being driven.

So I think this is where you need to like, there's always that mode, right? Like as a driven person, you know, it's very hard to only be in peace. You also want to drive and create like a lot of, you know, growth and impact and whatever it is for you. And you mentioned a concept that I think maybe a lot of people have not heard, the zone of genius. What is it? How do we find our zone of genius? I love that. So, and again, it took me time.

So for everybody, if you don't have your clarity, if you're listening to this, if you don't have your clarity and what you want to do next, the one thing that I'll say is losing that clarity and not knowing what's next for me was one of the hardest moments in my life. Right. Like I was, after the military, I was in tech and in Intel and in startups and, you know, like I grew startup. Like it was like an incredible place. But at some point, it was like, is this success? Like, is this grind really what success is about? And maybe. we'll talk about, but eventually I needed to fall off the cliff to really, like, it was like to bang my head really hard to find my clarity.

But they will say that eventually, if I'm really kind of piecing the dots together, speaking of dots that you can only kind of look at, you know, when, when you're looking back, in Intel, I was writing code. Like, I was the engineer. And I knew that as much as I'm okay as in writing code, like this is not what I want to do. But the truth is, I didn't really know what I wanted to do. Like, I knew that I want to be more customer facing. And, you know, in hindsight, I started trying different customer facing roles.

I tried to be a technical sales. I tried to be product management. I try to be technical operations. I try to be like all sort of things. And it wasn't until, you know, almost I lost almost everything in my life that I realized that actually my zone of genius is something different. So you ask beautiful question, what is the zone of genius? And I will just say, again, successives clues. And we all have this like incredible combination of achievements and skills and experiences

and expertise and the things that actually build us. And that's where we are unique. It's not about what we studied in school. It's not about the grade that we got. It's not about what our boss says. But it's this interesting combination of all these different things that we've achieved. And we had the challenges that we went through and the problems that we solved and what people are already intrigued by us. And it's like looking at all of these together and saying, wow, like this is who I am. This is where my zone of genius is. And it's a lot, you know, it needs to be aligned with my must have. I can't decide that I need finance.

And then I want to do all this like other things because at the end of the day, I need to be aligned with what's truly important for me right now at the moment. And the beautiful thing is like life is in phases, different phases, different things will be important for you. So you just need to really be aligned with what is really critical right this minute and in the next year or so because guess what it's going to change again. So be relentless about what is it that I want to say yes to? What are things that I need to say no to? And what are the things that really truly make unique? And that is. the zone of genius. And when you can find it, and again, that's a lot of what we do in Leap Academy. Like, we kind of helped you create this really engineered process to find that zone of genius and to actually experiment with your career. I think one of the things that people don't do enough and we do it a lot in the venture world. We do it a lot with startups, you know, and we to find market fit. And I don't know why people didn't bring it to the world of careers. But in Leap Academy, a lot of big piece of it is how do you experiment with what you like and how do you

you decide that you have enough evidence to say, okay, now I'm ready because it's not about burning the boats. It's not about, you know, leaping when you're not ready, but it's being intentional, strategic with every move you make so that you're always leap ready and you're always, you know, able to decide what you want to do next because it's, it's an incredible time of portfolio careers and portfolio adventures and there's so much on the menu. But it's how do I decide what it is for me at the moment. And I'm thinking even for those, like, how do I decide? How do I face maybe the fear of change or starting to even explore that? In one of the things I've heard you say in a past interview is like fear can be numbing. So how does fear play a role in this? And what is your

relationship with fear based on all your experience? Oh, it's such a beautiful, oh, I love that, Simba. You're so good at what you do. No wonder, you know, this podcast is so successful. I will say, you know, it was important for me to say that fear is numbing because I think there's this notion where you go through a hard time. I think there's this notion is why is it always easier for everybody else and I'm going through so much hardship? It sometimes does feel that way or maybe almost all the time you feel that way, especially in entrepreneurship. And I think there's this myth of it's looking different for others, especially in the world of, social media and everybody's looking like they're crushing it. And then, you know, why is it so goddamn hard, right? And I think it's, first of all, it was important for me to acknowledge the fact

