Leap Academy with Ilana Golan

Episodes

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  The Emotional Story of Carleigh Bodrug’s EXPLOSIVE PlantYou Success | Leap Academy with Ilana Golan - Ep. 173 06.10.2026 50m

  This episode is dedicated to food creators and entrepreneurs: how Carleigh Bodrug built PlantYou into a bestselling cookbook brand while privately grieving her mother's lung cancer death. Carleigh grew PlantYou to 13 million followers while filming recipe videos from chemo waiting rooms. She signed her second book deal two weeks before her mom's diagnosis and kept the ordeal off social media. Her debut cookbook sold out in two days and hit the New York Times list. She also covers the infogr...
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  Shopify President: The Golden Age of Entrepreneurship Has Arrived | Harley Finkelstein | E53 29.09.2026 53m

  We’re bringing back one of our favorite conversations from the Leap Academy podcast with Shopify President Harley Finkelstein. Harley Finkelstein didn’t set out to be an entrepreneur. He had no choice. With his father out of the picture, he had to pay for university and support his mother and sisters. So, he turned to his go-to problem-solving tool: entrepreneurship. Starting a t-shirt business changed his life, eventually leading him to Shopify, where he became one of their first merchants...
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  Neil Patel: From Crushing Failures to Building a Global Marketing Empire | EP62 22.09.2026 43m

  We’re bringing back one of our favorite conversations from the Leap Academy podcast with digital marketing expert and entrepreneur Neil Patel. Neil’s story shows how hard work, persistence, and learning from failure lead to success. As a teenager, he started businesses, including building websites, but struggled with ineffective marketing agencies. This pushed him to learn digital marketing, and by 16, he helped a client make $20M, marking the start of his career. After facing challenges wi...
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  CEO of MyFitnessPal Mike Fisher: He Applied for 1 Job, Then Became CEO | EP172 15.09.2026 1h 2m

  Mike 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 Etsy, and ultimately becoming CEO of MyFitnessPal. In this episode, Mike joins Ilana to unpack the leadership lessons behind that unconventional journey. He shares what the military taught him about giving feedback, building trust, and learning from mistakes, and what he had to unlearn when he transitioned into the tech world. Mike also explains...
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  Peloton Co-Founder Tom Cortese: Building an $8.1B Brand & Knowing When to Walk Away | EP171 08.09.2026 1h 24m

  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 millions of people exercise. But his story isn’t just about building Peloton. It’s also about knowing when to walk away from something that has become part of your identity and having the courage to start again.In this episode, Tom joins Ilana to share the real story behind Peloton—from starting the company with just $400,000 and getting rejecte...
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  Sir Richard Harpin: How He Turned £50K Into a £4 Billion Business | EP170 01.09.2026 53m

  Sir Richard Harpin put £50,000 of his life savings into a business that nearly collapsed—twice. That company eventually became HomeServe, serving millions of customers globally before being sold for more than £4 billion. In this episode, Richard joins Ilana to share the lessons behind that extraordinary journey, from finding the business model that saved HomeServe with his final £10,000 to learning how to scale internationally, hire leaders better than himself, and stay focused when entrepre...
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  Lovesac Founder Shawn Nelson: The Entrepreneurial Mindset That Built a Billion-Dollar Brand | EP168 25.08.2026 1h 2m

  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 publicly traded furniture company and major consumer brand. In this episode, Shawn joins Ilana to share the real journey behind building Lovesac, from taking risks and learning as he went to winning Richard Branson’s The Rebel Billionaire and leading a company at scale. They also dive into what failure teaches us, why success never means you’ve “arr...
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  Manu Sai Bakshi: From Starting Over to Recruiting Wall Street’s Top Talent | EP167 18.08.2026 1h 1m

  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 at Macy’s in Herald Square. That humbling beginning eventually led Manu into the hedge fund world, where he spent nearly a decade learning how the industry identifies and hires elite talent before launching Preeminence Advisors during COVID. In this episode, Manu joins Ilana to break down what separates great portfolio managers from mediocre on...
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  From Losing Everything to Startup of the Year: Ilana Golan’s 5 Shifts to Reinvent Yourself 11.08.2026 27m

  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 had made it. But when a trusted co-founder cut her out of their new business overnight, she was left with nothing. No job, no company, no income, and a shattered ego. That collapse became the turning point, forcing Ilana to ask who she was without the titles and what kind of life she truly wanted to build. In this episode, Ilana breaks down the...
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  Milk Bar CEO Christina Tosi: How a Home Baker Built One of America's Most Beloved Brands | E165 04.08.2026 1h 13m

