How to Build Portfolio Career & Income with Ilana Golan

0:01Light that spark fire nation JLD here and welcome to entrepreneurs on fire brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like This Old Marketing. Today, we'll be breaking down how to build portfolio, career, and income. To drop these vibe bombs, I brought Ilana Golan into EO Fire Studios. Ilana is a tech executive and investor turned founder of Leap Academy, one of the fastest growing companies in America. She helps professionals leap their reputation, income, and careers. And today, we'll talk about what a portfolio career is.

0:36We'll talk about how to build a personal brand, the do's and don'ts, and oh, so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Ilana and our sponsors. The Next Wave, your chief AI officer, hosted by Matt Wolf and Nathan Lance, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. AI technology is transforming the way we do business and the media landscape is fragmented. The Next Wave strives to be the leading podcast on AI technology. and how you can apply it to growing your business. Listen to The Next Wave wherever you get your podcasts.

1:10Looking for an easier, safer way to manage passwords than a million Post-it notes? Welcome to LastPass, the most accessible and easy-to-use password manager on the planet. Visit lastpass.com slash fire for a free trial and get started today. Every login lives in LastPass. Ilana, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with? You know, John, we used to live in a world when people worked for 40 years, retired happily ever after. We don't live there anymore. But what people don't realize is that this is an era of portfolio careers.

1:51And it's done the days that you just have this one thing and you're dedicated and you just work harder and harder and you're gonna create the life that you want. People create these incredible portfolios and that's what creates not just the paycheck, but the life that you want with it. So to me, that is the big secret to success today. Well, we're gonna be revealing a lot of secrets today because we're talking about how to build portfolio career and income. And I don't even think a lot of people could tell you what portfolio career means. So let's start there. What the heck is portfolio career?

2:24I agree. People don't talk about it enough. I mean, in the general sense, to make it simple, it's just multiple income streams, right? Like just being able to diverse your income streams, what you're doing every day. So in the nutshell, it's just diversification. Just like we want to do as money, we want to do it with income. But beyond that, people want now more than just the finance. They want the safety net that comes with it. They don't want to be dependent on only one place. There's ageism in the workplace sometimes. They want to create bigger impact. They want to travel the world. They want to, I don't know, work from anywhere.

3:01They want legacy wealth, et cetera, et cetera. And there is no one career that actually gives you all of it, or at least it's very, very rare. So what you actually start creating is this portfolio of things that just brings you to the happy place and then the satisfaction that you really want for yourself. But we should talk about the fact that done wrong, it's a disaster. So that is part of that, John. Well, I want to start off by saying this. Listen, I've interviewed more than 4 ,500 guests. And not all of them, but a lot of them, I have to work hard to get them energized, to get them to bring energy and fire and excitement into the show.

3:43So I just want to recognize you, Ilana, for just having that naturally. So thank you for that. It's making it a fun show. And as actually you and I promised in the pre-interview chat, we would hear either your dog, my dog, or my baby in the background. So Fire Nation, that was Gus, if you heard him. He's just, you know, protecting the family. So all is good. But Ilana, I want to talk right now about the fundamental steps to get started. Okay, that's a beautiful question. And by the way, it is Entrepreneurs on Fire, John. Holla! Might as well, right? And so the fundamental thing. So the very first thing, and I think this is where a lot of people get it wrong, is they get excited about the idea of a portfolio career, but then they throw spaghetti in the wall to see what sticks.

4:29That does not work. That is, you know, a great way to stay broke and not satisfied. So the very first thing is you do need one income stream and that is critical. So you need one thing that is relatively, you know, that you can count on, whether it's in corporate, whether it's from entrepreneurship, but one thing that is pretty stable. And now you're starting to create these ripple effect that almost create like a snowball, right? So now you're starting to add, I don't know, speaking. If you're in a job, you add, I don't know, speaking opportunities and advising and sitting on boards. And suddenly they see you as that person that can get faster promotions, et cetera, et cetera.

5:12And now you start getting the ripples. Or if you're in the coaching space, you start adding speaking opportunities and teaching and books and affiliates and getting more clients. And then guess what? You have better reputation. So you charge more. and then you have higher speaking fees. So you start creating these ripple effects because what you don't want is to just be this generalist that tries different things and now their brand is nobody. But you want to do it in a very systematic, intentional and strategic way that will just create these massive results, if that makes sense. It makes sense.