the fear is real. And it's not about not having fear because the truth is I do see myself as somebody that is pretty brave, done some pretty cool things. And yet, I still remember the day that I wanted to launch Leap Academy. And Simba, I'll just share. You're like, you know, I was blaming everybody. Like, I don't have the strategies. I don't have the strategies. Like, I don't know what I need to do. But that's not true. All I needed to do is write this one post on Facebook, high network. I decided to do this and this and this. Who wants to jump on a call with me, you know, to decide, you know, Leap Academy or it wasn't even Leap Academy. I don't even remember. Like, it was like some hashtag leap, career leap or whatever. But it was like, you know,

like, who want, like, do you want to have a quick conversation with me? And all I needed to do is write this one post. And I was so scared, Simba, that it was actually, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, I was love that I was just binge watching grace it out to me. So I won't need to fight the pain. Like, it was, it was exhausting. But, but, but I think, you know, it's really important for people to understand that it's scary for everybody. And, you know, I think sometimes the hardest thing is that we compare ourselves to somebody else's middle. And we don't realize that we didn't see the beginning. We didn't see the hardship. We didn't see the fear. We didn't see the heartaches. We didn't see the times where they had division, but they didn't take action. And I want to make it real for people to understand,

yes, this is hard on everybody. The only question is, do you want this enough? Are you going to put that line to sand and say, yes, this is what I'm meant to do? And again, how do you experiment enough to create evidence for you to say, you know what, it's not about burning the boats. It's going to be scary anyway. But can I stack some evidence for me to say, you know what, I feel confident that this is the right approach. It reminds me one of my favorite books that helps me with like overcoming fear is I feel the fear and do it anyways. And I'm always like, okay, so I can't address the fear, just jump in and do it screaming, I guess. Yeah.

That's a good way to put it. For you, what would you say is one of the most honest things you've had to admit to yourself in a moment of failure? I'll go there for a second. So about a decade ago, I almost lost everything in my life. And to give some context for people who don't know me, again, I was leaping again again. I was already vice president. I was doing some big things. And I remember a friend of mine came to me and said,

hey, Lana, let's start a company together. I thought that was a brilliant idea. I live in Silicon Valley, California. Like, everybody is raising capital. Like, it's like, you know, like it looks like so easy, right? I was like, let's do it. So every moment of my life at that point, I was building this company.

I was like excited about it. We even went to raise capital. And within a few weeks, there was. There was like they were valuing. our little baby at $5 million. It was like a dream come true. It was one of those like crazy Silicon Valley stories. I remember looking at the term sheet, closing my eyes, thinking like, oh, my God, how did

I get so lucky? And during the goodbye party from my VP role at that time, like I told everybody about the startup. I told them about the company, like the money that we raise, about what we're doing. And within 24 hours from that goodbye party, Michael founded the start. let it to take the money, throw me out of the business, and I was left with nothing. No job, no salary, no startup, no investment. And the worst part, I will say, Simba, is, I mean, there's a lot of shame. There's a ton of shame of how did I let that happen? How did I tell

everybody about the startup? But also, it comes with my identity was always attached to my title to the company that I was with. And suddenly I was a nobody. And admitting that suddenly, I lost everything. And it's so interesting, Simba, because you can be so accomplished. And you can have this one thing that will take it all away from you and you will actually not remember any of your achievements suddenly. Like you'll remember only the shame. And it's like, I lost my identity. And at that point, I also lost the clarity. Like I think until then, I was always so driven. I always knew what's next for me.

And suddenly I couldn't figure out, like, do I want to land a job again? Do I want to start a company again? I was so excited about it. Like, do I actually want to go for entrepreneurship? Do I need a co-founder? Am I looking for revenge? Simba, I wasn't sure what I want to do. And that threw me off.

And I think, you know, to your question, I think the hardest thing to admit is how low it took me. So what I mean by this is, is like it was incredibly hard to wake up in the morning. There was almost no purpose in it. I lost the purpose. I was snappy at my kids. I was snappy at my husband. I lost my house.

I, you know, it's like the spiral down was real. And, and, you know, I know that sometimes I talk to people who feel really, really lost and stuck and a fraction of who they could be. The one thing that I wish I could tell myself 10 years ago is this is an ear. I think this is how you started, Simba.