  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 the thing that felt like hers. Baking became the answer she could not ignore. With relentless persistence, she went from a hostess stand to New York restaurant kitchens, proving herself one dessert at a time. That same drive eventually turned a tiny laundromat space into Milk Bar, the dessert empire known for bold flavors, nostalgic treats, and...
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  Google X's Astro Teller: Why the Biggest Breakthroughs Start with Failure | EP167 28.07.2026 58m

  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 Google X (Alphabet's Moonshot Factory), to uncover the mindset, leadership principles, and innovation frameworks behind some of the world's most groundbreaking technologies—including Waymo, Wing, and Google Brain. Astro shares why the biggest breakthroughs begin with embracing failure, how Google X celebrates shutting down projects that aren't wo...
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  The Corporate Ladder Is On Fire: How David Rogier Built MasterClass and What He’d Build Now | E165 21.07.2026 55m

  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 school in the state three years running before one finally said yes — then told her second-grade grandson that education is the only thing nobody can ever take away from him.Years later, David Rogier quit his venture capital job with no idea what he wanted to build, and his boss wrote him a check for $500,000 and told him to go think of somethin...
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  Tom Bilyeu: How I Proved Everyone Wrong and Built a Billion-Dollar Brand | E62 14.07.2026 55m

  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 fear of failure, a lack of direction, and doubts from those around him. After struggling to break into the film industry, he joined a startup with the goal of getting rich, but found himself unhappy and in a strained marriage. Taking a leap of faith, Tom walked away from millions to pursue something more meaningful. This gave rise to Quest Nutr...
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  Amy Porterfield: Why I Quit My Dream Job to Become an Entrepreneur | EP 89 07.07.2026 49m

  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 business strategists. But deep down, she wanted to be her own boss. During a high-level meeting, she realized she was on the wrong side of the table, watching entrepreneurs build wealth instead of becoming one. With no plan, no clients, and no backup, she left corporate life and built a $100 million online business. In this episode, Amy joins Ilana t...
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  GaryVee on Building an Unstoppable Mindset | E115 30.06.2026 38m

  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 years of growing his family’s wine business, he was left with nothing of his own. With no money to rent an office or hire employees, Gary leveraged his grit, relationships, and opportunities to launch VaynerMedia. Overcoming the financial, mental, and emotional hurdles of entrepreneurship, he built his company into a multi-million-dollar media empi...
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  From Blue Collar Hustles to Billion Dollar Businesses: The Journey of David Royce 23.06.2026 53m

  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 broke college student. He was terrible at it at first, but instead of quitting, he became obsessed with learning sales, systems, and business psychology. That mindset helped him build and sell four companies, scale across 5,000 cities in 34 states, and turn one of the world’s most overlooked industries into a $500 million empire. In this episode,...
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  From Skype to Wix: Mark Tluszcz’s Formula for Turning Bold Bets into Billion-Dollar Successes | E163 16.06.2026 1h 13m

  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 very few would dare to make. He left his high-paying job to start his own firm, faced hundreds of rejections while raising capital, and built Mangrove Capital from scratch. That same contrarian mindset led him to back companies others overlooked, becoming an early investor in Skype and later Chairman of Wix. In this episode, Mark joins Ilana to...
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  Self-Made Billionaire: How John Paul DeJoria Built Paul Mitchell with $700 | E162 09.06.2026 1h 5m

  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 three consecutive jobs, and lived out of his car while raising his young son. Then, with just $700, he launched John Paul Mitchell Systems and built it into a billion-dollar haircare company. That same relentless spirit later helped him turn Patrón Tequila into one of the most recognized spirit brands in the world. In this episode, John Paul jo...
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  Former WWE President: The Hard Decisions That Built a Global Media Business | George Barrios | E161 02.06.2026 1h 8m

  Despite his high intelligence, George Barrios nearly flunked out of both high school and college, drifting without discipline or direction. Realizing talent alone wouldn’t build the future he wanted, he cleaned up his act, became obsessive about preparation, and built a reputation for solving hard problems others avoided. That approach helped him rise through HBO and Time Warner before transforming WWE into a global media powerhouse. In this episode, George joins Ilana to share the habits tha...
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  The Lean Startup: Eric Ries Reveals the #1 Mistake New Founders Make | E160 26.05.2026 1h 12m

  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 costly truth: being certain does not make you right. That failure forced him to rethink his assumptions and ultimately led him to develop the Lean Startup method, a new way of building companies grounded in testing, learning, and truth. In this episode, Eric chats with Ilana about why most startups fail before they even launch, how to test ideas earl...