5:48And I love the fact that you use the word ripple effect. It's one of my favorite words because I know right now that this conversation is having a ripple effect. In this moment, maybe in 10 months as well, maybe in 10 years as well, because by the way, this show was launched back in 2012 and right now people are listening to episodes from 2012, 14, 17, fill in the blank, from all over the world. We're having a ripple effect because some of those shows are giving some people somewhere, sometime, a idea, a spark, a fire, a concept, a belief, confidence to actually take that first step and do something.

6:24And something that you can help us with is our personal brand. So how can we build our personal brand when we have a portfolio? Oh, such a great question. And again, this is a lot of, you know, guests, you have huge ripple effect. That's why I've been binge watching entrepreneurs or listening to Entrepreneurs on Fire for a while. And I just love your guests and the fire that comes with it and the impact. But for me, again, our programs in Leap Academy, it really is about creating that really quick pattern for people to realize, oh, my God, there's so much more in life. It's not just about the paycheck, but it's about the life that you create with it.

7:04How can you create these ripples? How can you get started and build that kind of reputation that just catapults yourself? And the interesting thing is I needed to apply it before I answer your question on my podcast. and you know that's how we were able to bring you know in the leap academy you know such amazing guests which you were part of thank you john um but you know incredible guests like yourself um to create that ripple and to impact the life of millions but to answer your question in order to build a brand um sometimes when people get started this is what gets them hung up right because it's like i don't know what i want to be known for so the the best way to do that is to create what I call an umbrella brand that is just not colliding with anything specific.

7:52So I'll give you an example. Like when somebody wants to be known as whatever, you know, I'm not quite sure, but I know I want to be known as a leader. I'm not sure if I want to start this coaching company or I want to do this entrepreneurship thing or I want to, you know, move up the career ladder. But I do know that I'm passionate about leadership and I'm passionate about traveling the world, whatever, right? So now you can start creating an umbrella brand that it's just not clashing with anything that you're going to do, but starts to, you know, again, better done than perfect, right? You start getting that, the clarity will come from movement, right?

8:28From, from action. So you now start creating a little post here, a little speaking opportunity here, and you're just starting to test the ground and see what sticks. And now you keep on dialing it better and better. But I think what, you know, where people get hung up is what do I actually want to be known for? And now they're just not creating anything. And guess what? 2007, we all became a media company. So if nobody hears from you, the assumption is that you don't have anything to say. So that is not a good place to be. I love that umbrella brand concept. Fire Nation, I hope again, this is giving you a spark that this conversation is having a ripple effect for you to say, you know what?

9:09This is starting to make sense. I want to learn more. And if you do, stick around because we'll be right back after thanking our sponsors. Picture this. You're at a party and someone asks you what you do as a marketer. How do you even begin to describe it? Not only do you brainstorm new campaigns, create compelling copy, dream up landing pages that will actually convert and generate leads. You also have to gather all the data to make sure it's even working. And tomorrow you'll do it all again. Marketers are spread way too thin, but HubSpot has a better way. With the help of Breeze, HubSpot's collection of AI tools and features like Content Remix, you can turn one piece of content into a whole suite of assets.

9:48This helps you reach more potential leads and save time on creating new content. You can also pinpoint the best prospects with predictive lead scoring and level up your campaign's KPIs with a new analytics suite so your day-to-day becomes less busy work and more driving revenue through the roof. And most importantly, you'll have a way easier time describing what you do at parties. Visit hubspot.com slash marketers to learn more. Are your company's passwords in good hands? Imagine the number of login credentials you and your employees have, everything from apps and software platforms to using multiple devices, not to mention employees coming and going and remote work?

10:26Whether your quote-unquote password management is a desk covered in post-it notes or a spreadsheet with a thousand rows that you visit 34 times per day, these passwords are not safe. Cyber criminals are chasing credentials and it's only getting worse. That's why there's LastPass, the most accessible and easy-to-use password manager on the planet. LastPass was designed for everyone from tech experts to tech beginners and everyone in between. LastPass makes managing passwords effortless with features like auto-generates to help you create safe, secure passwords in just one click. It also has an auto-save function so you don't need to keep track of every password and one-click autofill to help you log in effortlessly.

11:04Add to all this passwordless login for simpler access with maximum security and you've got the perfect partner. Every login lives in LastPass. Visit lastpass.com slash fire for a free trial and get started today. That's lastpass.com slash fire. Ilana, one of the big things about my show is that I want to learn what to do. And I also want to learn what not to do the do's, the don'ts. So what are the do's and the don'ts when building a portfolio career? Okay, that is so, so, so important. So John, thank you for asking a brilliant question. I mean, the very first thing again is have a stable income stream.