This is actually the most important thing that happened in your life. Embrace it. Because if I did not go through this, first of all, Leap Academy would never start. I would never have this calling. It would never even cross my mind to leave tech to do this. I would probably never have left a very comfortable job, highly paid, you know, like very, you know, great status. I would never have lost, you know, left this comfortable place to start Leap Academy. I didn't even, like, I'm going to say something really harsh.

I didn't even respect coaches. I didn't think they walked my walk. And now I'm like building a coaching company that is helping, you know what I'm saying? Like that didn't even cross my mind. But the truth is the reason I didn't, you know, respect it is because mostly they didn't walk the walk. And that was the biggest thing that was harming me. The reason why I didn't feel I can lean on somebody is that it didn't feel like they've walked the walk.

They haven't been my idols. They haven't been my role models. They have not been walk the path that I want to walk on. And if they have not achieved the things that I want, then how can they help me? You know, but when I crawled out of this dark, dark, dark place, at that point I did, like, I searched for everything on YouTube. Like, how do you find your passion?

How do you find your purpose? Like, how do you find what's next in your career? Like, I was really, really lost and stuck Simba. But at that point, first of all, I did make the promise that if I ever figure this out, I have to tell the world how. Like, I'm like, am I the only crazy person that this happened to them? But I think the other element that happened is that suddenly I started and I, you know, like when I crawled out, like I started leaping again and again.

And I like, I started a tech company and it was acquired. And then I started investing. And I'm invested today in a hundred companies that I started boards. and I did public speaking, and I was like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I'm leaping again and again. Why am I not teaching this? Why was this not available when I needed it so bad? And the truth is, if I had it earlier in my career, I didn't need to fall down so heavy.

Like, I could have waken up from my dark moment, like before the dark moments to realize that, yes, I'm doing really well in tech, but can I build, you know, my personal brand on the side to start, you know, thinking about what's next for me. And because that's the other thing, Simba, that one of the, the reason why I lost my identity is that I never built myself. I always built somebody else's dream, but it didn't even occur to me to take even just a tiny bit of effort, time, money, like, focus, whatever, to build myself on the side. And it's not about, you know, God forbid not being loyal. Like, I'm always very loyal. I'm very hardworking. I'm very hardworking. but it's about getting intentional and strategic with your own brand.

And only when you do, you have that safety net so that you never fall so deep. You can always have that safety net. And especially now when everybody's going to have portfolio careers of different types and portfolio of ventures, your reputation, your personal brand is the currency, is the thing, the umbrella brand that will take you towards leaping again and again. And again, I wish I knew that way earlier. I hope this hope. Yeah. That does help.

Do you think a lot of people think about their identity in terms of how it has been shaped, what it is right now, or do you think it's something that maybe we don't think about enough, hence whenever we face failure or something doesn't work out the way we want it, then we end up suffering because that identity we're not conscious about really creating it? I think you're spot on. I mean, I don't believe that we are intentional, strategic enough about identity. If you would have asked me a decade ago, I would say, who needs an identity? Like, I'm crushing it.

Like, I'm an executive. I'm doing well. I'm putting my head down. I'm doing good work. Like, I didn't even think about the need for it. And I think the identity, and I wish I understood how I need to be a lot more intentional, strategic, was every move I make. Because the truth is, you all have. have a brand. The brand is what people think about you when you're not in the room. So you have a brand.

Whether you're going to play that game or you're not going to play a game. In 2007, we all became a media company. And if you're not aware and if you're not using it, the assumption is that you don't have enough to say. But the good news is that it's the best way to control the narrative. And it's incredibly powerful. And I want any single person that is listening to this, seriously, like get so intentional, so strategic with every move you make because, yes, you have an identity and it's so powerful to help you leap again, again, again. Like if you think about it, Simba, you used to need to, you know, like have this whole business like all figured out. We needed to have the press somehow write about us. We needed to, I don't know, some grandma to, you know,

open the door to something, you know, like now all we need to do is like, okay, what do I want to do next? How do I touch my story? How do I experiment just enough to make sure it's all aligned? How do I build my brand? Great. Now the hidden network and the hidden market will start opening opportunities my way. And I can just stand on the shoulders of what I achieved and aim higher.

