Leap Academy with Ilana Golan | Real Career Leaps, and How to Make Yours

Take the FREE 90-second scorecard built from Ron Johnson’s episode. Answer 7 questions about your next career leap, see where you stand, and get three practical moves based on your answers!

Ron Johnson made bold leaps as himself, and failing publicly at JCPenney, alone in a Dallas hotel, taught him what chasing more truly costs.

Ron built the Apple Store, invented the Genius Bar, and helped Apple grow from 25 million to 2 billion customers. Then he left for JCPenney, sales dropped 20%, and CNBC ran his photo every morning before he walked in.

He tells Ilana Golan what those 18 months felt like, where he went wrong, and why he now says to eliminate the word "more" from your vocabulary.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shopdifferent/
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Johnson_(businessman)
Resource: https://review.firstround.com/how-to-do-retail-right-from-the-inventor-of-the-apple-store/
HBR Podcast: https://hbr.org/podcast/2026/09/what-retail-legend-ron-johnson-learned-from-apples-success-and-jcpenneys-failure

#RetailStrategy #CareerLeap #AppleStoreHistory #JCPenneyTurnaround #RonJohnson
Get your FREE training here!
Leap Academy helps professionals reinvent their careers, build portfolio careers, land board seats, and grow executive leadership skills through expert coaching, personal branding, and career development strategies. Founded by Ilana Golan, it's where bold professionals come to grow.

🧠 Start with a free strategy call with Ilana.

🎓 Watch the free masterclass on building multiple income streams.

👇 Like what you hear? Comment below and let us know what resonated!
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🎧 PODCAST | Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Inspiring, unfiltered conversations with leaders and professionals who broke the mold. Learn how to build your reputation, impact, and income on your terms.
▶️ https://www.leapacademy.com/podcast
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📲 Connect with Ilana:
Facebook ▶️ https://www.facebook.com/IlanaGolanLeapAcademy
LinkedIn ▶️ https://www.linkedin.com/in/ilanagolan/
Instagram ▶️ https://www.instagram.com/ilanagolanleap
Website ▶️ https://www.leapacademy.com/

🧠 Produced by APodcastGeek: https://itl.ink/APodcastGeek

FREE scorecard from this episode: see how ready you are for your next leap in 90 seconds!

Ambitious professionals: Melissa Arnoldi, EVP at AT&T Business, on bold leaps, staying curious, and how senior leaders really make decisions. Melissa leads 17,000 people and a $25 billion portfolio at AT&T. She took a title step down to join from Accenture, then led an international business across 11 countries without the expected background.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissaarnoldiinnovator/
Resource (AT&T Business): https://www.att.com/smallbusiness/
YouTube (Interview): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inXmTzk0114

#CareerGrowth #WomenInLeadership #ExecutiveLeadership #BoldCareerLeaps #MelissaArnoldi
Get your FREE training here!
Leap Academy helps professionals reinvent their careers, build portfolio careers, land board seats, and grow executive leadership skills through expert coaching, personal branding, and career development strategies. Founded by Ilana Golan, it's where bold professionals come to grow.

🧠 Start with a free strategy call with Ilana.

🎓 Watch the free masterclass on building multiple income streams.

👇 Like what you hear? Comment below and let us know what resonated!
---------------
🎧 PODCAST | Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Inspiring, unfiltered conversations with leaders and professionals who broke the mold. Learn how to build your reputation, impact, and income on your terms.
▶️ https://www.leapacademy.com/podcast
---------------

📲 Connect with Ilana:
Facebook ▶️ https://www.facebook.com/IlanaGolanLeapAcademy
LinkedIn ▶️ https://www.linkedin.com/in/ilanagolan/
Instagram ▶️ https://www.instagram.com/ilanagolanleap
Website ▶️ https://www.leapacademy.com/

🧠 Produced by APodcastGeek: https://itl.ink/APodcastGeek

Communication skills and sales pitching: Dr. Forbes Riley explains how a painful, isolated childhood gave her the instincts behind $2.5 billion in sales.

Fitted with braces, headgear, and a tongue thruster for eight years, Forbes had no friends and communicated by writing and pointing. Television became her only window to human connection, and that solitary study built a pitch instinct she later carried into nearly 200 infomercials.

Host Ilana Golan and Forbes cover the psychology of making anyone say yes, why knowing someone's pain sets your price, and what Forbes wishes she had learned far earlier.