11:42I can't stress it enough. I know some people when they're not sure what they want to do with their career. They start advising and sitting on boards and mentoring startups and going to accelerators and doing board. And at the end of the day, they literally bring nothing home, no cash and no satisfaction. So that it does not work. The other thing that I see in terms of don'ts, they just do try out. Now, again, I'm a big believer in experimentation. We can talk about it, but you want to experiment, but you want to start being really intentional and strategic with things. So throwing spaghetti on the wall to hope that something will stick is not going to work.

12:19The other element that I would say in terms of don'ts, and then we're going to talk about do's, is sometimes it's just not aligned with your must have. So people will say, oh, my God, I have to get, you know, income stream right now. I'm broke. And then they do all these things like they're going to start creating e-books and whatever that just are not going to bring any, you know enough income anyway in the door so you want to really align with your must-haves what do you actually need right now I'm a big believer that you can have it all just not at the same time so what do you actually need right now and it's going to change all the time so your must-haves change and you're going to adapt with the change but if you know if you need something specific you need to start being intentional about it so that's the don't in terms of the dues again find that income stream and now start thinking about the ripples, right?

13:11Like if you're an entrepreneur, you want to create startups. Great. Like it's incredible way to learn to mentor startup accelerators, to join some boards. Now you're sitting with really smart people. Now you see how your reputation in the industry grows. Now it's easier with investors. Now it's easier to hire. So if you're very intentional about the things that you're creating, that creates that ripple effect that we talked about and it just drives results. Fire Nation, if you're as fired up as me, you're going to want to take the next step, but don't start now because we have some more value coming your way.

13:43And this might sound like it's coming out of left field, Ilana, but I just, I'm so curious, how did you first find this kind of career? Like what was your first step? Oof, I needed to lose it all to find it, Charm. But seriously, like I was, so first of all, I did leap in my career again and again and again. So I started in the Air Force and grew up in the corporate ladder all the way to vice president. But at some point I needed more. I found a great, what I thought was a great co-founder, built an incredible startup and we raised capital. It was kind of the Silicon Valley dream. You know, they evaluated us at five million dollars, threw money away.

14:23And the same day that I basically did like a big, you know, goodbye party from my vice president role at that time. And the same day, my co-founder took the money, threw me out of the business, and I was left with nothing, John. No salary, no job, no startup, no investment. And the worst of all, it's just my ego just came crushing down in a huge way. It was a blow. And I think, you know, John, I think what people don't realize is that it's not just the money. It's not just the pride. It's I lost everything at that point. So my identity was always attached to my title. It was attached to my companies.

15:06It was attached to, you know, it was just part of the thing. And suddenly having nothing was a shoot. I couldn't sleep at night. I was cranky and my family and my beautiful kids and my amazing husband. Like I lost it. I lost my health. I went into a pretty big, I think now in retrospect, it's depression. I didn't call it by the name. I hate, you know, I would never admit it at the time. But and I was the person that throwing spaghetti on the wall because I was trying to do things because I'm a doer. I don't give up, but I didn't know what I was doing. And I just wish I had Leap Academy by my side.

15:43But at that point, I was like, looking for solutions. I was, you know, Googling, like, how do you find your passion? How do you find what's next in your career? And at that point, I made a promise that if I ever figure this out, John, I have to, you know, tell the world how and this is the basis of Sleep Academy. This is the basis of our programs. Now we're in, you know, top one of the fastest growing companies in America. I'm very proud. And our podcast is in the top charts. And, And I'm sitting on multiple amazing boards. I have a book next year. So life has been the most incredible path that I could envision.

16:23I have the best team in the world, the most amazing clients in the world. We help literally thousands of people elevate their career, catapult their brand. It's just incredible to watch their impact. But it all started with a very, very dark moment, John. Well, I will tell you that I have zero doubt as to why your podcast is tops in the chart, because it's energy. Your energy's there. Your authenticity, you're passionate about this. Those are the ingredients, Fire Nation, for when you're creating content that matters. It's being consumed by the right people. And I love, love, love real world examples.

16:59So what are some examples of portfolio careers that you've seen with clients? Oh, I love that. I mean, I'll first say, you know, and I just had him on my podcast speaking of Richard Branson. He's more of a role model, obviously. And for me, that kind of role model just kind of showed that it's possible to have multiple things and still have a ton of impact doing it and a ton of fun. But in terms of clients, for example, we had Iran who, you know, his big thing was how can I involve impact and finance and investments in business altogether? And he realized his passion will be to create a venture fund, which is a very audacious goal.