Right? Like it's like it's so easy to leap again again relatively. Right? Like it's just, but you can control the narrative. And it's an incredible time. So you do want to start getting really strict. about your identity and who you are and how people see you. And I'm thinking there's a level of vulnerability that is required for us to start shaping our

identity and actually start exploring what our purpose is going to be. But for a lot of people, like vulnerability, can feel dangerous. So how can we unlearn the belief that certain emotions or certain mindset make us weak? Oh, that's such a good question. I will say a few things about this, first of all. I think it's, you know, we talk a lot about vulnerability, and I think it's very important to distinguish. You can be vulnerable and tell your story from the scars, not from the wound.

If the wound is open, you cannot be vulnerable at that tone. You need to heal first. So first of all, I think there's this myth that we can always be vulnerable when I wasn't breathing and I couldn't even figure out what on earth do I want to do in my life, I could not tell that story. I needed to be on the other side of the story to be able to shine the light on it. So first of all, you know, it's okay if you need to heal first to start being vulnerable and to start telling that story. But the other thing that I will say is that, you know, the hard thing about getting out of, you know, like reinventing yourself, if you will, the hard thing there is that

people put you in a box. And actually, you put yourself in a box too. But, you know, people like tend to put you in a very clear box. So if I was the engineer in Intel writing code, it was very easy for people to put me as the engineer writing code. Or if I was the techie, you know, investing in startup, suddenly like they would not see me as the CEO of Leap Academy, right? So it's really interesting how you put yourself in a box, but also people put you in a box. And the hard thing is that if we make very slow progress to try to get out of the box, they just get used to the new us, but we're still part of the same box. The interesting thing is in order to reinvent yourself, you have to create a pattern interrupt

in your mind and in their mind. It has to be very swift, very fast, and very deliberate. What I mean by this is almost like a kid. You see them every single day. You don't notice a difference, but you see them after a year. You're like, whoa, what just happened? They grew, right? So what we need to do is create that pattern interrupt for people to say,

wait, wait, wait, she's not doing tech. She's doing Leap Academy, right? But if I would have started, you know, Leap Academy, just a tiny bit on my own, in the same. format, just, you know, one coaching, you know, in a little bit. I wouldn't talk about it. It wouldn't create that pattern or trap. We wouldn't be one of the fastest growing private companies in America, right? Like, that would not happen. So I think that the big thing is like you to realize that if you want to seriously reinvent yourself, you have to start, yes, being vulnerable,

share the story when it's the wound, when you're healed, but also to create a, um, to create a such a fast movement because that's what's going to make the difference. Because again, you just working a little harder is not going to make enough of a difference. That is fascinating. So many things are swirling in my head. I hope it's a good thing. It's a good thing. And it sounds like there's a part about trusting yourself.

Even talking about that pattern interrupt, I know for myself I've always tried to do this slow and steady. Like I'm afraid to rock the boat too much than I'm making a change, but it makes sense what you're saying? So what may be internal patterns did you have to let go in order for you to truly trust yourself, especially after your co-founder left with the money, or when you have to make that pattern interrupt really quickly? What sort of patterns did you notice within yourself that you had to let go? So many, so many, Simba. You have such great questions. you really, really make me reflect. I will say a few things.

The very first thing, and I'll say it in a humble way, and I'm, you know, I don't want to sound horrible. I think when I reached that VP role, it came with a little bit of an ego. And as much as I want to not admit it or to say it didn't happen or whatever, right? And also when we raise capital so fast, right, It all came a little bit with, oh, I got this.

Like, I'm so good, right? And I think that first of all, just realizing that there's always going to be ups and downs. And it's really, really important to recognize the fact that those downs are what built us. And they're normal. And they always going to be there. And that's why we have to stay humble. we have to not leave with ego and you have to park ego at the side. There's a different between ego and confidence.

Like you still want to have confidence. You want to have, again, that piece and concurrency, et cetera, but you don't want to lead with ego. And I think, first of all, just realizing that there was a lot of things that I needed to unlearn was a really big awakening for me because, again, I came from kind of like, oh, I take so many boxes. I'm sure I can do this easy. So that was a very humbling experience.