Pitch Secrets A to Z (Book): https://pitchsecretsbook.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/forbesriley/
Website: https://www.forbesriley.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/forbesriley
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/forbes_riley/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/forbes.tvhost/

#CommunicationSkills #SalesTraining #PitchStrategy #InfomercialSales #ForbesRiley
Get your FREE training here!
Leap Academy helps professionals reinvent their careers, build portfolio careers, land board seats, and grow executive leadership skills through expert coaching, personal branding, and career development strategies. Founded by Ilana Golan, it's where bold professionals come to grow.

🧠 Start with a free strategy call with Ilana.

🎓 Watch the free masterclass on building multiple income streams.

👇 Like what you hear? Comment below and let us know what resonated!
---------------
🎧 PODCAST | Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Inspiring, unfiltered conversations with leaders and professionals who broke the mold. Learn how to build your reputation, impact, and income on your terms.
▶️ https://www.leapacademy.com/podcast
---------------

📲 Connect with Ilana:
Facebook ▶️ https://www.facebook.com/IlanaGolanLeapAcademy
LinkedIn ▶️ https://www.linkedin.com/in/ilanagolan/
Instagram ▶️ https://www.instagram.com/ilanagolanleap
Website ▶️ https://www.leapacademy.com/

🧠 Produced by APodcastGeek: https://itl.ink/APodcastGeek

Founders and executives: Stacy Brown-Philpot traces her path from Detroit to Google, TaskRabbit CEO, and a $172M debut venture fund.

Stacy spent nearly a decade at Google, growing from a 14-person team to leading over 1,000 people in India. She later became CEO of TaskRabbit and sold it to IKEA after launching it into four new countries.

To build Cherryrock Capital, she met 366 investors over two years and closed 83 of them, including Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and the Ford Foundation. Her core advice: find the investor who fits your stage, then ask how they will help you win.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacyphilpot/
Cherryrock Capital: https://www.cherryrockcapital.com/

#VentureCapital #CareerAdvice #WomenInVentureCapital #FirstTimeFundManager #StacyBrownPhilpot
Get your FREE training here!
Leap Academy helps professionals reinvent their careers, build portfolio careers, land board seats, and grow executive leadership skills through expert coaching, personal branding, and career development strategies. Founded by Ilana Golan, it's where bold professionals come to grow.

🧠 Start with a free strategy call with Ilana.

🎓 Watch the free masterclass on building multiple income streams.

👇 Like what you hear? Comment below and let us know what resonated!
---------------
🎧 PODCAST | Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Inspiring, unfiltered conversations with leaders and professionals who broke the mold. Learn how to build your reputation, impact, and income on your terms.
▶️ https://www.leapacademy.com/podcast
---------------

📲 Connect with Ilana:
Facebook ▶️ https://www.facebook.com/IlanaGolanLeapAcademy
LinkedIn ▶️ https://www.linkedin.com/in/ilanagolan/
Instagram ▶️ https://www.instagram.com/ilanagolanleap
Website ▶️ https://www.leapacademy.com/

🧠 Produced by APodcastGeek: https://itl.ink/APodcastGeek

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 infographic photo formula, her Reels pivot, and why her 225,000-person email list beats any algorithm.

LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/carleigh-bodrug-29193850
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/plantyou/
PlantYou: https://plantyou.com/about/
Books: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/contributor/carleigh-bodrug/

#PlantYou #FoodEntrepreneur #PlantBasedCooking #BestsellingCookbook #CarleighBodrug
Get your FREE training here!
Leap Academy helps professionals reinvent their careers, build portfolio careers, land board seats, and grow executive leadership skills through expert coaching, personal branding, and career development strategies. Founded by Ilana Golan, it's where bold professionals come to grow.

🧠 Start with a free strategy call with Ilana.

🎓 Watch the free masterclass on building multiple income streams.

👇 Like what you hear? Comment below and let us know what resonated!
---------------
🎧 PODCAST | Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Inspiring, unfiltered conversations with leaders and professionals who broke the mold. Learn how to build your reputation, impact, and income on your terms.
▶️ https://www.leapacademy.com/podcast
---------------

📲 Connect with Ilana:
Facebook ▶️ https://www.facebook.com/IlanaGolanLeapAcademy
LinkedIn ▶️ https://www.linkedin.com/in/ilanagolan/
Instagram ▶️ https://www.instagram.com/ilanagolanleap
Website ▶️ https://www.leapacademy.com/

🧠 Produced by APodcastGeek: https://itl.ink/APodcastGeek