17:44But and he wanted to invest in startups that are doing good in the world. So impact related startups. But in order to do that, we needed to start being very intentional and strategic about how can you do that? So in order to subsidize the time to raise capital, he actually started advising. So we basically went from this big audacious goal back to starting advising, sitting on boards, you know, getting more and more capital. Now we actually raised$22 million. He invests in things like PTSD and water supplies. It's the most incredible thing in the world. He has impacts on millions and millions.

18:22And for me, this just shows the ripple that we have, you know, and, you know, just touching one person. Enda, for example, you know, is, you know, creating now a cancer research center in Africa because there's nothing like it. Like nobody helps cancer people in Africa. And she's like, you know, she's speaking to the top, you know, foundations now. she's on multiple boards like just incredible to watch so I think for me and again not everybody has this big audacious goal somebody is just like I just try to move from director to VP right or I just want to try to figure out like how do I do more you know maybe entrepreneurship or consultant but but I'm just saying like it when you start tapping into this new possible this is an era of new possible and when you start realizing how much possibilities are out there it's a goldmine for the people who are driven.

19:16So for me, my big, you know, audacious goal is to help a million people that are super driven to change the world and to change themselves through this. So yeah, let's go, John. BHAG, let's go. Big, hairy, audacious goals, Fire Nation. If you don't have one, you ain't living. You just ain't living. So Ilana, we've talked about a lot of really amazing and important stuff today. If you could really just pull one thing out and say, I really want the listeners to walk away with this, to take this away from our conversation today. What is that one thing? Oh, can I say two? No, I'm kidding. Yeah, you can say two.

19:52I always negotiate. I'm sure your husband loves that. Your husband loves that. I'll say two things. One, I think done is better than perfect. I just can't say it enough. We're going to have to take those imperfect steps every single day because the perfection is what hold 99 % of us back, maybe 100 % of us back. So, you know, it's not going to be that imperfect steps that are going to have to be there. And the last thing that I'll say, John, you know, one of the big saying for me is it's not about what we make, but it's what we make possible. And I will challenge every one of our listeners here.

20:29What are you making possible today for yourself, for your family, for the people around you, for society, for the world, whatever it is for you, what are you making possible? Because once you are really honed on that, now you can start creating incredible, incredible life of possibilities. For those that are feeling connected to you right now that are connected to the conversation, and I'd be shocked if there wasn't many that are right now, what would be the next step for them to connect with you? What is your call to action for our listeners today? I love that. So first of all, yes. Again, we are here to change lives.

21:05So we'd love to hear from you. So first of all, my personal email is ilana at leapacademy.com. It's I-L-A-N-A at leapacademy.com. Myself, my team will support the heck out of you. We want you to shine. We want you to have incredible opportunities. But also you can go to leapacademy.com. We have free trainings there. We have, you know, we want you to see some success stories. You can go to our podcast at Leap Academy with Ilana Golan on any of the podcasts or on YouTube. And really, I want you to see the possibilities. I want you to feel it. And now let's go chase it. Let's go chase it, Fire Nation, because you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

21:49And guess what? You've been hanging out with IG and JLD today. So keep up that flipping heat. For links to everything we talked about, Visit eofire.com and type Ilana, that's I-L-A-N-A, into the search bar. The show notes page will pop right up. And one more time, what's the best way for them to connect with you, Ilana? Ilana at leapacademy.com, I-L-A-N-A at leapacademy.com. I want to hear from you. Ilana, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation. For that, we salute you and we will catch you on the flip side. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Ilana for sponsoring today's episode.

22:27And Fire Nation, what can 4 ,000 of the world's most successful entrepreneurs teach you? How about how to achieve financial freedom and fulfillment? My first traditionally published book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, is a revolutionary 17-step roadmap that will lead you to the lifestyle you've been dreaming about. This book took me 10 years of accumulating the genius of the world's top entrepreneurs. And you can get it all in one place when you visit UncommonSuccessBook.com. I'll catch you there or on the flip side. The Next Wave, your chief AI officer, hosted by Matt Wolf and Nathan Lance, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals.

23:05AI technology is transforming the way we do business and the media landscape is fragmented. The Next Wave strives to be the leading podcast on AI technology and how you can apply it to growing your business. Listen to The Next Wave wherever you get your podcasts. Looking for an easier, safer way to manage passwords than a million post-it notes. Welcome to LastPass, the most accessible and easy to use password manager on the planet. Visit lastpass.com slash fire for a free trial and get started today. Every login lives in LastPass.