I, for example, did not believe in mindset at all, right? If somebody said the word mindset, I would roll up my eyes and I would say, okay, that's BS. And that was such a humbling experience to notice where I was actually holding myself back because I didn't believe in mindset, right? Because I thought that it's BS, because I thought that you just persevere. Why do you need mindset? Like, who needs mindset? Like, just do the work, right? But the truth is, every time I held myself back, it was the fear, you know, it was like the mindset, right?

So until I realized that this is, this is where I learned that it's, the worst part is not what you don't know that you don't know. The worst part is what you absolutely sure that you know, that you know wrong. And I think that understanding became really, really profound for me because, again, I needed to unlearn. things that I was positive that I'm really good at, right? And maybe the third thing that I will say is I started leading a lot of help. And I realized, you know, I came from that mentality of, yes, the Air Force gal, I don't need help. I got this. I can do it on my own. And the truth is, no, you can't do anything big on your own. And the faster that you understand that the faster that you're going to lean on the right kind of help, again, it needs to be the right kind of help.

somebody that is walk to walk, somebody that can actually lead you. If they have not done it for themselves, they're not going to do it for you. So I, you know, like really understand what is the kind of help that you're leaning on. But the faster that you're going to start leaning on help, again, I did not lean on help for a long time in my career, unfortunately. And now I have like six different coaches for different things and for the business, for the podcast, for the book, for the thing. Like I have like all the help I can get because that's what helps me get as fast as possible. because again, the most expensive part of our career is the money we're not making, the impact we're not creating, the fulfillment, the regret.

All of this is like so expensive. Our time is everything. This is the one thing that we can't get back. And if you want a life with no regret, the only question is how fast can you move. I love that. And I'm thinking like what made me end up getting like a coach or like a mentor was when someone mentioned that some of the most high performing athletes, they all have coaches. specialized, they've got a coach that I was in the technique with their diet, with their nutrition.

That's why they are great performers. And for me to think that I'm going to figure out everything by myself without that support is going to be a very slow and arduous process. So that was also something that I was like, ah, okay, I guess I can get a mentor and actually start on this journey. So that actually resonates as well. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But I love that. Anyway, I learned a lot the hard way. Simba. And so it sounds like you have reinvented yourself more than once. You have leaped multiple times and now you teach it. What is the most misunderstood part about personal reinvention? That's so important. I will say probably the biggest thing that I would probably mention for everybody listening.

Two things. So I don't, Simba. You look young. I forgot how old are you, but when you kind of look back, like I grew up in an era of IQ. Everybody was testing IQ when I was very young. And if you had high IQ,

you were supposed to be successful in life, right? And a few decades ago, that changed to EQ and emotional intelligence, right? And I think Richard Branson was one of the first people that actually said, emotional intelligence is actually probably more important than IQ. And that gave a lot of green light to a lot of leaders and entrepreneurs and, you know, that actually were maybe not the biggest IQ, but they're like crushing it, right?

And if you're going to look up right now, especially with AI, with the space of change, we're actually in the era of AQ, adaptability quotient. And what people don't know is that right now, at the moment of now, learning to adaptability, learning to reinvent and leap is becoming the most important skill for the future of work. And it's actually so profound that this is the case. And people will leap again and again and again. And like I said, create a portfolio career. So the second thing that I want the listeners to understand is that we're actually living in an era where if you're going to look at the biggest millioners and billioners, they all have, I think the average is,

about four income streams and above. And the higher they are, they have even more than that. And so my question was always, why is nobody teaching this? And that's where Leap Academy started focusing on how do you leap again and again and actually create a whole portfolio. And sometimes it's for income. Sometimes it's for reputation. Sometimes it's for fulfillment.

Sometimes it's for authority. You can join a board that you like. You can be an advisor in companies. You can take some equity. You can mentor and startup accelerators. You can write a book. You can be a coach. You can be a consultant.

You can be a franchise. You can, like, I can go on and on. Like, there's so many things on the menu these days. And if you actually going to use them all together, it creates incredible ripple effects that creates the fulfillment, the happiness, the legacy, the thought leadership, the people want for themselves. And what does it feel like?

So for someone who's like, okay, what does even a leap feel like? Like, what does it feel like in your body, in your being, when you're aligned with that next step? Oh, it's everything. You become unstoppable. And I think that that's what it's all about. It's about feeling unstoppable. It doesn't mean that there's no hard days. It doesn't mean that it doesn't get hard or boring or hard or, you know, whatever, rejections, right? But it's when you are in the place where you should be, it feels like you can tackle anything that comes your way. because you know that this is the right thing.

You know that you're creating impact. You know that you're creating the life that you're meant to live. And when you know that, not a lot of things can stand in your way. And what would you say is the difference between chasing success, which seems to be what the media and social media I big of, a big fan of like perpetuating versus creating a life of meaning? I think it was actually, I was speaking with, Howard Behard, the previous president of Starbucks on my podcast.

And he actually said that the hardest time in his life was when he stopped being the president of Starbucks and suddenly the mental toll of losing relevance almost brought him to a suicide. Wow. And the importance of mental and meaning and relevance and impact. Again, every single person is wired differently. And I also, if somebody doesn't care about the meaning, they just want to bike all day or travel all day, that's fine too. Like, I think it's important to understand what motivates you. And not everybody's motivated by the same things.

But I will say that for people who are motivated by meaning, by not living a life of regret, by staying relevant, by, you know, creating maximum potential, being their full potential, if this is important for you, you have to listen to that because losing that or not having that will create a life of suffering. And the depression is real. Losing it is real. And living a life of minimal regrets is something that for people who are motivated by not having regret is everything.

So do whatever it takes to not be sorry for decisions you're making today. And I'll say maybe in a different way. If you look at, and I had Daniel Pink as well, and he just wrote a book about regrets, it's fascinating because most people are not sorry about the thing that they said yes to and didn't work out. They're sorry about the things they never took action on. So think about that. And I think that is such a beautiful reflection of the biggest things that are holding

people back is actually not fear, it's not any of this, it's actually delay. It's procrastination. People just don't take action. And that's the biggest killer of dreams. And how, if someone is listening to this and it's like, okay, I get it and I want to take action, but they still can't. What perspective or word of advice could you provide to get them to tip over and take that first step? I will say a few things. I mean, first of all, contact us. But seriously, I think surround yourself by people that will force you to take action because it's so easy to stay in your comfort zone. And that's where the killer of dreams. That's where the delay is. Right. And the comfort zone is where I was in tech. I mean, again, it was, you know, I didn't realize it, but it was the biggest killer

of my dreams. I just didn't know they're my dreams, right? So I think surround yourself by an environment that will force you to get intentional, force you to get, even if it's your network, right? Don't just be around people that will say pat in the back, good job, good job, or don't go after this. This sounds scary, right? Like go and surround yourself by people that inspire you, that be in the rooms of where things happen, be in the rooms of people that push you beyond your, comfort zone that are showing you what else is possible because that's where the change is. And I still walk the walk. I think, you know, I don't know when this episode is coming out, but in November, I'm going, I don't know, bike cycling was Richard Branson in India. Like, there's not a lot

of things that get me out of my comfort zone at the level of this. Like, he is adventurous. He's scared that crap out of me. And, you know, like cycling in India, multi, multi, multi, multi days, like it's going to kill me. But I need to be in that room. I need to be surrounded with these people. I need to be surrounded by people that push me to my core. Show me what impact looks like. Show me what possibilities are looking like.

And I can't think of anything that is more inspiring and pushes you to drive biggest, you know, kind of become the best version of yourself. And the thought that just came to me was discomfort is actually. your friend when it's aligned with purpose. Would that be accurate? Yeah. I mean, I would say it's very accurate. Yeah, I love that.

And so how do you define freedom? Because we're talking about people feeling stuck, but kind of the opposite of that is freedom. How do you define freedom? And as your definition evolved from what it was 10 years ago? Oh, I love that question. I don't know if I even thought of what freedom is 10 years ago. I only knew grinding.

I don't know if I had that in my vocabulary. But, you know, freedom for me is freedom of choice. And for me, freedom doesn't mean that I'm going to sit and drink margaritas all day on a beach. Like that would actually drive me nuts. I can't even think of my life that way. Maybe for a small period of time, but then I would get sick and tired of it. Freedom is freedom of choice. is the ability to say yes to things that you want

and to say no to the things that you don't want and to minimize the things that don't work well with your energy. The things like literally kind of look at your energies throughout the day and what energizes you and what kills your soul, right? And when you kind of look at that throughout the day and throughout the week and throughout the month, are you doing enough things that make you happy?

And the ability to have that freedom of choice is what does that look like for you? And each person is different. Like some people want the corner office and that's their freedom of choice. Some people want to create their own business and that's their freedom of choice. Some people want to fly first class or sit on stages or do a TEDx or write a book or but it's the bill or to whatever, buy the second home on the lakehouse, you know, whatever. But figure out what that looks like for you and then get relentless about. about how do I start structuring the, not just the paycheck, but the life that I want

with that paycheck. Hmm. And that's freedom. Love that. I believe I've heard you say entrepreneurship is a pathway to awakening. Correct me if I'm wrong. What lesson is it teaching you today? Entrepreneurship, oof.

Yeah, I mean, everything. So I'll say entrepreneurship is, I mean, I don't want to sugarcoat it. I don't know if the listeners here are mostly entrepreneurs or not, but if you're listening to this episode, I don't want to sugarcoat it. I think there's a lot of dumbing down around how hard entrepreneurship is today. I think it makes everybody, you know, we try to make it, there's a four-hour work week and all these things I promise you this like really easy magic wand, get rich quick, you know, it's going to be so cool. And the truth is, entrepreneurship. is the furthest away from any of that.

And I want to first of all just set the expectations. Like if you can be in a corporation number two, three, four, five, whatever it is, and be happy there, be there. Like, I just, like, it is such a great place to know that the income is coming from somewhere. It's not all on your shoulders. You're not responsible for people's salary and for your own salary. Like, I can't stress enough.

And if it is a bug for you, if it is, something that will not, will take your sleep away because you're so passionate about creating this thing, then there's nothing that will, you know, awake your soul and be as inspiring as creating something that you love and that you care about. And that makes you truly happy and fulfilled and feeling successful and being the role model that you're meant to be. So, so I would say, like, I want to be able to hear both. It is the hardest during. that you'll ever uncover in your life. And it's also incredible if you can look at and get the right help for yourself

according to what you need. And surround yourself by people who've done it so that you're not alone on the journey. It's an insanely lonely journey if you do it alone. But it's an incredible place to be. It is. And all of that resonates tenfold. If someone feels that they are bound or there are certain environmental factors that limit their ability to be successful, to live a meaningful life, to start their company, whether it's because they're an immigrant or their gender or they face discrimination. What advice will you give them?

Such a good question. I'll say a few things. When I just came to the U.S., it was a very humbling experience because I suddenly felt, Simba, that all my advantages back home, whether it's where I studied or the network that I had or I was really proud of my English back home, right? You know what I'm saying? Like all the things that I had suddenly became my disadvantages. And it's actually a really interesting place because it's like, wait, what just happened? Like all these things that I was proud of, I mean, I was in a really good school, but it wasn't an IV league. It's not a US base school. My network is non-existent. My English is, well, you know, like it's good for back home. It's not great for here. So suddenly it was just like, I don't know how, you know, suddenly all these advantages become disadvantages. But I will say a few things, Simba. If you look back and you look at how do you change and. reframe what you have to offer. You can actually find those advantages again. They just look different.

And so for example, for me, I would be better at anything international because I've seen, you know, where I can go across oceans and across societies and across networks, right? I would be better of, you know, because I, maybe I woman in a tech environment, I bring a different level. I, yes, it's harder to have the first impression. But once I have the first impression, but once I have the first impression, you know, I can get them back to a meeting, right? So there's like, where I would be more memorable. So there's always advantages. I think the question is, you know, one of the things that I will say to listeners, if you do have these challenges that are stopping you, what I don't like is ignoring them because the truth is every conversation is a mirror. And if it's even slightly

in your head, it's going to come across. So what I would say to the listeners, is make a list of what you think is your disadvantages. Now, some of them are real. It's generally sometimes harder to rise above the noise and to get the first impression. It's sometimes generally harder when English is your second language. It's sometimes generally harder

when your network is not here. But the truth is, is this getting you closer to your goal or not? And if it's not, it's not serving you. So we are going to then look at your list and reframe every single one of them and basically say, so what is my advantage according to this? Because the fact that, you know, I didn't talk about my military service for almost 20 years here because I didn't think it was relevant or whatever that added up to be or 15 years, right?

It's like, and suddenly I realized that actually makes me more memorable. So, and it taught me so much. I have so many lessons. I had more responsibility at age of 20 than I had at age of 40. Why am I not talking about it, right? But it's because I had to reframe myself and not think about it as something that doesn't matter or something that wasted my time. I needed to reframe it as something that actually makes me a lot better candidate than anybody else.

So what I would say to everybody listening is look at that list and question, start questioning every single one of these areas to say, is this really true? And make sure that you bring the data, not the drama, because the drama is where it keeps us stuck. The data is where we can find the actual evidence that makes us truly unique in what makes 1 plus 1 equal 5 if we come on board. Beautiful. If 20-year-old self, if you're 20-year-old self by sitting across from you today, what part will she be most proud of and what part will surprise her? Oh. So first of all, I was so against any type of coaching, mentoring, or anything else.

So the fact that I run some kind of a coaching company will probably shock the heck out of myself. I mean, I would probably bet you millions of dollars that that's not possible. So I'm glad that nobody is betting with my 20-year-old self here. But I think the level of impact that I was able to create the thousands of lives that we get to change. And again, it's not about the numbers. It's about the stories. It's the people that we change their life, the people that now suddenly makes, I don't know, whatever, 2x, 5x, 7x, what they used to make.

It's the people that are now feeling fulfilled that are a better role model to their families that are their full potential. It's the network that I get to hang out with and the people that I, get to speak with like you, Simba and others, right? Like, it's like so fun. And my life just couldn't be, you know, more opposite than, you know, like, you know, not something that I envisioned. And, and again, I'm also proud of my family and, you know, my amazing husband and two kids and just the life that I created for myself and that I get to change lives every single day. One of the things that I love that we say and leave, it's not about what we make, but it's what we make possible.

And I think that what I was able to make possible, whether it's for my kids or whether it's for thousands of clients or for my teams or, you know, it's just it's, I need to pinch myself every goddamn day that I'm so lucky. And when you think about the word resilience, not as a concept, but as a lived experience, what does it mean to you? Ooh, every day I need to be resilient. Every day, you know, there's a new challenge. Every day there's a new thing that come your way.

Life gets in the way. And I think resilience is something that you need to cope with every single day in order to create a life of possibilities that you're creating for yourself. For those listeners that want to learn more about you, connect with you, contact you, where can they find you? Leapacadop.com. L-E-A-P-A-Cademy.com. We also have free resources.

We have a free training. We have, you know, like a kind of like a career 360 questionnaire that is really cool to kind of see where there's 10 break points that people have in their career. And if they can find, like understand exactly what those look like, they can actually really move the needle for themselves. And so, yeah, just, I mean, we have a ton of free resources. And I can't wait to connect. But regardless, just email me, Ilana at Lipe. Academy.com. It's I-L-A-N-A-A-L-A-L-A-A-A-A-A-A-Cademy. I would love to hear from you. I'd love to hear, you know, what are the nuggets that you took from this, what inspired you. And I hope this

moved the needle for someone. So, yeah. I think it would. If you were to leave the listeners with one message, one key takeaway from everything that we have covered today, what will that be? Get really intentional and very, very strategic with what makes you happy, what creates the life of possibilities for you and be unstoppable because it truly is incredible on the other side of that. Perfect. Ilana, thank you very much. I'm super grateful to have you here and for the time we spent together.

Oh, it was such a great interview, Simba. And you're such a great interviewer. Your questions were fantastic. And I truly hope every single one of the listeners, I hope you got a lot of this. And thank you for, you know, like being here and listening. to us and reach out. This is incredible. Thank you, Simba. Thank you. Thank you for listening. Continue strengthening your mind by subscribing and listening to our other episodes.